Pre-service teachers used blogs to discuss award-winning Newbery books using reading roles creativiely adapted from Harvey Daniel's 'Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student-centered Classroom'. Contact Anne Davis at adavis@gsu.edu if you have questions.
These blogs were moved from Manila blogs to TypePad blogs. The author shows up on each post as Anne Davis as a result of the transfer. The original posts were made by students and the instructors Lynne Jordan & Anne Davis. The initials on the post title signify who did the actual blogging of the post.
I found a cool book on www.amazon.com entitled, Stanley Yelnat's Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake. The book is told as if Stanley is the author. He writes about what happens after he left Camp Green Lake. He explains why each camper is there, how to dig a hole, ways to identify desert wildlife, and much more. This book includes quizzes periodically throughout the book that tests readers' knowledge of the book Holes.
I found this great interview with Louis Sachar. It tells about how he comes up with ideas for books, when he knew he wanted to be a children's book author, which of his published books is his favorite, and much, much more. After reading and discussing the interview, students would be able to relate to Louis Sachar as a real person and hopefully become intrigued about writing as a career.
Hey! Guess what? Green Lake is a real place with a history real similar to that of Green Lake in the book. It was a promising town in the early 1900's; many wealthy people lived on its banks. Now it is only a town of 51... with no business. Check out its history at this website. Do you guys think it is the same Green Lake as that in the book?
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/hng29.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/holes/characters.html
I did a web search on Holes, and I found this on SparkNotes.com, which is a study guide to be used along with the book. However, there was a connection to a Character List, and it has a complete character analysis for practically every character in the book, as well as a connection that provides a more in depth description of the character. Let me know what you think!
I have found a website that is good for students to investigate the yellow-spotted lizard. The book talks about these lizards quite a bit, so students would probably be interested in studying these amphibians. The website is www.dcchargers.com/HOLES/monitor_lizard.htm . This website shows pictures and gives detailed information about these types of lizards. Students can see if there is actually a link between Mr. Sir and the yellow-spotted lizard.
