Book Talk Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Craft Lesson # 3: Getting Away With Murder

Title: Feature Story Writing

Rational: Students often complain that they cannot find anything to write about. By showing students that feature articles in the newspapers are written by reporters that go in search of a good story that is written to target a specific audience. Students will learn how to find a story when there appears to be no story by conducting a personality profile on another student to find something interesting to write about.

Resources: Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case, Daily newspapers with feature story examples

Discussion: The author of Getting Away with Murder: The true story of the Emmett Till Case, Chris Crowe, was conducting an interview with Newberry award winner Mildred D. Taylor. In preparation of her interview, Taylor had mentioned Emmett Till in an essay that Crowe had read. He decided to follow up on that reference to see if he needed to include more information in his writing. He used this lead to write 2 more books on the subject of Emmett Till and his murder case.

What to do: Group students in partners and have them interview each other like a reporter would. They are to find out some interesting things about his person that they might be able to use to develop a feature story.

Extension: Have the students actually interview at least 3 people that know the student (parents, siblings, teachers, coaches, enemies) and develop a feature story to be published (after being reviewed by teacher) in the school newspaper.

TEKS: (9th grade) 6,8

Book Review for Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Jeff Kinney, who began publishing his Greg Heffley cartoons in 2004 on funbrain.com as a way to keep kids interested in the site after school was out for the summer, was able to bring in multiple audiences when he published his cartoons in a novel, although He never intended to publish the cartoons online. Greg is in middle school and has many of the same issues that many face or did face in middle school.

The first page in the book is dated September 7. It states:

First of all, I want to get something straight: this is a Journal,
not a diary. I know what is says on the cover but when Mom went
out to buy this thing I SPECIFICALLY said to make sure it didn't
say "diary" on it. So don't expect me to be all: dear diary this"
and "dear diary that".

This book is hilarious and would be great for reluctant readers. The story follows Greg through a difficult year in his life. He does not always make the right decision, but as readers will see, he learns the hard way what he should have done. Parents will like that Greg's parents are involved in his life. His father monitors his video games and his mother suggests the journal for Greg to express his feelings.

This book was a New York Time's Best Seller for a reason. It is great for kids and adults. It is also a great book for boys, but girls will enjoy it, too. Jeff Kinney has also published 2 sequels to the first book called, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules and The Last Straw, as well as a Do0-it-yourself version to help kids write their own journals.

Kinney is the design director of an Internet publishing company. He creates games and activities for the website funbrain.com. Kinney new that he wanted to be a cartoonist after college. His first attempt at a comic strip was while he was in college at the University of Maryland in the early 1990's. He ran a comic called Igdoof in the college newspaper, but was no able to get is published after college. He now lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two sons.

View this review at amazon.com

Red Hot Salsa Journal

Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States, by Lori Marie Carlson is a collection of poems that depict the difficulty that may be experienced by some Latinos. The poets also write about love, family, and even food. I absolutely loved "My Shortest Food Poem" by Trinidad Sanchez, Sr.


Some Latinos that live in the United States feel that they must straddle the culture of their native land and that of the United States, never being truly American or Latino. This is depicted in the poem, "I am Who I am by, So What" Raquel Valle Senties.


I am a grafted Flower that didn't'
take, a Mexican without being one,
an American without being one.


Not only are these poems written for Latinos, but the messages in these poems are relevant for many. When I read this poem, I thought about my dad's grandparents that came to the United States from Germany. I also thought about a time when I felt like I did not fit in anywhere. I think that these poems are great for anyone. I enjoyed them and I am not Latino.

I think that the fact that the poems are written in English and Spanish allows not only students that are learning English see the language in print next to the Spanish version, I think that is allows the reader to see the beautiful words in more than one language. My Spanish is not that great, but I was able to translate most of the poems (with the English version for help) and see what language looks like from a different perspective. Does that make any sense? It does to me.


I really enjoyed the collection of poetry. I think it would be interesting to let students create their own collection of poetry and see what poems they would use.

Poet Slave of Cuba Journal

I was not sure that one could write a biography in verse, but yet again I have been proven wrong. Engle is able to tell a beautifully written story about Juan Francisco Manzano and his not so beautiful life through poems.

Engle is able to allow the reader into the minds of all of the people in the book. She is able to use the different perspectives of all of the characters in the story. The reader is able to see the point of view from each individual such as his mother's(Maria Del Pilar) sadness. Engle writes,

I'll stay with you, Juanito, I promise...
We will not leave you behind
You will see us, we promise

His father is angry that his son is still a slave. The reader can feel that anger in the poetry.

Now they call my son the Golden Beak
and hearing such a flattering nickname, I ask
myself , I ask others, I even ask God:

Where is the rest of the bird?


Don Nicolas feels sorry for him. I almost felt sorry for Don Nicholas for feeling sorry for Juan. Engle has a gift for writing.

She has thrashed him.
We have to shun him, pretending he does not exist...

I hope he knows that when this is over
he will fish with me again,
and swim with me, and ride horses.
We will pretend we are brothers.


There are many uses for this type of literary work in a classroom. Students can see that a poem is a telling of something. The subject can be anything. You can compare the lives of slaves in Cuba to those in the United states and other countries.

I really enjoyed the poetry of Juan that was included at the back of the book. I also thought that the illustrations were very dynamic and enhanced the story.

Up Before Daybreak Journal

I grew up in cotton country around Lubbock, Texas and apparently did not know as much about the cotton industry as I thought. I remember waiting until I turned 12 so that I could work during the summers for a farmer spraying or hoeing weeds. I thought the money would be worth the labor. I was so wrong. We only worked from 7 A.M. until noon. We were fed lunch, watched Days of our Lives , and were then taken to the swimming pool. I thought life was rough. I cannot even imagine having to depend on that money to support my family. My family was by no means wealthy. There were five children in my family and money was tight, but we always had what we needed. The money that I earned during the summers was for the things that I wanted.

This book once again took me out of my comfort zone when I put my experience in the cotton fields up next to the ones that I read about. It makes me feel guilty hat I complained about work. Now I am grateful for the opportunity that I had.

This book tells the story of cotton and much more. I think that middle school students would be able to put themselves into some of these situations because of the age of some of the child workers.

I think that the photographs were very well chosen and allow the reader to see what conditions were like for the folks in the book. I really enjoyed the photographs and think that I was able to get a better understanding of the conditions by looking deeply at them. You can almost see the feelings on the faces of the people.

Book Talk: Daisy Kutter

Book Review # 2

Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case

The story of Emmett Till is one that everyone needs to hear. It is a little-known story of a black boy from Chicago that is murdered in Mississippi on 1955 for whistling at a white woman. He was fourteen years old and unfamiliar with the Jim Crow Laws of the South. Chris Crowe is able to put together an eye-opening book about Emmett and the facts of his murder, the trial, and the events of the Civil Rights Movement that soon follow. This book may take readers out of their safe comfort zone of the current times, but tells a true story of a young boy that died at the hands of adults because of the color of his skin.

This book received the IRA’s children Book Award and was a Jane Addams Honor Book.

In the classroom this book could be used to teach research, how to find reliable sources, and how pull research together, as well as to introduce the Civil Rights movement into a unit of study.

Chris Crowe is an English professor of young adult literature at Brigham Young University. He became interested in Emmett Till when writing a book about Mildred D. Taylor. She had written about Emmett in one of her essays. He followed up on Emmett and was able to tell his story.

Review can be found at www.amazon.com

Getting Away with Murder Journal

Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe was about a young man that I had never heard about. I am amazed that this story is left out of many history books. I must confess that although I had learned about Jim Crow laws, I never really knew what they were or what they meant to the people of the South. What an eye opener!

I think that this book could be used in many areas of the classroom. I think that it would be a great companion to seventh grade United States history, in high school American history classes, or as Lori suggested, used as a companion novel.

I think that it can be used to teach good research and writing about that research. I know that the students that I taught never really knew what to do with the research they had completed except to quote it.

I think the bibliography is a great example and the timeline of events allows the students to get a better idea of the order of events that led to and came about because of the Emmett Till case.

Persepolis Journal

I think that this book was the most difficult to read for me so far. I had to stop many times and search for additional background information in order to follow the story. Like Penny, I had to also recall information about Iraq and Iran. If this book was selected as a classroom title, I think the teacher would have to provide a lot of information on the history of Iran and their struggles. I do not think that this book is appropriate for any one under seventeen.

Again, the language topic comes to mind for me. I realize that this story was true and maybe that is what was really said.

I have recently read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. This book was about two women in Iraq under similar circumstances. I was able to make some comparisons between the two.

I think that the story is well-told and the graphics help emphasize the story. I also think that it is an important story to be told. It just was not my favorite.

Journal Dairy of a Wimpy Kid

I wish that this book had been available when I was in Middle School. Even though it was written by a guy and from the male perspective, I think that girl readers would get into this book just as much as boys.

Greg and I have something in common. We are both middle children. I can see that he suffers from "Middle Child Syndrome" just like me. The oldest has rights and gets more freedom and the youngest can do no wrong. Sometimes the middle child is searching for a role to fill. I think that is why he does not make decisions easily.

I really enjoyed the drawings by Kinney. He tells the story well in his cartoons.

I think that this book could be used in just about any classroom from fifth grade and up. It is a great, funny,but real from a middle school perspective. I can't wait to read the next one in the series.

Craft Lesson 2: Daisy Kutter

Foreshadowing

Authors use foreshadowing like clues that allude to events that have yet to occur in a work of literature. Authors use foreshadowing in order to create suspense.

On page 89, is a good use of foreshadow. Bloom says in the third frame,” They're not even shooting at us.” Everyone appears to believe that they have won the shootout. Daisy says, “Congrats, Gentlemen, on making the easiest small fortune you’re ever bound to make.” Also, Tom then admits that he brought the gun. Then, “Tom, I need the gun.” Daisy says, “Something’s wrong open that case.”

These events lead up to the last robot on the train killing Bloom. See if you can locate another use of foreshadow in the book.

TEKS (9th grade) 6a, 7h, 8c

Daisy Kutter Journal

I must admit that I am usually not interested in this type of book (western, science-fiction, graphic novel) but I really enjoyed this. I can see how this type of book would be great for use in the classroom. I think that the best part is that you have all of the time needed or wanted to comprehend the sequence.

I am amazed that the characters can be so well developed with so little text. Kibuishi is an amazing artist/author. As an avid reader, I usually do not like the books I read to have pictures because I have a different view of the story in my head. I thought that Daisy Kutter would be like that, but without the art, the story would have been very difficult to read.

There are many lessons that could be taught from this book. Any thing that can be taught with traditional literature can be taught with a graphic novel as well. I was able to see a lesson on foreshadowing as I read it the first time. I am a new fan of the graphic novel.

Acceleration Reading Journal

I, like others in the class, was not really looking forward to reading this book, but once I got into it I could not put it down. I really liked the way the McNamee developed the characters and the plot of the story. I was particularly scared but eager to learn more about "Roach." I felt that McNamee was able to allow the reader to see inside this character through the journal.

I was a little let down at the end of the book. It seemed to me that the story could have been a little longer and developed that story line a little more. I was disturbed that "Roach" was killed so quickly. I also felt that Duncan should have been allowed a little public glory to rectify the fact that he felt responsible for Maya's death.


This book kept me on the edge of my seat but was not so scary that I would mind reading it in class. The one thing that I didn't like was the sexual language and dialogue in the story line. I felt that the book would have been just as good without it.

Book Review for A Step from Heaven

This review is posted at amazon.com.

An Na writes a wonderful story about a four year old Korean-born girl moves to the United States with her mother and father. Even though, the main character faces many challenges in her young life, including an alcoholic father and physical abuse, she is able to persevere and see many of her dreams and those of her mother come true.

An Na is very deserving of the Michael Printz award as well as the many others this book received.

The reader is able to see Young Ju grow up through the writing style. The beginning of the book is written as the memories of a young child and moves to the thoughts and life events of a young adult. It would open up many conversations about different cultures as well as difficulties that any student may face as a teen in the United States.

Craft Lesson for A Step from Heaven

Irony

To teach this lesson you will need: a definition of irony, a chart of some type divided into two sections, a copy of the book A Step from Heaven.

The purpose of this lesson is to understand the concept of irony. First of all, I will define Irony. It is "an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected" (www.dictionary,reference.com/browse/Irony.) The title of the book, A Step from Heaven is ironic in that the life that Young Ju and her family experienced in America is not what I would expect Heaven to be. Let's list some descriptions of what you might expect of Heaven.
Now let's do the same for Young Ju's life in America. Now, with a partner, please write a well developed paragraph(s) about how the title of the book is ironic to the life that Young Ju's family led.

TEKS (9th grade) 7a, 9d, 12a, 13 a-e

Book Talk for A Step from Heaven

Miracle's Boys

What a great success story for a family that should not have made it. I really liked that the book is written from Layfette's point of view. I think that the author did a good job of describing the other characters from Layfette's perspective.

The main characters are defined by the events that take place during their young lives. Ty'ree is assuming his father's responsibilities even before his mother dies and continues raising the family against the odds because he feels responsible for his fathers demise. Layfette feels responsible for his mother's death. Newcharlie is present when either death takes place and that makes him feel like he does not fit in. He is angry, but even though he takes his anger out on Layfette, I think that he is angry with himself for not being there, especially for his mother.

When Layfette describes Charlie in the book, I found it difficult to believe that he was the type to rob a liquor store. However, when I read the reason he did, I saw it as the only way for him to feel like he was helping his family. He was given a second chance when he declined to be in the gang.

When reading this book the characters became very real to me. The author was able to portray each character in a true to life way.

A Step from Heaven

After reading A Step from Heaven by An Na, I was able to see what an immigrant from another culture might feel trying to fit in. Aside from the family violence, the fact that she was able to learn despite her language barrier and culture differences was amazing. I never thought very much about people that come to America looking for heaven and only find that life here may be harder than it was before back in their native country.

I think that there is Irony in the title of the book. If something were just a step from heaven, then one would think that it would have been much easier than life was for Young Ju and her family. While reading the book, I was thinking that her life as described was much farther away from Heaven that just one step.

I also found many symbols in the book. Beginning with Harry the bird. this bird that Young Ju and Joon try to nurse back to health. The bird dies and Joon says, "It never happens the way we want. Never." (p. 74) I think this statement is not just about the bird, but about the lives of the members of this family. America is not as any of them thought. Halmoni dies before they expect. The father becomes an alcoholic. It seems that everything has got to be very bad before it can be good.

I really liked the style of writing that An Na used. I especially liked the way the memories were written in the beginning of the book. It was very real. After reading once, I went back and reread those chapters again just because It was very well written.

Standing Against the Wind

I really liked the book. Jones was able to allow us to get to know Patrice by her actions, thoughts, and words. I think it is a feel good book with a great happy ending. I think that there are many students that will be able to relate to this book in some way, whether it is having been disappointed by someone, moving to a new school, or perhaps even having lived some of the situations described in the book. I think that the book will relate to males and females alike. A great compare/contrast could be developed based on Patrice and Monty.

My favorite part of the book was when Monty helped Patrice get the money to go see her mother. I was just sure that he stole the money with the sirens in the background at both bus stops. I wanted to believe that he did not steal the money and was very relieved that he sold the watch that his father had given him. After going back to the foreshadowing of that event, Jones states, "Monty looked at her, then at his watch. "Okay. Okay. Wait here. Don't move," he commanded. "I'll fix this."

I think that the character of Patrice seemed very real. However, I struggled with the character of Monty. I guess that I am labeling him as a good guy, but there is no way that I can believe that he is that good. He always makes the right choices, even in front of his friends. My personal experience with this type of person is that no matter what, they always strive to maintain their coolness in front of their peers and would not publicly stand up for an outcast. I really like Monty in the book and am glad that he always did the right thing. I hope that he can be used a an example of a great role model for those students that live in a situation that is not so perfect.

Here I Am!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am now oficcially a blogger. Can't wait to read all of your comments!