"Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot" Book Review

I am going to admit that I am biased when I review this book.  This is one of my favorite books.  Ever.  I will say that about a lot of books, but I love everything about this book!

This novel is written by two authors, Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.  The point of view that the authors use in this novel is a little different than most students are used to.  This book is written using letters.

The setting of this story is England in the early 1800, during the Regency period.  Most students won't know any of this, so they might be interested in learning a little bit more about the time period.  Especially those gifted kids.

There are two main characters in the story, named Cecelia (Cecy) and Kate.  They are best friends who are also cousins.  Because of an unfortunate, unladylike event involving a goat, they are separated during their Season.  Cecy is left behind in their country home, while Kate is allowed to go to London with her obnoxious sister, Georgy and overbearing aunt to come out for her Season.  The two girls write letters back and forth to each other, telling stories of their fascinating encounters and interesting adventures.

Kate comes across a little garden in the middle of a building.  While there, she meets a frightening woman who, to Kate's bewilderment, calls her Thomas.  She tries to get Kate (Thomas?) to drink scalding chocolate, that Kate clumsily spills on said scary lady and manages to escape.  A couple of evenings later, she is asked to dance by a mysterious man who tells her.  "I am Thomas" also known as the "Mysterious Marquis".  For reasons you see later, Kate and Cecy actually referring to Thomas as the "Odious Marquis".  After Kate meets Thomas, her Season is thrown into disarray, while trying to help the marquis avoid the frightening antagonist named Miranda. 

In the good old country, Cecy meets the niece of a neighbor.  Dorothea is able to catch the attention of any man she wants, like bees drawn to honey.  All she wants, however, is a simple life with a more simple boy.  Cecy, in the process of trying to help Dorothea, meets a stubborn and devastatingly handsome young man named James.  She and James, communicating with Thomas and Kate via their letter writing, encourage, narrate and help each other with their problems with deranged, psychopathic magicians.

The interesting thing is that each author is writes from one of the girl's point of view.  And they didn't sit out and plan out the story.  They just started writing the letters to each other, and the plot expanded out of that.  Wrede writes from Cecy's perspective, while Stevermer writes from Kate's. 

My favorite character has to be Thomas though.  I like him because he has some of the best one liners in the entire book (hilarious) and he is a good, well-rounded character.  He's obnoxious, rude and drives Kate and Cecy crazy, but means well.  He tells Kate during their first encounter, "Practice your dancing.  With enough study you might attain a degree of proficiency".  I won't say anymore because these characters are all well-rounded, well-thought out characters that you and students need to discover for themselves.

Okay, now on to my review.  This story is so cleverly written.  These girls were not the average young women found during the Regency time period (Kate gets in trouble for gilding her toe nails with gold).  But their spunk, wit, and intelligence is so endearing and fresh, it's impossible not to like these two heroines.  The story itself is about friendship, love, magic and commitment. 

This is definitely a book for students that are at a 7th grade reading level, at least.  There is a lot of vocabulary in the book that they may have a hard time with.  They also need to have a good understanding of point of view and setting.  They may need a little bit of a background knowledge of the time period.  Students that appreciate character development will especially enjoy this novel, since the strength of this book lies in the characters. 

I hope you enjoy Sorcery and Cecelia Or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer as much as I do!

"Belle Prater's Boy" Video

This is a good book.  It's at a 4th grade reading level, but the content is a little mature for 4th graders, so I suggest that 6th graders and up read it. 

These book preview videos are easy to make, using Windows Movie Maker, pictures and a song that fits the mood and tone of the novel.  Enjoy! 

A Little Bit about My First Year

Rewind back 3-4 years ago for me. I graduated from college, landed my first teaching job in a low income, high crime, diverse area.  In late July I moved to Glendale, Arizona to get settled in my apartment and my first classroom.  My room was beautiful.  I had everything organized.  I had my procedures and class rules.  I had my first whole week planned!  I was so optimistic and incredibly naive!  It was wonderful the first few weeks, and then, I realized that the kids were just messing with me.

A picture of myself in front of my first school.  What a learning experience.

There were so many times that I tried to discipline students and they would sweet talk me.  There were so many times that I could have done something, but I didn't know what to do!   For example, what behavior warrants an automatic referral to the office?  What behaviors constitute detentions?  What behaviors earn a "timeout" to a different classroom?

I understood the concept and psychology behind teaching and student behavior.  But it is so much easier to say that you'll be a fantastic classroom manager than actually doing it.  I understood the idea behind "logical consequences" to actions.  But nothing seemed logical to me.  Everything seemed to harsh or it didn't seem to help the students at all.  I was constantly changing consequences for students.  I felt like I was drowning.  If one student wasn't acting up, then another was. 

Several teachers tried to help me.  But they all had DIFFERENT opinions on discipline and management.  Some were too strict, in my opinion.  Others, were too casual and relaxed.

I left the school district after that first year because I felt like it was the right choice for me.  It was a really sad, depressing first year of teaching.  I know that first years of teaching aren't the best for everyone.  But honestly, I was so tired, sick and exhausted by the end, I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay a teacher anymore.   I even gained 15 lbs that first year because of the stress! 

BUT instead of getting upset and quitting, I switched districts and landed a new job as a 7th grade Reading teacher.  I was absolutely, positively determined that my second year of teaching would be at least 100 times better than my first year of teaching.

And making the choice to keep teaching was the best choice that I could possibly make.   The difference between my first and second year were incredible.  Instead of drowning in water, I was walking on it.  I was helping students.  They were succeeding, and I was so much happier and energetic. 

As difficult, draining and upsetting that first year was, I took the experiences from it and I became a much better teacher and person.  I know this sounds cheesy, but NEVER GIVE UP!  There is always something to be learned in any situation, and by sticking it out and learning, you'll become a stronger and more effective teacher.

Because of my experiences at Landmark Middle School, I was able to be the best teacher possible at Mountain View School.

"The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes---Lesson Plan and Activity Ideas

First of all, I am going to give a couple of tips to what I taught my students in reading poetry.  

1)  I always told my students to read their poem once to try to get a  feeling of the story.  I tell them not to focus on the words they don't know but what the author is trying to say in general. 


2)  Then I have the students read through the poem again, highlighting and underlining words they don't know (in one color), and uses of literary devices.  For example, they have to find metaphors, similes, etc.  


3)  We then read through the poem together and I usually give an independent or paired assignment for the students to complete.  


If you can find an interesting way to read your poem at the beginning, the students will most likely want to keep reading it instead of repeating to everyone that is in the vicinity, "This is boring.  I don't understand what this means." 

 "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes is one of my favorite poems.  I'm a hopeless romantic at heart, and most middle schoolers are also hopelessly romantic!  When I introduced this poem to my students, I like to compare it to Romeo and Juliet. 

"The Highwayman" is tricky to teach.  The language is difficult for most students to comprehend, and  vocabulary can become a barrier while teaching the poem.  Background knowledge is also needed for understanding the setting and characters of the poem.  Teachers will have to explain the titles:  highwayman, redcoat, ostler, etc.

Even with the background teaching and heavy vocabulary that will have to be taught, this poem is excellent for teaching metaphors, narrative poetry, repitition, similes, alliteration, and even onomatopoeia. 

Now you know a little bit about the poem's contents, and you've already read it. Right?  

I taught this poem for three years and my introduction to the poem never wavered.  That is because it hooked my students into the poem and literally had their eyes opened, fingers on the pages, faces intent on the poem and actually trying to read ahead.

This is my little secret that I am willing to share.  Want to know what I did?

We listened to a song.  Not just any random song, but a song called "The Highwayman" by Loreena McKennit.  I challenged the students to listen to the song AND read along at the same time.  I stopped the song occasionally to check that the class knew where we were.  At the beginning of the song, the students might look a little bored, but wait a few more minutes and you see a shift when you get to a certain point in the poem.  The song is missing three stanzas from the poem, but we read those later on.

After we listen to this song, they like to talk about what happened and give their opinions.  I usually let them air out these opinions to their neighbors.  Some of my favorite reactions:  "How sad."; "How stupid.  Why did they both have to die?";  "He's dumb.  Why did he run out into the road wearing red?"; "This is so sad and sweet!"  You can probably guess which ones the boys said and which ones girls said.

I then give the students a scavenger hunt.  I created this scavenger hunt as a "fun" way of finding all the poetic devices located in the poem.  I let them work with their shoulder partner (person sitting next to them-more on shoulder partners later), but they have to turn in their own scavenger hunt.  I usually have a vocabulary section on the scavenger hunt as well.

Here is a printable.  You have to download it, and then you can make adjustments on it for what you want your students to be learning.  Have fun and enjoy "The Highwayman" with your students! 

Lesson Planning---Writing the best objectives for your students

Teachers are constantly walking a fine line. Because of standards.  I believe that standards need to be in place for there to be a guiding force behind state testing and teacher accountability.  It also allows for autonomy across the state and/or district so students the same grade should be learning the same content. 

HOWEVER, I don't believe that there should be state standards and district standards (not all districts have state standards.  Both districts that I worked for did).  I think it would be the best for our children if the standards were nationwide.  But, that really isn't the point of this post. 

The heart of lesson planning is what we are teaching.  What we are teaching is the objective.  I've always had a hard time writing objectives.  The two questions I always bounced back between are:

1) Standards--What am I supposed to be teaching based on the standards and pacing guide? 

2) Students--What do I want my students to learn?  
 When writing objectives, teachers also need to take into account their students' progression.  And, of course, it's always difficult because my classes were never at the exact same skill level.  Some classes struggled with poetry while at the same time they excelled with vocabulary and context clues. 

Okay, enough talking.  Here are some guidelines to help you write objectives.  

Steps to writing an objective:  
1.  Find your standard or pacing guide.  Whatever objective you write it absolutely, must match a standard.  We teachers are not allowed to teach our own standards, no matter how much more sensible they may seem.

2.  Ask yourself a question using your standard as a guide.  "What do I want my students to learn?"  By the end of class period, what do you want your students to get out of it?

The next post I write on objectives will have examples of objectives.  Sometime, I may even get into writing language objectives as well!  Happy objective writing! 

9 months of Hades

This title isn't referring to my 9 months of pregnancy in Phoenix, Arizona.  It is actually referring to the 9 months that was my first year of teaching.  From August 2007 until May 2008, I jumped into the world of teaching 7th grade Social Studies and Language Arts.  My middle school was completely different from any place I had ever been before, and I had no idea how to reach, teach, inspire or  even manage the students in my classes.  And they knew it!  I was drowning, barely holding on to the little control I had over my classes.  And it was the worst feeling in the world. 

Thankfully, the principals and other teachers didn't think it was as bad as I did so I wasn't fired midway through the year, and I took the experience as an opportunity to learn and grow.  In fact, I was so determined, that I told myself, that the next year I would be a lot better and I would not let those 7th graders decide my happiness and success in teaching. 

Teaching, like so much in life, is all about attitude. And attitude is what made the difference those next two year of teaching for me. I'm not saying that it's important to be happy go lucky when the kids are screwing around and being disrespectful, but how you approach the management of the students has as much to do with your manner as it does with the disciplining.  Yelling and screaming at those kids won't help them.  But proper management, with a positive attitude makes the difference in a classroom. 

I firmly believe the key to earning a student's respect is by handling student concerns, problems, and suggestions with firmness and a respect.  Like how I told so many of my students when I was teaching, "It's not what you're saying, but how you're saying it!"

It's not easy, and I've definitely made mistakes.  But your students will forgive you as long as  they know you respect and care for them.  Much more on routines, procedures, management and discipline to come! 

Hunger Games Video Take 1

This is my first book preview I made for the book Hunger Games.  I will probably be making an updated one with pictures of the actual cast.

Making a book preview is an excellent way to ENGAGE students and get them interested in a book.  All videos that I post to this blog are made using Windows Movie Maker.  Use a fun song that matches the theme of the novel, and you've hooked your students into a book that they might actually want to read!