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Marci
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Seven more of your own choice
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Marci
(last edited Nov 01, 2011 12:27PM)
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Oct 27, 2011 05:57PM
Because of Winn Dixie is a fabulous book. There are just some books that both adults and kids can enjoy, and this is one of them. There are many topics and areas of great discussion. Opal's mom is missing from her life and left when she was little. Her dad struggles to open up, but with the help from the dog he eventually does. He is a preacher and there are a whole list of topics that go along with misconceptions amongst kids and families that come from a preacher's home. Gloria as well as many other of Opal's new friends have issues that they share with Opal and are great discussion starters for reading groups. When issues that are in books are used for discussion I have found that kids really open up and share things they struggle with which end up being great connections. This book will be great for text to text and text to world and self connections!
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The Summer of Riley is a good story. This book discusses topics such as divorce and what a boy or child goes through as he deals with everything that comes along with that. It is also a great book for animal lovers, which my grade level loves. This is a good book for 4th and 5th graders. There are many events in the story that can be used to open up discussions amongst book clubs.
It seems that I read a lot of books with dogs in it, but to tell you the truth they are truly great stories! A Dog's Life is a great example of an autobiograhy of a dog. It truly gave me the perspective of a dog, especially one that grew up on the streets and everything it went through. It was a darling story, sad at times. I read this book out loud to my students the last several weeks and they loved it. It also went along great with our personal narrative unit of study because most every moment we were reading it was like a personal narrative that gave true and exact detail of many accounts of the dog's life. This book actually has a follow up book that tells of the brother dog's life so we could find otu what happened to the sibling when they were separated. It is a great book to promote the students to read the next one. Kids can actually relate to many things that happen whether it be with their pet or even in their own lives when they are not treated well and are neglected.
Meet Naiche is a book about a Native boy from the Chesapeake Bay area. This is a non-fiction book that gives us a glimpse into the life of an American Indian boy. I liked this book because it is the first book that I have found that I can use in my classroom to show my students what life is like for a student their age that lives on a reservation, continues to celebrate his heritage, shows what he and his family creates with their hands, and even shows him performing a dance. He talks about how it makes him feel to see mascots that use Native Americans. He even goes around to schools to do presentations about his way of life. What is neat though is that we can see that is life is very similar to ours, and he points that out himself. This book is a part of a series by the National Museum of the American Indian/Smithonian Institution.
The Tale of Despereaux is such a neat story. I love the writer's craft in this book. Kate DiCamillo has such a great way of story telling and fascinating imagination. This book can also be used for bullying and pointing out that just because someone looks different or is smaller doesn't mean they can do less than anyone else. Kind of reminds me of the Bible story David and Goliath. The young maid girl is also treated badly and has courage to escape her horrible life. This is a neat story of redemption and forgiveness, and has a whole lot of literary value. It is also a great resource for teaching kids figurative language.
I Am An American is a great book for older students to learn a true story of Japanese Internment after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I could also use this book to follow up a fictional story about the same thing when Japanese Americans lived in camps here in the US. This book cronicles the internment and focuses on the experiences of one high school student before and after this happened. The author, Jerry Stanley, writes about this wartime here in America and the injustice done to Japanese Americans. This was a truly neat book to read as I did not know a lot about this before I read it. Now I will have so much knowledge and background for when my students read their story.
