Martindale's Musings

Ch 10 Historical Fiction Historical fiction refers to any book/story that is set in the past. This makes the definition of historical fiction be harder to set a certain age to, what may be contemporary fiction to one reader, is considered past to another. The example used was the events of September 11, 2001, that may be contemporary to us graduate students while to our elementary students this is something that occurred before they were born, and therefore in the past.  Historical fiction allows for students to read vicariously, using those books as windows as was read in chapters 1 and 6. There is a list of 5 criteria points to be used when evaluating books that may fall into that historical fiction sub-genre. Books should be able to effortlessly blend the history into the story itself, provide accurate information about the historical period, should allow the values of the time period to be brought to life, keep everything consistent historically, and have a theme that app...

Ch 9 Poetry This chapter consists of several parts, a video of Drs. Perry & Lesesne, a blog post and a section with information and links on criteria for analyzing poetry.  A research study done by Anne Terry done in the 70’s ( and replicated later, and suggested it is replicated now since it’s been over 20 years since it was last done), shows that poetry is the most disliked form of writing.   The research does show that there are types of poetry that students do like, narrative poetry, and the types of poetry they dislike to read, haiku and free verse. The odd thing about that, is that they actually prefer to write haiku and free verse.   Poetry is not written for all readers, in fact older poetry, like that from Frost, was not written for students at all. It is suggested that students are exposed to a variety of poetry types in order to allow for them to have familiarity and enjoyment.  Also, using poetry that allows the reader to have visual images and to...

Ch 8 Awards Book awards & book lists are the main focus of this chapter. The text of this chapter consists of hyperlinks that lead to the numerous book award & book list sites. Each site has a history of the award or reason for the list, along with a list of titles. Take Away Media specialists/librarians should be aware of the different awards and book lists, what the award/list is about, and which titles have been placed on the list or awarded the prize.  A patron of your library could greatly benefit with a title that has been placed on one of those lists/awards. As media specialists/librarians we should be aware of the titles that may have been placed on the lists/been given awards, as that speaks for the titles. We read in chapters 1 and 6 that we should be suggesting books that will allow our readers to grow, knowing what books are “out there” would allow us to make the best choices to best serve our patrons.  The books on those lists/award recipients ar...

Ch 7 Literary Elements Literary Elements & literary devices chapter has different elements and devices that as media specialists/librarians we should be familiar with in order to best analyze books for our libraries/collections.  It is suggested that we use the lists given and become familiar with the terms. A list of websites is also given for further research of the terms.  Take Away I really like the list of terms and having them for not only learning about them myself, but to be able to teach the proper terms to my students.  I like the suggestion of creating our own definitions of them, as that is one of the best ways to really learn what the terms mean. I believe that students would really appreciate learning the terms, especially the literary techniques, as they can use them when discussing books, writing about books for their classes and even movies that they may have watched.   

Ch 6-How do adolescents develop? This chapter does a review on psychologists Piaget, Havighurst, Kohlberb, Maslow & of the Reading Development concept by Donelson Nielsen.  Dr. Lesesne reminds listeners that in order to best serve our students, media specialists/librarians need to think about how the students develop intellectually and physically.  The focus should be on helping students/patrons find the right books. With Piaget in mind, when dealing with adolescent students their intellectual ability may not be able to handle abstract concepts such as theme just yet. Combining a bit of Vygotsky and using scaffolding to be able to take the reader from a concrete stage that they are on & move to the abstract is a great way to do so.  Encouraging those students to read books where the characters are dealing with some of the same things would be particularly beneficial as well. Students are best able to make those transitions with examples in books. Havighurst ...

As part of my YA Lit coursework, I will be doing a short review on chapters 6-10 of our textbook, along with any "take aways" I may have had. I will be sharing those here as well. Ch 6 Ch 7 Ch 8 Ch 9 Ch 10

Ch 5-What is YA literature? This chapter consists of 10 questions a media specialist should consider when looking at different titles.  The questions are written using simple language that could be answered simply. A media specialist could print these out to have when reviewing books to purchase or to suggest to students to use to find books.  Take Away The questions are good to have for all media specialists, new or seasoned.  Having the questions will allow media specialists to best categorize a book and know if the title would be a good fit for their library, student population, or even to know which area of their library they may need to organize the book in. I like the language that the questions are written in, as they are easy to understand, and are written in an “open question” format.  The questions could also be used when doing book talks.

Chapter 4-Genres & Formats Dr. Perry goes through information that media specialists can use when working on the now popular way of organizing libraries, Genrefying.   Graphic organizers are used to provide the listener the information in an easy to follow format. She mentions that Genrefying may not be appropriate for all libraries.  Officially there are 2 genres, fiction and nonfiction, each of those have more subcategories. The different formats in which books are written is also noted. Formats can be from the range of graphic novels, poetry, drama,novels chapter books, short stories, and picture books. Using formats to organize may not properly reach a reader. A reader may not ever learn where the type of book they are interested in is found in a library outside of their own if they aren’t explained the reasoning for the way their usual library is organized.  There are books that are of a certain genre, and sub genre, and be of different formats. A medi...

Chapter 3-Anatomy of a book Graphic image of a book “torn apart” to teach readers the different parts of a book.  The image is clear and easy to understand with the different parts clearly labeled and have short descriptions and some with examples.   Take Away A book is something that so many of us have held on our hands since very young; while a librarian or teacher somewhere along our educational career may have taught us the basic parts of a book, the diagrams on this chapter really allow us to go deeper.  Knowing the “other” parts of the book is beneficial for media specialists for various reasons. Teaching readers beyond the basic parts of a book would be helpful, as authors and illustrators may include information that is helpful or has hints of what’s to come inside the book on end papers or even the casewrap.

Chapter 2-Divisions of Young People’s Literature Information shared on the difference between Children’s Literature, Middle Grade (MG) readers, Young Adult (YA) readers, and even the New Adult books. Children’s Lit is for ages 0-8 years old, MG is for ages 8-12, YA is for ages 13-18 and New Adult for readers aged 18-30.  She is sure to note that though the age range of a book may allow it to be placed in a middle school, the topic, language used and subjects discussed may not be appropriate for the age of the reader. Including the history and how New Adult came to be is a great resource to have. Dr. Perry gave short book talks on several books that fall within each division to show a new media specialist the difference in the contents of each book and how they could be chosen by a reader that is not “ready” for that book. Take Away Learning about the differences of the types of YA literature was so good to see.  I need to create a chart of sorts to be able to use wh...

Chapter 1-Why do we share literature with children? The reasons why literature should be shared are numerous. Dr. Lesesne & Dr. Perry give 9 reasons, and honestly as teachers we could probably have even more. They list: books are fun, they help with language acquisition, books allow readers to learn empathy, they support life long learners, readers can read autobiographically, they can read for vicarious experiences, read for philosophical speculation, read for aesthetic purposes, and to transmit culture.  There were numerous charts, images, and studies were shared and referenced during their chat, these resources are available on a “slideshare” link posted with the description of the video. The professors mention a “Why you should read 20 minutes everyday with your child at home?” and share a copy of it on the slideshare link. The reading for vicarious experiences allow readers to get to do the things they wouldn’t normally do, or they want to do. This allows students to...

As part of my YA Lit coursework, I will be doing a short review on the chapters of our textbook, along with any "take aways" I may have had. I will be sharing those here as well. Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch 4 Ch 5