This is my last full week of school! Next week we have three half days and then it is summer break. We have an awesome program going this summer called No Book Left Unread where students will read and record their times and pages. Teachers are doing it too, so it works in perfectly with my 100+ challenge. I am pumped! Here's to happy reading for all!
Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.
As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.
Wow! This book is definitely one of my new favorites (I have so many now, but who cares?!). Hawkins’ has done an amazing job in creating suspense and drama around Hex Hall and all the characters we come in contact with and I cannot wait to see which branch she goes with next. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the lines and love that it was such a quick read.Being a fellow teacher, I love that Hawkins has an obvious knowledge of the language that teens speak. So often, authors try too hard to capture that natural flow, but I believe that Hawkins’ emersion in the classroom aided her in that.
The plot continuously flowed and I never found myself wishing it would hurry along.Sophie is a very believable character as are the others that we encounter. I am still wondering how or which way she is going to go because she did leave us tons of clues as to what could happen next. Sophie is a character that many can relate to because she is such a good friend, loyal and just makes an all-around great witch! Definitely a 5 star book for me!
I just updated my contest sidebar so make sure you check it out. I did want to point out one AMAZING giveaway though!
You can win an ereader! Yup, you read that right... AN EREADER! Monica @ The Bibliophilic is giving away your choice of the following...
Sony Pocket (color of your choice) Ereader
RCA Reader Ebook
Aluratek Libre Ebook Pro Kobo Ereader
Head on over to Monica's blog and enter her contest!!! She is a military service member so that makes it eve more worth it... plus she is sending some great things over seas to all of our amazing service men and women! Good luck everyone!
Release Date: March 1, 2001 Publisher: National Council of Teachers of English Age Group: Anyone wanting to teach writing!! Pages: Paperback, 278 pages
In The Writing Workshop, Katie Wood Ray offers a practical, comprehensive, and illuminating guide to support both new and experienced teachers. While every aspect of writing workshop is geared to support children learning to write, this kind of teaching is often challenging because what writers really do is engage in a complex, multi-layered, slippery process to produce texts. The book confronts the challenge of this teaching head-on, with chapters on all aspects of the writing workshop, including:
* day-to-day instruction (e.g., lesson planning, conferring, assessment and evaluation, share time, focus lessons, and independent writing) * classroom management (e.g., pacing and scheduling, managing the predictable distractions, and understanding the slightly out-of-hand feeling of the workshop) * intangibles (e.g., the development of writing identities and the tone of workshop teaching)
The Writing Workshop is a book about being articulate—being able to think through what we are doing as we are doing it so that we can improve our practice. It's a book to go back to when things are getting hard. A book that helps us think through, "Now why was I doing this?" Woven between the chapters on teaching are the voices of published writers, followed by short commentaries from Lester L. Laminack. These voices remind us how writers do what they do, thus lending authenticity to what Katie Wood Ray shows us in the classroom, and thoughtfully helping us frame our instruction to match the complex process of writing.
This book completely changed my views on teaching writing. I have since started another which is just adding to my repertoire of knowledge when it comes to it. Ray and Laminack have done an amazing job building on the idea of having a Writing Workshop in the classroom. They talk a lot about the structure and ways to improve it so that if you have been teaching the Writing Workshop for 10 years or you are in your first year of teaching it, you are able to use the plethora of knowledge to build your workshop. Seeing as I am going to be teaching writing more and more in my classroom, this book will definitely be a continuous reference for me. I highly recommend it to anyone even thinking of incorporating a Writing Workshop into their classrooms.
I know this is way off course (posting IMM on Wednesday instead of Sunday) but I need to get this one out of the way and I owe my bloggerita's a few of these!! Thanks as always to Kristi at The Story Siren for hosting this...
I have been reading and researching A LOT about teaching writing for next year. It is an area where I feel weak (teaching wise), so I feel that it is my job to strive to do better for my students. One of the amazing things that I came across was the concept of Writing Workshops. I will post more on this later but this IMM is going to be chocked full of resources I have purchased, borrowed and even been given for this!
I am a middle school Reading teacher and coach, an avid reader and book lover, a mom to Kylie and Jaxon, wife to Chris, and am dedicated to getting the good books in the hands of others!
