Thing #16 LibraryThing

I am interested in historical fiction about the Alamo. I found a list of these books on Library Thing using the tagmash Alamo, fiction, and Texas. Students seem to remember the dry history facts when you teach them along with historical fiction that pulls on their heart strings. The history becomes real for them when you put real people into the situations. One book in particular, Make Way for Sam Houston, piqued my interest (1) because it's a biography
and (2) an in depth study of Sam Houston would allow for a deeper understanding of the issues and controversies faced by the people living in Texas during the early 1800s and (3) Sam Houston also lived with the Cherokee, so a lot of Texas history could be coverered and connected through this.

I love how I can find a list of books so fast. Some of my favorite lessons are the ones I can teach through integrated literature. I think I would use LibraryThing often.

Zeitgeist was helpful in finding a good book to read, but I am not one to read the most popular books (just not into vampires and witchcraft). I did find Animal Farm by George Orwell under the top books list and remembered that I wanted to read that myself.

The 50 book challenge was an interesting idea for the classroom. I like for my students to read a variety of genres, and this might be a way to set that up and maintain it. At a glance, it looks like one has to join before you can set it up though. I am thinking I'd rather keep an online classroom list a little more private, like a joined wiki page, since children's names would be on the list.

I also want to remember this link to a list of wordless picture books to use with 4th grade writing lessons. The tagmash was picture books, wordless. Beginning writers can collaborate on a descriptive story using a picture book. It's interesting to compare stories from the same picture book. Children learn from each other as they compose their own descriptions and details of events from looking at the pictures. I like wordless books with colorful, detailed pictures.