Wait--Did You Say Typing Cows! What's the World Coming To?!

Students Bindya Bhakta, Brian Hannan, and Gloria Sanchez booktalk Doreen Cronin's Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type. Check out their work by clicking on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-PEfrJ1Fs4.

Great Book, Plain and Simple

Student Morgan Wallace booktalks Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. To watch it, click the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_bybmz7y0g.

All Cracked Up!

Student Ashley Barfield booktalks David Horowitz's Humpty Dumpty Climbs Again. Click the following to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAmPTcs-ZtM.

Me? Bored? Whatever! My Eyes Are Just Droopy.

Student Shelby Burdoin and (for now her almost adopted puppy) Copper booktalk Bored Bill by Liz Pichon. Click the link to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCsNDrKsVNY&feature=youtube_gdata.

You Laughing at Me? Well, Don't!

Students Rosmary Medrano and Megan Forney booktalk Don't Laugh At Me by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin and illustrated by Glin Dibley; click on the following link to watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUZfN4OjwB4&feature=youtu.be.

Home of the Not-so Brave!

Student Olivia Roberts booktalks Kevin Henkes' Sheila Rae, The Brave.

Mooses, Mosses, Meese!

Students Taylor Murray, Vanessa Chavez, Diane Knight, and Kristin Reeves booktalk The Uglified Ducky: A Maynard Moose Tale as told to Willy Claflin and illustrated by James Stimson. Enjoy!

Grandparents: Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them

Student Elizabeth Isidro booktalks the memoir The Oracles: My Filipino Grandparents In America by Pati Navalta Poblete.

In the Pokey

Students Kristen Hooper and Jatawn Basye their booktalk Walter Dean Myers' novel Lockdown.

BOO!!! I See You!

Students Kalee Anderson, Macy Chatham, and Ashley Webb booktalk Dr. Seuss' What Was I Scared Of? A Glow-in-the-Dark Encounter. Click on the link to watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nzI3UtGAmk.

One Bad Cat!

Students Holly Crabtree and Carissa Williams booktalk Tracy-Lee McGuinness-Kelly's Bad Cat Puts On His Top Hat. Click on the link following to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIf1xLGzcmI.

Turkey Lurkey Day!

Click on the link below and check out students Hannah Brown, Tayler Cohen, and Caitlin Pirtle's booktalk on Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano, illustrated by Lee Harper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32QHWhcDwmI.

Beneath My Mother's Feet

Student Christi Peck booktalks Beneath My Mother's Feet by Amjed Qamar.

Click the youtube link that follows to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsIt1uylZLg.

A Booktalk in Three Voices

Student Carissa Autry booktalks A. S. King's Please Ignore Vera Dietz.

Saldaña Recommends: The Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price and Acceleration and Bonechiller by Graham McNamee.

He Said, She Said: What a Complicated World We Live In

The following booktalk is done by student Brooke Garth:
More Than Friends: Poems from Him and Her by Sara Holbrook and Allan Wolf.

Saldaña Recommends: Pat Mora's Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems about Love.

Student Lexa Miller booktalks Michael O. Tunnell's Brother In Valor: A Story of Resistence:

Saldaña Recommends: Carol Jablonski's graphic novels Resistence: Book 1 and Defiance: Resistence: Book 2

Can I Get a Witness!

Student and teacher Stephanie Rincon booktalks Karen Hesse's novel Witness:

Students Recommend, I READ!

A couple of my adolescent literature students recommended The Compound by S.A. Bodeen a semester or two ago, and I saw only last week it was on the office shelf, so I picked it up. I know I always tell my students that we should take our students' recommendations as seriously as we want them to take ours, as teachers. And yet, I balked. But I was glad I guilted myself into reading this one. Bodeen sets up this story good and it goes strong all the way through. Eli is torn from his twin brother and maternal grandmother for six years when his father takes Eli, his sisters, and their mother into The Compound, a nuclear bomb shelter he's built over the last few decades, meant to keep them alive for at least 15 years. That is, until things begin to go awry. And it's only then that Eli begins to ask questions about why they're stuck down there for another seven years. It's a thriller.

Eating Habits: Where'd They Come From?

In Patricia Lauber's non-fiction picturebook, What You Never Knew About Fingers, Forks, and Chopsticks (illustrated by John Manders), we get answers, sometimes serious other times funny, to just this question. Going all the way back to the Stone Age, Lauber speculates how cavemen could have developed the first knife-like instrument: a piece of flint to possibly cut meat. The funny part is her idea how a caveman could've stubbed his toe on a piece of the sharp stone, cutting himself, and then thinking, basically, Well, if it can cut the meat of my toe, perhaps this flint can make cutting meat to eat easier too. Lauber moves forward through time to the Bronze Age and well beyond, then from one culture to another, showing how different cultures or peoples have taken to eating. It's a cool book. Kids should like it.

A Graphic Collection of Native American Trickster Tales

Though a great many of us have either heard or read Trickster tales (Br'er Rabbit being among the most common to the general readership, while the form is also closely associated with American Indians), this book edited by Matt Dembicki (himself not an Indian) is indeed one of a kind. Though it is jam-packed with Native American trickster tales (mostly involving animals or animal/human beings), what sets this book apart from any other is the format. In place of the text-based rendering of such tales, we get these very stories but set to comic book form.

Though a very interesting concept and a fairly solid collection of graphic shorts, the trickster tale does tend to be a tad overdone (though I get that this is the concept for the book). Most of them are of the "here's how this animal ended up looking this way or that" variety. I'd recommend educators using this book selectively. Teachers can read the book, choose their favorite tales and bring those to class. The alternative is that students would read the whole book and wonder if this is it for Native American writing, which is so not Dembicki's hope for the book: from his "From the Editor" note:

"The point wasn't to westernize the stories for general consumption, but rather to provide an opportunity to experience authentic Native American stories, even if it sometimes meant clashing with Western vernacular.

"I hope this book serves as a bridge for readers to learn more about the original people of this land and to foster a greater appreciation and understanding among all inhabitants" (225).

My particular favorites that I'd so use with middle school readers/writers/artists include "Rabbit and the Tug-of-War"by Michael Thompson and illustrated by Jacob Warrenfeltz, "Rabbit's Choctaw Tail Tale" by Tim Tingle and illustrated by Pat Lewis,  "Giddy Up, Wolfie" by Greg Rodgers and illustrated by Mike Short, and "When Coyote Decided to Get Married" by Eirik Thorsgard and illustrated by Rand Arrington.

Visit cartoonist Dembicki's blog for news on this book: http://matt-dembicki.blogspot.com/.

Chris Crowe's Next Biography

Just As Good: How Larry Doby Changed America's Game, written by Chirs Crowe and Illustrated by Mike Benny (http://mikebenny.com/) is due out in January of 2012. I love Crowe's other books: Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case, Thurgood Marshall: A Twentieth Century Life, and the novel Mississippi Trial, 1955, and though I haven't read this picture book, I'm so looking forward to it!

Though Crowe has written fiction, he's quickly become a first rate biographer, whose focus is the Civil Rights Movement and various of its predecessor events and figures. Partner this latest book with We Are the Ship and Strong Right Arm, and you've got a great unit on baseball, the part African Americans have played in it, and the struggle for equal rights.

A Great Read, In Spite of Our Own Dry Weather

The Dust Bowl: Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Helped Remedy a National Disaster by Martin W. Sandler is a great collection of famous and not so famous photos of the Dust Bowl era, including perhaps the most famous of them, "Migrant Mother" shot by Dorothea Lange. Each photo comes with some really solid research oftentimes tied directly to the photo, other times using the photo as a place from which to start. Partner it with Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust and you've got yourself a very interesting and moving set of reads.





Other titles of interest by Sandler:

Vaqueros: America's First Cowmen (Henry Holt, 2001)

America Through the Lens: Photographers Who Changed the Nation (Henry Holt, 2005)



Another Great Read Coming Soon! Heart-Shaped Cookies: Stories

Heart-Shaped Cookies and Other Stories by David Rice
Bilingual Review Press; ISBN: 9781931010795; $15.00
Due out in August 2011!
This collection of stories is long overdue. If Rice had borrowed this one from me and I was the library, he'd owe me a ton of cash in late fees. Teachers, myself included, have asked Rice to put together another collection that would include stories from his first book, Give the Pig a Chance and Other Stories, a book that didn't make it into the classroom because of certain stories. Check out the table of contents of it and you'll see what's the first clear marker that Pig would not be so much used in schools. But he selected a few pieces out of it, among them my all-time favorite of his stories, "Tina la Tinaca," a tragic piece like no other. He also includes stories previously published in separate anthologies but never in a singular collection. And a ton of new stuff, like seven or eight micro-stories. Closing the book is the play version of his story "She Flies," that appeared in another of his collections, Crazy Loco.

Soon to be published: Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Cuento

Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Cuento by Xavier Garza Cinco Puntos Press; ISBN: 9781933693989; $12.95
Due out late July.
Not only is this book a fun read, if you're literate in English and Spanish, you get twice the enjoyment seeing how it's a bilingual edition. Garza is a huge fan of Mexican wrestling, and this book's got it; he likes tales of the supernatural, and this one's got some of that (or does it?). Get it, you'll enjoy this next of Cinco Puntos' top notch products.

Lukas Reading Aloud to My Wonderful Students!

The following pics show my oldest son, Lukas, who'll be in 2nd grade this coming year, reading aloud to my summer 1 students: he's reading out of Serge Bloch's Butterflies in My Stomach:

This is Lukas at home the weekend leading up to his read aloud. He took his task very seriously, practicing several times to get it just right. He's so focused that he's twirling his hair.

My kid's a natural. And he's a good-looking kid, too.

By this point, Lukas had already basically turned his back on half his audience, but my students were so cool that they didn't even notice, or if they did, they said that it was simply awesome (my words, their sentiment, I'm sure) that a boy his age would even have the guts to do something like this.

We had a great read aloud in TTU's COE's Sitton Burkhart Children's Library. Here are a couple of the students in my summer 1 class listening to Lukas read. They were too cool, laughing at all the right places, which made Lukas' day. He was all smiles. Mikah, my middle son, didn't read, but he loved listening to my students reading aloud. He's a big fan of you all.

Punk Farm Book Talk and Author Presentation

Punk Farm written and illustrated by Jarrett Krosoczka
Knopf Books for Young Readers; ISBN: 9780375824296; $15.95
Booktalk and Author Study produced by Audrey Akin, Amanda Fairchild, Lauren McMordie, and Maggie Williams

To watch the video, click on the following Youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raG4xok8eHQ

Read Alouds!

Hey, folks: besides Lauren, have the rest of you chosen a title for a read aloud? Remember, just let me know you want to practice it, and the floor is yours. The one I'd like to do better on is The Perfect Nest I read yesterday. I think I can do so much more with it than I have in the last few semesters of reading it aloud. By the by, I told Lukas and Mikah that they're invited to the read aloud sessions later in the summer and they're excited about showing up.

POETRY!

What are your feelings about reading poetry? How about having to teach it?

Has anyone of you given any thought yet to your introduction to the Poetry Folder that you might want to share here?

Any responses to today's reading, Chapter 8, on poetry?

Sylvia Vardell: Poetry for Children

In preparation for our poetry folders, I'd like you to visit Dr.Vardell's blog, linked to the left. She is, bar none, the foremost expert on poetry for children. Her work is priceless. We'll discuss your visit to her blog on Monday next.

Reading from Children's Literature, Briefly

By next Tuesday, have read for class Chapter 8, the chapter titled "Poetry." Once you've finished reading, come by and leave a comment or, in the case that you can't find your way to posting your comment, email it to me and I'll post it for you.

The Read-Aloud

We're going to be practicing read-alouds on a daily basis, critiquing them, practicing some more, and you'll be expected to do one for class as part of your assignments.

What do you all think a successful read-aloud entails?

Welcome, EDLL 5351.001 Summer 1 Crew!

Hello, folks! This is going to be our class blog for the summer. The plan is simple: we're going to use this virtual space to upload some of our assignments (video, image, and text) (1) to explore how educators can put to use even the most basic of technologies in order to help our students develop their various literacy skills, (2) to be more environmentally resourceful by not having to rely on print so much, and (3) to build a community amongst ourselves in the present in the hopes that we'll carry forward into the near and far future that sense of kinship.

Following are some examples of what will be happening on our blog: I will post an essential question or topic in advance of a reading, during a reading, and or after a reading and each of you will respond; whenever one of your classmate's responses moves you to respond, do so; each of you will be asked to begin a discussion to which the rest of us will respond; we'll upload bibliographies; we'll post video booktalks, and more. Much of the success of this blog and part of your grade will depend on keeping the in-class discussion going outside of class. So it'll be expected that you participate. Do take care to write well and correctly (that is to say, your ideas should be well-developed, though consice, and your grammar/punctuation/usage/spelling should be above par because I'll be looking at those carefully for grading purposes). Also remember to be respectful of one another and one another's opinions. We don't want to white-wash our responses, but at the same time, we don't have to be rude.

Following is a list of the books we'll be using this summer (many of these are in the Sitton-Burkhart library on the second floor of the COE building so if you'd rather save some money, make time before a reading is due to go there and read in some really comfy chairs):

Brown, Monica: Side By Side/Lado a lado.
DiCamillo & McGhee: Bink and Gollie.
Hill, Laban: Dave the Potter.
Krosoczka, Jarrett: Punk Farm.
Stein, David Ezra: Interrupting Chicken.
Wong, Janet S.: Me and Rolly Maloo.
Tunnel, et al.: Children's Literature, Briefly (5th ed.).

Another resource that we'll be using throughout our time together is http://www.teachingbooks.net/. I'll give you all the necessary information to gain full access on our first class period but I wanted to give you the link here.

There'll be other information, but we can discuss other matters face-to-face.

Let's have a great class!