This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books, other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not)
Summary: Jack, a seventeen-year-old storyteller, goes to the royal city seeking his fortune and soon attracts the attention of the grief-stricken king, his beautiful eldest daughter, and his cruel young son, and he attempts to help them–and the entire kingdom–through his stories.
Read Aloud Recommendation: While this story is not as fast paced as some of the other nominees, Jack’s stories and adventures should hold students’ attention. This would be a good selection to use when discussing oral traditions.
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books, other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).
Summary: Troy, a sixth-grader with an unusual gift for predicting football plays before they occur, attempts to use his ability to help his favorite team, the Atlanta Falcons, but he must first prove himself to the coach and players.
Read Aloud Recommendation: Students who are sports fans will love the subject matter and the cinematic descriptions of games. Others will just enjoy the fast-moving plot. This is a great selection for a read-aloud. I think that it would be especially fun to use in a mathematics class as part of a unit that focuses on connections between mathematics and football.
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).
Summary: Lin O’Neil, a talented but shy girl growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, develops a close relationship with her Japanese grandmother, who shares Lin’s gift of precognition.
Hiroshima Day Lesson Plan (pdf) This pdf document is a multi-day unit on Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and Hiroshima Day with color illustrations of the story.
This site contains lesson plans divided by grade levels: elementary (1-5), junior high (5-8), and high school (9-12). Many of these lesson plans deal with American/Japanese relations before and after WWII. For example, one lesson plan explores prejudice and appreciation of other cultures through relating the story of friendship dolls that were sent from America to Japan in 1926. Another lesson deals explores the story of Sadako and focuses on Hiroshima Day. Teachers should find plenty of ideas at this site.
This site will help teachers and students to complete an engaging research project as part of a study of the historical novel Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, a true story about a girl who lived in Hiroshima on the day that the United States dropped the atomic bomb on that city in an attempt to end World War II. This book would be a great companion novel to read before or after Hiroshima Dreams, or this assignment could be adapted. To better understand the novel, student assignments include research about this event in history and its effect on the people of Hiroshima and the world at large. This site includes mini-lessons, resources, and assessment tools.
Read Aloud Recommendation: This coming of age novel probably lacks the action to hold students’ attention as a traditional read aloud, but it would be great for literature circles and for the teacher to read aloud in segments. I would recommend it as a companion novel to Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes as it deals with the aftermath of Hiroshima and the effects of the atomic bomb generations later.
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).
Summary: A struggling American ventriloquist in post-World War II Europe is possessed by the mischievous spirit of a young Jewish boy killed in the Holocaust. (Includes author’s note which details the murder of over one million children by the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s.)
Anne Frank Museum, Amsterdam Online exhibits, Photos, and Information about Anne Frank and her World-Famous Diary including a 3-D Tour of Anne’s Hiding Place (The Secret Annex) Holocaust Cybrary @ remember.org
Powerful Art by Children and Survivors as well as a Virtual Tour of Auschwitz
Description: YouTube Video of Terry Fator Performance on Letterman
Please view this version of the video, as it is from the original source, if possible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bPmwzhqEgw
Ventriloquist Video
(Version for Schools Who Cannot Access YouTube)
Read Aloud Recommendation: Students love a good ghost story and this is no exception! Teachers will find this to be a good read aloud to use as part of a study of the Holocaust and War Crimes Trials that followed World War II.
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).
Summary: Tess has always loved math. She uses mathematical concepts to help her understand things in her life, so she is dismayed to find out how much math, and life, can change in eighth grade.
Tutorials, worksheets, games, puzzles, flashcards, and more are available on this site!
http://www.mathleague.com This site has a mathematics help facility section with math explanations. However, the coolest part feature of this site is the math contests by grade level. Schools have to purchase the materials in order to participate (free samples are available for practice), but they are very reasonable ($30 for 30 booklets).
http://www.purplemath.com
This site is designed to help students gain understanding and confidence in algebra. In addition to on-site lessons, there is a great list of additional Web sites for more assistance.
Read Aloud Recommendation: This wouldbe a really fun book to read to middle school students, or advanced upper elementary students during the beginning or end of math class. What a neat way to explore math concepts!
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).
Summary: During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker’s classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.
Folger Shakespeare Library: It’s Elementary! Stomping and Romping with Shakespeare
(Using Dr. Seuss to teach the rhythm of language in Shakespeare’s songs.) http://www.folger.edu/eduLesPlanDtl.cfm?lpid=583
Read Aloud Recommendation:
This coming-of-age novel will have the teacher and students laughing out loud. It deals with the angst of junior high school life with humor that students will appreciate. This is a great choice to read aloud.
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).
Summary: In Florida, Anna Casey lives with what she hopes is the last in a long line of foster mothers, and Mica Delano lives with her father on their small boat, and when the two of them begin corresponding, they discover they have a lot in common.
Description: Islamorado Chamber of Commerce Video (Same Video Found in Link Shown Above)
This posting of the same video is for schools who cannot access YouTube due to content filtering. Please view the video from the original source if possible.
Tallahassee Nature Video (You Tube) Description: YouTube Video about Tallahassee Nature
Please view this version of the video, as it is from the original source, if possible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwctKuura78
Description: YouTube Video of Tallahassee Nature
This posting of the same video is for schools who cannot access YouTube due to content filtering. Please view the video from the original source if possible.
Related Links: Wakulla River/Springs
Read Aloud Recommendation: This book, with alternating narrative perspectives, letters, and sepia drawings depicting wildlife and packages that the main characters, Anna Casey and Mica Delano, discuss and exchange in the course of the novel, is best suited for individual readers. In my opinion, the reader would lose a certain intimacy if this book is read aloud. Students who read this book will definitely want to read others in the series. At this time, the author has written five novels set in her Tallahassee neighborhood. These novels, in order, are:
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).
Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf
Summary: From her home in Lidice, Czechoslovakia, in 1942, eleven-year-old Milada is taken with other blond, blue-eyed children to a school in Poland to be trained as “proper Germans” for adoption by German families, but all the while she remembers her true name and history.
Read Aloud Recommendation: This book, based on a true story, will allow students a glimpse into the lives of children in Nazi occupied countries during World War II.This is a compelling story of one girl’s struggle to maintain her identity despite being torn away from her family and country. I believe students will be immersed in this story from the first chapter. I recommend it for students in grades 5 and up. It is an essential piece of literature for World War II study.
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).
Summary: Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American South in 1859, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family’s freedom.
Video Interview by Scholastic (Part I and II) Description: YouTube Videos of Interview with Christopher Paul Curtis
Please view this version of the videos, as it is from the original source, if possible.
Description: YouTube Videos of Interview with Christopher Paul Curtis
This posting of the same videos is for schools who cannot access YouTube due to content filtering. Please view the video from the original source if possible.
Read Aloud Recommendation: I am ambivalent about my recommendation on this book. I do not want to turn anyone off to the story. I think it is a “must read” for students in grades 5 and up, but I have to be straightforward with teachers who may be looking for a page turning, “keep ‘em on the edge of their seats” read aloud. I found the first half of the book difficult to read because I found it hard to relate to the main character, Elijah. In fact, it took me longer to read this book than any of the other Georgia Book Award nominees. I think that the dialect and the author’s use of stories within the story distant the reader at first. However, the last six chapters of the book redeemed it for me. The last part of the book is very powerful, particularly the scene in the barn where Elijah finds five captured slaves. It will make students think about slavery in terms that a dry textbook will never be able to do. Because this book explores the topic of slavery from a different perspective, that of a child born into freedom in the Canadian settlement of Buxton, and because of the humor in the story, I believe students will find the first part of the book enlightening and enjoyable, but slow paced. However, they will find the last part of the book exciting, moving, and memorable. I highly recommend this title for students (grades 5 and up) who are learning about the history of slavery in the United States.
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books–other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not).
Summary: One day a stranger comes to claim Billy Creekmore from the Guardian Angels Home for Boys; and he embarks on a cross-country journey in search of his past, his future, and his own true self.
Read Aloud Recommendation: Older students (grades 4 and up) will enjoy exploring the twists and turns of Billy Creekmore’s life from an Appalachian orphanage to the West Virginia coal mines, and finally, to traveling circuses. Told in Billy’s voice, this historical tale about a boy who has to make his way in the world, relying on his own resources, will appeal to students’ sense of adventure in the same way that Huck Finn and Oliver Twist appeal to young readers.
This year I plan to read all the GA Book Award Nominees and provide a “one stop” resource for teachers who would like to use these books in their classrooms. I will be posting links to author Web sites, teacher’s guides, and related Web links. I hope to make this an unbiased resource, so I will not be providing my own review of the books, other than recommending it as a read aloud (or not)
by: Wendy Lichtman
by: Gary D. Schmidt
by: Adrian Fogelin
by Joan M. Wolf
by Christopher Paul Curtis
: by Tracey Porter