Turning Pages

2012 50 Book Challenge

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I MAY not be able to prove that my literature class makes a difference in my students’ test results, but there is a positive correlation between how much time students spend reading and higher scores. The problem is that low-income students, who begin school with a less-developed vocabulary and are less able to comprehend complex sentences than their more privileged peers, are also less likely to read at home. Many will read only during class time, with a teacher supporting their effort. But those are the same students who are more likely to lose out on literary reading in class in favor of extra test prep. By “using data to inform instruction,” as the Department of Education insists we do, we are sorting lower-achieving students into classes that provide less cultural capital than their already more successful peers receive in their more literary classes and depriving students who viscerally understand the violence and despair in Steinbeck’s novels of the opportunity to read them
An English teacher at a public middle school in Manhattan.

Filed under literacy nytimes education reading

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NYDA: Summer Reading for Second Graders

nydahpa:

For anyone just joining us, last year for Accio Books NYDA helped to create the library at the New Beginnings Charter School. We just got through tutoring the third and fourth graders for State Exams, but what about the second graders. We shouldn’t leave them out. They will be taking the State…

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Book Series

List of Series and Sequals I Need to Complete Before Starting Any More:

  1. The Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce: 1 Novel
  2. Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan: 2 Novels
  3. The Magician King by Lev Grossman: 1 Novel
  4. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart - 2 Novels
  5. Sherlock Holmes - 2 Novels, 10 Short shories
  6. Temeraire Series by Naomi Novak - 5 4 Novels

Future Series:

  1. The Hunger Games
  2. Aubrey/Maturin by Patrick O’Brian

Are there any other series I should add to my to-read list?

Filed under book series Book list temeraire

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50 Book Reading Challenge: #23 Throne of Jade by Naomi Novak To be sure, the best part of the Temeraire series is the relationship between Laurence and Temeraire. Although, I didn’t think it was as successful as the first book  I am glad to have read it and will also continue on with the series. To be honest, when finishing up this book I missed my subway stop by two stops, that’s how engrossed I was.

50 Book Reading Challenge: #23

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novak

To be sure, the best part of the Temeraire series is the relationship between Laurence and Temeraire. Although, I didn’t think it was as successful as the first book  I am glad to have read it and will also continue on with the series. To be honest, when finishing up this book I missed my subway stop by two stops, that’s how engrossed I was.

Filed under naomi novik throne of jade temeraire

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A Year in Reading

As of March 10th, I have 22 books towards by goal of reading 100 books in 2012. This puts me 4 books a heard of schedule. 

Professional Development Books: 5

Young Adult/Children’s Books: 11

Fiction: 6

I have also made 2012 The Year of Sherlock (And Temeraire)! My goal is to complete the four novels and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (12 stories) by the end of the year. I also want to finish ALL of the books in the Temeraire series. I’m thinking about one per month.

Here is a tentative plan for future years:

2013: The Year of Jane Austen (Read five of her novels)

2014: Adventure (Kipling, H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Robinson Crusoe, Jules Verne,  Victor Hugo, Jonathan Swift: 6 novels)

2015: Charlies Dickens (5 novels)

Filed under a year in reading