Word Wednesday

We notice words and talk about words (and, of course, "use our words") all day every day. But on Wednesday, we set aside our regular writing workshop for...Wooorrrrrrddddd Wednesday!

Sometimes we do activities like Syllable Squats and Nym Gyms from Vocabulary Unplugged. (Some sample pages here, website here.)

We have made Word Family Webs on chart paper (act: acts, acted, action, actor, activate, etc.) and then we used Evernote on the iPod Touches to create a class collection of word families. (Thank you Maria and Mark! In fact, thank you, Maria, for the whole concept of Word Wednesday!)

Sometimes we work on Spelling City. I have gathered lots of lists of words (from -at and -ing words to Velma's words in The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis...this would be an example of real-world differentiation) and on Spelling City, students can pretest, play games, write sentences and posttest.

I've written about how I use the SmartBoard and my classroom mirror for word study. Recently, I took a bunch of juicy words (from one of the Thea Stilton books) off the mirror and put them on the SmartBoard. We practiced finding the root word and the affixes, and the Thea reader stood a few inches taller because HER juicy words helped us learn.

We have lots of favorite word games to play on the iPod Touches on Word Wednesday. (You might guess that this is a favorite activity for Word Wednesday!) We like Wurdle, Chicktionary, and Bookworm. Soon we'll have Words With Friends (a current obsession of mine). We'll use the "Pass and Play" feature.

What are your favorite ways to celebrate words, collect words, play with words, and learn words -- on your own, or with your students?

A Few New (2011) Middle Grade Novels

Last week, we had our 2nd MOCK NEWBERY CLUB Meeting during lunch. This is a group of 14 fourth graders who have committed to reading new 2011 novels during the year. At this point in the year, we are merely reading lots of the new books as they are coming out.  I have 1-2 copies of several titles and ARCs. Single readers are reading the books and then recommending them (or not) via meetings and an in district wiki that we have set up.

It is a fun time of year because there are lots of new, good books being released.  Below is a list of the 2011 novels that I've read so far this year that are well worth reading.

NO PASSENGERS BEYOND THIS POINT by Gennifer Choldenko is a great science fiction/fantasy writer. The story is different from Choldenko's other books (which I have also loved).  Three children find out that their mother has lost their home and are sent to live with an uncle until their mother can join them.  This story is of their journey. In the process, they learn about family, and home and what is important. I don't want to give too much away about this book, but the ending makes me want to go back and reread.  You can hear Gennifer Choldenko talk about her writing and this new book in this video.





I am hoping that CLARA LEE AND THE APPLE PIE DREAM by Jenny Han is the first in a series. I haven't heard whether or not it is, but it would be nice. Clara Lee is a great character and this is the story of her dream to become queen at the local Apple Blossom Festival.  However, she is made to feel that she cannot win because she is Koren-American. But Clara Lee is feeling lucky and has her hopes up. This is a great story and a great transitional chapter book--a great length and a great story for 2-4th graders.


The new series, The Incorrigible Children by Maryrose Wood, is a new favorite for me.  I loved the 2nd book in the series, THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE: THE HIDDEN GALLERY. This is the story of 3 children who were found in the woods, presumably raised by wolves. It is the story of their nanny, Miss Lumley, (who definitely deserves a spot on our 100+ Cool Teachers list) and their adventures. If you have read the first book, you will love this one too. If you haven't read either, make time to read them both soon! My thinking is that they will be great read alouds for early in the school year.


I reviewed OKAY FOR NOW by Gary Schmidt last month. This is a GREAT read that I highly recommend.  You can read my review here.



BLESS THIS MOUSE is a new book by one of my favorite authors,  Lois Lowry. This is a different kind of book for her. It is an early chapter book about a community of mice that lives in a church.  There are dangers in the church. This is a nice, quiet story. Love Lois Lowry's letter to readers on the Amazon page about her idea for this book.






My favorite new dog story is A DOG'S WAY HOME by Bonnie Pyron.  Abby and Tam are inseparable. But then tragedy strikes and they are separated and they have trouble moving on without each other.  This story is told in two parts--Abby's and Tam's.  As much as this book is like other dog stories, the dog's perspective makes it unique. I loved both Abby and Tam within the first few pages because I understood them both so well, and so quickly.  I don't want to give away a lot before you read it, but although it is a quick read, it is hard at points because Abby and Tam are both in such pain.  A great read, especially for dog lovers.

Right now, I am reading SMALL PERSONS WITH WINGS by Ellen Booraem. I am not very far along but am loving it. I picked it up after Betsy Bird's review.  So far, I am loving it. The character's voice and the writing is quite fun, as is the whole premise of the book.  Can't wait to finish it.

There are also several other 2011 books on my to-be-read list. Most have been picked up by one of the members of the Newbery Club but all of them look great:

ROMEO AND JULIET CODE by Phoebe Stone
YOUNG FREDLE by Cynthia Voigt
THE REINVENTION OF BESSICA LEFTER by Kristen Tracy

I do so love this time of year when there are so many great books of the new year!

MOTHER GOOSE PICTURE PUZZLES by Will Hillenbrand

Sometimes I realize that I take for granted all of the great Ohio authors we have.  We are lucky to live in a state with such great children's authors. Will Hillenbrand is one of those great Ohio authors.  At Cover to Cover last week, I saw his new book, MOTHER GOOSE PICTURE PUZZLES, in the window. What a treat of a book!

This book is a rebus type book-but a little more than that.   For each of 20 classic Mother Goose rhymes, pictures replace some of the words. So readers can guess the word. For readers who need a bit of help, there are clues in each picture to help out.  (And for readers who are not quite sure about the meaning of things like a "fiddle" or "silver bells", the illustrations will help them understand.

Hillenbrand's illustration are a great match for these classic rhymes.  Each rhyme is placed on a two-page spread with a great matching illustration. In the case where 2 rhymes are on a single spread, the illustrations work together.  Hillenbrand is really brilliant in this book.

The book is a little larger than a typical picture books which makes it a great choice for sharing.  I can see buying lots of these for several reasons. It would make a GREAT baby gift.  A new baby could enjoy this book for years. It would also be great in a primary classroom. I think because of the rebus aspect, older kids would enjoy it too.  I plan to share it with all students when we focus a bit on poetry in April.  I am pretty sure they will all love it.

Poetry Friday -- Waiting For Spring

While We Wait for Spring

by Todd Davis
(shared in its entirety with the permission of the author)

The last three days snow has fallen.
No thaw this year, no day even above
twenty since the end of December.
Climbing the hill, my two boys slip, fall,
stand again. They complain, but there's nothing
to be done except to make it to the top
where above the trees we will look down
upon the river. Near the peak a barred owl
releases from the limb of a burr oak, sweeps
over our heads and out above the tree line.
Our eyes follow its flight to the river ice,
current moving beneath its blue surface.
Like the owl, our breath rises, drifts
toward something warmer, something better.

This is a hard time of year for people who are sick of winter and for teachers, and this year seems harder than usual. These lines speak to me right now: "...there's nothing/to be done except to make it to the top..." and "Like the owl, our breath rises, drifts/towards something warmer, something better."

Liz has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Liz in Ink.

Share A Story 2011: Love of Reading vs. Homework

Welcome to Thursday's edition of Share a Story - Shape a Future. Today's topic is Love of Reading vs. Homework.

We all worry about balancing our children's reading lives. We want them to have choice and to become lifelong readers.  As teachers, we work hard to make school reading authentic, but even with the best intentions, sometimes children get the wrong messages about school vs. home reading.

As parents, many of us have seen the impact on the messages our students get about reading being different at school and at home.  Years ago, I wrote an article about shopping with my daughter, Ana, who was then 6 years old. I loved watching her book choices and wished she could have the same freedom choosing books at school.  (You can access the article at Choice Literacy.)  We have also all heard of stories of the home reading bag where students are required to read books at their "level" instead of books they love.  Lisa Koch wrote an article about the impact this home reading had on her son in, "My Son, Clark Kent", also at Choice Literacy.

As a classroom teacher, I have always struggled with reading homework.  I know that when reading is assigned, it feels like a chore to me, I don't like it and I go through the motions of reading and I don't want that for my students.  But I also know that the amount of reading kids do, makes a difference.  And as a parent, I know that my kids read at home when their teachers expect them to.  I want my students to read at home because I know that it is an important way for them to grow as readers but I don't want to assign it.  What's a teacher to do?

I see huge potential in social networking tools.  If students see a purpose to their home reading, if we have tools that can extend the conversation beyond the school walls, home reading becomes more authentic. Many teachers I know are using blogs, wikis and social networking sites such as Shelfari to give students a place to talk with others about their home reading.  Rather than keep a home reading log for the teacher, the students can converse with others about their reading.

Today, as part of Share-A-Story, some of our favorite literacy experts have written posts on this topic of leisure vs. classwork/homework reading.  This is something that many of us, as literacy teachers, struggle with:

At AM Literacy Learning, Ann Marie Corgill interviews her eight-year-old nephew, Jack, about his reading.

Sharon Taberski talks about "Reading for the Fun of It" on her blog, It's All About Comprehension.

At Catching Readers Before They Fall, Pat and Katie share a post called "Puppies or NASA?"

Cathy at Reflect and Refine tackles the issue of take home books and supporting students in choosing Just Right books in a variety of ways in her post, Real Reading.

Deb Frazier at Primary Perspective show us how a tool like VoiceThread can help create lifelong readers in her post "Reading Like Readers -- Naturally."

Katie DiCesare at Creative Literacy explores "Connected Learning Instead of Homework."

Patrick Allen at All-en-A-Day's Work reflects on those mundane tasks he has asked children to do over the years in his post, "Repent... At Reading Homework Taketh Another Look..."

At Educating Alice, Monica has a post about some recent homework that demonstrated a love of reading in "In the Classroom: Book Reviews."

Carol, at Carol's Corner, is thinking hard about Reading Homework in high school.

At Literate Lives, Karen thinks about "What Does Reading Homework Look Like?"

These teacher bloggers have all given us some important things to think about when it comes to home reading.  Enjoy!

Blog Tour for Literacy: Share A Story-Shape a Future

For the past several years, Terry, at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, has led the Kidlitosphere in a celebration of literacy in all its forms: Share a Story - Shape a Future. It's a grand pep rally for literacy that re-energizes us to continue in our efforts to raise another generation of readers, be they our own children, or the children in our classrooms, libraries or communities.  It takes a village to raise a reader!

We'll be hosting tomorrow's event -- Love of Reading vs. Homework. We've invited teacher-bloggers from around the Kidlitosphere to submit posts for this roundup, but we'd love to hear from you, too!  If you'd like to post on this topic and be included in the roundup, leave your link in the comments and we'll include your thinking.

I Love Words by Francoize Boucher

I had a chance to talk to our Usborne sales representative last week at the Dublin Literacy Conference. I hadn't kept up with all of the great things in their catalog so I asked for a new copy. I was excited to see I LOVE WORDS by Francoize Boucher. I am always looking for ways to help kids get excited about words and word learning so I was thrilled to take a look at this book.

This book is an activity book. The subtitle on the cover says: An activity book for writing, drawing, and having fun." It reminds me of the doodle books out there. It is larger in shape, filled with fun pages to add to.

There are a variety of things to do in this book. Each page invites the reader to do something different with words. One page is in the shape of a bulletin board and it is titled "A Little Group of Words that Make Your Eyes Water". There are a few samples and then you can fill in the other 12 spaces. There are other pages set up in similar ways (for words that make you laugh and others...) One page invites readers to learn to write in reverse. Another teaches you how to make "word confetti". There are pages for poetry, your thinking, different sayings, words with hidden meanings and more.

If I had a lot of money, I would buy one of these for every child in my class/school. This would do great things for kids. But since I don't have enough money for that, I am going to use this book as a resource. I can see building the pages together as a class. I can see so many of the pages being springboards for class discussions around words and writer's craft. It would be a fun book to work though together, as a class, for the year. I think these little invitations would change the ways kids talked about and thought about words and word learning.

So glad I discovered this book!

Books I Purchased This Week

It has been a big book-buying week for me. First I attended the Dublin Literacy Conference, then we hosted a Selections Book Fair. I was excited about using my new Goodreads App, complete with barcode scanner to add the books to my Goodreads stack as I found books I wanted.  It turned out to serve as a great shopping list today. My to-be-read stack is growing and I'll never catch up but I love my new books. Here is what I bought.

From the Dublin Literacy Conference
I was thrilled when I learned about 365 Things to Draw and Paint. I had fallen in love with 365 Things to Make and Do and so had many of the kids in the library.  This book looks just as fun with lots of things to try.

A professional book that I have been meaning to pick up and finally did is Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements by Jeff Wilhelm and Michael Smith. I have learned so much from secondary educators about literary elements and am anxious to read this new one.

From Selections Book Fair

13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison looks like a fun fantasy read. It looks engaging--love books about fairies and this one got great reviews.  I am not sure how I missed this one when it came out but am glad I found it.

The Genius Files:  Mission Unstoppable is the first in a new series by by Dan Gutman looks like a fun adventure. I like to read the first books in new series that look like they might become popular so this is one I hope to read soon. It looks like a fun read.

I picked up Sophie the Chatterbox by Lara Berger. This was part of a series of three books at the fair. These look like great early chapter books. They are short and several of our more transitional readers picked them up and looked interested. I think it is definitely a series worth checking out.

Escape: The Story of the Great Houdini and Sir Charlie Chaplin: The Funniest Man in the World are two chapter book biographies written by Sid Fleischman. The Charlie Chaplin biography is the newer one and I thought it might be a fun one to read since we are doing so much with film-making in the library.  But these look like great biographies--the kind of bios that our older kids can't get enough of.  Great photos throughout as well as an accessible font for kids.  I am very excited to have discovered these biographies for middle grade readers. Another biography I picked up was Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot" by Michael Tunnell. I think kids are fascinated by stories like this one and this is another that looks pretty accessible to middle grade readers.  I see so many kids going to the same people year after year after year--not because they are so interested in them when it comes time to read biographies (which is another post) but because they don't really know about that many people. I think a good biography can open up kids' minds to all the ways people have contributed in the world.  Kids are fascinated by great stories of people. My issue has been that the quality of the writing doesn't always match the person's story.  I look for quality writing about amazing people.

Micro Mania by Jordan Brown draws readers in as it tells about lots of little things that are all around us. The book takes a "close look" at things like bacteria and bedbugs.  There is lots of text in this book and I am a little nervous about reading all of it.  There is good info on Bacteria in the Bathroom and "the 5 Second Rule" among other things.  The book is divided into chapter so it is definitely one that can be read cover to cover for readers who are interested.  Packed with a little too much info for me, I think....

I remember seeing  Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story by S. D. Nelson mentioned on a few lists and was happy to see that the book was written by a Native American. I am looking for more reviews on the book. I am trying to add much better literature to this section of our library and thought this one was worth checking out.  It was on a few notables lists if I remember correctly.

I was excited about The McElderry Book of Greek Myths by Eric Kimmel. I feel like a lot of our mythology is either outdated or newly published to meet the needs of fans of the Lightning Thief series.  I was thrilled to see this newer version of stories with great illustrations. Kids couldn't get enough of this book--even those who are not Lightning Thief fans. This is the perfect size book for readers of mythology.  Stories with illustrations in a larger picture book format.

Slither and Crawl by Jim Arnosky looks like a great collection of one page pieces about reptiles. Each two-page spread focuses on one subtopic such as "Turtles" or "Where Do Reptiles Go In Winter". The organization of the book, the accompanying illustrations and the amount of text on each page make it one that I think will be interesting and accessible to kids.

Poetry Friday -- Approximation

flickr creative commons photo by C hica ♥ :*

Perfection, Perfection
by Kilian McDonnell

("I will walk the way of perfection." Psalm 101:2)

I have had it with perfection.
I have packed my bags,
I am out of here.
Gone.

As certain as rain
will make you wet,
perfection will do you
in.

It droppeth not as dew
upon the summer grass
to give liberty and green
joy.

Perfection straineth out
the quality of mercy,
withers rapture at its
birth.

Before the battle is half begun,
cold probity thinks
it can't be won, concedes the
war.

I've handed in my notice,
given back my keys,
signed my severance check, I
quit.

(The rest of the poem is at The Writer's Almanac.)



This poem is my new anthem. Those goals I posted a couple of days ago? I'm going for approximation. Baby steps. A little bit at a time. Balance. Perfection might kill me, but the plodding pace of approximation is doable.

Ben, at The Small Nouns, has the roundup today. 

February Mosaic

Snow and ice, with a break for jazz and Chinese food at PF Chang.

More snow, with a delightful warm spell, spring-ish skies, a trip to Skillet, and a full moon.

Jacket weather in Austin for the Notables, followed by ice the day  after I returned.

Dublin Literacy Conference Friday author dinner. If you want to know more about the significance of the restroom signage, ask Patrick Allen.