Fantasy/Sci Fi Week

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Although I'm not a huge sci/fi fan, I LOVE post-apocalyptic books. Not only do they stretch the reader's imagination, but they reveal deeper truths about the nature of society. The fact that The Hunger Games takes place in what is the former United States region, Appalachia, was very intriguing to me because District 12 is located in Georgia. Geography aside, this book reveals multiple themes--good vs. evil, the struggle/will to survive, sacrifice for those you love--that I think would be useful to address in a middle school ELA classroom. While its lexile scores it in a fourth or fifth grade range, I think the basis of this book--children killing children--would be rather heavy to address with 9-11 year olds. I would, however, consider using it in a seventh or eighth grade classroom. Especially now that it has been made into a movie, I think students would be more receptive to reading a sci/fi novel, a genre that doesn't always have the best reputation. Analyzing the concepts and themes of The Hunger Games in the classroom would also be a great opportunity to tie in other ideas--government, civics, power, society--and connect them to social studies (my second content area).
 This book definitely had me hooked, so I look forward to reading the second and third books!



"The Challenge of Challenging Text," by Timothy Shanahan, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
In this article, the authors discuss the main aspects that determine a text's complexity: vocabulary, sentence structure, coherence, organization, and background knowledge. Together, these elements of a text can be a challenge to a reader. But without exposure to new words, phrases, structures, and ideas, readers will not be able to enhance their literacy/reading skills. Teachers can help their students build these necessary skills by offering assistance in decoding a text, understanding and establishing the purpose of it, defining complex vocabulary words, and foster motivation and persistence in their readers. A text's complexity is not defined by its length or syllable count; instead, it is determined by vocabulary, sentence structure, coherence, organization, and background knowledge. Without challenging a reader, he/she will reach a plateau in his/her reading level. Similar to lifting weights, playing a sport, or any other activity, a person only becomes better with reading when presented with a challenging text. 


"Text Complexity: Is This Book at Grade Level?" 
In my other LLED class, we discussed how to determine a book's lexile score by plugging in an excerpt of about 100 words into a lexile generator. The generator considered several factors, such as sentence complexity, vocabular, and content, to determine the lexile. While this measure is not "fool proof" and may not equate to the book's entire lexile score, it can provide a good idea of what the book's reading level is. Similarly, this article discusses the measures taken in order to determine a text's lexile: qualitative, quantitative, and reader and task. I personally feel that when assigning a text, the teacher should preview it, in order to determine its appropriateness, content, and reading level. From my exposure to hundreds of texts, I am comfortable determining where a text ranks on elementary, middle, and high school levels. Rather than basing a text off a simple number, such as the quantitative measure suggests, teachers should base it off of their students' needs and interests, which fall under "reader and task" and "quantitative" considerations.