Building Fluency with Character Books

I'm completely fascinated by being a parent and having the amazing opportunity to watch these two little kiddos grow up right in front of me. I have learned so much about kids and how unique they are and about myself, too. One thing I have noticed about Little Bean compared to Peanut is that Little Bean will ask for a book over and over again. Peanut doesn't really do that but Little Bean definitely does. I'm not sure why they differ in this but they do. Peanut has always asked us to read the same book night after night, just not five times in one night. 

While we read all sorts of books in my house, there are a few that my kids go back to and ask us to read again and again and again and Donald Duck and the One Bear is one of them.

It's a cute story, a flipped sort of Goldilocks tale involving Donald Duck, his nephews, Daisy and a bear named, Pizza, on the loose. Towards the end of the book one of the nephews refers to Donald as "Unca Donald" and when my husband read that to my kids they cracked up. That's their favorite part and we're convinced they ask us to read it over and over just to get to that part. 

I actually learned something from reading Donald Duck and the One Bear. I know there are people who tend to lead kids away from books about television show characters or movies but in our house we let them read whatever they want to read. Of course, we pull out books and check books out of the library to supplement that reading, but when Little Bean marches into the library, finds the basket of Thomas the Train books all by himself and starts sorting through them, it makes me all kinds of happy. They boy knows what he likes and he has already made himself independent in being able to navigate the library...at least according to his age. 

Sometime earlier this year, we bought the Wreck-It Ralph Read-Along Storybook and CD. We own the DVD and it's a movie that we have fallen in love with as a family. We've watched it lots of times and quote it all the time. When we spotted this in the store, my kids had to have it and it was actually only about $7, which I thought was a great deal considering it's an audiobook. 

All summer we listened to Wreck-It Ralph any time we went somewhere with the kids. They would hold the book in the back seat and listen for the chime so they would know to turn the page. I listened to it so many times that I can probably recite it from heart at this point. When the kids would bring the book to me to read, I was able to read and sound like the characters when it was their turn to talk in the book. It makes it a lot more fun for me and I think for the kids as well.

Little Bean is also a huge fan of Thomas. Peanut was when he was three but now it's Little Bean's thing. We have watched all sorts of Thomas shows and I find myself doing character voices when I read any of the Thomas books. Again, it's so fun to try and imitate the voices and my kids love it. Because we watched Wreck-It Ralph the movie and listened to the audiobook and because we have watched so many Thomas shows, we totally know the voices. (I have to add here that we don't watch that much television...but, like books, when the kids pick a show to watch, they like to pick the same show again and again.)

I have listened to a lot of audiobooks in my life with all of the driving I do during my commute. What I love is that when you listen to an audiobook narration, the best narrators do a good job of changing their voices when different people are talking. It really brings the book to life. There is such an art to reading a book aloud to kids and listening to audiobooks is a great way to build our fluency for reading aloud.

I love recommending audiobooks to parents to support their children with reading. We do a mix of reading with our kids and reading audiobooks but it's definitely a different and fun experience to listen to an audiobook.

What prompted this post was actually reading Donald Duck and the One Bear last week. As I read, I was reminded of how frustrated I get when I read it because I just can't do the duck voices. I can't. I desperately want to read in Donald Duck's voice and it actually sounds weird to me as I read because I don't use Donald's voice. I never really realized just how much listening to books and knowing how a character sounds has helped me to be able to read and change my voice to represent different characters. It seems I've gotten to the point that reading and not changing my voice seems strange. This was a huge revelation for me! I think it has implications for thinking about students developing fluency. For them to hear adult readers who read fluently or audiobooks where the narrators do a great job of reading aloud will truly make a difference in the fluency that they develop.

Basically, I just wanted to say hooray for audiobooks! And also, let you kids read what they want to read and over and over again. As long as you recognize that love of books growing, it's okay for them to read books based on television shows. Just try to supplement and show them other books along the way.

Who out there loves audiobooks? Do you like it when narrators change their voices to represent different characters? What do you love about audiobooks?

Half Brother

Title: Half Brother 

Author: Kenneth Oppel  
Publisher:  Scholastic Press/Brilliance Audio
Publication Date: September, 2010 
Genre/Format: Historical Fiction/Novel
Audiobook Narrator: Daniel diTomasso
GoodReads Summary: From the Printz-Honor-winning author of Airborn comes an absorbing YA novel about a teen boy whose scientist parents take in a chimpanzee to be part of the family.
     For thirteen years, Ben Tomlin was an only child. But all that changes when his mother brings home Zan -- an eight-day-old chimpanzee. Ben's father, a renowned behavioral scientist, has uprooted the family to pursue his latest research project: a high-profile experiment to determine whether chimpanzees can acquire advanced language skills. Ben's parents tell him to treat Zan like a little brother. Ben reluctantly agrees. At least now he's not the only one his father's going to scrutinize.
     It isn't long before Ben is Zan's favorite, and Ben starts to see Zan as more. 
What I Think:  Ben is introduced to Zan when he is 8 days old. Zan is his new baby brother. At first Ben is resistant to loving Zan, but that changes as he gets to know him. Ben loves Zan more than anything in the world. He would do anything for him. But others, including his father, don't understand why he has such an attachment to Zan. Yes, Zan is his brother, but Zan is also a chimp. A chimp who Ben's father is researching by conducting an experiment to see if chimps can learn language. To Ben, Zan has become a member of the family, but to others, he is just a specimen. 
     Ever since I started teaching and I was introduced to Willie B. through a short story and Sukari in Hurt Go Happy, I have gotten a mild obsession with apes- specifically chimps, gorillas and orangutans. I have often visited the Center for Great Apes where I learned even more about the life of chimps in entertainment, testing and living with humans. 

     Also, in the last couple of years, I have been introduced to Kenneth Oppel through his other books- Matt Cruse series, Victor Frankenstein and Silverwing- and I have adored every word of his that I have read/listened to. 

     So, when Half Brother came out, I knew it was a book I had to read. But then it got pushed aside again and again. For some reason, I just never got around to it. Until my best friend listened to it and insisted it be the next audiobook I read- and I am so glad she did! Half Brother is such a touching, suspenseful, well-done, amazing story. It pulls at your heart strings throughout and makes you think about all that it means to be human. 

     Kenneth Oppel obviously did a lot of research for this project. Half Brother is set in the 1970s at the peak of chimp research including research for the space program, medicine and language acquisition (Project Nim & Project Washoe) and also the beginning of protest against such experiments. This book teaches you the history of this time through a fictional experiment that is not much different than the real ones.

     Half Brother is an emotion-filled, thought-provoking book which brings Zan and his family to life in 1973. This book is made to be a discussion as it introduces so many tough topics and is one that I cannot wait to discuss with students.
     Amended: September 5th, 2012- Last Friday a student checked out Half Brother from my classroom library after I talked about how much it touched me, how good it was, and I shared my crying spurts while trying to drive and listen to the audiobook. This student is one who "hates to read" and has never read a large book or a book without pictures. I assumed he was going to struggle with it, but I was definitely wrong! On Tuesday, after the long weekend, he let me know that his brother started calling him a nerd. When I asked why, he said it was because he couldn't stop reading all weekend and got to page 263. With that, I sat down and started talking to him about the book. He was insightful, opinionated, and definitely invested in the story. My heart wept with happiness! It is one of those moments that I'll never forget. 
Read Together:  Grades 7 to 11
Read Alone: Grades 7 to 12
Read With: Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, The Chimpanzee I Love by Jane Goodall, Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would be Human by Elizabeth Hess, Any other book from the Top 10 Ape Book list,  Nonfiction chimp/ape books, Nonfiction ASL books, Interview with Kenneth Oppel about writing Half Brother
Snatch of Text: "He's an animal, you're right," said mom. "And we use them all the time. We eat them. We inject them. We kill them. Zan's not human. But we taught him he was. We raised him like a child. Our child. And we have responsibilities to him now, Richard. We do." (p. 340)
Mentor Text For: Historical fiction, Research, Characterization/Character development
Writing Prompts: There are many debates over the need for animal testing, specifically testing chimpanzees. Do you agree that animal testing is necessary? Why or why not? Would Ben think that animal testing is necessary? Use text evidence to back up your claim.  
Topics Covered: Animal Testing, Language, Humanity, Sign Language, Family, Chimpanzees

I *heart* It:

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson     
Author: John Green and David Levithan  
Audiobook Narrators: Nick Podehl and MacLeod Andrews
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile 
Audiobook Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD
Publication Date: April 2010 
Genre/Format: Realistic Fiction/Novel 
Goodreads Summary: One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.
Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both them legions of faithful fans. (taken from Goodreads on 1/5/12) 
What Jen Thinks: I love this book! It's so hard not to gush all week about all this great writing that seems to effortlessly spew out of John Green, well, in this case John Green and David Levithan. I did listen to the audiobook, and Nick Podehl quickly became my favorite narrator. He makes Will Grayson sound like such a real person. I easily forgot that it was a narrator reading a book and felt like it was a real person. MacLeod Andrews also does a brilliant job of bringing Tiny to life. He is such a grand character and Andrews does him justice.

I'm amazed by books like this one that consist of different chapters written by different authors. It seems like writing a book is hard enough, but writing and trusting another author to do his or her own part seems like it would make it even harder. At the same time, I can see how it would be possibly fun to have someone as a partner in writing a book (much like working with Kellee on this blog is so much more fun and exciting and easier with her).

I haven't tried this with students, but I think it would be really interesting to offer them the opportunity to partner up and write a story with another person by taking turns to write the parts of the story. Or a larger group of students could contribute by each writing a part like an extended version of what I know as a campfire game where each person tells one word or sentence in a wild and crazy story. It would probably take a lot of planning to make it end up coherent, but it might turn out something like Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
Read Together: 9 - 12
Read Alone: 9 - 12 
Read With: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Snatch of Text:  

"Maybe there's something you're afraid to say, or someone you're afraid to love, or somewhere you're afraid to go. It's gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt because it matters." (John Green)

"You like someone who can't like you back because unrequited love can be survived in a way that once-requited love cannot. " (John Green)

"Maybe tonight you're scared of falling, and maybe there's somebody here or somewhere else you're thinking about, worrying over, fretting over, trying to figure out if you want to fall, or how and when you're gonna land, and I gotta tell you, Friends, to stop thinking about the landing, because it's all about falling." (John Green)

"I have a friend request from some stranger on facebook and I delete it without looking at the profile because that doesn't seem natural. 'Cause friendship should not be as easy as that. It's like people believe all you need to do is like the same bands in order to be soulmates. Or books. omg... U like the outsiders 2... it's like we're the same person! No we're not. It's like we have the same English teacher. There's a difference." (David Levithan)

"After tiny has tried ballerina pose, swing-batter-batter pose, pump-up-the-jam pose, and top-of-the-mountain-sound-of-music pose in the reflection of the bean, he walks us to a bench overlooking lake shore drive." (David Levithan)

(I don't have page numbers because I listened to the audiobook.)

Mentor Texts For: Characterization, Description, Personal Narrative
Writing Prompts: Write about a time when a friend or family member urged you to do something outside of your comfort zone. 
Topics Covered: Friendships, Relationships, Love, Trust, Adventure, Adversity, Confidence, Taking Risks

 

A Bit of Me(me) 1/20/11

I have Danielle from There's a Book to thank for helping me get into the book blogging scene.  She's my book blogging idol!  I love reading her A Bit of Me(me) posts but I've never played along...until now!  This is the perfect time for me to jump in because this week's topic is audiobooks and I might just be the audiobook queen.

This Week's Question: 

Do you listen to audio books?

 Why or why not? 

If yes, do you have a favorite?

Considering I'm the self-proclaimed, audiobook queen, yes, I listen to audiobooks!  It's not entirely my doing, I started listening to audiobooks when I realized I wanted to read more and needed to find the time to do it.  My solution: listen to books in the car on my drive to and from work.  I have a 45 minute (minimum) commute in the morning and in the afternoon.  I also drive around from school to school all day and I get in between 3-10 minutes each time I switch schools.  It all adds up believe it or not.  Lately, I've been uploading the books onto my iPod so I can hook it up to the car and then easily bring it inside and not lose my spot.  I listen while I'm doing chores (yuck...but the books make it a little better...) or playing or feeding the baby because I can get other things done while listening.  In my opinion, listening to the books is the same as reading the books, especially at my age, for a student I usually suggest they listen and read at the same time so they can see the words they hear and improve their reading, but for me, listening is just as good as reading the book.  

When I first started listening to audiobooks, I listened to the entire Princess Diaries series...I had to wait for those that weren't out just yet, but eventually I listened to the whole series.  I loved these because the narrators completely brought the characters to life for me.  Other audiobooks that stick out to me because I remember listening to them on audio and enjoying the narration are:  Twilight, The Book Thief, Copper Sun, The Help, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and  Room: A Novel.