The ultimate goal of our Intensive Reading/ Book Talk program is to inspire kids to read, train them how to read actively, improve their writing and public speaking skills as well.
Most kids read without questions in mind and they never make time to reflect upon and evaluate what they have read. This is called passive reading. Kids pay little attention to identifying and remembering the main ideas, and hence feel little engagement with the reading. How to turn a passive reader to an active one? During and after reading, the reader needs to be involved in repeated questioning, critiquing, re-examination and development of ideas within the literary text they just digested. The benefits of active reading include: more efficient reading and studying, greater concentration and focus while reading, improved understanding of key information.
The Intensive reading/Book Talk program encourages kids to prepare a speech about the book and re-write some plots of the book using creative thinking, so that kids will become more active in their readings.
Spring term schedule ：From April 9 to June 25, 12 lessons in total for kids at Grade 5-8
Time: Thursdays from 5:30-7:00 Location: Zoom online
Our Teacher
H. Watts an English literature doctoral candidate at the University of Waterloo, with a Masters in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor. She recently won the 2019 University of Waterloo English Graduate Creative Writing Award as well as the 2019 University of Waterloo English Graduate Teaching Assistant Excellence Award. Her current areas of research explore critical disability theories, postmodern English, Irish, and American poetry, and new media. She enjoys reading about cyborgs, yoga, running, kayaking, and watching Seinfeld.
Books are the best mentors in life since they carry decades and centuries of knowledge and wisdom. Once children are truly engaged in reading, they start to experience many developments in different traits of their personality. Academic excellence, concentration, enhanced vocabulary and empathy, improved creativity are just some of the numerous benefits of reading. However, most parents have experienced the daily after-school battle to get their kids to read or do homework because there are so many distractions such as TV, social media, computer games, phone apps, etc.One Book two weeks program
With the goal to motivate kids from Grade 1-8 to read books on a regular base, DeRin plans to organize a One Book Two Weeks program. 12 years ago, inspired by a simple idea 'to discover the good books from local library for kids', Zhaoling (The director of DeRin) co-founded aboutread.com. After manually adding about 10,000 libraries and more than 2000 book recommendation lists, she has the confidence to recommend books to children at different age groups. In order to make sure kids read books in an active way, a booktalk recorded by a voice recorder (2-3 minutes, no video please) for Grade 1-3 or a book summary for Grade 4-8 (200-300 words) is required. please send to heidiyao@derinedu.com before the due date assigned to each book). Those who finish reading 10 books with a submission of booktalk audios and book summaries for this term will get a present from DeRin. ( A children book for current students at DeRin or $10 coupon for new students when registering any program at DeRin for next term)
2020 Winter schedule for One Book Two Books:
Book 1: January 19- January 31
Book 2: February 2- February 15
Book 3: February 16- February 29
Book 4: March 1- March 14
Book 5: April 1- April 15
Book 6: April 16- April 30
Book 7: May 1- May 14
Book 8: May 15-May 31
Book 9: June 1-June 14
Book 10: June 15-June 26
Book 1 (January 19- January 31) selected for different age groups is (If you kids already read these books, please let them read it one more time and write a short summary and send it to heidiyao@derinedu.com):
Grade 1-3 The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 Charlotte's Web by E. B. White (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 Wonder by R. J. Palacio (Book summary is required)
Book 2
Grade 1-3 Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (Book summary is required)
Book 3
Grade 1-3 The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 The Cay by (Book summary is required)
Book 4
Grade 1-3 Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 Wheel On The School by (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 Skellig by (Book summary is required)
Book 5
Grade 1-3 Stone Age Boy by Satoshi Kitamura (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 Matilda by Roald Dahl (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 The Maze Runner ( Book One) by (Book summary is required)
Book 6
Grade 1-3 Who Was Ben Franklin? by (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 Smile by (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (Book summary is required)
Book 7
Grade 1-3 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-8 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Book summary is required)
Book 8
Grade 1-3 Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Book summary is required)
Book 9
Grade 1-3 Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 Travel Team by Mike Lupica (Book summary is required)
Book 10
Grade 1-3 Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares by Frank Murphy ( (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson (Book summary is required)
Grade 1-3 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-8 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Book summary is required)
Book 8
Grade 1-3 Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Book summary is required)
Book 9
Grade 1-3 Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 Travel Team by Mike Lupica (Book summary is required)
Book 10
Grade 1-3 Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares by Frank Murphy ( (Booktalk is required)
Grade 4-6 The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (Book summary is required)
Grade 7-10 The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson (Book summary is required)
Tips for a Booktalk:
Introduce Yourself and the book
Name the:
-Title
-Author
-Genre
-Where you got it
-How many pages
Talk about the book
-Give a summary of who, what, where, when
-Interesting points to hook the listener
-Enough plot to interest the listener
-don’t give away the ending or solutions to the problem
Talk about the characters
-Name the important characters
-Describe the main character(s) character traits/personalities
-Brief description of relations between characters (rivalries, friendships, etc.)
Rate the book
- what did you like about it
-what didn’t you like about it
-star rating (1-5)
Read Excerpt (Optional)
-Only read an important part that doesn’t give away anything but hooks the reader more
-Read with expression
Tips for writing a book summary:
Read the book. The key to writing an excellent summary is in the reading. The more you know and comprehend about the text, the better your book summary will be. Take notes for important ideas while you read – this will help you with the summary later on.
Introduce the story. You need to give your audience some basic information about the book, such as the title, author and time frame in which the book was written. If possible, also give the reason the book was written.
Summarize and describe. After you provide the background of the book, you need to condense and describe the important events of the book. No need go into every minute detail, make sure you describe what happened in the book, but keep it general.
Make some kind of meaningful conclusion statement. Now it’s time to make something out of it after you’ve described the book. Come to a resolution about the meaning of the events, or challenge the audience to consider the implications of the story, like What does it show? Where will it lead?
Edit, proofread and revise. Once you’ve finished your first draft, return to the beginning and reread for grammatical and spelling mistakes, clarity, organization and flow.
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