12/6/2017 Final Benchmark

By Shannon Young

Bob Wortman
TLS 481
Responding as a Reader
 Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was a very interesting book that I never thought I
would enjoy reading. This book brought a lot of different things to my attention and I learned a
lot. The book revolves around the Chinese culture and the different ways they express it. I am
very glad that I got the chance to read this book and learn about all the tales it has to offer.

Reflection
Overall I think that the journals that we did for class helped me a lot with learning

and growing from my experiences during the class. Something that I thought really

helped was being able to look back on what we did over the period of our class time and

write out everything that I learned. Journaling is extremely important and something that

everyone should do at any age. It is very helpful to be able to look back at what you did

two or three weeks ago and see what we were doing then and what I learned because of

that.

Something very important that I learned doing the journals is to take your time and

write out everything instead of just rushing through it to make sure you get things done.

Being very specific and detailed is super important because when you look back you

want to be able to know exactly what you are talking about. I enjoyed learning and grow-

ing as a writer and learning each time about the mistakes that I made in class and in my

writing. I learned a lot from writing and re reading back everything that happened this se-

mester.
 Knowledge of Children’s Literature
Reading Record Chart/Log

Fill in this form with numbers and turn in each time your Library Thing check-in is due.
 Total # of books # of books published before 2000 # of books published after 2000

80 26 54

Formats:

Picture books 49 Chapter books 7 Audiobooks

Interactive/Pop-Up 7 Graphic novels Beginning-to-Read

Series Magazines Predictable

Wordless 1 Board books 7 Bilingual

Concept/Informational books:
Alphabet books ___4____ Counting ___2___ Math ______ Science ______ Music/Art/Dance
______
History/Social Studies (Human Interest) ___5___

*Note: Concept books and informational books are basically the same. Concept books are in-
tended for younger audiences, therefore, they are simpler.

Genres:

Poetry 5 Realistic Fiction 40 Historical Fiction 6

Biography Fantasy Traditional Literature 12

Non-Fiction 2

Multicultural Literature:

African American 6 Latino 2 Native American 4

 Asian/Pacific American 2 Religious cultures Disability 2

LGTBQ Others

International Literature

Africa 6 Asia 2 Canada

Caribbean 1 Europe India

Mexico 3 Central/South America Middle East

Australia/New Zealand/Pacific United Kingdom (UK) Others

Islands
Reflection
 The reading and books were my favorite part about this entire class. I enjoyed

reading and expanding my knowledge of children’s books. This experience has helped so

much and taught me so much about the different cultures and the diversity in different

books. There are many reasons why I believe that this helped me grow and develop as a

reader and I am very grateful for the experience that I had.

First, the WOW library was a great resource for me. It gave me a whole sea of

books that I never knew existed. I was able to go in a look at all of the different books

and they made it so easy. They have everything categorized so I was able to go in a look

at each section and find the books the suited me best. This is something that has helped

because I’ve been able to discover books that include all different types of people and I

will be able to take this database and use these books to buy and bring into my classroom

when I become a teacher. I will also be able to use this in my classroom right now for stu-

dent teaching.

Another resource I found helpful was the books that you read in class to use. You

did a great job at picking books of different genres. I also enjoyed watching your reading

styles when reading aloud and picking up on the things you do so that when I went into

classrooms I could do the same thing so that the kids would get the best outcome as pos-

sible. I think that using these books and learning about them first is a great way for me to

study and know everything about the book before I go into a classroom to read it. That is

the best outcome of the whole experience. I found that it is so important to know what

you are reading to the class so that you know what open ended questions to ask the chil-

dren.
 The 80 books that I read of all different genres was one of the most helpful things

we did in the class. It has given me 80 new books that I could possible read in my class-

room or even bring into my classroom for the children to read. It has given me a world of

new books to be able to pick from and I am grateful for it.

Reference Sources
Library Experience #4
 Something About the Author (SATA)

Something About the Author is available electronically and in print. The print volumes are lo-
cated in the Ready Reference section of the Information Commons, on the shelves by the Help
Desk. The call number is PN451.S6. The number of volumes increases each year since it is an
ongoing series. Something about the Author not only contains information about authors but
also illustrators of children’s books.

To use the electronic version, go to the website:

http://www.library.arizona.edu/search/articles/dbDetail.php?shortname=sata

Type the name of an author or illustrator (Last Name, First Name) into the search box and find
the following information:

Author or illustrator and David Shannong

the volumes/page num- 44
bers where he/she is
written up

Personal information From Spokane Washington

Born October 5 1959
58 years old
went to college

Awards and Honors Caldecott medal

Book sense book of the year award
Golden kite award for picture book illustration

Look in “Sidelights” for He pictures the characters in his head first before he starts draw-
themes or content often ing.
present in their work
Titles of 3 published No, David
pieces David Goes To School
David Gets In Trouble

Shel Silverstein
 Sheldon Allen Silverstein was born on September 25,1930 in
Chicago, Illinois. He later died on May 10,1999 after a greatly
fulfilled life. During his life, wrote and illustrated many chil-
dren books, poems and songs. One of his most popular books
is entitled The Giving Tree. The song which he wrote that be-
came an incredibly popular song is called A boy named Sue
sung by Johnny Cash. In 1984, Shel enrolled in the University
of Illinois. Followed by this, he attended Chicago Academy of
Fine Arts but did not feel as though he fit in. In 1950, Shel be-
gan at Roosevelt University to study English. This experience
was put on hold when he was drafted into the army in 1953.
He first became known through his illustrations which often
included cartoons. Later, Shel became a cartoon artist for
Hugh Hefner and became even more well known for his risk-
ier drawings. Shel continued to write and draw throughout his
life. He won two Grammy Awards, one for Best Album for
Children with his book Where the Sidewalk Ends and another
for Best Country Song with his song A Boy Named Sue.
Website: www.shelsilverstein.com

Invitation for Students:

After reading some of Shel Silverstein’s work and looking at his illustrations, the class will be read a
piece from Shel Silverstein without being shown the illustration. After listening to the piece, the students
will create an illustration on their own with only a black ink pen. They will draw this illustration thinking
of how Shel Silverstein would have illustrated for the poem. This will allow the children to use their crea-
tivity and imagination on how they visualized the poem that was read to them. After taking time to draw,
the students will be read the piece from Shel Silverstein again and will be shown the illustration this time.
They will get a chance to compare their illustration with the author’s illustration. Lastly, they will see
what their peers drew as well.
 The Giving Tree is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. First published in 1964 by Harper
& Row, it has become one of Silverstein's best known titles and has been translated into numerous languages.

Silverstein, Shel. The giving tree. HarperCollins Publishers, 2014.

Where the Sidewalk Ends is a 1974 children's poetry collection written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. It was pub-
lished by Harper and Row Publishers.

Silverstein, Shel. Where the sidewalk ends: the poems & drawings of Shel Silverstein. HarperCollins, 2014.

A Light in the Attic is a collection of poems by the American poet, writer, and children's author Shel Silverstein. It was
first published by Harper & Row in 1981.

Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic. Particular, 2011.

Falling Up is a 1996 poetry collection for children by Shel Silverstein, published by HarperCollins. It features illustra-
tions, drawn by the author, for most of the 144 poems. Silverstein dedicated the book to his son, Matthew

Silverstein, Shel. Falling up: Poems and Drawings. HarperCollins, 2005.

The Missing Piece is a children’s picture book by poet Shel Silverstein.

Silverstein, Shel. The Missing Piece. HarperCollins, 2006.

Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook is a children's book by Shel Silverstein. A work in progress for the better part of 20 years, the
book was published posthumously in 2005. The book is largely composed of spoonerisms in rhyming verse.

Silverstein, Shel. Runny Babbit. HarperCollins, 2005.

Reflection
 The author and poet studies were also a very helpful tool that we got to study this

semester. We did an author study and learned a lot about poets and their effects on peo-

ple. My personal author study was on Shel Silverstein and it was very interesting to dig

deep and learn about him and his personal life and how that effected his writing. It was

also interesting to compare all of his books because I had a bunch of his books when I

was younger and enjoyed learning more about him and his writing.

The author studies were extremely helpful in learning about the different authors

that everyone picked. It gave us all a platform to go off of when picking books for im-

portant things in our classrooms. Having all of the handouts of each author and their

background and different books that the people who thought were important to the author

helps with picking books that will be very effective in the classroom. For me I will keep

these handouts and use them when we start doing poetry in the classroom. I will have a

knowledge already that I can pick from and use to better teach the students in my class-

room.

Writing poetry in our class was also very interesting and helpful to learning and

understanding the authors and what they do and how hard it is. We wrote our I am From

poetry and it really helped me understand how hard it is to make poetry flow and make it

sound good. I also think that this would be a great activity for young kids because it is

very simple yet make you think in your own head about things that matter to you and

what makes you as a person. I think that children would enjoy writing poetry and this is a

good one for them to start with because it is simple yet affective.
 For my author study we chose Shel Silverstein who is someone I’ve always known

about and had his books but never really looked into him and his work. The book that

gave us the inspiration was The Giving Tree because we all knew it and loved it when we

were younger. Digging deep into the authors live gave me an entirely different outlook on

his writing and who he was as a person and why he wrote the things he did. Going for-

ward I will look into most authors that I read about and learn about there writing and it

will help when reading aloud and helping the students understand what is going on in the

book and why it was written like that.

Overall this section was an extremely helpful one. It showed me the different

things that you need to learn about to have a full understanding of things. It has also

given me a bunch of knowledge on different authors and the different writings and what

they mean.

Literature and Storytelling Engagements with Children

Story Telling Mini Inquiry

For my story I decided to tell my little cousin a story that also involved her although she

was not there. I had her come over to my house and tell her my remember when story. For the

story I sat her down in the kitchen where the story actually happened so she felt like she was

apart of the experience. This setting I believe helped this assignment be very successful. I be-

lieve that telling the story in the same place that it happened really showed my little cousin the

area and the feel of how the story happened and I was able to explain to her where everyone

was and the exact story that happened many years ago.
 My little cousin Carly is nine years old so she was very excited to hear this story because

she is finally old enough to understand and care about this kind of stuff. Her younger brother

was also involved in the storytelling and he enjoyed just as much, if not even more then my

cousin Carly. As I told the story Carly was very quiet and listened very carefully as a I told her

how everything happened. Her facial expressions stayed at a giant smile the entire time. It

wasn’t until the end did she start asking questions about everything that she thought I might

have left out. She was so excited to hear the story because it was about her. Her little brother

was different while I told the story. He interrupted me many times and wanted to know more

and more and I kept telling him I was getting to that part of the story and he was too overly ex-

cited to wait that it was hard to keep him focused. It was cool to see the difference in the way

each of them acted and I thought It was pretty cool. As I finished up my story Carly decided to

tell me about the story of when she found out that she was going to have a little brother. She is

a very quiet kid but when it came to telling this story it was like she couldn’t stop talking. I

started asking her questions about how much she remembers from being in the hospital when

he brother was born and it was cool to see how much she actually remembered when she was

just five years old.

I decided to tell my cousin Carly the story of when we found out that my aunt and uncle

were going to have her. It was Christmas 2008 and we were sitting down to dinner and every

year we go around and say what we love and what we are thankful for and what we are excited

about for the new year. I explained to them all of the things everyone was saying and then it

was my uncles turn and he stood up and told every one he was excited for the new year be-

cause they were going to be adding to our family. I sat Carly around the table we all sat at on
this day and acted out exactly what her dad did and exactly how he stood up. I think it really

brought the story to life for her because she could see where everyone was sitting and get a

real life feel for what happened on that day. As for inviting them to hear the story and called

their mom and asked if she could bring them over to listen to a fun story I had to tell them.

They came into my house already excited because we don’t see each other very often so it was

already exciting to see them. I kept my voice very calm for the most part until the end when I

told her the big finale about the story and I believe that it made it more exciting for her. I

moved my body around the table as I told her examples of what other people were saying so it

was like they were actually there going around the table and saying things. At the end of my

story I didn’t even have to ask her to start telling the story of her little brother which I thought

was very cool. As our story telling time came to an end we ended up going out to eat with both

of our parents so we never actually left each other after that but Carly did bring it up to her

mom and dad that she thought it was really cool how they told our whole family that they were

going to have her.

Read Aloud Mini-Inquiry #1

The book that I decided to read to one of the kids in my student teaching class room

was “Does a Kangaroo have a Mother too?”. I chose to read this book because it left a lot of

questions that I could ask the child. The book is about animals and the fact they have mothers

too. Before I started the book I asked her if she thought that animals have mothers too. She

said no they don’t have mommy’s or daddy’s. So throughout the whole book I asked before
every animal if she thought that it had a mommy and she would either say yes or no and I be-

lieve that it got her very involved in the book and kept her interested.

Christina is 5 years old and is in my student teaching class at Ochoa preschool. She is

Mexican but doesn’t speak Spanish. I asked her a lot about her family and her mom so that she

felt comfortable with me because it was only my first day in the classroom. When I decided to

read this book it was when all of the children were supposed to have a book and being looking

at them. Christina and I sat on the couch that was by their reading circle. Christina sat right next

to me and was trying to sit on my lap the whole time. The couch was facing the story time car-

pet where all of the other kids were sitting and there was also book cases around them. It was

easy for Christina to keep focused on me because all of the other kids were focused on their

own books and not messing around and being loud.

The couch that we read on was clearly for reading to children and even though it was

my first day and I didn’t realize that my mentor told me that it is usually the place where the

children sit and read when they have free time so it was a very comfortable position for her.

This made the interaction very well and fun. Every time I would turn to a knew page I would ask

her “do you think that a dolphin has a mommy” and she would either say yes or no. It was

funny to watch her say that she doesn’t think certain animals have a mom and then would be

very surprised when the book would say yes they do have a mom. Christina was very excited to

have me read to her and asked me to read her another book once we were done but we were

out of time and had other things to do.

Introducing the text to her was me asking her about her mom and she told me about

her entire family and was really excited to be telling me all of this stuff. Asking her each time if
she thought the next animal had a mom was a very good way of getting her involved and taught

me a lot about this young age. My voice was very excited and was almost as if each time I was

asking a question to her. The illustrations were very important because it showed Christina

what animal we were talking about. The story time ended with her telling me more about her

family and how much she loved her mom which was very cute. I thought this experience was

very cool and made me think a lot about how I read and interact.

The experience overall was very successful and I thought it taught me a lot. I thought

about my tone of voice a lot and getting the child involved with the story so that they aren’t

bored. The thing that surprised me the most about the whole thing was that the child didn’t

know that animals have moms. I never really thought about that and that we have to teach chil-

dren this concept. I made a lot of connections because we read about how older toddlers get

more involved and talk a lot more when you are reading to them and they don’t just sit there

and look at the pictures they actually want to learn and know more which really came to life

when I was reading Christina the story. She is already a very talkative kid and very outgoing but

this made her question a lot of things which I thought was very interesting.

If I could change one thing about the reading is I would want to involve more then just

one kid. I really liked the book that I picked and I thought it was a good one for my first time be-

cause it gave me a lot of room to work with and ask questions to keep her engaged. If the child

was older I don’t think this book would’ve interested them that much but at the same time it

might’ve because the pictures were very colorful and fun to look at. I think that this book

showed me that young kids really don’t know a lot about anything and that we have to teach

them the most basic stuff which was very interesting to me. I would also like to read a book
with one of the kids that is more shy and see their reactions and how they handles the ques-

tions and and everything.

Read Aloud Inquiry Number Two

For this read aloud my mentor and I coordinated and decided that I should read Where

the Wild Things Are. I have always loved this book since I was a little kid so I thought it would be

a perfect fit, it was also around Halloween time so the monsters fit in perfectly. The book is

about a young boy who gets upset when he gets sent to his room so with his imagination he

created a world in his head where he is the kind and all of the monsters that live there are his

servants and do whatever he asks them to. I first started out by asking the kids about monsters

and if monsters were real. To little kids sometimes they don’t know what’s real and what’s not.

I then got into what an imagination is and how everyone has an imagination. For thinking aloud,

I had asked the students what kind of things they imagine with their imagination since most of

them were just putting together what this word means and how they use it in their every day

life. After they answered I asked them if they think monsters are real and if they think they

have to be scared of them and that’s how I lead into the book because it is about monsters.

When planning for the reading I thought about the different things that kids go through.

When they are playing what kinds of things so they make up in their head and always wanted to

lead it back to having an imagination. I also wanted to some how relate it back to Halloween

because we had a field trip on that day and I wanted to be able to talk about it with them. I also

planned on them doing an activity after where they drew their own monsters and they could
make them scary or not if they wanted to. This would get them excited about the book and ex-

cited about Halloween and what was coming up later in the week.

For story time we usually take the kids to the circle carpet and have them sit on letters

so that they don’t fuss around too much. There is a couch that I sit on so that all of the kids can

see the book and all of the pictures. From reading the book so much I knew it pretty well so I

was able to keep it facing them the whole time because they love to see the pictures. This was

their normal story time circle so they were very comfortable with it and knew that it was time

to sit down and relax and listen to the story. The story time circle is surrounded by a bunch of

books and is enclosed to make the children feel more comfortable and almost act like a room as

if they were at home in their own room getting ready for bed.

All of my students participated in this because it was their story time. I usually have

around 8-9 kids in my class and their ages range from three to five years old. My teacher sat

with the kids and watched while I read and tried to keep them under control because they are

always trying to stand up and move while the story is being told and that distracts a lot of the

other kids. The students were very excited about the story because they were excited about

Halloween at the time and wanted to talk as much as they could about it. The conversations

flowed very easily because a lot of the kids were willing to talk about what they wanted to be

for Halloween and also a lot about imagination like I explained earlier. They loved talking about

what they like to pretend to do and be and it made for a really easy open ended conversation

throughout the entire book.

Some comments that were made while reading the book were about how one child was

going to be a monster for Halloween. I then asked him what kind of monster he was going to
be. He said he was going to be a scary monster and I led that into a discussion on if monsters

were real and how our imagination can sometimes trick us into thinking scary monsters are

real. I think that the illustrations for this book are very inviting and a lot of the kids were stand-

ing up to try and get really close to look into detail of the pictures. For this story telling I made

sure to ask as many open ended questions as possible because that is what I struggled with.

When I noticed I was asking a lot of yes or no question I corrected myself and would ask a spe-

cific child what his or her experience was. To close I asked the children if they wanted a chance

to be able to draw their own monster that they will use their imagination to draw and that led

us into our activity.

Overall I thought that this experience was a huge success and I thought his was one of

my favorite read alouds I have done so far. I think that I planned everything out really well and

got a very good response from each student. Something that surprised me while reading and

that I didn’t plan for was how in-depth each child went about things that they imagine or how

long a child can talk about their Halloween costume ideas. At one point I had to hurry about be-

cause each child was going for so long that we weren’t going to have time to do the activity

planned for them. I think that still using open ended questions is very difficult and I need a lot

more practice with it because it takes a lot of thinking. I used the last story telling to tell how I

was doing and see what I said about my reading and what went good and what went bad in

that one. I think that I had a way better class discussion and I am really proud of myself for this

activity.

I think that from the last read aloud I learned more about discussion and bringing kids

into the discussion who don’t normally talk. A lot of the time a child will want to say something
but be too scared to raise their hand so giving them a chance to have a voice is very important. I

think that opened ended question to me are the most important part. Its easy to ask yes or no

questions and its easy for them to answer. Being able to have them think critically about some-

thing is so important for them. We have talked about that in almost all of our classes and I’m

really trying to get used to it because it is not easy. Something I have learned from this is to

have questions planned out in my head and use sticky notes on the book to remind myself to

ask because as soon as you start reading and talking with the kids you forget about a lot. I really

enjoyed this read aloud and I think I did a very good job at planning and making sure I could be

as engaging for the kids as possible.

Family Story Interaction

When trying to decide what book I wanted to pick for Olivia I had to take a lot of differ-

ent things into consideration. When looking through all the books I could read I noticed so

many different options. There were some about animals and people and they all were very di-

verse. There was a lot of different funds of knowledge and family dynamic books when looking

through everything. The thing I found most helpful when looking for my book was my own

source of books I’ve read. I knew right when I found my book it was the perfect fit for this as-

signment. For my case study Olivia, she is very shy and doesn’t really like to say much. Some-

thing that is important to me is trying to break her out of her shell and make her more comfort-

able around people. The book I ended up picking is called Olivia by Ian Falconer.

There were a lot of different reasons why I chose this book. My case study child Olivia is

very shy and I would really love to help her get past it and be able to talk and be interactive
with people. Having something to connect to and be excited about because they have the same

name is something that I really thought would get her going. I also love the illustrations in the

book and I think that Olivia would be very intrigued by them as well. I think that this book rep-

resented Olivia in a way that would get her to come out of her shell and show her parents that

she can be excited about things.

When choosing an artifact to bring I wanted to have something that would get Olivia ex-

cited about the book. I ended up choosing to go to the store and buy her an Olivia pig to go

along with the book. I felt like this was a good choice because Olivia was able to act out what

was going on in the book and do the things that Olivia as a character would do and start making

Olivia more comfortable being more open and outgoing. I feel like this invited mostly Olivia’s

younger sister Bella into the story telling. Olivia’s mom was also very excited to see Olivia play

out loud and see her using her voice to act out all the silly things that Olivia does in the book.

Olivia’s house is a very small house on the corner of the street. They have a front yard

that Olivia loves to play in and when you walk in you walk straight into their living room where

we did the story telling. They have a big brown couch that is shaped like and L and that is where

I sat while reading the story to her family. The people who were in the room when I was read-

ing the story was Olivia, Bella, and Olivia’s mom. They are all from Mexico but have been here

in America for most of their lives.

When I originally walked into the house Olivia immediately noticed the stuffed Olivia pig

that I brought as my artifact. She was really excited and even more excited when I told her that

the pigs name was also Olivia. I told Olivia’s mom why I picked the book that I did and she

thought it was a great idea. When I first started the book Olivia asked a bunch of questions
about the character and while the story was going on she kept acting out the scenes with the

stuffed pig. She pointed out the silly things that she did and would reenacted them. Bella,

Olivia’s little sister also enjoyed pointing at the things she liked in the book an was standing

next to be the whole time laughing and enjoying the funny parts.

One thing that stuck out to me was when Olivia said “My name is Olivia and her name is

Olivia I really like her”. This was exactly what I wanted to happen while reading the book to her.

I wanted the character Olivia to rub off on Olivia and make her feel more special because she

has a ton of confidence issues. I knew that if I showed her something that made her feel like

she could do anything it would help her. When I would read a line from the book she would

take the stuffed pig and repeat me in a squeaky voice as if she was the pig and was acting out

each scene. Olivia’s mom had such a fun time watching her get extremely into it and told me

that she wants her to read other Olivia books.

My role in the whole story was to read the book and ask Olivia as many open ended

questions as I could. I wanted to give her a chance to make predictions on what she thought

Olivia was going to do next. When watching Olivia get dressed and act silly Olivia’s mom

jumped in and told a story about how Olivia put on her shoes on the wrong feet and walked

around like that for an entire day. Olivia got a little embarrassed and then laughed because she

knew that we all thought it was silly. I then decided to tell a story about how when I was 16 I

wore my shirt inside out to school and no one ever told me. We all laughed and it made Olivia

feel way more comfortable.

Overall I thought the experience was very successful and extremely fun. I had a lot of

fun seeing Olivia open up and get excited about something new. I felt I was very successful in
bringing the family together and having them interact with each other throughout the entire

situation. Something that surprised me about it was Olivia’s little sister Bella and how much she

loved the whole story and being there with her sister. I thought that I did an overall good job

bringing the family together and something that I would change is bringing a toy for Olivia’s lit-

tle sister Bella so that she felt just as involved as Olivia.

This experience has showed me how much of an impact a book can have on a child. It

has showed me how important it is to put thought into every single you book you read to chil-

dren. When you are in a big group you have to think about specific children as different times

so each child can get a chance to feel inspired and involved in the story. Overall I had a great

experience with this and wouldn’t change much about it because it was very successful and an

amazing experience.

Reflection
I learned a lot reading aloud from our read a loud’s that we had to do. They were

very interesting and I learned a lot about reading to kids and the importance of it. I

learned a lot throughout the three different read a loud’s that we did and it brought a new

perspective to me and the things that are right and wrong when doing it. It has helped for

the future when I am a teacher so that the kids get the best reading experience that they

can get.
 The first read aloud was very scary and I was extremely nervous to read a loud be-

cause I had never done it before and listened and learned from myself. Reading a loud is

different when you are doing it and trying to learn from the experience and that’s what

has changed since we started doing this. I have watched how I say things and do different

characters and how what I say effects how the child understood and liked the story. The

first one taught me to connect with the listener because that’s how you grab their atten-

tion and make them excited about the book you are reading.

The second read aloud was different because it was to an entire class and I

had to plan out how to get the attention of an entire group of kids. Reading to a group of

kids is a lot harder then just one because you have to make a group interested and excited

to listen. I learned a lot about my first time reading aloud to kids and it showed me a lot

about my reading that I need to work on. I found myself asking a lot of closed ended

questions and have since fixed it and look into the book before instead if picking a ran-

dom one and not knowing what questions to ask before. Something that also helped me

was learning to have sticky notes to remind myself of what to ask when the part comes

and that has helped a lot when I have read out loud since this time.

The third read aloud was with my family and this was the most fun for me. I got to

spend time with my family and learn more about them through the reading that I chose. It

helped me get closer with my family and Olivia’s mom was able to me in a teaching en-

vironment and see how her child reacts to things while she is learning. It was a really in-

teresting and fun experience and I learned a lot more about my family and how they also

react to reading.
Social and Cultural Issues in Children’s Literature

Friendship
By: Shannon Young, Emily Winslow, and Ida Lindholm

Definition of a Friend: a person whom one

knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual
affection

Invitation: Draw a picture of you and your best

friend doing something that you love to do to-
gether. Then write three words that describe
how they are a good friend to you.
Title: Best Friend on Wheels
Author: Debra Sherly
Published: 2008
Age Group: 5-8 years old
Summary: This book is about to girls who are best friends. The book starts off with them being the same
and then we find out that the only difference is that one friend is in a wheelchair. This book talks about
how it is hard for young children not to just stare and how they need to accept this a normal thing.

Title: My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay

Author: Car Best
Published: 2015
Age Group: 4-8 years old
Summary: This book is about a young girl who is blind. She is having a hard time fitting in because she
feels as though her walking stick makes her stand out. She enjoys doing the same activities as her class-
mates but has a hard time doing so. She gets help however from her three best friends.

Title: The Princess and the Peanut Allergy

Author: Wendy McClure
Published: 2009
Age Group: 3-8 years old
Summary: This book is about two friends and one of them is having a birthday party. The child that is
having the birthday party has peanut butter there so her friend will not be able to go because she is aller-
gic. This causes both of the friends to be upset, so she gets the friend her own peanut free cake.

Title: You Can’t Have Too Many Friends

Author: Mordicai Gerstein
Published: 2014
Age Group: 2-5 years old
Summary: This book is about a duck who has makes seven different unusual friends that help him con-
front the king about stealing his jelly beans. This book is great to show friends that working together can
help you reach your goals.
Title: Moki Mongoose Finds a Friend
Author: Deborah C. Taylor
Published: 1995
Age Group: 3-6 years old
Summary: This book takes place in Hawaii where Moki soon finds new friends that are all different. This
book shows children that being accepting of other people even if they are “different” than them is okay.

Title: A new friend for marmalade

Author: Alison Reynolds and Heath McKenzie
Published: 2014
Age Group: 3-8 years old
Summary: This book is about two friends who are not willing to let Marmalade or the new boy Toby join
in. But when one of them gets stuck in a tree Toby comes to the rescue anyways. This book will help chil-
dren see that you need to give everybody a chance because he did a very nice thing when they were not
nice to him.

Title: Feeding Friendsies

Author: Suzanne Bloom
Published: 2011
Age Group: 2-6
Summary: The children are busily, gleefully preparing a grand feast: puddle-water soup, mud pie, and a
dandelion-and-dirt dessert. Yum! The young chefs are creating these tasty dishes for their special guests,
who chirp, wiggle, and hop.

Title: Panda & Polar Bear

Author: Matthew J. Baek
Published: 2009
Age Group: 3-5
Summary:A little polar bear wonders what's beyond his wintry world and when he falls over the edge of
an ice cliff, he finds out! He's soon befriended by a panda who mistakes the mud-covered polar bear for
one of his own. The two become quick pals.

Title: Ollie and Claire

Author: Tiffany Strelitz Haber
Published: 2013
Age Group: 3-7
Summary: Ollie and Claire are as tight as two friends can be. Every day they picnic together, every day
they do yoga together, and every evening they eat dinner together. But when Claire longs to break free
from this routine and dreams of traveling the world, she worries that Ollie would never join her. So she
takes matters into her own hands and finds a mysterious travel partner when she sees a sign posted on a
tree.

Title: Be Good to Eddie Lee

Author: Virginia Fleming
Published: 1993
Age Group: 4-8
Summary: Christy's mother always tells her to be good to Eddie Lee, a neighborhood child with Down's
Syndrome. But Christy wants to run and play -- and not worry about Eddie Lee tagging along. One hot
summer day, though, Eddie Lee takes Christy to a secret place in the woods and teaches her that beautiful
things can be found in unexpected places.

Title: Bella & Bean

Author: Rebecca Dotlich
Published: 2009
Age Group: 4-8
Summary: Bella wants to write poems. Bean wants to go for a walk. Bella wants to write poems. Bean
wants Bella to look at her cute toes. Could these two best friends be more different? But as Bean's attempt
to coax Bella away from her notepad become ever more over the top, Bella finds her poetry taking unex-
pected twists. You might be a Bella or you could be a Bean - either way, this sweet, clever tale will re-
mind you there is perfect poetry to mismatched friends.

Title: I’m New Here

Author: Anne O'Brien
Published: 2015
Age Group: 5-8
Summary: Three students are immigrants from Guatemala, Korea, and Somalia and have trouble speak-
ing, writing, and sharing ideas in English in their new American elementary school. Through self-deter-
mination and with encouragement from their peers and teachers, the students learn to feel confident and
comfortable in their new school without losing a sense of their home country, language, and identity.
 Reflection
My final text set was about friends and me and my group picked this because iT

was something we all have and love. We enjoyed finding books for all different types of
friends and the different books that go along with that story line. It was interesting going

blindly into the WOW library and looking around at all the different types of books but it

helped for future things that I will be doing.

Going through the library and looking for different diverse books was an interest-

ing experience and helped me understand the library more. I learned how the library

works and how things are set up. Going through all the books there is a system that they

follow and I was able to go through and learn about it and pick out books that fit my topic

easily.

My group and I worked very well together and I think that our invitation worked

very well. Kids would really enjoy coloring and telling us about their best friends. Kid

love to share things and from experience they always tell me about friends and family. I

learned though that the way that you set up a poster board for kids is extremely im-

portant. Our writing was very small and too informational. I didn’t draw kids in and make

them want to read it. We should’ve kept it minimal and and fun for them to read.

I have learned so much from the course and it will help me later on when I have

my classroom. There are many things that I never thought would be important but end up

being extremely important when you are working with kids. I enjoyed this class a lot and

am grateful for everything it has taught me and will continue teaching me through all the

hand outs and work sheets that will help me later in the future.