There are so many books that I could recommend for my students to read; however, for today, I am going to choose Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke. Inkheart follows a young girl, Meggie, who has inherited a unique power from her father; Meggie has the power to bring words to life. This novel contains abstract ideas, such as travel between dimensions, talking animals, and mythical creatures; but, these topics aren’t entirely unfamiliar to most of the 21st century. The book deals with loss, family, loyalty, love and more. This novel has a good amount of familiar vocabulary but also a good amount of new vocabulary. Though Meggie lives in the 21st century, she travels to a time period when a different style of speaking was used, so students will be …show more content…
To help my students get into the creative writing mode I would first discuss with the students the setting, characters, theme, etc. of the novel. I would then have students begin a creative writing assignment. As we read, we create mental images of what we think the story looks like. I would have my students write a few paragraphs about how they would feel if they were a particular character within the novel. Some questions to get students thinking would be, “how would you feel if you discovered you had a power?, “If you could bring a character from a novel to life, which would it be?”. I would have students mark some of the unfamiliar words in the novel, look them up, and try to use a few in their paper. Though creative writing can be daunting, it is a good way for students to internalize and recreate a part of a story in their own words. This will give students a theme to write about, but provide them with the freedom to manipulate the theme in an original way. By asking students to recreate a portion of the story a teacher can see how well students understand the themes, abstract concepts, setting, etc. I would then ask for students to volunteer to read their paper to the class. Though I ask my students to do some intensive reading, I believe this is an extensive activity because it is asking the students to see the story from an overview and take the gist of the story and recreate it it to reflect
In 1776, David McCullough gives a vivid portrayal of the Continental Army from October 1775 through January 1777, with sharp focus on the leadership of America’s greatest hero, George Washington. McCullough’s thesis is that had not the right man (George Washington) been leading the Continental Army in 1776, the American Revolution would have resulted in a vastly different outcome. He supports his argument with a critical analysis of Washington’s leadership during the period from the Siege of Boston, through the disastrous defense of New York City, the desperate yet, well ordered retreat through New Jersey against overwhelming odds, and concludes with the inspiring victories of Trenton and Princeton. By keeping his army intact and persevering through 1776, Washington demonstrated to the British Army that the Continental Army was not simply a gang of rabble, but a viable fighting force. Additionally, Mr. McCullough supports his premise that the key to the survival of the American Revolution was not in the defense of Boston, New York City, or any other vital terrain, but rather the survival of the Continental Army itself. A masterful piece of history, 1776 is not a dry retelling of the Revolutionary War, but a compelling character study of George Washington, as well as his key lieutenants, and his British adversaries, the most powerful Army in the 18th Century world. When I read this book, I went from a casual understanding of the hero George Washington to a more specific understanding of why Washington was quite literally the exact right man at the exact right place and time to enable the birth of the United States.
In the article, “Understanding Writing Assignments: Tips and Techniques,” author Dan Melzer shares with his audience seven useful suggestions to keep in mind when starting any writing assignment. Melzer’s first tips are for readers to examine their rubrics for any key verbs that will tell writers what approach and genre their paper should have. Knowing what kind of writing your teacher wants will not only help a writer get started, it will also inform a writer what they can research to view examples. Next, he tells his readers to write for their specific audience, to make sure they know their teacher’s expectations, and to take into account what they have learned in class. In these sections, Melzer stresses the importance of asking a teacher
Another curriculum practice that I use with students I call “Silent Sustained Writing” (SSW). During SSW students are provided a writing prompt and then asked to write in an expository style about the question, situation, or discrepant event presented. The period of time for the writing is usually timed. The writing prompt may be very general or specific in nature. The students’ writings are scored with a writing
Markus Zusak reads as, Death, he watches over everyone during the time of World War Two, taking souls when the time comes for them to be set free. He tells us a little inside scoop of what's going on in the destruction that was happening outside of Liesel's story.
Karana lives near a little cove in San Nicolas. Coral Cove has plenty of fish and cool water. Karana is a brave and has learned how to find food and stay alive on the island all alone. She ending up living alone after a Russian ship approached the island where the Ghalat-at people live. When some of the people from the ship reach the land of the island. Karana’s dad who is also chief of the tribe Chowig went down to meet the visitors along with some of his warriors. Captain Orlov and the Aleut tribe have visited the island to see if they can hunt otter on their land. Chowig and Orlov have a disagreement and finally for half of their profits in the form of jewelry. After hunting season was complete Chowing asked for payment and and they can’t agree on a sum and a fight breaks out and many of the Ghalat-at people are killed including Chief Chowig. Kimki was then chosen as chief.
...d in this quote, “The action of the story continues nearly nonstop pausing occasionally to look at the stars or talk about southern gentlemen but only for a short time before rushing ahead” (Daly 17). The action of the story can make the reader get bored of it quickly or it can continue to keep the reader interested. Some of the action was forced to keep the book going but overall it was not bad. Many young readers like reading a book with lots of action so this is why the book is such a big hit.
Before the teacher read the book to her students, she provided them with the name of the author. She explained the front cover, back cover, and title page of the book. As the teacher displayed the book to the class she asked her students to name the type of animal that is on the cover page, and what they the book was about. The students were completely engaged as teacher read the book to them aloud. She brought to the students attention that at the end of every sentences, the words rhymed. For example, she asked the students to repeat after her as she said the words, hide and ride. The students were surprised to see the character as he changed colors throughout the story. The teacher asked the students to counted the number of times Clyde changed his color, and to name the different
This book has taught me a lot about Alexander Hamilton. Most of it was a surprise to me. This book includes where he was born, how he moved to the United States, what he had done to contribute to the country, and his wife and kids. This book has plenty of insight on one of our greatest leaders.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher begins when Clay Jensen receives seven audiotapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a girl from his town who recently killed herself. According to Hannah, each person on her tapes is a reason for her suicide. Clay is on the tapes, yet doesn’t see why. He has to listen to figure it out. When Clay finally gets to his tape, it is exposed that he wasn’t actually blamed for her suicide. Clay realizes that even though he didn't do anything bad to Hannah, he let rumors stand in the way of their budding relationship. Clay could have made a positive difference in Hannah’s life and hopefully prevented her suicide. Clay's possible role in Hannah's is hard for Clay to comprehend. He knows Hannah did this to her self, but is angry because he didn't do anything to stop her. Clay who’s normally calm gets so mad; he punches a fence and cuts his hand. Clay after staying up all night listening to the tapes brings himself to school the next day, realizing he cant hide the rest of his life and reaches out to another girl, Skye Miller. He does this hoping to keep her from the same fate of Hannah.
...s book will relate even more to it and increase their interests. This will not only encourage these types of readers to keep on reading but this will also help them have a better understanding of the text.
As a teacher of writing, I realize from my experience already that I need to take a step back and allow my students some room to breathe, some room to think, possibly a model writing and an opportunity to pick up their pencils without any fears or confusion and simply write. They need to believe in their own feelings, their experiences and their own knowledge of the world around them and learn to tap into them. Without this exploration, students will remain stuck sitting with that same blank piece of paper in front of them. As a future teacher of writing, I will explore my writing by working alongside my students. I am simply amazed by what I have learned from this process already.
Thinking about a topic to write about is not always easy, and sometimes the process of writing can end up being difficult. Jennifer Jacobson discusses strategies to overcome the struggles that young writers can encounter while writing. I was interested in her book No More “I’m Done!” Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades because I feel like as a future teacher this could be a frequent problem among students. From reading this book, I hoped that I would learn useful strategies that I could use to help students overcome their problems with writing. After reading this book, I do believe that Jacobson has provided me with plenty of methods to use. I was surprised at the depth that she goes into in her text. There is a vast amount
The short story is an ideal length for students who struggle with reading long texts and the narrative itself is straightforward, with added assistance in the classroom students should be able to understand key themes and the literary devices used in the story. Furthermore this short story also generates interaction outside of the classroom with parents or other family members (Sturgess, & Locke, 2009), this is further supported in Derewianka and Jones “Ideally, children initially learn about narrative by being immersed in stories from early childhood… As students progress into secondary [school]… they should be increasingly guided towards an explicit awareness of how the story works – its structure and language features.” (Derewianka and Jones, 2012). This is essentially what this lesson aims to do, as a continuation from the previous lesson students will summarise a well-known fairy story -such as The Little Mermaid - into their own words students confirm to themselves and the teacher their understanding of the cultural contexts of the story and allusions to the characters' motivations. This is a form of active learning and as asserted in the 2014 article Recent Pedagogical Approaches and Methodologies in English Language Teaching " This approach endorses the learners to think individually and respond differently by active involvement and
Taking a creative writing class was a good way for me to express my thoughts and feelings onto paper, as well as read my other classmates stories. Reading stories created by other people lead me into their mind brain to experience what type of writer they were, it was an overall exquisite class. I believe that every person has a way of expressing who they are through writing stories of their own, fiction is the best way to express your creative imagination. This class that I took for two years helped me become a better writer and helped me understand the types of writers we have.