Some good reads with a message

Does This Thing Make My Head Look Big?–this is a book about a Muslim girl in Australian schools, humor to highlight cultural norms and differences

Like Water for Chocolate

Some books with a more educational purpose:

The “What your first (and second, third, fourth) grader needs to Know series, By E.D. Hirsch, Jr.–these are great for studying for the elementary praxis or just for a quick refresher of what each grade level should know.

Articles:

Journal of Teacher Education, 47(1), 9-15, deAcosta, M. (1996). A foundational approach to preparing teachers for family and community involvement in children’s education.

New Skills for new schools: Preparing teacher’s in family involvement.

Creating Partnerships: Partnerships with parents. Lueder, D.C. (1998). Lancaster, PA: Technomic Publications.

families and education

Literacy for Empowerment: The Role of PTarents in Children’s Education and School Matters in the Mexican American Home, both by Concha Delgado-Gaitan

Keeping Black Boys Out of Special Education, by Jawanza Kunjufu

The Inner World of the Immigrant Child, by Cristina Ioga–describes how she learned from her students and their families-good for teachers working with students new to the U.S.

Through Ebony Eyes: what teachers need to know but are afraid to ask about African-American Students, by Gail Thompson

Authors in the classroom: A transformative Education Process, by Alma Flor Ada and Isabel Campoy

Books for dealing with kids and behavior

Raising Cain-A book about raising boys–yes, they are different AND from Mars

The Vulnerable Child, by Richard Weissbourd

Discipline with Dignity-this book I found in the Special Education work space at Eisenhower Elementary, it had some great subheadings and chapter titles, but I didn’t get to read much of it since I was working with the kids in the room. This could be good for parents, but especially good for teachers dealing with those behavior challenged students.

From Allen, Ch.10, p. 137: “Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and Teaching Differently in Primary Grades”–this seems like it should be a good book for alternative ways to reach the kids!

Books from class readings

From an article for Jean’s or Tonys Class:

The Secret Life of Bees, by Kidd, 2002–compelling story set in civil rights era

Bring Life into Learning: Create a Lasting Literacy, by Don Graves

Books for middle schoolers that I should read

As I was killing time at my dyad placement, I began scanning the bookshelf in one of the teacher’s classrooms. Man, will I ever have time to read these books? I’m gonna say nope! but it’s worth a shot, right?

 Great Lives Series puts out a ton of books on famous icons, and they are written for the adolescent. So although I have read Malcolm X’s autobiography, someone of lesser years may want to check out this edition: Malcolm X by Nikki Grimes. Other books in this series:

Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, Christopher Columbus, Amelia Earhart, Thomas Edison, John Glenn, Mikhail Gorbechev, Jesse Jackson, JFK, ML King, Lewis and Clark, Abe Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Golda Meir, Sandra Day O’Connor, Sally Ride, FDR, Harriet Tubman, Lech Walesa, and the Wright Bros.

Cool anthology: PUSH–You are here, This is now

Holes, by Loius Sachar

Scorpia, by Anthony Horowitz

Shadow Children sequence, Haddix, by Margaret Peterson

Moby Dick

Around the World in 80 Days

Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh

Confessions of a Slacker Mom, by Muffy Mead-Ferro

Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-li Jiang: a memoir of the Cultural Revolution

Eragon, by Christopher Paolini–another series

Al Capone Does my Shirts, and Notes from a liar and her dog, both by Gennifer Choldenko

The Whipping Boy, by Sid Fleischman

Milkweed, by Jerry Spinelli-Nazi occupied Warsaw through the eyes of a young orphan

Walk Two Moons, and Replay, both by Sharon Creech-Newberry Medal winner

More books-with a political theme

Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror, by Richard Clarke–Clarke served 7 presidents and worked in the White House for George W. and his father, also Clinton. He resigned in 2003 and gives his views on 9/11 and why it wasn’t prevented, and other mysterys of the reign of W…

Perfectly Legal, by David Kay Johnston–Pulitzer Prize winning author presents argument that the top 1% of the rich have rigged the tax system against the rest of us–some insights on the tax system in America

Dereliction of Duty: The eywitness Account of how Bill Clinton Endangered America’s Long-Term National Security, by Lt. Col. Robert Patterson–Not something I would normally want to read, since I think Clinton was great, but I guess multiple points of view only make a person wiser, right?

All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren–Pulitzer Prize winner-classic novel, generally regarded as the finest novel ever written on American politics. It describes the career of Willie Stark, a back-country lawyer whose idealism is overcome by his lust for power.

Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality, by Jennie Oakes–pretty self explanatory title, yeah?

Books to open your eyes

Feed: about Big Brother entrenched in our lives thru marketing/consumerism, middleschool/hs level reading

 

From Malcolm X Autobio:

-James Baldwin’s books

-Black Like Me by John Griffin

-Julian Mayfield author

Books recommended by my cousin Cameron

Cam’s favorite books:

-Tale of Despereaux

-Hatchet

-Bud, not Buddy

-The Pinballs

-Sadako & 1000 Cranes

-Maximum Ride by James Patterson

-Movie: Red Dawn

Books I want to read–intro

I find that everytime I read something, that leads me to something else I want to read, and then I have all of these books or articles or magazines of interest and I forget what they were because I either am lazy and don’t write them down, or I write them down someplace random and never look at them again, or lose the piece of paper, or whatever. So I think I will try organizing them here. And who knows, maybe you will want to read some of them too. And maybe you have books you think I might want to read….then I will have even more books to read. I have no time to read anything besides my homework right now of course, but I anticipate that someday I will get to read something of my choosing again….maybe.

From my Families class: our choice of book circle books, I would like to read all of these—

East is East, West is West? Home literacy, culture, and schooling by Li, Guofong

Nickel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in America by Ehrenreich, B.

The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures By Fanniman, Anne

Building communities of learners: A collaboration among teachers, students, families and communities By McCaleb, S.P.

Schooling Homeless Children By Quint, S.

From Creating Welcoming Schools By Allen, another book we read from this course, a suggestion by the author was to keep a collection of Cultural Memoir books in your classroom to encourage the blending of different families-these books were listed in a section of the book discussing how to create 2 way conversation and ways of creating shared stories dialogue between teachers and parents.

Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison

All over but the shoutin’, Rick Bragg

The color of water: A black man’s tribute to his white mother, James McBride

The Dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children,

Traveling Mercies, AND also Operating Instructions(which I have read, but is worth mentioning because it is hilarious)-about her experiences as a single mom raising a baby boy), By Anne Lamott

Red Azalea, Anchee Min

Hunger of memory, Richard Rodriguez

House on Mango street, Sandra Cisneros

The MisEducation of the negro, Carter Woodson

My next step will be to track down the many places I have listed books of interest and add them here….more to come, have these sparked any ideas?????

this is my first post ever

what is this blog going to be about?