SNEAK PEEK: 2 New Books by Louise Borden

Primary teachers are going to want to keep their eyes out for these two new books by Louise Borden. It isn't often that we have two new books about school released by Louise at the same time! This is quite exciting!

Off to First Grade is a new book focusing on the beginning of first grade. Louise has created a unique type of alphabet book focusing on different children in a first grade classroom on the first day of school. Each child tells a bit of getting ready for their first day of school (teacher, principal and others also give their take on this great day!) Children will be able to see themselves in the stories shared. The book begins with Anna:

At last,
it is August 26th
on our calendar.
It's a big day!
The day
I start first grade
at Elm School.
Mrs. Miller will be my teacher.

The story is great from A-Z! The illustrations by Joan Rankin are a perfect celebration of such an exciting day! I can imagine this being read over and over and over in first grade classrooms everywhere.

The Lost-and-Found Tooth is one in the series of school stories written by Louise Borden and illustrated by Adam Gustavson (Good Luck, Mrs. K,, The Day Eddie Met the Author, The John Hancock Club, and others). Each book introduces us to great new characters and Louise always manages to write a book about school that matches the experiences that our children have. This new one, focuses on second grade and the losing of teeth! Such a great story for many ages, but it is always fun to have one that talks specifically about those things specific to the grade you are teaching.

Both are due out July 1--just in time for school!

My First Week of #SummerBookaDay

This is the first summer in a very long time that I haven't been traveling or working the first week of summer vacation. I knew I needed to take some things off my plate this summer so I could rest and reenergize a bit.  This first week of summer was glorious. didn't realize how much I needed to just be home without a lot of to-dos on my list.  I was able to read a #summerbookaday and it has been one of the best reading weeks I've had in a while. I love Donalyn Miller's whole idea of #SummerBookaDay and feel like I got off to a great start. 79 days of summer vacation means 79+ books. I  Below are the highlights from my reading week. I recommend all of thees books highly.

Middle Grade Novels

All of the middle grade books I read this week came highly recommended and they were all fabulous for middle grade readers.

Operation Frog Effect by Sarah Scheerger may end up being our first read aloud. We'll see. This is the story of a classroom of 5th graders and it is told in 8 voices.   This would invite a variety of conversations. It was a great read.

Some Places More than Others by Renee Watson

I received this ARC from the publisher as a happy surprise this week. I was happy to see Renee Watson writing for middle grade. This one was incredible.  Loved the characters and the story and all of NYC that was part of the story. It is more of a quiet book but definitely one of my favorites of 2019.   This one is coming out on September 3.  

Guts by Raina Telgemeier--I'm not always  huge graphic novel reader but keep up because they are so popular and important for middle grade reader  I was thrilled to see this upcoming ARC in my mailbox this week. This is a really important book, one that is about anxiety and it is authentic and right and perfect for middle graders.  So glad this book will be out in the world and so glad that Raina has such a following because that means many, many kids will read it.

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga is a novel in verse and another one that I know many middle grade readers will love.    This is the story of a girl and her mother who are forced to move to the US because of the war in Syria.  The focus is on her perspective and experiences.  

Adult Reading

I read Becoming by Michelle Obama over a few months. Since I chose to do this one on audio, I pretty much only listened while I was in the car--so about 20 minutes a day.  Since this is a 20+ hour book it took a while but it was so worth it. Such an engaging read and so insightful. So sad I am finished with this one. 

Nonfiction Picture Books

Borrowing Bunnies: A Surprising Tale of Fostering Rabbits by Cynthia Lord

I always love seeing pictures of Cynthia Lord's foster bunnies on social media so was thrilled to see this book. This is a great nonfiction picture book that shares the experience of fostering bunnies. It is a great read and a topic that isn't out there much in children's nonfiction.  And the fact that you get a peek into author Cynthia Lord's life outside of writing is another perk!

Her Fearless Run: Katherine Switzer's Historic Boston Marathon by Kim Chaffee

I've read about the first woman to run the Boston Marathon but was glad to see this picture book.  It is a good story with many of the issues around women's rights embedded.  

Somehow I missed No Truth Without Ruth:The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Kathleen Krull when it was published but glad to have read it now. Another look at this incredible woman. I like to have several picture book biographies about the same person in the classroom as middle grades are an important time to dig in and see the different information and perspectives presented by each one.

So it was a great reading week and I recommend all of these highly! Looking forward to another week of reading although I do have more I have to accomplish this week, but reading was definitely a great way to kick off summer!

Professional Books I Am Revisiting to Get Ready for the School Year

I have 3 tall shelves full of professional books.  They take up a lot of space and there are times when I wonder why I keep them. Friends sometimes ask why I keep them--haven't you already read them? they ask.

Today, I remembered exactly why I have kept so many professional books.  My classroom is nearly finished and I've attended lots of professional development over the summer. I've learned about Common Core and new things that will be in place this school year.  The children come on Wednesday and these next few days are the days that I have to really think and plan those first few days of school.   I have the pacing guides and curriculum standards.  I know the routines that I'll put in place. The room is set up and I have the books and resources organized so students have the learning tools they need.  But these next few days are about getting my head in the game, remembering what really matters in those first few days. These books will help me do that.

I spent about 20 minutes in front of my three shelves this morning scanning the shelves for books I needed to revisit over the next few days.  Books that will help me take my time and do the right things during these first few weeks of school.  I won't read these books cover to cover but I'll pop in and out of them as I plan for the first 2-3 weeks of the school year.  Digging in will help the planning be more smooth and it will help me be more intentional about each of these first few days.

These are the books I am digging back into a bit as I think and plan for this most important week of the school year.

What's Most Important?

These are the books I revisit to reground myself. These three books are probably the most important books I've read--books that really help me think about the language I use with children and the messages (intentional and unintentional) I give them by the things I say and do.  It is easy to forget these things in the chaos of the first few days--when I don't know the kids and they don't know me.  But they are listening closely and I am setting the stage for what learning means in this classroom so I need to reread pieces of this to remind me how important it is to stay true to the language I believe in.

Choice Words and OOpening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives by Peter Johnston
I'm not sure how I taught before I read Choice Words but I have revisited this book more times than any other professional book I own. So important!  His new book, Opening Minds is just as important and I need to revisit it in order to build more of that into my early days this year.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carolyn Dweck
This is the most important idea I need to carry around with me, all day, every day.


Those First Few Weeks of Literacy Workshop
Setting up workshop routines never gets easier. The only thing that makes it easier is the realization that it's always hard and there is always a day when I think to myself, "I'm not sure I can do this!". So, I have to think carefully about the routines I put in place right away, the conversations that begin our year together and the tools we have for learning.

Launch an Intermediate Writing Workshop: Getting Started with Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5 by Lucy Calkins and Marjorie Martinelli
Although I won't use this unit lesson-by-lesson, it will help me hear Lucy's words about launching.

Significant Studies for Second Grade - Reading & Writing Investigations for Children (04) by Ruzzo, Karen - Sacco, Maryanne [Paperback (2004)]
Series books will be important to early third grade readers so I want to revisit the unit of study in this book on series books that is so brilliantly thought out.

Smarter Charts K-2: Optimizing an Instructional Staple to Create Independent Readers and Writers by Marjorie Martinellis and Kristi Mraz
I've been rethinking charts since I read this book. Then I had the opportunity to interview them and did even more rethinking.  I am definitely not being as thoughtful about charts in literacy as I can/should be so I want to think about this during these first few days.

Don't Forget to Share: The Crucial Last Step in the Writing Workshop by Leah Mermelstein
Share is a piece of the workshop that I often let go and I know better! This book helps me to remember that share is another teaching opportunity and it will remind me how to make it purposeful for the students.

From Ideas to Words: Writing Strategies for English Language Learners by Tasha Tropp Laman
(This is one I haven't had time to read yet but it is on the top of my pile and I need to dig in a bit before Wednesday!)

Math Learning
I have a stack of professional books about math teaching pulled from my shelves.  Just as the routines and conversations are important in literacy workshops, they are just as important in math workshops.  These books will help me think about how to make those happen during the first few days.

Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies, Grades K-5 by Sherry Parrish
This routine is amazing and I need to dig in and think about how it will look different in 3rd grade.

Math Exchanges: Guiding Young Mathematicians in Small Group Meetings by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind
This is an amazing book on small group instruction in math.  I won't be starting groups immediately but hopefully in the first 2 weeks so I want to revisit this one to remember the big ideas Kassia shares.

So, I'm off to plan!  There are many other books on my shelves that I will revisit as the year goes on but these are the books I pulled today to help me be ready for the first few days with a new group of children.

Any other books that I need to revisit during these first few weeks of a new school year?

CELEBRATING TEACHING, DAY TWO: Lessons For My EYT

(This week, as many of us are in the midst of "beginning of the school year" stuff, we thought we'd spend the week celebrating teaching and teachers in different ways. Each day this week (through Friday), we'll have a post related to teachers--book reviews, reflections, etc.)

I am mentoring an entry year teacher (EYT) this year. We never seem to have time to sit down and talk about who we are and where we've come from. This post is for my EYT.

When I started teaching, there was no formal mentorship program. I went straight from a private university in Denver to a federally listed low-income school in Dallas. Fireplace to fire kind of experience. I remember standing with my across-the-hall neighbor, Jim, looking out at the students walking up to the school on the first day, and saying, "I have no idea what I'm doing." To which Jim replied, "Yes, you do. Just wait and see. You'll be brilliant." Jim became my informal mentor for the first two years of my career. He believed in me. He taught me the importance of caring for each child, meeting the students where they are, and saving time for myself. EYT, I hope to pass these lessons on to you. (Jim also tried to teach me to appreciate a well-made martini. I never got past the olives, so this will be one lesson I won't be passing on!)

In my first year of teaching in Dallas, the Dallas Museum of Art opened its new building, which included an entire wing devoted to educational programming. I asked my grade level team how to go about taking my students on a field trip, and they told me it wasn't done. Luckily, I bypassed them and asked the principal about field trips. He bent over backwards to help me arrange a trip with my students to the new Dallas Museum of Art. EYT, you already know you're not working with that kind of grade level team. What I want you to learn is to take risks. Also, try to connect student learning to local current events and to your passions. Bring yourself and the world into your classroom. Last of all, bask in your ignorance and self-confidence -- when I look back on taking a busload of inner city kids to the Art Museum BY MYSELF (no parent volunteers) I can't believe that nothing went wrong. But what made it a success was that the same was true at the time: I didn't believe that anything would go wrong...and nothing did. Believe in yourself. You'll make great things happen.

After two years teaching in Dallas, I came to OSU and got a Master's Degree in Children's Literature. I was lucky enough to be invited to join a group who reviewed and wrote about children's books for a now-defunct publication called The W.E.B. Sitting around a table month after month, year after year, listening to them talk about books and authors (and eventually being able to join in) was an amazing mentorship. It started me on my mission of reading 52 children's books every year. EYT, I encourage you to read, read, read. There is almost no better way to prepare yourself to teach a reading workshop where the students' independent reading is the key ingredient: know books.

When I started teaching in Dublin, my grade level team, and one key person in particular, Karen, of Literate Lives, mentored me. Actually, we mentored each other. We learned together. We bounced lesson and unit ideas off each other in the morning and got back together after school to see what worked and didn't work. We were a PLC before the term had been coined. I look forward to doing this kind of work with you, EYT. Right now I know it seems like all we're doing is putting out fires, but we'll get to the point where we we share ideas. I may have an overwhelming number of years of experience, but you are the one who is most likely to have really fresh new ideas. (Just for instance, your choice of first read aloud was BRILLIANT! If I had known, I would have so copied you!)

Another landmark mentor for me was a passionate first grade teacher. I would wander down to her room many afternoons at (or after) 5:00 and find her still working there, sorting through student work and happy for someone who would listen to her talk about the amazing thinking that her students were doing, or the amazing writing they were doing, or the amazing conversation they had during read aloud. If there's absolutely nothing else I hope that you will learn, EYT, it is to celebrate your students. Try to remember to be amazed by them every day. And tell them about it. And then come down to my room and let's tell each other about our amazing students.

The First Six Days of School

(Disclaimer: I am a looping teacher. One of the joys of the second year of the loop is that there is a weave of connectedness to everything that happens in our classroom right from the start.)

The first book I read aloud this year was DOOBY DOOBY MOO by Doreen Cronin. Last year we read Click Clack Moo, Giggle Giggle Quack, Duck for President, Diary of a Worm, and Diary of a Spider, so predictions and connections were numerous and were rich with background knowledge about the farm, the farmer, and the duck. The kids loved how Cronin uses asterisk footnotes that sound just like the fine print in real life.

The asterisk footnotes led me to read WOLVES by Emily Gravett next. (Yes, this is the one I stole out of Franki's pile at Cover to Cover.) I won't spoil it for you, but the end of this book is similar in tone and style to Cronin's asterisk footnotes. My students were touchingly distressed by the first ending, and laughed hysterically at the sarcasm of the second ending. 10 years old and already so jaded!

After two picture books, I was ready for a novel, and we jumped right into GOSSAMER by Lois Lowry. I say "jumped right into" because we usually spend time doing what readers do when they choose a new book -- studying the cover, reading the blurbs on the back and on the flaps of the cover, thinking about all we might know about the author's other books. All I told them was that they should expect to be confused, but that one of the main characters was also confused and would be asking lots of the questions they would have. As I read the first 10 pages or so, we stopped often, trying to piece together the clues about who these creatures are and what they are doing. The way Lowry writes with such authority about these imaginary (??or are they real??) dream givers reminded us of the way one of the students in our class wrote about the alien cultures in the lunar system that she invented last year.

I'm still making my way through Katie Wood Ray's STUDY DRIVEN, but I have read enough to know that our first study in writing workshop will be of the interesting things punctuation can do in our writing. (Ray writes about such a study in a first grade class. Why re-invent the wheel, eh?) It seemed natural to use Cronin's asterisks as the example that would send some students off to gather other anchor texts for our study. They went right to Cronin's other books, so it looks like we'll be doing a combination study of how Cronin uses punctuation, and, oh, yeah, how a few other writers use it, too.

I tabbed this important statement in Ray's STUDY DRIVEN: "When students are just writing on their own in writing workshops, they must learn to answer this essential question, 'What have you read that is like what you are trying to make?' " As we reviewed what a writer needs to think about when planning a piece, one student offered up, "You need to know what you're going to make." (goosebumps) So as I circulated around the room and asked students what they had read that they thought their writing might be like, one student said she was planning to make a story that would be like DOOBY DOOBY MOO, set on a farm, with a farmer and some farm animals for the characters. Two boys have attempted to write humor in the style of CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS, but I'm going to send them back to Pilkey's books for more study. Their funniest joke so far is the one about the Barbies vs. Barneys: The Ultimate Battle video game that is rated M for Mature. The rest of the humor is gratuitous bathroom humor. Maybe they need to get some peer reviewers to look at their work, too. I could be way off on the bathroom humor.

Enough for tonight. I have to go make lunches for the week and then fall into bed and hope to get enough rest to tackle our first, full, five-days-in-a-row week of school, which will include both the unveiling of our science museum and curriculum night.

Winter Break #bookaday and a Plan for my 2019 (Guilt-Free) Reading

I am so glad that Donalyn Miller invented Winter Break #bookaday. I always participate in Summer #bookaday and loved thinking about what I might read for Winter Break #bookaday.  I counted the days off during break and set a goal to read 15 books. I ended up reading 12 and feel good about that. I read a pretty good variety--picture books, middle grade, professional, etc. Below are screenshots of my Goodreads page of the books I completed over break. I would never had read this many and felt a bit caught up had it not been for Donalyn's #bookaday.  And I love so many of the new 2018 middle grade books that I read!

I didn't get to all 15 titles because a few days ago--a few days before the last day of break, I took a look at my stack of middle grade novels I had hoped to finish as part of Winter Break #bookaday and I decided I was finished. I realized that no matter how many books I read before awards are announced in January, there are books I will miss. I decided that the reading was starting to feel like work and the pile felt a bit overwhelming. And I realized that even though I had read a ton, I had not read the one adult fiction book I have been hoping to read for weeks.

Around the same time, Pernille Ripp wrote this piece, On Book Quantity and the Damage it Can (Sometimes) Do, on her blog. I had just reflected on my own reading goals (and not meeting them) here on the blog last week. So I have some new reading thoughts going into 2019:

Mary Lee and I started this blog 13 years ago as a way to read and predict the Newbery winner before it was announced. It was fun and I still love that part of my reading. And I love knowing so many books to recommend to my students and to talk to them about. But I have learned that no matter how many books I read, there are books I miss.  I can't read everything and that is a hard reality as someone who loves good books.  Moving to 5th grade a couple years ago, I wanted to catch up on the 5th grade books and to be current so I knew that I'd need to commit a few years to that.  So I've been reading frantically to keep up with books that might be great for my 5th graders.

But, I've realized that sometimes my goals get in the way of my bigger life as a reader. I've been following Katherine Sokolowski as she has added romance reading back into her reading life, letting go of the guilt and knowing that she still reads plenty to recommend books to her students.  I love reading middle grade books--they are not work to me--I think they are some of the best books out there in the world. But when I limit myself to reading only the books that I might share with my students, my own reading life feels more like a job than an authentic life as a reader.

I have been wanting to read Barbara Kingsolver's new book Unsheltered since I purchased it the day it was published. I started (but have not gotten very far) Michelle Obama's book Becoming on Audible. I've had YA books The Belles and Children of Bone and Blood on my stack for months. And I keep hearing about There There, another adult book. I want to read. But I have made almost no time for books like this during the last 2 years. I have so many friends and relatives who I used to talk about books with. People who continue to recommend adult fiction to me --I miss talking to those people about books we read.

So I am thinking about just being a reader this year. A reader with a goal of reading 200ish books. A reader who loves to participate in Winter Break, Spring Break and Summer #bookaday. A reader who loves to share books with my students and to have authentic conversations about books we've read. A reader who loves to predict the award winners before they are announced. A reader who recognizes times when reading begins to feel like a chore because of constraints I place on myself. A reader who doesn't feel guilty about the books that I haven't read.  This year my goal is to just be a reader.  To be a reader who reads books and other things that sound good. To read books that stretch me, that friends recommend, and to let go of the guilt I carry about not reading enough, not reading the best books, not knowing the award winners before they are announced. 

I am going to keep in mind this important quote Carol Jago recently shared in her post Why Read on NCTE's blog:

"Love for books drew us to this profession, yet in many cases as soon as we were handed the keys to a classroom, our personal reading was put on hold. With student essays piling up, we feel guilty about picking up a novel. The lure of Twitter doesn’t help, either. But when teachers stop reading, we can easily forget why we went into the classroom in the first place.

Our adult reading lives need nurturing every bit as much as those of our students. To insure that we continue to grow as readers, we need to find ways to be nourished in the company of other adult readers, doing what we love to do best. Don’t think of reading as a guilty pleasure, but rather as professional development."

To kick off the year, in January, I plan to not read any middle grade novels. I am giving myself permission to not rush to read every potential Newbery winner and I am going to give myself permission to nurture my adult reading life again --without considering it a "guilty pleasure".  I'll keep you posted!

Central Ohio Blogger Breakfast to Kick Off to 48 Hour Read and Book-A-Day

Our last day of school is on Monday, June 2.  We are having lots of conversations in our classroom about summer reading and the joys of having extra time to read. Even by 3rd grade, some of my students already see summer reading as a chore so they looked a little confused the first two times I shared my excitement for the 2014 48 Hour Read and Summer Book-A-Day (#bookaday). 

Mother Reader started her 48 Hour Book Challenge many years ago. Although I have never participated as a challenger, I have participated many years just for fun. For me, it is like a Hallmark Holiday--if Mother Reader says that June 6-8 is the 48 Hour Read, then I have a great excuse to read.  You can read more about the challenge in the link above. Mother Reader also posted 48 Hour Challenge FAQs last week.  If Donalyn challenges me to read a #bookaday, I give myself the gift of reading time each day.

I think one of the reasons I love the 48 Hour Book Challenge is that it is a great way to kick off summer reading and #bookaday..  No matter how much I read in the winter and spring, there is less and less time to fall into a good book during the last few weeks of the school year.  With all of the end-of-the-year things there are to do to close out the school year and to focus on the classroom community's last few days together, taking time for my own reading, always takes a backseat for a while. So, the 48 Hour Read and the #bookaday challenge help me make time to jump back into my reading life.

Another reason I LOVE the 48 Hour Read is that we often kick the weekend off with a Central Ohio Blogger Breakfast and Book Shopping Spree.  (If you are a Central Ohio blogger and would like to join us, email one of us and we'll give you the details!) We started this little tradition a while ago and it is amazing how it has evolved.  Funny thing is that many of us have become great friends through blogging and the fact that we all live close enough to get together once in a while is quite fun.  The morning is always filled with great talk, lots of laughing, delicious food and very heavy bags of books!  In 2008, I began the 48 Hour Read alone, getting my hair colored. In 2009, we decided that in Central Ohio, we might need to change the name of the challenge to the 48 Hour Shop! And in 2011, we discovered the fortifying power of granola, thanks to Bill Prosser.  I am sure 2014 will bring lots more fun and great books!

Now on to the reading plan.  I don't feel like I have a lot of 3rd grade-ish books to catch up on.  I spent lots of last summer reading transitional chapter books and feel like I can keep up with new ones easily. I've also kept up on lots of great new nonfiction as I've been trying to build my library in that area. But I seem to have fallen behind in my middle grade, YA and adult reading. I have already created a mental TBR stack that is bigger than anything I can read in one summer alone. But I do have a stack that I want to read early on in the summer. 

These are my summer MUST READS so far.  

The Forbidden Library

The Crossover

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere

Boys of Blur

Another Day as Emily

Circa Now

Hope Is a Ferris Wheel

Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy) 

The Riverman

We Were Liars

My New Friend Is So Fun! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)

Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel

Organizing the Classroom Library

I've spent some time in my new classroom over the past few weeks. I love being there and thinking about the space. I know it is early, but I need to start the year off organized and I wanted to get things moved and unpacked. I wanted to spend time thinking about the best way to use the space. (My husband is always a huge help during these first few days in the classroom--moving things over and over until it feels like it will work for student learning:-) One of the biggest jobs is always organizing the classroom library. I want the library to teach students about being a reader. I want the books to be accessible but I also want the organization to help students learn ways of choosing books, finding favorite authors, trying new things, etc. I want the library to meet the needs of every reader in the classroom from the very first day. I feel like I finally have a good start on the library and thought I'd share some of the process.

One wall of the classroom (the one that you see as you walk in the door) is a wall of shelves. The shelves are built in and are pretty much from floor to ceiling. I knew I wanted kids to see books when they walked in and I also knew the students could not reach the top shelf easily. (It was tempting to use that top shelf for my own storage but a good friend taught me the importance of eliminating messes that you can see from the doorway and I always create messes in storage areas.)  So I lowered a few of the shelves, making space on top for oversized books to display. I know these books will be gone most of the time but there seem to be so many books that are a little too big for a regular shelf and I don't want those to get lost --I want them to be visible. So I used this shelf area for mostly fiction--baskets are sorted by series and authors that I am thinking will be popular in the early part of 4th grade. I have a variety of easier and more difficult series/authors. I know these will change but I want everyone to walk in seeing old favorites as well as new possibilities. The last shelf in this area is designated to the fiction novels that don't fit into an author/series category but may as the year goes on. I want 4th graders to begin to know themselves and their tastes. Finding authors and series you love will help them think ahead as readers and begin conversations around who they are as readers.

The Smartboard is front/center in the room and I want it to be accessible during read aloud, minilessons etc. So I created the meeting space around the board but not so that it is the center. I built out the shelves a bit so that the "front" is at the easel but it is a flexible space for using whatever tools available. I plan to put nonfiction on these shelves next to the easel and behind.

Behind the easel/meeting area will be the nonfiction books. I am thinking hard about ways to organize these so that they are more accessible for student reading. I want students to choose these for independent reading, to find topics and authors they love, find series that hook them--just as they do with fiction. I also wanted to create a comfy space for sitting with books and friends. This area of the library is next-up on my list but the space is set.

I have 4 small shelves in the back of the room at the edge of the meeting area. I plan to put picture books on these--those we'll use for independent reading, writing mentors, etc. Many picture books are also in the NF section.  I always hesitate putting picture books in a different area from fiction novels but it seemed to make sense with the space this year. I'll use the two shelves on the right for picture books.  I plan to use the shelf closest to the Smartboard to highlight new books. I am hoping to get some low display shelves for directly in front of the Smartboard to highlight books that are currently being read/discussed in classroom. 

This is my favorite shelf! It is right next to the picture books and it houses graphic novels. I was happy to see that I've really added to my GN collection in the past few years and I had enough to justify an entire shelf. I think this will be a good message for kids--to see that graphic novels are as important as any other kind of book in the classroom. There are a variety of authors and genres represented with Babymouse playing a key role, as she should! This shelf makes me happy!

I have built quite a collection of poetry for the classroom. Years ago, as I realized poetry was not a favorite for me, personally, I decided to deliberately build my poetry collection. As I was sorting books, I was shocked to see just how much that collection has grown. Our district gives each classroom a library of books an many are great poetry. So between my books and the ones in the district collection, I had to find a good space.

This is what you see when you walk straight into the classroom.  I decided to dedicate this whole area to poetry as I needed the space and it seems to fit well.  This space is off to the side a bit so a small rug and low table in front will make the poetry inviting. And I have top shelf space to change out books on display.  I may also add the word play books that I have to the top of this shelf. (You see the Bananagrams are already there.) Seems a fitting place.

These pictures might give the impression that the classroom only has books. But I believe strongly that kids needs lots of tools for learning.  And I want it all to be visible so students know right away that all tools are valued in the classroom.  Years ago, I had books visible with math and science materials in cabinets, out of view. I realized the message was not one I wanted to give so I now work hard to put as many tools as possible out there in the view of students. I want them to have visual reminders of all of the tools available for them and I want them to be able to access the tools readily.  Students' cubbies are on one wall of the classroom with storage underneath. I plan to use the bottom areas for board games (I have lots of math and learning games), building toys, science tools,  math manipulatives, etc.  The drawers near the sink are already filled with magnets, velcro, etc that kids can access. And I have a shelf near the doorway that will house supplies such as pencils, staplers, paper clips, sticky notes, etc.

Lots to do, but happy about the basics of the room so far.

Books to Celebrate Today--The First Men on the Moon!

Such a great celebration--40 years since we had men land on the moon. No matter how long it's been, it is still an amazing story. So much to celebrate about the day. As with any "event", there are many many books that tie into the first men on the moon. I am thrilled with the quality of so many of the books out on this topic. I think that the books will really invite our children to be part of this day in a way that makes it as exciting as it is to those of us who actually remember it.

I've shared two of these books before but thought that today was a great day to rerun the reviews.

ONE GIANT LEAP This book tells about the first trip to the moon from the time the Eagle took off to the time the astronauts landed. The book captures the power of the trip and the emotions of the astronauts well.

Mike Wimmer's illustrations are amazing. Most are dark as the moon would have looked when they landed. The details show so many things about the trip and the feel of the illustrations matches the feel of the world when the astronauts stepped out on the moon.

The language in the book is one that makes it a perfect read aloud. Yesterday, I read it to 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classes and they were glued. Not much of a sound from any group that I read it to. And kids this age take space travel for granted. But somehow the author and illustrator helped them relive the excitement of the moment in this book.

After reading this aloud to 4th and 5th graders, many of the kids pulled out a laptop and quickly found the original film of the moon landing on the internet. They watched and were excited to see what they had just read about and to hear Neil Armstrong's actual voice saying, "One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind." (On a side note, kids had heard spinoffs of this famous quote on Spongebob and other shows and had no idea what the origin of the quote was...) Within minutes they found information on Neil Armstrong, clips of the trip, information on more recent space travel news.

It isn't often that a nonfiction picture book can capture history so clearly and so powerfully. Often, I read aloud a picture book and kids learn but this one actually allows the children who take space travel for granted, to feel the excitement and thrill of the day. For the astronauts who lived it and for the world who watched.

I am also excited about LOOK TO THE STARS by Buzz Aldrin to my collection. As you can tell, I am kind of hooked on the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11. This is a great way to celebrate the flight. Astonaut, Buzz Aldrin starts with an introduction inviting readers to look at the history of flight. On each 2 page spread of the book, Aldrin looks at one piece of the timeline that led us to space travel and looks ahead to where we might go next. He highlights important times in the history of flight and space travel and gives interesting information with each. The book is definitely one that kids can read and follow. The end of the book includes an extensive timeline of important dates including events from the year 1543 through 2010. An exciting celebration of the discoveries that led us to current missions in space. An added bonus in this book are the end papers--they are filled with great quotes about flight by those who are known for their contributions. A great book!

ONE SMALL STEP: CELEBRATING THE FIRST MEN ON THE MOON may end up being a favorite with the kids. This book is put together in the form of a scrapbook. Each spread focuses on one piece of the history of space travel. Photos, sketches, diagrams, and text work together to pull a lot of information into one book. I loved seeing so many photos and captions that explain them. I loved the way that this book captures Launch Day (July 16) with photos of President Johnson, the astronauts and the people in the control room. There are lots of invitations for readers to lift the flaps to learn more about certain topics. My personal favorite page is the one that celebrates the three astronauts and that shares info and photos of the actual spacesuit.

I have always thought it was pretty cool to live in Ohio--home of Neil Armstrong, John Glenn and so many other great astronauts. I think this new set of books is a great way to celebrate this anniversary but one that I think we will all be able to learn from for years to come. These books won't be popular only because of the anniversary. These books will be well-read because they give great insights into the history of this day and more.

There are also so many great sites to celebrate today. "We Choose the Moon" is one of my favorites. We can also watch the landing on Youtube. Love that!

I also started to follow Astronaut Mark Palansky on Twitter. Love that they can tweet from space. That is amazing to me.

Enjoy the day!

CELEBRATING TEACHING, DAY ONE: IT'S NOT ALL FLOWERS AND SAUSAGES by Mrs. Mimi

(This week, as many of us are in the midst of "beginning of the school year" stuff, we thought we'd spend the week celebrating teaching and teachers in different ways. Each day this week (through Friday), we'll have a post related to teachers--book reviews, reflections, etc. To kick off the series, we want to share a new book by Teacher Jennifer Scoggin that celebrates the joys and challenges of teaching today.)



A while back, I somehow came across the blog IT'S NOT ALL FLOWERS AND SAUSAGES. I don't quite remember which post I first discovered but I became quite hooked on reading this blog. I was a little surprised at myself. Mrs. Mimi's tagline for her blog is, "This is a blog for TEACHERS WHO ROCK and are frustrated by the day to day drama that gets in the way of our interactions with children. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but sometimes a girl has gotta vent..." Mrs. Mimi certainly knows how to vent and she is HYSTERICAL when she is venting. And she has an avatar that moves--which I find fascinating on every visit. So, I read the blog for a while. It was my guilty pleasure--not really admitting to anyone that I was reading it. Then I became curious--how does she get away with saying some of the things she says? Come to find out that she is very sneaky about her anonymity. There was no way I could figure out who she was or where she taught. Brilliant girl. I ended up sharing blog posts with lots of friends and everyone who reads her seems to become a fan. So, when I found out that she had a new book coming out (titled IT'S NOT ALL FLOWERS AND SAUSAGES: MY ADVENTURES IN SECOND GRADE), I pre-ordered it right away! My book arrived last week and I finished it on Thursday.

Here's the thing--I usually stay away from negativity and venting. It brings me down. But Mrs. Mimi's venting is often right on--venting about things that are unfair to children and teachers. She manages to stay focused on what is important in teaching and vents about those things that get in the way. She believes that the classroom and the classroom teacher are key and that too many things get in the way of that. She cares deeply about her students and works hard to do the right thing for them, regardless of what gets in the way. She isn't one of those lazy teachers who whines and complains. She is honest about the frustrations of being a teacher and how she deals with the frustrations--how she manages to remember what is important.

I love this book. If you like her blog, you will love this book too, I think. The book is a kind of extension of the blog. In it, Mrs. Mimi (whose name we learn is Jennifer Scoggin who teaches in New York) takes us through a year in second grade. She is honest at the beginning to tell us that names have been changed, characters collapsed and stories have been dramatized. And she is clear that she is not attacking the place that she works. She loves her work and her school but wants to share the frustrations that she deals with. And how it is her students, "her little friends", who are often the ones who save her in the day-to-day of teaching.

You can tell right away what kind of book this will be because the first chapter is called, "Holy Crap, It's August!". (See how hysterical she is!) This is how the book begins. Right away, she dismisses the teacher stereotypes--teachers with theme sweaters who sit around and do nothing all summer. "Well, first we have the stereotypical image of an elementary school teacher who loves terrible thematic sweaters, sensible shoes, and necklaces made exclusively from dried pasta products and Tempera paint. This teacher may be sporting some sort of dangly thematic earring that may or may not blink. Perhaps she is brandishing a pointer as well. I think this teacher's soundtrack might include hits from artists such as Raffi. Fortunately, she exists mainly in the cloudy, and very delusional, childhood memories of the classroom held by many who seem to think they went to school in a Norman Rockwell painting or something." She puts it all right up front when she shares how much work she does to prepare for a new school year. She then continues through the year, sharing the joys and challenges of spending the year as a classroom teacher. The stories of her children are great--all of us who work with children have these stories. The small moments that happen in a classroom that remind us of how lucky we are to do the work we do. Mrs. Mimi shares lots of these. Each one made me smile.

Mrs. Mimi continues to take us through the school year-sharing the struggles she has with balancing home and work, dealing with crazy interruptions to her teaching, paperwork and data overload, and the difficult colleague. She shares the highlights too--"An unsung bonus of the teaching profession is the ability to rationalize the need for back-to-school clothes." She shares those moments when something makes sense to a child--those moments that can keep us energized for months. And she shares this importance of her "Super Colleagues".

This is more than a book about a teacher---it is a book about a teacher in this era of teaching. She says, "Right now, however, it feels like I get paid to be a human shield to protect my friends from all the chaos and drama that happen outside the walls of the classroom." Mrs. Mimi is a teacher who is trying to do all that is being asked of us and to still be the best teacher possible for her students. A teacher who knows that scripted curriculum and crazy mandates make our work so much harder and less effective. Mrs. Mimi understands and celebrates the fact that classroom teachers all have their own ways of doing things--and that there are many ways to be FABULOUS and to meet the needs of your children. She talks about every day stresses (field trips gone wrong, fire drills in the middle of great lessons) and the bigger frustrations that sap our energies.

I imagine this book will offend some people. She is honest and sometimes negative. She complains about some of the people she works with. And she swears a bit. But it didn't offend me. For many reasons. First of all, Mrs. Mimi works hard. She puts her all into the work with her kids and believes in every one of them. She is a champion for teachers and can't understand why the needs of the classroom aren't put first. Most importantly, Mrs. Mimi clearly believes in her kids and never says a negative thing about one of them. Mrs. Mimi is also a learner. Although she makes jokes throughout the book about how arrogant and fabulous she is, she is also the first to admit her weaknesses and to tell readers that she is a learner, trying to figure things out and doesn't have it all figured out. She is the kind of colleague that I love to work with. And, if I am honest with myself, I know that we all have stories like the ones she shares--the frustrating things that happen to us as we work to keep our students' needs first. And, we all (thankfully) have Super Colleagues who keep us energized and keep us focused on the things that are important. We all live similar joys and frustrations every day.

This book is definitely Fabulous. It was a reminder to me, that this work is hard. Really hard. So hard that it is often HYSTERICAL. But, in the end, we know that as teachers, we are lucky to be able to spend our days with children in elementary schools across the country. Love this new voice for teachers. I consider myself an official Mrs. Mimi fan.

Nerdy Book Club Post

I have a new post up at THE NERDY BOOK CLUB about the 10 Classic Professional Books I can't live without.  I am cross posting the piece here:-)

Well-Worn and Well-Loved:  Ten Classic Professional Books I Cannot Live Without

One wall in my “office” is filled with professional books.  From floor to ceiling, the shelves are filled with the books that have helped me learn to teach thoughtfully. I have been reading professional books throughout my career. I have hundreds and hundreds of books that have impacted my thinking. I have been lucky to learn from amazing people over the years and I learn something new every time I revisit an old favorite.

In the last several years, I have noticed I’ve purchased fewer professional books. I am reading more professionally, but much of my professional reading is online. So in a cleaning frenzy a few weeks ago, I decided to weed out some of my oldest professional books.   I have been teaching for twenty-five years so I figured I could weed almost every book published before 2000 to keep my professional library current.  I have so many books and so many that I read years and years ago, I figured that this would be an easy job.

But, the job was not so easy.  While browsing the shelves, certain books triggered a feeling of transformation-books that changed who I was as a teacher   Below are ten classics that I could not part with, even though they were all published prior to the year 2000. Even though I have newer editions of most off the titles, it was the original reading that made a difference for me.  These classics set the stage for what we understand about literacy learning and teaching.  So many of my big understandings come from these foundational books. These are the books that reground me, reenergize me and remind me of all the reasons I became a teacher to begin with.

This is in no way a conclusive list.  But it is an important one to me. Consider this my “oldies” playlist of professional books—the learning that is playing around in my head every time I work with children.

1983

 Writing: Teachers and Children at Work by Donald Graves was one of the first books that took teachers inside classrooms to let us know what was possible. I didn’t read this until I graduated from college but Graves’ work was the work that created huge changes in classroom writing programs.  It was a great time to start teaching and this book laid the groundwork for my thinking about writing process.

1987

I had been teaching 1^st grade for three years when I asked to be moved to 4^th grade.  I was excited about the change and had heard about the book (first edition) In the Middle by Nancie Atwell and was excited about the whole idea of workshop. The summer before I started teaching 4^th grade, I was pregnant with our first daughter. My husband had a summer job delivering pizzas. I remember laying on the couch with a bag of Doritos and reading In the Middle over and over.  That summer, I created a vision of an intermediate workshop classroom all because of this book.

1988

I was able to attend the Teacher’s College Writing Project and learn from Lucy Calkins for ten days in 1991. But I was a total fan by the time I attended, having read everything she wrote cover to cover, over and over again. Lucy’s work helped us listen to children and to be thoughtful about everything we did.  The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins was packed with new thinking.

1990

Ralph Peterson was a huge influence for me. His book Grand Conversations was one that helped me see the power of books and student conversations. It was one of the first books that helped me to see what could happen if students were in charge of their own understandings and conversations. It was a short book, but packed with thinking about the importance of talk and ownership.

1992

I learned a great deal from the staff at The Manhattan New School. I learned through visits, workshops and their writing. The schoolwas amazing and the staff was generous in sharing all that they learned.  A book that changed my teaching was Shelley Harwayne’s Lasting Impressions: Weaving Literature Into the Writing Workshop.  I have always been a huge children’s literature person and this book helped me see the power of children’s literature for writers.

1992

 What a Writer Needs by Ralph Fletcher is a book that opened up so many possibilities for me as a teacher of writing. The ways that Fletcher showed us, as readers, how to look at text with a writer’s eye was key to what we do today.  This was the first book that that helped me “read like a writer”.

1993

The work of Howard Gardner and Harvard’s Project Zero has been instrumental in who I am as a teacher today. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. As with all of Gardner’s work, this book taught me strategies for getting to know the whole child and to build on each child’s strengths.

1996

A Workshop of the Possible: Nurturing Children’s Creative Development by Ruth Shagoury Hubbard is one of my favorite books ever. It takes a look at the creative process with young children and takes us into a classroom where children’s thinking is the key to the way in which the community works.  I learned how much you could learn and how much better you can teach if you really listen to children and their thinking.

1996

In the Company of Children by Joanne Hindley was another book from the staff at the Manhattan New School that showed us the daily life in a workshop classroom. In this book, Hindley shared the routines and structures that made her reading and writing workshops so successful. This was one of the first books I read that focused solely on those transitional readers in Grades 3 and 4.

1999

 Living the Questions by Brenda Power and Ruth Shagory taught me to teach, as with questions in mind and that the research I did in my classroom mattered. This book help to make clear for me that a research-based stance to teaching was important for me.

So, .  I wasn’t totally successful at weeding my shelves.  But the process was an enlightening one. I could see, on one wall, the influences of my teaching life. I could see the power of professional reading and the power of learning from others.  My professional reading over the last 25 years has definitely impacted my practice.

Planning for Small Group Instruction: Problem and Solution

Moving from 4th grade to 3rd grade has been fascinating as there is a big difference between the two ages.  And I'm realizing again that 3rd grade readers are at a critical stage in reading development.  As they are becoming more sophisticated readers, the books become more complex. Not only are they building stamina to read longer books over several days but they are also learning to infer so much about a story.  Over the last few weeks I've been working with a small group on inferring problem and solution and I've learned so much from them. My thinking is that this cycle of lessons I've used with them might be the perfect cycle to use in whole class teaching early in the year next year.

I began working with several groups of students on inferring because although my students can infer isolated pieces in a text (what a word means in the context of a sentence, what a character meant by a phrase in a book, what might happen next, etc.), I am noticing a pattern that many of my students do not infer across the text and as texts become longer and more complex, this becomes more of a barrier to true comprehension. I'm finding students who can retell a story with every story part, but they miss some subtle thing that makes the story.  Their inferring is at the basic level and they rush through-making up their mind fast without pausing to think about the whole. So, I planned a few lesson and have continued from there.

I always thought that problem and solution was a rather basic thing to teach but there are so many conversations that have come from it that I am realizing how important it is for 8 and 9 year olds.

DAY 1

We began with Chalk by Bill Thompson. This is a wonderful wordless picture book that I thought would make sense for inferring. I started out with inferring predictions with this group. We did a shared reading of the book as a group, talking and predicting using evidence from the pictures. Kids could predict basic things but it became evident that they were reading for isolated events rather than the whole bigger story.  They seemed to pay close attention to minor details and went quickly over events that worked together to create a story. They didn't seem to have any focus in mind as they read that could help them put the pieces together.

DAY 2

I asked students to go off and read a wordless book on their own. I used A Ball for Daisy
Hippo! No, Rhino!, and Where's Walrus? and each student left with one of these books  I asked them to jot notes on stickies as they read.

We came back together to talk and their stickies confirmed my thinking from our reading of Chalk. I realized  that these students were reading events but not reading for the whole story to come together in some way.  I needed to help them read across a story. There were lots of stickies about little details not connected to the big story. I know that these are important for readers , but only if they can see how they fit into the bigger picture.  So I changed my focus to problem and solution to give these students a way to focus--how to read across a story for the bigger picture in a story--more than isolated events in a sequence.

DAY 3

One thing that struck me in all of our conversations in the first two days was the fact that my students equated "ending" with "last page". Whatever the characters were doing on the last page was described as the ending by these students. I knew if I wanted to change the way they approached story, they needed to understand that the "ending" was not necessarily a final event but the solution or the outcome of the story.  It wasn't always the very last thing that happened.

For the next lesson, I used the wordless book Fossil by Bill Thompson. This one is patterned similarly to Chalk so I figured the kids would be able to dig deeper and see the problem and solution more clearly after having read and discussed Chalk.  For Fossil, I asked students to focus on the big problem and the big solution and we talked through it. They were much better able to do this when they weren't jumping around to lots of unrelated details. Instead, they read with a focus in mind that they wanted to get a sense of the whole story.

In the meantime, during individual conferences, we also talked a bit about the book that each child was reading during independent reading. They were delighted to discover that the books they were reading had problems and that the longer the book, the longer it took to solve the problem!

DAY 4

I decided that once the kids knew that stories had problems and solutions, I wanted to give them ways to look at these more deeply.  I wanted them to learn two strategies for thinking of problem and solution. One was that the title of a book is often a clue about the problem or solution. The other was that the main character often DOES something to solve the problem.

One thing I am noticing is that my students are often missing the subtle things that a character does to solve a problem.  Often a character does something (like in Miss Nelson is Missing) that seems obvious to adult readers even though it is not stated in the story.  I wanted my kids to read knowing that often characters did something deliberate to solve the problem and that readers sometimes read for that.

For this lesson, we read the book, I Want a Dog!. I picked this book for a few reasons. First of all, the problem was hinted to in the title. Second of all, the character does something very obvious to solve the problem and I knew my kids would see that.  Finally, I knew that there were lots of books about kids who want pets and I wanted to be able to build on this lesson later in the study. So,  "What did the character do to solve the problem?" was the focus of this lesson and kids caught right on, excited to know this little trick for finding solution. (They acted like they were in on a big secret!)  The focus was helpful as they weren't jumping all over the place, hoping the random details they noticed would somehow make sense to them.

DAY 5

Following I Want a Dog, I gave each student a copy of the picture book A Small Brown Dog with a Wet Pink Nose. This book is about a little girl who wants a dog but her solution is quite clever and the reader has to infer quite a bit to see how deliberate the little girl is throughout the story in order to solve her problem. I knew that understanding this might be a stretch but I knew that it was a good next step to really dig in and figure out what the character did.

MOVING FORWARD

Before I finish up with this group, I want to give them tools to go a little deeper into their understanding. I want them to see that problem and solution matters and that often a character changes over time because of the problem. I know that they are at the point that they are reading across a whole story now and they are ready to see the impact of the problem/solution on the characters.  So my next few lessons with this group will be around the idea that the main character often changes because of the problem they encountered and that readers often ask themselves, "How does the character change in the journey to solve the problem?"  I have a few books in mind for this conversation and they are all three books that make sense as next steps and for this new focus: Those Shoes, The Summer My Father Was Ten, and A Bad Case of Stripes (Scholastic Bookshelf) are the three books I'll use next. I may only use one or two depending on how much support students need with this new idea.

REFLECTIONS

Planning for this group helped me to think about my planning for all small groups.  I have been involved in lots of thinking around small group instruction at school. A group of teachers is meeting to discuss Jennifer Serravallo's book Teaching Reading in Small Groups: Differentiated Instruction for Building Strategic, Independent Readers and  we have been involved in LLI training. I'm realizing that my small group instruction at 3rd grade needs to be as planned and focused as my whole group lessons.  And they need to happen over more than a few days.  Even though my groups are not really guided reading groups, they are strategy groups that need to move students to new behaviors quickly. When I started thinking about this group, the change they needed seemed too big to happen in a short time, but when I really looked at the students' behaviors and what they had in place, I was able to break the idea down into smaller chunks and change behaviors quickly. My students quickly learned to read across a story, to find the problem and solution and to focus on character actions.  Next I am confident that they will be able to see the changes a character has on their journey in the story.  These little behaviors have changed in a two week period and has transferred to their independent reading so that they are more engaged and thoughtful readers.

These kids are not necessarily struggling readers but they are struggling with this idea and it is keeping them from truly understanding what they read .  I am all about discovery, but sometimes kids need some ways into discovery. They need to know what to read for and some things to remember as readers. Then when they move into complex texts they know these things will hold true and that's where the real thinking and discovery comes in.  I've been careful to choose books that really make visible the things I want them to see that are true of many stories so that they differently on their own.  In less than 2 weeks, they've changed their expectations of story.

I am rethinking small groups to be a bit longer than usual (over 2-ish weeks) to really change several behaviors that add up over time. This cycle has taught me a lot about what transitional readers need and about how to better plan small group instruction so that in a short period of time, students can become more independent readers.