Raising Readers and Writers

We are now in our third round of research and it’s been very exciting to see my students’ progress!  At this point, my young learners, always asking questions, think nothing of turning to the table of contents to look for information or flip through pages to find something in particular.  They’re learning how to put information in their own words and some have ventured to do internet searches for hard to find information.  After  allowing students to have free choice in their research in December and February, I knew they were  now ready to focus on creating hybrid informational (also called literary nonfiction by Katie Wood Ray) books on pond animals.  Every child has chosen an animal to research, they’ve asked questions, and they’ve read for information.  Their research journals are full of information ready to be put into what we are calling, “Wow!” nonfiction.  I’ve turned to some tried and true mentor texts and a few new ones too…

Atlantic by G. Brian Karas is a hybrid text that gives information about the Atlantic Ocean in first person point of view.  (I am the Atlantic.  I rub shoulders with North America  and bump into Africa.)  The author also put facts about the ocean at the end of the book.

If You Were Born a Kitten by Marion Dane Bauer uses the pattern, “If you were born a ________, you would ________.”  This beautifully illustrated book tells about many different baby animals. 

10 Things I Can Do to Help My World by Melanie Walsh is a new one this year.  The kids loved it!  The bright, vibrant acrylic illustrations are very simple, yet effective.  The simple text starts with I and a verb (try, remember,)…with the rest of the sentence being completed on the following page.  Each page is a die cut flap (the shape of  a sink, a light bulb, etc.).  A hint for making simple changes is accompanied by a ecological friendly fact written along the illustration.

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This by Steve Jenkins (I LOVE Steve Jenkins’ books) has a question/answer format about animals’ eyes, tails, noses, ears, etc.  There are facts written around the illustrations as well as a listing of additional facts at the end of the book.

Finally, Zach thought we should add Alan’s book because he had a 5 page spread, so Alan’s book, The Race, is our last mentor text.  You can see the pride in Alan’s face that his book is being used as a mentor text!

The kids are just beginning to make choices about their books.  We’ve practiced using the patterns in Atlantic, If You Were Born a Kitten, and 10 Things You Can Do to Save the World.  This week, the kids will be deciding which pattern they want to use in their books and what other features they want to add to make their writing stand out.  After that, we will create a class podcast about their pond animals.

Seeing the kids’ progress in the research process reinforces my belief in giving children lots of choices and lots of time to practice what they are learning.  Scaffolding students’ learning and encouraging students to take risks allows them to be successful in so many ways!  I am very proud of them!!

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.

I am a huge fan of Steve Jenkins’ books.  I have quite a few in my classroom and was happy to add some more and other books that reminded me of his style.  He always takes an interesting look at his subject that keeps kids captivated, instead of the traditional take on animals (habitat, appearance, diet, etc.).  I love that my students can look at his books and envision a wide variety of possibilities for their own writing.

Living Color tells the reader how animals use color to protect themselves, call to other animals, attract mates, or warn predators.  The vibrant illustrations are textured cut paper collage.  The animals virtually pop out of the page.  Each double page spread focuses on one color and what it means for different animals.  Text also flows around the illustrations, another technique that students can do in their own writing.  For instance, “Red says…This is my space. The male hooded seal marks its territory – and tries to impress female seals – by inflating a sac of loose skin that hangs from its left nostril, blowing it up like a big red balloon.”  Who knew that could be attractive?  The book is filled with interesting facts about some very uncommon animals and insects.  The end of the book tells more about the role of color in an animal’s life and as is typical in Steve Jenkins’ books, the last pages give a bit more information about each of the featured animals (size, habitat, diet).  I know the kids will love this book as much as the other Steve Jenkins’ books.  I have enough now that I’ll be making a Steve Jenkins basket.  I will use this book as a mentor text to discuss all the possibilities for presenting information in an interesting way.

This next book, Hello, Hello by Miriam Schlein, looks at the different ways animals greet eachother.  Eight of her books have been honored as Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children.  Again, I chose this book because it gives lots of information about animals in an unusal way.  We learn that “Elephants are very, very, very, very, friendly.  They touch trunk tips or they put the tips of their trunks in one another mouths.”  Zebras take a different approach as they stretch out their necks and sniff eath other’s noses.  Then they make little chewing noises.  The books ends with the ways humans say hello.    I can see kids using this book as a jumping off point to research other ways animals greet each other.  The illustrations, oils on textured paper, are bright and give the reader a glimpse into each animal’s habitat.  Students will learn that much information can be gleaned from illustrations and that they will need to think about what kind of information they want to portray in their own final illustrations.

I have the books packed up ready to take into school tomorrow.  I’ll be sure to post about how the kids react to all of the new books.  I’m sure to hook everyone with something!

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.

My classroom is buzzing during writing workshop.  I love to watch the excitement in my young learners’ eyes as they create their first pieces of writing in first grade.  They eagerly go back to their places and can’t wait to talk with their tablemates about their ideas.  I know that this “talk time” is very important to helping my writers plan their writing.  Right now, we are finding the balance between this important talk and talk that is just silly giggling.  I know with some patience we will get there.

I’ve used 2 of my favorite books this week to help my students think of important topics.  Yesterday I read The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli.  The main character in the book wants to win first prize in the Best Story Contest.  If she wins, she will be able to ride the  Sooper Dooper Looper roller coaster with her favorite author.  She’s not quite sure how to make her story the best, so she consults her family members.  Her brother tells her that good stories need action.  Her father tells her she needs humor.  Her aunt tells her that great stories make people cry and her cousin thinks the best stories have lots of romance.  (That got a lot of “OOOOHHHHS” from the kids).  Finally, her mother gave her the best advice.  She tells her that the best stories come from the heart.  So after reading the book, we discussed that authors write about what is important to them.  My students couldn’t wait to get to their spots to write.  I had stories about cooking with Grandma, playing football with friends, and going to the park.

Today, we read, Taking a Bath With the Dog and Other Things that Make Me Happy by Scott Menchin.  This is another of my favorites!  In fact, I showed it to another teacher in our building and she spent her lunch doing “one click” shopping on Amazon so she could have her own copy.  In this story, Mother notices that Sweet Pea is feeling sad (very evident by the frown on her face).  Sweet Pea decides to ask anyone and everyone she meets what makes them happy.  Her dog (dressed in a robe and shower cap) likes to take a bath.  An older gentleman enjoys stripes (he’s wearing a very loud striped jacket with a striped cat sitting beside him).  The rabbit likes running on the hamster wheel.  The story is hilarious!  The kids noticed that as the story progresses, Sweet Pea’s frown slowly turns into smile.  By the end of the book, she is feeling much better and we find out that she likes taking a bath with her dog.  The kids couldn’t wait to share what makes them happy.  They were so excited and so full of good ideas that we decided to make our own class book  about what makes Room 14 happy.  Each child wrote one page and illustrated it.  We have pages about making cookies for Dad, reading with my brother, playing with my monster trucks, and swinging with my family.  I typed the pages tonight and we will put the book together tomorrow.  It will be a grand celebration when we add it to one of the baskets in our classroom library.

The rest of the week is going to be spent focusing on where authors get ideas.  I’m looking forward to see where they take their ideas!

We’ve just finished our second day of school.  I love beginning first graders.  They are so eager and ready to learn.  They say whatever is on their minds and they go with gusto until they drop (which is around 12:30).  I know that within a month, they will quit asking to go home after lunch and they will be able to get through the afternoon without their eyes drooping shut. 

Today was an amazing day with my young learners.  They are already showing me their thinking  as we read several books aloud.  We started the day with First Grade Here I Come by Nancy Carlson.  Henry isn’t sure he really likes first grade.  It’s just not kindergarten.  However, as he tells his mother about his day, he realizes that he really does like first grade and there are many positive things happening in his classroom.  This book gave us the opportunity to talk about how first grade is different from kindergarten and how much more we can do now that we are older.  Later in the morning, we read I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry.  In this story, Squid brags about how much bigger he is than all the other animals in the ocean, until he comes across a whale.  The kids loved this book and their conversations told me that they were thinking about the author’s words.    What was most exciting to me was the way they talked back and forth about their thinking.  They’ve only been in first grade for 2 days and they already are learning that talking about books deepens their understanding.  (I’m thankful to the kindergarten teachers who set the foundation for these conversations).

As all teachers know, the first few days in the lunch room can be daunting.  Today, we ran into a snag as the older kids were coming in to eat and some of the little ones from next door were just getting through the lunch line.  I offered to take the kids who were done eating back with my class.  I walked into my room and pulled I Know An Old Teacher  by Anne Bowen, illustrated by Stephen Gammell.  In this hilarious story which mimics the I Know An Old Lady stories, the teacher offers to take the class pets home for the long weekend.  Much to their dismay, her students discover that she is eating each of the class pets.     I looked up and saw kids who didn’t know each other hugging and laughing as they shared their disgust over the teacher’s antics.  The end was especially enjoyable exciting!  I sent the book with our after lunch guests so their teacher could read it to the rest of their class.  They were so excited to share it with their classmates and their teacher.  I knew we had taken the first steps in learning that books give us the opportunity to connect with others.

Our final read aloud was The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill.  In this story, Mean Jean is the queen of recess.   The other kids don’t swing until Jean swings; they don’t bounce until Jean bounces, and they don’t jump until Jean jumps.  That is until Katie Sue comes to school.  Not knowing Jean’s reputation, Katie Sue runs outside and plays without a worry in the world.  The other students watch to see what happens.  Jean tries to no avail to boss Katie Sue around, and in the end, Katie Sue invites Jean to play with her (which no one else had ever thought to do).   This book gave us the opportunity to talk about how we want to be treated in our classroom and how we should treat others.  It was the beginning of our class promise.  Again, we had a lively conversation.  I was able to show the kids how books can be used to learn life lessons.

As I reflected at the end of the day, I thought about all the different ways we connected with books.  I know that this is the time to fosterbuild an environment that honors conversations as we read, write, and learn together.  It is the glue that will bind us into a strong first grade learning community.

Christian the Lion by Anthony (Ace) Bourke and John Rendall is another book that Sara and I chose for our nonfiction unit.  The illustrations and text intrigued us.  Each page reminds me of a mixture of a modern scrapbook and old fashioned photo album.  The bright, textured pages are very colorful with smatterings of paw prints crossing the page.  On each page are several photographs, both in color and black and white, tucked into those old fashioned photo corners like my mother used in my baby book.  As we skimmed through the book, we knew our young writers would enjoy the book and it would give us another type of mentor text.

The story is based on a true story.  Rendell and Bourke were living in a trendy part of London in 1969 when they discovered a lion cub in Herrods, an upscale department store.  They bought the cub and brought him home to live in their basement flat under the furniture store where they worked.  Christian played soccer with the young men, rode in the car with them, went to restaurants, and was even on the radio.  Unfortunately, within a year, he was too big to live in the apartment.  Right about that time, Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, married actors who had just finished filming Born Free came into the furniture store.  They helped Bourke and Rendell connect with George Adamson and his wife, the real life naturalists on which the movie was based.   Rourke and Rendell  flew with Christian to Africa where they met Adamson and they slowly acclimated Christian to his natural habitat.  An end note from the authors tells what happened when they went back to Africa to visit a year later.  I don’t want to spoil it for you. 

The story is written from Christian’s point of view with an introduction by Rendell and Bourke “clipped” to the first scrapbook page.  Christian tells about where he was born (there are several maps throughout the book), his life at Harrods, moving in with the 2 young men, and eventually traveling to Africa where he was introduced to his own pride.  The use of real photographs support the story very well and my emerging readers will be able to read the pictures and get a strong sense of the story.  Overall, I liked the book.  I can see using it to help students imagine another way to share information with their audience.  Students could use digital cameras or disposable cameras to take still pictures of a subject  and create a scrapbook from their subject’s point of view. 

However, because the story has been simplified for a young audience, it left me with several questions.  I didn’t understand why the men would bring a lion cub home to live in a basement flat under a furniture store if they wanted a better home for the lion.  Why would a lion even be allowed to be sold at a department store?  I know it was the 60s, but really, it just didn’t make sense to me.  I did some research on the Internet and found this site which answered all of my questions. 

The fact that I had questions is a good teaching point for my young readers.  It will give me an authentic way to show my students that readers have questions and that we can use different resources to answer our questions.  We could actually google “Christian the Lion’ and look at all the information that is out there.  My search also brought up several videos on YouTube that the kids will enjoy. 

I think this book will be a great addition to our nonfiction library.  It’ll be interesting to see if the kids make connections to other books in our nonfiction library that are written from the point of view of the subject.

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.