14 #IMWAYR

Posted in IMWAYR by Literacy Love

Here’s a first for me – I have only finished one book so far while I’ve been on Winter Break! It’s been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to sit down to read my mail let alone look at a book. I’m hoping this will change in a day or two and I can get to some of the books that have been sitting patiently all over my house this fall.

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys and invites bloggers to recap what they’ve read this week while planning ahead on what to read next! Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers added their own twist by focusing on kidlit, from picture books up to YA.

Click on the covers for an in depth synopsis and others’ reviews

El Deafo by CeCe Bell

Middle Grade Graphic Novel, 2014
233 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
This is my favorite graphic novel that I have ever read. It is HILARIOUS!! and so, so sweet. It centers around the author’s childhood and losing her hearing after being seriously ill. Every page in this book has SO much to look at. The graphics are so well done and I laughed a lot. I loved all the little stories that the author shared that dealt with being different and learning to live with her hearing aids and amplifier. I really hope this wins an award – maybe the Schneider – although, in my opinion, it is definitely Newberry worthy.

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat

Picture Book, 2014
40 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
This picture book will melt your heart. The land of imaginary friends is so cool and unique. The pictures are amazing and I think that little ones will love this book and older readers will definitely relate to the storyline. I think this would be a great mentor text and generate lots of interesting stories in a middle school classroom.

The Book With No Pictures by BJ Novak

Picture Book, 2014
48 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
My husband and I gave each of our sets of nieces and nephews one copy of Beekle and one copy of The Book With No Pictures for Christmas. Last night, my husband sat down with his nephew Eli and read this book to him before bedtime. I tried to warn Eli’s dad that this probably wasn’t a great before bedtime book, but he insisted that it would be ok. Oh, how I wish I would have recorded the next 15 minutes of giggling turning into laughter and cries of “Read it AGAIN!”. I had to laugh to myself when Eli wanted nothing to do with bedtime after this book. Bottom line – this book is VERY funny! I could see it being a hit in any classroom. Even today my husband recited some of the lines out of nowhere and we laughed all over again.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Contemporary Fiction, 2013
480 Pages
My Goodreads Rating: 3/5 Stars
This “panoramic” novel was recommended to me and while I stuck with it for almost 2 weeks, I barely held on. It was, in fact, interesting, and once I committed, I had to know what happened to these characters. I found the last fourth of the book to be really disappointing. 480 pages was way too much. I want to read more by this author in the future, but I think I will stick to her YA books.

17Dec2014

Our Class Blog is Live! A Call for #commentsforkids

Posted in In the Classroom by Literacy Love

My students have been blogging now for about 2 1/2 months and we finally decided to go PUBLIC. We’ve been writing reviews, bucket lists, poems, stories and working on commenting. We’d love to hear from you and your students. If you have a class blog, leave the link below and we will return the favor by commenting on your blogs, too. On behalf of my student writers, thank you!

Mrs. Mosher’s 2nd Period Blog

15Dec2014

It’s Monday! What are you reading? #IMWAYR 12/15/14

Posted in IMWAYR by Literacy Love

Click on the covers for an in depth synopsis and others’ reviews

I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Contemporary YA Fiction, Release Date: 2/3/15
Alcoholism, Death of a Parent, War, PTSD, College, Romance
400 Pages, My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
I was lucky enough to read I’ll Meet You There through Netgalley, and I loved it! The main character, and recent graduate, Skylar Evans, is ready to leave the miserable, soul sucking town of Creek View for bigger and much better things at art school in San Fransisco. Freedom is right around the corner, but first she has to survive through the summer. With 3 minimum wage jobs, a scary home situation, strained friendships, and the return of hometown hero Josh Mitchell, Skylar is going to have her hands full. Josh Mitchell, on the other hand, is back from fighting in Afghanistan, and is barely holding on. His life is nothing of what it used to be and he is struggling physically and mentally. The only thing keeping him going right now is going to support meetings with other vets and working at The Paradise with Skylar. This book is so much more than a summer romance!

Such a great story and the differing perspectives of Josh and Sklyar are really powerful! I loved all the characters in the book, the setting, and really wish we could have more stories about those who have served and the struggles they have when they return home.

The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1) by Jenny Han

Contemporary YA Fiction, 2009
Cancer, Divorce, Growing Up
276 Pages, My Goodreads Rating:4/5 Stars
The main character of The Summer… is Belly. Fifteen year old Belly (short for Isabelle) spends her summers with her mother, brother, her mother’s best friend and her two sons, Jeremiah and Conrad, at the beach. Belly has essentially grown up at the beach with these boys – through all the swims, feasts, pranks, trips to the boardwalk, and while this summer is more of the same, it’s also a summer that changes everything.

I enjoy Jenny Han’s writing, and this story was pretty good. At times I found the narrator, Belly, a little annoying, but the flashbacks and storyline were ok. I would be interested in reading #2, especially after reading the first chapter excerpt and thinking “Wait, how did THAT happen?!” From reading these few pages of book 2 it seems there will have to be a lot of flashbacks to clue readers in on what happened between the two books.

Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

Memoir, 2014
265 pages, My Goodreads rating 3/5 Stars
Disclaimer: I purchased this book in the midst of a 7 minute ebook buying frenzy. I have never seen Dunham’s HBO show Girls and don’t really know that much about her. You know where this review is going, don’t you? While I thought a lot of the book was interesting and somewhat humorous, I will be the first to admit that the majority of the book was way over my head and I didn’t get a lot of the references. While I’m happy I stuck with it, I honestly think I probably should have spent the couple extra dollars on Amy Poehler’s book instead.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Contemporary YA Fiction, Release Date: 1/6/15
Mental Illness, YA romance
384 Pages, My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 Stars
This book is being advertised as a cross between The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor and Park. Yep. That tagline definitely does All the Bright Places justice. The first pages happen on top of a school bell tower with outsider Theodore Finch contemplating if this will be the day he ends his life. He is interrupted by the beautiful Violet, who is also on the bell tower trying to figure things out. Their stories will intertwine in complicated swirls and readers will get sucked into their love story very quickly. You’ll be thinking about these two characters long after you finish the last page. This book is amazing. Funny, sad and very, very powerful. It gutted me and I still think about it. So glad I got to read this through NetGalley. Highly recommend!

The Dumbest Idea Ever! by Jimmy Gownley

Graphic Novel Memoir, 2014
Art, School life, Achieving Dreams
240 Pages, My Goodreads Rating: 4/5 Stars
I picked up this graphic novel at the Scholastic sale solely on the title. I read it the next day and while I don’t think it’s the best graphic novel I’ve ever read, it does has potential in my classroom library. The author tells the story of how his first graphic novel was published when he was in high school and how dreams do come true with hard work. While this message sometimes gets lost in some slow sub plots, I think if the right reader comes along, this book will make a big impact on his or her life. It just so happens I have a student this year who loves graphic novels and is obsessed with drawing. You can bet that this book will be on his desk Monday morning with a “READ ME!” note. I’m pretty excited to see what he things about it!

Happy Reading, everyone!

11Dec2014

Hour of Code – Celebrating Computer Science Education Week

Posted in In the Classroom by Literacy Love

This week we have been celebrating Computer Science Education Week in my Focus Reading Intervention classes by participating in the 2014 Hour of Code. Hour of Code is a one hour introduction to computer science that provides the opportunity for anyone to learn the basics. We spent Monday and Tuesday of this week watching a couple of short instructional videos and then exploring several really cool programs.

We started with “Code with Elsa and Anna” and it was a fantastic introduction to working with block style coding. While it was a little slow and glitchy Monday from the large numbers of students all over the world accessing it (Honestly though…what a cool problem to have!) students learned the basics of coding and moved through 20 levels of programming.

On day two, students used Scratch, Lightbot and another block style coding program for Flappy Birds. Scratch is pretty challenging for beginners, and it was fun to watch students designing their own holiday cards and animating their names. Any time 6th, 7th and 8th graders are willingly trying new things, problem solving, and working together is a definite proud teacher moment! It was one of the most animated and excited I have seen my students. I love that students can use their new knowledge of coding and work on projects outside of school. I have a couple 6th graders that are now determined to create their own apps and become Scratch experts.

Here are my awesome students showing off their Hour of Code certificates!