'Not Without My Daughter' by Betty Mahmoody

I always find it good to re-read books that I read back in English. So this week I read Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody.

The book is based upon true-event of the author Betty and how her life is turned upside down to what see thought was a 2 week vacation to Tehran with her Iranian husband turns into virtual imprisonment for her and her young daughter. She learns that as a wife of an Iranian, she is automatically a citizen and she has no parental rights over her daughter in that country (since females do not have any rights in Iran).

The book goes on about things such as beatings and persuasive psychological control from her husband and his relatives while living in Tehran. Finally after several years as a virtual prisoner and getting enough of it she plans an escape with her daughter with the help of Westernized Iranian friends. It goes on about her and her daughter’s journey of crossing borders illegally to get to the Swiss embassy to try to get back home to America.

I highly recommend this book be taught in English or SOSE to middle year’s students. The story is based upon real life events that get the students engaged in learning,  it can be used to teach students about life in middle-eastern countries and the hierarchy of men and women and their rights.

'A Bus Called Heaven' by Bob Graham

My mentor teacher wanted me to read this book ‘A Bus Called Heaven’  by Bob Graham to a small group of students in PAR and made concept maps about what happened in the story. The illustrations are lovely and the book is suitable for all ages (in my case I read it to a small group of grade 3 and 4s).

The story features little girl named, Stella, who brings a town of people together in an effort to restore an old bus known as Heaven. The people from the community clean up and decorate the bus and start using it as a gathering place – a place to hold meetings, a place to hang out, etc.  Until one day the bus gets towed away by the council as it seems to be blocking traffic. It seems as though the neighborhood hangout is gone forever. Until little Sophie has an idea on how to save the bus.  

The story teaches students about creativity, cooperation, appreciation and a bit of nostalgia.  It’s a wonderful book that talks about how the community comes together to put in an effort to accomplish something with passion. There are so many ways we as teachers can use this story into a lesson. Like I said I did concepts maps, another suggestion could be allowing students to write alternative endings or illustrating their favourite part of the book. It’s one of those books where you can read to all ages and they will understand it just like that as it sends out a simple message.

'Come Down, Cat!' by Sonya Hartnett

Book week often occurs in primary schools and as part of that, my mentor teacher in PAR 2 read to her class a called book Come Down, Cat!  by Sonya Hartnett. With beautiful illustrations by Lucia Masciullo, this book covers the topic about friendship and bravery.

As night starts to fall Nicholas's cat is on the roof and won't come down. Nicholas is worried that his cat may have to face the night alone and tries everything to persuade her to come down but fails. He thinks about the worst case scenarios and start to imagine things such as monsters and ghosts. It’s not until it starts raining when his catch cries for help and he must face his fears to go outside in the dark to save his beloved cat. A lovely read for any child who wants to feel a bit braver of a night.

I loved this book as it tapped into important issues that children could relate to in real life context. Also, the book is full of lots of adjective words (as discussed by my mentor teacher) which allows the students to learn more about describing different things using different words.

'The BFG' by Roald Dahl

From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, to The Witches, and many other books I’ve read of Roald Dahl, The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant) would have to be my favourite. It’s fun most adolescents can read it in a day or two. It’s easy to read and grabs the reader’s attention. Dahl creates a sense of wonder for the readers as he makes up new words (e.g. filthsome" snozzcumber) just to make it fun and engaging to read. Most of his books are the same, full of weird and quirky new vocabulary that isn’t used in the real world.

The novel is about a little girl named Sophie who lives in an orphan and is snatched from her bed by a Giant (known as the BFG), she fears that he's going to eat her. Although the BFG carries her far away to Giant Country, he has no intention of harming her. Sophie and the BFG soon develop a quick friendship. She learns that he mixes up dreams to blow through a trumpet into the rooms of sleeping children. But soon, all the BFG's powers are put to the test….

It’s a very applicable in a book about things that don’t really exist, man eating giants, it helps the reader appreciate that these things aren’t real and adds imagination to it.

Joel Blackie - 'Akimbo and the Baboons'

Image courtesy of http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2502513.Akimbo_and_the_Baboons

This week Alexander McCall Smith takes us across the globe to Africa to recount the story of a young boy named Akimbo and his encounter with some of the local baboons - Illustrations by Leuyen Pham.

The novel introduces readers to African culture, namely wild game preservation and the people who are working to keep Africa's many lifeforms safe. The language used within the book reflects this above point, particularly through the dialogue and word choices that have been selected. I.e. 'Keep them safe'. The illustrations compliment the story and give an extended insight to the actual dangers and beauty that you can come across in the game lands of Africa. - I.e. Jaguar attacks and the bond that a baboon group has for one another.

A great read.

Joel Blackie.

Joel Blackie - 'Goosebumps: Hall of Horrors - The Birthday Party of No Return!'

Image Courtesy of http://goosebumps.wikia.com/wiki/File:The_birthday_party_of_no_return.jpg

This weeks reading featured a different twist, yet no less brilliant example of children's literature than the previous books that been analyzed. Today I bring you R. L. Stine's 'Goosebumps: Hall of Horrors - The Birthday Party of No Return!'. 
R. L. Stine has a rich history of writing children's horror based literature, his books famous worldwide for their unique humorous take on the theme of horror. 'The Birthday Party of No Return' features the story of a young boy who's constant bad luck changes the moment he receives a mysterious lucky charm, but at what cost?
The writing as mentioned is humorous and the relatable nature of the children will keep young readers enthralled until the climatic ending. The novel features no illustrations and it is up to the author and his choice of words to help guide the readers imagination in the creation of the mini world he is taking them too. 

The Goosebumps series has always been a personal favourite of mine back as a young reader myself, a great introduction to children's novels that tend to steer away from the classic happy ending literature that most children are subject too.

A great theme for children to explore.

Joel Blackie.

Joel Blackie - 'Tiger's Milk'

Image Courtesy of http://www.qbd.com.au/product/9781863884686-Tigers_Milk_by_Christobel_Mattingley.htm

Christobel Mattingley's 'Tigers Milk' is a children’s novel that follows the story of young Anthony and his journey through change, diversity and unity. The story follows an easy to read structure that features elements of a self-discovery narrative that has Anthony coming to terms with and eventually facing his fears and obtaining his own positive ending.

The occasional picture compliments the story and the descriptive words of the author that do well to place you in 'The Bull Ant's' shoes, even if they are a tad too small.

Joel Blackie.

'Greetings from Sandy Beach' by Bob Graham

A child favourite of mine, is Bob Graham’s renowned picture book Greetings from Sandy Beach. The book features detailed watercolour sketches, which aid young readers in enjoying the story of a young family visiting the beach for the weekend. The journey to the beach incorporates many humorous experiences such as encountering a bus load of school children, also beach bound.

When the family arrives at the beach campsite, their faith in a neighbouring group of potentially dangerous motorbike riders is tested.  However, the Bikers turn out to be quite helpful and friendly, which allows the family, school children and the bikers to enjoy the beach harmony.

Workshop Summary - Focusing on different text-types

An exposition, a recount and a procedure – three common but different text types’ structures that were mention in our readings along with many others.

In our workshop this week, we looked at different text-types and how to identify and distinguish the differences between them by looking at the features of the form of writing piece and the language used.  The readings gave a brief insight of:

·         Different types of text exist

·         Texts serve different purposes

·         Texts are typically structured in particular ways

·         Texts have characteristic grammar features

Based upon these reading, the task to bring in 3 different text-type genres to class and identify what with the group which text-type the form of text would be classified under. Some were easy to identify such as a page out of a magazine with a recipe was an example of procedural writing. Whereas some were not easy to identify as some of the texts had a combination of the same features other text-types such as journal articles and reviews. An example used in the discussion was the Natural History article about skunks. It was classified as both a report and exposition as it gave a factual account of a skunk but also had a section that aimed to prove a point that ‘stink badgers’ was a skunk leading the reader to agree with the writer.

Not much discussion was made when asked about the importance of students in schools being taught different text types as all of our views were the same as each other’s. We reached an agreement that understanding different text-type (genres) allowed student to make more sense of texts presented to them both in and outside of school. Joel mention that with the correct teacher facilitation, children can be more involved and  motivated to write at a higher level once they hold a greater understanding of the differences between these texts and how they help the child state their point.

We also looked at the writing developmental continuum which looks at how an individual gradually develops their developmental process in writing in order to become a proficient writer. There was the experimental writing stage, the developing writer and the proficient writer. The tutor gave us 4 different writing samples for use to identify which stage the student was in.

'The Bridge to Terabitha' by Katherine Paterson

One of the novels I read in English back in high school was Katherine Paterson’s novel Bridge to Terabitha. I revisited reading this book as it is filled with imagination and adventure and it was my favourite until the movie destoryed the whole concept of it.

The story is about two children named Jess and Leslie who create a magical forest kingdom with their use of imagination – the only people who can see, feel what is going on is them two. They call this place Terabitha, and is a place where they can run away from their troubles from home or from school. The novel is based upon teaching children how to face their real-world fears as well as teaches them to use their imagination to escape reality and also about friendship.

Katherine Paterson’s book The Bridge to Terabitha is now a film. I suggest English teachers should allow the students to read the novel and then watch the movie and discuss the differences between the two different forms of multimodal text and how that played a part in telling the story line. As a result of this task, a majority of students should find that the novel is much better than the film as it describes more detail of what happens and it allows students to use their imagination to make sense of what the author is trying to portray in the book.

'The Terrible Plop' by Ursula Dubosarsky

Ursula Dubosarsky is the author I chose to do my author study on. One of picture book of hers that I came across was The Terrible Plop. The story is about a little rabbit that learns that some things in life are not as scary as they seem. A mysterious sound known as the Terrible Plop is heard in the forest and frightens the animals to run for their lives.

The story is structured as a narrative but told in a poetic way, using lots of rhyming words and repetition which young children will quickly pick up.

Filled by magnificent whacky energy of the illustrations by Andrew Joyner and the rollicking rhyming story by Dubosarsky, young children will likely be engaged in the book as it keeps them guessing to figure out this mysterious sound.

Joel Blackie - 'Say Hello to Zorro!'

Image Courtesy of http://books.simonandschuster.com/Say-Hello-to-Zorro!/Carter-Goodrich/9781416938934/

Carter Goodrich's 'Say Hello to Zorro!' is a fantastically drawn account of the trials and tribulations that arise from change and the acceptance of new ‘people’ (dogs) in your life. More importantly though, changes to your routine! - As was the case with ‘Mr Bud’.

The stylish artwork and physical expressions do well to portray the varied feelings of both the dogs throughout the story. When the dogs realise that doing their old routines with a new friend was actually more exciting, reaches out to the reader and helps solidify the message that change can be a good thing and to welcome it with open arms. The use of humour does well to bring the characters to life, leading though to a not so humorous conversation in which I had foolishly compared my partner to the somewhat bossy Zorro.

A great read.

Joel Blackie.

Joel Blackie - 'Egg and Bird'

Image Courtesy of http://cantstopreading.blogspot.com.au/2006/06/egg-and-bird-is-kind-of-book-that.html

This time around I have chosen a simpler, easy to read picture book from Alex Higlett known even more simply as 'Egg and Bird'. Simple. Is it just?

'Egg and Bird' while appearing as no more than a simple few phrases coupled with adorable simple illustrations, actually does the phrase "less is more" justice. Without complicating the reader, the text presents the idea of growing up and just what it means to do so (asking are we so different from our parents?) through its colourful illustrations and the selected language used throughout the book. Stereotypes of what a child and adult do and more so how they differ is presented and opens up the idea for discussion at home between child and parent. Perhaps ideally used when a child enters 'that phase' and begins to question just how much a parent does for a child.

A quick and rewarding read.

Joel Blackie.

Joel Blackie - 'Mending Lucille'

The next book that I have chosen to explore is J.R. Poulter's & Sarah Davis's 'Mending Lucille'.

Image Courtesy of http://www.jacketflap.com/bookdetail.asp?bookid=0734410336

‘Mending Lucille’ recounts the tale of a girl and her journey of overcoming grief over the loss of a loved one, namely her mother. The text features brilliant illustrations (the book itself a winner of the CBCA Crichton award for this reason) that do wonder to express the different range of emotions that each character in the book portrays throughout the engaging story.

One of the most touching moments in the book comes from Lucille’s comparison of a dead bird to her implied mothers plane crash. Looking down at the creature and asking her dad if she had hurt the bird, the dad replying “It’s not your fault” – A thought that some children may consider with the sudden disappearance of a parent figure.

A must read.

Joel Blackie.

Workshop Summary - Joel Blackie

A new week of reading and exploration lies before us, but first, what have we learned? It falls on me to recount what last week’s workshop has not only shown us, but also what we have shown to one another. 

A key point of discussion was initiated with the sharing of the varied children’s books we had brought to class and just how, if at all, they follow the 7 basic plot points found in this week’s Brooker reading. A mixed bag of books were presented by group members, from the simple story of Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar ‘and its quest for sustenance through to a deeper theme of overcoming grief and the loss of a loved one found within J.R Poulter & Sarah Davis’s ‘Mending Lucille’. The group was able to identify key differences between texts in their ability to deviate from one another on story elements, yet develop upon and conclude in a similar story shape and narrative flow. It would seem that perhaps the biggest revelation to dawn on the group, with some guided tutor facilitation, was that some stories just may not fit into these classic plot points, instead taking a direction and sharing a story on their own merit.

Having followed along the points made from this week’s lecture, key identifiers of verbs and nouns used, coupled with multiple layers of meaning that stem from illustrations and the way in which the words are used with one another, was another point of note and discussion.

Difficulties arose in deciding just which form of narrative each book used, the question of multiple narratives being present in the same text was also questioned, the general consensus was that the majority of the texts chosen utilised a 3^rd person narrative.

Overall the group was able to freely share thoughts and discuss any issues with one another, allowing for good group cohesion and an enlightening discussion on the different underlying themes present in each book.

Joel Blackie.

Introduction...Finally!

Greetings! My name is Joe Adamo and welcome to our “Read. Explore. Discover” Blog. This being my first blogging experience, i have struggled to access the webpage, hence the lateness of this introduction (Rookie mistake I know!). However, I am here now and excited to join Joel, Julia and Kris in identifying the interesting books we discover each week! Once again I would also like to thank Julia for creating the blog, its design is fantastic! Anyhow now the formalities are complete, here’s a little bit about myself...

I am currently a second year Primary and Middle School Education student, which will someday allow me to fulfil my ambition of being a Teacher. However, my ambitions towards Teaching haven’t always been present. See after i graduated from high school, i went through the typical ‘where to now phase’. This led me to choose the undergraduate course of Human Movement and Health Science, in which I disliked. The reasoning for my choice was based upon my love for sport, as Human Movement incorporates sport science and physical practice. Furthermore, it was only until I selected an education based elective in “Teaching Motor Skills”, that I knew teaching was just the thing for me! Whether it is the smile of the students, the paper plane thrown across the class or the satisfaction you receive after successfully assisting students in learning a new concept, teaching in my eyes is inspiring!

I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you as my discovery progresses!

Joe

The Little Refugee by Anh Do & Suzanne Do

The Little Refugee tells the uplifting and inspiring childhood story of one of Australia’s favourite personalities Anh Do – he’s autobiography The Happiest Refugee tells the exact same story but in more detailed. The children’s book written by himself and his wife Suzanne, retells Anh and his family’s journey fleeing from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat just to get to Australia. Although the children’s book does not describe some of the events in greater detail such as facing murderous pirates and terrifying storms, the illustrations Brue Whatley illustrates in the book says it all. The story goes on about life in suburban Australia was hard for him as a little boy who spoke no English, but as he grew up he learnt to see the bright side of life no matter what the difficulty.

I came across this great children’s book The Little Refugee after reading Anh’s autobiography The Happiest Refugee. Both books tells the exact same story of his journey but are targeted at a different audience. I found these a great read as it tells the story of a real-life event of a famous Australia. It mentions a lot of things that children and also adults can relate to such as family struggles and the transition of moving to new places and adjusting to a new environment. It gives a great insight and teaches children that no matter how hard life is, everything is going to be okay – always look on the bright side of life.

Joel Blackie - 'Willy the Wimp'

The first book that I have decided to explore comes from my own childhood collection, Anthony Browne's 'Willy the Wimp'.

Image courtesy of http://www.janetevans.co.uk/lit_text_sets.shtml

An older book first published in the early 80's, the characters clothing and mannerisms reflect this quite well, as the entirety of the book is full of large colourful images that tell a story alone without the aid of the written text. I enjoyed re-reading 'Willy' as the themes surrounding bullying, self worth and change are much more apparent to me now, though the message can be realitively clear to  younger learners with the correct guidance and discussion.

Willy's face expressing how most feel about changing diets
Image courtesy of http://www.kids-bookreview.com/2009/05/review-willy-wimp.html

The artwork does wonders to express the different emotions taking place throughout the book be it fear, happiness down to even a hint of a smirk. The use of comedy will also appeal to readers both young and old, doing well to soften the underlying deeper themes within without taking away any of their importance.

A great read.

Joel Blackie.

Blogging...?

Welcome!

This being my first ever blogging experience, I guess I should firstly introduce myself. Hi, my name is Kris and as both, Julia and Joel have both stated below we will each be updating this blog on a regular basis with various thoughts and text analysis. Again, thanks to our expert blogger Julia for creating this blog for our group. Bravo!

Well I am currently in my second year of my primary and middle school teaching degree, which I am enjoying every bit so far! Besides the readings…. Anyway, while I was growing up, I didn’t always want to be a teacher but like most kids, it changed from being a pilot, superman, astronaut, doctor, superhero etc. While I was in my final years of high school I decided I wanted to become a teacher, but of course, me being extremely lazy in year 12, I didn’t get a high enough TER score to get into teaching and UniSA. This was when I decided to go with my back up choice, which was completing a Diploma in Multimedia. I had always enjoyed 3D animation and 3D modelling, and thought it was something I would enjoy doing as a career. Again, this changed when it came to the end of my year and started applying for jobs; it was extremely hard to get a job in this field, let alone in South Australia. So once I decided to put that to the side and transfer into Primary and Middle School Teaching with my Diploma in Multimedia. When receiving the letter of acceptance I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to finish this degree and begin inspiring and pushing young children into perusing their goals!

Kris

A little insight

A simple task but so hard to do and some may agree with me on this one. Writing an introduction about yourself is the most difficult thing one can possibly do. Especially when you know it will published for the world to see. The question that always plays through my mind is “Where do I start?”  I can stare at the computer screen with an open Word document for hours and nothing can be written besides from three words… ‘Hi I’m Julia’. By the way, I’m Julia and welcome to this my groups’ blog ‘Read.Explore.Discover’. As mention in his last post from my colleague Joel, this blog will slowly progress week by week with a number of collective amalgamation ideas and book reviews in saying so this blog is about READING books and EXPLORING and analysing the text of the author and making DISCOVERIES of the meaning conveyed in these texts.

I’m currently in my second year of my primary and middle school teaching degree. Before I did my teaching degree I was studying a Bachelor of Social Work at UniSA in Magill for a year before transferring. The reason for this was that I didn’t get a high enough TER score to get into my first preference Bachelor of Education (Primary & Middle) or second preference which was Bachelor of Journalism. Teaching and writing are two things I wanted to do as a child. I can say that I’m slowly living my dream. How? My current degree allows me to teach students and hopefully inspire them and this blog will be the third blog I’ve have written since entering my young adulthood stage. I believe blogging or writing down things are a great way to express your thoughts especially when it’s hard to express them to people and you will soon see it in the content of this blog as it slowly progresses.