Night by Elie Wiesel Reflection

Wiesel, E. (1958) Night. New York: Hill and Wang.

Night is the true account of a 14-year-old boy’s survival in the Nazi concentration camps. Wiesel was just a teenager when the Nazis forced him and his family from their home in Sighet, Transylvania in 1944. Not long after their evacuation, Wiesel and his father were separated from his mother and sisters. Wiesel writes of torturous beatings, starvation, death, betrayal, and surprising, survival out of the horror. The book leaves you physically sick with grief for so many innocent lives lost so long ago.

Night is an example of an authentic, but partial autobiography. The book chronicles several months in Wiesel’s teenage life, but gives factual information through eyewitness accounts and uses real conversations among the characters of the story. The book has a chronological structure as it documents the days, weeks, and months in the lives of Wiesel’s family from the time of their evacuation in 1944 until his rescue only in 1945.

This powerful book is a must-read for eleventh and twelfth grade high school students. The big question is: How do I determine if what I am reading is factual and to what degree is the information accurate? Using Common Core Standard, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.8 Evaluate an author’s premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information, students could read this text and research this time in our world’s history by finding primary sources of information to determine the book’s accuracy. Students need to learn to analyze, question, and challenge an author’s ideas to determine if what they’re reading is an accurate account of history.

Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson Book Talk

Woodson, J. (2005). Show Way. New York: Penguin Group.

Years ago, a frightened little girl is sold at age seven - a slave...a child...a person. Only a needle and some thread offer comfort as she leaves the people who love her to live a life of slavery.

Jacqueline Woodson chronicles her family’s lineage in the book Show Way. Beginning with her great-great-great-great-grandma, Woodson writes of her family’s contribution to free slaves through the sewing of navigation or freedom quilts. Each block of the quilt represents landmarks such as log cabins, crossroads, the North Star, paths, or wildlife that slaves would follow to guide them on their path to freedom.

The book has beautiful illustrations that are a patchwork of pictures in brilliant colors showing the history of brave men and women who helped end this tragic time in our nation’s history. The book shows the love and admiration that Woodson has for her daughter and all of the women before them who “grew tall and straight-boned” (Woodson, 2005) giving them the strength to journey on a “road to a better place” (Woodson, 2005).

Holes by Louis Sachar Reflection

Sachar, L. (1998). Holes. New York: Dell Yearling.

Ever had a day when you thought, “Can anything else go wrong?” A day so bad, that it almost seemed like you were cursed, destined for bad luck, doomed even.

The day that a pair of large stinky sneakers seemingly falls out of the sky and hits Stanley Yelnats on the head changes his life forever. The sneakers, owned by Clyde Livingston, a famous athlete, were to be auctioned at a charity event to raise money for a homeless shelter. Thought to have stolen the sneakers from a charity event, the police handcuff Stanley and send him to a “camp” where digging holes in the desert is supposed to build character and reform boys who have lost their way.

With hardly any food or water and the threat of no water at all, the boys dig in the hot sun each day. Stanley digs, day after day, week after week, hole after hole, but it doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize that the holes are being dug for reasons other than just building character. Soon, Stanley realizes there are hundreds of holes in the dried up lake, as far as the eye can see. For what? What could be so important to the camp’s warden that she is willing to maim or kill to get it?

As Stanley tries to discover the truth, he builds a lasting friendship and wonders if he will ever uncover the secrets of the lake.

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman Reflection

Fleischman, P. (1988). Joyful noise: Poems for two voices. New York: Harper & Row.
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices is classified as a specialized poetry book. Each poem, about the topic of insects, all written by Fleischman, is about a different insect’s life, the work they do, hardships they face, their lifecycles, etc. Fleischman utilizes personification as a means of comparing an insect’s life to that of humans. For example, in the poem, Fireflies, he compares a firefly’s light and the night sky to an artist’s ink and his or her canvass. In the collection, there are poems about insects such as grasshoppers, cicadas, beetles, honeybees, etc. Fleischman writes each poem with a first person narrator from an insect’s point of view. For example, in the poem Honeybees, Fleischman writes,
“Being a bee          Being a bee
                             is a joy.
is a pain.
                             I’m a queen
I’m a worker
I’ll gladly explain    I’ll gladly explain” (1988. pg. 29).
In addition, Fleischman writes the poems, as the title implies, to be read and enjoyed using two voices or two groups of voices. As seen from the quote above, one reader reads from the left side and another reader reads the lines on the right. If both readers have lines on the same level, the two read chorally.
Big Question – How can reading poetry improve fluency, speaking, and listening skills?
Reading poetry, using echo reading or choral reading, is an excellent way to improve fluency skills for students. Students can perform these skills in small groups or whole group settings. Using this book, small groups of students could practice choral reading one poem from the book to present to the rest of the class or to other grade levels in the school. Younger students also enjoy hearing performances of poetry as well.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.4.4b Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

Traditional Literature - Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky Reflection

Zelinsky, P. O. (1997) Rapunzel. New York: Dutton Children’s Books.
Rapunzel is the story of a soon-to-be-mother who steals and eats the rapunzel herb from a sorceress' garden. In retaliation, the sorceress takes the mother's baby as soon as she is born, names the baby Rapunzel, and locks her away in a high tower. Years later, a prince finds and marries Rapunzel. When the sorceress finds out, she banishes Rapunzel to the wilderness, and tries to kill the prince. As in most fairy tales, the prince and Rapunzel eventually find each other again and live happily ever after.
This book is a Retold Tale. In the back of the book, Zelinsky writes, “My retelling of “Rapunzel” takes shapes from both Grimms’ and earlier versions of the tale” (1997). The theme of the story is a limited one. As predicted, the theme only shows good prevails over evil when the handsome prince rescues Rapunzel, the innocent damsel in distress, as they overcome some sort of evil force, in this case, the sorceress. In addition, the characters of the story are two dimensional or flat characters because the reader only sees one side of their personality, good or bad. There is no in between. The sorceress is purely evil and Rapunzel is purely good. With round characters, you see good and bad traits of the characters.
The fairy tale, Rapunzel was one of my favorites as a young girl. I often dreamed of having long flowing gorgeous hair just like Rapunzel’s. The story I read as a young girl was part of a collection of fairy tales in one large book, and was quite different from Zelinsky’s version.
Big Question: How do different versions of fairy tales compare and contrast with each other?
I would like to obtain several variations of this story. Place students in small groups – a different version per group, and have the students research the origin, provide a summary, and compare and contrast their version to another group’s version of the story.
Common Core Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.