Raising Readers and Writers

I posted the other day that I had chosen 7 books and thought I’d better run into school tonight to get my last 3. Several titles were running through my head as I drove to school and I very smugly thought that I’d just pop into school very quickly, grab the books, and then go home and make dinner for my husband. Well…an hour later, I came out of school with a pile of about 15 books and plopped them down on the front seat next to me (the seat belt light even came on because of the weight of the books).   AND, instead of my husband coming home to a nice dinner, I walked in to find my husband had made dinner for ME. So, here goes…

First, my criteria for choosing the books…

I have to love the book and I want to know that my students will love the book too.

I chose books that could be used for a variety of age groups in a variety of situations.

The book has to be so wonderful that my students and I  want to go back to it over and over again.

It helps that the books are ones that I often see my students looking at on their own and coming to me and telling me that they tried something that the author tried in his book.

I wanted books that represent a diverse population and help students learn more about the world around them.

The book  needs to provoke rich discussions.

The book needs to be filled with beautiful language and the illustrations need to enhance the text.

Finally, it’s a book that I say to anyone who asks, “You MUST own this book!”

Here is my list in no particular order (it was hard enough to narrow it down to 10):

1.  Saturday and Teacakes by Lester Laminack…I love all of Lester’s books, but I think this one is my favorite.  I can use it to teach a number of craft lessons (repetition of words, descriptive language, use of ellipses, similes and metaphors, taking a small moment in time and stretching it out etc.).   This book also supports conversations about relationships with the important people on our lives.  Lester also shared his grandmother’s recipe for teacakes, which by the way, are very good.

2.  The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria…This is a book that I bought during the last school year and I immediately fell in love with it.   The book, created entirely in black with white text and raised braille on each page, is written to help a sighted person imagine what it might be like to be blind.  The author describes colors using the senses (brown crunches under his feet, smells like chocolate, green tastes like lemon ice cream…)  My students loved this book because they could feel the raised braille dots and we talked about what it might be like to be blind.  This year I want to use it to work on descriptive language…how could we describe different colors?

3.  Yo! Yes? by Christ Raschka…This simple story is about 2 boys who meet on the street.  One boy says, “Yo!” and the other answers uncertainly, “Yes?”  Each page contains only one or two words.  The power of the story is held in the simple text, use of punctuation, and the expression on the boys’ faces.  I use this book in our study of interesting ways to use punctuation.  So much of the story depends on the end marks and we look at how the story would change if we changed the punctuation marks.

4.  Miss Brooks Loves Books and I Don’t by Barbara Bottner…This is a new book for me and it’s become a favorite.  The bubbly librarian, Miss Brooks, tries to entice Missy with a bagful of wonderful books, all of which she rejects.  (We all have at least one Missy in our rooms, the student who doesn’t like to read for a variety of reasons.)  In fact, when I have a student tell me at the beginning of the year that she doesn’t like to read, I take it as a personal challenge to help that child find the joy in reading.  I plan on using this book at the beginning of the year when we talk about what kinds of things we like to read (and don’t like to read).

5.  What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page…If it’s by Steve Jenkins, I know it’s going to be great!  I use his books when I am doing a literary nonfiction (hybrid informational books) study.  We look at illustrations, print layout ( the text takes shape or outlines the illustrations), ways to present information, and the informational section at the back.

6.  Atlantic by G. Brian Karas…Another hybrid informational book, this beautifully illustrated book shares information about the Atlantic Ocean from a first-person point of view.  (I rub shoulders with North America).  We use this book to talk about ways to share information, use illustrations to support text, print layout, etc.  I had one student in particular who used watercolors in her nonfiction book in the same way Karas did.

7.  One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley…This book is published by National Geographic and is filled with beautiful photography.  It begins, “At dawn, as the sun slips over the horizon, kids around the world get up, wash up, and celebrate a new day.”  The reader is then invited to look at how children around the world spend their days.  The author’s note at the end of the book shares how she lived for 2 years in Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer and while she realized that although we are all very different, we are at the same time very similar.  For instance, we all eat breakfast.  Some of us eat porridge by sipping it from a bowl (North Korea), others might eat a big stack of pancakes (Tennessee, U.S.A.), or maybe you eat churros (Spain), toast (Australia), or drink hot sweet tea (Bangladesh).   This book gives us lots to talk about as we begin to create a community at the beginning of the school year.

8.  The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant…another favorite author.  I’ve used this book for a long time.  I love the depiction of the close-knit family in this book because I grew up with a family just like this.  I use the book to help students list ideas for writing about important people in their lives, word choice (hugging time, all the new breathing in the house), and repetition to name a few ideas.

9.  Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher…this is another book that I’ve used for a long time.  Again, if it’s by Ralph Fletcher, I know I can’t go wrong.  The language in this book is so beautiful creating vivid images in the reader’s mind (In the summer, dusk hisses on the sprinklers.  Fireflies appear, swimming through the air, writing bright messages in secret code).  This is a wonderful example of how to use figurative language. strong verbs, and descriptive words to bring a story alive.

10.  My People by Langston Hughes and photographed by Charles R. Smith Jr….Recipient of 2010 Coretta Scott King award for illustrations.  Langston Hughes’ eloquent poem, My People is paired with Charles R. Smith’s beautiful photography.  Each double spread contains  just a few words that are in varying shades of brown (to show skin color “as bright as the sun and as dark as the night”).  His close-ups of African American faces range from newborn babies to older adults in sepia tones.  The note at the end of the book tells of some of the questions he asked and the decisions he made when he decided to illustrate Langston Hughes’ poem.  I’d like to use this book a little differently this year as I have students choose their own poem to illustrate using photography and music.

That concludes my list.  If I could add more, I would, but I think I’ve chosen well.  If you had to choose some favorite picture books, what would be on your list?

You can see all of the Picture Book 10 for 10 posts at http://reflectandrefine.blogspot.com/ and Enjoy and Embrace Learning. Have fun!

I had long stretches in the car this weekend as we drove my son for a college visit near Washington D.C. What was supposed to be a 7 hour drive from Columbus, Ohio, turned into a 10 hour drive as we came to a standstill several times and crawled along in traffic. I really didn’t mind though, because it gave me the opportunity to get some reading done.

One of the books that I was looking forward to reading was Franki Sibberson and Karen Szymusiak’s Day to Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop. When it was published in 2008, I was up to eyeballs in learning first grade curriculum after being in the intermediate grades for over 15 years. As much as I wanted to read it then, I just couldn’t add one more thing to my already saturated brain.

Now, as I’m preparing to teach to third grade, I am more than ready to step back into the role of teaching transitional readers and this book was the perfect way to reacquaint myself with these students. I have to be honest, as I read, it was like putting on an old pair of slippers…it just felt right…comfortable and familiar.   First of all, I love the authors’ philosophy…their instruction is based on their response to the needs of their students, not on a list of standards that can be checked off (although they do keep the standards in mind when planning instruction.) The introduction opens with the following quote which says it all, “Let us, with the ancient doctors, vow first to do no harm, and promise to resist measures that deprive children of their natural enthusiasm and exuberance as learners, their impulse to ask questions, to figure things out, to wonder, to express, to investigate, to construct, to imagine. Let us commit to a quiet contemplation of the idea that children are universally passionate learners.” ~Robert L. Fried, The Passionate Learner (2002)  Isn’t that what we all want; passionate learners who are excited to come to school, who are inquisitive, and thirsty for knowledge?

The book begins by stressing the importance of building an intellectual community where members come together to learn and everyone grows because they are a community of learners who support each other.  Building a strong community so important during the first 6 weeks of school.  It sets the tone for the rest of the school year.  Franki uses several different means to informally assess her students (reading inventories, status of the class, reading logs, and written responses to read alouds to name a few) during this time.  She wants her students to know that she values them as learners and readers before she begins to formally assess them.  It is also during this time that she sets up routines that let her students know that her room is a place where it is safe to take risks and all thinking is honored.

Each chapter focuses on one aspect of the reading workshop…independent reading, read aloud, whole class mini-lessons, small groups, and individual conferences.  Within each of these chapters, the authors give examples of assessments (both informal and formal), book ideas, questions to ponder, reflection sheets, recording forms, and student samples.  One of the (many) things I like about this book is that it doesn’t focus on what the most gifted readers are doing.    Franki and Karen are very honest in their portrayal of students that span the continuum we all have in our classrooms.  They use student misunderstandings as an opportunity to determine what needs to be taught next. They hold back from informing a student that her thinking is incorrect, but instead, use this knowledge to plan for instruction.

So, my copy of the book is peppered with colored sticky tabs:  pink for quotes I want to remember, yellow for ideas for charts, mini-lessons, and forms, blue for questions to think about, and orange for book ideas.  I have scribbled some book ideas in the back of the book…books I want to review before school starts and possibly add to my classroom library:  Katie Kazoo, Ivy and Bean, Clementine, and How to Steal a Dog just to name a few.  Tomorrow I will go down into my basement to delve into the tubs of books I have from teaching 4th grade to see what I can use in 3rd.  I can’t wait to dive into my new classroom to create spaces that will invite conversations among individuals, small groups and the whole class.  And another bonus?  I will be working with some of the same kids I had in first grade 2 years ago.  I already know them as learners and we will be off to a great start!

A few weeks ago, I was having breakfast with an old friend. We’ve known each other since our girls (who are now 22 years old) were in kindergarten and we decided to take on the role of Girl Scout leaders. She is a gifted teacher and someone I enjoy spending time with. We share the same passion for literacy and can commiserate about our children. She’s contemplating starting a blog and is worried about having enough to say. As we talked that morning, I came up with about 4 different topics that she could blog about. I told her that as things happen in your classroom or even your life, you  automatically think about how you could write about that on your blog.  She laughed and said, “It’s Blog Curse, you know, like Math Curse!”

Well, I was afflicted with “Blog Curse” yesterday at the Dublin Literacy Conference. As I listened to Dr. Tim Tyson and the other speakers, I thought of a million things I could write about. As Dr. Tyson talked about the possibilities with technology, he kept coming back to the point of teachers as leaders. He said, “School can be anything you imagine. The hard part is not plugging in the interactive white board. The hard part is envisioning the possibilities.”

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about the possibilities for my 4th and 5th grade after school writing club. We finished writing scripts for the drama club and are ready to start something new. I want each of them to choose a topic that is important to them and makes them feel passionate. I want them to think about what means to much to them that they want the world to hear their voices. And I want them to know that their voices matter. Our final project will be a multi-modal, multi-genre display. I sent an email with my rambling ideas to our technology teacher and we are going to meet this week to discuss the possibilities. (I think she’s afraid to open any emails from me!)

I’ve also been reading The Digital Writing Workshop and Teaching The New Writing to get some ideas of where to go. Since I meet with my writing club tomorrow, I wanted to get started on something.

To begin with, I want the students to create a page that tells about themselves. I am going to read Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Meyers. I read Karen’s review and bought it right away (thanks to one-click shopping). I think the kids will love the vibrant illustrations and jazzy language. (I looked in the mirror and what did I see?  A real handsome dude looking just like me.  He put out his fist.  I gave it a bam!  He said, “Jeremy!  I said, “That’s who I am.”) I’m going to use it as a springboard for the students to think about the different roles they play in their lives. Then I’m going to have them create a page that shows who they are using Glogster. I just recently heard about Glogster and I took some time to explore it tonight (which means I’ll be up really late tonight finishing up my lesson plans). Here’s my attempt at introducing myself. I’d love to spend more time with it, but I do have to get more school work done tonight!

Kevin Hodgson commented on yesterday’s post how attending conferences like these energize us. I so agree with him. I can’t wait to get to school tomorrow and see my little ones and my writing clubbers. I have so much to share with them!

I’ve been wanting to expand my blogging in some ways and I decided that I would participate in Nonfiction Mondays. I always get so many good ideas from other blogs!

I went to the library today in search of some books on nutrition. Two OSU dietetic students will be visiting us this Thursday to talk about the food pyramid and making healthy food choices, so I wanted to build some background knowledge for the kids. I found several books and one that I liked was The Edible Pyramid: Good Eating Every Day by Loreen Leedy. This book, considered a hybrid informational text was originally published in 1994 as a Reading Rainbow book. It was updated in 2007 to reflect the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s newly redesigned food pyramid. I think my students will enjoy the simple (and sometimes humorous) text and soft, colorful illustrations.

In this book, a cat, dressed in a tuxedo, welcomes all the animals to the grand opening of the Edible Pyramid Restaurant. The frog hopes the flies are fresh and the pelican hopes they have seafood. The pyramid menu helps the customers plan healthy meals. The cat, starting at the left hand side of the pyramid, explains each of the food groups. Lots of examples are given in each food group and the illustrations are luscious looking! I know that some of my kids have not tried some of these foods, so we’ll have fun trying some new things (beets, rye crackers, kiwi, to name a few). I even learned something new. The steps at the side of the pyramid remind us to be active every day. There are many pictures that show ways kids can be active…swimming, hula hooping (is that a word?), biking, skating, and dancing.

I’m looking forward to sharing this book and the others I checked out with my students. We’ll tie math and technology into our study as I ask the kids to keep track of how many fruits and vegetables they eat during a week’s time. We’ll tally their results and create graphs on the computer with the technology teacher. Maybe we’ll even create a podcast about the importance of eating healthy foods.

You can see the round up of other nonfiction books here.

I relish winter break. I completely disengage from the hustle and bustle of school and focus on enjoying my family and doing the things I like to do…baking, cooking, reading, and visiting family and friends. I don’t mean at all to imply that school isn’t enjoyable for me. I thrive on the challenges provided by my work, but sometimes it’s nice to take a break and rejuvenate. So, tonight, I’m enjoying a cup of tea and the last bit of red velvet cheesecake from dinner. I’ll be up early tomorrow morning to bake my son’s birthday cake (who has turned 17 in a blink of an eye!) and preparing my lesson plans for next week. Oh, and I should probably hit the treadmill to make up for eating cheesecake at 10:00 at night. I thought that I would share some of the good books I was able to read over break. I know that I always enjoy getting ideas for books from other blogs that I read.

Our book group read The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. We had read Garden Spells (her debut novel) this summer by the same author and thought we would like this book. It was a light read and very enjoyable, although we all agreed that we liked Garden Spells better. In this story, Josey finds Della Lee Baker hiding in her closet, the place where Josey likes to hide to eat candy. (Each chapter is named after an old fashioned candy). Della Lee, in a fairy godmother-like way, brings Josey out of her shell and helps her become the person she always yearned to be. The book is full of quirky southern characters and has a surprise ending that has the reader cheering for Josey.

The next book I read was Rainwater by Sandra Brown. It was recommended by bookreporter.com. This book is not typical Sandra Brown, which is what drew me to it. It’s her first historical fiction novel and she even said in the beginning of the book that she was hesitant to show it to anyone because it was so different from her usual fare. You can read more about it here. I absolutely loved this book. It was a quick read that swept me back to the depression and I found myself in the Texas boarding house with Ella and her son, who has autism, although they didn’t know to call it that back then. I highly recommend this book.

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf was my next read. I always enjoy an author’s debut novel and this one did not disappoint. This was another recommendation by bookreporter.com. I started reading this book on our drive to Cleveland, and once again, I was plucked right down in the middle of the book. In this story, 2 young girls, who are best friends are discovered missing early one morning. One of the girls, Calli, has not spoken for over 3 years and part of the mystery is discovering the reason for her selective mutism. The reader is kept guessing in this page turner as each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective. Interestingly, each chapter is told in first person except for those narrated by Calli. Her’s are told from the third person perspective. I could not put this book down and finished it in one day. I’m looking forward to more of her books.

I had heard so much about The Maze Runner by James Dashner, that I had to read it next. In this book, Thomas wakes up in an elevator and doesn’t remember anything but his first name. He arrives at “The Glade” where other teenage boys, who’ve also lost their memories, live. The Glade is surrounded by a maze that is inhabited with Grievers, monsters whose stings bring about horrors no one can talk about. The boys’ sole purpose is to solve the maze and escape from their isolated world. A new boy had been arriving every 30 days, but this routine was disrupted the day after Thomas’ arrival when a comatose girl appears in the elevator with a note that is a mystery to everyone. Her arrival marks the beginning of of the end in the Glade, which causes more disharmony among the “gladers.” Unfortunately, the reader does not find out until the very end of the book whether or not the boys escape The Glade. I’m not usually a fan of science fiction and maybe that is why I was a little disappointed in the book. Others loved it though, so if you are a fan of dystopian fiction, you might want to pick it up. I think that many 6th through 8th graders would enjoy this book especially if they enjoy books in this genre.

Last but not least, are the new cookbooks I received. I know that most people don’t read cookbooks from cover to cover, but if I have the time, I find it very relaxing to sit down and peruse through a cookbook, imagining all of the wonderful things I can make. Three new cookbooks have been added to my collection. They are:
Perfect Recipes for Having People Over by Pam Anderson

Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg MD and Zoe Francois

Hmmm…wonder why I never lose the weight I think I am going to lose!

So those are my reads for winter break. If you read some great books over break, please tell about them in the comments. It’ll be fun to share new ideas. Happy Reading!

Oh by the way…thanks to all the comments encouraging me to submit my article to Choice Literacy. I have been sitting on the revision for about 5 weeks. After a few tweaks, I sent it in this morning. Brenda Power responded about an hour later telling me that she liked the revisions and she would be publishing it soon!

I love giving and getting books!  One of the first things I bought when I found out I was pregnant for my first daughter (who is now 21) was Jim Trelese’s Read Aloud Handbook, Pat the Bunny, and Goodnight Moon.  So, as you can imagine, I love shopping for books for Christmas presents.  Here’s what I’ve chosen…

For my husband…

Cincinnatus:  The Secret Plot to Save America by Rusty McClure and Dave Stern.  My husband used to work for Rusty, so I think it will be fun for him to read.  Next on the list for him is I Alex Cross.  He’s a James Patterson fan.  We both read and enjoyed Three Cups of Tea, so I knew he would like Greg Mortensen’s Stones into Schools.  His last book is How to Photograph Cars.  He had put it into my cart on Amazon thinking I wouldn’t notice.    Well, I did notice, and I knew it was something he would enjoy that I wouldn’t have been able to find myself.  He’s a professional photographer who specializes in seniors and families and wants to begin focusing on photographing seniors and their cars.  I hope this book will give him some ideas.

Next, my 21 year old daughter is a little harder to shop for.  Gone are the days when she would read whatever I bought her.  We read a lot of books together in our mother-daughter book club that ran for 6 years and in that time, she discovered that she liked fantasy.  Fantasy has never been one of my favorite genres, so Molly gives me ideas of books she’d like to have and then I buy them for her.  This year, she asked for Acacia:  The War with Mein.  It received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly.  I went ahead and bought her the second book in the series, The Other Lands so she’ll have at least one surprise.

My 16, almost 17 year old son, likes nonfiction and adventure books.  I always say that he’d be fun to take to a cocktail party because he knows a lot of trivia due to all of his reading.  My husband bought him a book about Tim Burton when they visited the MoMa while I was at NCTE.   I also bought him Compound by S. A. Bodeen.  Sally Oddi from Cover to Cover Children’s Bookstore told me about this debut novel back in June.  I always enjoy reading author’s first novels.  They are often the best!  Another starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, it is described as a post-apocalyptic thriller by Boolist.  I know I’m taking a chance, but I think he’ll like it.

My youngest who is 14, is receiving Liar by Justine Larbalestier.  Again, I heard Sally Oddi talk about this book at one of her November booktalks.  The protagonist in this thriller is a compulsive liar who becomes a suspect in her boyfriend’s murder.  After reading Donalyn Miller’s blog, I also bought 13 Reasons Why.  I think she’ll like it.

So, I’d like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and I hope Santa brings you some books that you will love!

Squeals of delight could be heard as my kids discovered Here comes  the big mean dust bunny! sitting on the chalkboard tray yesterday morning.  Cruz begged me to read it just as it was time for him to leave for the ELL teacher.  He only relented when I promised we would read it as soon as he came back.  As we sat down to do our minilesson on nonfiction conventions an hour later, Cruz reminded me of my promise to read the new book.  The table of contents lesson was going to have to wait.  We had to read this book!

The rhyming dust bunnies are back!  Ed,Ted, Ned, and Bob are joined by the Big Mean Dust Bunny this time.  Just as in Rhyming Dust Bunnies, Ed, Ted, and Ned are rhyming away, this time to maybe cheer up the grumpy dust bunny.  He wants to smash them.  Again, as the three of them rhyme, Bob, comes up with words that don’t rhyme.  Right away, my kids wondered if he was warning the others about an upcoming danger…namely the cat.  Well, don’t you know, they were right on.  And the cat?  It’s Big Fat Cat, another familiar Thomas character.

The kids LOVED this book.  Laughter filled the room and their questions, predictions and inferences were bouncing all over!  These 6 year-olds never cease to amaze me.  We added this book to our Jan Thomas basket.  I know it will be well-loved just like the others.

What a week it’s been.  My kids have loved exploring all of the new books.  I always begin a new genre study by just reading lots of books.  One of the first books I read was Flip the Flaps:  Animal Homes by Judy Allen and  Simon Mendez.  I chose this book for several reasons.  First, the detailed illustrations draw the reader right into the book and the text is engaging for young learners.  My emerging readers are sure to find information in the pictures if they read the book independently.  Secondly, each habitat (pond, stone, tree, etc.) is a short chapter that includes a flap to be lifted.  Don’t all kids like “lift the flap” books?  The authors list 3 questions on each flap, which can be lifted to reveal the answers.  This book led to more questions from my students.  It was the perfect segue into the students writing their own “I wonder…” questions (an idea I got from Debbie Miller’s Reading with Meaning).  More about that later.  I know that I will go back to this book again and again.  Not only is there is a lot of information to be learned,  it is also a great model for writing informational books.

Today was a great day!  I went to Cover to Cover Children’s Bookstore to purchase more non-fiction books for our non-fiction genre study.  Melissa, the doctoral student who will be doing research in my room, received a grant that enabled me to buy books for my classroom.  Can you think of a better way to spend a Saturday?  It was way better than fighting the crowd at the grocery store, which is what I usually do on Saturday.

As I drove to the bookstore, I was thinking about the kinds of books I wanted to buy.  My wish list fell into several categories.  First and foremost, I wanted a wide variety of books that would be interesting to my students.  That meant books about cars, construction machines, sports, creepy crawly insects, how to make things, space, etc.  I also wanted books with beautiful photography, detailed illustrations, and ones that used a variety of non-fiction conventions (labeling, diagrams, bold print, index, table of contents, captions…).  Added to that I wanted books that had rich language that would support my students’ writing.  Next, I looked for books that we could use in our content studies.  I chose books at a variety of reading levels.  Some of them my students will be able to read by themselves, and some will be read alouds.  My emerging readers and writers will be able to glean information from the illustrations and photographs when they are not able to read the text.  Finally, I wanted books that gave information about a topic in interesting ways.  Steve Jenkins’ books always fit the bill for that category and I was able to find other great examples. 

I can’t wait to share these books with the kids on Monday.  I bought more book baskets for my room so we can sort through them and decide how we want to categorize the books.  We already have many nonfiction baskets, so the task won’t be too daunting.  Here are a few of the books I bought.  I’ll share more later along with why I chose the books.  I’ll also be sharing our genre study, especially how the kids grow as writers and researchers through the process.  I think life has settled down enough that I will have time to keep up with my blog!

One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley is a beautiful book recently published by National Geographic.  It depicts a day in the life of children all over the world from waking up and eating breakfast, to going to school, to doing chores and playing after school, to eating dinner, to settling in for the evening and finally going to bed.  The photographs’ rich details give the reader an insider’s look into life in different cultures.  The last pages contain the author’s notes and thumbnails that give more details about each of the pictures (specifically where the photograph was taken and more information about what is happening in the picture).  Some even show the photographer’s notes.  This book shows the reader that even though we live in different parts of the world, we all have many things in common.  The author writes at the end of the book, “…the more we can embrace our commonality, the more tolerant we can be of our differences.”  I knew I had to have this book for our “Children Around the World” basket.  My kids will be able to relate to the every day happenings in the photographs.  This book also shows one way to organize text…making a comparison.   I can also show them how they can add more information at the end of their writing  just like Barbara Kerley. 

Mystery Vine: A Pumpkin Surprise by Cathryn Fallwell is actually a fictional story about a family planting  a garden and waiting to see what grows from the mystery vine.  (If I had written the story, it would have been non-fiction because I was certain that the pumpkin plants that I put in the garden this spring had died.  Imagine my surprise  when I found pumpkins growing in August!  I probably wouldn’t be so surprised if I marked my plants and actually kept up with the weeding.)  Anyway, I digress.  Sally Oddi, the owner of Cover to Cover shared this book last week at a book talk she gave for the Columbus Area Writing Project.  (One Day, One World was also featured).  What drew me to the book was not only the story that is very engaging, but the fact pages in the back of the book.  The author gives recipes for roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin apple bread (you know how I love to bake…can’t wait to make it with the kids) in the “Pumpkin Recipes” section.  In the “Gardening Fun” section, she tells how to grow grass hair in an empty egg shell and how to start bean seeds in a glass jar so you can watch the seed sprout.  She also gives directions on how to plant seeds from the fruits and vegetables you get from the grocery store and how to start a sweet potato vine.  The final page tells how to make a book vine where the kids  write the title of each book they read on a cut out leaf and create a vine around the room.  I will be able to use this book to show kids how to write “how to” pieces. 

There are so many more books to share!  However, I have an article waiting to be read before I meet with Melissa next week.  I’ll post more tomorrow about my great finds.

I was drawn to The Book Whisperer by the title.  Here was someone who shared my passion for students doing real reading instead of reading whole class novels, completing comprehension worksheets and doing word searches to build vocabulary.  I read Donalyn’s bio and saw that she was a fellow teacher consultant from the National Writing Project (North Star of Texas Writing Project).  I knew this was a book that I wanted to read.  I checked it out of the library (one click shopping from Amazon was taking its toll on my budget), settled down to read and was hooked!  I read the first 4 pages and decided that I had to own this book.  I needed to be able to mark pages, write in the margins, and add my own questions on the back cover.  So I literally stopped at Barnes and Noble on my way home to buy the book.  I am so glad that I did.

Last weekend, I was in one of my favorite places to read…the beach on Lake Erie (really any beach will do) when I was able to  really delve into this book.  I loved her introduction, “I AM NOT A READING RESEARCHER.  I am  not a reading policy expert.  I do not have a Ph.D.  What I am is a reading teacher, just like many of you.”    Wow!  Here was someone I could relate to.  The more I read, the more I felt like I had found a new friend, even though I’ve never met Donalyn.

Donalyn believes without a doubt that if we want our kids to be better readers we need to give them time to read.  Everything she asks her students to do is an authentic reading task.  Her kids are given choice in their reading selections, they are encouraged to read in a variety of genres, they write letters to her in their reader’s notebooks, and they share recommendations as they find new great reads.  Her classroom is a place where readers thrive, even those who have previously struggled.  Her classroom is a place of give and take.  She also shares that even experienced readers like her sometimes have difficulty getting through a book.  I appreciated her honesty about her struggles with working with others who don’t share her beliefs as they focus on using worksheets to help students “get ready for the test” and the difficulty in saying good-bye to her 6th grade students knowing that they won’t be given the reading freedoms they had in her room as they move on through school. 

Even though Donalyn teaches 6th grade, her ideas hold true for all grade levels.  She has helpful websites and books to guide teachers as they look for books for their students.  One of them is Jen Robinson’s Book Page, which I read regularly.  She also has some good ideas for those adults who are not passionate readers themselves.  She had her students help her design the “Ultimate Library List” which is in the appendix as well as student forms she uses in her classroom. 

I can’t say enough about this book.  It validates everything I believe about the teaching of reading and writing.  You can follow Donalyn’s blog to get more inspiration.