Hey people!!!

 Yeah over here. I need to talk to you guys about Lit. Circles. After this short lil' intro, I'll show you the strategies I used

for the book my group is reading (The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman). I like the way Mr. Gutman writes. It is very creative. I

(maybe other student can too) can connect to the characters very well in the story. Enough of my opinion. I will have set up two

paragraphs for the two chunks my group was assigned to read in the past week. If you want to see them look down |/ if you think

this blog entry is stupid or you don't care just close the window or click on a different link or go to a different URL. Whatever. Here

is all the stuff I mentioned earlyer.

 Chunk 1: Passage Master and Character Captain. This part was really weird, offensive at first but, funny after I read

over it again. Okay, okay. So the teacher at the Grand Canyon School, Miss Rasmussen, gives out this sheet of paper called "The

Ten Commandments of Homework" for the students to write about. Now, one of the characters, Sam Dawkins (Snikwad by his

friends) makes up his own commandments totally rejecting homework and complaining about how bad it is. It is very creative

though sort of, erm, sickening, I guess to teachers and those who like homework. Though he got a B for creativity. Lucky duck.

Miss R. lets the kids get away from stuff that they shouldn't be getting away from that easily. Which leads me to another point.

Miss Rasmussen can be described by many adjectives, such as childish or immature, considering her first few teaching years.

Letting Snik off the hook when he insulted the academic curriculum and rejecting home. Now that is a good example.

 Chunk 2: Summarizer and Question Director. In Chunk 2, three kids, Sam Dawkins, Kelsey Donnelly and Judy Douglas

ride over to this geeky kid's (Brenton Damagatchi) house to use the homework machine to avoid doing it themselves. Brenton's

mom is fool by the fact that the kids are only there to use the machine, not to be friends with Brenton. But still, the kids take her for

granted and she makes them sweets and treats. Brenton opens Snik's yes toward chess, a game he though was a slow, boring,

game for eggheads, to a game of war strategy, in slow motion, of corse. The D Squad starts to part, but only for a short time,

moving their own ways and trying their own new things. That doesn't last long. Then Brenton suddenly gets this strange idea to

tell everyone on the internet and email to wear red socks on Thursday. Though he is the only one not wearing any red socks in the

whole school. Nobody knows it was him who sent the memo, just they way he likes it. Then, when the report cards come out at the

end of the marking period, the parents flip because of the excellent grades, especially the parents of the slackers. Lots of other

stuff happens, little details that if I told you about, you would be here all night reading this. At least, I told you all of the highlights.

On to the questions. I noticed that the school has a lot of clicky students there. Why is that? I don't understand that kind of behavior

in students, most likely many reasons. That is my hypothesis. I always wonder, why does the author (in almost every book by any

author I have read) have to have some person lie in the story. Couldn't they be creative and make up something more interesting?

I'm not against it just a thought you know.

 Well, thats it for my blog... Hope you enjoyed it!

  

  Some random blogger,

   KT

Hey people!!!

 Yeah over here. I need to talk to you guys about Lit. Circles. After this short lil' intro, I'll show you the strategies I used

for the book my group is reading (The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman). I like the way Mr. Gutman writes. It is very creative. I

(maybe other student can too) can connect to the characters very well in the story. Enough of my opinion. I will have set up two

paragraphs for the two chunks my group was assigned to read in the past week. If you want to see them look down |/ if you think

this blog entry is stupid or you don't care just close the window or click on a different link or go to a different URL. Whatever. Here

is all the stuff I mentioned earlyer.

 Chunk 1: Passage Master and Character Captain. This part was really weird, offensive at first but, funny after I read

over it again. Okay, okay. So the teacher at the Grand Canyon School, Miss Rasmussen, gives out this sheet of paper called "The

Ten Commandments of Homework" for the students to write about. Now, one of the characters, Sam Dawkins (Snikwad by his

friends) makes up his own commandments totally rejecting homework and complaining about how bad it is. It is very creative

though sort of, erm, sickening, I guess to teachers and those who like homework. Though he got a B for creativity. Lucky duck.

Miss R. lets the kids get away from stuff that they shouldn't be getting away from that easily. Which leads me to another point.

Miss Rasmussen can be described by many adjectives, such as childish or immature, considering her first few teaching years.

Letting Snik off the hook when he insulted the academic curriculum and rejecting home. Now that is a good example.

 Chunk 2: Summarizer and Question Director. In Chunk 2, three kids, Sam Dawkins, Kelsey Donnelly and Judy Douglas

ride over to this geeky kid's (Brenton Damagatchi) house to use the homework machine to avoid doing it themselves. Brenton's

mom is fool by the fact that the kids are only there to use the machine, not to be friends with Brenton. But still, the kids take her for

granted and she makes them sweets and treats. Brenton opens Snik's yes toward chess, a game he though was a slow, boring,

game for eggheads, to a game of war strategy, in slow motion, of corse. The D Squad starts to part, but only for a short time,

moving their own ways and trying their own new things. That doesn't last long. Then Brenton suddenly gets this strange idea to

tell everyone on the internet and email to wear red socks on Thursday. Though he is the only one not wearing any red socks in the

whole school. Nobody knows it was him who sent the memo, just they way he likes it. Then, when the report cards come out at the

end of the marking period, the parents flip because of the excellent grades, especially the parents of the slackers. Lots of other

stuff happens, little details that if I told you about, you would be here all night reading this. At least, I told you all of the highlights.

On to the questions. I noticed that the school has a lot of clicky students there. Why is that? I don't understand that kind of behavior

in students, most likely many reasons. That is my hypothesis. I always wonder, why does the author (in almost every book by any

author I have read) have to have some person lie in the story. Couldn't they be creative and make up something more interesting?

I'm not against it just a thought you know.

 Well, thats it for my blog... Hope you enjoyed it!

  

  Some random blogger,

   KT

 Dear Blogging Fans,

                I have started a new book. It is called Sheep. It is about this dog named Jack. This is a book for readers who are caring and have a sense of love.

                I had to use open ended questioning again.  I had a couple of questions, so here is one of them: “How did the fire start for Jack’s home to be burned down?”. The answer was that inside the farmhouse the oven was left on. I also asked: “Did Jack ever get separated from the rest of his family? If so, where did they go?’’.  Some were killed some escaped, but Jack never saw them again.

                I also used predicting. I predicted that Jack would eventually find a home where he can live his dream to become a herding dog because he has a caring and fun attitude and will do anything to fulfill his dream.

                Thank you for your time to read my blog entry.

                                Au revoir,

                                                KT

Dear Anyone who dares to read this letter...Just Joking! :-)

           I am reading an excelent book called Swindle by Gordan Korman. It is a book for readers with quick problem solving skills and for courageous, adventurous and risky people.

           When I was reading, I used thinking strategies to help me understand the book better and to help me get thinking about the book. One of my fave strategies is prediction. I used prediction in this book the most. Like when I predicted that S. Wendell Palomino (a.k.a. Swindle) talks Griffin into selling a rare Babe Ruth baseball card for only $120 when he could have gotten it for much more because earlyer in the book it said that Swindle liked to lie, cheat and gamble, that mean green man. That prediction was niether contridicted nor confirmed because Swindle claims that he had a different Babe Ruthe card that was worth more than the one Griffin sold to him. I also predicted that even though Griffin did not appreciate his dads inventions, he would still use it because in the book it says he wants his parents to be happy, so that every one can get enough sleep and because Griffin wants a better life.

             I learned how to Note Detail this week. I tryed it. it seemed like a solid strategy. I noted that Griffin likes to write his feelings because it lets him feel less stressed. I also noted that Ben likes to wonder. At one point Griffin gave Ben $60 dollars, but Ben did not know why. So he asked Griffin. Now if it was me out there I would take the money witha simple "Thanks". But Ben wants to know whatever he can.

                I hope you liked my Blog this week. Don't forget to think while you read! Keep reading and you will do amazing things.

               Later,

                       KT 

Dear Word Watchers of the world,

I have started a new book called Swindle by Gordon Korman. It is a book for readers that love to live life to the fullest, are suspenseful and have a good spirit of adventure.

I like to use thinking strategies everywhere I go, especially when I am reading. One of the strategies I used was prediction. I predicted that Griffin would sell the Babe Ruth card because it was very expensive. I also predicted that S. Wendell Palomino tricked Griffin in to selling the baseball card for $120, when he could have sold it for a lot more money because Palomino did get paid very well.

            I used visualization for another strategy. I visualized the old Rockford house crumbling to the ground. I visualized the baseball card with its bright, blue, bolded edges and its slightly wrinkled corners.

            I hope you enjoyed my blog. Did you learn the lesson “Reading is thinking”? Read more and more and more and...

More!

            Ciao for now,

                                    KT

Dear all you Strategic Readers,

                  

                   I am almost done with The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin  and it is getting juicy.

It is a book for people with a wide ranged vocab, a deep sense of humor and a rich feeling for mystery.



                   Thinking strategies are what i use to help me connect, predict*, draw conclusions, visualize, question, infer and wonder.

                   One of the main strategies I use was Predicting. When i was predicting, it really helped me think. One of my predictions was:"I predict that the tea party will be disaster because there are many enemies of each other invited to the party.". The party  did not become a disaster- it was very peaceful. Another prediction I made was:"I predict Theo Theodorakis is the bomber because his brother, Chris, is mentally injured and was insulted because of his condition by Sydelle Pulaski, who was the victim of the first bomb. He was angry, because his brother was hurt,  so he bombed her.

                   I also used Inferring for my series of strategies. I used this strategy to explain the characters. For one of my inferences, I wrote this:"Flora Baumbach is solemn and timid because her daughter passed away and her husband left, with his money.". Another inference I had was:"Turtle likes it when people are in pain because she is the neglected child in the family and she wants her rights back, so when the stock market fell, she was so joyful.".

                   Connecting was my favorite strategy. I made many connections. One of my connections was:"Turtle is listening to a transistor radio, like Cyn from Fig Pudding wanted one for Christmas.". Another connection was:"Turtle Wexler likes other peoples pain like my sister does." Here is another:"Many People in the story had to move, like my family did this summer."

                    I used many different strategies when I was thinking while I was reading this book. I think you should give it a try. Go on, pick up a book and start reading!

                    What are you thinking while you read?

                     

                     Peace,

                              KT









* means Strategy of the Week. You can enter the text of your blog here!

Dear Readers of the World,

I am currently reading a book called The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. This book is good for accelerated readers with a wider range of vocabulary with a rich taste of mystery.

One of the strategies I used was visualization. I visualize many entries this book, especially when the author described the suspect’s features of their bodies.  In one point, one of the heir’s father walks in and is described as: “A large bronze, hardworking, and sweaty face appeared at the door.” I really like the description. One of the other visualizations was the Westing mansion described as: “As the thick smoke rose from the large chimney the creaking French doors opened and out came the killer.” I thought that was very interesting.

Another strategy I used was questioning. I had a question, but it was not answered yet. The question was: “What does snowbound mean?” I thought about that, but nothing came to me. The question that I am going to tell you was answered: “Did Sam Westing have any sons or daughter?” As a matter of fact, he did. A daughter named Violet.

I used many other strategies like prediction and inference. I suggest you use a few of the strategies for reading because thinking while reading is awesome and very healthy for your brain!

Keep on readin’

            KT