Nothing Like A Puffin

Nothing Like A Puffin
by Sue Soltis
illustrated by Bob Kolar
Candlewick Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

This is a very fun book!

It starts off being a book about the things a puffin is NOT like: a ladder and a house. But then we come to the newspaper, and

"A newspaper, to be sure, is nothing like a puffin. A newspaper is shaped like a rectangle and made out of paper. A newspaper has pages. It's black and white. But wait -- a puffin is black and white, too! What are the chances? 

A newspaper is something like a puffin, after all."

After the newspaper come things that a puffin is more and more like, until we get to a penguin, which is very much like a puffin...but not quite. In the end, "There's nothing like a puffin!"

The illustrations have their own story line, so the book begs to be read more than once to enjoy all the details. 

And this is a book that also begs to be used as a mentor text. Wouldn't it be fun to pick an animal or an item, find a few things that it is NOTHING like, then several things that it is SORT OF like, and finally one thing it is A LOT alike, and write with the same pattern? Yes, I thought so. We'll be doing this in our writing workshop after the first of the year!

Time Machine

The wrapper reads, "Everyone should have their own time machine," and on the spine it says, "The Busy Person's Journal."

The new volume that came in the mail today lies completely flat, while the one that holds bits and pieces of my life for this past 11 years bulges with movie tickets, quotes, newspaper articles (Lance Armstrong's wins, Oprah's book clubs) and columns (Joe Blundo, Craig Wilson)...and taped in are blue jay feathers and the piece of metal that punctured my car's tire. There are programs from lectures/performances by Amy Tan, Billy Collins, and David Sedaris. I marked the passing of my fourth grade teacher, the parents of several friends, Mike Hardin, Charlotte Huck, two good dogs, and The Series of Unfortunate Events.

Each day is afforded only four lines in which to capture a moment: the first time the trees fully shade our street in the spring, the first locusts that are heard in the summer, the first sighting of Orion on my early morning walks in the late summer, the beginning of school, the laryngitis season of October, the birthdays (both 40 and 50 are captured within the pages of this volume), dreams, surgeries (back and gallbladder), trips, presidential elections, snow days, full moons, Fairfield County Fairs, irritations, embarrassments, celebrations, landmarks, crocuses, dog walks, and both good and bad restaurant experiences.

Franki asked for the link to the company that sells these 10+ year journals, but I decided that I'd just get her her very own time machine. Merry Christmas, Franki!! Happy New Year again and again and again (x11). I hope you have as much fun capturing snapshots of your life as I've had capturing snapshots of mine.

Upcoming Blog Series: Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop

Over the last few years, I have been doing a lot of thinking around the idea of Digital Mentor Texts. I believe strongly in Reading and Writing Workshops to move all students forward in literacy.  With the definition of literacy expanding, I believe that much of what we know of the writing process remains the same. The power of mentor texts in writing first hit me when I read Ralph Fletcher's classic book WHAT A WRITER NEEDS.  He gave us great pieces to learn from as writers and new ways to work with our student writers.  Another book that had a huge impact on my personal thinking about mentor texts in the writing workshop was STUDY DRIVEN by Katie Wood Ray.  In this important book, Katie reminds us that inquiry has to remain at the heart of writing workshop.  She says, "In an inquiry stance, teachers help children explore different alternatives for how to write something, and then let them do what writers really have to do and make decisions about how their pieces will go."  (p. 27)  Ralph Fletcher, Kelly Gallagher (WRITE LIKE THIS) , Aimee Buckner (NOTEBOOK KNOW-HOW), Lucy Calkins (THE ART OF TEACHING WRITING) Katie Wood Ray, Lester Laminack, Shelley Harwayne (LASTING IMPRESSIONS), Ann Marie Corgill (OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE) and others have all given me so much to think about when it comes to the role of mentor texts in writing workshop.

As I've been playing around with digital writing in the library, I realize that the decisions our writers have to make are also expanding.  There are so many ways to write and create and so many decisions that writers make when creating pieces of digital writing.  There are several of us who have been informally talking about the idea of Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop and we thought we'd have a more focused online conversation around the topic--to try to synthesize our thinking.

Lots of us included our thinking in our sessions at NCTE 2011 but then followed up with conversations working through what the idea of mentor texts and inquiry-driven study mean for a digital writing workshop.

In the midst of one of our conversations, an idea formulated about focusing some writing around it.  So, during the week of January 8, we'll each be posting on our own blogs about the thinking we've been doing, the things we've learned from students, and our own writing.  We are hoping you'll join us by thinking along with us about this idea of mentor texts in the digital writing workshop. You can join in the conversation by reading our blogs, posting your own thinking to your blog, commenting, etc.  We thought this would be a fun way to have a larger conversation about ideas we are thinking about. We love the idea of pulling lots of voices together around one idea.

Participating in the series will be:

Bill Bass, Technology Integration Specialist in Missouri and author of the upcoming ISTE book on Film Festivals tentatively titled, "Authentic Learning Through a Digital Lens" will be blogging on his blog MR. BASS ONLINE.

Katie DiCesare, a primary teacher in Dublin who runs an incredible writing workshop will be blogging at her blog, CREATIVE LITERACY.

Troy Hicks, author of THE DIGITAL WRITING WORKSHOP and BECAUSE DIGITAL WRITING MATTERS. He will be blogging at his site, DIGITAL WRITING, DIGITAL TEACHING.

Kevin Hodgson, 6th grade teacher and author of TEACHING THE NEW WRITING will be blogging at his blog Kevin's Meandering Mind.

Tony Keefer, an amazing 4th grade teacher in Dublin, Ohio will be blogging at at ATYCHIPHOBIA.

And I'll be blogging here.

Each of us has committed to posting several times during the week of January 8 around the topic of Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop. I am hoping to revisit some of those staple professional books I mentioned above to reground myself in the role of mentor texts and what they mean for writers.
We hope you'll join us in thinking about this!

It's Monday: What are you reading?

Joining Jen and Kellee (TEACH MENTOR TEXTS) and Katherine (READ, WRITE, REFLECT) again this week for It's Monday: What Are You Reading?  I have somehow (against my better judgement) become a person who reads more than one book at a time.  This is new for me! It is definitely an interesting way to read--haven't decided if I like it or not.... Even though we don't start winter break until Thursday, I have started my participation in The Book-A-Day Challenge started by Donalyn Miller. I participated over the summer and I find it not only fun and a great gift to myself, but it is a great way to catch up on my TBR pile.

This week I finished THE AVIARY by Kathleen O'Dell. This is one of the books on Anderson's Book Shop's Mock Newbery list and I am so glad that I read it.  It is definitely a unique read.  A bit spooky and I loved the story and the characters.  It is a great story about a little girl named Clara. It reminded me a bit of The Little Princess, a bit of The Secret Garden and a bit of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (with a tiny bit of Home Alone mixed in...). It is truly a great book and a must-read in my opinion.

I also read BONE DOG by Eric Rohman as it seems to be on many Mock Caldecott lists. I love Eric Rohman's work but this wasn't one of my favorites. One I will add to the library and glad I read it.

Thanks to Mr. Schu's list on Watch. Connect. Read.  I picked up a copy of THE ADVENTURES OF SIR GAWAIN THE TRUE by Gerald Morris. This book was one on Mr. Schu's list of the Top 20 books of 2011 that I hadn't heard of. I figure if it was on Mr. Schu's top 20, it was a must-read.  (BTW, A huge CONGRATULATIONS goes out to Mr. Schu for meeting his reading goal of reading 2011 books in 2011!!)  Anyway, I LOVED Sir Gawain and am so glad I read it. I am always looking for great short chapter books--especially those that might appeal to boys. This book has adventure and humor and is definitely part of a series I want to add to our collection.

Another that I discovered on John Schumacher's list was AROUND THE WORLD by Matt Phelan. This is a fascinating graphic novels that shares the stories of 3 journeys around the world.

I have tried (REALLY HARD) to stick with 2011 books, even as amazing 2012 ARCS are delivered to my door. When I opened a copy of Katherine Applegate's upcoming THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN I knew that I could not hold out reading 2011 books much longer. This one is due out in mid-January so I wanted to get to it as soon as possible. This was a great first 2012 book. It is the story of Ivan, a gorilla who lives in a mall. He has a few friends but is lonely.  When a baby elephant (Ruby)  moves into the mall to be part of the daily show, things change. This is an amazing story. I loved Ivan and all of his friends in the mall. I loved the story and the format. And I loved learning about the true story that inspired the author to write this book. This is a must-read I think. An amazing upcoming book. So happy to have interrupted my 2011 Newbery reading to read this one!

So, there are still so many I want to read, but I may have to dig into my 2012 books during this #bookaday vacation.  EYE OF THE STORM by Kate Messner is next on my list for 2012 titles.

I am so looking forward to reading Tom Newkirk's new professional book, THE ART OF SLOW READING.  I have heard so many good things about it and love all of Newkirk's thinking. I have been saving it for holiday break when I have time to really dig into his newest thinking.

Currently, I am reading SPUNKY TELLS ALL by Ann Cameron--a great early chapter book.  I can already think of many kids who will love it.

I may stick with my original plan to read more from the Anderson's Mock Newbery list or I may choose other things. I am keeping my reading options open this week!

Poetry Friday -- Education

To David, About His Education

by Howard Nemerov

The world is full of mostly invisible things,
And there is no way but putting the mind's eye,
Or its nose, in a book, to find them out,
Things like the square root of Everest
Or how many times Byron goes into Texas,
Or whether the law of the excluded middle
Applies west of the Rockies. For these
And the like reasons, you have to go to school
And study books and listen to what you are told,
And sometimes try to remember.

Read the rest of the poem here, at The Writer's Almanac.

I struggle with the idea of keeping "the grand confusion of the world / Under (my) hat... / and teach(ing) small children to do this in their turn."

In my opinion, "the grand confusion of the world" is all of the good stuff in the world -- all the mystery and wonder and magic in the world. And instead of teaching my students to quantify and qualify and categorize all of their fresh amazement about this incredible world that is so new and wonderful to them, I try to teach them to savor learning, to even savor the feeling of learning. For example, we started long division yesterday, a particularly perfect time to teach a child to stay in a place of patience with themselves and the process, rather than giving up and feeling defeated on the first try. 

Here's another example. Yesterday, for the 28th time in my teaching career, we decorated cookies. And while it wasn't "the mean annual rainfall / On Plato's Republic," I do believe that what I teach in this afternoon spent away from papers and books and standards and curriculum is just as important: 

slow down, 

pay attention to the details, 

sing along to the music, 

share, cooperate, compromise, 

wash the spoon after you lick it, 

enjoy the one you made for yourself but 

make three times as many for others.

Kate has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Book Aunt.

11 Science Experiments that Failed by Jenny Offill

Reading visuals is something we've been working on in the library. Charts and graphs seem to be extremely challenging for some students to make sense of, so that is a current focus. With the idea of reading expanding, our students need to have experiences reading various types of visual information and putting that information together with text.

As part of this thinking, I read 11 SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS THAT FAILED by Jenny Offill and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter to our 5th graders.  I love this character an have loved her ever since she appeared in the book 17 THINGS I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DO ANYMORE by the same author. In this new story, wonder is the key.  The little girl in the story is full of curiosity. She has lots of questions about the world and works to answer them.  For each question she has (such as "Can a person live on snow and ketchup alone?), she shares her hypothesis and tests her theory.  We had a ball reading the questions she had as well as the ways she went about finding out the answers.

This was a great book for so many reasons.  I am finding that lots of our students think that the way to find answers to their questions is to "search it up".  If something isn't answered in a Google search, students suggest finding a book or asking someone. This book started a great conversation about questions that can't be answered in that way--questions that require active research.

During the 2nd read of this book, we talked about the ways in which the narrator of the book could have recording what she discovered in her experiments.  We talked about ways she could keep track of her data and what her charts and graphs might have looked like. For example, students suggested that when trying to determine whether her dog enjoyed being covered in glitter, she could have charted the time it took for the dog to shake the glitter off for several consecutive days.  They described the chart that could be created to connect that information.  We had a great time thinking about the possibilities for this scientist.

Following these conversations, I challenged kids to create charts to keep track of data around questions they had.  Several students moved forward with this challenge creating charts to determine average time needed to play 4-Way Countdown, tracking strategies when playing Mancala, and more.

After three library classes, I can already see the interest in charts and graphs changing and found this book to be a great one to start these conversations. Whether you are looking for a book to start great conversations around science or just looking for a fun read aloud, I'd recommend this book.

Newbery Talk in the Library

We are lucky to have a great public library system and wonderful children's librarians at our Dublin Branch!  They have so much to offer our students and the kids love to see them when they visit the public library.  This week, Miss Tamara from the Dublin Library is coming in to talk to students about possible Newbery titles.  Today was the first day and I love to hear her thoughts and to listen in on the conversations .  She shared possible winners and some new books that probably wouldn't win but were fun anyway!  Students are most excited about learning about new books to read.  I did learn about a few books I didn't know about.  One I've added to my TBR stack are TRAPPED by Marc Aronson.

Our 5th Grade Newbery Club has also been busy reading books from our 2011 titles.  We've really just done free reading of lots of new books and especially of some that are getting some Newbery buzz. This group has been meeting since last January (they started as 4th graders and continued on this fall.)  This week I asked members to vote so that we could create a short list that kids could focus on over the next month or so.  Here is our Riverside Newbery Short List. I think they did a fine job--some great titles here!

INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai

BIGGER THAN A BREADBOX by Laurel Snyder

TUESDAYS AT THE CASTLE by Jessica Day George

THE ROMEO AND JULIET CODE by Phoebe Stone

HIDDEN by Helen Frost

SMALL AS AN ELEPHANT by Jennifer Jacobson

THE UNWANTEDS by Lisa McMann

A DOG'S WAY HOME by Bobbie Pyron

Nerdy Book Club

(This post is cross-posted on the Nerdy Book Club blog, and is part of an ongoing series of confessionals/testimonials/proclamations by members of the NBC -- the Nerdy Book Club.)

My name is Mary Lee Hahn, and I’m a member of the Nerdy Book Club. I could tell you the entire story of my membership, from my bookish childhood to the present, but instead, let’s pretend there’s a bookmark in my story and let’s open to one particular spot. Let’s start with last week.

Last week I finished listening to Monsters of Men in the Chaos Walking series.

If you are a member of the Nerdy Book Club, the above sentence will tell you volumes (pun intended) about me. You can empathize with the emotional rollercoaster Patrick Ness has taken me on over the past few months as I listened to all three books in the Chaos Walking series. You’ll know exactly when I cried, and you’ll know what moral and philosophical issues we could talk about into the night.

Two of the readers I most admire in the world recommended this series to me, and recommendations are one of the hallmarks of the NBC – if it weren’t for the joys of convincing another reader to fall in love with our (new or long-beloved) favorite books, there would be no CLUB in the Nerdy Book Club. Not only do we read, we talk about books, blog about books, and tweet about books. Now that I’ve completed Ness’ series, I’m connected to those two readers (and all the NBC readers who’ve read the series) in deep and complicated ways. We share a reading history.

Books build connections between readers and readers build connections between books. After finishing Monsters of Men, I needed to listen to a book that would heal my soul. On my Audible.com bookshelf was Charlotte’s Web, read by E.B. White – the perfect antidote for a dystopian future on a fictional planet: the cycle of life and friendship, anchored in the concrete details of Zuckerman’s farm. That’s another benefit of membership in the NBC: the knowledge that books can heal us. And did you notice what kind of shelf I went to in order to find my next read? It was my audio shelf. As a card-carrying member of the NBC, I have many shelves for my books: audio, e-book, poetry, cookbooks, adult, professional, and classroom, to name a few.

Not only do I have shelves, I have piles. Most NBC members do. There’s a To-Be-Read pile…and another, and another and another.

Time to stop writing and read. I finished Charlotte’s Web today, and I’ve already downloaded my next listen – Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks. Now…which TBR pile should I tackle…


Mary Lee Hahn teaches 4th grade in Dublin, OH. She has belonged to the Nerdy Book Clubs know as the Cybils (she’s a round two poetry judge this year), the NCTE Notables, and the Central Ohio Kidlitosphere Bloggers. Ten years ago she wrote Reconsidering Read-Aloud. These days she blogs with Franki SIbberson at A Year of Reading, and writes occasionally for Choice Literacy.

A Day in the Library: How We Spend Our Time

I have been thinking hard about the choices our students make in the library.  I am in year four in the library and I've worked to build quality choices for students once we've finished the lesson and check out.  A big goal for students in their use of the library is to find tools and resources that match their need. As the tools of learning expand and grow, I want our students to see how many options there are for learning and to discover the tools that best support them as learners.  

This graph was a Google Doc form that I filled out during each class over the course of a day in the library. I will look more closely at choices over time but wondered how kids were spending their time when given the choice.  I found the results very interesting.

There seem to be enough quality choices in the library at this point that kids are all choosing well.  There seems to be something for everyone and I try to introduce new options every so often.  We have spent time as a school talking about the importance of quality educational games so I wasn't surprised to see that so many kids chose to play one of these on the day I observed.

I was thrilled to see the number of kids who chose reading during this time.  Reading Online covered all reading that wasn't traditional book reading--so ebooks, websites such as Tumblebooks, researching a topic, etc. all fall under that category.

And I loved to take the time to see what kids are creating with the variety of tools we have available. From creating a new story about The Pigeon in a blank book stapled together by library volunteers, to creating a book trailer, kids are working to create project and to learn new tools. I am amazed at how quickly kids can envision what a tool can do- they don't hesitate to think about all that is possible and then to problem solve to figure out how to make it work.  One second grader taught herself to add video to a Pages project on the iPad while another learned how to create stop motion on the iPad this week.

This was just a first step in looking at the choices in the library and how they work to meet the goals we have for our students in the library.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I decided to join Jen and Kellee at TEACH MENTOR TEXTS, Katherine at READ, WRITE, REFLECT and others for this meme this week.

It has been a slow reading week.  I've had lots of evening events, meetings, etc. Add that to getting ready for the holidays and I have had very little time for reading.

Last week, I finished
SPARROW ROAD by Sheila O'Connor.  As you probably know, I am working to get through a few more of the books on Anderson's Bookshop Mock Newbery list before January.  I still have lots of 2011 books I'd love to get to but I'm not sure how many I'll have time for.  With that said, I am so glad that I made time for SPARROW ROAD. This was definitely one of my favorite middle grade novels of the year. It is the story of Raine and her summer at Sparrow Road. Raine's mother decided that the two of them will be spending the summer at Sparrow Road, an artists' retreat.  Raine is not thrilled about the idea but quickly makes friends and tries to solve the mystery of the people who used to live there. This is a story of friendship, family, loss, and acceptance.  Definitely one of my favorites of 2011.

I read a few picture books this week.
GOOD LITTLE WOLF by Nadia Shireen is a fun picture book about a good little wolf who meets a big bad wolf.  The big bad wolf tries to convince the good little wolf to be bad. A fun book with a surprise ending.

I am always looking to add to my wordless book collection. This week, I picked up HOCUS POCUS by Sylvie Desrosiers. This is a fun wordless book that has a Tom and Jerry feel. The format is more of a graphic novel format and the story is a fun one.  Many of the wordless books I have tend to have a more serious tone but this one is pretty fun so I am glad to add that variety to my collection.

HUGS FROM PEARL by Paul Schmid is another fun picture book that I'm anxious to share with students. Pearl loves to give hugs but the problem is, she's a porcupine and her hugs tend to cause her friends pain!  Not to worry, Pearl comes up with a great solution.

I also picked up GIANT POP OUT FOOD (Chronicle). Who doesn't like a good pop-up book?  My first graders have doing lots of reading like writers--really looking at books and thinking about what the writer did and how they might try something similar in their own writing.  I thought this series of books might stretch them a few of them a new direction by giving them a new type of writing to try.  Or they just might enjoy the fun riddles and pop-out illustrations.

I am currently reading the middle grade novel THE AVIARY by Kathleen O'Dell.  This is one from the Anderson's Mock Newbery list. I don't know that I would have picked it up had it not been on Anderson's list and I am really enjoying it.  Hoping to finish this one this week.

After that, I imagine I'll read another from Anderson's list--maybe LUCK OF THE BUTTONS or THE APOTHECARY....