Archive: February 9 - March 6, 1998 |
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FEBRUARY 9, 1998 |
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FROM: Jean Samples Grade 4 Herod Elementary Houston, TX |
MESSAGE:
Scholastic's Arrow Book Club was promoting Brian's Winter, a sequel to Hatchet, in January. On the inside cover of the January mailing, a Gary Paulsen contest was announced. They are giving a prize (a schoolwide teleconference with Gary Paulsen), for the best one- to two-page biography of Paulsen. Entries may be a class project or the work of individual students. Entries must be postmarked by February 28, 1998. Runners up receive an autographed copy of Brian's Winter in hardcover. Several of my kids are excited! Some things I did after I got started with January's Maniac Magee discussion: The kids and I agreed that they were taking too much time copying the writing/discussion prompts. So, I made a set of prompts for each student, then cut the prompts apart by lesson. When we started a lesson, I handed out the questions for that day's reading. We just taped the questions into their Reader Response Journals. It helped to expedite things! I also walked around the room while they were reading and quickly checked their Journals each day, so I wouldn't have to take so long to grade them. Worked beautifully! |
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FEBRUARY 10, 1998 |
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FROM: Jean Samples Grade 4 Herod Elementary Houston, TX |
MESSAGE:
Could you please put student answers right next to the corresponding student question? It's hard to find your responses when they are all mixed up! Thanks! P.S. We're about to do the Reader's Theater Script from Creative Classroom. |
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FROM: Liz Grube Book Club Webmaster Small Planet Communications |
MESSAGE:
Jean, thanks for your comment. We've been posting student messages in the order in which we receive them, and comments for each day go on a separate page. Since many responses come on the day after the original message was received, it really doesn't work to put responses next to the original messages. We've tried to make it easy to find related messages by inserting hot links between them. So, for example, if a student named Margaret writes, "Dear Julio, I agree with your comment," the name Julio in Margaret's message will be a hot link to Julio's original message. If you're printing the Student Comment pages each day, these hot links appear as underlined text. We'll certainly consider some alternate ways of organizing student comments for future online discussions, but for Hatchet I think we'll have to stay with the current format. Good luck with the Reader's Theater! |
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FEBRUARY 13, 1998 |
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FROM: Jean A. Samples Grade 4 Herod Elementary Houston, TX |
MESSAGE:
Isn't anybody out there but Liz and me? Hey, this is a GREAT tool for teaching literature and reading! My students really are getting into some great discussions. And -- my principal came in just as we were in the middle of Community Share on the question of how the divorce was affecting Brian. I was delighted with the students' participation -- can't wait to hear the principal's feedback!
Problem (maybe this is in the handbook but I haven't read that bit yet.):
What's the best approach for this? Have them read the chapter at home the night before? Suggestions? I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem! Jean |
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FROM: Jean A. Samples Grade 4 Herod Elementary Houston, TX |
MESSAGE:
Forgot to mention: One student compared the divorce to the cloud of mosquitoes that was bothering Brian. Great! |
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FROM: Liz Grube Book Club Webmaster Small Planet Communications |
MESSAGE:
Jean, some of the information about inclusion on pages 19-22 of the Teacher's Handbook is relevant to your question about integrating students with different reading skills into a single Book Club unit. I hope that other teachers who have encountered this issue will write in with their suggestions, too! |
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MARCH 6, 1998 |
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FROM: Naomi Brisendine Grade 7/8 Meadowdale Home School |
MESSAGE:
Dear Jean and Liz: Are you the only two teachers with comments submitted on this discussion group? I am a homeschool teacher in Western Washington, just north of Seattle. My oldest boy, Joe, who is fourteen, was failing miserably at public school and so I chose to homeschool him. I happened to introduce him to Gary Paulsen's books, along with a few other authors who write about outdoor adventures and was extremely impressed with his marked improvement. Gary Paulsen has an incredible talent for writing and truly "capturing" the reader. Hatchet was the first Paulsen book that Joe read. Since he has read many others, including Brian's Winter, Winterdance and Dogsong. We now have a large collection of Paulsen's books; and I feel I owe Paulsen a debt of gratitude for igniting the flame inside Joe. I only wish that I had a fraction of Gary Paulsen's talent. Hatchet is an awakening for all who read it. Thank you for the opportunity to submit my opinion.... Does Gary Paulsen have an email address? My personal email address is: downunder@foxinternet.net |
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FROM: Liz Grube Book Club Webmaster Small Planet Communications |
MESSAGE:
Naomi, thanks for writing. Yes, I'm afraid that Jean and I have been the only ones to post messages on this board during the Hatchet discussion. But we're a little less lonely now that you've written in! You write very movingly of how Gary Paulsen's work has affected your son's love of reading. I wish that I could give you Paulsen's e-mail address so that you could tell him yourself, but I was unable to find it on the Web. If you'd like to read more about him, though, try these two sites as a starting point. |
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