Sharayah Blog

'The Sheep-Pig' by Dick King-Smith is an absolute classic written several years ago but is still a captivating book to read. It is about a pig who is adopted by a sheep dog called Fly who looks after him and tries to teach him how to round up sheep. In unusual circumstances, Babe learns that sheep aren't as stupid as he had been taught and could successfully round up sheep by asking them politely. The sheep-pig went to a sheep dog contest and scores full marks. This children's novel has been turned into a movie also called 'Babe' which was a huge success. This novel would be directed at young children, possibly year 3.

Sharayah Blog

A book which I have read which I believe is part of an incredible series (The Chronicles of Narnia)  is 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' by C.S. Lewis. I recommend this book as I believe it is an incredibly well written and great story of fantasy with 4 siblings who discover a secret world in a Wardrobe where they become kings and queens. This particular book has been made into a film as well as another C.S. Lewis book which is also part of this series. For student's, this could be a great engagement and incentive that once they have completed the book, they are able to watch the movie. Because this book is so captivating, many work ideas can be drawn upon from this. For example, students can write a book review or an author study because it is such an incredible novel to read.

Sharayah Blog

"A Bus Called Heaven" by Bob Graham was a children's book that I read to my class of year 5's during placement. This book engaged students and they had to understand why, in the book, the bus was called heaven. As it did not directly point it out, it is a great way to capture the students and find the clues as to why it is called heaven. From this, students were able to create their own bus by drawing it and displaying their own 'heaven' bus. This book is a great way to lead into different curriculum areas including art.

Sharayah's Blog

I have read 'Counting On Frank' by Rod Clement. This book is about a boy and his dog with interesting  comparisons to measurement brought about in an amusing way. This book would be useful to introduce a topic in Mathematics and develops interesting ideas about measurement which will be useful for students around the age of year 3-4 students who may have the same sorts of questions addressed in this text.

Week Six

Finally I am a contributor, thanks Jamie

This week I have read two novels.

This first novel I have read is called ‘Tuck Everlasting’ by Natalie Babbitt. This novel involves a family whom never ages and becomes immortal because they have found a spring of water that turns out to be the fountain of youth. This novel deals with science fiction, relationships, love, life and death. This novel was a good read, I remember studying it in high school many years ago. I would recommend this novel for years eight to ten. Like the previous novel this was also made into a movie which an educator could use to turn this novel into a unit of work.

The second novel I have read is called ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ by Frank Baum. I grew up loving the Wizard of Oz film but had never actually read the novel until now. The novel was quite good and it was interesting to compare the two against each other. The novel deals with the same themes as the movie and is written in traditional narrative format. I would recommend the novel for years six to nine, but older years could also read the novel and possibly connect it to a film study.

Week 6 Books

Gertrude Chandler Warner and THE BOXCAR CHILDREN, by Mary Ellen Ellsworth:

This chapter book was a biography of Gertrude Chandler Warner who was a teacher and author from Connecticut, New England, in America. Her life spanned over almost ninety years, from 1890 to 1979, so much of what was discussed occurred many years ago. The discussion had to be considered within the appropriate context, both socially and culturally, as both these factors have changed considerably over the years. The roles of women in the early 20^th century, how education was taught in the early to mid-20^th century, and the strong religious influence within the town she lived in, all had to be considered in order to better effectively construct the meaning of the text the way it was intended.

This book could be used by middle primary students to aid in developing an understanding of cohesion within texts. There are many examples throughout the book of the different methods of linking text which can be used to develop cohesion, such as repeated words, related words, pronoun reference, and the use of conjunctions.

Patricia, by Stephen Michael King:

This picture book tells of a small girl’s unsuccessful efforts to get somebody from her family to listen to her thoughts. The illustrations in this book provide a wealth of supplementary information to the reader and really give the narrative depth and interest. The written text appears to represent the basic meaning behind each page, relying on the illustrations to expand on the story telling. The visual representation of some of the text is also used cleverly to help construct meaning of some sentences. This is achieved by enlarging font, and altering text direction creating the illusion of the written text blending with the illustrations.

This book may be used with lower primary students to develop their understanding of clauses containing a subject and verb. This book would work well for this as the clauses are short and clear, making them ideal for using as effective examples.

Little Boy, by Alison McGhee and Peter H. Reynolds:

This picture book looks at the daily events of a little boy, highlighting what is important in his day and the evidence he leaves behind that identifies his actions. The written text is structured as a poem, with a line per page and every sixth line repeating.

This book may be used with lower primary students when investigating poetry. It could be broken down and reformed on one page to clearly demonstrate its overall structure.

Group A: Week 4 group leader Charmaine Adams

This week’s activities were based around the reading ‘The importance of writing in our society’, (Ljungdahl, L & March, P 2010, The Importance of Writing in Our Society, 4^th end, Oxford, Australia).

This week we began our discussion began by identifying the different text type structures and why they are important in the teaching of language and literacy. From the reading it was agreed that there are five main text types, these include recount, procedure, report, explanation and exposition. As a group we discussed the features of each text type drawing on information displayed in pages 264-266 of the reading. The purpose of this reading was to highlight the importance for teachers to motivate students to write as often as they can by using a variety of different text types and genres (Ljungdahl, and March 2010). The discussion then focused on the activities outlined on page 269 of the reading. As a group we decided that the language and time conjunctives used in this piece of writing showed this piece was a combination of a recount and a narrative. Each member of the group identified the main errors in this piece which included spelling & punctuation mistakes and the incorrect use of commas. After identifying the different text types and how they are structured we shared our examples that were collected from newspapers and magazines. While sharing the different articles we identified that majority of the articles were from newspapers and represented narratives and reports.

The in class activity for this week required us to read a passage from the book ‘Rowan of Kin’ by Emily Rodda and identify the features and patterns in the text. Jamie identified the text was a narrative written in third person. The text included adjectives to draw in the reader and add detail and emotion to the text.  Sharayah highlighted the descriptive words used to create mood and the use of dialogue to start a conversation.

Week 4 books

Older Than the Stars; a picture book by Karen C. Fox:

This book surprised me in a few ways; it was not entirely what I was expecting. I expected it to be more general with its written information, and more detailed with its illustrations. However, the written text used scientific language such as atoms, and supernova, which presumably few young children would understand. Whereas the illustrations provided little detail, and were quite simplistic, looking as though a child had drawn them. The text-type of this book appears to be a mixture of recount, and information report, exhibiting features of both, such as recounting a sequence of events, and the use of technical terms.

This said, I believe this book would be a great way to introduce younger children to these scientific terms, and investigate the form of the information report a little further. It could also be used to model how poetry can be written, as each double page contributes another line toward the construction of a poem completed at the end of the book.

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus:

This children’s novel is about Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends, and is essentially a collection of ten short stories. In my opinion the text is aimed at a young audience, possibly the junior primary years, as the stories are quite light and fuzzy and do not tackle anything too thought provoking.  

An interesting feature of the book is that there is a deliberate effort to emphasise the point that the forest animals cannot spell correctly. My thoughts on this are that this is done to emphasise the point that the forest animals have not been educated, therefore sending a subtle message to the reader about the importance of schooling.

This book could be read to junior primary students, and possibly investigate the language used to describe characters or identify what they are doing.

Sharayah Blog

(Sorry I have just figured out how to blog so this is just a copy of a comment which was meant to be a blog)

1. Sharayah Kowalick1 August 2012 20:19

   Hello Everyone,
   My name is Sharayah and I am 20 years old. I am married and live in a country town called Balaklava so I drive to Adelaide for university. My Dad is a PE teacher so I guess my dream started because of him. I am majoring in Art and my minor subject is PE. My dream is to be able to just teach Art in a high school and my inspiration came from a lady in Ceduna (where I was born and lived most of my life) who just teaches Art and a bit of PE also. Being able to give students a passion for practical subjects and get involved is my aim because to me it is really important. For those who love these subjects I want to be able to give them the opportunity to be able to develop and go further with a career, dream, etc.

   ReplyDelete
2. 
   Sharayah Kowalick1 August 2012 20:46

   This week I visited the library and had time to read many children's literature books which I found were extremely useful and have subtle underlying messages.
   
   The first book I read was The Jolly Postman or Other People's Letters by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. I found this book to be quite interesting because of how it was written. Each page had a letter and the text in the book was all rhyming. This would be really useful to introduce to students about year 2/3 because this book can be used to introduce how to write a letter or what is a rhyme.
   
   Another book was At The Beach by Roland Harvey. This book was the same layout as 'My Place' but with a very different story. I think this book would be great for about year 3 level because of the way it uses different letters from different perspectives to create a story. Students in a classroom could practice this technique and set a scene using this method.
   
   Another book was Too Loud Lily by Sofie Laguna. This would be aimed for reception students who could be learning how to read as it has a lovely underlying message saying that you should not change who you are to suit everyone else, rather be yourself because you can shine. A book similar to this is Little Big Tree by Andy Geppert. This can also be directed for Reception/year 1 students because it has the same underlying message that it is okay to be different and to be who you are because you will be appreciated for it. It is easier to be yourself than someone else! I think these ideas are really nice to be influenced on young children and these are the sorts of books that are interesting through the illustrations and story line which would engage young students.

Week 3 Books

Sunshine by Jan Ormerod:
This picturebook has a humerous and feel good narrative. It desrcibes a mornings events from a young girls perspective, from the time she wakes to when she leaves for school. It folows the standard structure of a narrative, from setting the scene through to complication, climax, and resolution.
This book could be used with a wide range of year levels, from junior primary, where after reading the book students could be asked to produce their own stories about their morning events. To upper primary students who could be asked to investigate and identify the dominant narratives within the story, and discuss wether these are a realistic representation of our society as a whole.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham:
Due to this book being written in 1908 the language used in it can occasionally make for difficult reading, purely because some of the terms used are no longer common in our modern speech. However, this said it is still an enjoyable read and a book I think children will enjoy. It is full of adventure, and contains characters that are diverse in nature and have the potential to connect with a wide range of readers.
In regard to using this book in an educational context, I believe for younger children, it could be read to them and combined with morals learning. Whereas older students may investigate the story more deeply, looking for important themes that run through the book.

Week 3 group leader Jamie Manolev: Discussion post

We began our discussion by confirming our understanding of what we believed 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd person narrators to be. It was agreed that 1^st person narration was a story being told by a character within the story, distinguishable by the prevalent use of ‘I’ or ‘we’. 3^rd person narration was a story being told from an outside perspective and alternatively uses ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘they’ during narration. There was some uncertainty involving 2^nd person narration; however, we believed it was a story being told by a character about another character with the word ‘you’ being used as a form of address.

The in-text reference for the Gamble and Yates reading appears as (Gamble & Yates 2008)

The full reference: Gamble, N & Yates, S 2008, Exploring children's literature, 2^nd edn, SAGE, Los Angeles.

The question about the parochial statement located on page 46 had us curious as a group as to which sentence was the one in question. We surmised it may have been the statement claiming ‘everyone would have been a storyteller’, we discussed the likelihood of all members of society having the required skills for this but were still uncertain if this was the item of question. Following this Christine arrived at our table to reveal it was actually the next sentence concerning the ‘bards’ that was parochial and narrow in its assumptions.

All members of the group agreed on the basic structure of narratives, however, not all people believed this structure was present in all books they had read. Bell had described a picture book she had recently read that did not include a complication, climax, or resolution. This is not to suggest we think all picture books avoid the basic narrative structure, as I was able to share with the group a picture book I had recently read that fit the structure precisely. In regard to the Longacre version of narrative structure, we believed it was essentially an expanded and more detailed form of the basic structure.

On the statement claiming narrative allows greater freedom in the point of view, we agreed that the variety of narrative forms available provide great scope for exploring many points of view within a story. Some of these include a dialogic perspective, which provides multiple points of view, interior monologue, which focuses on the internal thoughts of one character, and an omniscient narrator that knows each character and each view point.

We agreed that the issue an author faces by including a young narrator is the risk of the story losing credibility if the young narrator appears too knowledgeable or experienced for their age.

For the statement ‘The irony is apparent in the dissonance between words and pictures’, we believed would be an appropriate description for the picture book shown during the lecture about the hen and the fox. It was clear that the written text in that book differed significantly to the story being told by the pictures, which would suggest the irony present was intentionally created by the author to encourage the reader to think more deeply about the hen’s role in the story.

‘Showing rather than telling’ is another way for an author to inform the reader, it is achieved by using techniques other than by using purely language. We discussed how we thought this technique may be effectively used to provide subtle changes in the information being given to a reader.     

Verb tenses in narratives are important as they can change the perspective from an external one to an internal one, this can be achieved by moving from a past tense to a present tense. In addition to this, the use of the present tense creates the feeling of actions being made more immediate

Intro For ME

My name is Benjamin,
I am a third year/second year student studying Drama and ICT (information computer technology)
In my spare time, I play on my Xbox 360 and Play Cricket.
I am a OSHC Educator, and I also work with St John Ambulance Australia.
I look Forward to sharing my books with you all :)