New Reading List

I can't remember where this top 100 came from now, but I've seen it more than a few times in my reader and decided to jump on the bandwagon. Besides, I'm always looking for a new reading list...


100. The Egypt Game – Snyder (1967)
99. The Indian in the Cupboard – Banks (1980)
98. Children of Green Knowe – Boston (1954)
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – DiCamillo (2006)
96. The Witches – Dahl (1983)
95. Pippi Longstocking – Lindgren (1950)
94. Swallows and Amazons – Ransome (1930)
93. Caddie Woodlawn – Brink (1935)*
92. Ella Enchanted – Levine (1997)
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School – Sachar (1978)
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall – MacLachlan (1985)
89. Ramona and Her Father – Cleary (1977)
88. The High King – Alexander (1968)
87. The View from Saturday – Konigsburg (1996)
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Rowling (1999)
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek – Wilder (1937)
84. The Little White Horse – Goudge (1946)
83. The Thief – Turner (1997)
82. The Book of Three – Alexander (1964)
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – Lin (2009)
80. The Graveyard Book – Gaiman (2008)
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family – Taylor (1951)
78. Johnny Tremain – Forbes (1943)*
77. The City of Ember – DuPrau (2003)
76. Out of the Dust – Hesse (1997)
75. Love That Dog – Creech (2001)
74. The Borrowers – Norton (1953)
73. My Side of the Mountain – George (1959)
72. My Father’s Dragon – Gannett (1948)
71. The Bad Beginning – Snicket (1999)
70. Betsy-Tacy – Lovelae (1940)
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society – Stewart ( 2007)
68. Walk Two Moons – Creech (1994)
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher – Coville (1991)
66. Henry Huggins – Cleary (1950) 
65. Ballet Shoes – Stratfeild (1936)
64. A Long Way from Chicago – Peck (1998)
63. Gone-Away Lake – Enright (1957)
62. The Secret of the Old Clock – Keene (1959)
61. Stargirl – Spinelli (2000)
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – Avi (1990)
59. Inkheart – Funke (2003)
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Aiken (1962)
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 – Cleary (1981)
56. Number the Stars – Lowry (1989)
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins – Paterson (1978)
54. The BFG – Dahl (1982)
53. Wind in the Willows – Grahame (1908) 
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007)
51. The Saturdays – Enright (1941)
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins – O’Dell (1960)*
49. Frindle – Clements (1996)
48. The Penderwicks – Birdsall (2005)
47. Bud, Not Buddy – Curtis (1999)
46. Where the Red Fern Grows – Rawls (1961)
45. The Golden Compass – Pullman (1995)
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing – Blume (1972)
43. Ramona the Pest – Cleary (1968)
42. Little House on the Prairie – Wilder (1935)
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Speare (1958)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Baum (1900)*
39. When You Reach Me – Stead (2009)
38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix – Rowling (2003)
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Taylor (1976)
36. Are You there, God? It’s Me, Margaret – Blume (1970)
35. HP and the Goblet of Fire – Rowling (2000)
34. The Watsons Go to Birmingham – Curtis (1995)
33. James and the Giant Peach – Dahl (1961)
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – O’Brian (1971)
31. Half Magic – Eager (1954)
30. Winnie-the-Pooh – Milne (1926)
29. The Dark Is Rising – Cooper (1973)
28. A Little Princess – Burnett (1905) 
27. Alice I and II – Carroll (1865/72)
26. Hatchet – Paulsen (1989)
25. Little Women – Alcott (1868/9)
24. HP and the Deathly Hallows – Rowling (2007)
23. Little House in the Big Woods – Wilder (1932)
22. The Tale of Despereaux – DiCamillo (2003)
21. The Lightening Thief – Riordan (2005)
20. Tuck Everlasting – Babbitt (1975)
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Dahl (1964)
18. Matilda – Dahl (1988)
17. Maniac Magee – Spinelli (1990)
16. Harriet the Spy – Fitzhugh (1964)
15. Because of Winn-Dixie – DiCamillo (2000)
14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Rowling (1999)
13. Bridge to Terabithia – Paterson (1977)
12. The Hobbit – Tolkien (1938)
11. The Westing Game – Raskin (1978)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth – Juster (1961)
9. Anne of Green Gables – Montgomery (1908)
8. The Secret Garden – Burnett (1911)
7. The Giver -Lowry (1993)
6. Holes – Sachar (1998)
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – Konigsburg (1967)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – Lewis (1950)
3. Harry Potter #1 – Rowling (1997)
2. A Wrinkle in Time – L’Engle (1962)
1. Charlotte’s Web – White (1952)*

Facebook Snags

I did a dry run of the facebook project that I've talked about here and here and that David talks about here, on Monday in my college class. What I learned from the dry run is that editing templates in Google Docs isn't super user-friendly. Needless to say, I was disappointed and needed to go back to the drawing board. So I thought to myself, "Okay. I can post a PowerPoint version of the template, and groups and download/upload their files to Google Docs and we still don't have the 'X has the USB and she's not here today,' problem."

Tried that today and come to find out that files cannot be uploaded to Google Docs through the laptop computers we were using, and they'll only send through Gmail if we're using the older version. So what I've resigned myself to doing is creating a conversation between the class email I set up and myself. They'll download their most recent file from the conversation and email it to me when they're done at the end of the class period.

In the end, teachable moment was about problem solving. An added bonus: most of my students don't have email addresses, so they'll learn how to attach a file before the get to the high school.

Why Getting to Know Your Students Is Important

Once, this semester, my principal told me that I have a student who will work for me and not for anyone else. What's interesting is that I had a few confrontations with this student at the beginning of the semester, that boiled down to me telling him that while I will treat him with respect because I have a job to do, he still has to earn my respect and the privilege to change seats (which was the question at hand). I bring this up because one of his other teachers came into my classroom this morning talking about the student, who happened to be in the room at the time. She went on about how he wouldn't do anything for her and had bad grades across the board, and she's recommending him for summer school. That's all fine and dandy, I like the kid. I'm sure he's not going to be thrilled that he gets to spend another summer with me, but at least I got him to work for me.

How did I do this, you might ask? 

Easy. I listened to what he said to me and found a book that matched his interests and then listened to him when he talked about the book. Therefore, he'll make an effort to learn what I'm trying to teach him. 

I thought about this because I got another student I was trying to reach. He's a self-professed player, who's smooth talking, but really didn't like to do what he was asked. I gave him Homeboyz by Alan Lawrence Sitomer, and he liked it, but lost it. Then I gave him Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena which he skimmed through without reading too much in depth. For book groups, he's reading That Was Then, This Is Now by S. E. Hinton. When he came in today I told him that my favorite line from the book was "If you have two friends in your lifetime, you're lucky. If you have one good friend, you're more than lucky" (49). Before I could finish reading the quote, though, he'd finished it for me. 

Later, he tells me that he's never read a book all the way through. He liked The Outsiders, but never finished it either. Right now he's feeling pretty proud of himself. And I'm feeling pretty proud of him.

Hinton, S.E. (1971). That Was Then, This Is Now. New York: Speak.

Looking for Ideas? Blogs that Inspire

New column posted on Language Arts New Mexico. Check it out here.

Wuthering Heights x 4

Picture from http://goo.gl/BdoK

However any of us may feel about the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer--which I admit, I have read--it is interesting to see how the release of the novel has an effect on what teens are reading. According to an article in the Telegraph (it's been in my inbox for a week and I've just now had time to get to it), sales for Wuthering Heights has quadrupled over the past year because Edward and Bella refer to it in Twilight. These teens are beginning to do what I do, as an avid reader: go read whatever it is characters are referencing so they have a working knowledge of the references. This is the first step to understanding allusions.

Publishers are taking flak for changing the cover of Wuthering Heights to this, which appeals to the vampire romance-loving teens. According to the Albuquerque Examiner article from April 11, 2010, the covers of Romeo & Juliet and Pride and Prejudice have also received a Twilight make-over.
Rachel Harcourt, a buyer at Tesco, which seems to be the Wal-mart or SuperTarget of the UK, says,

The new sleek black gothic-style covers of Wuthering Heights clearly appeal to lovers of vampire romance stories and are helping them to try out a different read. Anything that encourages teenagers to read good books is welcome as there are so many distractions which prevent today’s youngsters from developing reading as a hobby.

I'm inclined to agree. Anything that encourages teens to read at all is fantastic in my book, whether it be the newspaper, or graphic novels, the Twilight Saga, or captions on the television.

More on the Facebook Project

As much technology as I have in my classroom, sometimes logistics get the better of me. I've been struggling with how to manage saving 15 ppt files, 5 per class, when groups are finished working at the end of the class period. I have two personal USB drives, but I'd rather not save student work on my USB drives. Most of my students do not have USB drives, and even if they did, I'm not sure that's a route I'd take either. There are often issues in group work that spans multiple days with students and absence. I had a group today tell me that a member of their group (who was gone for a track meet) took their project with her to finish instead of leaving it in the group's folder, which I keep and hand out at the beginning of each period.

And then I had a "eureka" moment.

I'm toggling between two email addresses: my own, and one I created for my 2nd hour students, so they could use the gmail+ method to create logins for our class ning. And then I realized: a class google login means they have access to Google Docs. If I save versions of the same template with names corresponding to book title and class period, that eliminates the need for USB drives. Additionally, I have access to their project and can monitor progress without having to worry about students shutting down the computer before saving on my flash drive, or losing their own flash drive or not being present in class for either of the work days or the presentation day. Downloading a copy onto my desktop isn't an issue, as a just-in-case precaution. And saving on my flash drive is a last resort. 

I'm feeling better and better about this project all the time.

Connections -- Unwind in Real Life

One of our librarians showed me this article from the Las Cruces Sun-News. She read Unwind by Neal Shusterman a couple of weeks ago and saw a connection between this text, and Unwind, one of the strategies I try to teach my students.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_14876026?IADID

--
"There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul."
--Edith Wharton.