It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I'm linking up with It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Currently, I'm reading books to get a suitable selection for my fourth graders to read as a book club related to Civil Rights. We will be completing project work focusing on the following essential question: How can conflict create change? I thought the kids would be able to really dig deep, thinking about this question through the lens of historical fiction while they are studying the Civil Rights Movement in social studies. I've read Glory Be, which is a keeper for our book club. Now I'm reading The Lions of Little Rock, and I'm loving it!

What are you reading? Do you have any suggestions for our book club? If so, leave them below as a comment.

When a Good Book Grabs You #SOL16

You know that moment.  I have this book. It's a rather big book. I've heard it's good. I love the author, Pam Munoz Ryan. I heard her speak two years ago and fell in love with her even more. This book has been on my "to read" list for quite a while. I haven't picked it up, until yesterday.

We have a group doing book club, so we met on Wednesday during advisory time to decide on what book or books we were going to read over the next couple of weeks. The students voted on four books, so we will have four groups going. Two out of the four I have read. Our list is Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (read and loved), Savvy (read and loved), Peak (haven't read but plan to read with my boys), Echo (haven't read but plan to read with my girls).

I have a copy of Echo in my classroom library, which I pulled when we were voting.

Yesterday, my kiddos were working on poetry and Echo was sitting on my table. No one needed me at that moment, so I opened the book - just to take a look, mind you. Well, that was that. I read the first few pages - the opener.  I WAS HOOKED! I continued through the first chapter and had to stop because it was the end of the day. BUMMER! We had to pack up and head to carpool.

I don't know that I can wait until after spring break to read this with my kiddos. Ryan really grabbed me from the very beginning. I already want to see what happens next.

I will try to wait, but really.....I think I will read it now and reread it with the girls:)

When We Get Stuck

I signed up for a Sixty Book Challenge this year. I've fallen behind already! I started a book due to reading the many, many, many recommendations from different bloggers I admire. It's a science fiction YA book, which I usually enjoy. I find I'm having trouble really connecting. I haven't reached that aha moment when a book really grabs you and you just want to read more. I'm only 60 pages in, but I feel like I shouldn't be struggling to pick it up this much. I am finding other things to do. I'm not crazy about the point of view and the narrator's voice. I have discovered that I tend to not enjoy books written in first person as much as third person. The character that narrates is a teenager, therefore she speaks like a teenager. I appreciate the true voice coming through, but for engagement - it's not happening. So I have a dilemma...do I plow ahead or do I abandon? I have a hard time abandoning. The guilt gets me...but I find I'm doing what my students do...I'm not reading. Any advice? What do you do when you get stuck in a book and have trouble moving forward?

Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers for hosting the Slice of Life!

Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley Book Trailer

I have fallen behind in my book trailer creations, so I got back to it this morning.

During the later part of the school year, I read all kinds of book buzz about Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley. I ordered my copy from Amazon and read it in June. It was wonderful! It was one of those books I just couldn't put down and finished in two days. I think this will be added to my read alouds for the year!

Writing About Reading - Round 2

A couple of weeks ago I participated in an online book group that read Cynthia Lord's A Handful of Stars. (If you haven't read it yet, pick it up immediately! It is an awesome book.) We were interested in our writing about our reading. We all have our students write about their reading, so we thought we'd practice what we have them do. It's not an easy task!

During the first book club, we all put our notes in a shared Google Doc. It was great being able to read everyone's thoughts. Many people took pictures of their notebooks and uploaded them into the document. It was great to see how differently everyone jots while reading. The other thing that I really enjoyed was reading everyone's notes and comments and being able to reply to other's comments. I found my thinking became much deeper and taken in new directions after reading the thoughts of others.

For the second round of book club, we broke up into groups of 3 to 4 and chose different books. My groups is reading Gordon Korman's Masterminds. Although we're only on chapter 10, this book is excellent! It really grabs you from the very beginning. We started with a shared Google Doc but someone from our last group introduced Padlet to us. If you have used it before, it's super easy to use and would be great for all kinds of things students can do in the classroom. So, most of us decided to try Padlet for taking notes this time. What I found so far is that by each of creating our own Padlet, we've lost the conversation feeling we had in the first book club. We're posting in our own Padlet page and then putting a link in the Google Doc. There is an option to share a Padlet page with others, so I'm hoping my group with either be willing to post together on one Padlet page or go back to the Google Doc. We'll see. I'm definitely still enjoying it, but I can tell my thinking isn't moving as much as it did the first time.

If you haven't tried Padlet, I would highly recommend it. It's super easy to use and would be very easy for the kids to pick up on and use.

Writng about Reading - A Handful of Stars by Cynthia Lord

A huge thank you goes to Julieanne Harmatz! She organized an online book club for teachers to practice what we want our students to do - write about reading. We used Cynthia Lord's new book, A Handful of Stars. Julieanne set up a Google Doc for each set of chapters we read and shared it with us so we were able to comment. It was like having a great conversation with friends!

First, let me just say this book is awesome. Second, sharing with this group of teachers was invaluable! It definitely reminded me how much better a book is when we get to share our thinking with others. By reading the thoughts of these smart women, it opened my mind and broadened my thinking into areas I didn't go on my own. It also made me think deeper when someone thought along the same lines about something that I did.

Julieanne asked us to choose one thing that really stuck with us through the book and to write about it, as this might be something we have our students do.

I'm including the picture of the front cover because my image of choice is Lucky. I think Lucky represents so much in this book. I'd like to focus on the theme of invisible vs seen/seeing. Lucky is going blind, and yet he sees clearly and opens the eyes of those around him, especially Lily. Lily says everyone knows the migrant workers are there, yet they're invisible to the townspeople, until Lucky goes charging off and Salma saves the day by enticing him with her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Lucky opens the door for friendship between Lily and Salma and Lily truly sees Salma, her family, and the workers. There is a conflict that continues throughout the story and resolved at the end having to do with friendship. Lily says at one point when she's with both Hannah and Salma, "I didn't know exactly who to be - the person I was with Salma or the one I was with Hannah." (78) Lucky just knows who is truly there. We see this again and again when he responds to someone entering the store or when Lily takes him somewhere. Lucky removes this cloak of invisibility of the character so the reader then gets to truly "see" the character. This theme is developed further when Salma enters the Downeast Blueberry Pageant, and the whole town "sees" Salma when she responds to the questions.

There is so much in this book. This is just a small snippet of the thoughts I had while reading. I found it valuable to figure out how I like to jot ideas/notes while reading, as well as see what worked for others. This, like so many other things we do, reminds me to give my students choice. What works best for them? I need to model different ways of jotting my thinking while reading, let them practice, and then let them choose what works best for them - and perhaps that might change, which is okay, too. I also realized that as much as I really enjoy writing about my reading, I really enjoy talking about it more. It takes a lot of effort to put my thoughts and ideas into writing, and honestly, sometimes I want to stop before I'm finished with my thinking. I need to remind myself of this, too, when I'm having my students write. I think I see this often when I know I can have a great discussion with my kids about our reading, but then when I read their writing, it's surface level. I am thinking about how to focus their writing which might make it more manageable for them and not overwhelming.

This has been a great experience. I have really loved the sharing of ideas and collaboration. We're continuing with a final Twitter chat to discuss this idea of writing about reading on Tuesday night at 7:30 EST #WabtR. Join us!

Summer Reading: Jinx by Sage Blackwood

The third book that I have read from my Sasquatch 2015 nominee list is Jinx by Sage Lockwood. This was a great book - very entertaining all the way through.

I've been creating book trailers to share with my kids, but this one already had a great one.

I just picked up the second book in this series, Jinx's Magic. I'm excited to see what happens in this one.

I'm always looking for book recommendations. What are you reading?

Reading Strategies Book by Jen Serravallo and Professional Development

Last week I received one of the books I ordered to read for professional development over the summer - Jennifer Serravallo's new book: Reading Strategies Book. I then discovered a group on Facebook that was discussing the book, so I joined. One of the group members was getting a group going using the VOXER app, so I downloaded the app and joined that, too. If you haven't used Voxer before, it's super easy. You can make audio recordings of your thoughts and post, create written posts, or use the walkie feature. I don't enjoy hearing my own voice, so I've opted to use the writing feature so far. We have only read the first chapter, but there has been some great conversation so far. 

If you're interested, search Reading Strategies Book Group on FB and you'll find us. We're moving on to chapter 2 this week. Don't let that scare you away though. If you join Voxer send a message to Kathryn through Voxer after you download it - kteach364, that way she'll have your Voxer username and can add you right away. The posts are in chronological order and you can go through and listen to a few to see if the topic is of interest or just pick up on the current day. There are over 100 people, but so far only a few of us are posting. I'd love to hear from more people! 

The book is really great. As Jen described it herself - it's a bit like a cookbook - filled with strategies to develop skills for readers. The book is divided by reading goals. I think it's going to be a great resource in my classroom this year, and because this will be my first year as Language Arts Department Chair, I think it will be a great resource for me to share with others in my school!!

What are you reading for pd this summer?