Elephant and Piggie Speech Bubbles

At the beginning of year, I sat with our 1st grade teachers in a meeting with the reading specialist assigned to our campus as she talked with them about reading and writing.  One of the things she mentioned was noticing how authors used different things in their writing and then encouraging the students to try it in their own writing. I decided that I could do that in the library.  I read a few of Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie books to them and we talked about how he used speech bubbles to show what Gerald and Piggie were thinking and saying.  Then they went to a template I had uploaded in Seesaw for them. We looked at the pictures in the frames and talked about how the speech bubbles. 

Students then went to work adding in the dialog.  

Most of the students recreated the banana joke from the story We Are In A Book like this student did 

However, one clever little guy really understood the idea of a joke and came up with this (his teacher did help him with spelling).  The video is only 13 seconds long, he doesn't press stop though which is why it keeps recording.  Oops.



Don't you love that??

The "Gift of Reading" Tree

Over the Thankgiving break, I saw this post on Facebook and reposted it on my library Facebook page.

On of my teachers texted me and said I should do that in the library.  I loved the idea, but wasn't sure about the logistics of it.  I had a few days to think about it and talk it over with my assistant and a few teachers and decided to do it.  I borrowed a small tree from another teacher and set it up the in the library. My assistant and I pulled enough books from my stash of book fair purchases and freebies to give one student in each grade level a book for each of the school days in December - 90 books!  We wrapped them and put them under the tree.  I asked the teachers to each send me the names of 3 students in their class that either came from a book barren home or could use an extra gift this holiday season.  I put the names in envelopes by grade level and every day on the morning announcements I would call one student from each grade to come to the "Gift of Reading tree to choose a book.  

The students were so happy to get a book of their own to keep.  

Teachers told me that every day students would cross their fingers, hoping their name was called. We wanted the students to unwrap their books in the library so we could see what they got, but a lot wanted to wait and open the book back in the classroom with their teacher. 

This was a really fun way to celebrate reading during the holiday season. 

You Can't Read That!

Go get a different book.

That book is too hard for you.

You can't read that.

That book is not on your level.

You need an easier book.

I must (sadly) admit as a previous classroom teacher of 12 years, I probably uttered one or more of these phrases to any given student thinking that I was helping them make a better choice that would further their reading.  But instead, what I probably did was make that child like reading a little less.  

Today I had the pleasure of hearing the one and only Donalyn Miller (@donalynbooks) speak in my district about Voice and Choice in Reading.  She spoke for 2 wonderful hours and gave information, personal anecdotes and research about students and reading and choice.  But this one quote, mentioned very early on, is what has stuck with me for the rest of the day.

So instead of building the student into a better reader by making them choose a book "on their level", what I did, was tell them they were not good enough or able enough to read "that" book.  

What could I have done instead? 

 *Maybe ask them to sit and read a page or two with me and see if they change their mind once they read a few pages.

*Have a "preview stack" of books ready for a child that continuously chooses challenging books and say "Take a look at these books I thought you might like!" 

*Ask "Are you and your mom/dad/grandma going to read that together?"

*Check to see if there is an audio version of the book and let them download that to a device to read along.

And then the unthinkable... let them check it out anyway!  

Maybe they have a desire to persevere and read through the book,  Maybe they hide a "baby book" in the pages of the bigger book so no one knows what they are reading. Maybe they just want to be like the other kids.  Maybe choosing a book in the library is the only choice they have control over that day.  

Maybe I need to find a way to support them and help them like reading because as Donalyn said, "If not us, then who?"

What key phrases or techniques do you use to help a student choose books?

What Happened to Summer?

I am not sure what happened to summer.  I feel like I spent most of it in my car.  I have an incoming Junior in high school and an incoming 8th grader, bith boys who play baseball.  So my whole summer felt like I was either taking them to practice, lessons or heading out of town for tournaments.  I did manage to get 2 weeks at my favorite place in the world, Fish Creek Wisconsin.  Otherwise I really would not have felt like I had a summer.

The good thing about all that baseball is that I got a lot of books read.  I am talking 35-40 chapter book. Bluebonnets, young adult, grown-up and professional books.  I got some of everything.  Here are a few of my favorites.

#1 Professional Book:  Kids Deserve It!

A perfect summer book written by Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome.  A great reminder about why most of us got into the teaching profession... because Kids Deserve It.  With uplifting stories and humorous ancedotes, these two principals have started a revolution of educators who are in it to do what's best for kids.  I loved this book!  As a matter of fact, one of my teachers saw my tweet about it and asked if she could borrow it.  Then another one asked to borrow, and another and... now at least 9 of my teachers have read it and more are on the "waiting list".  We even gave it to our new principal as a welcome gift on her first day, signed by those of us who had read it over the summer. 

#1 Young Adult Book: Serpent King

I just love YA books.  Almost enough to make me want to be a middle school librarian... not!  But I really do love to read them.  Three high school seniors all trying to deal with their last year together in a small town.  One dying to get out, one content to stay and one who thinks he can never escape.  Told from all three points of view, but interwoven into an unforgettable coming of age story.  

#1 Bluebonnnet Book: Echo

I am afraid the sheer size of this book will scare off a lot of readers (over 500 pages) which will be such a shame because it is a wonderful story of three children brought together by a magical harmonica that comes in and out of their lives at the perfect time.  I could not put this book down. 

A Writer I am Not

I do not think of myself as a writer.  Writing this blog is a huge step out of my comfort zone every, single time.  My dad and my brother seem to have taken all of that talent for our family.  They both just have a way with words.  They just flow so effortlessly and elegantly from their minds.  Even when being humorous or sarcastic their way with words just make you want to read more.  

Sometimes when I am reading books, I get lost in the writing.  That happened to me when I read All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.  I am an elementary librarian and this is definitely a YA title but it is just so beautifully written and the story is so amazing, I had to tell you about it. 

In this story, Violet and Finch meet on the roof of the school.  Finch is fascinated with death and Violet is trying to escape - her town, her grief over her sister's death, everything.  Through a school project, they become friends and begin to bloom each in their own way.  But is it enough for Finch?  

I couldn't stop thinking about this book after I read it.  The writing is just beautiful, the language just makes you want to read more and more. It was like I knew Violet and Finch and expected them to be around the corner.  Jennifer Nivens has a winner here!

Book Whispering

Over the weekend, I read the book The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. (I'm behind the curve in reading this, I know). But I am so glad I finally did.

It has taken me a while to write this post because this book spoke to me on so many levels- as a teacher, a librarian, a parent and as a reader.

My husband would call me an idealist and to me what Donalyn has accomplished in her classroom is perfect! Heaven! The epitome of reading class!  It sounds so simple... give them books and let them read!  Why don't more of us do it?

Twenty years ago when I began my teaching career in a third grade classroom, I read outloud to my students everyday and we always had silent reading.  I, like Donalyn, taught whole class novels.  I had been in college during the "whole language" teaching movement where topics were integrated in all subject areas for weeks of study.  My favorite of these was our Mr. Popper's Penguins unit.  We studied the heck out of penguins.  We researched the different kinds of penguins.  We did science experiments about blubber.  Every math problem was about penguins.  We capped off the unit with an overnight, YES OVERNIGHT with 100 3rd graders, trip to the penguin house at Sea World where we learned even more about penguins and observed them all night long.  I thought the kids were engaged and I thought I was doing it right, and to some extent I might have been.  I was at a pretty affluent school. We didn't even mention the "T" word until January.  Students came to us with a rich vocabulary and exposure to books at home.

Now, I cringe as see what miracles teachers are asked to perform.  They have a tremendous amount of curriculum to cover in less and less time every year as testing and benchmarks take over the classrooms.  I hate that they have to rush through skills or concept, just grazing the surface. There is no time to delve deeper or do the reteaching of some concepts that they know they need to do because they have to rush on to the next topic in time for the next benchmark where the students will be tested on it.  Things have to give and unfortunately, read alouds and silent reading have suffered.

Are there teachers, administrators and district leaders out there that still value reading in it's true form?  I sure hope so.  I hope that soon the pendulum will swing the other way and reading test questions will not be the reading that is taught in our schools.

Live Video Feed with Jarrett Krosoczka

Another fabulous opportunity for my students discovered on Twitter...

Last night I noticed a tweet about a live opportunity Jarrett Krosoczka was offering for students today.

 I immediately emailed my teachers about it.  As usual, most were skeptical, but my two go-getter, willing to try anything, 4th grade teachers jumped at the 11:00 opportunity.   They even asked questions during the feed and Jarrett answered them!  

Wanting to get more teachers on board, I asked these two to reply to my email about how cool it was (sneaky, I know, but hey, it worked!)  and I brought it up with them in the teacher's lounge at lunch since he was doing another one at 1:00 our time.  

Once they heard how easy and fabulous it was, the rest of the teachers were all on board.  During the feed, Jarrett introduces his Platypus Police Squad books and how he draws the characters.  Some of my kinder students were even drawing along!  

 

He also showed how he changes characters facial expressions by drawing different lines around the eyes.  Here is a 2nd grader practicing.

What a super way to connect with kids and get kids excited about reading.  With summer coming up, I know what books my students are going to be looking for at the library.  

 

Here are some actual quotes from some 5th graders about the experience.  

"We are learning about his books online without him actually being here"

"We loved that it was interactive"

"Not only did he talk about his books, but he showed us how he illustrated them too"

"He gave us a sneak peak of his next book"

"We got to look at a live screen at a famous author that students across the country were able to see at the same time"

Thanks Mr. Krosoczka for a fabulous 20 min that our students will remember!  

March Madness Book Brackets

We just crowned the winner of our March Madness book bracket title after a 4 week voting process!  I originally saw this idea through my PLN on Twitter.  Lots of schools have been doing this and I jumped on the bandwagon a little late this year.  I ran a report through our management system of the 16 books that had the most checkouts so far this year and was pleasantly surprised there was a mixture of Fiction, Graphic Novel and Picture books.  I paired them up and made a large bracket on the library wall.

Then I made a bracket using word and saved it as an image and a PDF.    

I then put the image on my library webpage along with a link to a google form for students to submit their predictions and the PDF in case they wanted to turn in a paper copy of the bracket.  I gave them a week to submit their brackets and this is the part that I would like to start earlier next year.  We started the week we came back from spring break and next year, I think I want them to submit over the week of spring break. 

The next week, I unlinked the prediction google form and linked up a voting form  where students could vote on the book they wanted to advance to the Elite 8.  We reminded the students to vote everyday on the announcements.  

The next Monday, we put up the pictures of the Elite 8 books and a new google form and let them have the whole week to vote again.  This last week, I let them vote on the Final 4 from Monday-Wednesday and then the Final book Thursday and Friday.  

Today on the announcements I announced that Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds was the winner. We had Aaron visit last year and I love that they still enjoy his books.  

I don;t know if you can see on the picture, but it came down to Dead City by James Ponti and Creepy Carrots.  

Using google forms for the voting made it very easy to see who won from each pairing.  There is a "view summary" button that puts the information into a pie chart.  

This was a really fun way to promote books in our library.  Even though they were already the most popular books, I still had kids coming in to check out "the books we can vote on".  I had also told the students that the person who had the highest point total in their prediction brackets would get a $25 gift certificate to our May book fair.  I get to announce that on Wednesday!

3 for Thursday: Zombie Books

One thing that surprised me when I genrefied was that I did not have as many "SCARY" books as I thought I did.  And in my library, SCARY is anything with a ghost or zombie.   Zombies being the "in" thing in scary books after Dead City was introduced on our Bluebonnet List.  I anticipated the Zombie craze after reading Dead City over the summer and so I found some Zombie chapter books for my first book order of the school year.  And guess what?  They came in last week...just in time for Halloween (of course I forgot to take a picture of all the beautiful new books before the kids got a hold of them).  So here are my 3 for Thursday Zombie Books...

Zombie Chasers

All of a sudden one night, Zack's entire neighborhood turns into Zombies.  All except for Zack, his best friend Rex, and his sister's best friend Madison.  The three bond together to keep from being eaten alive, as they try to figure out the cause of the zombification and how to reverse it.  Undead Ahead picks up where Zombie Chasers ends except now it is the school that has been affected.  

Basement of the Undead

Lew, Gary and Lugnut venture into the basement of their school only to become trapped and discover what really lives under the floor of their school.

Gravediggers

Ian, PJ and Kendra get separated from their class during a nature camp hike and find that the woods are not as they seem.  Part horror, part survival, the three stumble upon a wall with mysterious symbols and then an abandoned cabin where they decide to bunk for the night.  Unfortunately, that is where the zombies find them and they must run for their lives to escape only to find out they are now labeled as "Gravediggers" and evil will continue to seek them out.    In Terror Cove, the three are targeted by evil forces while on a family vacation and discover a zombie colony even stronger than the one they fought in the woods.  

Side note:  This series is labeled as YA and is a much harder read then the other three I have mentioned.  I see this series for my strong 4th and 5th grade readers.