Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor and Alice in Wonderland Book Club Discussion Guide

I've been running book clubs during our lunch recesses for some of my students who need greater challenge.  I've had the most success with Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars which starts an amazing trilogy that is a take off on "Alice in Wonderland."  Only Alyss at the beginning of this story is a bored princess with a strong, but not very disciplined imagination.  Today was my second time running the club with my 5th and 6th graders. 

The questions that seem to get the most discussion are about imaginations.  This is my favorite one:

• Alyss’ magical gift is her imagination.  How do you know when a person is imaginative? What’s the opposite of imaginative? Does Alyss strike you as someone who is particularly imaginative at the start of this story?

 The kids really have strong opinions on the use of imagination in real life.  One student mentioned that, considering that air travel was once an impossible thing, could teleportation someday be possible.  Another student considered that even people who we think could have the most unimaginative jobs might benefit from highly inventive imaginations.

I really enjoyed today's discussion and, since it went so well the last two times, I've decided to make my questions available for download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

Here are some other resources:

• The author's web site, The Looking Glass Wars, is well worth exploring.
  
• As is the online game called Card Soldiers Wars.

RIT scoring the novel study -- The Maze Runner by James Dashner

 

This is the first year that my school is using MAP data from NWEA.  We are all working really hard to understand and apply the data.  In addition to attempting to create a links page of free online games that target different RIT scores, I'm also looking at many of our literature circles and novel studies to see what RIT scores they target.  

This one for the Maze Runner by James Dashner works well for students with RIT scores 211-220 and 221-230.  The reason for this is because it helps students analyze character and make inferences.  It's available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  

Making Sense (and peace?) with NWEA MAP Data

Two weeks ago, my world was rocked by the fact that I had to make certain that everyone in my school of 518 5th and 6th graders took an online assessment called MAP.  And not only took one online assessment, but did so THREE TIMES!  MAP,  which stands for Measures of Academic Progress, has been created by the NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association). 

Administering the MAP can be a logistical nightmare that involves signing each machine in to a separate student since the students cannot log themselves in.  But we worked through it in two weeks with two computer labs set up specifically for MAP. 


And now we are onto the data evaluation and use portion of MAP.  All of my kids in all of their classes have been assigned RIT scores and ranges.  Each range has goals and objectives that students should work towards.  The idea is that teachers can create groupings around the RIT scores so that they can differentiate instruction and tailor each student's learning to their strengths and deficits. 


So I decided to see how this would work by taking a novel study that almost all of my social studies teachers use in the fall.  

That novel is Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad.  
This is a short journal form novel that imagines that Christopher Columbus had a ship's cabin boy named Pedro who could read and write and had many opinions about their first voyage together.  He was also given great access to the "Captain" as he calls Columbus.  
 



Firstly, let's talk Book Metrics: How do we measure whether a book will work for a reader?

My perception has been that this book is not all that difficult to read, as I look at the numbers, I may  be mistaken, however.  The LEXILE level is 1030L, the DRA level is 40 and the Accelerated Reader level is 5.8.  The high AR level and Lexile must have much to do with some of the vocabulary that helps set the historical setting: like bonaventure and mizzenmast.

Secondly, let's talk RIT Levels:  

The vocabulary list generated from this little book is huge!

As are the inferences that can be drawn about the conflict of the two main characters, Pedro and Columbus.

Here's what I think can be taught with Pedro's Journal.

RIT GOAL STRAND: Read for a variety of purposes.

·         Classify Text as Historical Fiction (201-210)

·         Identify Characteristics of Historical Fiction (211-220) 

RIT GOAL STRAND: Text Components

INFERENCES (191-200)

·         Infers a character's feelings in simple literary text       

INFERENCES (201-210)

·         Infers the conflict (term not used) in a literary text

·         Infers the conflict in a literary text

·         Analyzes to determine the problem presented

INFERENCES (211-220)

·         Infers the reason behind a character's actions

·         Evaluates character development in literary text

·         Infers the qualities (emotional and/or physical) of a character based on information found in literary texts

·         Infers the reason behind a character's feelings/emotions

And since both are on a journey, one can take kids on a great GOOGLE EARTH journey.

So I've created a novel study for my teachers to use that fits all of these objectives.  It is for sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  

A freebie that allows people to use Google Earth to understand this story can be downloaded at my Teachers Pay Teachers store as well.  

I really wish that I knew how other people were using and hopefully enjoying their MAP assessment data. As I was watching the students take their test, I could see how hard many were working.

I am also discovering that there are many school districts out there that are aggregating games based on RIT scores.  Here is one example: from the Belle Plaine in Minnesota.

Big Nate! I'm a BIG FAN!

I love any book that I can recommend to a reluctant boy reader and they actually might walk out of my library with it.  Big Nate works it well and I'm glad to say that he has three books out now and more are on the way from Lincoln Peirce.  I liked this Book Trailer for it. 

Why like Nate? He isn't afraid to make up some hilarious nicknames for his teachers, he will take a speed eating dare with whatever vegetables are surplused in the cafetorium, and has a "do-gooder" arch nemesis.  In other words, he's very relatable and funny.

So I created a Lit Guide for it in the hopes that one of my teachers would use it with her small group of reluctant boy readers who like graphic novels like the Amulet series.  It's for sale at my Teachers Pay Teacher's store.  I created a card game to go with it.  The object of the game is to collect DETENTIONS.

Dark Life! Fabulous Sci-Fi by Kat Falls

I'm always looking for great sci-fi and I fell in love with this one last year.

It's Dark Life by Kat Falls.  What I liked the most about it was there aren't that many books out there where people attempt to colonize the seabed.  I thought that Kat Falls did a great job coming up with all the ways it could happen.  Just when the reader became skeptical about the science, she came up with a reasonably plausible explanation. Although the science teachers at my school did not buy the idea of the liquigen capsule taking care of the air pressure issue. 

We ran some science class based book discussion groups last year and this one was the hit of the series.  I wrote some questions for these parent-led discussion groups and have posted them as a free download at my store at Teachers Pay Teachers.  Eleven meaty questions for free!

I've got the sequel, Rip Tide, on my list of reads.  I'm wondering where she can go from here because I felt like she already had to reveal much of the surprise of living under the sea.