Harry on the way home with the Dursleys

Harry followed Uncle Vernon out of the train station and saw Aunt Petunia and Dudley waiting in the car. At the sight of Dudley, Harry immediately wished he could go back to Hogwarts. But he followed silently behind a grumpy Uncle Vernon and climbed into the car next to Dudley.

“No funny stuff, Potter,” Dudley said, eyeing Harry suspiciously, and Harry noticed his cousin’s voice had dropped an octave. With the loss of an octave he had gained at least fifty pounds to his already hefty exterior. In his mouth hung a large chocolate bar, which reminded Harry of the chocolate frog he bought on the train ride back to London.

He cautiously slipped it out of his pocket to keep it from melting, trying desperately to keep Dudley from seeing it. But Aunt Petunia said suddenly, “What have you got, you wicked boy?”

Before Harry could say anything or shove it back in his pocket, Dudley snatched it out of his hand. With his mouth still full of his chocolate bar, he opened the wrapper and noticed immediately the card inside. “What’s this?” he asked, slowly pulling it out.

Harry panicked. He knew that Dudley would react wildly if he noticed the face moving in the card, and Aunt Petunia would surely search all his things. But he also knew he wasn’t allowed to use magic while away from Hogwarts.

“It’s a chocolate bar,” he said quickly and tried to pry it from Dudley’s hands.

“Mom! Harry’s got a chocolate bar!” he shouted, struggling to keep it.

Quickly, Harry slipped the card out of the candy bar and said, “Just keep it, Dudley,” before Aunt Petunia had time to react.

Dudley shoved it into his mouth and forgot all about the card inside. Harry, on the other hand, noticed that it was the card that Ron needed and he smiled when he thought of his friend.

Perhaps now was as good a time as any to request permission to see Ron and the Weasleys over the summer.

“Uncle Vernon?” Harry began, and Uncle Vernon grunted. “I met a friend at school, and his mother invited me to stay with them for a few weeks. Would that be all right?”

“Absolutely not!” Aunt Petunia interjected. “While you are here with us, you will not interact with anyone from that school, is that understood?”

Harry’s face was hot. It was all he had to look forward to and just like that he was shot down.

“Now wait a minute, Petunia,” Uncle Vernon began in his gruff voice. “It may work out for us to be rid of him for a few weeks this summer.”

“Yes, yes!” Dudley interjected, the chocolate melted to his lips and face. “Let’s get rid of Harry for the whole summer! Let him stay with those freaks all summer long!”

“Yes…you’re right. Less time with us means less time for him to cause us trouble. Okay, Harry. Tell us when, and we’ll drop you here and your friend’s family can pick you up.”

Harry smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” he said quietly, and Aunt Petunia murmured something under her breath, which was drowned out by Uncle Vernon’s grunt.

Twilight and Intertexuality

I am embarrassed to admit that, despite my preconceptions, I did enjoy Twilight, and have even moved on and finished New Moon. The reason I am embarrassed is because I typically enjoy really well written books because I admire good writing and the challenge that it imposes on the reader, and this book is not exactly well written. I've been trying to come to terms with what exactly about it, then, I enjoy enough to make me want to read the rest of the series. The article actually brought to light the reason that I liked it (I think). It's not really well written, but the characterization is well done. "Readers are drawn into this story becasue the characters are intriguing and develop complex relationship as the story progresses" (Bull 113). I think this sums up what I liked abou the book. I fell for Bella and Edward and their tensions and struggles and the complexity of their relationships. It's funny, but the idea of forbidden and difficult love, though a really over-done idea, is still very intriguing and interesting to me.

The article had some interesting ideas for how to teach Twilight in a classroom, since it is a text that would have to be justified to an administration as to it's educational value. I like the idea of digging into the idea of characterization, since it is helpful in learning fiction writing skills. We've talked about intertexuality on several occasions, especially the pairing of modern texts with more "classic" literature. I think since the book alludes to Romeo and Juliet, and Romeo and Juliet is taught in early high school, the use of a venn diagram to talk about similarities and differences between the two could be helpful. I even enjoyed the idea of multimedia and comparing and contrasting the book and the movie, though I'm not sure how much educational value this has. The think alouds would be helpful in making deeper connections.

After checking out the sites on fanfiction, I was a little disappointed. I wouldn't really want to read fan fiction regularly. I'd rather stick with the author and their ideas, since authors know their characters so well. Having said that, I can certainly see the value of fan fiction. The fact that students are so inspired to write extensions or to take the characters and put them in other situations is really encouraging. I think it could really be a useful tool to set students off and running with fan fiction or fan art (is that what it's called?) after reading a story. It would really force them to dig deep into the character and consider the character's motivations when putting them in certain situations.

The article did start out strong, but I found that by the end, I hadn't really discovered a way to justify the teaching of this novel, despite the large fan base among adolescents. I think the only real reason we'd teach it is because students would read it, but I don't really know if there is enough to teach in this novel to students. It really makes me think about the texts we DO teach and why we teach them. I can't justify teaching a novel that I don't think is well written. But I'm curious to hear what everyone else has to say about how this could be taught (or if it should be taught or just left for outside reading). I think it would be valuable to come up with ways to teach it, since kids are enjoying it and reading it (so that they aren't reading it instead of books they are assigned, but rather for class). But after reading the article, I don't think Bull really gave me anything more to work with except for the pairing of this book with a classic.

Teacher Inquiry Project

Teacher Inquiry Project Topic: Teaching Student to Enjoy Reading
Essential Questions:
1 - What makes a "good reader"?
2 - Why do some students dislike reading, while others enjoy it?
3 - What role does the students' gender, family, or socio-economic background play in determining whether they enjoy reading?
4 - How important is student choice of text in helping a student enjoy reading?
5 - Can a resistant reader, no matter why they are resistant, be taught to enjoy reading? If so, how? If not, why not?

So far, I have found a ton of resources for this topic. I have several books that I plan on pulling some information from, including: I Read It, But I Don't Get It, Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning, Mosaic of Thought, What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. As for the journal articles, I found several regarding the role of gender, family, and socio-economic background, as well as a few that talk about the importance of student choice.

It's really interesting to me to see the different articles that discuss some reasons why boys in general enjoy reading less than girls, and the importance of reading in the home. There is a lot of evidence that actually ties in all three (family, student choice, and socio-economic background) as the cause for boys reading less for pleasure than girls. I'm really glad that Jen (I think it was Jen) mentioned something about the role of gender when we did the activity last week. I might not have thought of it, and it has opened up a lot of information for my topic.

I don't really have any questions yet. So far, I have just read the articles to make sure they are relevant, and I plan to read them again and highlight what I'm using. I've done a preliminary works cited as well, just so that I have something to work from. I'm starting on an outline to help me organize my ideas and decide exactly how I want to work out the paper.

Persepolis & the Use of Graphic Novels in Schools

As I think I mentioned when we read American Born Chinese, I have been pleasantly surprised with the graphic novels we've read. I wasn't a proponent of the genre (I thought of them as comic books, and never as novels) until I read our first book, and now after Persepolis, I'm starting to swing. I don't think I'll read anymore on my own, as much as I've enjoyed these. It's still not my favorite, but I can now really see how there is something of value to offer to students, especially to those who don't want to or like to read for school.

Persepolis, the story of the young girl in Iran during war time, was very poignant. The fact that it is an autobiography of sorts is also really interesting to me. There is something to be said for the fact that this is the author's way of dealing with what she saw and went through at home. I like that it was from the perspective of a girl from Iran because it draws me in and causes me to feel more sympathy for her and her family. I couldn't believe she had to leave her family at the end, and I couldn't stop thinking about it after I had finished the book.

As for use in schools, I think this genre appeals to young readers for a reason. We are looking at a generation of kids who spend a large percentage of their time on the computer or in front of the TV. They are a visual generation! It's certainly not to say all kids are this way, but there are a lot of kids who need to see a story to understand it. I was thinking about the book I read for my book review which deals with struggling readers and the strategies they need to employ to understand a book. That's when it hit me. The reason a lot of kids don't enjoy reading is that they don't see a picture in their heads when they read! Seems simple enough, but it was something that never occurred to me until now. I have ALWAYS seen a picture when I read, which is why I love books - it's a movie in my head! So, it's what I've always known, and to realize now that not all kids have this same experience when they read really opens up some ideas for me of what I would need to do as a teacher to try and make sure the students get the most out of my class. I think the use of good, quality graphic novels makes a lot of sense.

Something I didn't think about, though, until I read the article, is how helpful graphic novels can be for the writing skills of English Language Learners. Using the graphic novel not only as a way to open them up to reading, but to help them write is genius! No matter what thier background, kids can look at a picture (with or without words) and figure out what it is about. It only makes sense to use this knowledge as a way to increase their writing skills! I was really impressed with the results. Practice makes perfect, and the more kids are writing (with the help of pictures) the better writers they will become. I think that using graphic novels to help kids learn to write should be used on all students, not just those with langauge barriers.