The Animal Farm News

Hi Everyone,

Today, your goal is to write two newspaper articles re-counting the Battle of Cowshed. The directions are simple:

In your reader’s notebook,


1. Draw a detailed map of the battle, and explain why the animals were victorious. This should have been done yesterday.

2. Write two short news articles about the rebellion; one article from the point of view of the animals and one from the point of view of Man.

3. Use techniques that are used in newspaper writing:

• create a catchy headline and/or subline for your articles
• be sure to answer the basic five questions: who? what? where? when? and why?
• you might include interviews from various characters to help you "tell" the story
• be sure to represent the appropriate point of view for each article

Let me know if you have any questions,

Ms. Basko

Flashback Story

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I'm not there with you today but I'm sure you can handle things just fine without me. Your job today is to work on your flashback draft. Remember to change paragraphs when you change ideas. Your goal should be to get your story to be at least two pages long double-spaced. It will be due on Wednesday. Work hard in class today so that you won't have too much to do on your own. Remember to focus on using sensory detail and feel borrow words from the packet I gave you last week.

Tomorrow we'll work on your mid-term. Don't worry too much about it, I'll step you through it and share a sample paper before you begin.

See you tomorrow.

Ms. Basko

The Birds Ate the Bread Crumbs...

Over Thanksgiving break, as is my custom, I took each of my nieces out to a movie of their choosing (and sometimes mine if I really despise the choice they've made). Emily picked Disney's new movie, Tangled. That was fine with me. It looked cute and I wanted to see it. Needless to say, it was great. It was funny, it was clever, and the music was enjoyable. After dinner and a trip to the bookstore for her to get the latest book in the Wimpy Kid series, Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, she and I had a great "date night."

That night, I wondered if we could read the Rapunzel story. So we looked through the bookshelves and Emily and I found a huge collection of Children's Stories in a red leather bound cover with random color pictures in it. It didn't have the Rapunzel story in it but she asked me to read to her from it so I did. One of the first nights, I read, "Little Red Riding Hood," it wasn't my favorite version but it would do. My favorite version is by Charles Perrault because of the moral at the end of his story for young girls never to talk to strangers and about how the most charming "wolves" (men) can be the most dangerous. And another night we read, "The Three Bears," and I read the stories in typical Aunt Sonia style which means that I created a unique voice for each character and occasionally added in made up details about Emily, her mother (my sister, Michelle), or her sister (my niece Kayla) to make her giggle. When I read, "Little Red," the wolf was her mother in a gruff wolf voice and Red Riding Hood was a sweet little Southern-sounding belle. And even at ten years old, Emily giggled with glee as I added in my little tidbits to make it funny and to see if she was paying attention.

On another night we read, "Hansel and Gretel." I asked her if she knew the story and she said, "sure I do, it was on Disney." In other words, some Disney TV show like The Sweet Life of Zack and Cody, did a parody version of "Hansel and Gretel" and therefore, she was familiar with the characters and basic story line. But when I got to the part where Hansel tried to use the bread crumbs he had left to find his way home and I read, "When the moon appeared they got up, but they could not find any crumbs, for the many thousands of birds that fly about in the woods and in the fields had pecked them up," Emily gasped in shock.

 

Somehow she had never heard that part and it occurred to me that she didn't really know the story but only a Disnified version of it. As I continued reading I thought to myself, How does she not know the whole story?  But I guess no one ever read it to her. When we were growing up, lots of the cartoons and TV shows for kids used these old folktales but they didn't alter them too much. In modern day, those old stories have been altered, adapted, and borrowed from that we don't even know what the original versions is.
 
Moral of the story: If you have a young person in your life, buy them a huge collection of children's stories and folktales and read it to them often.

LESSON IDEAS: I occasionally read children's picture books to my sophomores in an effort to show them how fun they can be and because I like them myself. I would like for them to understand how important it is children to be read to. I had hoped to help them prepare a favorite children's book to read to a child at Thanksgiving or Christmas time this year. But that time has passed. I am still not going to give up on this goal.

Earlier this year, I shared with them the idea of Rambunctious Reading which I found at a wonderful blog entitled, The Reading Workshop. Unfortunately, the original post is no longer available but I did find the lesson at the author's wikispace by the same title. The lesson has students practice reading rambunctiously from various excerpts from children's picture books. My students enjoyed the lesson but it WAS a stretch for them. Many of my struggling readers, don't really have a strong narrative voice in their heads when they read silently. So the mission was two-fold: to encourage them to practice reading out loud and also to help them "hear" a text the way it is intended to be read. This will take more practice on my part.

To encourage more work with this, I have told my students that if they read 25 children's picture books this year, I will count that as one "book of the month." They liked the idea but I need to do more work with them on how to read a children's picture book, what to look for, how to analyze it, and how to evaluate it. And then I will need to help them bridge over and transfer this work to share with a young reader at home.

ITS A BOOK by Lane Smith

Because I love reading children's story books, it is not uncommon for me to take a half an hour of a trip to Barnes and Noble or Borders to read five or six new children's books. On one of my more recent trips, I happened to notice a new New York Times Best Selling children's hardcover book called It's A Book by Lane Smith. I think I initially picked it up because of the title and wanted to see what it was all about. I figured that maybe it was something I could use with my high school students.

So I settled into one of those big leather comfy chairs and started reading It's A Book and I was absolutely in love and in shock all at the same time. I was in love because I could use it with my high school students but I could probably never read it to a little kid. You can watch this video from MacMillan the publishing company to get the main idea of the book. Basically, a monkey is reading a book and a donkey is questioning him about it and trying to see how the book compares to modern technology when he asks, "Can it text? Blog? Scroll? Wi-Fi? Tweet?" And of course, the recurring answer from the monkey is, "No. It's a book."

I adore the modern focus on the digital age and the realities in today's technology crazed culture that forces us to often ask, "What does it do?" and "Can it do this?" or "Can it do that?" This is the reality that I face in the English classroom. I teach students that have grown up immersed in technology in a way that I can only hope to keep up with and most of what I have to offer are simply books. They don't have any fancy gizmo's, they don't come with apps or outrageous sound effects. And while I talk to my students often about books, and flood them with new books that they might enjoy, my only hope is that they will end up like the monkey and come to love the simplicity of sitting down in a big comfy chair and getting lost in a world created by an author that they may never meet.

I also loved the contrast between the modern topic and theme of the book and the classic looking drawings and color choice. The colors are muted and dull and while they may be deceiving, I think it was an intentional choice made by the artist to reinforce the simplicity of books themselves.

I always enjoy the simple repetitive lines of children's picture books and this book is no exception. Readers won't soon forget the monkey's tag-line, "It's a book," and children enjoying the book will also quickly find themselves predicting and announcing the lines of the monkey before he even says them. What they probably won't see coming is the shock ending!

When I read the ending, I wasn't sure what to do. I loved it and was a bit amazed at the same time. I don't know how Lane Smith got away with publishing this as a children's picture book. I wonder how parents will react. It is a great book for older children, teens and adults but wow. In any case, I loved it so much, I started looking for other books by Lane Smith to see if the others were as good and as controversial. Sadly, I didn't find any that day. Since then, I've read that this book ends in, what someone online called "typical Smith style." So again, I'm intrigued to read more by this author.

I did a little research on him and found out that that while I recognize a few of his book titles, namely The Happy Hockey Family Moves to the Country! and John, Paul, George, and Ben, more so, I recognize his name for his artwork in Jon Scieszka's books. He worked on several famous books with John Scieszka such as The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Stinky Cheese Man and he also worked on some illustrations for a version of James and the Giant Peach and Dr. Seuss' Hooray for Diffendoffer Day!

He talks a little bit about Its a Book at his blog entitled, Curious Pages: Recommended Inappropriate Books for Kids.

But if you really want to know what shocked me so much, you'll have to read the book. Not only will you have to read it, you'll have to get to the very end and last page to see why I wouldn't recommend the book for young children. But at the same time, I tend to be very liberal. If the child is old enough or mature enough to understand the final joke, then go for it...they will laugh as much as I did. If you watch the video above, you will notice that the publishers hid the shock ending as films often do. You can't always get the answers you want from the Internet, film or even me, you'll have to read it because...it's a book.

OUT SICK TODAY!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I'm not there with you today but I'm not feeling very well. You are only in the computer lab for 1st period today so here is how I would like you to use your time:

1. Revising your blog entries (October and November):

• Did you spell check? When you click on the spell check button, it will highlight mis-spelled words in yellow if you click on the yellow, it will show you options for revision.
• Did you use paragraphs appropriately? Paragraphs change when we change ideas and focus. Your entire entry should probably consist of more than one paragraph. If it is only one long paragraph, it might not be paragraphed appropriately.
• Did you include the author and title and a picture?
• Did you hook the reader with an interesting beginning? I like to use anecdotes (little stories) to engage my reader. There are lots of techniques you can use to hook the reader into reading your blog.
• Did you include interesting links to other websites, videos, and interesting tid-bits about your book and/or books related to it? Because we have access to the Internet in this medium...take advantage of it. Link things together; this is one of the things that makes the World Wide Web awesome!
• Did you end with a recommendation? You can recommend this book to specific people or types of readers who you think might like to read this book. You can share other books written by the same author or by authors similar to this one. You can share books in the same genre. Do a little research to be able to include this information.

2. Begin Drafting December Blog: When you are finished, you can begin drafting the blog for your December book. I know that December isn't over yet but perhaps this will give you a chance to get ahead.

3. Tuesdays with Morrie: When you return to class, I would like for you to finish reading Tuesdays with Morrie.

I should be back tomorrow. See you all then!

Have a great day,

Ms. B

The Sweet Smell of Success!

Yesterday one of the students in my Green Class, Jennifer, stopped me after class to tell me that she wrote to author Ellen Hopkins. Jennifer has been reading all of Ellen Hopkins' books in verse and has really been drawn not only to the realistic characters but also the tough teen topics that Hopkins carefully explores in her books. Apparently Jennifer was so moved by all of the books that she felt compelled enough to research Hopkins online and to email her. She told Hopkins that she loved her books and was wondering if she would be in the Rochester, NY area anytime soon. As it turns out, Hopkins replied to her thanking her for taking the time to write and also said that she would be making an appearance on Saturday, May 14, 2011 at the 5th Annual Greater Rochester Teen Book Fair (TBF) hosted at Nazareth College. Ellen Hopkins, Terry Truman, David Leviathan, and several others were all present at the 4th Annual Teen Book Fair signing books, answering questions, and holding sessions to meet interested readers and fans. Jennifer was tickled pink to have heard from her favorite author and really excited about the idea of seeing her in person later this year.

This morning in the Yellow Class, Lola came into first period saying that she had just read the "best book ever." She had started and finished Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. She admitted that she was an avid Twilight fan and that this book was even better than the Twilight series. She told us that she stayed up late last night to finish the book and that she did research online to see if there would be a movie of it coming out soon. She watched some trailers for the movie and asked me if I had known that there was a sequel to the book called Crescendo. I told her that I did know about Crescendo and that in my Amazon account, it was continually being recommended for me to purchase. So we got out my Droid and ordered it right then and there. She pushed the "Order With 1-Touch" button and the order was placed. Just in case you can't wait for it Lola, here is Fitzpatrick's site where you can listen to the first chapter...enjoy! We first bought the book because it was on the YALSA's Teen Top 10 List this year ranking in at #5. I'm so happy we did.  I'll never forget Lola, clutching the book to her chest as she walked it back to the bookshelf for others to enjoy. She knew that it was time to put it back but she really didn't want to. I could see and feel the connection she had with the book and am hopeful that others will find books that they love as much as she loved this one. This is why I teach.

Just when you think things are seeming bleak in classroom, there are moments like these that lift you back up again and inspire you for another day. Thank you my friends. Ms. B

LESSON IDEAS: Consider having students write and send emails of thanks to their favorite authors. As a teacher, I realize that this certainly isn't a new lesson idea but it is less about the writing of the letter than it is about the communication with an author, providing them with positive feedback and encouragement, and the positive effect it can have on students. Jennifer's actions reminded me just how important it is to reach out into the reading community and to get involved. It is inspiring!

I would also consider having students research lists of books related to or similar to ones that they already like. My knowledge only goes so far. I'm not a huge fan or certain genres but I'm getting better at expanding my knowledge base in fantasy and graphic novels this year. I create book displays similar to those in Blockbuster and books stores that say "If you like this...try this!" And line up books on the chalk tray in the back of my classroom. I think I need to instead (or in addition) push my students to do this. I think that there is power in students speaking about books with the same passion and inspiration that Lola did that is even more powerful than anything I could say to them in a book share.

The other lesson idea I have her is for students to share and record these very valuable reading experience anecdotes with the class, in small groups, in a reading log, or on a blog. This is exactly the type of thing I would love to hear my students blog about, not because I asked them to but instead because they were inspired to write about and to document thos powerful learning experiences that occur just as they did for Jennifer and for Lola.

I AM A GENIUS OF UNSPEAKABLE EVIL AND I WANT TO BE YOUR CLASS PRESIDENT by Josh Lieb

I first selected this book purely based on the eye-catching cover and the fact that it was a New York Times Bestseller. I had seen the book a few times in the book store but really knew little or nothing about it when I bought it. One of the things I liked about the cover was the nasty little boy face on the bottom of the front and I figured it was just some artsy photographic cover that really might not have anything to do with the book itself. Well...I was entirely wrong!

The book is about a young boy that I now imagine to be much like the boy on the front cover. Not only is the front artwork true to the book, the title of the book is also literally what the story is about. Young Oliver Watson is in fact an evil genius but has everyone at school and at home fooled into thinking that he is a stupid, lazy waste of a twelve-year-old body. Not only is he an evil genius, what makes the book even more interesting is that he is ridiculously rich. So rich in fact that he runs not only the school but also major political world endeavors. The basic story line is that he decides to run for seventh grade class president and is able to use all of his resources, minions, money, and evil tactics in order to win the election. As you can imagine things do not always go according to plan for Oliver so he has to use his creative genius and "adjust accordingly."

There were several things that made this book a great read for me. After having read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer last summer, I have fallen in love with a recent trend in novels that use pictures and graphics throughout the book to help tell the story. Well, this book does just that. Early on in Chapter 1, Oliver tells us about his middle school English teacher, a total dork named Mr. Moorhead and of course he includes a photograph. The picture of Mr. Moorhead resembles famous actor Jack Black and it allows Oliver to creatively make fun of Mr. Moorhead, "Moorhead considers himself a 'cool' teacher. That means he still wears clothes he wore in college. Unfortunately, for Moorhead, college was ten years and twenty pounds ago." What readers will realize later is that Oliver has secret surveillance cameras that allow him to obtain photographs of anything he wants or needs for his evil purposes.

Another thing that I loved about this book was the creative measures that Oliver was able to take because he had so much money. It was so fun to visit the world that Oliver had created for himself, he is able to get soda and chocolate milk from the school drinking fountain by pressing a secret button. He has a secret underground lair beneath his house which he accesses from his bedroom, and hundreds of other little cool gadgets and resources at his disposal. At one point, Oliver starts some rumors about his opponent, Randy Sparks. The rumor is that poor Randy sleeps naked. What could be more horrifying for a middle schooler? Well, the second rumor could be: "RANDY SPARKS HATES PIZZA. If anything, this'll creep people out more than the thought of Randy naked. Who doesn't like pizza? Communists? Terrorists? Communist terrorists? Only someone evil, that's for sure."

Not only is the book fun to read because of the pictures, it is also humorous in its use of footnotes throughout the book. Oliver uses footnotes to make little comments to us. For example in Chapter 2 titled, "Children Are Vermin," he says, "Your grandmother might call you 'Snugglepants Lovebottom,' but that's not how you introduce yourself to strangers." And then he footnotes his commentary to us: "Unless you have deep-seated psychological problems. Or  happen to be named 'Snugglepants Lovebottom'--in which case, you have my sympathy." He continues to do this throughout the book and it really adds flavor to the reading as well as to Oliver's character.

I won't say that I was thrilled with Lieb's ending but without giving too much away, I guess it is what I should have expected. I must also admit that while this book was recommended for YALSA's Teen Top Ten of 2010, I am a little shocked that it didn't make the cut. I am thrilled that it was nominated and I do hope that my students will read it. I highly recommend this book not only for its use of humor, but also for its creative storyline. It has quick short chapters and is a great fun read. I think that teens as well as adults will enjoy this book. It is clever, outrageously funny and should make for a great movie in the near future. Lieb mentioned in a recent USA Today interview that he is working on a sequel to the book entitled, I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Take You to the Eighth Grade Formal.

GRADE: A-

RECOMMENDATIONS: I would recommend this book to any upper-elementary readers to adults who enjoy humor and comedy and are looking for a quick pick. If you like Cartoon Network's show Dexter's Lab, Family Guy, or Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, this book is one you will completely enjoy. If you love the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, you would also enjoy Evil Genius.

If you like this book, you might also enjoy:

• Evil Genius by Catherine Jinx
• H.I.V.E. Higher Institute of Villanious Education  by Mark Walden
• King Dork  by Frank Portman
• Spanking Shakespeare  by Jake Wizner
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
• Teen Angst? Nahhh! by Ned Vizzini
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• I.Q. by Roland Smith
• The Young Bond Series: Silverfin by Charlie Higson
• Heist Society by Ally Carter
• The Misfits by James Howe

LESSON IDEAS: I would also recommend this book as a teachable text. I think the book could be used in its entirety as a middle school read. It would be fun to do during an election year or in November during election time. I think students will enjoy it for many of the same reasons I have listed above. Teachers will appreciate it for Lieb's use of descriptive writing and students will enjoy his junior-high appealing similes and metaphors, outrageous characters, and fun plot.

• As a Mentor Text: I would consider using excerpts from it to teach descriptive writing, figurative language, and dialogue. Early on in my reading of it, I used a few of the chapters with my 12th grade College Composition class. I used the physical descriptions of Oliver's teacher Mr. Moorhead from the first chapter and then physical descriptions of Sheldrake, his mother, and his pet pit bull, Lollipop. Descriptions such as these were helpful when working on physical descriptions for their own character sketches, "Lollipop is another type of creature entirely. Long, lean, lithe, she is a pit bull mix who is very, very muscular and very, very striped. She has teeth like ivory daggers, legs like dappled stalactites, and eyelashes more beautiful and more delicate than fairy wings."

• Descriptive Writing (Sensory Detail and Figurative Language): Lieb uses a variety of original similes and metaphors throughout the novel. At one point, Oliver describes Pammy Quattlebaum, the class brown-noser as nodding her head so hard in agreement with her English teacher that he can, "hear her tiny brain rattle, like a popcorn kernel in a jelly jar." Oliver says of Mr. Moorhead, "his furry fingers rest on my shoulder like caterpillars." And later, he says of his pathetic classmate, Randy Sparks, "he keeps hanging around like a wad of toilet paper stuck to my shoe. Revolting. I predict a great future for him in the field of getting-a-dead-end-job-and-dying-alone-and-unmourned." He describes one of his evil supporters, Tatiana while laughing, "a tinkling elfin river of laughter that runs through a shadowy valley of scorn." Lieb's vivid and colorful use of language in examples such as these, can surely serve to prompt several reading and writing workshop mini-lessons on figurative language and imagery.

• Footnotes: Next semester I might also use some excerpts to show how authors use footnotes as writing strategy to include humor. David Barry does this in several of his essays as does Ned Vizzini in Teen Angst? Nahhhhh! and The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian. Now that I think about it, I find the use of footnotes more common in YA books than in adult books. I've got to think about that a bit more. I wonder what that is all about? Is it because the narrators are more or less reliable?

Prince of Persia: A Graphic Novel by Jordan Mechner

I started Prince of Persia the other night. I found it at the book store and it was reasonably priced at $7.99 so I picked up a copy for my classroom. I decided to start reading it that night for two reasons: (1) I don't read enough graphic novels...actually, I don't read any; and (2) I saw the movie and I really enjoyed the movie. Well so far...I'm not in love with it but I'm also not ready to say that I hate it either.

While I was reading it, I found the reading to go very slowly. I had to really slow down to "read" the pictures and interpret what was going on. The artwork is beautiful and colorful but I'm not used to "reading" pictures that way I guess. One thing that I've realized is that graphic novels sort of look like movie story boards with captions. It is interesting to read something like that; there are random close-ups of character's eyes or sometimes the picture will pan out to show you that the scene is ending.

One of the things I'm finding confusing is that it is jumping around in time. The opening scene takes place in "Marv, 9th Century A.D.," at a time where they are some sibling battles between two men and a woman that are all in power of this particular kingdom. But then only a few pages later, the book jumps to "Marv, 13th Century A.D.," and one of the characters Layth is in both. How is this possible? I'm not quite sure how that happened, it is obviously something mystical that has allowed this to happen but I'm not really sure what it is. The book keeps flipping between the two settings and for now I'm going to roll with it and hope that it will all be clear later in the story. I didn't go back to re-read because I read so slowly early on, I'm not sure that re-reading will help me.

Welcome...

Welcome to my English 10 Reading Blog!

I'll use this space to talk about my favorite books, teaching teens to read, and any big ah-haa moments I have about my own reading and teaching students to read.

I just finished reading Food Rules by Michael Pollan. It was a great short read and I think I finished it in about 45 minutes. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a non-fiction quick pick. I just picked up Gone by Lisa McMann and unfortunately I was too slow to get to it so I've passed it on to Pam and others are waiting. I think I'm going to pick up a copy over February break for myself.

Blogging is new for me and for my students I'm really excited to start this project and also to have them start their own book shelves on Shelfari!

I'm in a reading group with some teachers here at school and this month our focus is autobiography, memoir, and/or biographies. For that group I'm planning on reading: The Glass Castle, Knots in My Yo-Yo String, and Teen Angst! Nahhh.... I'm also hoping to squeeze in a few others while we are off from school.

Happy Reading...

Basko