Bucking The Sarge Book Club
Realistic Fiction Participate Task
Realistic Fiction Write Task
Dekeyser claims in her article, “Working Backward…” that instead of researching a topic THEN writing about it, students should choose a piece of fiction that interests them and trace back at least one fact from the story. Students can trace back the origins of their stories and ask themselves: “How long have these types of stories been around?”, “What purpose did they serve?”, “What purpose do they serve now?”, etc. The goal of this is to research to the point that you get to the truth behind the work.
According to Emily Polson, traditional elements of fiction include a realistic character that has realistic life experiences, an ordinary setting, real-world events or problems, and is set in the present (or near-present) time period. If it was set a long time ago, it would fit more under historical fiction. There was a shift from classic to contemporary realistic fiction books because the genre became more popular in the second half of the 20th century. The contemporary realistic fiction books started to bend the rules of traditional realistic fiction novels to conform to our society’s evolution. Then, the middle school and young adult realistic fiction novels deal with more complex issues and teach a meaningful lesson.
Realistic Fiction Read Task
Working Backward: Strengthening Research Skills Through Fiction
This article was very insightful and gave a lot of good tips about researching, fiction as a genre, and how the two are correlated.
I’ve written novels, too, and if I could name one thing about the process that has most surprised me, it’s this: Writing fiction often requires as much research as writing nonfiction.
I wanted to highlight the above quote because this was most helpful to me. Typically, you think fiction stories are completely based off your imagination and your own thoughts, feelings, and ideas, but this author gives a different perspective. This is a great skill to teach to elementary students that will help improve their writing and research skills. It will also help them use the two together by working backward.
Realistic Fiction Books for Kids and Teens: A Beginner’s Guide
I really liked that this article outlined the elements of realistic fiction. This helped me in doing the participate task. The article puts emphasis on the fact that the story is realistic in that it reflects real-life experiences while still being a fictional story. I likes seeing all the different types of realistic fiction books to teach to children. This will be helpful to refer back to when I’m actually teaching!
A realistic character might remind you of yourself, or they might help you understand people of a different culture, religion, gender, sexuality, level of ability, or socioeconomic status. Reading about realistic characters with different experiences can help us empathize better with the people in our real lives.
The above quote was most helpful to me from this article. This is why teaching realistic fiction is so important and how beneficial it can be to elementary children/ teens. It’s very open-minded and allows writers to be creative, teach a lesson, and be relatable. There is so much that students can take away from this genre and improve their literacy skills in the process!
Bucking the Sarge Book Review
Christopher Paul Curtis’s Bucking the Sarge was published in 2004 about a 15 year old boy, Luther Farrell, who grows up in Flint, Michigan. Luther’s father died and he is left with his mother, the Sarge. The Sarge is not a typical mother figure you see in young adult literature. Like her name, she exudes fear rather than love and nurture. The sarge runs a sketchy real estate empire in which Luther is kind of forced to get involved in. The real estate empire doesn’t keep up with legalities and requirements that it’s supposed to. The sarge uses the residents in her homes to deceive the social security system and get more money. Luther doesn’t belong working for his mother’s illegal business. He is motivated, intelligent and ambitious. We find out that he aspires to get away from Flint and study philosophy at Harvard. The sarge put aside an education fund, which she claims has $90,000. However, we find out later that the Sarge has been lying to Luther about the amount. This is a disappointing moment because the education fund is Luther’s only way out since he isn’t into scamming to get what he wants.
This novel can be very inspirational inspirational to young adolescents. It teaches them that morality always wins and staying true to yourself and your values no matter what surrounds you will reward you. The novel portrays the aspirations of a gifted teenager who yearns to break free of the limits he’s surrounded with. In doing so, Luther has to find the strength to have a moral code against the surrounding corruption he’s grown up with. Luther opposes and challenges stereotypes of African American male teenagers by avoiding drugs, openly showing his passion for learning, his chosen celibacy, and avoiding violent/aggressive confrontations. Once Luther recognizes the toxic, immoral, and illegal behavior of his mother, he decides to remove himself from the situation which allows him to enter adulthood and begin his new life in FL as a man. He never changed who he was even when his own mother was one of the worst influences he had to experience.
Biography Participate Task
Biography Write Task
It’s important to give students a variety of choices and see what peaks their interest instead of just giving them one that they may not really want to learn about. If students are able to choose a person they are interested in (or a field they are interested in), they will automatically be engaged and they will get a well-rounded understanding of the story.
It’s important that students understand that biographies are true stories about real people, not fictional narratives. Students will learn history lessons through biographies because they will be learning about what the person experienced during that time; it will give them context. Students will see all aspects of this persons life, their accomplishments, education, family, romantic relationships, etc. They can use the information and learn from it. For most, the stories serve as an inspiration to students. It shows them that hard work and perseverance can have a great outcome.
Students should develop multiple perspectives because they become culturally aware (which is a skill they will use forever). They will learn about the world & people around them and see them in a new light. When students develop multiple perspectives, they also develop empathy and flexibility.
What strategies can you use to teach biographies in the classroom?- Some strategies to teach biographies to elementary children include: asking students to write a biography about someone they know, teaching a mini-lesson (as a starting point), ask students to collaborate with each other to read one section of the biography (i.e. education, career, or childhood) then ask each group to retell their section (helps with comprehension), play the “expert” and “researcher” game where one group of students acts as the researcher and has to interview the expert for info on the person, create writing prompts for students to go off that really gets them reflecting what they took away from the story.
The teacher can do his/her own research to be sure a children’s biography book is culturally authentic. The teacher should look for things like: does the person come from a diverse background? Does their story teach cultural awareness?
Biography Read Task
I liked how SALLY LA LUZERNE-OI AND JEAN KIRSCHENMANN’s article talked about effective and helpful activities that teachers can do with students to get them interested in biographies and guide their comprehension. The authors also suggest giving students writing prompts to go along with the biography.
Writing prompts require students to think critically and, sometimes, creatively. Students may also need to reread the biography, take notes on relevant passages, and (if desired) conduct additional research. If students share their writing with one another, they will have yet another interaction with key content and language related to the biography.
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I think writing prompts are important because they reinforce the information students obtained from the reading which enhances their comprehension.
Biographies gave students rich language to talk or write about life, specific vocabulary related to certain professions, and themes and topics related to their experiences and cultures. They also provided authentic contexts for review and recycling of important vocabulary in each successive week.
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This is a great quality to teach to students especially through reading. Biographies teach students real-life skills and useful knowledge that they will use in their futures.
Teachers who use biographies in any or all of these three ways will discover that biographies are also ideal for differentiating instruction in multilevel language classes because biographical passages for the same subject are readily available on various levels. They foster both language-focused learning and fluency development.
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This is a great way to improve children’s literacy while also teaching them about a notable person’s story. Biographies are a great way to effectively teach the entire classroom including people a lower or higher levels.
In Morgan’s article, it mentions that biographies teach students about global connections and cultural diversity. If taught and guided correctly, students are able to develop cross-cultural understandings at a young age through picture book biographies. Using biographies to help students develop multiple perspectives is a great way to practice their literacy while also teaching them cultural awareness.
Based on the slideshow for this module, we teach biographies to get students inspired, to teach them historical context of the person’s life, and to show students that they can learn from the lives of others. They learn from their accomplishments and from their mistakes. It’s important to get students to understand that these are real people and true stories.
I think it’s important to let students have the freedom to choose their own biographies they want to read based on their interest. This will keep them engaged and they will get more out of it.
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