November and December Currently . . .

October Currently . . .

September Currently . . .

Just a bit late . . .  I've been super busy with all the amazing curriculum work going on at school - but it is also something that I am loving! So better late than never. At least I'm getting something up here.

My currently pages come from Oh' Boy 4th Grade's TPT store. ,

Reading Mats

So I finally finished my reading mats - an idea that I received while at the Reading Institute at TCRWP. I added in the cute graphic ideas from Liz Dunford, as well as some of my own ideas.  So here they are and how they work.

Each student has their own reading mat that they keep in their book baskets.

On the front - the student's goal and tracking of their reading level

Inside is the mat - students make a plan of what they want to read and stack the books on top of the green circle. As they read the books they move them over to the read side where Piggie and Elephant wait with a "thank you".  Once students have read all their books they will see Piggie and Elephant again - this time encouraging them to reread.

Also on the "red/read" side is a Ready Set Read sheet where students move the paper clip to track their rereads.

Finally on the back is the metacognition  and decoding strategies.

I am so happy with how these turned out! My students are loving them as well. If you have any other ideas of how to make them better - or what the front might be missing - please comment below.

Currently . . .

My goodness.....has it been a busy start to the school year! Between trying to implement so many of the ideas I learned in NY and adapting to the changes in my school - I feel like its been a whirlwind. But a good whirlwind! Some of my current projects include:

- Hosting an intern - whose eagerness and passion is contagious
- Developing a new reading program with my amazing 1st grade team
- Assisting my literacy specialist with the training of DRA 2, Comprehension Toolkit, and Writers Workshop
- Diving into Word Study
- Researching Masters' Programs - torn on what I want to pursue - Administration or Curriculum?!?
- Learning how to use my new Promethean board
- Going DOJO for behavior management - thank you to my teammates Alexa and Doug for pushing me into it!
- Trying to tackle my ever growing professional to-read list - thank you to my literacy specialist Christy for continuously bringing new texts to my attention. I think we need to get our next book study up and running!

Phew! This is definitely the most rewarding kind of exhaustion. I am absolutely loving my job right now but it is keeping me from blogging as much as I'd like to. So in attempts to keep my readers updated on what I'm doing and get me to blog at least once a month, I thought I'd share my "currently's". "Currently" list what you are into a the current moment. My mentor found some adorable templates on Oh'Boy 4th Grade's Blog and I had to snatch them up. So here are mine for August.

Please join the conversation by sharing your "currently"s each month in the comment section. If you want to get your students in on it you can download the adorable templates I use at Oh' Boy 4th Grade's TPT store. ,

New York! New York!

I've been back from New York for a week now and I still feel like my brain is decompressing from all the amazing information I received at TCRWP. 

For those of you who don't know, I was so fortunate to be accepted to both Teachers College's Reading and Writing Summer Institutes at Columbia University in New York City. So that's where I spent the first two weeks of summer soaking up lots of information. I could type pages and pages of what I learned - but I want to encourage you to apply and go! Because you can read all about it, but the experience is one of a kind.  It's hard to find a description or comparison. This is the best I can do: You know those amazing conversations you get when you put a couple of good educators together, like really good, passionate, love what they do, work ridiculous hours educators - that's what my two weeks in NYC was. It was two weeks of amazing conversations with amazing educators from all over the world! There was no husbands reminding us we were "off the clock", no naysayers telling us "but you don't work in the summer", no teachers who really are just in it for the summers off. Every single person there - from the institute leaders and instructors, to the keynote speakers, to the participants - every one of them were inspirational and motivational! 

If you can't ever make it to NY for TC, then I suggest following @TCRWP and #TCRWP on twitter and joining in on their Wednesday night chats. Also many of the staff developers have blogs that house a ton of great ideas. I particularly love Marjorie and Kristi's chartchums and have now had the opportunity to meet both of these incredible ladies. Their blog is full of great charts that you can start using now! 

So now that my brain is full, my notes have been organized, and my motivation has been renewed - I will begin planning for the upcoming school year. I am excited to be back in 1st grade and to be welcoming a student teacher this fall. I promise to blog all about my year and the changes I am making thanks to my learning at TCRWP.  

Topics will include:

- Writers' Workshop: my goals for this year will be improving my conferring and diving into small group work 

- Readers' Workshop: this year I will be saying goodbye to Daily 5, and changing up the structure that I have been using

- Smarter Charts: I'll be frequenting chartchums as I do my chart making this year

So stay tuned! I'll be including lots of my learning into my blogging this year. But I won't leave you completely empty handed. Here are some of my favorite quotes and tweets from my two weeks in NYC:

• When I know who I am as a learner, I learn how to deal with my deficits and can be my most successful self.
• Smarter Teachers = Smarter Students! We need to set goals for ourselves & build up our accomplishment board in order to build theirs! -Shanna Schwartz
• Comprehension isn't a reading skill - it's a life skill. 
• We can give kids experiences so deep and powerful through carefully selected texts.
• "I want the words to be magic in their ears!" - David Booth
• "Kids don't need just one good teacher. They need a whole school that is learning and pushing literacy along." Lucy Calkins
• "If one child can't breathe, you don't need to give CPR to the entire class" - Shanna Schwartz revealing the beauty of Workshop: it gives us the flexibility to meet each student's need.
• " To find good stories you need to have an open mind!" -Charles Fishman
• "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." -Mark Twain
• "I'm a huge believer in silly questions! They lead to the most interesting answers!" Charles Fishman
• "The writing career doesn't actually start with writing, it starts with reading." - Jack Gantos
• Great teachers call kids out of hiding...great leaders do the same for their people.
• "Writing makes meaning of life." - Calkins
• "The greatest impact on teachers is a collaborative culture" - Michael Fullen
• "All successful change shapes and reshapes the content of the solution as it increases the ownership and capacity of those involved." - Micheal Fullen 
• "Revision is a Compliment to your writing" -Calkins 
• "All the qualities that make me weird - make me the writer I am" - student
• "Writers are just more in the habit of building significance." - Calkins

And a few pictures of my time there: 

At the airport with my colleague - excited to head to TCRWP

Lucy Calkins welcoming us

My TCRWP bag of goodies- I got 2!

beautiful  backdrop for some homework

Aligning Text Structure with Author's Purpose

Looking back at my past six years teaching I have spent a lot of time taking my kiddos through different units that focus on informational and narrative writing. We wrote all about books, how-tos, narrative nonfiction, recipes, letters, fairy tales, and LOTS of small moment stories. But as my school begins implementing Lucy Calkin’s Units of Study in Writer’s Workshop along with the new expectations in the Core, I began reflecting and realized I have never explicitly taught opinion writing or asked my students to take a position on something and support that claim.

So to get my students thinking about this new text type, I decide to implement some close reading strategies to really look at how author’s structure their writing and what they tells us about this purpose. So here’s my first lesson on text structure as evidence for author’s purpose.

I began by telling my students that today we were going to be detectives, which naturally they totally bought into. I passed out their “close reading” hand lens and asked them to help me collect clues. I explained that we were looking for clues that would help us determine why the author wrote the text.  We reviewed the 3 purposes that we learned earlier in the year – Persuade, Inform, Entertain. But this time I explained that usually when the author’s purpose is to entertain, they are writing a narrative (narrate) and when they are persuading they are trying to get someone to believe their opinion.

We then looked a couple of books that we had just finished reading and talked about how the book was organized. In  Three Billy Goats Gruff we collected clues that lead us to see that it had a BME structure while the book Sharks had a table of contents and subtopics (or parts) that told about the big topic of sharks. We charted this information:

Then I asked students to think about the writing we have done so far this year – I asked them to study it closely and decide where it would go on our chart. They deduced that our small moments were narratives and our chapter books and all about books were informative. Now they were ready for the really gritty stuff!

I introduced a new text: I Wanna Iguana By:Karen Kaufman Orloff  and read the first letter that Alex wrote to his mom in the book. I asked students to turn and talk about why they think the boy was writing to his mom. What was his purpose? Was he trying to entertain her? inform her? or persuade her to do something? The very quickly where able to tell me he was persuading, so then we started to discussing how the text was organized. I asked them to find the sentence where the boy said what he wanted. We wrote that as our claim and continued reading charting all the reasons why he gave to support his opinion.

After reading the book we went back to our chart and added this new text structure as claim and reasons. I encouraged students to look for text structure when they are reading to determine the author’s purpose and to think about their purpose as writers and be sure that they structure their writing appropriately.  

Taking Up a Couple Challenges!

Ok so a little side bar from Education . . . 

I've taken on two personal challenges. My sister +Kristina Ambrosia-Conn has pushed me into completing the dares in the book This Book Will Change Your Life with her. She will be writing about it on her blog Weekly Wanderlust. I will comment along with her each day as well as update my personal twitter feed on @ASKeene with the #changemylife.  If you are feeling a bit daring, feel free to join us and comment on her blog about your experiences. 

We are currently on Day 4 and here's how I am doing:

Day 1 - tried to insult an insect, but couldn't find one so picked out my prettiest toe, see the picture on Weekly Wanderlust
Day 2 - gazed at everyone like they were the love of my life (but I kinda forgot)
Day 3 - throw away something you like - Good bye leggings! My husband is so happy as he HATES leggings. But I am sure going to miss their comfort!
Day 4 - (today) plan your next trip. I planned my next 3! Florida next week, NJ in June and NY in July. Possibly Dominican in June too! Feeling excited! 

The second challenge I have taken on is the 100 days of Happiness Challenge. This is encouraging participates to find time in everyday to do something that makes them happy. Today is day one and being that it is snowing and I am so missing the warm weather and a tan - I decided to go get a spray tan! Woohoo! Now to just hope I look brown and not orange.  If you want to follow along with my happy challenges I will be posting those on Facebook and my personal twitter account: @ASKeene with the #100happydays.  I definitely encourage you to join me on this one! Everyone could use a little more time for happiness! 

Comprehension Strategies: Visualizing Part 2 - Taking it to the Text

So my last post was all about making visualizing a concrete experience that students could understand. This post will focus on how I take the skill into texts with first graders. It is easy to just ask students to "draw what they see" but I really want my students to be able to cite the text evidence that accompanies their mental images, so you will see that every time I ask my students record their mental image I also require them to include words from the text in their work.

We begin with an idea from Strategies that Work. We read the wordless picture book Good Boy Carl by: Alexandra Day, a story of a dog who is left in charge of watching the baby while mom does some errands. We stop midway through on a double spread that shows Carl and the baby in front of a laundry shoot on one side and then Carl racing down the stairs on the other side. I ask students to visualize what is happening between the pages.

They draw their ideas and then write to explain what is happening to the baby.

Then we move into some poetry. The short text and break in stanzas is a great way for students to track their images and see that as the text changes so does our mental images. The first poem we use is Under the Bed By: Penny Tarznka.

 

Some other great poems are Rock and Roll Band By: Shel Silverstein and I Bought Our Cat a Jet Pack from the book The Tighty-Whitey Spider. 

Next we do a mini author study using Mercer Mayer's There's Something There! Collection. Each time students record the words they hear in the text and then illustrate their mental image.

From There's a Nightmare in My Closet: 

This time we really focused on using the words to help us determine and visualize the setting. From There's an Alligator Under My Bed: 

And then we finished up There's Something in the Attic.

Then we begin discussing specific types of words (nouns and verbs) and how they effect our visualizing. We went through the GRR model using the book Zoo At Night By: Martha Robinson and Antonio Frasconi. First we tapped into our schema charting animals we see at the zoo and what they do. I explained these words as nouns and verbs.  I then modeled finding the nouns and verbs using the hippo page and used those words to create a picture. Then students worked in small groups to do the same thing using the eagle, tortoise, alligator, and monkey pages. Each group highlighted the nouns and verbs, created a picture, and then presented to the class. Finally they choose a passage (either the jaguars and bats or the tigers and raccoons) and completed the same work on their own.  I didn't catch their group work on film, but here are their independent pages.

We continued this work adding adjectives to the mix using the books: 

Like Butter On Pancakes By Jonathan London and G. Brian Karas

Fireflies By: Julie Brinckloe

Night Sounds, Morning Colors By: Rosemary Wells

Where the Wild Things Are By:

The Salamander Room By: Anne Mazer

In the Tall, Tall, Grass By: Maurice Sendak

Night in the Country By: Cynthia Rylant

Here is our final bulletin board. You can't see the whole thing, but it has the red curtains on each side to resemble a theater. Each student has one piece of work displayed and it reads:

Our Mind Movies

We added words from the text to our schema to create mental images

We call this Visualizing

I hope you found some strategies or book choices that you can use as you lead your students through visualizing in your room. If you have a great idea that I need to try in my room, please share it in the comments!  Happy Visualizing! 

Comprehension Strategies: Launching Visualizing Part 1

" . . to read a book is to create a book. To read a book is to listen, to visualize, to see. If the readers, child or adult, cannot create the book along with the writer, the book is stillborn." - Madeleine L'Engle 

Why teach children to visualize?  As Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis say in their book Strategies that Work "(it) brings joy to reading." How many of you have sat through the movie release of your favorite book just to find that it falls flat in comparison? The beloved protagonist is missing their allure or that one moment from the book that you replayed in your head a dozen times is missing the setting, smells, and feelings that were evoked in your mind as you read. When we visualize we are creating our own mental movie and it is often the reason we connect to the stories - sometimes crying and laughing along side the characters. We see what they see and feel what they feel. And then - since it's in our mind- we have the freedom to add to that image to make it even more personal. Maybe a soundtrack accompanies the words, or perhaps that hero evolves into having the disheveled hair of your spouse, or perhaps the vengeance you feel towards a grade school bully is directed towards the villain.

When readers visualize they use words from the text, add it to their schema, and then create a mental image in their head. Visualizing, like inferring, asks readers to combine text evidence with their prior knowledge. Many students do not realize that they are in fact making inferences when they visualize. I teach visualizing before inferring, as I think it is a good stepping stone to the work I will ask them to do in that next unit. When I teach my students about making mental images I am always asking them to bring it back to the text and cite the evidence that influenced their mental images. When students are visualizing, their mental images are concrete and they are taking the "right there" information to make their pictures, whereas when we start inferring I expect them to go beyond the text. 

So, as with all my units I start by having my students explore the strategy through some of the concrete ideas presented in Tanny McGregor's book Comprehension Connections. As the students walk in on our first day with this new strategy they are greeted by an assortment of "out of place" objects. Seashells, an apple, a sand pail, some mittens . . . 

Then I provide each student with a "visualizing tube." I ask them to zoom in on one of the objects and look at it closely. As they are viewing it's details, I probe students to image it in the context of where it belongs. What would they see, smell, and hear near it? Then I ask them to record this mental image.

After visualizing, I group students who have chosen the same object. They compare their drawings, noticing how even though they all picked the same object they saw it in a different context.  For example some students were picking apples off a tree while others were handing it to their teacher as a gift. This is our first realization that our schema influences our mental images. 

Finally we end this lesson by connecting it to our work in reading. Here are the words Tanny McGregor suggests using with the kids: "Sometimes when you read, the writing helps you focus on something. Your brain can see it clearly, as if you were right there. Not only can you see with your mind, but sometimes you can smell, taste, hear and feel as well. We call this visualizing, or making a mental or sensory image. We have the ability to create these sensations in our heads, just be reading the print on the page. It's like magic! Being able to visualize makes reading so much more fun. Turn and talk to a friend about a time when you read something or someone read to you, and you could actually see or feel what was going on in the text." (Connections, 93)

Next, we begin discussing how words influence our mental images.  I launch this through music. First, I play Let It Snow. As the music plays, I ask students to close their eyes and listen. As they listen I ask them to shout out words they are hearing that they are also seeing in their heads. I try to catch what they say in a quick sketch. Once the song ends, students open their eyes and look at what I captured based on what they said. We go through the picture and talk about what words they heard and label those items in the picture (storm, snow, fire, corn (for popping), me, you). We also talk about why we included things that weren't in the song (snowman, Christmas tree, icicles, stockings, moon). We realize that our mental images are made up of not only the words we hear, but also what we have in our schema (i.e students know this is a Christmas Carol, so they inferred the setting - Christmas time - and what they would see during that time of year. I do not explain that they are inferring yet. I just want them to realize that visualizing happens when we add text clues to our schema to make a mental image. 

Finally, students practice on their own with another song. We listen to the song twice. On the first listen students simply draw. On the second listen I ask them to label the words they heard that they drew into their picture. Some songs I use are: Under the Boardwalk, Under the Sea, Over the Rainbow, Zip a Dee Doo Dah, and Monster Mash.

Check back soon to see how we take this into text! 

Falling in Love with Twitter!

So quite frankly . . . I tried Twitter a year or two ago and I just couldn't get into it. So it just sat there. Sure I got on every month or so just to be tempted to McDonald's after reading viewing their delicious photo tweets. But that was pretty much it - I followed McD's and my soap opera and just couldn't figure out the appeal. 

And then I came to Perry. 

So many educators from my new school where on. And not just on - but sharing the fabulous resources and stories and information that they were getting from it. So I logged on - again - it was just the same old tweets of McNuggets and Sharon Newman's newest love interest. WHAT WAS I MISSING!?!?!

Then with the guidance of two fellow teachers - I learned the trick - follow EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING that your admire, respect, or are generally interested in. Since then I've added gurus like Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, and Regie Routman.  I'm following new colleagues and tracked down some old ones. I have direct line to authors like Seymour Simon, Tanny McGregor, and Mo Willems! I stay current through tweets from EdWeek, NEA, and TEDtalks. In three words - I AM OBSESSED! 

Then I had my first retweet! Someone thought something I said or posted was important enough to retweet! Since then I haven't stopped . . . I'm tweeting, retweeting, favoriting, logging in, logging out, checking timelines, refresh - refresh - refresh! I can't get enough. In the short time I've been on Twitter I have learned SO much from so many different people. 

Tomorrow if my first real Twitter Chat and I can hardly wait. I think it's something like 30+ educators from my new district along with other "twitters" from around the country; all of us coming together over the book Falling in Love with Close Reading By: Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts.  

Can it get better than this: Loving what you do, having a great new read, and a whole group of educators who share that passion to talk about it with you?  I don't think so.  If you want to join us, the first chat is tomorrow #litcab1. 

Comprehension Strategies: Schema Part 3 - Making Connections

Students learned that readers comprehend better when they actively think about and apply their knowledge of a book's topic as we tapped into our schema to read nonfiction. Now, I begin to teach students how they can use their schema to make connections to fiction stories. Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis state, "When children understand how to connect the text they read to their lives, they begin to make connections between what they read and the larger world. This nudges them into thinking about bigger, more expansive issues beyond their universe of home, school, and neighborhood." (Strategies that Work, 2000)

So I start again by using a launching activity from Comprehension Connections (McGregor, 2007). Around the room I hang up four picture by Norman Rockwell - High Dive, Day in the Life of a Boy, Day in the Life of Girl, and Surprise. I have students browse the pictures with a partner. I encourage students to discuss what the pictures remind them of and leave behind a sticky with their thoughts.

They learn the first thinking/talking stems for making connections:

• This reminds me of . . . 
• I'm remembering . . . 

I explain that readers use their schema when reading fiction in lots of way, but for this first day I only show them one way, making text to self connections. I use a visual of paper clips joining a book and a die cut of a person. I tell them "Connections are like chains or bridges, they connect our schema with what we are reading. We hear our inner voice saying, 'this reminds me of . . '

The First Connection Lesson

My first read aloud lesson on making connections comes from Stephanie Harvey's Primary Comprehension Toolkit. As I read aloud Patches Lost and Found By: Steven Kroll, I model making a text to self  and text to text connections, explaining how it is helping me understand what I'm reading. I then guide student into jotting down and drawing their connections as I continue reading. After reading the book, I transfer my connection to a two column think sheet. One side states "My Connection" then other "How it helps me".  I explain how I was able to understand the character's emotions because I experienced something similar. Students try the same as I float and confer. We then share our think sheets.

terrible quality . . . but you get the idea

We focus on Text to Self connections for a couple days. Each day we read a book, record our connections and discuss how it's impacting our understanding.

Snippets 

The snippet lesson comes from Strategies That Work.  To avoid long drawn out stories, it uses the book Snippets By: Charlotte Zolotow to illustrate how we can write about tiny pieces of our lives. I model choose a snippet from the text and connect it to my life, another text, or big idea. I then respond, by writing a snippet of my own. Students then choose a snippet and try to respond to it in their literacy notebooks.



Rating Our Connections Lesson

 One of the earliest reads I use is, Ira Sleeps Over by: Bernard Waber. As we read I give students opportunites to turn and talk about their connections. Since this is one of the first books, I offer some scaffolding by giving the students starting points. For example, "turn and talk about what you like to do a sleepover" or "talk about a time when you were excited for a play date like Ira is." After reading I have the students record one of their connections to a post-it and collect them for the following day.


The next day we discuss the difference between a deep connection and flat connection. I introduce the students to our Meaty Connection Picture Rubric. We discuss what makes a connection a deep connection and then rate the previous days connections on the rubric. We come to the conclusion that the best connections include details and feelings.

Some books that I use for Text to Self Connections: 

• Lily's Purple Plastic Purse By: Kevin Henkes
• Owen By: Kevin Henkes
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day By: Judith Viorst
• Earrings By:  Judith Viorst 
• Knuffle Bunny By: Mo Willems
• The Relatives Came By: Cynthia Rylant
• The Snowy Day By: Ezra Jack Keats
• The Two of Them By: Alikia
• Andrew’s Loose Tooth By: Robert Munsch
• Sick Day By: Patricia MacLachlan
• My Rotten Red-Headed Older Brother  By: Patricia Polacco

Once students have a good understanding of text to self connections, we begin learning about the other types of connections. 

Three Types of Connections Lesson:

I begin by introducing an anchor chart and the three types of connection. I show the chain visual that they saw earlier for text to self, but this time add in the ones for text to text and text to self.

Then I begin reading Knuffle Bunny Too By: Mo Willems. Stopping and modeling my thinking.

Stop and Talk:

1. When Trixis is excited to take her Knuffle bunny to school -  “ This reminds me of my first day of 7^th grade, I was so excited to show all my friends my new outfit. It was the first time I didn’t have to wear a uniform, I was as excited as Trixie”   Explain that this a text to self connection, the TEXT is reminding you have something that has happened to mySELF (T2S).  I invite students to assemble their own text to self puppet.
2. When Trixie has the bunny taken away - “This reminds me of Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. The teacher took Lily’s purse away. I remember that Lilly got it back at the end of the day, I bet the teacher will give Trixie her bunny back at the end of the day” Explain that is a text to text connection, one TEXT (Knuffle Bunny Too) is reminding me of another TEXT (Lily’s purple plastic purse)  (T2T).  Invite students assemble their own text to text puppet.
3. When Trixie makes her first friend in Sonja - “This reminds me of how kids often make their first friend, it usually happens by accident because they have something in common.” Explain this is Text to World connection, because the TEXT is reminding of a big idea, friendship, that happens across the WORLD (T2W). Invite  students assemble their own text to world puppet.

Now that I have modeled for the students, I relinquish some of the responsibly and guide them through determining the different types of connections. We visit blue ribbon readers website. As students watch and listen to the children on the screen make connections, they hold up their puppets to indicate which type of connection it is. 

Finally, students practice this identification of different types of connections independently by listening to a song and writing their connection on post-it notes. They then stick their post-its on our chart by based on whether they made a T2S, T2T, or T2W connection.  Some song suggestions: Rachel Delevoryas By: Randy Stonehill, We’re going to be friends By: White Stripes, Popular By: Kristin Chenoweth, Old Blue By: Byrds, You’ve got a friend in me By: Randy Newman

 Text to Text Connections

 The next step is taking students through story comparisons. I span each set of books over 2 to 3 days. One day we read aloud and make text to self connections, then by day 3 we are comparing the two stories making text to text connections. 

Here are some book combinations:

Sometimes I'm Bombaloo and When Sophie Gets Really Really Angry
       

Dooby Dooby Moo and Punk Farm
   

Good Boy Fergus     and    No David
          


 Ira Sleeps Over   and   Weekend at Wendell's
  


Bootsie Barker Bites   and  Mean Jean the Recess Queen
        


At the end of the unit, we discuss all we've learned about connections and why we should record them and try to connect every time we read. Here is our final anchor chart.

I also end up with a lot of work samples from my kiddos to show their understanding of making connections.  Here are a look at some. 

 

Again I use a lot of the graphic organizers from Hello Literacy 

By the time we have finished this unit, students have made connections to so many characters, places, and themes. They have learned that through making connections, one can vicariously live through the pages.

"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was."  –Ernest Hemingway