Poetry

In my second grade class we were given a new poem every week. We all read it together in class on Monday and by Friday for extra credit we could recite the poem in front of the class. The one thing was that we had to memorize the poem. That is one of my favorite memories my elementary schools and that is where my love of poetry began. I think that poetry is beautiful, amazing, dynamic. I love that a poem can only have a few lines yet say so much. I think that it is very important for children to be exposed to all different kinds of poetry. No matter what grade I teach, I will incorporate poetry into my lessons. If I do end up teaching sixth grade, I think that it is important for them to express themselves. These students are going through so many different emotions at this age, that it is important that they have a creative outlet. As a future teacher I will teach my students about the different types of poetry and require them to write their own poetry. I also think that it is important to read to your students frequently. I will try to read poetry in my class as much as possible. This will help for the students to see that there are so many different kinds of poetry. I also think that by reading poetry allowed, students will relate to it. Maybe reading a poem allowed will change a students life, just like it changed the students life in Love That Dog. I really enjoyed Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry. It had some amazing ideas of poetry and how to teach children about poetry. I will definitely keep this book and use the ideas in my future classroom.

Useful Websites:

Poetry on PBS

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june00/poetryboxrules.html

Elements of Poetry

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/elements.html

Shakespeare Is My Homeboy

I have always loved Shakespeare. When I was in the 8th grade I had to do a final project and I chose the works of William Shakespeare. I have seen a few of his plays with my mom, and have always loved every minute of it. I love how different the language is from our modern day english. There is something so beautiful and unique about it. I think that it is important for children of all ages to be exposed to Shakespeare. Not only is he apart of history that all students should be aware of, Shakespeare can open the eyes of all children. They can see where all of the stories they know came from. I think that students would find it very interesting to know that many stories that they know and love are based off of the story line of Romeo and Juliet. Guy and girl fall in love, but cannot be together because of their families and their differences. I think that they would be able to relate to Shakespeare because some of the dilemmas that shakespeare's characters go through, they may as well. I think that the activity that we did in class was a great way for the students to relate to Shakespeare. We were required to break down the play and act it out in our own words. I think that this a very useful activity because it forces the students to understand what they are reading and put it in their own words. I have always thought that Shakespeare makes people's brains bigger. When people read I feel that they rush through, but with Shakespeare, people have to slow down and really focus on what they are reading. As a future teacher I will definitely introduce my students to Shakespeare. I will probably even have them work on an activity just like we did in class. Shakespeare is awesome and every child should be introduced to his plays.

Useful Websites:

Shakespeare for Kids

http://www.fireflybooks.com/Kids/Shakespeare.html

Tips for reading Shakespeare

http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/maune/ShakespearePages/ReadingTips.html

Children and Young Adult Novels

I really enjoyed this unit. It was exciting because Speak and Stargirl were book I always wanted to read when I was younger, but never got a chance to. I also really enjoyed this unit because since I really want to teach sixth grade, this unit was very useful to me. Sixth grade seems to be the age where students start to "dislike" reading. I really want to be that teacher in their life that can show them that reading can be fun, it can be interesting, and there are books out there for everyone. I know that all three of the books we have read I will use in my future career.

-Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

-Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

-Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket

I also really want to look into other books by these authors. I think the most important thing that I learned from this unit, is that it is important for teachers to read children and young adult novels. It is important because then teachers will be able to recommend books to students. They will get to know their students and will be able to tell what kinds of books they will like. Students will be more likely to enjoy reading if they are reading something they enjoy. It will make students feel special knowing that their teachers have taken the time of finding a book they think that student will like. I think another thing that I learned was that children and young adult novels aren't always "fluffy." They can talk about tough issues and they can use big words. Students, especially sixth graders are going to want to read those books that push the limits. They will feel like rebels knowing that they are reading something that isn't necessarily rated G. I think that it is important for students to read books that talk about tough issues to make students aware. It is important for teachers to open their students eyes to the world around them, and these types of books can do just that. I cannot wait to have group and class discussions in my future class about literature. I am going t strive to push all of my students to become "good" readers. I want them to be excited about what they are reading and excited about discussing literature in my class. These novels that we have read during this unit are not so black and white and I think thats great.

I want to use the following websites later on :

Children's literature website- www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/ it has tons of suggestions for books as well as other great resources

I would love to use www.readwritethink.org (even though I have already mentioned this website in my blog I think it is a great one to write down again)

This is a great website for young adult novels http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/printzaward/Printz.cfm

Author's webpages:

www.lemonysnicket.com

www.jerryspinelli.com/newbery_002.htm

There's An End To Every Fairytale

Reading all of the different versions of the classic fairytales was very interesting to me. I had only ever known the Disney version and it was very eye opening to see that there are many other versions of the Disney tales I have grown to love. I think that it is very important for children to learn not only the Disney versions but compare and contrast the other versions throughout cultures. A great website, that I posted in my last blog is www.surlalunefairytales.com. It has the history behind all of the classic fairytales. I think that another lesson that fairytales section taught me was that it is important for children not to just read the fluffy fairytales, but read the other versions so that they can dissect each tale. They should be able to analyze the theme, the moral, the role of the characters, gender roles, etc. It definitely opened my eyes to see how gender roles played a part in the tales. It seemed as if all of the women were the victims and the men were the saviors. It also seemed that the women were the main focus of the story and the men were merely objects. These are ideas and theories that students could come up with as well. It's good for them to ask questions and really dive deep into these tales. I think that it is important for children to have an imagination and to believe that stories do have a happy ending, but as children get older, I think it is important to see that there are other endings out there. I will definitely use the book, Classic Fairy Tales by Maria Tartar. I loved reading the Grimm Brother’s versions because most of them were very dark and didn’t always have a happy ending. It changed my whole perspective and opinion about what a fairytale is. If I am teaching older children I want them to be able to read these versions, answer how they can relate to real life, and analyze why the story was written the way it was. On www.readwritethink.org there were many lesson plans that seemed very interesting. One that caught my eye was having the students write their own fairy tales. After reading the different versions of the classic tales, it would be interesting to see what they came up with. I have a feeling the typical princess waiting for her prince would not be the main idea for many. Overall this section was very interesting. It made me change my ideas of fairytales and I cannot wait to open the eyes of my students about fairytales. I have a feeling I will surprise many of them.

Useful Fairytale Cites

I like what Dr. Jaxon said in class about not just writing our blogs because we HAVE to but because we WANT to. I already have a file of lesson plans, crafts, books, etc at home, but I love the idea of using my blog as another kind of file. I am promising myself that I will start adding to my blog with helpful websites or ideas. It will be so nice to look back at this and be able to use my blog as a very helpful resource when I begin teaching.

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/

I love this website. It has loads of fairytales with their history and similar stories from other cultures. I think this would be very helpful to show students that Disney Fairytales are not the only version. Also it would be interesting for them to learn about the history of these tales.

Dr Jaxon also mentioned www.readwritethink.org the other day in class. lots of great ideas of lesson plans for teaching language arts.

A Little Bit About Me

My name is Julia Marie Ode, I am a Senior at Chico State and I am studying to be a Special Education teacher. I am not quite sure what grade I want to teach, but at the moment I am thinking fifth or sixth grade. I know to many sixth grade seems like such a SCARY grade to teach, but I am up for the challenge! I love that age they are so interesting. I want to be a teacher because I want to make people excited and interested to learn. I want children to know that school doesn't have to suck and it can actually be FUN. I want to make a huge impact in children's lives and help form them to be the leaders of the future. Also, when I am teaching I feel passionate, happy, and relaxed, and to me I think its cool that I get to feel that way and get paid for it! Teaching doesn't feel like a job to me, I love doing it. I am very excited for this class because I love to read, and I want to learn how to effectively teach children how to read so they will enjoy reading for the rest of their life, not just read because they have to for school.