Children's Literature

Aid Memoirs for Children's Literature

Aug 27th: What Makes a Good Children's Book?                What do You Want Them to Take Away? Is it Relatable?                Why Should we Read?                Engaged Reading vs. Forced Reading               Should We be Careful What We Allow Young Students to be Exposed to in Literature? (Young Adult Novels and their content)               What goes in must come out:               -Meghan Cox Gurdon's Article               -Mike Duran's "Dunes" Article (http://mikeduran.com/2013/08/when-did-dune-become-a-ya-novel/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Decompose+%28Decompose%29)

Sept 3rd: We looked at the very first children’s books (Millions of Cats) and then looked at a few of our own.                    We read books (I read Spider-Man) and did a short evaluation for the content of the story.                After we did a short activity to make a multi-genre project

Green Eggs and Ham By Dr. SeussTime for Bed, Spot by Eric Hill

"There's a Hair in my Dirt" Lars Larson (For reference for High Schoolers)

Once A Mouse: Marcia Brown

Art Class Idea: Have students take a poem from different art periods and have them animate them using the popular art style of the day. 

Multi-Media Sept 10:Using Children's Books in a Unique Way to Help Make a Point or Provide UnderstandingThe Giving Tree as a Horror Movie Trailer What Can You Give....                            When You've Already Given it All? Scenes of how the man takes from the Giving Tree. Ends on him with the axe about to cut down the Giving Tree. The Giving Tree as a Romantic ComedyBoy Meets TreeTree loves Boy, but Boy is only in it for the perks.... Or is he? What happens when Boy finds himself really falling the sweet tree? Giving Tree as a Greek TragedyGiving Tree as a Disney MovieGiving Tree as a Science Fiction or Action Movie

https://my.arizonachristian.edu/ICS/Academics/ENG/ENG__430/2013_FA-ENG__430-1/

Sept 10: Discussion about Poetry, what do you feel? What emotion does it invoke?              Primary School Students learn more by structured rules (grammar), Junior High Students learn by logical arguments, and High School Students              learn by rhetorical reasoning. Don't let them wait until college to encounter rhetorical thinking!              Children's books "presentations" and Book Gallery              Multi-Media Project with Movie Trailer and Children's books When looking at Poetry, you must think of the emotions that are provided by the words.

Ender's Game (for male readers)

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

Edgar Allen Poe: Tales of Mystery and MadnessIllustrated by Grimspy 

Things hadn't been the same since Jess's death. They had found his body two days prior in the creek, it had been trying to get to Terabithia while Leslie had been away on a day trip with her parents to the city. Everyone looked at Leslie differently. For the first time people didn't see the strong young girl who dared to be noticed, but instead they saw a delicate, porcelain doll that needed to be protected and nurtured. Her parents laid with her until she fell asleep, her mom made special breakfasts and dinners for her, and going to school became an optional task. People in the town stopped by to say they were sorry for her loss. But what did they really know? Had they pushed Jess into that creek? Leslie suspected not and wondered why they continued to apologize.  

Sept 24th: Aide MemoirWe discussed the genres of Fantasy and Realistic Fiction. What a student reads will have a direct impact on their person. (What goes in goes out) The Bridge to Terabithia is a realistic fiction story. Why should it be used in schools today? It deals with important issues that many students are going through and shows how to handle grief positively.Fantasy and Realistic Fiction are the number one choices for students to read in their free time and they directly impact what students think. The Crank novels are realistic fictions, they have also have been seen to have a negative effect on some students because of the inappropriate content. When picking Fantasy and Realistic Fiction, be sure to pick stories that have positive themes and characters so as to encourage instead of bringing students down.  Alternate story ending 

Oct 1: Multi Genre ProjectHistorical FictionHave students take an event in history and illustrate it in only three frames. They must create a character to be featured in every frame and showcase the event using the art style of the period (example: cave man making fire, have the story told in cave drawings, or the lunar landing on the Moon, have story told using abstract art) Historical Fiction is a genre that, for children, needs to hold their interest and create connections to the characters. When choosing historical Fiction for a classroom, one needs to choose historical characters that will speak to the children so they find relevance to historical events. 

October 8th: Biographies(Multicultural Projects-- Pick a form in which to deliver the project, such as possibly an art box easel thing that has a painting, a book for inspiration, artist notes, etc.... There must be at least 5 different forms of media. Biographies, surprisingly, should be catered to the grade level. Shocking!A good idea for an art class would be making students read about a historic figure and having them create propaganda for the person. Such as Cleopatra and making an Obama "HOPE" poster but instead of "HOPE" it could say something like "SCANDAL" 

October 29th: Informational TextsMulti-Genre Project, how will I use information texts in the classroom and why? Books on artists lives will be used because every artistic concept started somewhere and appealed to them somehow. Maybe have students look up an art style that appeals to them the most and have them create a self-portrait using that art style they found in the book. Or have them make their own informational page that lists their artistic inspirations and make it into a class book. Would be great for advanced art students. New resource material available on the webpage. 

How Would You React to a Parent who has Beef with a Literary Choice: All books have been selected because of the holistic value. Let's work together to see if we can come up with a compromise. Even if I do not completely agree with some of the moral choices in some of the required reading, there are reasons they were picked. Books do not tell the students how to think on particular issue, students have many other influences and are at the age to make their own choices.  

Aide Memior