Outside Reading Book: 4th Quarter

Construct a blog post about where you are in your outside reading book for 4th quarter. For this post, choose FIVE of the following sentence starters and write a one-paragraph reflection for each (five paragraphs total).

Due: Monday, April 25th.

• I noticed...
• I wonder...
• I'm surprised...
• I was reminded...
• I'd like to know...
• If I were...
• The central issue(s) is (are)...
• I'm not sure...
• Although it seems...
• I realized...
• One consequence of _______ could be...
• If __________, then...
• The author's purpose is...
• The intended audience is...

Blogger of the Week: Book Glog

I enjoyed reading all of your Glogs and seeing the wide-variety of books you read. I would encourage you to look through your classmate's blogs to see the books they read. Perhaps you will be inspired to read a book that one of your classmates read. I would also encourage you to go back and comment on your classmate's blogs.

There were many outstanding Glogs this week to choose from. Here are the Bloggers (or Glogsters?) of the week:

4th Hour
Cody read Knots in My Yo-Yo String
Bailey read To Live Again

5th Hour
Katie read Precious
Justin read The Dragon Heir

7th Hour
Natalie read The Red Pyramid
Tyler W read Trials of Death (I am going to sleep with the light on after seeing this Glog!)

Raven Blogger Award: Outside Reading #1

I hope you all are having a great snow day! I have enjoyed reading your blog posts about your books. I noticed a wide variety of books that you are interested in, which is very cool to see. I just hope you find a book that interests you that you don't want to put down. Like this one:

I finished my first book, and I am now reading The Accidental Billionaires. I wish I could accidentally become a billionaire! It is about how Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook. Many of you have probably seen The Social Network, which is the movie version of this book. You guys know that I am a techno-geek at heart. Why didn't I think of Facebook? I wonder what Zuckerberg thinks about how he was portrayed in the movie and book...

Frank is also enjoying the book:

Now to our Raven Blogger Award winners for your book post. Congratulations to these winners:

Rachel is reading Burger Wuss, and she did a nice job with her post. Great picture for her rating system! (4th Hour)

Maddie is reading Acceleration. I really like that she noticed the foreshadowing early on in the book. She also has a unique rating system. (5th Hour)

Have you read The Da Vinci Code? If so, you would like Shaun's book Digital Fortress, also written by Dan Brown.  (7th Hour)

I would encourage you to look through your classmate's posts to see what books they are reading. Some of you commented that you were interested in reading a certain book, so please feel free to ask each other questions!

Outside Reading #1

Outside Reading #1 is due Monday, January 31st.

I am reading The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy by Bill Carter.

It is the true-story about why NBC decided to guarantee Conan O'Brien The Tonight Show, and took a chance on moving Jay Leno to 9:00 in order to ensure that he wouldn't go to another network.

I am going to use the faces of K-State's Frank Martin to rate this book. This is how I am feeling about this book right now:

Frank is pretty happy!

I am really enjoying reading this book. I have always been interested in how the entertainment industry operates and makes decisions. It is fascinating to read about the mistakes that NBC, O'Brien and Leno all made that turned into a total mess. I am 3/4 of the way finished with this already, so it has gone through all of the background that led up to January 2010 when Conan was given the choice of moving his show back 30 minutes to make way for Jay Leno. That is where I am right now in the book.

One of the most fascinating parts of the book is how Carter interviewed some of the other late-night personalities, notably Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy performed an impersonation of Jay for an entire show, getting in plenty of digs about the fact that Jay was taking The Tonight Show back away from Conan.  As a result, Jay asked Jimmy to be a guest on his show for a "10-Questions" segment. I thought it was hilarious when Jay asked him, "'Is there anything you haven't hosted that you want to host?' 'Oh, this is a trick, right?' Kimmel asked. 'Where you get me to host The Tonight Show and then take it back from me?'" (Carter 336). Carter remarks that Jimmy is pummeling Jay with insults, and he just sits there and takes it!

You can watch the clip here:



I would love to ask the author how he got all of these interviews from the key players in the saga. You feel like you are a fly on the wall in some of the conversations that take place, and you can tell Mr. Carter did considerable research and interviewing for this book.

Outside Reading Novels

You will blog about your outside reading novel this quarter.

Remember my requirements for your book:

1. At or above grade level
2. No picture/comic books
3. Minimum of 150+ pages

For each blog post you must include the following criteria:

1. Rating System: Come up with your own unique rating system. It could be a picture, stars, thumbs up/down, etc... Be creative! For each post, you will rate the book up to that point and explain why you are giving it that rating. Your first post should explain your rating system.

2. Image: Each post must include one image. It could be the cover of the book, or an image you find that relates to the book.

3. Questions: What questions would you have for the author? What don't you understand? What is confusing?

4. One quote: Embed one important quote from the book that speaks to you, you don't understand, is important, etc... Make sure to use correct citation!

Each blog post should be about the book up until that point.

Proofread. This goes without saying.