Tales from a Loud Librarian

Taken at the Flood Wall in the Ninth Ward, New Orleans, by Emily Gibbons, 7th grade PFTSTA Last week, the seventh graders with their English teacher, Ms. Ritter, the librarian, that's me, their math teacher, Ms. Klusendorf and another ELA teacher, Ms. Bordelon traveled 30 minutes from school to visit the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. This is our fourth annual trip to walk in the footsteps of the characters in Jewell Parker Rhodes' book, Ninth Ward . After the first reading of this book, we realized that the students really had no clue about the Ninth Ward, and this group was only about three years old the year that Hurricane Katrina made landfall, so a visit gives them a first hand look at the devastation and reconstruction wrought by the hurricane. Before embarking on the field trip, the students are asked to complete a pathfinder that I created. I made a Livebinder with video, audio, and text describing and explaining all the stops that we will be making on the field tri

The following books will be competing in Round 3: Battle 1: Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett     16    55.2% The Crossover by Kwame Alexander          13    44.8% Children of the King will go up against Grasshopper Jungle Battle 2: El Deafo by Cece Bell                              10      34.5% Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith   19      65.5%   Battle 3: Poisoned Apples by Christine Hepperman 19    65.5% The Story of Owen by E. K. Johnston            9    31% Poisoned Apples will go up against We Were Liars Battle 4: This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki     9    31% We Were Liars by E. Lockhart                                         20    69% Unfortunately, Round 2 voting fell during spring break. I was happy to get 29 votes, but I was really hoping for closer to 45. I gave the students an extra two days after our return from break to vote, but I still could not get the numbers up. I think that the SLJ