Young Readers' Series: Dragon Tales

Course Description     

Description

When Jeremy, Princess Cimorene, and Creel befriend dragons, they do not realize how completely their lives and outlooks will be changed. In Dragon Tales, students explore people’s attitudes toward dragons, which vary from friendship and fascination to fear. The three books include humor, suspense, fantasy, mystery, and adventure. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, and The Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George.

Readability

The easiest method to check readability for your child is the “Five Finger Rule.” Have the child begin reading aloud any page of a book at random and raise your finger each time he or she struggles with a word. If your child reaches the end of the page before you have raised five fingers, your child should be able to read the book independently.

CTYOnline simplifies this informal assessment by linking to pages of almost every book in the Look inside the books section. Please perform this “Five Finger Rule” assessment on the last or next to last book of any course you are considering.

Appropriateness

Parents should be aware that each theme contains books with humor, suspense, mystery, sadness, adventure, and heroism. Overall, while our courses contain advanced grade-level material, we strive to select materials appropriate to the ages of the students. Please look inside the books and read reviews to decide whether these books are appropriate for your child. If you are still uncertain whether your child is ready for a course, please email ctyonline@jhu.edu or call 410-735-6144. 

Look inside the books. To assess readability level, click on  the bottom two book titles and perform the Five Finger Rule.

Look inside Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
Look inside Dealing with Dragons
Look inside The Dragon Slippers

Read Reviews. Parents are urged to review for appropriate content.

Reviews of Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
Reviews of Dealing with Dragons
Reviews of The Dragon Slippers

Materials Needed

• Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville (Magic Carpet Books, 2007) ISBN 9780152062521
• Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (Sandpiper, 2002) ISBN 015204566X
• The Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George (Bloomsbury, 2008) ISBN 1599902753
  

Detailed Course Information

Course Details

Lesson 1: Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher

Begin reading Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
Vote your opinion in the Poll
Take a self-graded Quiz
Post ONE of the blog assignments (your choice) to the Blog forum
Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Board

Lesson 2: Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher

Finish reading Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
Vote your opinion in the Poll
Take a self-graded Quiz
Post ONE of the blog assignments (your choice) to the Blog forum
Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Board questions.

Lesson 3: Dealing with Dragons

Begin reading Dealing with Dragons
Vote your opinion in the Poll
Take a self-graded Quiz
Post ONE of the blog assignments (your choice) to the Blog forum
Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Board

Lesson 4: Dealing with Dragons

Continue reading Dealing with Dragons
Vote your opinion in the Poll
Take a self-graded Quiz
Post ONE of the blog assignments (your choice) to the Blog forum
Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Board

Lesson 5: Dealing with Dragons

Finish reading Dealing with Dragons
Vote your opinion in the Poll
Take a self-graded Quiz
Post ONE of the blog assignments (your choice) to the Blog forum
Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Board

Lesson 6: Dragon Slippers

Begin reading Dragon Slippers
Vote your opinion in the Poll
Take a self-graded Quiz
Post ONE of the blog assignments (your choice) to the Blog forum
Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Board

Lesson 7: Dragon Slippers

Continue reading Dragon Slippers
Vote your Opinion in the Poll
Take a self-graded Quiz
Post ONE of the blog assignments (your choice) to the Blog forum
Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Board

Lesson 8: Dragon Slippers

Continue reading Dragon Slippers
Vote your opinion in the Poll
Take a self-graded Quiz
Post ONE of the blog assignments (your choice) to the Blog forum
Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Board

Lesson 9: Dragon Slippers

Finish reading Dragon Slippers
Vote your opinion in the Poll
Take a self-graded Quiz
Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Board
Contribute two thoughtful posts to the Summary Discussion Board

Lesson 10: Summary Assignments covering all three books

Vote your opinion in the Poll
Post ONE of the Blog assignments (your choice) to the Blog forum.
Complete the Literary Terms Quest [Quest=More questions than a quiz, but fewer questions than most tests!]

Note: You are provided with a list of “Mind-Expanding Vocabulary Words” from each book that you can use to help better understand the book and increase your knowledge of vocabulary words in general.

OPTIONAL -Not required- Fun and Challenges:

• Prepare for the Literary Terms Quest by playing the online Literary Terms games and puzzles.
• Share your favorite stories and authors with other students in the Recommended Reading Wiki.
• Print out and work on the crossword puzzles that have been provided to help reinforce your knowledge of the "mind-expanding" vocabulary words.
• Use the Vocabulary Words Review Games to help learn the vocabulary words in a fun way.

Time Required

This course requires approximately three hours for each of the ten lessons. Students should expect to spend:

• approximately 3 hours per week during the fall, early spring, mid spring, and early summer sessions
• approximately 6 hours per week during the 5 week intensive midsummer session
  
  Note: Students do not have to meet in the classroom at the same time. A student's written work can be posted in the virtual classroom at the student's convenience as long as deadlines are met.
  
  Learn more about the summer sessions.

Sample Assignment

Demo

Dragon Tales Sample Assignment

To give you an idea of the type of assignments involved, the following is the first of ten lessons:

Instructions for Lesson One

All work is due by the following Sunday at midnight. (That's the end of Sunday, not the beginning!) This means that your assigned reading should be started early and completed by Thursday night--at the latest--to allow you enough time to finish all the assignments (Reading, Quiz, Poll, Blog, and Discussion Posts) by Sunday night.

1. Begin reading Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville in the following reading chunks:

Chapters 1 and 2 (pp. 1 - 21)
Chapters 3 - 5 (pp. 22 - 52)
Chapters 6 - 8 (pp. 53 - 85)

2. Read the pages above and then take this self-graded Quiz.

Directions: Read the pages listed above for this lesson before taking this self-graded quiz. If you don’t know an answer, refer to your book. To answer the last two questions, count how many questions you answered correctly without referring to the book. Feel free to click on the links to learn the definitions of literary terms such as “inference,” “simile,” “alliteration,” and “onomatopoeia.”

3. Vote your opinion in the Poll.

4. Post ONE of the following blog assignments to the Blog Forum:

a. Pretend you are Mary Lou Hutton and you have decided to follow Jeremy home on the day he runs out of art class. In 50-250 words and using the first person point of view, write a diary entry describing what you saw when you opened the door to Jeremy’s room. Be sure to include your reactions to the scene.

b. Jeremy is clearly in need of some help with Tiamat, and he has misplaced the book Miss Priest loaned him. Following the example of the hatching charm on page 24, write two to three different charms (50-250 words in total) to help Jeremy in different situations with his dragon. You might write one to help him tame the dragon; one to help him teach the dragon to safely hunt; one to teach the dragon proper behavior at school; or one to teach the dragon how to mow the lawn, etc.

c. Pretend you are Dr. Thatcher and write a 50-250 word email to your best friend describing the disastrous dinner party. [Decide whether Dr. Thatcher would be mostly angry, sad, or amused and be sure to write the email from that perspective.]

5. Contribute two (or more) thoughtful posts to the Discussion Forum in response to any of the following topics. (Remember! At least one of these two thoughtful posts should be in reply to a discussion post made by another student.)

a. Unmowed grass. “The wet grass, a little long because—despite his promise—Jeremy had not mowed yet this week, sparkled in the moonlight.” Why does the author include the detail that Jeremy had not mowed the grass? What do you learn about Jeremy from that detail?

b. About Miss Priest. What do we know about Miss Hyacinth Priest by the end of Chapter four? Write three things we know about her. Do you like this character? Why or why not?

c. Silly questions. At the end of Chapter 4, Miss Priest tells Jeremy ["fiercely"] that "No question is silly if you really want to know the answer." What does this statement tell you about Miss Priest? Do you agree with her?

d. Communication with the dragon. How does Jeremy communicate with his dragon? Give three examples from the book of the way in which they communicate.

e. To see or not to see. Why do you think Mrs. Thatcher can’t see the dragon? With all that Jeremy’s experienced thus far, why does he think the idea of his mother not seeing the dragon is strange?

f. What’s important in Chapter 7? At the end of Chapter 7, Tiamat sheds her skin for the first time. However, there is so much else going on in that scene that it can be difficult to follow. List three things that happen in the second half of Chapter 7, and explain why they are important.

g. Jeremy and Mary Lou. Why do you think that Mary Lou is able to see Tiamat when the rest of Jeremy's friends and family cannot? Are Jeremy’s feelings toward Mary Lou starting to change? Explain. Is Mary Lou treating Jeremy any differently?

Note: You are provided with a list of “Mind-Expanding Vocabulary Words” that you can use to help better understand this book and increase your knowledge of vocabulary words in general.

OPTIONAL--Not required-- Fun and Challenges:

• Share your favorite stories and authors with other students in the Recommended Reading Wiki.
• Print out and work on the crossword puzzles that have been provided to help reinforce your knowledge of the "mind-expanding" vocabulary words.
• Play some of the literary terms games.

System Requirements

• CTYOnline courses require a properly-maintained computer with Internet access and a recent-version web browser (such as Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer) with the Adobe Flash plugin.
• Students are expected to be familiar with standard computer operations (e.g. login, cut & paste, email attachments, etc).
• Spam blockers, parental controls, and other internet filtering software must allow email from JHU (jhu.edu & jhem.jhu.edu), and from the instructor's email address (provided at start of course).
• Since this course uses a web-based classroom for assignments and group discussion, your browser will need to allow cookies, javascript, and popup windows from the classroom web site.

Reviews

"It is refreshing and motivating for my daughter to read the instructor's specific remarks (She is accustomed to receiving "good" as the sole comment on her efforts!)."

"The instructor was extremely attentive and very encouraging. We thoroughly enjoyed working with her this summer.  She was able to direct my son in such a positive way and leave him empowered to dig deeper into his thinking and writing based on what he read. He was always left more inspired to read more and write more after he read her constructive and encouraging words each week. My husband and I were extremely impressed by the caliber of this course (our very first CTYOnline ever!)."

"I really liked how my instructor gave me detailed feedback, which helped me improve further each week. She was very approachable (albeit via email).  I can tell she enjoys teaching and is very kind. I've learned to analyze books in more depth and write thoughtful discussions."

"The instructor’s feedback and instruction have increased my daughter's confidence with regard to her writing skills. My daughter is expressing a strong desire to become an author and wants to continue learning more about writing. She has always excelled in writing at school; however, after taking this course, her middle school teachers have commented on how much more advanced she is than others in her honors courses because of her style of writing."

"The feedback on the writing assignments was incredibly thorough and comprehensive. My son started the course and submitted disorganized work. The instructor's detailed commentary helped him to improve his work dramatically."

"The instructor provides positive feedback, individualized attention and tips that do not overwhelm the children. She motivated my child and gave her the confidence to express herself."

"My instructor's feedback was very helpful - always taking my thinking to a new level. She was thorough and asked good questions. She also was good at sending reminders regarding the work that was due. She made me a better writer and critical thinker. She taught me to ask more questions."

"The instructor’s feedback explained the strong and weak points in my work.  She did this by first mentioning the things she liked, but she wasn't completely fussy, saying my work was amazing just to make me happy. Then, she would point out things I could improve. She does this not by yelling and screaming (you know what I mean), but pointing it out politely, but in a way that I could understand what to do.  She was nice, but also challenges us.  She was also particular not only about the contents of my writing, but about the spelling and grammar.  Even though she challenged us, she also wasn't too hard. People do not learn when things are too easy. When things are too hard, their brains get confused and they don't learn either. My instructor wasn't too hard, but she wasn't too soft.  She really was an outstanding teacher."

"Before I started my young readers’ course, I both disliked writing, and was bad at it. Whenever possible I avoided it. When I started my course with my instructor, I realized a talent for writing I never had before.  As the course went on I realized I was actually getting impatient, waiting for the next lesson so I could write more.  Before I thought of writing as a chore, the way most people think of school (not me!). Now I like to write and do it like it's something fun, which it is. My instructor taught me not only how to write, but also how to like to write."