mommyhoodatthirty.com » Day 220: Back to School Blog Style…Books and Websites For You and Your Child

Day 220: Back to School Blog Style…Books and Websites For You and Your Child

Welcome back to the Back to School Blog Style Series. If you weren’t here last week, click on the “Back to School” tab up top and read all about it, and you will also find links to last week’s topic, “Tips for Success.”

Before I get down to business, I want to remind you about the movement we are trying to start…blog hop style that is. Click here to read all about it, and of course make sure to come back to read about “Books and Websites For You and Your Child.”

OK, so the business for today’s post…

This suggested list is all about resources for you and your child. And remember, that I’m a high school English teacher, so I will be focusing on the older kiddos. At the end of this post, there will be a link to Sweet Harper’s post geared toward the elementary levels.

1. I Read it, But I Don’t Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers:

This is a book I read when I was in grad school preparing for my future English teacher career. What I really loved about this book was that it wasn’t written in crazy textbook fashion way where a sentence is 6 lines long and you have to reread it several times to figure out what the author is saying. It is a short book that focuses on hands on strategies for adolescent readers to use when reading. What this book opened me up to was the fact that so many students, myself included, read over something once, don’t get it, but keep on moving on because you think that you are a good reader if you can read fast and finish a book. Really, though, reading isn’t supposed to be a passive experience.

What this book taught me is that good readers, and I’m not talking about how fast you can read a book, interact with the words on the page. I Read it, But I Don’t Get It, provides you with tangible things students can do while reading. One strategy that I personally like to use with my students has to do with post-its. When reading something, I give the kids two different colors of post-its. One color is for them the stick on the page at places where something doesn’t make sense, whether it’s a word they don’t know or something that isn’t clear. The second color has to do with a focused question/topic that I want them to look for. This helps students have a purpose while reading. I know you might think that this is a bit hokey for older kids, but trust me, they are into it.

Now I know some of you are thinking that this sounds like a teacher resource, but trust me, as a parent, you will find this very useful. There is a whole section of already done handouts that you can easily use like a double entry diary you can have your kid use to pick quotes out and write about what it reminds them of or what they visualize or what they are confused about etc. Who knows, maybe one day your kid might go through the resource part and find a handout they want to use.

2. Staying Connected to Your Teenager: How to Keep Them Talking to You and How to Hear What They’re Really Saying

When I was searching for another familiar book to recommend to you, I came across Staying Connected to Your Teenager. I have to admit, though, that I have not read it, but man, it looks like a killer resource for trying to understand teenagers and how to work with them. I think that if I had a teenager right now, I would hands down choose this one. (I went through a whole course on adolescent development and all the reading from that course was super textbooky, so I didn’t want to send you in that direction.)

The product description on Amazon says about this book, “From moving from a “managing” to a “consulting” role in a teen’s life, from working with a teen’s uniquely exasperating sleep rhythms to having real conversations when only monosyllables have been previously possible, Staying Connected to Your Teenager demonstrates ways to bring out the best in a teen-and, consequently, in an entire family.”

Some of the chapter titles alone have me intrigued too:

“Give up on Lectures and Advice”
“The Sexes are Different and This is Good News!”
“Self Esteem Through Integrity”

But of course these titles have me freaking out about the alien Abigail will turn into one day. But to be honest, I’m not going to run out and purchase this book right now, b/c I have a long way before I’m dealing with my own moody teenager, but finding this book reminded me that once I’m done with all the baby books and toddler books I am reading/will read, that gaining information about what our kids go through does not stop. Instead of freaking out, I know I will just need to continue to educate myself. Perhaps the author of this book with have an updated version for Abby’s generation or perhaps there will be a newer and fancier and more cutting edge take on the 21st century teenager.

3. Web English Teacher:

I’m going to let you in on a little teacher secret. We don’t all create unique and different curriculum ourselves. A professor once said to my class that teachers don’t plagiarize, they borrow. And trust me, I’ve done a good share of borrowing myself…well I see what’s out there and make it my own. But shhhhhhhhhhhhhh…don’t tell your kids this. By far, my favorite of these sites is the Web English Teacher. Now you may be wondering why I would be telling parents about this site. Well here’s the deal…just about every book, short story, or poem that you kid might read, will be found on this site. And it’s not just focused on the upper grade levels.

What you will find here, in addition to seeing where we get inspiration for assignments for students, is that you will find tons of resources for comprehending texts your student may be reading. Let’s say your kid is going to be reading Night by Elie Wiesel. All you do is click on “Literature (Prose)” and up pops up a giant list of authors. Once you click on Elie Wiesel, there you will find links to biographical information to historical information about the Holocaust to summaries and brief analysis of chapters. I mean wouldn’t it be great to hold your own when you kid is confused with the book or when your kid doesn’t see the point of the book or when you kid has a question about the book?

4. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)

This is an amazing site not only for myself, but for students. Now I know you are thinking that Purdue is a University, but they have a section devoted to Grades 7-12 Instructors and Students. It has tips on using the writing process to dealing with writer’s block to how to do research to how to use transitional words to grammar help. What I appreciate about this site is that it is straight forward and provides examples. I’ve even adapted some of their lessons to use in my classroom. In addition, I inform my students about this site when we are working on writing projects. And, I mean as we are bloggers and into this whole computer age thing, imagine our kids and how much more they will respond to learning via technology.

Well, if you’ve made it this far, I’m impressed. This was a lot of information, and I hope you found it useful even if you, like me, have a ways to go before our cute bundles of joys turn into alien teenagers. And don’t forget to check out what Tracy, from Sweet Harper, has to say about “Books and Websites For You and Your Child” with a focus on the early years.