emenglandeng400.weebly.com · Web viewThing #2 Emily England ENG 400 I believe students, and people for that matter, don’t always know what they like, until they know they like

Thing #2Emily EnglandENG 400

I believe students, and people for that matter, don’t always know what they like, until

they know they like it. I also believe that students, and people don’t often know what

they are good at until they try it and explore it. I think as teachers we need to be able to

encourage our students to push the boundaries and stereotypes that perhaps society,

their peers or their families place on them. Just like in Love That Dog, I want students

to explore and try things they haven’t before in the hopes that they will find something

they really like or are good at.

The idea is this. I am creating a portfolio of sorts, which will have different genres of

literature and several different selections under each genre. Students will have to

choose one selection from each genre read it and then respond to the prompts I have

written for the book. Since I am in a middle school right now I am creating this with

middle school level texts.

I think a lot of the time we tend to read the same types of books over and over. I got

stuck in a rut in high school and once I got a recommendation for a different type of

book by a teacher I realized there were lots of different types of books I like. I think that

if we as teachers can encourage students to find books they love, outside of their norm

we encourage the true love of reading.

Historical Fiction -

Number the Stars by Lois LowryAs the German troops begin their campaign to "relocate" all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen’s family takes in Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family.

Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.

Writing Prompts

1.How does Annemarie grow over the course of the story?

2. In Denmark there are people who fight back against the Nazis secretly. Do you think that you would have been one of the secret fighters, or do you think you would have been too afraid? Explain.

3. What do you like about Lois Lowry’s choice to write this from Annemarie’s perspective? What do you dislike about it?

4. Did you expect to like this book? Why or why not?

5. Did you like this book? Why or why not? What surprised you about this book, explain?

Bud, Not Buddy - by Christopher Paul Curtis

It’s 1936, in Flint Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud’s got a few things going for him:

1. He has his own suitcase full of special things.

2. He’s the author of Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.

3. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers advertising Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!!

Bud’s got an idea that those flyers will lead him to his father. Once he decides to hit the road to find this mystery man, nothing can stop him—not hunger, not fear, not vampires, not even Herman E. Calloway

himself.

Writing Prompts -

1. What makes Buddy such an admirable character, despite his mistakes and pitfalls along the

way? Answer with details from the text.

2. Why do you believe that Buddy was so attached to his suitcase and the items in it? Explain.

3. What did you like about the author’s choice to write this story from Bud’s perspective? What

did you dislike about it? Explain.

4. Did you like this book? Why or why not?

5. DId you expect to like this book? Why or why not?

My Brother Sam is Dead - James Lincoln Collier

All his life, Tim Meeker has looked up to his brother Sam. Sam's smart and brave -- and is now a part of the American Revolution. Not everyone in town wants to be a part of the rebellion. Most are supporters of the British -- including Tim and Sam's father.

With the war soon raging, Tim know he'll have to make a choice -- between the Revolutionaries and the Redcoats . . . and between his brother and his father.

Writing Prompts -

1. What does Tim admire about his brother? What does he dislike?

2. Tim's father has a violent temper. How does Tim cope with it? What do you think of

Tim's way of coping with it?

3. How would you describe Tim's feelings in the Epilogue? Do you think his feelings are

natural, or strange? Explain.


5. DId you expect to like this book? Why or why not?

The War that Saved My Life - Kimberly Bradley

Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.

So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?

Writing Prompts -

1. Why are Ada and Jamie “the only ones not chosen”? How does this confirm the message of

Mam? What if they had been cared for?

2. Ada begins to question who she is, and her identity in the world. Why do you think this was

so frightening for her? What did you think she meant when she said, “at home I knew who I

was”?

3. Did you like this book? Explain.

4. Did you expect to like this book? Explain.

Fiction

Wonder - R. J. Palacio

I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face.

WONDER, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

Writing Prompts -

1. The idiom "like a lamb to the slaughter" describes what August and his father believe his

experiences will be at middle school. In what way is and isn't August like a lamb about to be

slaughtered when he goes to school?

2. Summer makes a choice to sit with August. Why does Summer sit with August at first, and

how do her motives for being with him change?

3. August describes himself as extraordinary. Explain why August is an ordinary and an

extraordinary kid.



Holes - Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse.

A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys detention center Camp Green Lake where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day every day digging holes. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on

at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment--and redemption.

Writing Prompts -

1. Do you think it’s true that digging holes can turn a bad person into a good person? Explain.

2. How does Stanley change during his time at Camp Green Lake? Provide examples.

3. Stanley’s father says, “I learn from failure”. Do you think this is true? Has there ever been a

time where you have learned from failure?



Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli

Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’ s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first.

Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.

Writing Prompts -

1. Describe the many ways Stargirl changes over the course of the novel. Write about what

motivates each of these changes and what happens as a result of each change.

2. Compare and contrast Leo and Stargirl’s characters. How are they alike, and how are they

different? How does this change over the course of the book?

3. What do you think motivates Hillary to behave the way she does towards Stargirl? Explain.

4. Did you expect to like this book?

5. Did you like this book?

The One and Only Ivan - Katherine Applegate

Having spent twenty-seven years behind the glass walls of his enclosure in a shopping mall, Ivan has grown accustomed to humans watching him. He hardly ever thinks about his life in the jungle. Instead, Ivan occupies himself with television, his friends

Stella and Bob, and painting. But when he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from the wild, he is forced to see their home, and his art, through new eyes.

Writing Prompts -

1. Ivan is the narrator of the story. Why do you think the author chose to have him tell the story

instead of writing it from a human’s perspective? What do we learn from Ivan’s point of view

that we might not learn had the story been told from a human’s point of view?

2. Do you think Ivan is lonely? Why or why not? Who are Ivan’s best friends? Why are these

friendships important to Ivan?

3. How do Ivan’s emotions change throughout the course of the book? What do you think

causes this change?



Non-Fiction

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and

1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.

Writing Prompts -

1. Why do you think the author chose to relate her story through verse? How does this

choice affect the reader?

2. Discuss Jacqueline Woodson's time of birth. How does the author illustrate the

atmosphere of this period in history? What major events occurred in the United States

in the year the author was born? How did these events influence her life and culture?

3. Discuss the comparisons in the book of the North and South. Where was Jacqueline

Woodson born? Where did she spend her summers growing up? What place in Jackie's

life felt the most like "home" to her? Why?



Chasing Lincoln’s Killer - James L. Swanson

Based on rare archival material, obscure trial manuscripts, and interviews with relatives of the conspirators and the manhunters, CHASING LINCOLN'S KILLER is a fast-paced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth: a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia.

Writing Prompts -

1. Why is John Wilkes Booth so angry? How did his plan reach beyond Lincoln? How did

Booth's career as an actor influence his plan for the assassination? How did it also help with

his escape? Describe his treachery on that fateful night in April, 1865.

2. valuate the escape plans of the conspirators. What helped and hindered their escapes? Who

aided them? In your opinion are people who aid criminals as guilty as those who commit the

crimes or not?

3. Did John Wilkes Booth plan his escape carefully? Why did he encounter so many mishaps?



Trapped - Marc Aronson

In early August 2010, the unthinkable happened when a mine collapsed in Copiano, Chile, trapping 33 miners 2,000 feet below the surface. For sixty-nine days they lived on meager resources with increasingly poor air quality. When they were finally rescued, the world watched with rapt attention and rejoiced in the amazing spirit and determination of the miners. What could have been a terrible tragedy became an amazing story of survival.

Writing Prompts -

1. Which of the miners would you most like to talk to, and what would you ask him?

2. Describe what led to the miners being trapped. How, if at all could this have been

prevented? Who was responsible for their well being? Did they do their job? Explain.



The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown

Out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.

It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain

his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.

Writing Prompts -

1. Each boy in the boat thought of himself as the weakest member of the team. Who would you

categorize of the weakest and who do you consider the strongest? Why?

2. In what ways are the specifics of rowing—the technique, the boats, the teamwork required—

metaphors for what the boys, particularly Joe, learn about life and friendship over the course

of the novel?

3. Joe and Joyce’s relationship is a major through-line in the novel. Compare and contrast Joe

and Joyce’s childhoods. How did their very different childhoods shape their personalities,

and how did their past experiences shape their long, happy relationship?



Poetry

Swimming Upstream - Middle School Poems - Kristine O'Connell George

Award-winning poet Kristine O’Connell George, author of several successful picture books, now turns her attention to the middle school experience. The first year brings an array of challenges: making new friends, moving from class to class, tests and homework, changing for PE, gossip, school dances, and, of course, budding romance. Short, accessible poems in a variety of forms, but all in a single voice—that of a new middle schooler—evoke the memorable moments of the school year, exploring situations and emotions that will resonate with preteens.

Writing Prompts -

1. Pick a poem and respond to it. How does it make you feel, what did it make you think of?

Can you relate to this poem? Explain.

2. This collection of poems is designed for middle schoolers. Did you find it relatable? Why or

why not?

3. Did you like reading poems about the age that you are currently? Why or why not?



Hate That Cat - Sharon Creech

Jack

Room 204—Miss Stretchberry

February 25

Today the fat black cat

up in the tree by the bus stop

dropped a nut on my head

thunk

and when I yelled at it

that fat black cat said

Murr-mee-urrr

in a

nasty

spiteful

way.

I hate that cat.

This is the story of

Jack

words

sounds

silence

teacher

and cat.

Writing Prompts -

1. This is a sequel to Love that Dog. Do you think that Love that Dog was a book that needed or deserved a sequel? Is it a book that you wanted to have a sequel? Why or why not?

2. What differences did you notice between the two books? What similarities did you notice? 3. How has Jack changed since the beginning of Love that Dog? Explain.4. Did you expect to like this book? Explain.5. Did you like this book? Explain.

Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

Where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. There you'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist.

Writing Prompts -

1. Many of the poems in this book are fantasy. Do you enjoy this type of

poetry? Why or why not?

2. What do you notice about they types of poems that Shel writes? Compare

and contrast to other poems you have read.

3. Respond to one poem in particular that you liked or disliked. Explain why

you chose the poem.



Castles: Old Stone Poems - Rebecca Dotlich

The world has seen its share of kings and queens who rose to, then fell from, power, but throughout these generations, their castles have survived. Poets Dotlich and Lewis journey to castles familiar - Bunratty, Hearst, and the Tower of London - and far-flung - Himeji, Bran, and Olavinlinna, exploring the legends and myths of yore. Facts about each structure, provided in the back of the book, will satisfy curious castle fans.

Writing Prompts -

1. Compare the poems in this book to other poems you have read. What similarities do you

notice, what differences? Explain.

2. Describe the difficulties the author may have faced writing poems based on history instead of

fantasy. Do you think this would be challenging for you? Why or why not?

3. Respond to one poem in particular. What about this poem stuck out to you? Expand.



Graphic Novels

Smile - Raina Telgemeier

Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly.

Writing Prompts -

1. Smile is a graphic novel, have you read these types of books before? Was reading a graphic

novel different than reading a text novel, how so? Would this book have been better or worse

without the pictures?

2. Is Raina’s experience of middle school realistic? Are there things that happen to Raina that

have happened to you or someone you know?



Drama - Raina Telgemeier

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon over Mississippi, she can't really sing. Instead she's the set designer for the drama department's stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and

the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen. And when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier!

Writing Prompts -

1. Callie faces different types of disappointment in this story. Can you relate to any of the

disappointment that she felt? Explain with examples.

2. What challenges did Callie face as the set designer? Why were things so difficult for her?

Explain with examples.



Wonderstruck - Brian Selznick

Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother's room and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing.

Set fifty years apart, these two independent stories--Ben's told in words, Rose's in pictures--weave back and forth with mesmerizing symmetry. How they unfold and ultimately intertwine will surprise you, challenge you, and leave you breathless with wonder.

Writing Prompts -

1. These two stories are set fifty years apart from each other. Did you like this style of writing,

or did you find it hard to follow? Explain.

2. Did the two stories ever connect? How did they relate to one another? What similarities and

differences did you see?

3. Did you expect to like this book? Explain


American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang

Jin Wang starts at a new school where he's the only Chinese-American student. When a boy from Taiwan joins his class, Jin doesn't want to be associated with an FOB like him. Jin just wants to be an all-American boy, because he's in love with an all-American girl. Danny is an all-American boy: great at basketball, popular with the girls. But his obnoxious Chinese cousin Chin-Kee's annual visit is such a disaster that it ruins Danny's reputation at school, leaving him with no choice but to transfer somewhere he can start all over again. The Monkey King has lived for thousands of years and mastered the arts of kung fu and the heavenly disciplines. He's ready to join the ranks of the immortal gods in heaven. But there's no place in heaven for a monkey. Each of these characters cannot help himself alone, but how can they possibly help each other? They're going to have to find a way―if they want

fix the disasters their lives have become.

Writing Prompts -

1. Have you ever been the new kid in school? What challenges did you face? If you haven’t

ever been new, how do you think you would feel if you were going to a new school.

2. What challenges did Jim Wang face in his new school? Can you relate to any of the

challenges that he faced?



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emenglandeng400.weebly.com · Web viewThing #2 Emily England ENG 400 I believe students, and people for that matter, don’t always know what they like, until they know they like