Final Reflection

1. How many hours did you complete?

 I completed five hours of field experience.

2. In a short paragraph or bulleted list, how did you spend your time?

I spent time analyzing reading comprehension data, collaborating with other teachers and the two media specialist in my school to develop ideas and find great books. I also spent a great deal of time with Mrs. Emily Hunt, a fellow third grade teacher who is working towards her Master’s as a Media Specialist. This collaboration allowed me to get a better understanding of what our school library and local library had to offer.

3. How did the experience help you to strengthen at least one Kentucky Teacher Standard?

The objective that I feel I have gained the most knowledge in is Objective 1  choosing age appropriate literature. This has allowed me to become more adept at planning instruction, therefore contributing to Standard 2: The teacher designs and plans instruction. Being able to talk to other teachers and mediaa specialists has helped me in my classroom by allowing me to have some experience with several different genres and titles and authors within those genres. Doing this has allowed me to decide what books I could use to share with my students, books to develop different reading and comprehension strategies and books I can suggest to them. I have many readers who are either above or below grade level and through this course I was able to find some great reads for my readers who may not find what they are looking for in my classroom library. By having classmates and myself add to the Wiki I was able to find a lot of great age-appropriate resources to teach different subject areas.

4. Talk a little about one thing you learned because of this field experience.

One thing I learned is never be scared to ask your school librarian (s) for help! They know the library forward and backward and have a vast knowledge base of what is age-appropriate, grade-appropriate and what will hold the interest of your kiddos. They are there to help both the teachers and the kids and they hold a huge key to student success and learning!

Finding the Titanic

Ballard, R. (1993). Reading wings: Targeted treasure hunt. Scholastic.

This is a great non-fiction book written at about the fourth grade level, but could definitely be used for strong 2nd and 3rd grade readers and also fifth grade students. It is a great read for anyone who has a love of learning and is curious about the Titanic. I have been fascinated with this regal ship since I myself was in third grade and our reading series had a piece about the Titanic. I clearly remember being intrigued by the diagrams in the book referencing where certain areas were on the ship. This book, written by Robert Ballard (the discoverer of the shipwreck no less) does not fail to excite as much as my third grade reader did!

       Finding the Titanic is written in such a way that some chapters are present day and explain the search and diving effort to locate the shipwreck and some chapters are written from the perspective of Ruth Becker, an actual survivor from that fateful night. There are so many great text features to help readers better understand the wealth of information they are gaining from reading this. There are charts, diagrams, cut-aways, illustrations, photographs, close-ups and more. It was hard for me to decide if this was informational nonfiction or a biography as Robert Ballard is telling the story of achieving his lifelong dream and all of the hard work and effort he put into such a feat. But the book also gives a great deal of information and facts about the Titanic, its passengers, crew, cargo, layout and of course its plunge into the icy Atlantic. It also gives information about the discovery of the shipwreck years later, going into great detail about the submarines, cameras and robotic devices used to explore the shipwreck.

     I would definitely use this book to teach students to use and analyze text features to better understand the text.
 
       Questions to ponder:

• Why do you think Robert Ballard included the information about Ruth Becker?
• Did it help your understand of the story? How?
• Why do you think Mr. Ballard thinks people should leave the shipwreck in peace instead of bringing artifacts to the surface?
• What is your point-of-view? Should artifacts be left or shared with the world. Justify your answer.

Reading Log

Genre / Titles you read

1. Non-fiction/Informational (1 chapter book or photo essay book reflection required on blog)
   1. Finding the Titanic – Robert Ballard

2. Poetry (1 chapter or picture book reflection required on blog)
   1. Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)
   2. Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss

3. Modern Fantasy (1 chapter book reflection required on blog)
   1. I, Jack by Patricia Finney. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)
   2. The Aviary by Kathleen O'Dell
   3. Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
   4. The Hunger Games Trilogy – Suzanne Collins
      
      

4. Historical Fiction (1 reflection required on blog –can be a picture book)
   1. The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)
   2. Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
   3. Iron Thunder – Avi
   4. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry – Mildred Taylor
   5. The Well – Mildred Taylor
   6. Elijah of Buxton – Christopher Paul Curtis
   7. Bud Not Buddy – Christopher Paul Curtis
   8. The Watsons Go to Birmingham – Christopher Paul Curtis

5. Multicultural/Traditional (2 reflections required on blog – one can be a picture book)
   1. Hiroshima: A Novella by Laurence Yep (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)
   2. Esperenza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
   3. Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto

6. Realistic Fiction (1 chapter book reflection required on blog)
   1. Baby by Patricia MacLachlan. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)
   2. Because of Winn Dixie – Kate DiCamillo

7. Picture Books (5 reflections required on blog during the first two weeks of class. There should be a total here of at least six.)

The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

1. – The Three Little Pigs by James Marshal
2. – Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman
3. – Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
4. – The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by John Scheizka
5. - Train to Somewhere by Eve Bunting
6. A Day's Work – Eve Bunting
7. Thank You Mr. Faulker – Patricia Polacco
8. Pink and Say – Patricia Polacco
9. The Greedy Triangle – Marilyn Burns

Wiki Checklist

____ Social Studies

____ Science

____ Math

____ Music

____ Art

____ Reading/Language Arts

____ Physical Education

____ Other

Yellow Star

Roy, J. R. (2006). Yellow star. New York, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corp/Ccb.

Because of Winn Dixie

DiCamillo, K. (2009). Because of winn-dixie signature edition.

Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

             Because of Winn Dixie

      Witches, preachers, ex-cons, missing mothers and dogs. What do these things have in common? They are all characters in Kate DiCamillo's heartwarming Because of Winn-Dixie. When 10 year-old Opal Buloni and her father, the preacher move to Naomi, Florida, Opal is in need of a friend. What she doesn't expect to find is a dirty dog who cries and smiles. Opal meets Winn-Dixie at the local Winn-Dixie. From then on they are inseparable. Throughout the summer they encounter several interesting people - Miss Franny Block who once defeated a bear, the town librarian, Otis, an ex-convict who works at the pet shop, and Gloria Dump, the local witch. One person Opal does not run into is her mother, the person she would most like to see. Winn-Dixie and Opal make friends in the most unusual situations with the most unusual people and Opal begins to find herself in Naomi, however she can't shake the fact that her mother left her. The summer boils down until there isn't much of it left and Opal decides to hold a party in honor of all of her new friends, but things don't go as planned - Opal's mother is still missing and suddenly her best friend disappears too! How will these disappearances change Opal's life? Will Winn-Dixie return to Opal? Will her mother ever decide she needs Opal in her life? To find out, read Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn Dixie, you won't be disappointed.

Horton Hears a Who

Geisel, T. (1954). Horton hears a who!. New York: Random House

       A teacher on my 3rd grade team is absolutely obsessed with Dr. Seuss and plans out lots of great activities for Read Across America week - so much so that I often don't have time to teach all of the great lessons she plans. One book I plan on using in the future is Horton Hears A Who! I had already seen the movie, but decided to read it as my poetry selection and absolutely fell in love with it and all the things I could do with my kiddos!
       Horton is a lovable elephant minding his own business when he hears a small voice coming from a speck of dust. He carries the speck of dust and is ridiculed by his peers for talking to and believing that there is life on the small flower. Despite being made fun of by his neighbors Horton continues protecting what he finds out is a tiny community, Who-ville and repeating the mantra, "A person's a person, no matter how small". Finally tired of seeing Horton carry on with the dust, members of his own community steal the bud and try to get rid of it, in a field of clover! Horton's determination to save Who-ville helps him make it through all the many flowers until he discovers his missing clover. In an effort to get the other animals of the jungle to believe that Who-ville exists on the clover, Horton and the mayor of Who-ville join together. Will the kangaroo and other animals believe in Who-ville or is it a lost cause?
        Horton Hears A Who is in the poetry genre because Dr. Seuss uses ryhming words and some onomatopeia throughout the book. For example, at the end it says "A person's a person not matter how small, and their whole word was saved by the smallest of all!" It also uses words like, SPLASH to represent the sound of Horton splashing in the pool at the beginning. This work, like most of Dr. Seuss' works, is a single-illustrated poem because it is a poem that is telling one story rather than being a collection of several poems. Since it is a poem that is telling a single story there is are well-developed characters, such as Horton, who we learn is very kind and determined because of his actions toward the Who's and his determination to keep them alive. There is also a well developed plot with a progressional format as the events are told in the order in which they would occur and the climax is built up to and solved at the end.
    

• How is this book organized?
• What do you notice about the way it is written?
• What is the theme of this story?
• What character traits would you use to describe Horton?