Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed

By: Mo Willems

Wilbur is different from the other Naked Mole Rats in his Colony, because he wears clothes (and he likes it!). But what will happen when Grandpah, the oldest, wisest, and most naked Naked Mole Rat ever discovers Wilbur's secret?

Funnyman and three-time Caldecott Honoree Mo Willems exposes the naked truth about being yourself and wearing it well. - Barnes and Noble Overview

While browsing in Barnes and Noble I stumbled across this book and fell in love with the cover and the title. How clever? A naked mole rat that wants to wear clothes. Wilber is so cute and I knew this would be an awesome read. 

Reading level: Age 3-8 GradeLevel Pre-school to 3rd Lexile: 470L

Suggested Delivery:  Read Aloud

Electronic Resources:

http://www.pigeonpresents.com/teachersguides/molerat_event_kit.pdf Great Site that has lesson plans, games, activities, and facts about naked mole rats!!

http://www.clpgh.org/kids/storymaker/embed.cfm - This is a great website that allows students to create their own picture book. It's interactive and guides the students to build their own imaginative story. 

Activities to Increase Comprehension:

Before Reading: Have students make preditions about what the book will be about. Because the title is self explanitory the students will be able to use literal comprehension from the front cover to guess what the story will be about. To expand on this discussion, have the students discuss what will happen if the naked mole rat gets dressed and what the other naked mole rats will think. This question is more inferential but I am sure that there would be some pretty interesting and insightful respones. 

After Reading: Because this book is for younger kids it would be good to do a follow up lesson where you Cut-up sentences- This activity includes active learning about words as part of a sentence. Teachers prepare a sheet of simple sentences printed out with a large-size font. Students cut apart the words from a sentence, and then move the individual word cards around, manipulating the words to re-create the sentence in proper order. This helps encourage students to recognize that each word is a separate entity, has meaning, and is separated by a space within each sentence. - http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/concept_of_word/

Out of My Mind

By: Sharon M. Draper

Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school—but no one knows it. Most people--her teachers and doctors included--don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows . . . but she can't, because Melody can't talk. She can't walk. She can't write.

Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind--that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice . . . but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.

Sharon M. Draper

Reading level: Grade Level 4 and up Lexile: 700L

Suggested Delivery: Whole class read aloud, Independent, Group

Vocabulary: 

Electronic Resources:

http://sharondraper.com/bookdetail.asp?id=35 - Author website. Here their is an interview with Sharon Draper, she answers questions about this book and her writing process. 

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/brain/cerebral_palsy.html-This website is great for doing research about Cerebral palsy and is kid friendly. 

http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/cp-famous.shtml- The book mentions Steven Hawkins, if you want to have your class to do research on famous people what have influenced the world and have disabilities, this website gives a list of people that made contributions to the world and have Cerebral Palsy. 

http://books.simonandschuster.net/Out-of-My-Mind/Sharon-M-Draper/9781416971702/reading_group_guide - Great for discussion topics

http://list.atpe.org/resources/Educators/bookclubfiles/11NovMSQuestions.pdf -Discussion questions

Activities to Increase Comprehension:

Before Reading this book i thought it would be really interesting to have the students come up with a topic, something that they are really interested in and create a presentation on that topic without saying anything. Melody, in "Out of My Mind" can not speak, having the kids realize the difficulty and creativity that comes into play when you have ideas that you can't verbally share will create interesting conversation and a great lead into the book. You can use Prezi (http://prezi.com/) which is a great website for kids to learn how to make dynamic and interactive presentations. and of course I love Voki (http://www.voki.com/)- especially for something like this where the presenter can't talk. Using a voki the students can see how it is to have an electronic device speak for you. 

"Everyone Uses words to express themselves. Except me. And i bet most people don't realize the real power of words. But I do." - Melody

Before and During Reading: This book contains a lot of imagery, similes and metaphors and would be a wonderful book to use to explore how figurative writing can improve the quality and interest in a story. 

"Country is lemons- not sour, but sugar sweet and tangy."

"I plow through the crowds in my electric in my electric chair like a power mower in thick grass."

During Reading Because the book is told from Melody's perspective and you are inside her mind the whole time, this would be a great book to use to teach monologue or journal writing. Have the students participate in a writing workshop. In a writing workshop they will have the chance to choose multiple personal stories to write about. One after another they will be identifying various memories in their life and writing to get the ideas out of their minds

During reading you can also do Open mind where students Draw an empty head and inside of it draw any symbols or words or images that are bouncing around in the mind of the character of a story. Follow it up with writing or discussion explain and explore responses.

I LOVED this book!! I think that every student and teacher should read this book have empathy for people that may be different in some way. "We all have disabilities. What's yours?" - Melody. I fell in love with Melody and the way she would describe things and her feelings. Everyone faces challenges and unknowns in their life no matter what you look like, think like, behave like. Like Melody says "It's like somebody gave me a puzzle, but I don't have the box with the picture on it. So I don't know what the final thing is supposed to look like. I'm not even sure if I have all the pieces." We all feel this way at some point (I know I feel this way all the time). Read this book with your class or on your own and fall in love with Melody like I did. 

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change."

Stephen Hawking 

Harry Potter

By J.K.Rowling

http://www.jkrowling.com/en_US/

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of a wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's quest to overcome the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort, whose aims are to become immortal, conquer the wizarding world, subjugate non-magical people, and destroy all those who stand in his way, especially Harry Potter.

I have just finished reading the Harry Potter Series. Yes, I know I am behind with the times. Growing up in the generation of Harry Potter and having seen and loved all the movies I thought it was time to call myself a true fan and finally - read the books!!

While I read these books for enjoyment I realized that they were really creative and can spark some creative lesson plans and thoughtful conversations in the classroom. 

When I was younger I wasn't a reader. I will admit that I only read books that I was forced to in school and  I never found anything really interesting. Now I am older and can find more pleasure in reading but the difficult thing is finding the time to read. After reading each book in the series I immediately thought, When can i start the next one! After I finished the whole series I thought- is it weird if i read them all over again?

 I know that many people have these feeling about Harry Potter and that is why they are so popular. Some kids might love these books because they feel like they finally found something that interested them, like me. That feeling in itself is wonderful and worth the reading regardless of the educational connections.

Publisher: Warner Bros 998-2007

Reading Level: 

Book 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Age Group: 9 years and up. Published in October 1998. 
Accelerated Reader (AR): Level 5.5
Lexile: 880

Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Age Group: 9 years and up. Published in June 1999. 
Accelerated Reader (AR): Level 6.7
Lexile: 940

Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Age Group: 9 years and up. Published in October 1999. 
Accelerated Reader (AR): Level 6.7
Lexile: 880

Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Age Group: 9 years and up. Published in July 2001. 
Accelerated Reader (AR): Level 6.8
Lexile: 880

Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Age Group: 9 years and up. Published on July 21, 2003. 
 Accelerated Reader (AR): Level 7.2
Lexile: 950

Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Age Group: 9 years and up. Published on July 16, 2005. 
Accelerated Reader (AR): Level 7.2
Lexile: 1030

Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Age Group: 9 years and up. Published on July 21, 2007. 
Accelerated Reader (AR): Level 6.9
Lexile: 980

Suggested Delivery:Independent

Vocab Because the characters in this book are wizards and witches they have their own wizarding world of vocabulary, Here is a helpful website that will help with any vocabulary questions that may arise. 

http://harrypotter.scholastic.com/glossary/

Electronic Resources:

http://harrypotter.scholastic.com/sorcerers_stone/ -This website gives a summary of each book and some fun activities that they can do. Students can answer 5 questions to figure out what their patronous will be!

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Hogwarts_subjects - This site is all about Hogwarts and the classes that are taught there. This website will help with the after reading comprehension activity that I have.  

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/unit/harry-potter-everything-you-need - This site offers some classroom and lesson ideas that relate to Harry Potter and the Harry Potter World. 

Activities to Increase Comprehension:

During Reading: Compare the books in the series together and have the students compare the change in the characters from book to book. The characters grow as the series goes on and that change in their behavior and attitude can be something that the students can relate to and analyse. 

After Reading: Hogwarts has so many classes that are available to it's students. Have the students pick which class they would want to take or teach and have them create a lesson or curriculum for that class. Have them so research on that class and really get interested in the subject. You can also have them connect this class to things in the Muggle world such as subjects that they have in school or professions. This activity can really relate to all the subject areas (LA,math,science, history and even art and gym)

EX: Flying

Students can research: rules, regulations, how to fly, types of brooms...

Students can come up with their own rules and tips based on what they know. 

Students can design their own broom

Students can relate it to driving class and compare and contrast

• connect to the school subjects:
• language arts (write a paper, course description or manual about each class). 
• history (connect to when rulers tried to take power and rule over others ex: Holocaust)
• science (chemistry, earth science, biology).