Tuned out: Engaging the 21st century learner by Karen Hume

Tuned Out: Engaging The 21st Century Learner by Karen Hume

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you want a quick snapshot of all that’s happening in educational theory, this is the book for you. At the risk of sounding over-confident, this is exactly why this book was not for me. It’s a basic primer on how to engage students. While there are a few gems along the way, these come not from Hume herself, but from those she is quoting. I was encouraged that there might be deeper material online, and a way to interact with Hume herself in her blog or social media, but the online portion is static, not dynamic, and hasn’t been active since the book’s release. As such, the whole thing smells of a marketing ploy and I’m deeply suspicious. Some of my favourite people are quoted on the cover as responding favourably to this book, but I will try to forgive them for this. I’m going to quickly move on to something more exciting in professional development, in hopes that the bad taste of Hume’s work will leave my mouth.

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The Taming by Eric Walters and Teresa Toten

The Taming by Teresa Toten

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I expect high things from anything that Eric Walters puts his name on. After the Ontario Library Association nominated this as one of the best Canadian young adult fiction of the year, I expected even more. Until halfway through I thought I had found a predictable teen romance. When our main character Katie’s life starts to imitate her art on the stage of her high school Shakespeare production, I became engrossed. The rest of the story strikes me as very true dealing with the bizarre power struggles that sometimes arise in first love relationships. Although I wish that the ending will be true in the case of most young people caught in Katie’s circumstance, it was a bit too hopeful to be believable. This book would suit most of the readers who would pick it up…young females searching for love.

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American Gods by Neil Gaiman

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book doesn’t really fit into a genre … it takes place in present day in America. Our protagonist, Shadow, and the dysfunctional relationship with his wife certainly seem realistic. Enter the gods … and suddenly magic is happening everywhere in subtle ways. American Gods is filled with suspense, hints at history, and very descriptive. Imagine a Quentin Tarantino movie where magic is a part of every day life. There is something for everyone here…adventure, violence, fantasy, and even some heart-warming moments. This book would be a great choice for a senior student who is ready to move on from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but maybe isn’t quite ready for the Dune series. I think any adult who has tried magical realism, or who is interested in the world’s encyclopedia of gods and monsters (like all your D & D friends) would really like this book. I really enjoyed it although it took me a long time to read. Each chapter is like a bite of very rich chocolate cake. Gaiman is a wordmaster.

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Is it possible to grow readers who are also digitally savvy?

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear Penny Kittle speak about reading and how complex it is for intermediate/senior teachers to teach.  Kittle estimates that in 1st year college/university that the average pages a student reads is 500.  She proposed that the #1 reason that students drop out after first year is that they can’t keep up with the demand of reading.  Meanwhile Don Tapscott tells us in Grown Up Digital that we need to appeal to the multimedia savvy of the NetGeneration students in our classes.  How do we balance both of those ideas?  Heather Durnin tells us how she does it in her blog post about modifying literature circles in her grade 8 classroom.  What I love about Heather’s work is that she’s still focusing on  teaching reading, critical analysis and through social interaction (Vygotzky would approve).  The students develop their skills in analysis face-to-face with their peers and their teacher, before being accountable to the technology. I suspect that as students hear the types of questions and comments that lead to richer discussion, that in turn their reading becomes stronger as they look for ways to contribute.

What’s the next level?  Maybe it’s that the students publish their work to an authentic audience and get feedback.  The hardest part of inquiry-based learning for me is to ask really meaningful questions that will lead to critical thinking.  I’m at the point where I am conscious of designing my questions to be evaluative ….so that students are developing criteria as well as their analysis, but the questions don’t come naturally to me yet. Is there an app for that?  I don’t think so.  #teachersrock

 

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I used my first free credit at audible.com to download the audiobook of The Lady of the Rivers. I absolutely love the myths of the French royal families who descended from merpeople and the story of Melusina is evident throughout this book. The audiobook was well-performed and I really enjoyed this book overall. It’s a different feel from The Tudor series, but once again, Philippa Gregory doesn’t disappoint. One of the strangest side effects of reading this book, is that it affected my gardening….the main character, Jacquetta, gardens according to astronomy….then later this year I found out about biodynamic agriculture…suddenly I’m much more concerned what phase the moon is when I’m planting.

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Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s a solid first novel …. lots of world-building and the dragons are introduced well. Paolini’s writing style is juvenile …. self-indulgent in terms of cryptic vocabulary use, and the plot is predictable. The best part about this book is …the dragon.

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Crowd sourcing Psycho using Twitter

[View the story "Crowd sourcing Psycho using #maODSS" on Storify]

Trying to teach about Hitchcock’s Psycho, how Twitter can be used for learning and improving the self-directedness of learning all at once in media arts using the Twitter hashtag #maODSS

Storified by Alanna King· Wed, Mar 06 2013 17:22:17