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Throughout this quarter I have completed two book talks, wrote fifteen blog post on separate readings six of which are full-length books read over the course of the quarter, and wrote a full three-week unit plan.  The two books talks that I completed were literally as far as apart as possible within the quarter. My first was the first day of book talks while my second was on the last possible day for book talks within the quarter. Since my book talks were so spread out I had the opportunity to look at and learn from everyone else’s book talks in order to build my second book talk as well as the feedback from my first book talk. My first book talk was over Patricia McCormick’s Sold and I did the talk itself by the seat of my pants just winging it and hoping for the best out of the talk itself. My second talk was over Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord that was far less by the seat of my pants and little more structured and thought through but I also had less fun giving the second bo...

Overview:              Bo, five, and Prosper, twelve, are brothers on the run from their aunt Esther and uncle Max Hartlieb in Venice. Esther wants to adopt Bo and send Prosper to boarding school, away from his brother with the angel face, after their mother’s death. The boys chose to run away to Venice because of the stories their mother used to tell them about the magical city of Venice. Esther hires a detective, Victor Getz, to hunt the boys down in Venice.   The boys meet Hornet who helps them find a place to live, the Star Palace an old closed movie theater, where Hornet and her friends, Riccio and Mosca, live. Scipio or “the Thief Lord” takes care of the group by stealing and selling items to Ernesto Barbarossa, “Redbeard”.             One of Barbarossa’s clients offers a job to the Thief Lord; the Conte hires Scipio to steal a treasured wooden wing from Ida Spavento. Victor fin...

Elie Wiesel’s Night is probably one of the most touching stories I have read about the Holocaust. I think that this is a text that I would definitely use in my future classroom. I think that I would also pair this text with Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl because he too is a survivor but he takes a critical and psychological perspective on his survival while Wiesel looks simply at his own journey. I would choose to incorporate this text into my classroom, because of impactful and important learning about and reading about the Holocaust is for students. WWII is discussed thoroughly within schools, but reading texts written by survivors makes the facts and details more real and impactful for students. Some of my teaching ideas for this text would be to again pair it with Man’s Search for Meaning . By pairing these text students would be able to compare experiences or perspectives on experiences within the texts. There are also interviews with other survivors online tha...

I ended up buying The Graphic Canon while I was buying my textbooks and I think that it was the best decision I’ve made while paying hundreds for textbooks I don’t use after the quarter. Before even reading some of the adaptions I realized how useful this collection will be in my future classroom. I remember being the student that didn’t really want to read the stories, as the now English major and literature lover I still don’t always want to read the stories. Graphic novels are a great way to introduce students to the classic without boring them by making them read the whole thing and muddle through the complexities that are often seen in classic literature. The graphic novel deception of the stories also allows students to see the story in ways they may have never imagined before.  An example would be the adaption of The Great Gatsby that is showcased in the third volume of The Graphic Canon. The original is a short novel but the graphic adaption is only ten pages quickly...

Edgar Allen Poe is a classic piece of literature that is covered in almost every high school. High schoolers, classically, love Poe for the dark elements that create his stories and poems because of this I think that Poe is one of the most important authors that we discuss and use within high schools. As students are often so interested in Poe and the strange elements that are in his works implementing and using Poe will help keep students engaged with the text. As we have learned throughout the class part of encouraging students to relearn how to love reading and in order to do this we as teachers have to provide texts that interest the students. The Poe piece that I read was “Annabel Lee”. This piece was my favorite Poe poem that I read in high school during the Poe unit. I would teach this in my classroom because Poe is such an engaging writer for high school students making his works so important in a high school classroom. This piece in particular I would include, not just be...