Picture Book 10 for 10 -- David Wiesner

I had the opportunity to hear David Wiesner speak at the Whole Language Umbrella conference this past summer, and when I saw that he has ten picture books, it just seemed like a ready-made 10 for 10!

But there's more than that. His message about picture book design and his mission to "show as much visually as possible with as little text as possible" resonated because my first read aloud will be a graphic novel (via Kindle on the big screen). I decided that along with the work we'll do with the visuals in the read aloud, a beginning-of-the-year mini-unit spent closely studying David Wiesner's picture books will be time well spent, as well as an inviting entry point for all readers. We can dig into the way he represents multiple realities and the world off the page (The Three Little Pigs and Flotsam are great ones for that). We can study beginnings and endings. And we can look at the ways he sets up patterns and breaks them. (I'm sure there will be more -- I want to remain open to what my students find interesting and want to study). I'm hoping to see the benefits of this work echoing not just through reading workshop for the rest of the year, but also in our narrative writing unit in writing workshop.

I Got It!

2018

Mr. Wuffles!

2013

Tuesday

2011

Art & Max

2010

Flotsam

2006

The Three Pigs

2001

Sector 7

1999

June 29, 1999

1995

Hurricane

1992

Free Fall

1991

Big thanks to Cathy Mere and Mandy Robek for cooking up this fabulous yearly event! Check out all the posts on the Google+ community. Open a tab for your public library and hide your credit card!!

Still Learning to Read: Filling Book Bins on the First Day of School

This is one of a series of blog posts that continue the conversation around Still Learning to Read--teaching reading to students in grades 3-6.  This series will run on the blog on Tuesdays starting in August 2016.

Reading Workshop is one of the first things I want to have up and going by the end of the first week of school.  We get started with Reading Workshop on the first day of school and I want every child to have books for independent reading time. I want them to know right away that they own their reading.  

Our Reading Workshop is in the afternoon, so sometime before that time, we'll build our book bins.  I have empty 24 book bins set up in a few places around the room. (I purposely do not put them all in the same area to help with traffic.)  These bins are waiting to be filled!

I make sure that the first day of school is fun, slow and happy.  I want kids to have time to know the room, know each other and play a bit to transition into the routine. So for the first few days of school we have about an hour to explore various things in the classroom--Legos, Math Games, Straws and Connectors, Apps on iPads, Pixie on Laptops, etc.  During this exploration time, I meet with 3-5 kids at a time at a table to build book bins.  Each child finds a book bin in the room that they'd like to claim for their own.  We label it with a sticky note--knowing that our photo will be printed to label it later in the week.

Then we do a quick tour of the library--just to get the basics--picture books, series books, nonfiction, graphic novels, author baskets, etc  Kids often see a familiar book to add into their bins, others seem to have a specific book in mind that they'd like to read. Still others have no idea where to begin when it comes to choosing a book to read.

I take time with each group of children, pointing out books, asking about old favorites and what they read in the summer, suggesting titles. I suggest that kids have a variety of books in their bins--short books, long books, fiction, nonfiction, familiar books, new authors, etc.  My hope is that each child has 3-4 books in their book bin before our first Reading Workshop.  I'll take a picture of the child and their books to keep as our first piece of assessment.

This is a great time for me to listen in. It is my first conversation with individual readers and their first time talking to me about books. It is an important time. I know that every child will not have the right books in their bins--that is all part of the process.  My big goal is for them to know that they choose the books--that they are in charge of their own reading and that I will support them along the way.

As the week goes on, we'll have lots of reflection about our book choices. Many of our share sessions during those first few weeks of school will be about the books they are choosing. We'll reflect on questions like:

Did you have enough books to keep you reading the whole time?

Which book had you hooked?

Which book didn't seem right for your right now?

What kind of book did you wish you had in your bin today?

Did you find yourself sticking with one book or moving between books?

Is there a new book or author you discovered today that you are excited about?

Did anyone read a new book by a familiar author?

My rule for the independent reading portion of the Reading Workshop those first few days is that everyone Stays Quiet and Stays Put. It sounds a bit harsh but it starts as only a 10-15 minute time period. I want kids to feel what it is like to find a spot with books. I want them to determine how many books they might need. I want them to get used to not getting up and down for drinks or restroom breaks or even new books during this time. (Later I loosen up but these first few days are important to establish a routine that we can build on.

This means that kids can trade out books when they arrive in the morning. I'll also have many mini lessons around book choice and they'll be able to switch out books between the mini lesson and independent reading time. I'll confer with kids during this time to help them refill their book bins.  

I'll also be keeping an eye on kids who are comfortable with the books they chose.  I'll watch their engagement and behaviors with the books they have.  I'll ask them how it is going? I'll do a lot of observations during this time.

Throughout the year, the student book bins remain critical. Kids have their daily reading in these bins but they also have books they hope to read next. The book bin becomes a visual reminder of each child's current life as a reader.  After the first few weeks, readers change out their book bins whenever needed. After the first few weeks of learning what a 30 minute independent reading period feels like, reflecting on which books keep us engaged, meeting with me about the books in their bins and mini lessons around book choice, kids choose books very naturally. The lessons on book choice are critical and the book bin helps so much with this learning.

(You can follow the conversation using the hashtag #SLTRead or you can join us for a book chat on Facebook starting September 1 by joining our group here.)

Our new edition of Still Learning to Read will be released on August 15 but you can preview the entire book online at Stenhouse!

Scaffolding Reading Notebooks

This is my third year in 3rd grade.  I taught 3rd a while ago but most of my experience is in grades 4 and 5. I have some experience in primary and last year I realized that my 3rd grade Reading Workshop was a bit too intermediate for my early third graders. They seemed to need a more primary workshop. I thought long and hard about a lot of my practices and how to better support some of my younger readers who needed more time for oral language and more support in comprehension.  Last year, we visited Emily Collins' amazing 2nd grade classroom in our district.  We were lucky to see the entire reading workshop and see the amazing work her students did.  Our visit and the conversations I've had with Emily and others since that time helped me think about the best ways to support these transitional readers in grades 2 and 3--readers who aren't quite primary, but aren't quite intermediate, either.

For years I've seen the power in kids keeping a Readers' Notebook but I really struggle with what that looks like in 3rd grade.  Sometimes we jump in and the first part of the year is chaos as kids need more time to notice their thinking and talk through their thinking before they are ready to write much.

So, this year, I am using a mini-notebook for the first several weeks of school. This is a notebook that we'll use during read aloud and reading mini lessons to keep track of our thinking in writing and sketches. It seems to be a good size and not overwhelming for kids--the page size makes it very inviting for all readers.  We are taking time to stop and jot as well as time to stop and talk. We are learning and charting different ways we think during our reading.

Next week, we'll add cards or sticky notes for kids to begin to track their thinking during independent reading time also (another idea from Emily).  And we'll do lot of talking during share time about the places they marked and the thinking they did.

After a few weeks of playing with writing about reading in these ways, when everyone has had time to play and learn in a notebook that is fun and accessible, we'll move into reading notebooks with an understanding of what is possible.  In the meantime, we'll use these pages to see what is possible.

This is a little thing but it already seems like a little change that is going to make a big difference for my early 3rd graders.

Digital Reading Workshop

I created this list of questions a year or two ago as I thought about the idea that a digital reading or writing workshop was not about one unit of study or the idea of letting kids read ereaders. That as we figure out how the whole idea of reading has expanded, are we making rooms for all kinds of reading in our classrooms. I revisited this list last week as I am thinking about the ways in which my students use digital tools and the ways in which they are growing as readers and writers. Definitely questions I'll come back to that help me think about the messages I am giving students about what counts as reading these days. As always, I feel pretty good when I ask myself a few of these questions and with others, I have work to do.

What role do digital texts have in your reading workshop?

Read Aloud

Do I choose to read aloud only texts from traditional books or do I share digital texts, audio books, blog posts, etc. during read aloud?

Do we use web resources such as author websites and book trailers to help us dig deeper into the book we are reading?

Do I read aloud from websites and blogs?

Do I utilize keyword tags, comments, links, and search features while reading aloud?

 Independent Reading/Reading Conferences

Do we use online resources for book previewing and book selection?

Do I limit students' independent reading to traditional books or do they have a variety of options for their reading time?  Do I place equal value on reading on e-readers, reading websites, reading short pieces, etc. as I do on reading traditional books?

Do I help my students use online tools to support their lives as readers? Do I value annotation tools, bookmarking tools, RSS feeds, etc. as part of my readers lives? Do I model these tools in minilessons?

Do I introduce digital pieces and discuss digital reading when conferring with students?

Have I updated my reading interview to include questions about digital reading?

Do students have ways to add a social component to their lives as readers? Are they connected to others because of their reading?


Reading Minilessons

Do I use digital pieces, as well as traditional texts when teaching minilessons?

Do I rely completely on traditional text or do I use film clips, blog entries, podcasts, etc. when planning minilessons?

Do I share process in my minilessons? Do I tend to share process only as it relates to creating text-based pieces?

Do I teach minilessons that are universal, regardless of format of piece?

Do I share my own  process, consuming and composing in several types of media?

Do I use minilesson time to demonstrate tools tools that support deeper reading with a variety of texts?

Shared Reading

Have I reflected on the resources I rely on for Shared Reading?

Do I include web reading and viewing when thinking about Shared Reading experiences?

How can I include a variety of texts for students to process through together?

Content Reading

Have I found sources for content reading that go beyond textbooks and traditional text?

Do I rely on newspapers for talk around current events or do I tend to focus more on sites like DOGONews, Time for Kids,  and other sites that combine text and visual features?

How am I supporting the importance of visual information in the content areas?

Nonfiction: An Update

I posted in early December about my plans to make December a month of nonfiction reading.  I had big goals for my students and met many of them.  The process took a little longer than I planned and much of the month was spent finding great books, building stamina for nonfiction, etc.  I was getting a bit discouraged but then I started noticing things. I noticed a child hand off a nonfiction book to another child as they were lining up for lunch. I noticed a few books begin to circulate and become popular in the classroom. I noticed some readers stick with a topic. I noticed kids finding series or authors that they wanted to read more of. I thought I'd share the books that have been popular in the last few weeks in our 4th grade classroom.  Lots of books are books I predicted would be well loved but others are surprised.

I have a group of kids reading lots about baseball history. These books seem to be circulating between 5-6 kids in the classroom. The books they are currently reading include:
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball Home Run: The Story of Babe Ruth Teammates
Henry Aaron's Dream
Heroes of Baseball: The Men Who Made It America's Favorite Game

Two authors students seem to like are Nic Bishop and Irene Kelly:
Nic Bishop: Butterflies and Moths
Frogs
It's a Butterfly's Life

There is also a group interested in reading anything and everything about dogs. Some current favorites include:
Why Do Dogs Bark? (Penguin Young Readers, L3)
National Geographic Kids Everything Dogs: All the Canine Facts, Photos, and Fun You Can Get Your Paws On!

Several books that are popular based on (I imagine) topic are:
Venom (Junior Library Guild Selection)
Micro Mania: A Really Close-Up Look at Bacteria, Bedbugs, & the Zillions of Other Gross Little Creatures That Live In, On & All Around You!
Life-Size Sharks and Other Underwater Creatures (Life-Size Series)

A few students have become interested in some nonfiction series books such as:
Face to Face with Lions (Face to Face with Animals)
Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot (Scientists in the Field Series)





Overall, it's been a great month of nonfiction reading. I have seen more voluntary nonfiction reading with this group than I ever have. The time to dig in and find books they love was necessary. Now, I think we are ready for some work on becoming better nonfiction readers, writing in response to nonfiction, stretching ourselves as nonfiction readers etc.  

Teaching "What's Important?" in Nonfiction

One thing I have noticed that I need to focus on in my teaching is helping kids understand strategies for finding what's important. As I look over assessments, chat with students and listen in on conversations, I've noticed a few things. First of all, students aren't quite sure what "important" means.  It is hard for them to understand the difference between important and interesting but some of that seems to come from the idea of not understanding author purpose. The other thing I notice is that although my students can name text features and understand what they say in isolation, they rarely use them in the context of a text to make meaning.

So, this week I started the conversation around what is important in nonfiction text.  You never know if your first lesson/book choice is the right pick.  I try my hardest to make sure the first lesson is scaffolded just right to begin important conversations but usually I have to revise after that first lesson. This round though, I seem to have found the perfect book to start this conversation with my students. So, I thought I shared.

I used TIMELESS THOMAS by Gene Barretta this week to introduce the idea of what is important. I hoped that between the title and subtitle (Timeless Thomas:  How Thomas Edison Changed Our Lives) and the organization/headings, it would get the kids thinking about this idea. And it did.

I read the book aloud to students. What I like about this book for this purpose is that the organization repeats throughout the book. Each two page spreads focuses on one of Edison's invention starting with the ways in which we use it now and going back to Edison's lab. The organization and headings on each spread are repeated throughout the book.

When I finished reading the book aloud, I had kids turn and talk about the part of the book that they thought was the most interesting. I told them that for me, it was the page at the end that listed the people who worked in Edison's lab because I have always been fascinated by the way they all problem solved together and the collaboration that happened there. Others shared their most interesting points (most were interested in the ipod connection, of course:-)

After our conversation, I did a kind of think aloud about even though the fact that I thought the collaboration part was interesting, it might not be the thing the author wanted me to get from the book-- that the author's purpose might have been different and that authors leave clues about what they hope we/readers learn from their writing. I talked about how I try to read for what's interesting AND what's important, depending on why I am reading.  I shared that often the organization of the book and the headings were one way authors told us about what was important. I also shared that the title in nonfiction often gave a clue as to what was important.

We had a great conversation following. The first part focused on the word Timeless from the title that one student noticed. The next part of the conversation focused around the subtitle. Then we opened the book and revisited the headings/organization and added to our thinking.  We talked about how these 3 pieces come together and we can use those to determine importance. It was a great conversation and a great start to a long conversation about determining important information. The kids actually seemed excited to think about this. It was like they were in on some big secret. And for the rest of the week, kids were noticing things about books, chatting about how they never really paid much attention to headings before, etc.

A very simple lesson but the perfect book to make it accessible and interesting for kids.  I'm thinking next, we'll spend some time with a few of Steve Jenkins' books because the organization of his books are so unique and tell so much about the topic.  Then we'll move to a page from a book like THE LEGO BOOK to determine the important information on the page based on layout, organization, heading.  In the meantime, we'll have an informal conversation around this week's issue of Time for Kids related to headings, organization and importance. I didn't actually think this would be a fun thing to teach but it is turning out to be interesting and fun to watch the kids approach nonfiction a bit differently.

Nerdy Book Club Post

(This post is cross-posted at The Nerdy Book Club blog, one of my favorite blogs. This is a must-read daily blog!)

It is October. And, I am ready to teach.  Don’t get me wrong. I have been teaching lots of things. But during the first few weeks of school, I am teaching without knowing my children well. I am planning lessons and experiences that I hope are right for this group of children. And I’ve done a lot of watching and noticing. The question for me is never ‘Will every one of these children become readers?” I am confident that they will. But I know the route to becoming a reader may be a different one for each child.  And that’s what makes teaching a joyful challenge.  I enjoy planning for the first six weeks of school but I LOVE planning once the first six is past and I really know my students. 

I’ve finished my fall assessments and entered the data into the district data collection systems. I’ve compiled the information for myself, looking closely at every reader’s strengths and needs. For every child, I’ve thought, “Where can I take this child next?” I’ve looked at class data to think about what kinds of lessons the whole class can benefit from—which ones are a priority. I’ve looked at which things require that I pull small groups of student together.  I have lots to go on when I talk to kids individually about their reading.  I know levels and numbers. I know fluency rates and the types of miscues students make.  But I know so much more than that.

·      I’ve figured out who is involved in the underground conversations going on about who is next in line for the newest Lunch Lady book.

·      I have heard the ways in which each child is getting more comfortable talking about books during our read aloud time with Capture the Flag and The One and Only Ivan.

·      I watched as some children get up during Reading Workshop because they haven’t found a book worth sticking with and I’ve watched those who are always glued to their book.

·      I know who has a new book each day and who sticks with a book until the end.

·      I know who likes to carry around big fat books and who is nervous about reading anything long.

·      I’ve seen the look on the face of a child who discovered that favorite author Rick Riordin authored the first book in the 39 Clues series.

·      I’ve watched kids discover new series and authors to love.

·      I know who notices the new books I bring in before I actually take them out of my bag.

·      I’ve heard from parents that some kids have been talking about books on their way to soccer practice after school.

·      I have had honest conversations with a student who finds reading very hard and is trying to like it better.

·      I have celebrated with a child who has finished her first book of the year after a long struggle to do so.

·      I have shared in the excitement of our first Skype Author visit with Kate Messner.

·      I have laughed at the first literary joke made in our new community.

It is clear to me that we are well on our way to becoming a community of readers--that there has already been huge growth and that reading is at the heart of our classroom community. But for me, a community is more than a group of people who love books  My work is to create an intellectual community around books. A learning community is at its best when the collaborative thinking is better than the thinking any one person could create on his or her own, a community that is constantly growing.  But a strong community also means that each individual changes and grows too.

So, this is the time of year that I dig back into the curriculum, bring stacks of books home to revisit and think about how each might support this unique group of learners.  My biggest challenge is to plan in a way that is grounded in all I know about teaching young children, in a way that wants more for my students than to pass a standardized test. It is in mid-October, when I have learned so much about each individual in the classroom, that I know that all of this is possible.

Dublin Literacy Conference 2012 Slides

This weekend, I gave a session on Comprehension in a Digital Reading Workshop. Below are the slides from the session.Dublin Literacy Conference 2012

View more presentations from Franki22.

The handout included these reflective questions for teachers about our workshops. They are questions I am using to think about digital texts across workshop routines.

What role do digital texts have in your reading workshop?

Read Aloud

Do I choose to read aloud only texts from traditional books or do I share digital texts, audio books, blogs, etc. during read aloud?

Do we use web resources such as author websites and book trailers to help us dig deeper into the book we are reading?

Do I read aloud from websites and blogs?

Independent Reading/Reading Conferences

Do we use online resources for book previewing and book selection?

Do I limit students' independent reading to traditional books or do they have a variety of options for their reading time?  Do I place equal value on reading on e-readers, reading websites, etc. as I do on reading novels?

Do I help my students use online tools to support their lives as readers? Do I value annotation tools, bookmarking tools, RSS feeds, etc. as part of my readers lives? Do I model these tools in minilessons?

Do I introduce digital pieces and discuss digital reading when conferring with students.

Have I updated my reading interview to include questions about digital reading?

Reading and Writing Minilessons

Do I use digital texts or pieces when teaching minilessons?

Do I rely completely on traditional text or do I use film clips, blog entries, podcasts, etc. when planning minilessons?

Do I share process in my minilessons? Do I tend to share process only as it relates to creating text-based pieces?

Do I share my own writing process?  Composing in several types of media?

Shared Reading

Have I reflected on the resources I rely on for Shared Reading?

Do I include web reading and viewing when thinking about Shared Reading experiences?

How can I include a variety of texts for students to process through together?

Content Reading

Have I found sources for content reading that go beyond textbooks and traditional text?

Do I rely on newspapers for talk around current events or do I tend to focus more on sites like DOGONews and other sites that combine text and video?

How am I supporting the importance of visual information in the content areas?