I loved doing these projects. I think that these projects would give each of us a good sense of what each of the books are about. Who knows I might even want to read one. I already want to watch the movie Bridge to Terabethia. I wanted to talk about that groups presentation. I loved how they opened it up with acting like the class were 5th graders. I think it is hard for us to step back and view things from a 5th graders perspective because it has been so long since we have been in 5th grade. I also liked the fact that the group compared and contrasted the movie and the book. I think too many times people will just jump right to the movie because it is easier and the book ends up being something completly different. I am quite excited to see what happens with the next sstories. I think after the two presentations the books that were required of us to read were easy reads. I feel that because they were easy reads it allowed each of us to come up with ideas for our presentations. We didn’t have to spend as much time analyzing scenes becasue they were straight foward, atleast the book my group had to do.

I chose to talk about one of the first things discussed on the video Take 20. A few of the teachers said they had their children do ridiculous things and they put on a teacher persona. Then most of them only remembered what they wore. This made me not want to be that type of teacher. I don’t want to remember my first teaching experience by the clothes I wore. I want to remember it by the first children to affect my life or the knowledge I gained. I think it might be hard not to put on a teaching persona. I know already that I am going to be completly nervous going into the first school year. I am going to want to wear clothes that make me seem professional. I am also going to want to act perfessional even though I would love to be laid back with the children. I found that a lot of the teachers I loved going through school were those teachers that came to my level and talked with me rather than lecture me. Another topic discussed was clingy to the textbook. I think that is the safe way out. I want to have my class be fun and it is very hard to do that while sticking solely to the book. I guess I am not going to know until I actually get into the classroom. I can say I won’t be a certain way but chances are I might be.

I think that the Lit presentations is a good idea. I think it will help the other students understand each others books. I also think it is good because if I hear about the other books maybe I will want to read one of them. My group is doing a lot of little things because it is one of those books that needs it. I am actually excited to see what the other students present. I think once the class hears about our book they might be interested in it. Our book has a lot of good scenes in it. I think it will be fun to play around with our book The Glass Castle. I would def. recomend our book to others. Too bad our book isn’t appropriate for the age group I want to teach because I think it is a great idea to present a book. There are so many different ways one can present and to see all the ideas could be fun. There are so many scenes in The Glass Castle that our group can choose from because each scene in our book had an impact on the next. I just hope that somebody in our group knows how to draw.

I decided to talk about the book Lives on the Boundary. I wanted to touch base on what we discussed in class in my fish bowl. The topic of grammar I think is a big issue. I believe that kids in lower grades could probably write a paper better than I could grammatically speaking. There is so much that teachers don’t keep discussing as you move up in grades, grammar being one of them. They( the teachers) just expect that you should know it. I don’t remember learning anything about grammar after probably my 4th grade year. I also think that because of the standardized test that teachers seem to focus more on math. When it comes to English, teachers want you to basically just know how to anyalize a story and find the answers to questions in them. I find it that know that I am in college the standardize testing didn’t really help me today. I feel that the smaller things like grammar, review of adjectives, verbs,etc, have been lost while going through our system in school. Yes, I agree that college students should have an idea of basic grammar and maybe the responsibility should be on them, but do you know how much easier both the teacher and student would be if it was discussed even if it was one class?

I am very interested in this book. I am shocked and disgusted at what goes on within this story. You have two parents who have 4 kids and who really don’t take care of them. Jeanette is the protagonist in this novel because this is a book through her eyes. She lets the readers be right in her position too. Things never seem to get better for the family or I should say the kids because the parents really don’t care. Jeanette has become the parent or the head of the household. She is still digging out of trashcans herself. I think one of the worse parts in this novel, which my group discussed, was the fact that the dad whored his daughter off. He wanted to win money playing pool and jsut sent his daughter, Jeanette, right upstairs to be with some drunk fool. I think this book has really opened my eyes and made me appreciate what I have. Even when I think things couldn’t be worse they really could.

The mom is not willing at all to get any welfare and because of that everybody suffers. The mom doesn’t even want to work. She has a job she just never goes. She even goes to the extent of hiding a candy bar from her children when they are starving. She makes them eat ham with maggots all over it or ice cream for a meal. I am very anxious to see how the story is going to play out. I want to know what happens to the kids and how Jeanette helps them.

When I first started reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Freire I was a little confused. The first chapter had so many “oppressed and oppressors” I got mixed up in that. After discussing it in class I found it easier to understand what was going on. I think this book could help me with my teaching in the future. I feel like after reading this book I have more of an open mind. I will be more willing to let the students fill me with information. I will expect that they do the same and except all the knowledge I need to pour into their minds. He does have good ideas. He discusses about interaction between teacher and student which is defiently needed.  On the other side of things I don’t feel that his teachings will have any affect on my teachings. I have all my teaching classes and my own observations that will influence my form of teaching. I think that because this book wasn’t written that recent that times have changed. I resepct him for writing the things that he did but I think I would rather make my own judgments rather than read them in a book by some man I have never heard of.

As I continue to read the Memior The Glass Castle I continue to be shocked. I can’t believe all of the things that the parents let their kids do or go through. It seems like it keeps getting worse and worse. You have the grandma that touches the little boy and the dad is just like suck it up you’re a man. I was flip if that was my kid and something happened. The other thing  I couldn’t stand is the dad tried to stop drinking for the little girl and he started up again anyway. He constantly is in fights with the wife. They aren’t just little fights either, he is basically beating her and laughing about it. She tried to jump out of the window even. I hope that the books gets more into some good things that happen because I don’t know how much more I can take of the neglect on these kids. They move to a new town and the kids constantly get beat up and they just deal with it. I wouldn’t want that for anybody. It is a really good book though……it keeps me interested which is sad because this is somebodies life.  

I decided to write about my literature circle book. I loved the way the author started the book. She dove right into a scene that grabs the readers attention. This book is a memoir of a girl (lady now) growing up. She had what seems to the reader as a horrible life. Her father was a drunk who barely had a job, the mom didn’t work and only saw herself as an artist who let her kids do whatever they wanted. The only thing that seemed to be on normal standards was her siblings and her connected and stuck up for each other. The kids went starving all the time. One scene is when they are driving (running away again) and the little girl falls out of the car and the parents didn’t even stop the car. It actually took them more than 5 minutes to realize that their daughter had fallen out of the car. Is that even possible? They constantly were moving because they were constantly being chased. I feel that this was no way to grow up. i found it shocking that even through all of this the children were very smart (book smart). The first scene is the woman grown up living a life of luxury I am anxious to know how she turned to be that way. Overall my reading so far seems to be a good memoir

I think the one comment that really caught my eye or I should say my ear…..was afraid of talking to people out of fear. This one statement completly reminded me of The GIver. Jonas was afraid to talk to anybody even before he became the receiver. Then after he became the receiver he was constantly watching what he said even though he didn’t have to. The whole beginning of OutFoxed discussed how you were either on their side or against it. This is how I felt about The Giver. You either agreed with the Utopian life or you didn’t. In the show it was you were either for the Republicans or you were against them. They both discussed a lot about fear. Another comment was Fear is a great motivater. That fits perfectly with the Giver. I think after Jonas started to find out the truth he knew what he had to do. Then out of fear for Gabrielle he acted on that immediately.

In both there was a list of what to talk about and what not to discuss. In the book everybody knew what was allowed and what wasn’t. Nobody ever stepped out of that line. Even when Jonas had the power to ask anything he wanted he was still skeptical about asking. BOth were also ordered to do things. In the book the community had no choice what job they would be getting they were just given a folder and they followed that without question. That’s deff. no life to life and OutFoxed at former Fox employees who tried to stand against that control.

After reviewing different lesson plans for The Giver I came accross this site. I liked the idea of having the class make their own idea of their perfect community. This is so they can see how their ideas will differ from the ideas that The Giver portrays. After the pre-writing I would have them review the book. By reviewing the book I mean the physical features and what they think the book will be about or what topics might be suggested in the book. I have taken a few reading classes and I found it easier to grasp the book after reviewing the features and the class brainstorming what the book will be about. For example…..the front of the book is seperated. One side is black and white and the other is in color. After they read the book I think they should focus on the themes. After I read the book I noticed that by focusing on the themes it was easier to piece together all of the elements. I am not saying that this will work for everybody but it is a step in the right direction to comprehension. I think one main focus should be on comparing and contrasting our society to The Givers society. I can’t forget about the ending. There seems to be a lot of conversation and questioning when it comes to the end of the book. I feel that discussion is the best way to understand what has been read especially with this book.