Monday, October 29, 2012

Hip-Pocket Papa by Sandra Markle





Title:  Hip-Pocket Papa (Markle, S., & Marks, A. (2010). Hip-pocket papa. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge)
Author:  Sandra Markle
Illustrated by:  Alan Marks
Copyright:  2010 by Sandra Markle
Published by:  Charlesbridge, Massachusetts
Reading level:  Accelerated Reader level 4.4, Lexile: 1060
Suggested delivery:  Independent, guided reading, or read aloud
Description:  non-fiction

Charming, Inviting, Evocative, Fascinating, Informative

 Electronic websites to support reading:
a.      This is a website provided by the author to engage students in extensions of their learning after reading the text.  The students can take a virtual trip to Australia’s cool temperate rainforest to discover and explore independently the habitat of the hip-pocket frog.  Understanding the environment of the species will help students to visualize the frogs life, increasing comprehension of the text.
a.      This is a website provided by the author to provide students further engagement with the text by investigating the hip-pocket frog and additional fathers who play a major role in raising their offspring.

Teaching suggestions:
1.      Vocabulary:
a.      Glistening
b.      Studded
c.      Defends
d.      Burrows
e.      Prey
f.       Plunges
g.      Squirm
h.      Develop
2.      Teaching strategies:
a.      Before reading:  Students can write a few words down to aid in connecting prior knowledge to this text when given the following prompt:  Take a moment to reflect on an adult in your life who has played a major role in raising you.  Write down the things that you feel are important about being a good role model or things that you appreciate about that adult in your life.  Imagine your life without that adult- how does that make you feel?  Do you feel it is important for animals to have a role model like humans to teach  offspring how to grow into mature individuals? Why or why not?
b.      During reading:  This book identifies the importance of the father role in raising its offspring, a tadpole, through a sequence of text.  To increase inferential comprehension, students can create a timeline to jot down the order of events as the father helps to nurture and care for its offspring.  The timeline will help students identify the sequence of events and recognize the amount of time it takes to properly care for healthy offspring.  A timeline will also support learning in other content areas, such as science, by helping students understand the lifecycle of a frog.
c.      After reading:  Students can visit http://frogsaustralia.net.au/frogs/display.cfm?frog_id=3 to see photos, look at a map showing the natural habitat of where these frogs live, and find out additional fun facts about these unique frogs.  After gathering information from this website students can create a visual diagram of the frogs’ life and the role the father plays in the frogs’ life.  Students can further their understanding of this concept by comparing the Hip-pocket frogs lifecycle and relationship with between father and tadpole to other species of animals that are similar, such as penguins, where the father plays a pertinent role in the development of the offspring.
3.      Writing activity: Students can write an expository essay about a favorite animal of theirs and the role the parents play in the development of offspring.  The essay should include:
a.      An introduction of the species they chose and why
b.      General animal facts: natural distribution, lifespan, gestation period, and diet
c.      Role of parent(s) in raising of young, who plays a more involved role: male or female
d.     Conclusion (including a suggestion for conservation efforts for the habitat relative to the animal)

Endangered Planet by David Burnie





Title:  Endangered Planet (Burnie, D. (2004). Endangered planet. Boston: Kingfisher).
Author:  David Burnie
Copyright:  Kingfisher Publications Plc 2004
Published by:  Kingfisher, Massachusetts
Reading level:  Lexile: 8.5,  Accelerated Reader AR-ATOS
Suggested delivery:  Independent, guided reading, or read aloud
Description:  non-fiction

Informative, Descriptive, Fundamental, Motivational, Resourceful

Electronic resources to support reading:
a.      This is a wonderful website for students and the teacher to engage in cross-curricular language arts, geography, and science to help increase awareness of the continually changing environment and worldwide environmental issues.  Students can take a virtual tour to explore new locations and increase their knowledge of conservation.
a.      This website offers a dynamic education plan with lessons for teachers to provide students the opportunity to develop their skills in language arts and math through raising awareness of the need to recycle.  This website includes lesson plans, materials, and resources to accompany the lesson plans to engage students in their learning.  

Teaching suggestions:
1.      Vocabulary:
a.      Fragile
b.      Adapted
c.      Dominate
d.      Evolved
e.      Development
f.       Atmosphere
2.      Teaching strategies
a.      Before reading:  Students should create a KWL chart concerning the importance of recycling and what it means to conserve.  This will help the students connect their prior knowledge of conservation efforts in their own homes to understand the importance of conservation for our environment.  Once students read the text they can re-visit their KWL charts to complete the “L” section.
b.      During reading:  Throughout the text there are several author recommended ideas to further engage students in the presented concepts such as the current condition of our fragile Earth.  Teachers should include one or more of these activities after each main concept.  For example, after chapter 1, students can visit www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html through the use of the computers in the classroom to take a trip through the Earths history by visiting this online time machine.  This will help students add a visual component to their learning of the environment and our surrounding world, which will increase overall comprehension by providing a better understanding of conditions of the environment.
c.      After reading:  If school allows, the whole class can take a fieldtrip to the local nature center or aquarium to collect information from the experts who works with the animals themselves.  Students can prepare interview questions and interview trainers or zoologists to find out what they can do locally to help preserve and protect our environment and minimize habitat destruction.  Students can also record at least three concerns for the environment specific to animals housed in facility visited.
3.      Writing activity:  Students can write a letter to the Center for Alternative Technology- Europe’s leading Eco center- to see demonstrations of all types of environment- friendly inventions.  
 Center for Alternative Technology
Machynlleth, Powys SY20 9AZ
Wales

Student’s letter should include:
a.      Introduction (name, grade attending, school)
b.      Reason for writing (to collect information regarding environment friendly suggestions for everyday use in their lives as a student)
c.      An idea or suggestion they may have about a new invention that will help conserve the environment
d.      Closure including return address for correspondence

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Babymouse: burns rubber! by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm





Title:  Babymouse: burns rubber! (Holm, J. L., & Holm, M. (2010). Babymouse: burns rubber!. New York: Random House).
Author:  Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
Copyright:  2010 by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm
Published by:  Random House Children’s Books, New York
Reading level:  ages 7 and up, Reading Level:  2.8, Grades 3-4
Awards:  Children’s Choice Award 2011
Suggested delivery:  Independent or guided reading

Fun, Lighthearted, Suspenseful, Charming, Enthralling

Electronic Websites to support reading:
a.      This is the official Jennifer Holm website, co-author of Babymouse: burns rubber!,  which provides readers with information about the author herself including a full biography, contact information, video blogs, and additional reading materials.  Students can navigate through the website to learn more about the author, which will ultimately help them understand the ideas and motivation behind the Babymouse series.
a.      This is the official Matthew Holm website, co-author of Babymouse: burns rubber!, designed for students and teachers to gain access to Holm’s personal blog and information about the author and illustrator.  This can be used if students are assigned to collect information for a biography, as well as gain information about inspiration for the Babymouse series.
Teaching suggestions:
1.      Vocabulary:
a.      Generation
b.      Eavesdrop
c.      Pupils
d.      Domination
e.      Retire
f.       Confidence
2.      Teaching strategies
a.      Before reading: Have students either watch this video as a whole class or independently at the computer by visiting: http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/babymouse/.  This is the Babymouse homepage which is a fun way for students to become acquainted with the authors’ style and characters included in the series. It includes a brief introduction to each of the books in the series with additional reading summaries and quotes from professional reviews.  After students interact with this website they will become more familiar with the character they will soon engage with throughout the pages.  Students are likely to develop a genuine desire to further their engagement with the text to learn more about the character Babymouse.
b.      During reading:  Students can make their own timeline to record the events and character relationships throughout the story.  This will help students analyze the friendship between Babymouse and Wilson as their friendship is put to the test when Babymouses’ dreams to become a racecar driver are turning into reality.  Students should be encouraged to look for changes in the relationship and track those on their timelines accordingly to visually see the relationship grow.
c.      After reading:  Students can make their own Babymouse comic strip as a sequel to the series. Students will demonstrate their inferential comprehension by continuing the relationship among Babymouse and Wilson, demonstrating consistent writing conventions, and character dialogue.  There is a “complete-a-comic” teaching resource available for download on http://matthewholm.net/filestorage/teaching_GNs_activities-sm.pdf to provide support to students when teaching this concept.
3.      Writing activity: Students can write out their story in a narrative form to accompany their comic strip.  This narrative story will be limited to text only to help students practice and build upon their narrative writing skills.  The teacher can provide a writing prompt such as:  Imagine you are a co-author for the Babymouse series and you have been asked to come up with a sequel for Babymouse: burns rubber!  Story must include:
a.       an introduction to characters,
b.      defined plot, theme, and setting,
c.      character actions, and
d.      thorough conclusion.  There are additional teaching resources helping students transfer story ideas into graphic novels on http://matthewholm.net/filestorage/teaching_GNs_activities-sm.pdf.

Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray: the uproar at the front door by Nick Bruel





Title:  Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray: the uproar at the front door (Bruel, N. (2010). Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray: the uproar at the front door. New York: Roaring Brook Press).
Author:  Nick Bruel
Copyright:  2010 by Nick Bruel
Published by:  Roaring Brook Press
Reading level:  Grade level Equivalent: 2.3, Lexile: 620L, DRA: 38, Guided Reading: P
Awards:  Children’s Choice Award 2011
Suggested delivery:  Independent or guided reading

Comical, Effortless, Engaging, Humorous, Appealing

Electronic websites to support reading:
a.      This is a website for students to engage with the author through a “meet the author” link, trailer, games, and extras in a very appealing colorful layout.  Students can read text summaries to increase comprehension of the text Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray: the uproar at the front door.
a.      This is website for students to engage with throughout their reading of the text.  It includes blogs from children and their interpretation and summaries of the text.  This will be extremely useful for students to compare their own interpretations and gain ideas or thoughts of other students that may have gone unnoticed, which increases overall comprehension of the text.

Teaching suggestions:
1.      Vocabulary:
a.      Gigantic
b.      Valuable
c.      Reflex
d.      Exaggerated
e.      Experience
f.       Instincts
2.      Teaching strategies:
a.      Before reading:  Students can preview a video as an introduction to the Bad Kitty series on http://badkittybooks.squarespace.com/books-journal/bad-kitty-vs-uncle-murray.html.  This video will captivate children’s attention and desire to learn more.  This particular series is very popular with students, as demonstrated by the 2011 Children’s Choice Award.  The introduction can also be accompanied with having students view the “Meet Nick Bruel” link on the website and write 3 fun facts in pairs to demonstrate comprehension of biography.
b.      During reading: Students should create a graphic organizer such as a Venn diagram to identify the relationship between the characters Puppy, Bad Kitty, and Uncle Murray in the book Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray: the uproar at the front door.  This will help students understand and interpret the text and build inferential comprehension by visually comparing and contrasting character actions and emotions.
c.      After reading:  Students should pretend they are a professional book reviewer for a famous publishing company.  They need to write a review of  with the intent to inspire other students to read this text.  The students should include specific examples from the text and at least three reasons why someone should read the text.  Locating examples in the text will reinforce students understanding of how events shape the plot and theme of text. This activity is a great way for teachers to assess the students learning and overall comprehension of the text. 

3. Writing activity:    Students can write a narrative story about either a pet they have at home or a pet they would like to have.  This narrative piece should include:
                                                              i.     What kind of pet it is
                                                             ii.     Responsibilities that would accompany having such a pet
                                                            iii.     An adventure that the author and pet experience together