A Bit of Me(me) 3/19/11

I'm a day late, but I figure, better late than never, right?  This question is kind of fitting really, seeing as I feel so busy lately that taking a year off and being able to live somewhere else would be amazing!  Here's the question:

If you had an option to choose a place anywhere in the world where you could live for an entire year, where would it be and why?

The first place that comes to mind is downtown Chicago.  I absolutely love the idea of living in a city where I can leave my apartment and head down to grab myself a Starbucks as I walk to work.  I would love that.  I love the hustle and bustle of the city and I love all the fun and unique places there are there.  I would eat at interesting places and visit the museums and go to shows and shop.  Wait, do I have to work, too?  Well, hopefully I would have an equally cool job.


Then, I realized since I live so close to Chicago, maybe it would be a good idea to choose somewhere I've never been but that seems like it would be wonderful for a year...so, with that in mind, my real answer to this question would be Crete:

Picture from Neyzen Travel

I think it was 6th grade when I did a project on Crete and I've never been able to forget the beautiful pictures of the islands of Crete.  I love the blue water, the white buildings.  I just think it would be so relaxing and completely romantic.  Here's the bonus of living there for a year...I could take weekend trips to other parts of Europe, right?  (Is that cheating...oh well, I'm going with it!)  I could take the Eurorail to Italy, France, Spain, England, Germany...I have always wanted to travel all over Europe and this could be my one chance.

Now that I've gotten all excited about whisking myself (and my family, can they come, too??) to Crete I have to remind myself that I'm here in Illinois on a rainy, spring Sunday.  That's okay, though.  The sun will come out again, sooner or later! 

Thanks, Danielle, at There's a Book for hosting!!!  What about you, where would you want to live for a year if you could?

 

LMNO Peas

Title: LMNO Peas    
Author: Keith Baker  
Illustrator: Keith Baker 
Publisher: Beach Lane Books
Publication Date: 2010  
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book  
Summary: All sorts of peas talk about what they like to do and what their good at as they move through the alphabet!
What I Think: Alphabet books can be fun, but I have found these little peas to be so endearing that this has fast become my favorite alphabet book!  The illustrations of these sweet peas are too cute.  The book is full of rhymes of all sorts of jobs that these peas are up to.  As a bonus, there are lots of samples of how to use commas in a series and lots of words that end with the suffix -er. It probably goes without saying that the page for letter "R" is my favorite one!
     While this is an alphabet book, I think it could definitely be used with older students as a way to brainstorm some different ideas for possible professions...except for  outlaws.
Read Together: Pre-K - 12  
Read Alone: K - 12  
Read With: AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went First by Alethea Kontis, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr., Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! by Dr. Seuss, Q Is for Duck: An Alphabet Guessing Game by Mary Elting   
Snatch of Text:

"We're painters,

poets,

and plumbers fixing leaks.

We're pilots,

parachutists,

we're peas and...

we're unique!"

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Predictions, Word Analysis

Writing Strategies to Practice: Rhyming, Commas in a Series, Expository    

Writing Prompts: Write about what you would like to do as a job when you grow up and explain why. 

Topics Covered: Alphabet, Rhyme, Occupations 

Translated to Spanish: No

       

Tale Dark and Grimm

Title: A Tale Dark and Grimm     
Author: Adam Gidwitz
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile 
Publication Date: 2010   
Genre/Format: Fiction-Fantasy/Folk Literature/Novel   
Summary: This time Hansel and Gretel's story isn't for young children because this is the true story - a tale gruesome and shocking - of what really happened to the fabled brother and sister.   
What I Think: I absolutely devoured this book and am loving rereading it with one of my students right now.  I think it was an excellent - although sometimes chill-worthy - idea to bring the Grimm brothers' stories to life in a new way.  I'm a fan of taking familiar stories and retelling them or reworking them.  This book had me wondering more about who Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm really were and about the stories they wrote.  After booktalking this book to a colleague and her fourth grade class, they stopped me in the hallway to tell me they had the original Grimm stories and were reading those.  How awesome is a book that truly incites readers to do more reading?  I love it.
     What I've also found is that not everyone is familiar with the brothers Grimm.  It makes me reiterate the importance of teaching folk literature to students.  Folk literature is one of my favorite genres to teach.  These stories set the groundwork for other areas of literature - just look at J.K. Rowling and the complexity of Harry Potter.  Fairy tales and folk literature are imperative in children's literature.  I'm so thankful to authors today who are paying homage to these stories by retelling them or reworking them and giving them a twist to make them enticing to today's readers.      
Read Together: 4 - 8   
Read Alone: 4 - 8   
Read With: The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm All-New Third Edition by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Just Too Cute!: And Other Tales of Adorable Animals for Horrible Children by Mike Reiss, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka  
Snatch of Text:

“Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome.

I know, I know. You don’t believe me.  I don’t blame you.  A little while ago, I wouldn’t have believed it myself.  Little girls in red caps skipiping around the forest?  Awesome?  I don’t think so.  

But then I started to read them.  The real, Grimm ones.  Very few little girls in red caps in those.

Well, there’s one, but she gets eaten. “  (p. 1)

“There was a house, right in the center of the swamp.  Its walls were the color of chocolate cake, and its roof glittered under the rising sun like icing.” (p. 40)  
Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Inferences, Making Predictions 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative, Narrative 
Writing Prompts: Choose your own favorite folk tale and write it from a different perspective.  Choose your favorite folk tale and write it in a different setting.  Write about a time in your life when you felt you could trust someone wholeheartedly. 
Topics Covered: Loyalty, Family, Friends, Courage, Trust, Making Decisions   
Translated to Spanish: No

      

Library Thursday Blog Hop 3/10

Do a little dance!

Have a little fun!

Share books today!

Library Thursday always gets me excited! I love my books, I love sharing books, and I love hearing what books others are reading.  Thanks again to Lazy Girl Reads for hosting!

Yesterday I loaded up on Kate DiCamillo books at my library because I'm doing an author study with one of my 3rd graders on the fabulous Ms. DiCamillo.  Yesterday we read the pages on her website and now we're going to preview and read parts of her books.

Then I wandered over to the non-fiction section because I'm working on identifying main idea and detail with a couple of my students.  One of my goals this year is to read more non-fiction so I'm trying!  I've found some really interesting books out there actually!!

Anyone else give the library some love this week?  Please share what you picked up!

 

World Read Aloud Day 2011!

Today is World Read Aloud Day!  I celebrated today by reading aloud to my students at school and then with my kiddos at home.  We read We Are in a Book! from the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems.
We also talked about the question of the year for World Reading Day:

What would you miss most 

if you could not read or write?

I'm excited to talk to my students about what they would miss most about not being able to read or write.  I love the idea of thinking about how thankful we should be that we have the ability to read and write.  I believe in helping students be able to see things from a different perspective.  Sometimes it's important to be aware of the things we have because we live in the United States.  And while it's easy to be thankful for material things we have like books and toys and video games sometimes it's not as easy to be thankful for abstract things that we can't see or touch - like the ability to read and write.  

I know exactly what I would miss most if I couldn't read or write.  I would definitely miss the stories I get to experience - the characters, the real and fantastic places, and the problems I experience vicariously through those characters.  But what I would miss the most would be being able to talk about the stories and share those stories with others.  If I couldn't snuggle up next to Peanut and Little Bird and share a book that would make me so sad.  If I couldn't tell someone about a great book I think they should read or run to, text, or tweet a friend who I know read the same book I have just read, I would definitely miss it.  It's a testament to the assertion that reading is a social activity.  It truly is for me and I do think that's part of why I love it so much.  It's so much fun to connect with people because of books.  

 

Unwrapping Literacy 2.0

     I'm so excited to be participating in Share a Story - Shape a Future this year.  The focus is Unwrapping the Gift of Literacy.  Today, the topic being discussed is Literacy 2.0 and what literacy looks like in the new century where digital literacy is making its mark.  All around the blogosphere, teachers, librarians, and lovers of reading in general are sharing their ideas for celebrating literacy in any way, shape, or form.  I'm honored to be a part of this celebration.  Thanks to Danielle from There's a Book for inviting me to post for this event!
     As a teacher, my goal is to support my students in reading by fostering their love and desire to read while addressing reading skills they need to develop.  When I think about encouraging my students to read, I first think about myself as a reader and readers in general.  I use my reading life and my friends' reading lives to guide what reading should look like in school.  Based on what I noticed about myself as a reader and about my friends as readers, I work to incorporate e-reading on my Nook Color, reading along with audiobooks, and non-fiction reading on my blog, Mrs. Read-A-Lot.  I believe incorporating these types of reading into my teaching help me provide variety in reading in order to engage students in reading.  Students who read more are better readers.  Ultimately, these technologies give my students more opportunities to read but they do also allow me to then teach reading skills and allow them to develop their good reading strategies.

Chicken Dance by Tammi Sauer on my Nook Color

     Lately, I have had a blast bringing in picture books to read with students on my Nook Color.  While this e-reader isn't solely for kids, it definitely appeals more to kids because of the colors.  My students have been intrigued by the Nook Color because many of them had never heard of e-readers.  I work one-on-one with students from kindergarten through 8th grade so I can navigate the e-book with them.  Just yesterday I read Chicken Dance by Tammi Sauer on the Nook Color.  My student was able to flip the pages on the touch screen, enlarge the text by double-clicking on it, and navigate the pages using the guide that appears on the bottom of the screen.  When the principal walked in, my student was able to explain what we were doing.  I love the Nook Color because it's a fun technology that gets kids excited about reading while allowing them to develop skills to navigate touch-screen technology!  

         Another digital technology I have incorporated in my teaching recently, is listening to an audiobook while reading.  I believe reading aloud to be one of the most critical elements in a child's reading development.  I work with students who are hard of hearing and some are also learning English as a second language.  Listening to a fluent reader read with expression gives students access to text that might be too difficult to read on their own and also gives them a model of what fluent reading sounds like.  Sometimes we listen to the audiobook and follow along in the book together, but I also upload books onto an iPod that I loan out for students to listen and read while at home.  This technology is also engaging but I love it because it levels the playing field for students who are learning English as a second language who need models of fluent reading in English.  I have one student whose family doesn't read English so she has no one reading to her in English at home.  Sending her home with an iPod and a book to listen and read is cool and it gives her access to reading in English.

          Finally, I do immense amounts of online reading and I realized my husband, who rarely reads books, does basically all of his reading online perusing websites about his favorite sports and musicians.  I created a blog devoted to my students.  During the week I take pictures of what students are reading and post a slideshow with the pictures on Fridays.  On Tuesdays I post the Reader of the Month, an author spotlight, or talk about reading.  Students and their parents are excited to know that they can see themselves , their books, and their teacher online.  
     If I think about myself as a reader and how my reading has evolved since I was a kiddo, it's obvious that technology is an integral part of my reading life.  While I love physical books, I love technology about as much.  Technology like e-readers, audiobooks, and blogs make reading different and sometimes different is fun.  Without technology, I would still be reading but that's not necessarily the case for my students.  Let's face it, those physical books I grew up with have to compete with Nintendo DS, Wii, PlayStation, the Internet...as a teacher and a parent I strongly believe in using the technology available to encourage students to read.  It might take technology to get them hooked on reading or to keep them reading.  In the end, they're reading and that's what it's all about! 
     What about you?  Do you promote digital literacy through e-readers, audiobooks, or blogs?  Do you have other technologies you believe are really impacting your students' reading?  Please leave a comment!  Thanks to PicPocket Books, 10 readers will be chosen to receive a free book app download for comments on this post or other posts about digital technologies that can be found on the Share a Story - Shape a Future site.

 

Title: Oggie Cooder     
Author: Sarah Weeks  
Publisher: Scholastic Press 
Publication Date: 2008   
Genre/Format: Realistic Fiction/Novel  
Summary: Oggie Cooder isn't the cool kid in school, but things change when he finds himself accidentally entered in a talent contest where he carves cheese into the shape of U.S. states.  What does he think of his new-found popularity thanks to charving?    
What I Think: I was so excited to share this book with a class of fourth graders at one of my schools this week.  I think it's perfect for that age group!  Oggie Cooder is a great character who just wants to fit in.  I remember wanting to have friends and be included in what other kids were doing when I was that age.  I also remember one classmate in particular who wasn't the friendliest of peers who reminds me very much of Donnica Perfecto, the character in the book who tries to claim Oggie's charving talent as her own.  This is the perfect book for kids who want to see how the good guys come out on top.
Read Together: 3 - 5   
Read Alone: 3 - 6   
Read With: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger; Charlotte's Web by E.B. White; Matilda by Roald Dahl; Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Snatch of Text: 

“He was sitting there, absentmindedly eating his cheese, when suddenly Amy whispered –

‘Florida.’

‘What?’  Oggie asked, wondering why this strange new girl was talking about Florida all of a sudden.

Amy pointed at the cheese in his hand.

‘It’s Florida,’ she said.

Sure enough, without meaning to, somehow Oggie had managed to bite his cheese into the shape of the state of Florida.” (p. 39-40)

“Charving, a word he made up by combining the words chewing and carving, was something Oggie discovered he not only enjoyed, but also found very relaxing.” (p. 40)

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Predictions, Making Inferences

Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative, Expository

Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you did something that made you nervous.  Write about a time in your life when you realized someone was a true friend.  Explain how to charve the state you live in or your favorite state.

Topics Covered: Differences, Confidence, Friendship, Family, Talents, Adversity, Fitting In 

Translated to Spanish: No

Is Steven Layne a Belieber?

I honestly can't speak for Steven Layne, author of Igniting a Passion for Reading: Successful Strategies for Building Lifetime Readers, but I can speak for myself.  
And I am truly a Justin Belieber.  I realize that I'm an adult, a 30-year-old adult at that...but, as teachers, my husband and I try to keep up with all the trends and who's in and who's out according to our students.  Unless you're living under a rock, I'm guessing you have at least heard of Justin Bieber.  He's a 17 year-old singer, musician, dancer...superstar, basically - and now he's written a book.

Before winter break, one of my students came in with a Justin Bieber trivia book that she was reading...my jaw about dropped to the ground because it wasn't something I would expect her to read.  She shrugged and sheepishly told me she likes Justin Bieber.  Well, as I was looking through e-books on my library's website, I saw his autobiography, Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever (100% Official).  What did I do?  Of course, I put myself on the waiting list (yes, it did have a waiting list!) and when it became available I totally checked it out and I read the entire thing.  Here's what I can honestly say: while it wasn't the most amazingly well-written book, it was an honest and humble story of his life.  I understand that he's still a teenager, but I still liked reading his story and how he became famous.  What's been fun is overhearing kids talking about Bieber, being able to tell them I read the book and join in on their conversations, and talk to my student about what I learned about him.  

Steven Layne and me

Last week I was beyond excited to be able to hear Steven Layne talk for our institute day.  I love his energy for reading and got lots of great ideas from his book.  He explained that as a country we are graduating more aliterate students than illiterate students.  An aliterate reader is someone who is able to read but choses not to.  For me, that's a scary thought!  Our students are living in an "On Demand" world, so how do we get them hooked on books?  Layne asked:

"What are you doing right now that 

would really make a kid want to read?"

While we can't make kids read, he argues that we have to make kids want to interact with books.  He state that our reading instruction should be 50% skill and 50% will.  It reminds me so much of Donalyn Miller's book, The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child, which is the book that really got me on a roll when it comes to thinking about real-life reading and making the reading we do in school more like real-life reading for my students.

I never would have read Justin Bieber's book had my student not shown interest in him.  I'm an adamant believer that teachers should be reading books that are at their students' age level/reading level/interest level.  We need to know what books are out there so we can booktalk them and be the person students come to for their next great read.  This reminds me of Teri Lesesne's Reading Ladders: Leading Students from Where They Are to Where We'd Like Them to Be.  We've got to find any book we can that gets them hooked.  From there we can offer more and more choices that build upon that book and move them up their rungs of their reader ladders.

Here's the last thing I'm going to say about Justin Bieber and his book: If his book is the book that gets a student hooked, by all means give that student the book, read the book yourself, talk about the book, love the book...and then find the next book that keeps them hooked.  You can do it, I Beliebe in you!

Have you read Bieber's book?  What about another book that you read because your students or kids loved it so much?