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    Crazy Little Thing Called Love (According to Junior Highers)
    Crazy Little Thing Called Love (According to Junior Highers)
    Crazy Little Thing Called Love (According to Junior Highers)
    Ebook243 pages2 hours

    Crazy Little Thing Called Love (According to Junior Highers)

    By Upland Junior HIgh School 7th Grade English Students

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    About this ebook

    Upland Junior High’s 7th grade students have put their hard work and time into making the book A Crazy Little Thing Called Love (According to Junior Highers.), a collection of student created short stories and poems on the topics of love and loss. All the money raised from this book will go to the charity Love146, which helps to rescue children from human trafficking. Upland Junior High made this book because we wanted to make a difference in our world, no matter how small.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUpland Junior HIgh School 7th Grade English Students
    Release dateJun 1, 2015
    ISBN9781311822864
    Crazy Little Thing Called Love (According to Junior Highers)

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      Crazy Little Thing Called Love (According to Junior Highers) - Upland Junior HIgh School 7th Grade English Students

      Preface

      By Anne Kartun and Melinda Hynes

      Once upon a time, a summer ago, two fed-up teachers got together to try and figure out a way to bring students’ enthusiasm back into the classroom. They waded through the Common Core Standards, uninspired, looking for a way incorporate what must be done with what was FUN to do. After months of putting their heads together, inspiration finally struck!

      That was us last summer, as we sat down to look over our scope and sequence for the year. The story, Seventh Grade, and the poem, Oranges, by Gary Soto, were among our selected readings for the year. We noticed that both had a common theme of characters who were willing to take a chance on love. Knowing that angsty and hormonal junior high school students could easily relate with this theme, we began creating a unit around it, which morphed into what would end up being a year-long project.

      The idea was to read the works, and have the students use the literature as a springboard to stimulate their own minds and creativity. From here we asked the students to create their own stories about their experiences with, and thoughts and feelings about love, which we would then publish as an actual e-book. Additionally, the students were asked to create original pieces of artwork to accompany their stories.

      As an added component, we presented the idea of donating any proceeds generated by the book to a charity that the students would research and choose. We then divided our classes into two groups, half to research and select the best e-publishing company, and the other to research and determine the most deserving charity. Each of these larger groups then subdivided into smaller groups in order to split up the workload. Within these subgroups, they then prepared presentations on the charity or publisher of their choice, which would be presented to the entire group of our 250 students during a day-long in-house conference held in our multi-purpose room. Working through the chaos of a mass of junior high students and internet issues, crowded classrooms, and various other stumbling blocks along the way, somehow the students managed to pull together a wonderful day of professional TED-like presentations.

      The following day, using a Google Form, the students voted on their favorite e-publisher and charity (based on notes that they had taken the previous day). The vote resulted in choosing the e-publisher Smashwords and the charity Love 146. We then divided our students into task groups for the creation of the book itself, as well as a launch party to formally introduce the book to the world.

      Each class had a different task. Mrs. Hynes’s classes took on the jobs of on campus advertising, launch party planning, invitation development, design and layout, and formatting for publishing. Ms. Kartun’s classes were involved with artwork and photography, social media, conventional advertising, and contacting the charity. Each group chose a student director who assisted in keeping students on task and moving forward, and helped their groups with researching and contacting the appropriate sources. Over the next couple of weeks these task forces worked inside and outside of class time to complete their respective roles in the successful completion of the book project. The finished preliminary draft of the book was then sent off to be formatted for Smashwords. From here, it was uploaded to the Smashwords website where we hoped to be able to generate further interest and offer presales. Via Smashwords, the book was also made available for sale through additional platforms.

      The launch party planning group then took over. Students organized, hosted, and presented information to the invited guests about the writing process and the charity. Additionally, several students were chosen by their classmates to read selections from their stories and poems. At the end of event, people were given the opportunity to purchase the book.

      By choosing to adopt a different mindset and re-inventing the way we deliver our lessons, we moved from the traditional teacher directed instruction to focusing on student centered learning. This meant getting rid of worksheets, and lecturing with PowerPoints and note-taking, which meant no more evaluating students based on their regurgitation of facts on tests. Instead, through the process required to participate in and create the projects, students demonstrated their mastery of the standards via the products they produced. The common core standards were heavily embedded within all steps of the process, from reading and analyzing plot structure and figurative language, to acquiring and practicing research skills, and improving their public speaking and presentation abilities. Though challenging, it has proved to be a rewarding adventure and a valuable learning experience for all those involved.

      This book would not have been possible without the aid of many people. First, in Dave Burgess’s book Teach Like a Pirate, he questions, If your students didn’t have to be there, would you be teaching to an empty room? This made us consider how we could improve our current practices to bring the joy of learning back to students. His words and other nuggets of wisdom in turn inspired us to set sail on this journey in the first place. We would additionally like to express our gratitude for the assistance and encouragement of our spectacular administrators, Pam Chavira and Richie Vega. Also, we greatly appreciate the patience and cooperation of our fellow staff members, who allowed us to pull students from their classes, and who put up with the chaos and insanity that was a product of working with large numbers of students at once (a special shout out to our fellow pirates Sharyn Taquino and Jennifer Loop). Likewise, we are grateful to the parents and guardians of our students for permitting their children to stay after school to help with the various stages of production. Instrumental to the completion of the project was the help and guidance of Smashwords founder Mark Coker, who pointed us toward a similar project done by Los Gatos High School, whose book Windows to the Teenage Soul was a model for us. Mark also led us to John Low, from Ebook Launch, who was responsible for saving us the time and agony of attempting to format the entire manuscript for uploading to Smashwords on our own. Finally, and most importantly, an enormous thank you for the love and support of our families for understanding our need to challenge ourselves in new ways, for putting up with us even when we were overworked, stressed out, and irritable, and for simply being there when we needed them the most.

      Provide an uncommon experience for your students and they will reward you with an uncommon effort and attitude ~ Dave Burgess ~

      Go forth and be uncommon - Anne and Melinda

      Section 1

      *For the Love of Animals*

      You know, sometimes the world seems like a pretty mean place. That’s why animals are soft and huggy.

      ~ Bill Watterson

      The hopes and dreams of a homeless dog looking

      for a civilized home to be part of a loving family.

      The Story of Levi

      by Jeannette Anaya

      The little girl threw the ball and I ran to go fetch it but when I came back to where she was supposed to be standing, she was gone. I looked everywhere and she was nowhere to be seen. Then I opened my eyes to find out it had all been just a dream.

      I’m still a homeless, unhappy dog and it’s been like that for years now. I’m surprised I’m still alive seeing the little I eat, I’m lucky if someone cares enough to give me their leftovers. A lot of people walk by me and act like I’m not even there, others even give me dirty looks. I used to have a human partner, who was also homeless, and I still loved him.

      One day I woke up next to him to find out he was no longer breathing. I tried barking and whimpering to try to get someone’s attention, but everyone ignored me. I had never felt more alone in my life. I waited two days hoping his heart would start again, but sadly it didn’t. I knew I couldn’t stay there with a rotting dead body, so I grabbed his fanny pack, which had only a little bit of some type of dog food in it, but it would have to do.

      Now everywhere I go I drag the fanny pack with me to keep the memory of my person. It’s been about 2 dog years since my person passed. However, I ended up losing the fanny pack when a car was about to run me over. In shock, I dropped it and ran for my life. I guess I should be grateful I’m alive, but I’m still miserable.

      My stomach was growling and that’s when I stumbled upon this really nice neighborhood. They must have food in their garbage at least. Then this nice looking young lady approached me with hair as red as a rose. I looked up and saw her staring at me with a bowl of dog food in her hand. Although I was dirty and probably had fleas, she still kneeled down and scratched my head and set the bowl down. I started to eat, then she put a bowl of water down next to me.

      After I had finished devouring the food, she stood up and started walking then turned around and said Are you coming?. So I followed as my tail began to wag. On the way to her house she told me her name was Cath and that she came from a wealthy family even though she didn’t act snotty and stuck up.

      When we arrived to her house, it felt like I was climbing a ladder from poor little homes to huge expensive mansions. She opened the front door and inside her house was all white, It felt as if I had entered heaven.

      I looked up at her with puppy-dog eyes and whimpered softly hoping she’d get the hint that I wanted more food. Luckily, she did and filled up the bowl with food again and put it down. She sat down criss cross apple-sauce next to me and put a collar around my neck and said That collar used to belong to my beagle, Penny, and now it belongs to you.. I slowly looked up, not believing what I just had heard. I barked and ran to her and licked her face as she laughed.

      That day was one of the happiest days of my whole life. And now it’s been a year since Cath adopted me and she has done an awesome job at taking care of me. I look as if I had never lived on the streets. I will forever be thankful to Cath and all she has done for me.

      I need someone to stand by me.

      Stand by Me

      by Julie Capetillo

      Adam went walking through the park one night .He was coming home from his friend’s house. As he was walking, he heard a whimpering noise. He couldn’t help but figure out what was making that noise. He walked around and heard it coming from the park bench. Adam found a small gray and white pit-bull puppy. The puppy was shivering. He took a risk and picked the puppy. When he cradled it, the puppy felt cold as ice. The puppy looked like it didn’t care what was happening because

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