Yes, the Orca series books are excellent. Something I tried this year
for the first time with my Gr. 7's was a Listening centre. I wasn't
sure how they would receive it since it seemed like something you
would find in a junior class, however several of my students LOVED
it. One in particular, who was a self-proclaimed reading hater, got
through several books this way. Freak the Mighty (Philbrick), Bang!
(Sharon Flake), Artemis Fowl (Colfer) and Touching Spirit Bear
(Mikaelsen).
I haven't read Blizzard's Wake but I am interested in the two
character perspective. This reminds me of other great reads that have
chapters with different "voices" such as Tears of a Tiger (Draper)
and Egghead (Pignat). Egghead is phenomenal as the voice of the
boy who is being severely bullied is written in poetry and extremely
touching.
Other Grade 7 reads that work for the tough ones include: Peak
(Roland Smith) and I am a Taxi (Deb Ellis)
I have to add that the best way I have found to get reluctant readers
into is to set it up for them. If you simply hand them a book and say
"you will like it" isn't enough. Instead you have to set it up for
them. Read the first chapter, talk about some of the issues the will
encounter in the book, connect it to their life somehow. This
seriously means you have to read the book before they do. They have
to trust you.
Enjoy!
On 28-Aug-09, at 11:09 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
For three years I have taught a 'tracked' below level 7th grade
English class. We read "Blizzard's Wake" by Phyllis Naylor. It is
a novel set in 1941 in Oklahoma just before Pearl Harbor is
attacked. There is a famous blizzard that comes down from Canada in
March of 1941. So the setting is realistic and historical. The
blizzard is true enough and so is that part of America just before
we enter WWII. My low kids loved, loved the novel. The gist is
about a guy who is released from prison for good behav
ior. He was jailed for driving drunk and killing the main
character's mother. He returns to the town where it happened. The
book is in chapter form and each chapter switches back and forth
between the girl and the man, their thoughts, their own isolation;
one from guilt and the other from anger. The suspense builds when
the girl's father, a doctor, is caught in the blizzard with her
younger brother and Zeke, the man, climbs into the car. The family
saves his life and there is a twist to this that expla
ins the girl's anger and hate for Zeke. There is even a sort of
reconciliation at the end that is believable.
Wonderful discussions even though I read most of it to them. As
they got into it, more and more of them started reading it on their
own. And whether or not you think students should be tracked, these
student started to risk having opinions and thinking more critically
then they ever had before. In a regular class they would be
intimidated by the higher students who do all the talking.
Anyway, I am going to use the novel in my CORE class this year. It
is easy to read except you need to bring the historical events into
the story and talk about life without television or cell phones.
Some vocabulary preview / teaching is needed, but that is not a bad
thing.
Just a thought.
---- [email protected] wrote:
We do a lot of shared reading so I don't really need the high
interest low
readability books as much as books with good plots, but not overly
complicated ones.
Pat
www.pawsofwood.com
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