Daisy and Miranda

This was an emotional week reading Wonder!  We all felt the pain that Auggie and his family felt when Daisy died.  Rarely do I cry while reading aloud - I can usually disconnect enough to read sad stories without getting really emotional, but not with "Goodbye."   Lots of you joined me in crying, too!  There's just something about a beloved pet passing on that is so sad.  Auggie will especially miss Daisy because she loved him unconditionally.  I think that's why we love pets so much.  They don't care what we look like or even the way we act sometimes.  We can have a bad day, walk in the back door, and be greeted like we're heroes!  We made strong connections with those chapters.  It wasn't just a mini-lesson on text to self connections, we actually lived it!  It didn't take long until we were laughing again, though, with Auggie's mom's over-emotional reaction to Via's performance in the play.  I love how R.J. Palacio can have us crying one minute and laughing the next!

Everyone seemed happy that Miranda was a narrator.  It's so interesting how quickly we understood Miranda and didn't view her as a "villain" anymore (A villian is just a character whose story hasn't been told).  In one class we compared her to Jack.

What are your thoughts at this place in the book?  Who would you still like to hear from?  What do you think is coming up in the story?  There's still a lot to find out!

I LOVE the sentence about everyone deserving a standing ovation at least once in his/her life.  Take a look at these videos from classes who read about a boy similar to Auggie and when they heard it was his birthday, gave him a special gift.

http://animoto.com/play/SVBSNhd9wVUyhNKngROzYQ

Fantastic Friday!

We're reading lots of books in Mrs. Mueller's room!  Today we took a break from the work we were doing to silent read.  Thanks, Tyler, and Tyler's mom, for bringing sugar cookies to help us relax - they were delicious!

Lauren, Stephen, Cassandra, Paige C., Paige O., and Adam finished Bunnicula with Mrs. Hull.


Annie finished Trapped by Peg Kehret and Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

  

Paige C. finished Husky With a Heart  and Squirrels in the School by Ben M. Baglio

 

Paige O. finished Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse



Adam finished It Came From Beneath the Bed by James Howe



Blake finished Leonardo DaVinci (Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope Osborne and Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney



Caleb finished Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger



Maggie finished The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket and The Mozart Season by Virginia Euwer Wolf

 

Alec is reading Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle



Abbi is reading The Candymakers by Wendy Mass



Carter is reading The Chambers of Secrets by J.K. Rowling



Look at our Spincam of other readers!
http://spincam.net/embed/z9ap
http://spincam.net/embed/57as

Happy Birthday, Auugie and Sentence Collections

Wonderful post today by R.J. Palacio about Auggie's birthday and her amazement about how she never expected her simple book to become such a phenomenon. Read her blog post here:
http://rjpalacio.tumblr.com/
Our sentence collections were due today, and I wanted to share some of them from the group at SLE who read Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. I'll share more from other groups in subsequent posts. I was really proud of you all and the extended thinking you did while reading the book and then reflecting back on it.

Jack Will 's Journey

Jack Will is going through a lot.  He's one of the more complicated characters in the story!  He seems to be trying to figure out who he is and where he stands.  Emma was the first one to say something about Jack's comment that he never would have said the things he did on Halloween if "Boba Fett" would have been in the room instead of "Bleeding Scream."  That clearly bothered Emma.  She said that shouldn't matter anyway.  He shouldn't have said those things either way.  I wondered if any of you thought about that.

I wonder if any of you have ever gone through the conflicts Jack has.  He seems to want to do the right thing, but isn't really sure what to do or whose side he's on.  He seems disappointed in himself and is trying to make it right.  Do you have any connections with that? 

What should Auggie do?  Should he forgive Jack Will?  Why or why not?

Later in Jack's chapter, someone said Jack seems to be feeling a little of what Auggie has felt.  He's starting to understand what it's like to be alone and rejected.  Maybe that will help him learn true empathy.  Can you think of a time that you experienced something that made you more empathetic?

Here's a cool tweet from Random House Kids' publicist, Lauren Donovan:

Lauren Donovan‏@laurencdonovan
@MuellerHolly Love it - thx! You're listed today at http://choosekind.tumblr.com/  & I pinned your pic of class precepts to @randomhousekids Pinterest

That tweet was in response to a blog post I wrote about what we're doing with Wonder on a WONDERblog Tour that Random House is doing in collaboration with another teacher, David Etkin, who started #WONDERschools.  We got lots of feedback about our classroom blog and the precept door at JFB!



SLE and KME - make sure you give me your precepts so we can make a wall or door of YOUR precepts!!

Jack Will

We're all on Jack Will's part.  Jack is a hard one to figure out!  What is the real truth about him?  Is he really Auggie's friend?  What are you inferring about Jack?   Why did he say what he did to Julian when he didn't realize Auggie was listening?  How would you compare and contrast Summer and Jack? 

Summer's hint:

BLEEDING SCREAM!



Fantastic Friday

Thank you to Mr. Etkin's Ring the Bell Monday blog posts for the idea to let you know what my students are reading each week!   Mr. Etkin, I'm going to try SpinCam next week!

I didn't get a chance to talk to everyone this week about what they finished, but all the kids are either finished or close to finishing their small group books.

JFB Students:

EXCITEMENT OVER USED BOOKS I BOUGHT TO ADD TO THE CLASSROOM LIBRARY

THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE BY JERRY SPINELLI SMALL GROUP FINISHED THEIR BOOKS

MANGO-SHAPED SPACE BY WENDY MASS SMALL GROUP IS ALMOST FINISHED.  MUCH DISTRESS OVER MANGO! 

ANYTHING BUT TYPICAL SMALL GROUP ALMOST FINISHED

RULES BY CYNTHIA LORD SMALL GROUP ALMOST FINISHED

MORE EXCITEMENT OVER USED BOOKS I BOUGHT FOR THE CLASSROOM LIBRARY

Tyler finished Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Johnathan Auxier.  He also finished Spykids Adventures.

William finished Book 2 of Pendragon, The Lost City of Faar.

William also finished The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. 

Mira finished Ida B. by Katharine Hannigan

 

 

Reece finished Steel Trapp the Academy by Ridley Pearson.  Here's a video of Pearson reading from it:

 

 

 

Deacon finished Seekers:  The Great Bear Lake by Erin Hunter

 

Emma finished three books in the Camp Confidential Series by Melissa J. Morgan.

 

Jacob finished Super Fudge by Judy Blume

 

Adam finished Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

 

Cassandra finished Surprise Party by Marilyn Sachs

 

SLE STUDENTS:



OUT OF MY MIND by Sharon Draper SMALL GROUP ALMOST FINISHED

Abbi finished Dork Diaries 3

Carter finished The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Jake finished Oogie Cooder by Sarah Weeks

Jenna finished What Would You Do If You Had to Choose?

I didn't get a chance to see KME students because they participated in a Walk-a-Thon.  We'll get them next week!

 

Keep up the awesome reading everyone!  

Text to Text Connections

"Sometimes the trail you leave behind you is more important than the path ahead of you."  Tyler's precept that he liked from How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor.  I love that students are picking up characters' mottos and precepts from the books they're reading.  Way to go, Tyler!  The precepts that we have on my classroom door at JFB are very profound!  Thank you, JFB students and families, for sharing your precepts with us!  KME and SLE - bring yours in, too, and we'll make a wall or door of them!

We're about to learn what Summer has to say.  What are your predictions?  What do you think Summer's thoughts and feelings are going to be like?

Are you making text to text connections between your book group book and Wonder? 
What are they?

 I have some thoughts about the similarities and differences between Via and Catherine in Rules since they are both siblings of a brother with differences.  If you're reading Rules, what are your thoughts about that?

If you're reading Out of My Mind, are you making text to text connections between Melody's mom and Auggie's mom?  Anything else?

While reading Report to the Principal's Office, I've been thinking about the point of view.  I wonder why Jerry Spinelli decided on limited omniscient point of view instead of multiple first person points of view like R.J. Palacio used in Wonder.  What do you think?

Can you find any text to text connections between Mango-Shaped Space and Wonder?  Mia and Auggie have one big difference.  Mia has been able to hide her disorder and Auggie can't.  What do you think about that?  Has that made Mia's life easier than Auggie's?  Why or why not?  The other difference is that Auggie's disorder is physical and Mia's is mental.  Does that make a difference?  Tell me what you think.

Anything But Typical and Wonder are good for making text to text connections as well.  Jason and Auggie are both looking for ways to connect with other people.  Do they have real friends?  How can they tell and why is so difficult for them to have "normal" relationships?

Can you make connections between Joey in Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key and Auggie?  How are they alike?  How are they different?  What about the adults in their lives - are they similar?

Last but not least, does The Strange Case of Origami Yoda have any connections with Wonder?  Are there similarities between Auggie's school and Dwight's?  Do Auggie and Dwight have any of the same problems?

Is anyone reading two of the small book groups?  I think some of you chose another small group book for your independent book this month.  Can you make text to text connections between them?  I think Rules and Out of My Mind have a lot in common because Jason in Rules sounds a lot like Melody!  Also, Anything But Typical would be interesting to read after Rules because it's told from the point of view of a main character who is autistic.  You would understand Catherine's little brother, David, better, since David isn't the narrator.  Also, Joey Pigza and Report to the Principal's Office sound similar to me.

I'd love for you to comment on all this and let me know what you're thinking!