Mr. D'Amato - My Education Blog

 The book that I am reviewing for the realistic fiction module is called "¡Fiesta!" by  Ginger Foglesong Guy. There are many reasons that I chose this book, but one of the main reasons was because it is bilingual which can be a very important aspect in elementary schools. It is common to have English Learners within your elementary classroom and to help them learn English it could be useful to have bilingual books. This type of book also exposes all of the students to different types of culture and languages that they may not be familiar with. The book has two different sets of text on each page, one is in English and the other is in Spanish. Therefore, no student is at a disadvantage and since the students are young this could benefit them in the near future when they are learning another language. This book does a great job of being interactive with the audience which will help keep all of the students engaged with the book while the teacher is reading. It also incorporates

Duke Ellington by Andrea Davis Pinkney was a great biography to read and would work well for most elementary-aged students. This book combines the use of pictures on every single page while also providing the students with great information about Duke Ellington's musical career. The book attempts to connect with the audience by starting off with his childhood and what he liked to do. This will help engage the students and hopefully inspire them to be great like Duke Ellington. It also talks about Duke Ellington and how his parents wanted him to do certain things that he did not want to do; almost every child deals with this at some point so it should be relatable to the students. I believe that all of the students in the classroom even if they do not want to become musicians would enjoy this book because of the message that it is sending. There is also a magical feeling to the story; Andrea Pinkey wrote it in positive terms and is eager to share the positive outcomes even after sha

 The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires is a great book for young elementary students who still have a lot of creativity when it comes to picture books. The book is great for younger students because it breaks down how to complete a task which will help the students understand the topic of organization and doing things in order. The book uses humor to keep the students engaged but it also uses suspense about what this "magnificent thing" is going to be. The book is also great for younger elementary students because of the vocabulary that it uses; it talks a lot about shapes, tools, and different steps that are necessary to create something. This book would definitely capture the interest of younger elementary students who will be intrigued to figure out what she is making while laughing at the silly mistakes. I believe the students will find many parts of the book relatable when the little girl having trouble with her project. The book has a happy ending which is good fo

 The Grasshopper and The Ants which is an Aesop's Fables Series is great for elementary students because of the message that it promotes and vocabulary focus that is implemented into the book. The best way to teach vocabulary is to give the word context so that the definition makes more sense to the student. This book is also accompanied by a video which contains different images throughout the book, this can be beneficial to younger elementary students who are still interested in pictures books. This will capture the students much more easily, it is also nice because the teacher does not have to read it and can focus on pointing out things throughout the book by simply pausing it.  The book starts off with a grasshopper noticing  bunch of ants who are carrying seeds through the field. The grasshopper then asked the ants where they were going with the seeds; one of the ants replied and said that they were taking the ants to their nest. The ant told the grasshopper that it should st

 I believe that "The Lion and the Mouse" from Aesop's Fables Series is a great book for a variety of reasons and can easily be implemented into a young elementary classroom. The first reason that I believe it can be easily implemented is that it is based around key vocabulary words that are important for students to learn about. This specific book is accompanied by a video reading that is great for all types of learners especially students who are younger and enjoy pictures books still. The book teachers an important life lesson and points out important vocabulary that the students should be learning. When a vocabulary word is said, it pops up in large letters on the video screen. The students can use context clues to figure out what the word means or the teacher can pause the video and discuss the word.  The book starts off with a lion asleep in the shade, a mouse sees him and decides to run over the lion which wakes him up. The lion catches the mouse which makes the mou

With my group today we decided to read If A Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks" by Faith Ringgold. During our discussion, we talked about how this book is very well written and it also has some good pictures to keep the students entertained. One point that was brought up is how this can be used to teach literature and history to the students at once. This is an essential practice when you are an elementary teacher, it also is great when you can teach students two things at once. One other thing that we talked about is how the story when it to good details about the era it is talking about; therefore this would be more suitable for older students such as 2nd-4th grade. We believe that this book is also excellent to read to your students because the information is accurate, precise, and very relevant for an elementary student to learn about. This book is on the longer side, it takes about 20 minutes to read which is perfect for a read-a-loud within the classroom whenever you ha

*Possible spoiler for a picture book* We discussed this book as a group and came to the following agreement. This book is excellent for a picture book and leads to good discussions. Some of the topics that can be discussed include diversity, creativity, curiosity, and point of view. As a group, we were intrigued by the picture book but also wish there were some words at some points to make the point more clear. The words may add more discussion topics but creativity is also good. The discussion with my group was very good, we all had different points of view on the book which lead to a diverse discussion. My group mentioned that it showed the good and the bad or more of the opposite sometimes. I missed this theme but in the end, I agreed with them. Sometimes picture books depend on your point of view so it was helpful to discuss with others.  For the first book review, I will be writing about "Another" which was created by Christian Robinson and falls under the genre of a pic