Reflection

I thought that this project was very beneficial. I think that a book blog would be a great and engaging way for the students to be creative and summarize a book. I know that for me personally I like to type a lot more than I like to write. So this is a great way for me to get my work done, but it is also helping me to better understand technology. I really enjoyed going to the library and picking out the books. It forced me to become more familiar with the library and the librarians. This will be very important when I have a classroom of my own to be able to navigate the local library. I am still not totally comfortable with technology, but I am definitely getting better. I think that incorporating technology is very important because in our world today technology is taking over. It will be crucial that the students are exposed to technology because it is their future. I really enjoyed using the blog. It is so easy to use, and I also enjoy using wordles. There are students that struggle with reading and also writing if you use a wordle or a blog I think they will enjoy their assignments. I have seen many times where some of the slower students have not finished their work and then have to take it home for homework. I think that if they are able to use the computer and use something like a blog or wordle then they will be able to be done faster. Though I really enjoyed blogging and using wordles, I did struggle a little with the windows movie maker. I did not have a microphone so it was difficult for me to figure out how to add text to the story. I did figure it out, but then I had trouble trying to figure out how to upload it. Overall, I think that this project has helped me realize how important children's literature is and technology. I think that incorporating technology will make reading fun for those students who may not love reading. I really am going to try and learn about new types of technology often so that I can become more familiar and so that when I have a classroom of my own I will have many options for the students to chose from.
When I went into the 5th grade classroom I am in I chose to use a book about the White House. They are in fifth grade so they have been studying U.S. History. After reading this book the student will be able to explain why history is important. We first started talking about the United States as a country and some of the historical events that have taken place here. She talked about one of her favorite times in history. Then, we read the book about the White House. After we were done reading it she told me what she liked and what she learned. The White House has so much history itself. The Presidents are just one of the many things that can be talked about using the White House. It is also in Washington D.C. where there are numerous other monuments that have historical significance. This book can open up the door to much of U.S. History which as a 5th grader you learn about. After we talked about various things in the United States history she chose to do a wordle. She loved doing this. She thought that it was so neat that she could do a summary without writing a paragraph. She loved how she could adjust the wordle to make it how she wanted. She knew how to do more things with it than I did, and it was her first time making one. I think that this was a great way for her to incorporate technology into a lesson.

Websites

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/readlanguage/inventory/folklore-35.html

This is from the PBS website. They have great resources. I can select the grade level I want and a topic. I chose to do 3-5 and folklore. There were many lesson plans that popped up, and they give you an option of offline or online resources to use.

http://www.eduplace.com/tales/

This website lets children type in there own words using different parts of speech. It is like a madlibs and then will create a story for them. I think that the students would really enjoy this website. It would let the goof off in a productive way.

http://eduscapes.com/ladders/themes/w2.htm

This is a great website that sends children on webquests. It promotes things such as comparing books, and researching about authors and the time periods.

Science Fiction

The Field Guide by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

In the first book of the Spiderwick Chronicles Jared, Simon and Mallory have just moved with their mother to a creepy, old house. As they begin to settle in their new home they find that there is a strange and magical world that lives parallel with ours. With the help from a field guide written by their great grandfather they go on a quest to rid their home of a pesky faery.

Biography

The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942 Edited by Chava Pressburger

This is a journal from Petr Ginz. He was a Jew growing up in Czechoslovakia. This journal is a day by day of what was happening. You can see the progression of the war getting worse with the amount of friends and family taken away and also the right with Petr no longer had. When he was sent to the concentration camps he still continued to keep a journal and stay positive. He died in the concentration camp shortly before it was liberated.

Historical

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

Science Fiction

The hidden stars and the magic carpet by Tony Abbott

Three friends are cleaning up in the basement. The open the door under the stairs and fall down stairs. They are in another world. They run into a princess who is in need of their help. They try to help her escape from an evil man but end up getting caught themselves. They do not know how they are ever going to get back to their world, until a magic carper comes and saves them and the princess. They must hurry to the stairs before they will go away forever and they would be stuck in this other world. They are able to make it to the stair in time and safely back in their basement where they cannot believe what just happened.

Image from https://www.novelaction.com/system/data/bookimages/8308/2604.JPG

Fiction

Nancy Drew: The old fashioned mystery of the haunted dollhouse by Stefan Petrucha
(Graphic Novel)

    title="Wordle: Detective">    src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/699676/Detective"
    alt="Wordle: Detective"
    style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">