Use the planning sheet you created Friday to write your first blog post about your book. Title it “Journal 1 for _______ (title of book) by ____________________ (author’s name). You can see my example here. Tell me your reaction to what you have read so far and support your thinking with specific details from the story. If you’re stuck, use the sentence openers from your notes, “Lit Journals on the Blog.” HOMEWORK: Read 30 minutes. Choose five words for Weekly Word Study.
Tuesday
Read and work on requirments for Literature Journals on the blog. Today we will discuss collecting interesting vocabulary words and how to set up your post. The vocabulary post should be titled “Vocabulary for ____________ (Title of book) by ___________ (author). For each vocabulary word, list the word, the sentence from the book that uses the word (Remember author’s last name and page number in parenthes), and a defintion in your own words. As you add words, click “Save Draft” until you have all 10 words finished. Then click “PUBLISH.” HOMEWORK: Read 30 minutes.
Wednesday
Read and work on Literature Journals. Continue to add vocabulary. Writing a personal identification for vocabulary. Pick a word that is either like you or unlike you. Write a topic sentence that says if the word is like or unlike you. Give three examples–be specific–from your life that show how you are like or unlike this word. It must be at least 100 words. (Use the word count tool). Click here for an example. Homework: Read 30 minutes. Word Study due tomorrow.
Thursday
Read and complete second journal assignment. Continue to add vocabulary. How to write a context clue. Use the word in a brief paragraph (at least 50 words) that makes the meaning clear. Click here for an example. HOMEWORK: Word Study due today. Read 30 minutes. Get your reading log signed.
Friday
Read and complete second journal assigment. Continue to add vocabulary. HOMEWORK: Reading Log due TODAY. Read over the weekend.
I wouldn’t normally pick up a book about football since I’m not a big sports–especially football–fan. I’m reading it because it is on the Young Hoosier list for middle school this year. I’m glad I challenge myself to read all 20 books each year because I meet books and authors that I like that I would normally pass over. Football Hero by Tim Green is a great example. I’m not very far into the story, but already I’m hooked.
Like many books that have come before (the Harry Potter series, Finding Stinko, James and the Giant Peach), Ty is thrust into an over-the-top situation after losing his parents in a car crash. He now lives with his aunt and uncle. To say the least, they are not model parents, and Ty is treated even worse than their own daughter Charlotte. Come on, do you know any parents that won’t allow their nephew to use the indoor bathroom? That’s right, Uncle Gus and Aunt Virginia make Ty use the bathroom in an old, broken porta-potty set up in the woods. Ty sleeps in an unfinished porch with the plumbing and electrical wires still exposed. When he comes home late on his twelfth birthday, he is in serious trouble because Uncle Gus had a big surprise for his birthday. The surprise–a work permit to join the family business, Slatz’s Cleaning Services. Ty now gets to spend every afternoon and evening after school cleaning toilets in sleazy bars. Yeah, it’s extreme, but I understand why Tim Green chose to create such awful parental figures. It makes Ty more sympathetic and gives him even more obstacles to overcome. It also sets up an even bigger contrast with his older brother’s, Thane “Tiger” Lewis’s, situation. Tiger is a star football player for Syracruse, and expected to be a top-round draft pick for the NFL. No, it’s not believable, but I’m more than willing to go along for the ride.
One reason I’m willing to suspend my disbelief is that I like Ty. He is scrappy and never gives up. He’s picked on at school for being new, for reading all the time, for being scrawny, but when Coach V recruits him for the spring football camp, he jumps right in. He has no equipment. His only shoes are cheapo canvas sneakers with a slick sole. When his shoelace breaks and he trips on his first run to catch a pass, he just yanks his shoes off and runs barefoot. The quarterback can’t keep up with his speed. When his uncle says no to football (because Ty has to scrub those toilets), he pesters his uncle to take him to the Saturday scrimmage anyway. There he pesters Coach V into letting him play even though he couldn’t come to practice. Remember those slick shoes? They don’t work well in a football game in the rain. He gets clobbered by the bullying defense and jumps right back up and begs to go in again. Again he strips off his shoes and socks. This time he evades the defense and reaches with everything he has to make the winning touchdown catch! I think Ty can overcome any obstacle Uncle Gus throws at him. I can’t wait to read more and see how he does it.
What names have you been called? I have been thinking about the names I’ve been called throughout my life and how they have affected me. Some bothered me briefly, others have stuck with me a long time.
The first time I remember being teased with name-calling was when I first got my glasses in the third grade. I was thrilled to be able to see, but worried my classmates would call me “four-eyes.” They did, especially the boy who chased me across the playground every recess and who later gave me my first Valentine’s gift. I went through a time when I was embarrassed to be seen in my glasses and would walk around blind if I couldn’t wear my contacts. Obviously, I’m over that now.
I was a good student who liked school. That earned me names like “nerd,” “geek,” “goody-two-shoes,” and “square.” Those names didn’t bother me too much then or now. I didn’t even take the teasing to through me out a second story window too seriously when I scored well on a test everyone else bombed.
On the other hand, I was not confident through middle school. I spent most of my time lost in whatever book I was currently reading. I walked down the halls with my eyes staring straight at my feet because I was afraid to even say hello to the other students. Even though it was sometimes awkward, those feelings didn’t define all of me. I had safe places to be myself–my Girl Scout troop and church youth group. During the same years I hid at school, I was teaching adults to tie knots, lay a campfire, and pitch a tent.
I first felt the potentially devastating impact of name-calling at Governor’s School (a six-week camp/school for extra-smart high school students in NC). My new best friend and I had been hanging out with a couple of guys we met. We enjoyed laughing and joking together until one day they gave us the complete cold shoulder. To say the least, my friend and I were confused. We confronted the guys to ask why the sudden change. They turned all shades of red before they admitted that another girl had told them to stay away from us because we were total sluts. How would you react?
I think my reaction surprised them–and maybe me, too. I burst out laughing. Remember from the point above that I was considered a complete goody-two-shoes. (I was the one fellow band members asked to sneak alcohol in my suitcase because my bags would never be searched. No, I never took them up on it. I liked my reputation.) I found the whole idea of the slut rumor riduculous because it was so far from who I was. My laughter was probably the best response. Because I didn’t take it seriously, neither did the guys. We soon resumed our friendship and the rumor died right there.
Name-calling happens. How do you deal with it? What advice would you share with someone who is suffering from the names people label them with?
Kickstart Challenge #6 looks at embedding media in blog posts–the nerves of a blog. There are several blogs that I think effectively use embedded media. I look to them for examples and inspiration.
Laurie Halse Anderson sometimes shares book trailer videos created by the readers of her books. These trailers show both an understanding of the book and an appreciation for the story’s impact. One of my favorites isthe post with videos for Catalyst.
Sarah Anderson of YA Love posts a book trailer every Thursday for a recurring feature on her blog, Book Trailer Thursday. I would love to get to this point with my own blog. I know trailers can get students excited about reading books. My difficulty has been finding trailers that I actually have a copy of the book to put into students’ hands.
Maggie Steifvator not only writes beautiful books, she also creates breathtaking book trailers for her own books. Check out this one for Linger. Not only did she create the art and music, she shared how she did it in posts through the following days: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
The bloggers at the League of Extraordinary Writers (for all things dystopian) often connect the science fiction genre across mediums (books, movies, television). Of course, they include clips from the relevant films/television shows as in this one bemoaning the fate of Caprica.
I do have some goals for increasing my use of media on my blog. Here are three to get me started.
Find and share book trailers with my students on a regular basis. If I can’t manage weekly trailers, why not monthly or bi-monthly trailers? I could do that.
Share student work with videos. Today I collected some good examples of my students’ last book projects. Now I just need to scan them in and use Windows Movie Maker or Animoto to present them.
Write up a parent permission to upload videos of students to youtube, so I can embed them on my blog. I created video poems with each class last fall using George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From” as a model. We’ve watched them in class, but my students and their parents would enjoy more access.
Now just for fun I have a video I’ve been wanting to share. Now seems like a great time:
I’m reading Bullyville by Francine Prose aloud to my homeroom right now. During the worst year of his life, Bart must deal with his grief for his father, killed in the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers on 9-11. He also has to deal with being bullied at his new school, Baileywell Prep. At one point in the story, Bart compares the motives of his own personal bully with those of the terrorists who took his dad’s life. They are certainly different in terms of the scale of damage they cause, but do you agree with Bart that they are the same at heart?
Thinking about Bart’s connection reminded me of a poem a wrote a couple of years ago. One day I pulled up behind a truck and read this bumpe sticker on the back: Kill them all, Let Allah sort them out. I I was quite disturbed by the hate expressed and wrote this poem in response:
Hate Brings
Hate brings them together
and drives the world apart.
A terrorist blows himself to bits,
hoping to die in glory
while killing all the infidels.
It doesn’t matter who
the infidel is—
mother, father, sister, brother—
all must die
when hate brings you together
and drives the world apart.
Across the world
a bumper sticker calls for revenge— Kill them all—Let Allah sort them out.
No, don’t kill them all
lest you not see that hate
has made you blind
to the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers
hate has left behind.
No, don’t kill them all
because hate brings you together
and drives the world apart.
If you have written something (or want to write something) that expresses your thoughts about bullying, check out the contest at the No Name Calling Week website. The deadline is not until February 28. Check out the rules for middle school and download the entry form. As always, I will be your editor.
You’ve seen the site for No Name Calling Week. You’ve browsed some books that deal with bullying. Now it’s time to take a stand. What would you do if you walked up on this group of students? What would you say? Would you remain a not-so-innocent bystander, or will you become an ally?
In six–and only six–words (remember the six word memoirs?) describe your response to this scene. Enter your response in the form below. Click here to see how others have responded.
And what does my blog see? Sometimes, it sees some great images that I include in my posts. Sometimes, not so much. As part of the Edublogs Teacher Challenge, Kick Start Activity 5 challenged me to look at how I use images in blog posts. I have always talked with my students about the need to respect copyright, but I didn’t have much practical guidance to give them.
That is changing. I just learned how to find, download, upload, at attribute an image from FlickerCC. (L love how a different search category shows up every time I visit.) I even added some links (under Fun Stuff on the right side) for students to find it easily. I also learned how to create and embed a form using Google Docs. You can see it bright and early tomorrow morning when it publishes as the next post in my series for No Name Calling Week. Instead of the image in five words, I asked my students to write a six word response to the image since we worked with six word memoirs last semester. You can click here to find it once it publishes.
I also wanted to learn how to add a photo gallery rather than just a single image. I snapped some pictures of my classroom. Can you tell what we are all about?
I would love to include book covers in my book review posts, but I’m not sure of how copyright applies in that situation? Does anyone know the answer: Can you scan (or download) images of a book cover to include in a book review. I’ve seen a lot of blogs that do.
James Howe’s The Misfits may have started No Name Calling Week, but it is not the only book to deal with bullying and name calling. The right book can reassure you that you are not alone, inspire hope for your future, and give you insight into people who are different from you. Check out what these stories have to say about bullying or name calling.
Blubberby Judy Blume. Jill joins her classmates in teasing Linda, an overweight classmate. Blume gives an honest look at bullying with no easy answers, just like real life.
The Outsiders by SE Hinton. This oldie still rings true today. Johnny and Pony boy must flee after simmering violence between two gangs, the Greaser and the Socs, flares up out of control.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Hannah Baker committed suicide and left a series of tapes for thirteen people to listen to. In the tapes she explains how each person’s actions contributed to her death. The reader listens along with Clay Jensen, one of the thirteen.
Speakby Laurie Halse Anderson. Melinda suffers a year of isolation and name calling after calling the cops at an end of summer party. Will she find her voice to speak out about what really happened?
The Hate List by Jennifer Brown. Valerie and Nick kept a list of all the bullies that tormendted them in a notebook they called the Hate List. Little did Valerie know that Nick would use the list to target people in a shooting spree that left six students and a teacher dead. I haven’t read this one yet, but have heard good things about it.
Bullyvilleby Francine Prose. During the worst year of his life, Bart Rangley must deal with the death of his father in the 9-11 terrorist attacks and his own personal bully at his new school, Baileywell Prep. I’m reading this one to my homeroom right now. Ask them about it.
Confessions from the Principal’s Chair by by Anna Myers. In this very funny book, Robin finds herself principal of her new school–at least until the real principal shows up. Her mother yanked her out of her old school after she and her friends bullied another girl. Now she must confront the bullies of the girl in her office.
The Shadow Clubby Neal Shusterman. Jared and Cheryl are tired of suffering the taunts of being second best. The form a club to pull pranks on those who best them, but the pranks soon spiral out of control.
The Executioner’s Daughter by Laura E. Williams. Way back in 1050 England, Lily suffered the taunts of the village children because of her father’s job–executioner. Will Lily find the strength to become her father’s assistant or to make a new life for herself somewhere else?
Other books can give you deeper insight into people who are frequently bullied and teased. What is it like to go through life homeless or autistic? Read these books and get a glimpse of the world through someone else’s eyes.
Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. A wealthy art dealer joins with a homeless drifter and neither life will ever be the same.
Mockingbirdby Katherine Erskine. Caitlin struggles to understand the world after her big brother’s death in a school shooting. She had always depended on Devon to interpret the world for her since Asperger’s gives her a view different from everyone else. This is one I want to read.
Marcello in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork. This is another one I want to read because I’ve heard so many good things. Marcello has always gone to a special school because of his developmental disability (which even the doctors don’t understand). The summer he is seventeen he works in the mail room of his father’s law firm in order the experience the real world.
Does My Head Look Big in Thisby Randa Abdel-Fattah. Amal decides to wear the hijab (head scarf) full time as an expression of her Muslim faith. Her family and friends have very different reactions to her decision as she tries to find her way as an Australian-Palestinian-Muslim.
Which of these books have you read? What titles would you recommend that deal with bullying?
Who’s Your Author? Browse through past research projects completed by former students to learn about some new authors and old favorites. On a sheet of paper, write down three authors you think you might be interested in researching. List three things you learn about each. Please number your top three choices and turn in at the end of class. HOMEWORK: Read 30 minutes. Choose five words for Weekly Word Study (You can use the words from last week.) Turn in your editorial. I will check last week’s reading log today as well.
Tuesday
LIBRARY. Today you will choose a book to read by the author you want to study. Join up with two or three of your classmates if you want to work in a group. If you choose a group, you will get to hear about additional books by the same author. Each of you will complete your own research project–a multi genre writing. HOMEWORK: Read 30 minutes.
Wednesday
We will focus on the literature part of the research project first. You will read at least one book by your author over the next two and half weeks. You will also complete several journal requirements over the book each week. These journal requirements will include reflections over the book, study of vocabulary, and examination of the author’s craft. If computers are available, you will complete the assignments on your blog. Otherwise, we’ll go to paper and pencil. Homework: Read 30 minutes. Word Study due tomorrow.
Thursday
Read and complete first journal assignment. HOMEWORK: Word Study due today. Three-five pages of writing due today! Read 30 minutes. Get your reading log signed.
Friday
Read and complete first journal assigment. HOMEWORK: Reading Log due TODAY. Read over the weekend.
