Module 2-NCTE Award Poetry/LS 5663-20

A jar of tiny stars: poems by NCTE award-winning poets. Bernice E. Cullinan. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Boyds Mill Press, Inc., 1996. ISBN 1-56397-087-2
This book is a collection of NCTE award-winning poets. Each poet shares a source of the inspiration for their work. At the end of the book, not only do the award-winning poets share about their sources of inspiration, information is given about their life accomplishments. Many of the poems share about familiar childhood experiences, such as selling lemonade or the birth of a new puppy. Each of the poems were chosen by children and the poems consistently show evidence of the high quality of writing.
The following poem would be a great introduction to a poetry study.
How to eat a poem
-Eve Merriam
Don’t be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.
You do not need a knife or fork or spoon or plate or napkin or tablecloth.
For there is no core
Or stem
Or rind
Or pit
Or seed
Or skin
To throw away.
As a way to introduce this poem, I would have an assortment of fruit and talk about what happens when you eat a piece of fruit. Does juice run down your chin? Do you hear a crunch? Is the fruit soft, hard, squishy, or firm. As the students are sharing, I would have them brainstorm as many words as possible to describe the fruit. After the students eat a piece of fruit, I would read the poem and have the students think about what happened as they ate their piece of fruit. I would then have the students writing a line for a class book using the sentence starter, When I bit it my apple(or whatever their fruit is), the fruit was__________. If possible, I would use shaped -writing paper and have each student choose the shape closest to the fruit that they sampled. This activity could be also be used for a unit on the food pyramid and healthy eating habits.

Module 2-Multicultural Poetry/LS 5663-20

Module 2-Multicultural Poetry
Alarcon,Francisco X.. Laughing tomatoes and other spring poems/Jitomates risuenos y otros poemas de primavera. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book Press/Libros para ninos, 1997. ISBN 0-89239-139-1
Francisco Alarcon uses the concept of springtime and different vegetables to stimulate thoughts and emotions of special times with family, such as meal times or cooking with family. Many memories are evoked by a certain smell or by eating a certain food. The illustrations bring the words to life and the language used gives the reader such elaborate descriptions of foods often found in the Hispanic culture. I would love to be able to read, and verbalize the Spanish language in order to truly appreciate the gift of words given by the poet. Any of the poems in this book would be amazing to share during Hispanic Heritage Month(September) or during Cinco de Mayo. I would love to have parents come in an share the favorite moments while cooking with their parents, and possibly read the following poem:
My Grandma’s Songs
Would follow the beat of the washing machine
Turning our kitchen into a dance floor
Consoling the chairs placed upside down
Delighting the family portraits on the walls
Putting to sleep the sheets on the clothesline
Giving flavor to the boiling pot of beans
The songs my grandma used to sing
Could make the stars come out
Could turn my grandma into a young girl
Going back to the river for water
And make her laugh and cry at the same time.
The familiar childhood experiences described in several of the poems bring back memories and for all that read the poems, drawing the reader to a time of simplicity and innocence. The writings use imaginative, descriptive words to enlighten the reader about topics shared in the Hispanic culture.

Module 2-Florian Poetry/LS 5663-20

Module 2-Florian Poetry
Florian,Douglas. Insectlopedia. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998.
ISBN-10: 0152013067
Douglas Florian does an amazing job of introducing the reader to insects that can usually cause one to cringe, scream or run away in fear. The topics of insects is naturally appealing to younger children and this book of poetry would be an excellent resource when doing a thematic study. The tone of each poem is light and playful, making one feel as if they are outside in the garden watching the bugs play and crawl around.
Florian presents each of the insects poems in a fresh and imaginative way. For example, in the poem, The Whirligig Beetles, it is written in a circular pattern to simulate their whirling and twirling in circles.
As an introduction to an author study on Eric Carle, I would began the unit with the following poem,
The Crickets
You don’t need tickets
To listen to crickets.
They chirp and cheep for free.
They fiddle and sing
By rubbing each wing,
And never will charge you a fee.
After reading this poem, I would have the students share what they know about crickets and share what information that they would like to find out about crickets. I would then read The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle. After reading the book, I would have the students work on retelling the story by sequencing the different animals that the cricket encounters throughout the book.

Module 1-Hopkins Collection/LS 5663-20

Hopkins,Lee B.. Me! A book of poems. New York: The Seabury Press, 1970.
(No image available)
(No ISBN, only Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-115782)
Each of the poems compiled in this book evoke a moment of wonder from our childhood. Many of the poems chosen by Lee Bennett Hopkins bring back memories of childhood. Each poem chosen highlights a child’s unique individuality and each poem allows for self discovery. Discovering shadows, climbing trees, and the fascination of losing a tooth are among the topics used to stimulate the emotions of the reader. Each of the poems would be perfect to share with reluctant readers using choral reading or echo reading in order to encourage fluency. The illustrations done by Talivaldis Stubis help the reader to visualize what the poets are sharing.
The poems are compatible with the theme of the book. Hopkins chose poems that would encourage young readers to share their thoughts, share their experiences, and have a sense of wonder about themselves.
The following poem would be useful at the beginning of the school year, when teachers are asking students to share about themselves.
Everybody Says by Dorothy Aldis
Everybody says
I look just like my mother.
Everybody says
I’m the image of Aunt Bee.
Everybody says
My nose is like my father’s
But I want to look like ME!
I would use this poem when working on units and stories about family. This poem could be part of an at home project in which students could share information about their family. I usually do this project every year and I have my students share what activities they like to do with their families, what make their family special and then this information is compiled into a class family album that is kept in the library center of our classroom. This poem could also be shared as a way to begin an author study on Kevin Henkes or Jan and Stan Berenstain.

Module 1-School Poetry/LS 5663-20

Harrison,David L.. Somebody catch my homework. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill Press, Inc., 1993.
ISBN 1-56397-520-3
From the moment that you pick up this book and begin reading, you are transported back in time. Each of us has forgotten information for a test or left homework at home. As adults, we tend to put those memories aside until we experience it with our own children. Harrison brings to life the emotions felt by students who have struggled with the possibility of having to write a story for homework or having to eat what the cafeteria is serving. Harrison does an excellent job of using words to help students visualize ideas, such as describing the lumps in the mashed potatoes as glue or comparing applesauce as watery goo. The poem is written in a rhyming format to allow a beginning reader to enjoy listening for each set of rhyming words.
The following poem could be enjoyed by any age group and could be used to introduce a unit on the food pyramid and healthy eating habits.
New Here?
You’ll love our food at our school.
Oh yes!
The lumps in the potatoes are glue
We guess.
The beef never mooed like a cow
You can bet
Though very few kids have died from it…
Yet.
The rolls are great to stone squirrels
From trees
But some of us blast them with
Buckshot peas.
The applesauce is watery
Goo
But suck it right down ‘cause it’s good
For you.
The best, of course, we all save for last-
Bouncing our Jell-O down the hall
Real fast.
I would also use this poem to share as students are preparing to go to lunch and have them think about how we could describe our lunch. This is a great opportunity to working on using describing words. Using an add from the newspaper or a magazine showing food, I would have the students verbally describe the food represent and ask them to use different adjectives, such as crunchy, smooth, puffy, and gooey.

Module 1-African American Poetry/LS 5663-20

Grimes,Nikki. A dime a dozen. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1998.
ISBN 0-8037-2227-3
This collection of poems by Nikki Grimes shows her journey as a young woman of color struggling with issues of appearance, growing as a writer and dealing with the divorce of her parents. In the first poem, we see the determination of a young woman to achieve her dreams, in spite of her circumstances.
The Dream
Oh! To poet
like a laser,
pierce darkness
with one word!
I would use this poem as a catalyst for achieving your dreams. Children are not often allowed to dream about what they would like to do. This poem could be used to encourage students to write about they would like to achieve as adults. I would have the students list several goals that they would like to accomplish and share why. I feel that this activity would be beneficial for intermediate students. As an ice-breaker for the activity, I would have different staff members write about what their future goals were as young adults, without including their name and then have the students try to match the correct staff member with the story shared. As the instructor, I would also share what my goals were and how I felt in my journey to achieve them.
This specific book is broken down into three different sections, with each section giving the reader insight into the life of Nikki Grimes. As an introduction to the book, the poet shares that her mother tells her that writers are “a dime a dozen” and writers don’t come from their neighborhood. I feel that these poems can evoke memories of a time when each of us have been told that we need to be realistic and stop dreaming. This experience can bring about resentment and pain that many would not want to revisit. Nikki Grimes took her experience with being told to give up her dream, and through her words, she can encourage young writers to never give up on their dreams, no matter what.
Nikki Grimes has also shared the emotion of a child dealing with divorce. This topic is unfortunately something readers of all ages have experienced. As a child of divorce, she shares through her work the stress of worrying about the emotional state of both parents, financial issues and trying to have a healthy relationship with both parents. I feel that the following poem would be helpful to students who are struggling with these issues.
Untitled
It happened
to Maria
Malik
and Danny Gold;
To Javier
and Suki
Jim Roth
and Suzy Chow.
My parents
got divorced
last month
…..I guess I fit in now.

Genre 6-LS 5603 Book Review-Newberry Award Winner

Book review-Newberry award winner
1.Bibliography-Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. New York, Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN 9780385737425
2. Plot Summary-This is the story of a 6th grader named Miranda, who receives a mysterious note and strange things begin to happen in her life. Miranda and her mother are working to prepare for an appearance on the television game show, The $20,000 Pyramid. Mysterious notes, missing objects and unusual characters in her neighborhood help Miranda discover the important things in her life.
3. Critical Analysis-The character of Miranda is one with whom readers can identify. As the female protagonist, she is the only child of a single-working mother, who wants a better life for her and her daughter. Throughout the novel, many of the events that Miranda and her friends encounter help to facilitate their growth into adulthood. Set in to 1970’s, Miranda’s neighborhood is described in detail paying careful attention to the eccentric characters in and near her apartment building. With the addition of the mystery notes that begin to show up, the plot takes a strange twist and Miranda begins to make connections between the notes and occurrences in the neighborhood. She feels that the notes are going to lead to something tragic, and is unsure of what the future actually holds. This story presents a young woman on the verge of becoming a teenager and all of the problems and triumphs one her age can encounter. Rebecca Stead uses a delicate balance of dialogue and narration from the viewpoint of Miranda, while concentrating on building a better relationship with her mother, Richard-her mother’s boyfriend and her friends.
Texas Lone Star Book 2010-2011
Newberry Medal Winner 2010
School Library Journal(starred review)- “Stead's novel is as much about character as story. Miranda's voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation. The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way. The setting is consistently strong. The stores and even the streets–in Miranda's neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways.”
Kirkus Reviews(starred review)-"[W]hen all the sidewalk characters from Miranda's Manhattan world converge amid mind-blowing revelations and cunning details, teen readers will circle back to the beginning and say,'Wow ... cool.'"

Booklist(starred review)- "[T]he mental gymnastics required of readers are invigorating; and the characters, children, and adults are honest bits of humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest."

The Horn Book Magazine (starred review)- "Closing revelations are startling and satisfying but quietly made, their reverberations giving plenty of impetus for the reader to go back to the beginning and catch what was missed.

People Magazine-"Absorbing."

The Wall Street Journal-"Readers ... are likely to find themselves chewing over the details of this superb and intricate tale long afterward."


5. Connections-
Another book by Rebecca Stead:
Stead, Rebecca. First Light. ISBN-10: 0440422221