Help Needed!

I went to HOSTS today for an hour and read and did activities with "my" two students.  Unfortunately, the little girl I read with during the second half of my hour nearly refuses to read a book longer than 30 or so pages.  Her reading level has been increasing so she is up to "chapter books", books that are about 70 pages.  I am constantly encouraging her but she reads slowly and so quietly that I can barely hear her.  I know she does it because she doesn't want to read a long book, and I don't know how to help her get past this problem.  Even when I was in high school, my friends would pick books based on the length, and that is a terrible thing to do.  It's like choosing a book by its cover.  If anyone has any suggestions on ways to encourage her and help her without intimidating her, I would greatly appreciate it!  I feel like she will be reading short books for the rest of the school year, when I know she can read longer ones.  The words and concepts are no different than the shorter books, she just gets frustrated that they seem long.  Please help!

What I thought of the Test

Is it okay to write a response to the test for a blog?  I hope so...because I am!  I found this test much easier than the last, but that could be attributed to studying.  :)  This time around, I knew how to study and I did, verses thinking I would just wing it.  Also, I found that the sections where we could pick several questions to answer made it much less stressful than answering every question.  For this third of the  class, my favorite thing was poetry.  It was more interesting than I have ever know it to be, and I really enjoyed the nonsense and humorous poetry.  Up next: The Hobbit!  It is one of my favorite books and I have read it several times, but I will be interested to see what Dr. R says about it.   

Comparing and Contrasting Rossetti and Stevenson

"Sing-Song, A Nursery Rhyme Book" by Christina Rossetti

• Themes deal with love, death and parting (The realities of life)
• More tragic and sad than Stevenson's collection
• None of the poems have titles
• The poems follow the cycle of life/day/year and tell the story from start to finish
• Begins and ends with an image of a baby in a cradle
• Illustrations by Arthur Hughes add depth and meaning to the verses and make the reader think more about the words.  
• Both collections were published around the same time period (within ten years)
• Pushes didacticism 
• Not written from a child's point of view, and adults are present much more in the verses/poems 

"A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Lois Stevenson

• Themes deal mainly with play, adventure, travel, nature, imagination, fun, and the joys of childhood
• Poems written from a child's point of view, obviously to be read by a child
• The illustrations are rather generic
• Verses are nostalgic and joyous
• Playful
• Works against didacticism, many present an ironic tone about adults
• All the verses have a title

Childhood is Calling

Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses really struck a chord in me, as I believe it probably does for many of it's readers.  Every poem transports you to a fantastic place in your childhood, whether playing outside among the trees and flowers or getting ready for bed.  The poems dealing with nature are my favorite.  They remind me of when my brother and sister and I would spend our summers in the creek behind our house.  Countless hours were devoted to swimming, looking for animals, and building imaginary play things.  The verses flow and fit together very well, yet do no not get too "adultish".  It is obvious that this collection is specifically for children, but I can understand how many adults would also enjoy it!

Over Easter break I read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit.  She published the book in 1975 and in 1881 a movie was made following the book.  There was also a remake of the movie in 2002 (A fabulous movie, by the way!).  I found this book very interesting and fun to read.  Although rather easy to follow, it is in no means dull or bland.  The plot takes unexpected turns and the conflict is dramatic.  The Tuck family, along with Willie, have the hardest decision of their lives to make when Mae is imprisoned for killing a man.  If she is sentenced to be put to death, they will discover the secret the family has of immortality.  If they just sentence her to prison, they will eventually figure out that she does not age.  Either way is out of the question for the family, so they devise a plan to help her escape.  Throughout the book the characters develop nicely and interact in a way that makes the reader fall in love with them.  It is a wonderful piece of children's literature as well as a great movie.  

The Secret Garden

Right now I'm watching 1949 version of The Secret Garden (I know right, what an exciting Friday evening!) starring Herbert Marshall, Dean Stockwell and Margaret O'Brien.  It is all black and white except for the garden, which is seen in color.  1949 seems like such a long time ago!  I have read the original book, as well as seen the newer version of the movie.  Compared to both the book and other movie this film is slow and mundane.  Although it seems rather similar to the book's story line, there are a few differences so far.  At the beginning of the movie, Mary seems to get much closer to the crying she hears in the house than she does in the movie.  The manor is also made out to very dark and daunting.  This is also the case in the book, but it is very evident when there are actual pictures to watch.  The bird in the movie is a raven, as is not the case in the book.  These differences play a rather minor role in the movie/book comparison, but they are relevant none the less. 

African American Poetry

My favorite poem in the collection we read in class today was Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou.  I feel like anyone reading the verses can relate at some point in their life.  "That new classroom where Boys all pull my hair...they don't frighten me at all."  The disscusion about African American poets today also interested me a great deal.  Angelou, Brooks, Cullen and Hughes all have different styles and sounds, but every one of the poems we read by them are amazing. The Harlem Renaissance really brought some amazing art to the American scene!

A Children's Poem?

After hearing The Highwayman in class, I decided to do some research on it.  It doesn't really seem like a children's poem, but I really enjoyed it.  I found that highwaymen, or horsed thieves, were common in England between 1650 and 1800.  They gained respect due to their gentleman-like attitude.  They also always well dressed, which is made evident in the poem.  It was published by Alfred Noyes in 1906 and gained instant success.  Noyes was only a young man.  He is also know for writing The Barrel Organ and several other collections of poetry.  

Personally, I loved the poem, as well as the version put to music we listened to in class.  The vivid descriptions and great story make the poem worth reading over and over again.  However, I still do not understand how a poem of this nature can be considered children's literature. 

Frightful's Mountian

Yah for Spring Break and lots of reading!  One of my outside readings I chose to dive into over break was Frightful's Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  It is the third book in a series of three, the first being My Side of the Mountain.  I read this one and the second recently, so I decided on the third as one of my chapter books.  The book is about a peregrine falcon named Frightful.  As the story opens, she has been captured by a man wanting to illegally sell her.  After she escapes she must decide whether to go back to Sam (her previous keeper) or migrate like the rest of her kind.  She continues to endure hard decisions that should be easy for a peregrine falcon, but they are made hard by her background in captivity.  Reading about her hardships brought forth the issue of how harmful it can be to wild animals to live under the eye of humans, even when it seems like the right thing to do at the time.  She not a normal bird, she has a hard time understanding her instincts, and she too easily gets involved with humans.  It made me wonder whether things would have been better for both Sam and Frightful if neither had ever come into contact with one another.  The underlying theme in the book is one that society must address in real life, not only in children's literature.  Overall, I enjoyed reading the book again, but liked it better the first time around. 

Poetry!

Today we started our section on poetry, more specifically nonsense and humor poetry.  This is my favorite!  I love Shel Silverstien, and I absolutely loved Jabberwocky.  I had never read it, but oh what fun!  Also, it was great to listen to Dr. R read Spagetti Nut out loud.  From now on I will definalty be reading poems like this one out loud.  The effect just can't be achieved without listening to the words work together!  Over Spring Break I will be reading more poems, and I'm really excited to start all of them.  I have never really studied poetry before now.  

Cartoons

Every Monday morning I go to HOSTS, and then go watch cartoons with a friend.  Before this semester I really never watched cartoons, even when I was a child.  But after watching an hour or so every week of Winnie the Pooh or the Backyardigins, I realize how they could effect a child's development.  I understand that too much television is not good for kids, and that they should be active, cartoons seem to give them something to think about.  Each one has something different and unique about it, and many of them have an educational undertone.  Dora the Explorer is also another one of the shows I like (Ok, I don't like it, I think it might be good for children).  It incorporates something many other televisions programs don't, a foreign language.  We all know that the earlier a child is exposed to a different language, the easier it will be to learn to speak it fluently.  I am just now beginning to realize how influential watching cartoons can be for children, even thought the time in front of the tube should be limited.  

Spirituality in THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN

After our class discussion about George MacDonald's spirituality, I began to recognize it in his book The Princess and the Goblin.  The "three levels" of his work, the underworld, the regular world, and Grandmother's tower, make so much more sense.  Another thing I noticed was the cleansing power of the burning roses, much like a form of baptism.  They have the ability to clean, heal and warm.  They also have a calming affect.  On page 116 it says "...she [Princess] only knew there was no fear in her, and everything was so right and safe that sit could not get in."  This was the effect the roses had on her, and I believe the ultimate trust in the Lord would parallel this feeling.  If we put our total trust in Him, we should not be afraid or worry at all.  Grandmother also uses the roses as a sort of tool to heal Curdie, something I find interesting.  Although I cannot think of a specific "tool" God uses to heal believers, I do know that he heals in a way nothing else can.  It is quite obvious that MacDonald was a strong Christian and the way he portrays it through this work is amazing.