Lincoln: A Photobiography

Freedman, R. (1987). Lincoln: A photobiography. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

This nonfiction chapter book is organized in seven chapters, with a couple additional selections. The first of these is called A Lincoln Sampler. This chapter contains many famous quotes by Abraham Lincoln which I found to be very interesting as well as inspiring. The second of these extra chapters is called In Lincoln's Footsteps. This section contains brief accounts of important locations in Lincoln's life including where he was born, grew up, as well as Ford's Theatre, where he died. The very first location is Hodgenville, KY, which is 40 minutes from the school where I teach. Children will find this FASCINATING! This book is a complete authentic biography because it covers Lincoln's life from birth to death and it is based entirely on factual information documented through eyewitness accounts, written documents, letters, diaries, as well as photos. The captions accompanying the primary resources in the book are clearly written and informative. The structure of this book is in sequence as it gives an account by account summary of Lincoln's life from beginning to end.

I have to say that in terms of evaluating this work I do not think it is necessarily attractive to a child. The photos are all in black and white and the length of the pages I am afraid would be off-putting to a child. With that being said, I think that after opening the book and jumping into the pages, the book would draw any child in with an interest in history, presidents, or Kentucky culture.

This book would appeal to student interest for several reasons
1) Lincoln has a lot of history in Kentucky, so students in Kentucky are already interested in anything that has to do with him.
2) Students are curious about real life things that really happened. The photographs in this book from the 1800's are fascinating to me and I know they would catch the attention of my student's as well. Most of my students' favorite books are ones that contain real life images, and this book has plenty!

In general, I think this book contains a lot of very interesting information and VERY captivating photographs from the time of Lincoln. However, with that being said, I think the look of this book may cause children to ignore it on the shelf.

The only bold-faced words in the book are in the section called Lincoln's Footsteps and they serve as headings to each of the important locations that were a part of Lincoln's life. They help organize this section and allow the ready to easily navigate from one place to another in the sequence of Lincoln's life. This section was actually very informational for me. I have always joked that many states claim to be Lincoln's birthplace or hometown. This section helped me understand exactly where Lincoln spent which parts of his life. And I must say his BIRTHplace is, in fact, in Kentucky!

Big Questions:
Describe some similarities between Abraham Lincoln's life and your own.
Do you think you would have had the same opinions as Lincoln during the Civil War? Why or Why not?
Describe what you think it would have been like to be in Ford's Theatre on the night of Lincoln's assassination.

-Haley

Field Experience Reflection

1. How many hours did you complete?
5 hours (300 minutes)

2. In a bulleted list, describe how you spent your time. 

• 1.5 hours were spent with my school librarian in which she taught me how to utilize the video streaming system called Vbrick. Our school has just recently purchased this system and I did not realize all it had to offer. In my classroom we create lots of videos as a class- and this is a tool I did not know I had to share and upload these videos. 
• 2.5 hours were spent organizing, shelving, and scanning books with my librarian. As we did this she taught me about how the library is organized, where book series are kept, etc. I was not familiar with our library before this and was unaware of all of the resources available to me. I also ended up personally scanning EVERY book in our library- so now I have a much better understanding of the books at my disposal and how they may fit into the curriculum. Although it was exhausting, it was time well spent! 
• 1 hour was spent brainstorming some areas in which the librarian and myself could collaborate. We shared standards and discussed some areas which we could work together. At the end of the school year, my fourth graders will be doing a project both in my homeroom, as well as in the library. They will each be researching a famous Kentuckian and they will be participating in a "wax museum". They will dress up like their figure and prepare a 1-2 minute speech to give when a visitor drops some change in their bucket (similar to street performers in big cities). I am looking forward to this collaborating project with our librarian. 

3. How did the experience help you strengthen a Kentucky Standard. 

 

The standards I think was strengthened the most through these hours is Standard 6  and Standard 8. Standard 6 states "The teacher demonstrates the implementation of technology". This standard was strengthened by the training I received in the Vbrick program. Many times my students create videos that we cannot share on YouTube because students in our classes have not signed the media agreement.  This program gives an alternative and more private way to share our creations and video products with those in our district and our families. Standard 8 states "The teacher collaborates with colleagues, parents, and others". This standard was strengthened because the librarian and myself have designed a collaboration project for our students to research famous Kentuckians both in the classroom as well as with the librarian. She will teach them research skills, give them useful websites, teach how to evaluate the reliability of a source, etc. 

4. Give one thing you learned. 

Thought it may sound silly, I learned how the library was organized. In elementary school, I can remember the Dewey Decimal System and ALWAYS being confused by it (unfortunately). I could just never quite get the hang of it. It was nice to get in the library as an adult and learn where the different genre books are located. Now I really understand and will be able to better help my own students locate what they are looking for. 

-Haley

Reading List and Wiki Checklist

Reading List

         I.     Non-fiction/Informational        

               1) Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

       II.     Poetry

1)   Who Killed Mr. Chippendale? By Mel Glenn. (required for discussion)

2)   Mathematickles by Betsy Franco (blog)

        

    III.     Modern Fantasy         

1)   A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. (required for discussion)

                  2) The Giver by Lois Lowry (blog)

                  3) Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

     IV.     Historical Fiction

1)   Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. (required for discussion)

2)   Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (book talk blog)

       V.     Multicultural/Traditional

1)   Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema (blog)

2)   Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (blog)

3)   Stone Soup: An Old Tale by Marcia Brown

     VI.     Realistic Fiction

1)   Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis. (required for discussion)

2)   Frindle by Andrew Clements (blog)

  VII.     Picture Books

1)   Seven  Blind Mice by Ed Young. (required for discussion)

2)   Click, Clack, Quack  by Doreen Cronin (blog)

3)   If you Give a Pig a Party by Laura Numeroff (blog)

4)   Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems (blog)

5)   Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems (blog) 

6)   Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes (blog)

7)   Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann (blog)

8)             Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

9)             Duck for President by Doreen Cronin

10)                  Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco

11)                  Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco

12)                  Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

13)                  Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg

14)                  True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

15)                  Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

16)                  Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin

17)                  Baby Bear, Baby Bear by Bill Martin

18)                  Polar Bear, Polar Bear by Bill Martin

19)                  Tiny’s Big Adventure by Martin Waddell

20)                  Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday by Ray Cruz

21)                  Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

22)                  Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin

23)                  Corduroy by Don Freeman

24)                  Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Wiki Checklist

Instructions: Write the number of entries for each category you posted into on the Course Wiki (requirement is four total posts, in four different categories)

__1_ Social Studies

__1_ Science

____ Math

____ Music

__2_ Art

__1_ Reading/Language Arts

____ Physical Education

____ Other

Lowry, L. (1989). Number the stars. New York: Yearling Book. 

Imagine being ten years old during World War II. Now imagine that the safety of your family and friends is falling in your hands. Would you be able to handle it? What would you do if you were met face to face with a group of Nazi Soldiers? Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is a moving novel historically set during the Nazi Occupation of Denmark. With Nazi soldiers on every corner, life was scary for ten-year-old Ann Marie. Life for her family was already hard with food shortages, local shops closing, and losing her sister. Little did she know it was about to get harder.  If you enjoy reading books full of suspense that keep you on the edge of your seat then this is the book for you! Will Ann Marie have the courage to save her loved ones? Pick up this book from your library and find out!

Clements, A. (1998). Frindle. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. 

Frindle is 112 pages full of humor and excitement. I have fallen in love with this book and look forward to using it in my classroom for reading groups. This chapter book is in the realistic fiction genre. It is clear that this book is realistic fiction because it could happen to real people and it is believable. In fact, Andrew Clements got the idea for this book from a real conversation he had with students he was speaking to at an elementary school. Clements says,

"I was teaching a little about the way words work, and about what words really are. I was trying to explain to them how words only mean what we decide they mean. They didn’t believe me when I pointed to a fat dictionary and told them that ordinary people like them and like me had made up all the words in that book—and that new words get made up all the time. Pulling a pen from my pocket I said, “For example, if all of us right here today said we would never call this thing a “pen” again, and that from now on we would call it a . . . frindle." I just made up the word frindle, and they all laughed because it sounded funny. And then I said, "No, really— if enough other people start to use our new word, then in five or ten years, frindle could be a real word in the dictionary.”

She used this conversation to write a story about Nicholas Allen, a boy who likes to cause trouble at school. He gets this same idea from his teacher and decides to run with it, renaming the pen a "frindle". I was so excited to see how she came up with the idea for this story and how it is based on something that not only could really happen but has really happened thousands of times for each word in our language. I also think students would be fascinated by this idea (and may even be making up some new words in the classroom). 

There are many different examples of realism in this book. A type of situational realism is the relationship between Nicholas Allen and his teacher, Mrs. Granger. When the author is describing how Nicholas Allen will ask a question to get the teacher off subject in order to avoid being assigned homework it felt all too real. Not only have I experienced students trying to do that in my room, but I have been a student in classes where this happened as well. It is REAL, and kids would love reading about it. The type of social realism occurs throughout the entire story in the way the society and the town acts. The way the media reacts to Nicholas' new word by being published in the newspaper, being on talk shows, and David Letterman are all real things in society today. There is even a point when Nicholas feels like he can't go anywhere because everyone recognizes him. This reminds me of the way celebrities are followed by paparazzi. This story does a fantastic job of capturing realism and convincing the reader of its possibility. 

At one point in the story, Mrs. Granger writes a letter to Nicholas and says he will receive it when all of "this" is over. This sets up some foreshadowing. We are not exactly sure what it is foreshadowing or what she means by it being over, but we know that something is going to happen with that letter. When you read the story, you will see that this letter comes back later in a very big way. 

Nicholas and Mrs. Granger have a person-against-person conflict which is the main focus of the story. Mrs. Granger is very against the fact that Nicholas is trying to change the English language and she fights it the entire way. I really enjoyed the way this conflict ended up at the end of the book (but I don't want to give anything away). 

I can't imagine a student who would not enjoy reading this book. It captures a child's interest because its written in their language, it talks about things that happen in their lives, and it gives them the hope that one person can really make a big difference. 

Twitter Tweet: I think Nicholas would have tweeted the following when he was trying to get his new word on the map. 

"Everybody make sure to head to the store and pick up a brand new FRINDLE today! #changeisgood" 

Big Question: What is something you would change if you knew one person was all it would take? 

Do you think it is right or wrong to change a word that has meaning rooted in history? Why or why not?

-Haley

Franco, B. (2003). Mathematickles. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books. 

Mathematickles is a wonderfully fresh and creative look at poetry. The book is a collection of lyric poems about the seasons and all of the beautiful things in nature that take place as the year passes. The poems are lyric and not narrative because they capture a specific moment, feeling, or scene. For example:

ice puddle + snow boot = creakgroanCRACK 

The poem above describes the moment when you step on some frozen water and your shoe cracks and falls through. The entire book is a specialized poetry book. The poems are all by Betsy Franco and they are all on the same topic- the seasons. 

My favorite aspect of this poetry collection is the way the illustrator and author worked together to make some of the poems into concrete poems. For example, on page 14 there is a poem that reads:

      sphere

     sphere

+sphere

_______

snowman

This is a concrete poem because the sizes of the spheres represent the sizes of the actual spheres on a snowman and they give the reader a visual image of the snowman. I think the way they were able to do this is brilliant. 

Some of the poems in this book rhyme. For example, crisp air + shadows tall + cat's thick coat = signs of fall. Others, however, did not rhyme. For example, holes + nuts - nuts = squirrel hide & seek. 

This book connects to student's interest for a couple of reasons. First, students have all experienced the seasons and the illustrations and creative ways the seasons are portrayed would capture anyone's interests who have ever been apart of them. Also, math is something that is not always enjoyable for students (and adults). This book turns it into something fun and lighthearted. If I was a child, I would enjoy this book because it takes some of the scary out of math. 

A text-to-self connection I had while reading this was with this particular poem:

tadpole= 2/3 frog. For the last two years I have been the science teacher at my elementary school. I taught about life cycles and of course frogs. This poem really made me giggle as it gives a really cute description of what a tadpole probably seems like to a child. 

Big Question: 

How did you feel about math before reading this book? How do you feel after reading this book? Try to think of a math poem that describes something in nature. 

-Haley

Taylor, M. (1976). Roll of thunder hear my cry. New York: Bantam Books Inc. 

I already posted two traditional/multicultural books, but I had not realized one needed to be a chapter book. So... here comes another! I decided to read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry because it is a book I had always heard about, but had never actually gotten to read. Honestly, I had always assumed this book was about the Native American culture (I am not really sure where I got that impression). It is a great example of a multicultural book for many reasons. 

The first reason is very straightforward. Multicultural literature is defined as being about groups of people in this country that have been overshadowed and to various degrees disregarded by the dominant Euro-American culture. This book is about a black family living in Mississippi and the hard times they experience because of their color. During this story Cassie Logan begins to see how people in her culture are looked down on by whites because of their color. 

The point-of-view in this novel is first-person narrator. Cassie Logan is the narrator and tells the story from her point of view as her views of life and equality quickly being to shift during one very eventful year. I think it was an excellent choice by Mildred Taylor to use a first person point of view for this story. By using first person, the reader is able to get into Cassie's thought processes and really understand the cultural experiences from the mind of a young black girl. I don't think the emotions could have been as accurately portrayed using second or third person. 

The conflict in this story is person-against-society. The struggles that African-American families had to go through and are still sometimes going through is a fight they are in against society as a whole. It is a very difficult battle to win when it is against an entire culture but the Logan family does a wonderful job holding onto their property as well as their pride and morals. 

I think any book that discusses racial issues or the unfairness in equality is a great choice for older elementary or middle grade students. Every student is going to be out in the world and in the workplace with people from many races, and I think it is very important to not only teach them that all people deserve the same respect but also to teach them the history of our country and how people of a different color did not always have opportunities that they have today. 

Big Question:

Compare and contrast how the Logan family acted like the African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. 

Have you ever felt like you have been treated unfairly because of your ethnicity or maybe your social standing? How did that make you feel?

-Haley