Reading Bingo! is back for the spring semester! I made a few changes to the general procedures, the reviews my students write, and, of course, the board is different than the Fall 2015 one. Here is the board for Spring 2016! The changes I made focus on accountability with my students and their reading. For example, when deadlines loomed, I noticed my students were "reading" all sorts of books that they had not been reporting in weekly Reading Roll Calls. I also noticed that students were analyzing their books with the respective course's essential questions in a broad and superficial way. Check out the breakdown of the changes by comparing last semester's expectations to this semester's. Reading Roll Call
This exercise has created a positive reading community. I love it when I hear students say, "That book was great!" or "I couldn't get into that one!" because it gets the conversation started about books and reading. Essential Question AnalysisThe essential question or through line for each class is the same, but I am upping the ante for about half of my students. As was the purpose in the fall, students are practicing the skills associated with finding, analyzing, and connecting textual evidence to larger questions and claims.
What do you think? Feel free to comment below!
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From the Book Jacket
"Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds - smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try." WeaknessesMost of the novel is focused on the relationship formed between Eleanor and Park during the 1986-1987 school year. Because I was born a few years after and was a teenager fifteen to twenty years later, I found it hard to relate to some of the pop culture references (Joy Division, XTC, Esprit) and the lack of technology that Eleanor and Park experienced (cell phones, tapes, Walkmans). The novel opens with Eleanor as the new girl riding the bus to school. Seats on the bus were not assigned, but everyone had their predetermined seat based on the pecking order. After Eleanor gets on the bus and realizes this, she was told by the bus driver to find a seat and sit down. As Eleanor searched for an open seat, one of the main antagonists, Tina, badgered Eleanor at every open seat she found because someone else sat there. Park finally intervened in a not-so nice way: "'Sit down,' he said. It came out angrily. The girl turned to him, like she couldn't tell whether he was another jerk or what. 'Jesus-fuck,' Park said softly, nodding to the space next to him, 'just sit down.' The girl sat down. She didn't say anything - thank God, she didn't thank him - and she left six inches of space on the seat between them" (9). Park's outburst and swearing was extremely rude, but it turned out to be very uncharacteristic. His actions opened a door of communication and kindness by "saving" Eleanor from embarrassment and awkwardness, something that many teenagers face daily and loathe. This introduction between the two characters led to a very strained and slow "getting to know each other" phase. I felt that this dragged on and on causing me to become bored and wonder if and when they would finally fall for each other. After they fell in love, I thought that the book ended abruptly and unexpectedly. I'm not one to provide spoilers, but I was disappointed in the ending. StrengthsI've noticed that I have become very attuned to the layout of a book. Eleanor & Park had chapters that began with either "Eleanor" or "Park", but then, within each chapter, had mini chapters where the third person perspective would change within that month, event, or experience that the characters were going through. Most of the events that are highlighted in each chapter are easy to pick out. This is because they focused on the "firsts" that teenagers and relationships experience as they are getting to know each other, such as holding hands for the first time, their first kiss together, or being alone. Some of the perspectives of either Eleanor or Park could be pages long, and some were simple and short, like the following two columns:
Another strength to the text that I hope is obvious from the two examples above is the amount of pop culture and colloquial language that Rowell provides to build deep characters that are relatable and funny. The first page has a character utilizing "fuck" twice to get his point across. Let's be real: Teenagers swear. If all of the dialogue and internal thoughts of Rowell's characters left these types of words out, it would not be an accurate or relatable story for readers to read. RecommendationThis book is a love story no matter how you slice it. I would recommend it to people, more specifically teenagers, who enjoy those types of books. High school girls who enjoy falling in love stories would thoroughly enjoy this book. I also felt that the characterization and internal perspective had more emphasis on Eleanor over Park. It was difficult for me to relate to Eleanor as a male and her home life was nothing like I ever experienced. Why Did I Read This Book?I was first introduced to Eleanor & Park last spring during #BookBracket2015. Enough students nominated it to the bracket, and I remember reading the synopsis to my students when Eleanor & Park opened against Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Regardless, it piqued my interested and I picked it up in November.
I am also able to count it for the following challenges:
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The Avalanche of Books
As an educator and avid reader, I am constantly hearing about books. I feel like I am being chased by a giant, rolling avalanche of titles and authors. Rating System
5 books - New fave! Read it now!
4 books - Shelf worthy 3 books - Quality read, but ... 2 books - Borrow it 1 book - Skip it Archives
December 2017
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