Week 16 note

New glossary

1. Information book

Defining Information Books

• Informational and non-fiction literature’s primary purpose is to inform the reader by providing an in-depth explanation of factual material (Anderson).
• Informational books are literature and are considered trade books.
• Informational books are nonfiction, but they are not textbooks or reference books (Anderson).
• Informational books inform by attention to facts and capitalizing on children’s wonder at all that is available, all the topics out there.
• When nonfiction is most effective, it suggests a wealth of information, stimulating in the young reader a wish to know more.
• Major methods for creating informational books include moving from the simplest to most complex, from familiar to unfamiliar, or from early to later development.
• Style, which cannot be separated from meaning, is as important to nonfiction as it is to fiction.
• Illustration of the text may in some cases be central, and text merely clarifies what the reader sees.
• Depending on the subject or the level of intended audience, the text may be illustrated by graphs, tables, or charts.
• A tone of “Now you know it all!” is less effective than a more objective tone, but in either case, without supporting evidence the writer may be writing propaganda (Lukens).
• One should always check copyright dates; recent books are more likely to contain accurate, up to date information (Lukens).

Characteristics of Information Books

Include “how to” book

Contain many interesting details and lesser-known fact

Utilize expository language

Organized with a logical presentation of information

Include photographs to provide authenticity.

2. Expository

explaining or describing something:

1620s, from Medieval Latin expositorius, from exposit-, past participle stem of Latin exponere "set forth" (see expound). Earlier in English as a noun meaning "an expository treatise, commentary" (early 15c.). Related: Expositorial.

ex: expository writing

3. Propaganda 

information, ideas,opinions, or images, often only giving one part of an argument, that are broadcast,published, or in some other way spread with the intention of influencing people's opinions:

1718, "committee of cardinals in charge of Catholic missionary work," short for Congregatio de Propaganda Fide "congregation for propagating the faith," a committee of cardinals established 1622 by Gregory XV to supervise foreign missions. The word is properly the ablative fem. gerundive of Latin propagare (see propagation). Hence, "any movement to propagate some practice or ideology" (1790). Modern political sense dates from World War I, not originally pejorative. Meaning "material or information propagated to advance a cause, etc." is from 1929.

ex: political/wartime propaganda

At school we were fedcommunist/right-wing propaganda.

Authors’ introductions

1. Thomas Hardy 

Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.

2. Hudson Talbott

Hudson Talbott (born July 11, 1949) is an American author and cartoonist, known for his children's books. He has written and illustrated over a dozen books, including O'Sullivan Stew, Tales of King Arthur and Forging Freedom, based on the story of Jaap Penraat. His most famous work, We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story inspired the 1993 film of the same name.

3. Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy (born September 25, 1947) is an American author of more than 35 nonfiction and fiction books for children, young adults, and general audiences, including more than 30 about American history. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2010 for his contribution in writing for teens.


4. Karen Magnuson Beil

Karen Beil was born on February 15th in Boston, Massachusetts. Growing up in rural Connecticut, she spent much of her childhood outside, following streams through fields and woods and collecting shells on the Atlantic shore. In elementary school, she was one of a band of fifth graders who volunteered to give up recess to help in their school library. Her mother, the librarian, and her storytelling father were introduced by their sisters—both children’s book illustrators. After graduating from Syracuse University with degrees in magazine journalism and English literature, Karen worked as a news reporter for the legendary wire service, the City News Bureau, in Chicago, Illinois, and later as a writer and editor of scientific publications. Her first book, Grandma According to Me, was inspired by her mother and was published in 1992. While the pull of picture books remains strong (and possibly genetic), Karen returned to reporting and interviewing with a nonfiction book about wildfires and firefighters, Fire in Their Eyes. 5. Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie; 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870),^[1] also known as Alexandre Dumas, père, was a French writer. His works have been translated into nearly 100 languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of high adventure were originally published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. His novels have been adapted since the early twentieth century for nearly 200 films. Dumas' last novel, The Knight of Sainte-Hermine, unfinished at his death, was completed by a scholar and published in 2005, becoming a bestseller. It was published in English in 2008 as The Last Cavalier.

6. Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additional works, including three novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

7. Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and A Child's Garden of Verses.

A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks as the 26th most translated author in the world. His works have been admired by many other writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, Bertolt Brecht, Marcel Proust, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Cesare Pavese, Emilio Salgari, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins".

Books introductions
1. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialized version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891 and in book form in 1892. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's fictional masterpiece, Tess of the d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England.



2. Safari Journal: The Adventures in Africa of Carey Monroe by Hudson Talbott

Twelve-year-old Carey Monroe has no idea what he's in for when his wacky aunt Elaine drags him along on an African safari. Soon after arriving in Kenya, Carey meets a Maasai man and his son, who open Carey's eyes to the ways of their people and the beauty of the African landscape and wildlife. Their adventures turn suspenseful when they encounter an international poaching ring that trades illegally in rhino horns and elephant tusks. Explore the world of the Maasai people at Carey's side by reading his journal, filled with his vivid accounts, photographs, and illustrations. Hudson Talbott has created an exciting, informative safari story that will fascinate readers of all ages.

3. The Great Fire by Jim Murphy - historical 

The Great Fire of 1871 was one of most colossal disasters in American history. Overnight, the flourshing city of Chicago was transformed into a smoldering wasteland. The damage was so profound that few people believed the city could ever rise again.

By weaving personal accounts of actual survivors together with the carefully researched history of Chicago and the disaster, Jim Murphy constructs a riveting narrative that recreates the event with drama and immediacy. And finally, he reveals how, even in a time of deepest despair, the human spirit triumphed, as the people of Chicago found the courage and strength to build their city once again.

More Information about Great Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km²) of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless.


4.  Fire in Their Eyes: Wildfires and the People Who Fight Them by Karen Magnuson Beil 

What drives some people to stand in the path of a wall of flame? Who are these brave, foolhardy, visionary firefighters? This intimate look at the elite groups that fight wildfires explores the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of these courageous few as they battle wilderness blazes from Alaska to Maine. From the grueling training of a smokejumper class in Montana, through harrowing fights with some up-close-and-personal wildfires, to a group of inspired conservationists who use fire as a tool for preservation, Karen Magnuson Beil takes readers where only a few have ventured--into the heart of one of nature’s most destructive and unpredictable forces: fire.

5. The Three Musketeers  by Alexandre Dumas
- Sword and Cloak 

The Three Musketeers (French: Les Trois Mousquetaires [le tʁwa muskətɛʁ]) is a historical novel by Alexandre Dumas.

Set in 1625–1628, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan (based on Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan) after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard. Although D'Artagnan is not able to join this elite corps immediately, he befriends the three most formidable musketeers of the age: Athos, Porthos and Aramis and gets involved in affairs of the state and court.

In genre, The Three Musketeers is primarily a historical and adventure novel. However, Dumas also frequently works into the plot various injustices, abuses and absurdities of the old regime, giving the novel an additional political aspect at a time when the debate in France between republicans and monarchists was still fierce. The story was first serialised from March to July 1844, during the July Monarchy, four years before the French Revolution of 1848 violently established the Second Republic. The author's father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, had been a well-known General in France's Republican army during the French Revolutionary Wars.

6. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by American writer Herman Melville, published in 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance. Sailor Ishmael tells the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler the Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale that on the previous whaling voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. The novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, but during the 20th century, its reputation as a Great American Novel was established. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". "Call me Ishmael" is among world literature's most famous opening sentences.


7. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

 The Old Man and the Sea tells the story of a battle between an aging, experienced fisherman, Santiago, and a large marlin. The story opens with Santiago having gone 84 days without catching a fish, and now being seen as "salao", the worst form of unluckiness. He is so unlucky that his young apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden by his parents to sail with him and has been told instead to fish with successful fishermen. The boy visits Santiago's shack each night, hauling his fishing gear, preparing food, talking about American baseball and his favorite player, Joe DiMaggio. Santiago tells Manolin that on the next day, he will venture far out into the Gulf Stream, north of Cuba in the Straits of Florida to fish, confident that his unlucky streak is near its end.

Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.


8. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". It was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881 through 1882 under the title Treasure Island, or the mutiny of the Hispaniola, credited to the pseudonym "Captain George North". It was first published as a book on 14 November 1883 by Cassell & Co.

Week 17 note

New glossary
1. Lifelong Reader
Long before your child is old enough to begin school, she is acquiring the skills and knowledge she will need for reading. These pre-literacy skills include language development, word-sound awareness and a familiarity with spoken syntax and grammar. Numerous published studies have confirmed that well-developed early literacy skills are important predictors of reading success and overall success in school. The best way to help your child develop these skills is to read aloud to her. This is an opportunity to spend special time together, encourage a positive association with books and a lifelong love of reading.

2. Reader- response theory
It is a theory developed by Louise Rpsemblatt, which gained prominence in the late 1960s, that focuses on the reader or audience reaction to a particular text, perhaps more than the text itself. Reader-response criticism can be connected to poststructuralism’s emphasis on the role of the reader in actively constructing texts rather than passively consuming them. Unlike text-based approaches such as New Criticism, which are grounded upon some objective meaning already present in the work being examined, reader-response criticism argues that a text has no meaning before a reader experiences—reads—it. The reader-response critic’s job is to examine the scope and variety of reader reactions and analyze the ways in which different readers, sometimes called “interpretive communities,” make meaning out of both purely personal reactions and inherited or culturally conditioned ways of reading. The theory is popular in both the United States and Germany; its main theorists include Stanley Fish, David Bleich, and Wolfgang Iser.

3. How to conduct Read-Alouds

Read-alouds should be interactive. Lawrence Sipe saw children respond to read-alouds in five different ways:

• Analytically
• Intertextually
• Personally
• Transparently
• Performatively

a. Children should be expected to be truly listening, involved, and responsive to the picturebook or story being read, and the teacher should read with expression, drama, and excitement in order to help the children listen well.

b. The importance of students' talk to their cognitive growth and to their understanding of story is one of the reasons.

c. In their talk. children may have much to teach us about the literature we read to them.

d. Students need to be provided with visually interesting and sophisticated texts. 

e. One of the benefits of story read-aloud time is that it is the only time in a school day when children are allowed to interrupt their teacher with responses during reading.

f.  Teachers must allow students to respond before and after read-aloud time.

Authors’ introductions

1. Ken Goodman

Kenneth Goodman wrote in his book On Reading "The sense you make of a text does not depend first of all on the marks on the paper. It depends first on the sense you bring to it." He (born December 23, 1927) is Professor Emeritus, Language Reading and Culture, at the University of Arizona.^[1] He is best known for developing the theory underlying the literacy philosophy of whole language. 

2. Louise Rosenblatt

Louise Michelle Rosenblatt (23 August 1904 in Atlantic City, New Jersey – 8 February 2005 in Arlington, Virginia) was an American university professor. She is best known as a researcher into the teaching of literature. She sees reading as a meaning making process in which the context and the reader are as important as the text. She said "a text is just a blueprint, a guide for the selecting, rejecting, and ordering of what is being called about what is being called forth by a text is one of the best things we can do for them. 

3. Shirley Brice Heath.

Shirley Brice Heath is an American linguistic anthropologist, and Professor Emerita, Margery Bailey Professorship in English, at Stanford University.

She graduated from Lynchburg College, Ball State University, and Columbia University, with a Ph.D. in 1970. She is a Brown University professor-at-large, and a visiting research professor at the Watson Institute.


4.  Lawrence Sipe

March 14, 2011 - Dr. Lawrence R. Sipe, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and chair of the school’s program in Language and Literacy in Education, died unexpectedly March 11 at his home in Philadelphia.

A scholar of education and literature, Dr. Sipe deepened our knowledge of how children engage with literature. He was particularly interested in how young children talk about and respond to picture books in the classroom and how those activities enhance their literary understanding. 

Born in 1949 in York, Pennsylvania, Dr. Sipe graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in English. For two years, he taught in a one-room school in Newfoundland, Canada, then returned to earn his second bachelor’s degree, this one in Elementary Education, at Bloomsburg State College in Pennsylvania. 

After graduating from Temple University with a master’s degree in Psychology of Reading in 1980, he returned to Newfoundland, where he was a coordinator for in-service and professional development for a local school board for 13 years.

5. Lissa Paul 

Lisa Marian Paul AO PSM is a former senior Australian public servant and policymaker. She was the Secretary of theDepartment of Education and Training until February 2016.Lisa Paul was born in California, United States, the daughter of two teachers. When she was young, Paul and her family moved to Christchurch, New Zealand and then to Adelaide, South Australia following her father's job opportunities. Paul holds an Arts degree she obtained from the Australian National University.

6. Jon Scieszka

Jon Scieszka (/ˈʃɛʃkə/: which phonetically resembles ścieżka, the Polish word for "path") (born September 8, 1954) is an American children's writer, best known for picture books created with the illustrator Lane Smith. He is also a nationally recognized reading advocate, and the founder of Guys Read – a web-based literacy program for boys whose mission is "to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers."

Scieszka was the first U.S. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, appointed by the Librarian of Congress for calendar years 2008 and 2009.

His Time Warp Trio series, which teaches kids history, has been adapted into a television show.

7. Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller has taught upper elementary and middle school students in northeast Texas and was a finalist for 2010 Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year. She is the author of several books about engaging children with reading, including The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. Donalyn is the co-founder of the popular blog, The Nerdy Book Club, and co-hosts the monthly Twitter chat #titletalk. Her articles about teaching and reading have appeared in publications such as Education Week Teacher, The Reading Teacher, Educational Leadership, Horn Book, and The Washington Post.

8. Cornelia Funke

Cornelia Maria Funke (FOON-ka; German: [ˈfʊŋkə]) is a German author of children's fiction. She was born on December 10, 1958, in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia. Funke is best known for her Inkheart trilogy, published in 2004–2008. Many of her books have now been translated into English. Her work fits mainly into the fantasy and adventure genres. She currently lives inBeverly Hills, California.

Funke has sold over 20 million copies of her books worldwide.

Books introductions

1. Ways with Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms by Shirley Brice Heath

Ways with Words, first published in 1983, It is a classic study of children learning to use language at home and at school in two communities only a few miles apart in the south-eastern United States. 'Roadville' is a white working-class community of families steeped for generations in the life of textile mills; 'Trackton' is an African-American working-class community whose older generations grew up farming the land, but whose existent members work in the mills. In tracing the children's language development the author shows the deep cultural differences between the two communities, whose ways with words differ as strikingly from each other as either does from the pattern of the townspeople, the 'mainstream' blacks and whites who hold power in the schools and workplaces of the region. Employing the combined skills of ethnographer, social historian, and teacher, the author raises fundamental questions about the nature of language development, the effects of literacy on oral language habits, and the sources of communication problems in schools and workplaces.

2. The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work by Professor Emeritus Louise M. Rosenblatt

Louise M. Rosenblatt’s award-winning work continues increasingly to be read in a wide range of academic fields—literary criticism, reading theory, aesthetics, composition, rhetoric, speech communication, and education. Her view of the reading transaction as a unique event involving reader and text at a particular time under particular circumstances rules out the dualistic emphasis of other theories on either the reader or the text as separate and static entities. The transactional concept accounts for the importance of factors such as gender, ethnicity, culture, and socioeconomic context. Essential reading for the specialist, this book is also well suited for courses in criticism, critical theory, rhetoric, and aesthetics.

Starting from the same nonfoundationalist premises, Rosenblatt avoids the extreme relativism of postmodern theories derived mainly from Continental sources. A deep understanding of the pragmatism of Dewey, James, and Peirce and of key issues in the social sciences is the basis for a view of language and the reading process that recognizes the potentialities for alternative interpretations and at the same time provides a rationale for the responsible reading of texts.

The book has been praised for its lucid explanation of the multidimensional character of the reading process—evoking, interpreting, and evaluating the work. The nonliterary (efferent) and the literary (aesthetic) are shown not to be opposites but to represent a continuum of reading behaviors. The author amply illustrates her theoretical points with interpretations of varied texts. The epilogue carries further her critique of rival contemporary theories.

3.  Reading Otherways by Lissa Paul 

In this lucid book, Lissa Paul writes with insight and authority about a matter all English teachers will find compelling: how the ways we analyze and teach literature shape our views and expectations of the world.

Paul urges us to give the texts we teach sensitive multiple readings. She points out that variant versions and different editions of classic children's stories hold different meanings. From a feminist perspective, Paul considers such questions as : whose story is this? who is the reader? when and where was the reading produced? who is named and who is not? who gets punished and who gets praised? who speaks and who is silent? who acts and who is acted upon? who looks and who is observed? who fights for honor and who suffers?

This accessible book will sharpen literary sensibilities and enhance our teaching by making us more responsive to such key questions.

4. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka

You thought you knew the story of the “The Three Little Pigs”… You thought wrong.
 
In this hysterical and clever fracture fairy tale picture book that twists point of view and perspective, young readers will finally hear the other side of the story of “The Three Little Pigs.”
 
“In this humorous story, Alexander T. Wolf tells his own outlandish version of what really happens during his encounter with the three pigs…. Smith's simplistic and wacky illustrations add to the effectiveness of this fractured fairy tale.”
—Children’s Literature
 
“Older kids (and adults) will find very funny.”
—School Library Journal

5. Creating Lifelong Readers Through Independent Reading by Barbara Moss & Terrell A. Young 

In a time when reading instruction is being marginalized and replaced with scripted reading programs, Creating Lifelong Readers Through Independent Reading gives concrete suggestions for creating independent reading programs that make a difference. In a hands-on, approachable style, authors Barbara Moss and Terrell Young show you how to effectively reestablish independent reading as a central focus in your K-6 classroom. A thorough, research-based discussion of the benefits of independent reading is combined with the following practical tools to help you fit it into a jam-packed classroom schedule:

Tips for creating a sustainable, effective classroom library and maximizing the school library resources
Helpful guidelines for teaching students to self-select appropriate reading materials
Numerous suggestions for building effective independent reading time into your daily schedule even during content area instruction
Lesson ideas for incorporating strategy instruction into independent reading time
An extensive literature list, graphic organizers for the classroom, and reproducible handouts for parents

Plus, insightful interviews with literacy leaders Richard Allington, Linda Gambrell, Tony Stead, Sharon Taberski, and Myra Zarnowski tie together key points about the importance of independent reading.

The International Reading Association is the world's premier organization of literacy professionals. Our titles promote reading by providing professional development to continuously advance the quality of literacy instruction and research.

Research-based, classroom-tested, and peer-reviewed, IRA titles are among the highest quality tools that help literacy professionals do their jobs better.

Some of the many areas we publish in include:

-Comprehension
-Response To Intervention/Struggling Readers
-Early Literacy
-Adolescent Literacy
-Assessment
-Literacy Coaching
-Research And Policy

6. The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller

Donalyn Miller says she has yet to meet a child she couldn't turn into a reader. No matter how far behind Miller's students might be when they reach her 6th grade classroom, they end up reading an average of 40 to 50 books a year. Miller's unconventional approach dispenses with drills and worksheets that make reading a chore. Instead, she helps students navigate the world of literature and gives them time to read books they pick out themselves. Her love of books and teaching is both infectious and inspiring. The book includes a dynamite list of recommended "kid lit" that helps parents and teachers find the books that students really like to read.

7. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

The enchanting international bestseller with bonus back matter and a beautiful new cover!

Two orphaned brothers, Prosper and Bo, have run away to Venice, where crumbling canals and misty alleyways shelter a secret community of street urchins. Leader of this motley crew of lost children is a clever, charming boy with a dark history of his own: He calls himself the Thief Lord.

Propser and Bo relish their new "family" and life of petty crime. But their cruel aunt and a bumbling detective are on their trail. And posing an even greater threat to the boys' freedom is something from a forgotten past: a beautiful magical treasure with the power to spin time itself.