Wednesday, November 28, 2012

What is a Reading Community?

Dear Readers,

As an avid reader, I often find myself finishing a great book or an interesting article, and desperately wanting to share my thoughts with someone. When I lived in Charleston, I was lucky enough to have a group of friends who shared a passion for reading, so we formed a book club. While I am not in the same city as my book club anymore, I still reach out to my friends and family in Nashville, to discuss my wonderings and opinions about literature.

As a classroom of learners, we have created a community geared toward having a teachable spirit, so we may grow to become people of knowledge, wisdom, and ultimately character. One way we do this is by reading and forming ideas and connections that begin to shape us. In order to support this work, this blog will serve as a way to discuss various things when we are not in the class. Essentially, the blog will become a virtual classroom.

For example, I might post about a response about Thank You, Mr. Falker by explaining my connection to the character, Trish. I might say how much I relate to her overcoming an obstacle with the help of a teacher and how motivated I was to find out the author was the one who overcame her learning hurdle and became a published author. You will have the same chance to post your reactions, but also, to respond to what someone else might say. In this way, our posts become a conversation when we are away from the classroom.

As we begin this online blogging adventure, I challenge you to bring your working minds to the keyboard and let me know your thoughts and feelings about literature. We have so much to discover ...


So, join the community! Come on in, pull up to a computer, let me know your thoughts about literature and our blogging opportunity. Read my post and reply back to me.

27 comments:

  1. I believe the blog will be a wonderful opportunity for our class to communicate in a unique way. Literature is an important part of my life because I enjoy getting lost in a story and having friends recommend books to me. Also, I love talking about the books I have read. I am interested in learning more about the blog and how we will use it in class.

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  2. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry Potter go through sesions when he gets accused of doing things he doesn't do. I also get into some situations like that. I like to read for a very long time and nonstop or I just never read.

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  3. I'm looking forward to having another email. I'm also looking forward to talking with other people on the blog. It will also be a good opportunity to look what other people are reading about.

    In case I was suppose to be writing about a connection like you did with Welcome Mr. Falker I'm going to do it right here. I can make a connection to Catherine in the book Rules By, Cynthia Lord. The connection I can make is that David always annoys her and my sister always annoys me. It is very annoying.

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  4. I can not wait till we are in a book club. because I enjoyed the last book club I was in. I had alot of fun talking to my firends about my book. so now i we have to tell my friends. I think this is a grate opertonadiey to bound with one another. and we can leruan diffent thing about each other.like what is going on in there life or what they are doing on the weekend or what they like to do and find a grate book. on a diffent note this is my connetion with my chater. Me and my charicter in my book, firne both like mystery. we are both aadventchers and ready for another advenchers!! ! firen is going thour a hard time and same as me. famliy wise.

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  5. I really enjoy having a blog so that we can communicate with each other about books. I really enjoy reading other peoples blogs about what they thought about there book,so i can maybe read that book if i think it looks like a good book.

    My connection to a book called The New Girl is that if somebody gets mad at me i don't tell my mom because she might tell the teacher. My Character in my book feels the same way about her mother.

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  6. In American Chillers it is very hard to resist the book. I can make a connection with the main character Rick, we both get worried about a few stuff. I think this is a very good opportunity to express your feelings and thoughts.

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  7. What I am reading is Fossils. It is really interesting and I recommend this book to people who like fossils. A connection I have with this book because I have found a fossil in my backyard. Another connection I have is I found a bone in the woods one time

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  8. I think this is a good why for our class to have the opportunity to talk about our books. Like for instance I read Ida B over the summer. We can also talk about connections to our books. For example I can connect to Ida B because she is adventurous and loves to play out side. I enjoy playing out on my trampoline after school. I'm looking forward to using the blog and to see what my friends post.

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  9. I love connecting in all different ways on the computer. This is a great opportunity to do this. I have always enjoyed talking about the books I have read in the past. We get to be nurtured in this be doing it every day. We always talk about in our book clubs in the past on how we think about it in different ways. The book I am reading should be spread with everyone because it has such good story telling. It really is a group up of friends or even family. You come together and talk about the things you have read in your book so far. This is something that everyone should be able to do and think about doing it more. We should be doing book clubs more often so we can get the chance to be nurtured in the books you and your fiends have and you as well. And I like doing book clubs most of all.

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  10. My connection to my book is that Ty's older brother is responsible kind and caring. My brother Mac is responsible caring kind and has to do the most important thing like do the dishes, make his bed, and help around the house.

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  11. The book i'm reading is Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. i can conect to with my Character Esperanza becuose her dad died when going to fix things on the farm, but when every thing went wrong and they got attacked by bandits she never saw him again and now her mom and her are stuck alone with out him. I can relate with her and her mom my dad didn't die but he doesn't live with me any more and I miss him very much.

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  12. I think this is a good way for our class to get to know each other. I also think its fun to have the opportunity to be able to get to blog about what we learned in school and about what books we've read and telling our friend about the books. It's also fun if the class will be able to make up something to blog about.I read the book Rules by Cynthia Lord I can connect to the main character Catherine who has a little brother David who annoys her sometimes. I can connect to Catherine because my sister Lark can sometimes really annoy me and she thinks it's funny. I can also connect to Catherine because she has some really good friends. I can connect to her because I have a lot of really good friends, but one of my friends I've know ever since she moved from New Jersey and her name is Daryn

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  13. in how to train your dragon Hiccup is in the friendly swimming race his father is about to be killed by Magnuts the Murderous and Hiccup his to save the day, and he his to come in last to win it. and at the end he kills him and saves the day.

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  14. My connection with my book is some times your little brother or sister can be a pain for example in my book the main character Justen lives in Florida and a lot of fog is romeing all around Florida and Justen is taking care of his sister one time I was home alone and I was taking care of my brother it takes a lot of responsibilty to help.

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  15. I think that Rick is calm about crazy things like when his best friend turned into a giant spider and fighted a killer monster!!!!!

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  16. I think that in my book the main character Katie will start a cupcake war with her used to be best friend Callie to see who can win the cupcake war,the fundraiser and to see who can make the most money for the fundraiser also see who can bake the best cupcakes. My opinion about Katie and her friends are always caring, kind, and supporteve to one another because they're always there for each other,they always care for each other, and they're always kind to each other.










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    1. I think Ramona is crazy because she does all these challenges and keeping up with her new baby sister and feeling good with being a new sister and having a new little sister and I can connect because moving from new Jersey and getting to meet my first friend Liliana was really hard to get to know her and now she is my neighbor and is my really good friend.

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  17. I think bloging is a good opurtunite to share our thoughts about our reading experince. I know I will like it to read my friends posts and comments.

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  18. The book that I am reading is School of Fear I think that Madline,Theo,Garrison,and Lulu are going to hate the School of fear because they are saying life is a beauty pageant. I can connecet with Madline because she is horrified of bugs and me hate bugs. My opinion is that Lulu is mean because she did a backflip and kicked her teachers face 2 times.

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  19. My character is Marueen from the book Misty. I can connect to her because she loves horses and I do to. Marueen and her brother Paul save up all they money to buy a horse that they really wanted. The horse's name is Phantom. But they do not know that Phantom had just had a pony named Misty.They get to keep Misty, but Phantom does not want to stay. Marueen lets Phantom go with Pied Pepper(the father horse.

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  20. I can connect to Mac because he is crazy all the time and I think sometimes. I can be a little crazy when I get happy and sometimes I get crazy when my friends are over.
    And I can also make a connection to Ron because he is calm and cool. I think that I am pretty calm and cool when I try.

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  21. What I am reading right now is a book called A horse called Wonder. The main character in this book is Ashleigh. I can connect to her because she love horses so much. So do I! Just like ashleigh, I am a little insecure when something is new. But I snap right into after a day or two. Ashleigh has a little brother that doesn't always understand what has happened in what's going on. I have a sister that sometimes is like that too.

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  22. I think it is a great idea that we can be able to blog each other and to be able to communicate about our books. I read the book Ninth Ward by Jewel Parker Rhodes. My connection is that Lanesha is from Louisiana and my mom is from Louisiana.

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  23. I think it is a good opportunity to make connections about other people and other books.

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  24. what I am reading right now is called The Lost Hero the main character is Jason. I can connect to Jason because on some days I wake up I don't know what day it is I just started this book today so I'm not really into it yet. In my opinion Jason's thoughts are very funny and he is very brave because he doesn't freak out when he wakes up on the bus.

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  25. The book I am reading is The Sorceress. The main characters are Nicholas, Josh,and Sophie. I have a connection with Nicholas because we are both brave.

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  26. In my book Amircan Chillers Justen is brave and his sister is not because in a part of the book she is afraid to go out side

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