Monster calls and dragon dictation

I used Dragon Dictation, an app available for iPad and iPhone and iPod, to record my obnservations about A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness.

1. An Experiment: Using Dragon Dictation while Reading A Monster Calls


Note I am not changing how the app recorded my observations. There are
some errors, of course, but I do think it captured the heart of what I was
attempting to do. You will notice that punctuation is not a strong suit of
this app. However, think of the lesson waiting when kids do this.

This is an annotation of my reading of Patrick Nessus (Ness’) a monster
calls (A Monster Calls). I decided to use Dragon Dictation to show how
simple it can be to have students annotate as they're reading without
having to really pause to write down anything to reflect you really won't
interrupt their reading nearly as much as they use an app such as Dragon
dictation.

Patrick Ness wrote this book based on an idea of Shavon Dowd who sadly
past way too soon in her career. This wo uld've been her fifth book a
monster calls what Patrick did was take the idea and go with it run with
it. Make it his own and that is what he asks readers to do in the forward
go run with it. Make it your own.

And so we come to chapter 1 of the monster calls a monster showed up just
after midnight as they do certainly an auspicious beginning what kind of
monster will this be what will it do to change the life of our main
character is name is Connor. The black and white illustrations by
illustrator Jim K certainly do a great deal to enhance knowing the mystery
but the threat that seems inherent in the story.

There's almost a paradox in the language at least in the opening chapter
as Connors observing the monster as he comes together from the Yew tree
in his backyard you have references to words like mighty but not
terrifying or scary and we learn that month that Connor has seen worse
monsters or at least envisioned worse.

I'm going to shift now on my annotation from annotating as I'm reading the
chapter to annotating as I finish reading the chapter. By the way it's
probably important as your annotating text in teaching kids to annotate

2. text to pay attention to chapter titles when authors go beyond Chapter 1
Chapter 2 to give you a title chances are there something significant
about the words that they selected to have those chapters.

So in chapter 2 we confirm that there something wrong with Connors mom We
see suspicions about it in chapter 1 and chapter 2 and she's undergoing
chemotherapy. We also get some sort of validation for the monster that
formed from the Yew tree and Chapter 1 since Connor finds his floor
littered with you leaves which he bu ries in the bottom of the rubbish . One
other thing to note in chapter 2 is that in the middle of the narrat ive
suddenly there's a double page spread but it's nothing but the black and
white illustration by Jim Kay showing feet of the monster canopy were
going to see other glimpses throughout the chapters.

For chapter 3 we could start annotations by examining t he title of the
chapter which is simply school and asking students to provide some guesses
or conclusions some implication some generalizations and inferences about
what they think might happen as Connor goes to school are considering what
has happened the night before his bedroom with the monster calling is real
or what's happening in his life with his mother suffering from cancer. So
what do we learn and chapter 3 and how does that create more of an air of
mystery or perhaps define a little bit more the monster with him Connor is
wrestling. we do learn the Connors being bullied at school that there's a
student who picks on him almost as if he knows the Connors more vulnerable
could just be part of the monster that Connor is seeing at night.

So chapter 4 is called life writing which as English teacher I would
translate into auto biography I'm wondering if we are going to get some
more of Connor’s back story in this chapter. One of things you notice in
the chapter called life stories is another reference to railroad tracks
that we've seen before so probably need to look for that to appear again
and see what kind of role it plays in the story.

In the chapter called three stories Connor has another encounter with the
monster it says that Connor want somethin g from him and not the other way
around

Note that when the monster talks to Connor in appears as italicized type
without" around it

3. Stories chase and bite and hunt. The monster wants to tell Connor three
stories noticed the archetypal motif of the magic number

Connor's grandmother and even the monster tree are trying tell Connor the
truth about his mother and the state of her health that he doesn't want to
listen.

The tree begins to tell Connor the first of the three tails long ago the
monster said before this was a town with roads and trains and cars was the
Green Place trees covered every hill and bordered every pass a sheeted
every stream and protected every house for their warehouse is here even
then made of stone and earth this was a kingdom wha t we're hearing here is
part of the oral tradition we're hearing once upon a time we're hearing
the way things used to be. We're hearing the way things ought to be

An interesting activity for a monster calls might be to take the double
page spread illustrations project them for the kids and let them kind of
give a summary of what they think the entire book will be about would be
interesting to see how much the pictures tell the students and of course
you can also my students to do a summary by simply readi ng the titles of
the different chapters to see if they can somehow put together a summary
of the book is well


In the chapter called understanding Connor learns a little something about
a bully also if you take a look at the art work done by Jim K it is a
fairly realistic picture of last seemed to be the school with the fence
surrounding it and a bird perching is interesting to look at the tiny
details to see what you can see in these different illustrations

Connor's father comes to visit he's lived in Am erica so long that he seems
very foreign to Connor and seems disconnected from his own son and
certainly doesn't see Connor coming to live with him and America should
something happen to his mother because I have to ask yourself at this
point why is the father visiting what purposes they're behind this visit
is there something going on for the others not quite revealing to us

Some of the illustrations look a little bit like Steven Gammell

4. From dragon dictation. It would be a simple step then to create voi ce
threats for students for example I could either use one of my phrases
during imitation and use that as the beginning of the voice text for
students or to put students in grapes each one of them would conduct their
own voice thread and the others in the group would contribute to it and
lots of different ways to use it. I'll try to figure some examples.


We need to look at what corner learns with each of details that the tree
tells him in both tails Connor is always surprised at the turn of events
why is that what is the tree trying to tell him

On page 109 the tree tells Connor belief is half of all healing. I wonder
what kind of message that is for Connor given the situation which is
mother finds herself?

Page 111. What does it mean when Connor joins th e monster and destroying
the Parsonage as he loses his temper as he loses his thought process as he
loses his civility and begins to destroy everything that existed in the
Parsonage? Why is Connor acting the way he is what is it that drives him
to join in the destruction

I wonder if as we read aloud a book like a monster calls we could have
students with Dragon dictation on their phones on their desks some iPad on
the computer wherever we want half and they can quietly asked questions
make predictions do t his kinds of things that that are not necessarily
annotating but nonetheless responding to the text as we're reading out
loud. I wonder if we can do that without creating mayhem

The destruction at the Parsonage and Connors subsequent distraction of his
grandmothers house is almost biblical in the way that it's told he reminds
me somewhat of the readings from Palm Sunday from the passion I wonder if
that is intentional or if that is something I'm reading into it because of
who I am about my background is an d isn't it interesting that the next
chapter is called destruction since that's what we've already seen
happened in the previous chapter

The double page spread that is in the middle of the chapter called
destruction is incredible and again it's one where you have to look
carefully to see what it is actually that you're looking at in this black
and white world that Jim Kay has created

5. What is the nightmare the Connor keeps having that awakens him makes him
scream in the middle of the night he talks about horror it talks about
falling it talks about terrible things that happen at the end

Page 134 on Connor's father talks about stories not always having happy
endings and Connor stops to think about it but the monsters talking about
but stories were wild wil d animals and when often directions you couldn't
expect

In the illustration of the monster sitting down notes that on the facing
page there's a rabbit in a weather vane.

The bully can no longer see Connor he truly is invisible and this happens
at school the clock ticks ever to 1207 and suddenly during the day we have
the monster appear with a story for Connor the third story

Note that the illustrations that surround the first two pages of the third
tale page 146 and 147 done in black -and-white again are actually
fingerprints and as the monster begins to tell the story about the
invisible boy it is now the bully who is been treating Connor badly who
is the target of the monster. So Connor has been using the tree already
he's used it to destroy his grandmo ther sitting room he's using it now to
take care of the bully at school with a be anything left of the tree to
help his mother

Connor wants to be punished he feels the need to be punished and he is
upset that he is not punished in school for beating up Ha rry

That scene with Connor and his mother at the hospital when she talks about
fact that the treatment isn't working reminds me very much of the movie
with Debra Winger when she has the same discussion with her kids and she's
dying of cancer as well. Wish I could record the name of the movie but I
can't.

It was impossible to stop and make a comment as Connor is relating the
truth to the Yewtree I suspect it may not be as difficult for kids unless
they too have had to deal with the death of a loved one

Another ladder connection would be the magicians elephant by Katie Camillo
the savage by David almond brushing mom's hair by Andrea cheng

6. On page 192 we come to the heart of the story is the tree tells Connor you
do not write your life with words the mons ter said you write it with
actions what you think it's not important it is only important what you do

And ultimately what we see in the book are the stages of loss. Anger
denial depression bargaining acceptance it's all there is Polident Connor
finding a way to accept what's going to happen and then letting go without
letting go