11/29 Teens Top Ten Best Books Discussion for Read 339/439

[Pam Goble]

PART 3 - PARTICIPATION CRITERIA FOR THE NING.

1. Since all of you are reading different books, the idea is to share the many reads students can experience from reading YA literature. For each list you, will get
reviews on approximately 20 or more books.

2. What must be included in your posts are:

            a. A short summary

            b. A connection to YA Lit criteria

            c. A link to a resource for further information about the book/novel( these may include author information, reviews, insight or information
about issues the text references.

            d. Your opinion/recommendations of the book/novel relating back to criteria. A key
question to consider is whether the book is
classroom appropriate, and, if so, what reading
level/grade/students would benefit from reading the text. If it is not
suited for the classroom, if students are reading the book, what is the
appeal?           

3. Lastly, you must respond to at least 2 other posts in detail.

Again have fun...after the
class is done you can still keep those reviews coming on the NING and
talk to each other about what your are reading for the year.
on people of the week!!!

[Tiffany Shreve]

I agree that after reading what you have written about this book that it could shed light on important issues in violence. There is so much school violence out there and not one knows how to really deal with it and many don't even know that the violence is taking place. So this book sounds intriging to me. But I have a heart for the violence of our youth.

[Tiffany Shreve]

Reading your summary reminds me of the book Racheal's Tears which is a book about one of the students kids in Columbine. If you get a chance you should pick it up it has alot of the YA criteria in it and does a great job of talking about the issue of violence.

[Alexander Wm. Evers]

I would use this book in a second, based upon your description. While it is hard to discuss the tragedy of school shootings, it is heaven harder to deal with the reality that, often, they were entirely preventable. The greatest step toward preventing school violence is to discuss and dissect the issue within the classroom. I think that often these tragedies get summed up as, "another goth/outcast/loner/etc. takes his vengeance out on classmates", when in reality, that individual is often avenging a lifetime of mistreatment and merely taking his/her rage out on the nearest targets. That is, the tragedy of Columbine HS truly began at perpetrators' middle school(s) where they first began to experience teasing, bullying, etc. and began to cultivate the rage they let loose on their future classmates.

I also know several individuals who were present the day of the NIU shooting, and a couple who were injured. While they can talk about it, it often leads to no greater notion than "he was crazy" or "he was pissed off" or "he snapped", etc. However, I think that novels such as the one you selected provide us with much needed insight into the motivations of someone capable of school-violence.

I like that the novel also makes a point of using elevated vocabulary. While I have really enjoyed most of the texts we've addressed thus far, and those read independently, I have found this genre (YA lit) to be somewhat "soft" on vocabulary. That is, the emphasis seems to be solely on communicating the texts' content; with little importance being given to how said communication is achieved. It is refreshing to hear of a text that, in addition to communicating and sharing idea(s) with the reader, is willing to go the extra mile and attempt to educate the reader and, ultimately, improve their capacity to engage future texts. I always try to choose texts that, in addition to having relevant content, are able to help develop students' literacy.

[Pam Goble]

The vocab indication is tricky, because if it is too difficult the students do not want to read the book.
Grisham's novels are adult themed, but the vocab is 4th grade level so that the ideas are understood.
Reading in itself develops literacy...and that is a whole other discussion.

[Nicole Priester]

the vocab is not too hard core like everyother word is so advanced, but there are words through out the novel that a typical high school would not use and I had to infact look up.

[Shelly Fields]

I, too, have looked up words I didn't know when reading. Not everyone does that, especially the younger reader. But once you look up that word you don't know, YOU THEN KNOW IT! My daughter is 16 years old and has the vocabulary of a college professor! I will often ask her what a word means or to give me the right word to use when I am writing something. When she was younger, she would write down a word she didn't know from a book she was reading and then she would go look it up. Her fourth grade teacher suggested she do this and my daughter has done that ever since. If it wasn't for that suggestion from the teacher, I doubt she would be getting a 33 on her reading score for the ACT! THANK THE LORD FOR TEACHERS!

[Shelly Fields]

We used the story of Dylan Klebold (one of the Columbine killers) as a piece for the Speech team. It was an interview with his mother. It was so sad. She said she never knew her son was even depressed. She only found this out after reading notebook pages that he had filled expressing his profound alienation. Dylan Klebold even wrote an English paper about a man in a black trench coat who brutally murdered nine students. (The English teacher brought it to the parent's attention but when they asked to see the paper at a conference, she didn't have it) The teacher said she would show the paper to the guidance counselor and if he thought there was a problem one of them would contact Dylan's mother. She never heard from the counselor or the teacher again about the paper. His family finally read the paper....six months after the tragedy.

Can you imagine the guilt the teacher and counselor must feel? They aren't responsible for what Dylan did but they did fail him miserably. The "what-if's?" must be unbearable.

[Pam Goble]

One of our former students was killed in the NIU tragedy.

[Heather Olson]

This book sounds truly amazing! I agree with Alex and would teach it for the same reasons. It doesn't sound as if it's glorifying violence if there are no "winners" in the end, and in that situation, how could there be? I actually added this book to my to-read list a few days ago so I was excited to read your review. While the vocab may be tricky, it could also be a good learning tool for our students/teaching tool for us on how to be stronger readers. I had to read The Great Gatsby for READ 463 (I should say I CHOSE it for the class, rather) and I had to decipher some parts/look up some words. I knew to do that instead of glossing over them because I'm a strong reader. However, our students will not have necessarily developed those reading skills yet and will often glide over difficult words without stopping to take the time to look them up. I was impressed today with the teacher I'm observing because she made her kids look up 2 words they didn't know from the poem we were reading int he dictionary, which is exactly what I do to my stepdaughter all the time. :) She loves/hates it and I LOVE that she asks what words mean because it means she isn't willing to sit back and be ignorant but rather wants to seek knowledge! It's important we not only teach our students literature but how to be good readers, as well. I really loved the READ 463 class, especially the Cris Tovani textbook we used in there. Excellent information in that book that all teachers should have to read!

[Pam Goble]

Tovani's book is excellent. Interestingly, the Great Books Foundation was/is Tovani's forerunner in the
" how to read" category. I would highly recommend her book.

[Samantha Carter]

This book sounds very interesting. The name of the book made me think that it would be like a Mean Girls theme but I was shocked that it turned out like that. Valeria and her boyfriend made a hate list and that shows that there is a problem. I do not believe that she had anything to do with the shooting. I think that her boyfriend may have told her something about shooting or harming students but said it in a way that she thought he was joking. He probably did think that shooting her along with the other students would make people think that she was not involved or maybe he shot her on accident. I do not want to believe that she was in on the shooting but that is also a possibility. With the idea in mind that she was not involved in the shooting, I think that she would have some serious issues to get over. Valerie had a lot to cope with and it all happened at once and I could see her parents being involved in this book. It would be impossible for her to deal with the issues she had without her parents. I think that this book is appropriate for high school students. One could teach it in junior high school to make children aware of this is what could happen in high school. Not as a way as scaring them but to let them know of the worse possible consequence of bullying a person.

[Christina Abruzzini]

Wow Nikkie! This book sounds very intriguing and traumatic at the same time. School shootings have become more and more common unfortunately, so this book is definitely relevant in our society today. I personally do not think I would use this in a classroom, but I guess it would depend. I just feel it is such a touchy subject, and I'm not sure how parents would feel about their children reading a book like this. I can see it being useful as it would raise awareness and get students openly talking about this type of occurrence. I can also see it bothering students if they either have gone through a similar situation or are just plain uncomfortable reading about this type of thing. It would probably do more good than harm to read this in a classroom, but I would be skeptical about how my class would take it. That is really sad and unfortunate that you knew people that got injured at the NIU shooting---I'm so sorry to hear that! I remember hearing about it as I was attending Western Illinois University at the time. Everyone was so scared and heartbroken over the ordeal; it seemed unreal. I would NOT recommend this type of book for junior high students; however, I do feel high school students would be able to handle the content. This book would even be beneficial to read in college classrooms. I didn't notice what age group you felt would be OK to read this? Did you feel it belonged in more of a high school level classroom or were you unsure if it should be read in classrooms at all?