|
Monday- March 3, 2008
Today was my first
day visiting the middle school. I didn't know what to expect but I was pleased when the experience wasn't too scary. Today
we mostly observed. The children were learning about was the Iditarod is. The 2008 Iditarod is underway so I thought this
was a very appropriate and interesting topic. Most of us live our lives without thinking about these types of events that
happen in our country. I also like that the kids picked the book Woodsong, by Gary
Paulson to read. This made today’s lesson even more special. I might read The
Prince of the Pond on my own however, because this book also sounds like it would be a good read. I am excited for next
week’s trip to the school. We will be put into our Literary Circles. I can’t wait! J
Monday- March 10, 2008
To prepare for the visit this week, I began reading the
book Woodsong by Gary Paulson. I had high expectations for this book because I've enjoyed other works by Gary
Paulson . I believe he is an author that is completly unlike any other because of the legitimacy that he brings to his novels.
To me they seem to be more like memiors instead of fiction. For example, the first chapter of Woodsong
begins with a dramatic confession of the narrator explaining his ingorance about the woods. The reader is immediatly hooked
and dying to read on. I love this!
Monday- March 17, 2008
Today was a great day in the literary circles. We read Chapter 3 in
Woodsong and discussed the book so far. The kids mainly discussed how gory and bloody the beginning of the book has
been. Even though they seemed uncomfortable about this material, they still seemed to enjoy the book. It was great answering
their questions about what certain words meant and what Paulson was talking about during certain parts of the book. We went
into detail about discussing the part where the dog Columbia played that trick on the other dog named Olaf. We talked about
what that action symbolized. I am looking forward to reading the next Chapter with the kids and seeing their reaction what
happens next.
Monday- April 7, 2008
Today we spent a lot of time planning our strategies for our Tibbets
visits. There has been some concern with the amount of time we have left with the kids. Before today we were wondering how
we were going to finish the book and have time to discuss everything. But we received some great news. Penny Smith is going
to allow the kids to read the book in other parts of the class and not just with us. I think this will allow more time for
us to address confusing or complicated issues the the book presents. Some kids are struggling with the difficult vocabulary.
I think we need to spend more time helping the kids understand what these words mean.
Monday- April 14, 2008
I arrived at the school late and couldn't find my group. Today was
a bad, bad day. I dont even want to talk about it...
Monday- April 21, 2008
Today went really well at Tibbets. We had a new student in our group
so we spent some time catching her up and just discussing what has happened so far. We are finally reading about the actual
race and we started with Day 3 today. We made great progress and ended with Day 12. It was fun today because the kids got
to read a whole day by themselves. I think they enjoyed this. The only thing I regret about today is that we barely discussed
the content of what happened over all the days we read about. I wrote down some tough vocabulary words and some concepts that
we need to discuss at our next meeting. Why would the racers make up stories and rumors when the learned that men were missing?
Paulson compares this to times of war. I think this is a logical and clear comparison.
Monday- April 28, 2008
Hurray! We finished the book today! Everyone listened closely as we
read the final pages of the book together. I was surprised that the kids were so quiet during our discussion of the book.
We tried to ask them about their favorite books but the conversation was still pretty limited. This lead to the idea
of having the other group and ours combine for a larger group talk. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to make that happen
today. But next week, on our last visit, we will do this. We also had the idea to bring in coloring materials and have
the kids draw or sketch their favorite scene of the book. Hopefully, this will fuel more chatter. :)
|
