Week 6: Children's Book "Ruth and the Green Book" over Historical Fiction theme of the week

Title: Ruth and the Green Book

Author:Alexander Ramsey Calvin

 Summary

Ruth and the Green Book is a great historical fiction genre book for children. The book is through the perspective of a young African American girl named Ruth. The story does not give Ruthś exact age, but if I would have to guess, I would assume that she is about 7 years old. Ruth and her family are traveling from their home in Chicago to visit her grandmother in Alabama. Ruth starts out very excited for her families trip, but along the way they have some not so great encounters. This book is set during the 1950s and Jim Crow era. There are many places along their traveling route that do not allow or service African Americans. During the course of their trip, Ruth and her family stop and stay with a family friend of her fatherś because they had been unable to find somewhere to stay. While their she first learns of Jim Crow and what to be prepared for on the rest of their journey. Finally while stopped at a gas station, the family is given a green book that lists all the places that would accept African Americans. This book promotes empathy to the actual historical events and prejudice that occured back in this era.

Classroom Activities

    This childrenś book bring up many opportunities for in depth whole group discussions about historical events. This is a picture book that can be read to  younger elementary students, but I believe would even be well accepted up into lower jr high levels as an indivual read. Because this book was based in the 1950ś, before reading this book with my students I would give an introductory lesson into what to expect from this time particular time period. For younger students, I may keep the conversation light and show references of pictures about that time period and explain that during this time not all people were treated equally. For older students I would of course go more in depth about real historical events for this time period and prepare them with knowledge about Jim Crow. I found a great website that offered free lesson and teaching resources for this historical fiction childrenś book. The website is called KnowItAll.org, and I have linked it below in my reference section. The activities provided are for upper elementary third through fifth grade. The website gives a very in depth multiday lesson where students are able to map the safest routes for the family to travel during this time period. I think this book would be a great addition to any classroom library.

References

Ruth and the Green Book | Knowitall.org. (n.d.). Www.knowitall.org. Retrieved June 28, 2024, from https://www.knowitall.org/lessons/ruth-and-green-book

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Week 5: Young Adult Book "All American Boys" for Native and/or African American themed books

 Title: All American Boys

Authors: Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

Summary

        I found that finding a young adult book under this week's theme to be a little difficult. I myself, teach mostly younger elementary students. I tend to struggle to on what to choose for young adults. I searched the web thoroughly for different books on the subject area of the theme  and kept coming back to this one. This particular book came highly recommended. The book "All American Boys" is an award winning novel co written by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. The novel is written through the perspectives of two different high school boys around the ages of sixteen and seventeen years old. The names of the boys are Rashad and Quinn. Rashad is African American and Quinn is white. The book alternates character perspectives each chapter throughout the entire course of the novel. Although, both of these boys are the main characters throughout the book. They are not friends, nor do they even really know who the other is. They both go to the same high school and have common friends and peers though. This book falls under the African American theme for two reasons. Firstly because Rashad is African American and he is one of the main characters. Secondly, the main event that this book is primarily centered over directly involves Rashad, and other African Americans. This book is one that contains  possible real world scenarios, and promotes social awareness to students. I do not have a lot of experience with teaching young adult books, but if I did teach this to students, I would do it with caution. I say this because of the events that occur during the course of the book might be upsetting to some. Also, this book does contain some foul language, and talk over partying. Now to get into some details about the book, I will tell you a little more about the backgroubd of the characters. Rashad lives with his mother and father, his father is very strict and firm handed with high expectations for Rashad. Rashad is an active participant in ROTC. A main side character in this story is Rashadś brother Spoony and his girlfriend Berry. One of Rashadś close friends in the book is his friend Carlos.  As I said earlier, Quinn is a white adolescent boy. Quinn lives with his mother and younger brother. Quinnś father died while serving in the military in Afganastan. Quinn has a lot of pressure to live up to his fatherś legacy. Quinn has a crush on a girl named Jill that is frequently mentioned throughout the book. Quinn is highly involved in basketball, and is really good friends with Guzzo. Guzzo is another side main character along with his older brother Paul who played an absentee father or rolemodel of sorts to Quinn in his childhood. Paul is a white police officer. The book starts off with both boys getting ready to go party with their friends. They are actually both going to the same party. All seems well at first, both normal adolescent boys talking with their friends and dealing with their own sets of family dramas. The book does not take long to get into the nitty gritty of the story. In Chapter 3, Rashad goes into a store called Jerry to get some snacks before going to the party to meet his friends. Rashad grabs a bag of chips, and then decides to text his brother Spoony. Rashadś phone is in his backpack so he sets his chips beside him and bends down to the ground to open up his backpack and get out his phone. While on the ground a woman trips over him accidentally. This is when things go sour. An officer, which is Paul the man I mentioned above is in the store. He sees the woman on the floor and accuses Rashad of harming her. Then the store owner accuses Rashad of trying to steal the chips. It is all just a big misunderstanding, and he tries to explain so. However, the officer Paul does not care to hear his side and takes matters into his own hands. This portion of the story is hard to hear, Rashad is forced outside and beat by officer Paul in the parking lot. Quinn actually happened to be outside with his friends when Rashad is forced out and pumbled to the ground by Paul. Quinn sees officer Paul wailing on Rashad and cant believe his eyes. Quinn has never seen Paul act this way, and his actions distrub him. Quinn and his friends felt uncomfortable by what was happening and run off and attend the party. Rashad wakes up in the hospital severely wounded by the event that happen. His parents are there and his brother Spoony comes as well. Spoony finds a live feed that someone had recorded over the incident and sends it to the local news. From then on the rest of the story is centered over that event. Rashad is stuck in the hospital for quite some time. He initially does not like that his brother gave it to the news, he doesnt like the attention. However, later he understands. Quinn feels pressured by his best friend Guzzo and his older brother Paul to keep his mouth shut about the situation. Quinn really struggles internally about what he saw and about doing what is right. A protest/march is arranged by the student population and community in results of what happened and to honor other African American that are effected by police brutality. Rashadś friend Carlos graffitis the school over what happened. Rashad is released from the hospital just before the march. Quinn ultimately decides to report to the police what he saw of the incident and takes a stand by attending the march. This book will tug at your heart strings. It is a good serious read, that I do think is beneficial to all students. 

Classroom Activities

One thing this book for sure does is create ample opportunities for reflective discussion. As I said above, I do not have much experience teaching young adults. However, if I were to teach over this book I would first begin with a whole group discussion forwarning some of the content in the book. The way that this book is set up alternating characters between chapters, I think it would be ideal to stop and reflect after every two or so chapters so that you are getting the view point of each character as the course of the book goes on. I wouldnt do it as frequently during the middle portion of the book as I would the beginning or the end. I found a really great website containing activities to go along with this book. I have listed this link below under my references. One of my favorite activities that it mentioned is a graffiti walls activity. For this activity, it has students use sticky notes to put up words on a anchor chart of how they are feeling or thinking in regards to a prompt they are given over the story. I think students would enjoy this activity, and it goes hand in hand with the graffiti section that occurs in the story. Another thing that I would do accompany this novel that is not mentioned on the website, would be a post writing activity. I would have students reflect on what they would do in that situation through a character of their choices view point. 

References

Re, J., Nolds & B, Y., Iely, R., & Kiely, B. (n.d.). A LL A M E R I C A N B OYS | All American Boys. https://diversebooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WNDB_ReadingGuide_AllAmericanBoys_2017.pdf

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Week 5: Children's Book "Whistle for Willie" for Native and/or African American themed books

 Title: Whistle for Willie

Author: Ezra Jack Keats

Summary

I chose this week's children's book from one of multitudes of great books mentioned in our weekly PowerPoint lectures. This book titled "Whistle for Wille" is about a young African American boy named Peter. During the course of this book, other characters that are mentioned are Willie which is Peter's dog, and Peter's mother and father. The main theme of this book is Peter learning to whistle for his dog Willie. Peter tries and tries to whistle throughout the course of this book, but struggles to make any sound come out when he blows air through his lips. However, Peter remains persistent and finally learns to whistle by the end of the story surprising both himself and his dog Willie. I implemented this book into my summer school classroom as a transitional read aloud activity. I found a great free read aloud version of the story on YouTube to share with my students. I have shared the link to the read aloud of story that I used below on my reference section. I have a small group of first graders this summer, and the book did a great job of maintaining their interest level and keeping them entertained. My students loved the pictures of Peter dressing up as his father, and hiding from his dog Willie. I would definitely recommend this book as a classroom staple for early childhood classrooms. 

Classroom Activities

The book titled Whistle for Willie, is a cute engaging book for young children that also does a great job showing representation for African American students. Recently when I showed the students of my summer school classroom this read aloud, it brought forth the whole group discussion over the topic of whistling. My students are right at that age where some of them knew how to whistle and some of them were right in that stage of learning. My classroom quite humorously ended up turning into quite the loud air blowing room that day. If I were to further teach upon this story, I would incorporate an assisted writing assignment, where students could write a story of sorts of where they would hide to try and whistle to their own dog or pet. I would then allow time for students to illustrate their writing. I found a website that offered additional resources and activities to use in accompaniment with the story. I have attached the website under my reference section below. This children's book is a great book by an award winning author the provides opportunity to read more of his stories and implement cute and educational activities. 

References

📗 Kids Book Read Aloud: WHISTLE FOR WILLIE by Ezra Jack Keats. ✔️SFX. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved March 25, 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUtm7g4dMM 

Mularien, R. (2022, February 11). Whistle for Willie Activities and Lesson Plans for 2024. Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin. https://jodidurgin.com/whistle-for-willie-activities-lesson-plans/ 

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Week 4: Graphic Novel themed Young Adult Book Titled "Smile"

 Title: Smile

Author: Raina Telgemeier

Summary

    I will admit, going into this weeks theme, I was unsure about what book I would choose. I have not had much experience with graphic novels. When I came across the graphic novel "Smile" by Raina Telgemeir, I was still a little hesitant. However, this comical story had me entertained right from the start. The graphic novel "Smile" is actually a memoir based on the author's very own childhood. This novel is through Raina's point of view and starts off with her being in sixth grade. By the end of the graphic novel though, Raina is a Sophomore in high school. Raina goes through some very traumatic dental issues throughout the story. Throughout the course of the story, Raina knocks out her front teeth, has her teeth shoved up into her gums, has teeth retracted, gets braces twice, and even has to have a retainer with fake front teeth. The poor girl goes through the ringer when it comes to dental work. Raina is a trooper though with all of her dental issues. However, like most teenage girls she does struggle by feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable with her smile while all of this is going on. Throughout the story, while Raina is dealing with her dental issues, she is also dealing with normal teenage girl things like friendship with catty girls and having her first crush. The book is very relateable to many adolescents, especially for girls. The book has very engaging and comical graphics to keep you engaged throughout the whole story. I fell in love with this graphic novel, and would definitely recommend it as a book to be available to Jr high early highschool ages.  

Classroom Activities

    This cute and relateable graphic novel allows for numerous activities that a teacher can utilize in his or her classroom. Scholastic has some great free resources available for teachers to implement in their classroom. I have listed the link below. Some of the activities provided includes a pre-made graphic organizer for students to fill out while they read the novel. Another activity listed on this free resources is a post activity. This post activity is my absolute favorite! If I were to teach this graphic novel to students I would most definitely incorporate it into my lesson. The activity is to have students create their own comic over a time with they have felt embarrassed and/or in an uncomfortable situation. I think this would be such a fun and interactive activity for older students to do because it allows for them to share experiences, and be empathetic of other. This activity also gives a chance for students to be creative and use their artistic abilities which they may not get to do that much during their regular school day. All students at one point or another have been in a situation where they have felt frustrated or not at ease among their peers, and it's important for them to know that they are not alone. This graphic novel also gives many opportunities for whole group and small group discussions among the class. Depending on how long the teacher wanted to spend on teaching this graphic novel, I think there could be some great educational and emotional lessons involved. 

References

Lesson Plan for Smile by Raina Telgemeier Pre-Reading Activities. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://www.scholastic.com/graphix_teacher/pdf/Scholastic_GrphxWebCast_RTelgemeier.pdf

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Week 4: Graphic Novel Children's Book titled "Grumpy Monkey Freshly Squeezed"

 Title: Grumpy Monkey Freshly Squeezed

A Graphic Novel Chapter Book

Author: Suzanne Lang

Illustrator: Max Lang

Summary

    If you are looking for a comical children's graphic novel, this is the book for you! The graphic novel "Grumpy Monkey Freshly Squeezed" is part of the Grumpy Monkey story collection. As an early childhood teacher, I have read to many of my classes some of the Grumpy Monkey stories. Along with my students, I have come to love the cranky little monkey. So, I was very excited when I learned that they had a graphic novel of one of the stories. Because of it's popularity, this book can most likely be found at your local library. However, I was also able to find it as a free read aloud on YouTube. I actually played it recently for my summer school class, and I will tell you it was a hit. My students loved seeing the dialogue between the characters, and hearing the different interpretations of the character's voices. I've provided the link down below of the read aloud that I used for my class. This story starts out with the main character Jim Panzee going for a walk. He is using an orange as a stress ball. Jim is enjoying his alone time, until his buddy Norman see him and decides to join him. Before you know it, Jim's peaceful walk is completly disrupted by other animals wanting to join him. This stressed Jim out, but all was still good because he had his stress orange to squeeze. However, one of his animal friends wants a turn to squeeze it, and then oops! The orange gets squeezed a little too tightly and looses all of it's juice. Instead of being a leisurely walk the walk then turns into a must need adventure to go get another orange to squeeze from the orange Grove. Through many funny ups and downs the Grumpy Monkey finally gets another orange to squeeze. This graphic novel is a quick read, but is really good about keeping students interest and laughing the whole time!

Classroom Activities

    This graphic novel provides many opportunities for fun activities to do in class with young students. Recently when I showed my summer school class this graphic novel, I used it as an opportunity to discuss with my students things we can do when we are stressed. Jim the Panzee used an orange to squeeze to help calm him down. We took a few minutes talking about some of the things that we can do to help us feel less stressed. I then assisted the students in making a journal entry over what they can do when they feel stressed. Once the students made their journal entry, they then illustrated a picture of themselves doing it. Another activity that can be done with this book can be a sequencing of events. There's a cute little activity on teachers pay teachers that students can cut and paste events from the story into the correct order.  

References

GRUMPY MONKEY FRESHLY SQUEEZED -- Sequencing and Comprehension! (n.d.). TPT. Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/GRUMPY-MONKEY-FRESHLY-SQUEEZED-Sequencing-and-Comprehension-7152449

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Mrs.Kapoor's Story Time. (2022, December 17). Grumpy Monkey Freshly Squeezed | Preschool read-aloud | Grumpy Monkey series | 4 - 7 years old. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A8EmBEtDNo

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Week 3: Review of Young Adult Book Themed Books Boys Like Titled "Hatchet"

 Title: Hatchet

Author: Gary Paulsen

Summary

    While searching for books for this weeks theme that boys would like, I struggled to figure out what to book to choose from. Finding a children's book to me was easier, but young adult boys are harder to please sometimes. In the end, I kept coming back to this classic story. I remember reading this book in my youth, probably around junior high or so. We read it as a class, and this was the first book many of us were relatively interested in. I felt this book fit with the theme of books boys would like because it is through the perspective of a thirteen year old boy,  and had many thrilling type concepts and adventures during the course of the book. 

    As I said before, the book "Hatchet" is through the perspective of a thirteen year old boy. This boy is the main character throughout the story, and for majority of the time he is the only active character. The boy's name is Brian. The story begins with Brian loading up onto a Cessna bush plane to go visit his father for the summer. I'm not super familar with air crafts, but this particulat plane was smaller and only held Brian and the pilot. Brian is traveling to see his father in Canada because he works in oil fields over there. Brian's parents are recently divorced, and this is something he is struggling to come to terms with. Brian holds resentment for the divorce, and also unbeknownst to his mother, he knows the reasoning behind the divorce. Brian saw his mother out with another man. Before leaving to go to visit his father, Brian's mother gifts Brian a hatchet which becomes a necessity during the book. While riding on the plane to visit his father, the pilot suffers a heart attack and Brian has to steer the plane. The pilot does not recover from his heart attack and very sadly passes away, Brian does his best with the aircraft but ultimately lands/crashes into a body of water. The plane sinks, but Brian is able to get off relatively safely. The next portion of the book is about Brian's survival in the wilderness while he waits for someone to come rescue his. Brian only has his hatchet that his mother gifted him to assist him. However, Brian is very resourceful and makes other weapons to help him. While stranded in the wilderness, Brian faces many scary things. He has a run in with a porcupine, and at one point is even attacked by a moose. However, Brian also has many victories of sort while out on his own. Brian makes a fire by himself to cook and keep warm, finds eggs, and learns to catch fish with his own devices. Brian winds up being stranded alone in the wilderness for a whole 54 days before he is finally rescued. The story is very edge of your seat gripping at times, and I think young boys and youth in general will become entranced with the story. 

Classroom Activities

    There are many activities that I think can be done with this particular book. The book itself provides many opportunities for reflective discussions that can be done as whole group activities. One whole group discussion that can be done to accompany this book would be to have students share how they would feel if they were in Brian's situation, and what they would do if they were faced with such a crisis. If I were to teach this book to a class, I would also try to incorporate some activities based off of nature and the setting that Brian had to endure while he was stranded after his plane crash. I found a great website that offered up many STEM activities that could be incorporated during or after reading this book. The website is called differentiatedteaching.com and provides five different STEM activities in alignment with this specific book. All the activities provided by the website promote student involvement and critical thinking skills.  My favorite activity that it mentions is having the students create a shelter using natural resources such as sticks and leaves. I think students would find this activity to be engaging and fun. This book has also been made into a motion picture. I have not watched the movie myself, but I have seen good reviews on the movie. Having the students watch the movie for be a good conclusive activity to reading the book. 

References

5 Epic STEM Activities for Hatchet Designed to Increase Engagement. (2023, July 11). https://www.differentiatedteaching.com/stem-challenges-for-hatchet/

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Week 3: Review of Children's Book titled "The Boy Who Never Gave Up" for the theme of Books Boys Like

 Title: The Boy Who Never Gave Up; Stephen Curry

Author: Anthony Curcio

Summary

        I just want to start off by saying how much I enjoyed this weeks theme! I am a mom of three young boys, and I loved researching and discovering books that they would be interested in! My boys are really into sports, so I had them assist me in finding the perfect book for this weeks theme. We made it our mission to find a fun children's book for boys over some sort of sport. When we found "The Boy Who Never Gave Up" written through the perspective of NBA player Stephen Curry, we were sold! The book starts off through the view of a young Stephen Curry, who has the dream to one day be a professional basketball player like his father. Throughout the book Stephen practices hard every day to obtain his goal of being a basketball player, but he faces many challenges along the way. Stephen is told numerous times throughout the years that he will never be a professional basketball player because he is not big enough. However, Stephen is persistent and "never gives up". As we know Stephen Curry does achieve his goal of becoming a professional basketball player. With hard practice and determination, Stephen fulfilled his dream. This book promotes children to always try their best and never give up on yourself and your dreams. 

Classroom Activities

    This book is very engaging for students and provides ample pictures of Stephen Curry as a NBA basketball player along with some of his personal statistics as a basketball player. I found a great read aloud of this book on YouTube that I think students would enjoy. I have it linked below. This book provides the opportunity to meaninful whole group discussion in the classroom. If I were to share this book with a classroom of students, I would have the students reflect upon what their own personal dreams are and share it aloud with the class. I would then have the students share how they can achieve those goals and dreams. Another great activity that can be done to accompany this book and the discussion would be to have the students illustrate themselves having achieved their dreams and goals. This activity could simply be drawing with paper and crayons, or you could get extra creative and let the students create collages with magazines and other materials. The possibilities are endless. I think this would be a great book to read any time of the year, but even more so at the beginning of the year because it could help students get to know each other better and stress the importance of never giving up even when things get hard. 

References

YouTube. (2022, June 14). Kids book read aloud story 📚Stephen Curry 🏀 the boy who never gave up by Anthony Curcio. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQChDyRhT_8