Category Archives: Celebrate this Week

Celebration: All is better with a little gold dust

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celebrate link up

Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

I had a fantastic week back with my students. I think all of us were thrilled to be together again after a two week break, learning and sharing. I have many things to celebrate this week!

1. I loved all of the #MustReadin2014 spring updates shared by a wonderfully keen reading community. The Must Read phenomenon was born out of an attempt to gain some control over unruly TBR lists that grow and grow! Check out my update and links to update posts here. Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo is one of my favourite books read so far from this list. Maybe even more special because I read it aloud to my children and we all loved it.

Celebration: All is Better with a Little Gold Dust

2. I was thrilled to have a Nerdy Book Club post published this week. I saw a request from Colby Sharp for some retro review posts to be shared on twitter a few weeks ago. I have written some other Nerdy posts but never one in this category. I asked Colby if I could share something a little different instead of a review of one specific title. I wanted to go “retro” and look back at titles treasured with my children (now 11!) when they were preschool age. It was a nostalgic look back at books we adored. Read the post here.

Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge Celebration: All is Better with a Little Gold Dust

3. I read the powerful picture book Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson illustrated by E.B.Lewis to my class this week.The reactions and comments were quite incredible. I think I might share some of their thinking and writing on our classroom blog. But the most interesting moment came with the ending. If you have read this book, you know that it ends with Chloe standing at the shore of the pond feeling a mix of regret, sadness and guilt. Her opportunity to offer kindness to Maya is gone. The story ends with these words:

“I watched the water ripple as the sun set through the maples and the chance of a kindness with Maya was becoming more and more forever gone.”

At first there was silence in the room and then one girl erupted, “What?! That’s terrible! It’s a terrible ending!” “It’s not terrible. It’s just not happy so it’s confusing a bit,” someone else added. Another child piped up,”It makes you think about drama and saying sorry. It makes us think. It’s good.” As we were getting ready to move on to Reading Workshop, another child said, “I liked it. I have been waiting for a bad ending in a book. Not bad like not good but every ending shouldn’t be happy – that’s not how life is.” This little girl asked me to help her find a new novel and we kept talking about the story. I asked her if she wanted to put her thoughts into a reader’s statement (we have a huge wall of these posted on a bulletin board). She came up with something that I think is quite brilliant:

Readers can’t always expect a happy ending.

That books inspire discussions and thinking like this – this, I celebrate!

Celebration: All is Better with a Little Gold Dust

4. Ah . . . book love! My students were happy to be back to our classroom full of books. I sensed it on Monday morning when an instant hush fell upon the room when we started Reader’s Workshop. I did “book commercials” for new books all week and this generated lots of excitement.

I felt the book love when I saw “who reads it next” lists being created and stuck to new books.

Celebration: All is Better with a Little Gold Dust

I felt it as I observed the wonderful engagement of one to one time with various adults who listen to children read and talk about stories and thinking with the students.

Celebration: All is Better with a Little Gold Dust

I sensed it when listening to the the buzz around the book bins during buddy reading time with the K/1 class.

Celebration: All is Better with a Little Gold Dust

Ah .  . . book love!

5. If you have hung in reading this very long Celebration post (it was a wonderful week!), here is the pot of gold 🙂 One of our students makes a lot of paper objects and sculptures all throughout the day. It helps him to focus and listen. We started thinking . . . Wouldn’t it be great to showcase some of his work? Wouldn’t it be better if it was spray painted gold? Absolutely! Here is the young artist at work, gold paint in action!

Celebration: All is Better with a Little Gold Dust

And here is the installation. Thank you to the amazing Miriam (the Support Worker who I get to work with every day!) for her huge role in displaying and advertising the “piece.” There are flyers pasted up all over the school! When this boy’s Mom came in to see this art and got hugely proud and teary, we all got teary. It was a moment.

Celebration: All is Better with a Little Gold Dust

I celebrate all the many ways this is golden . . .

What are you celebrating this week?

Celebration: Time to . . .

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Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

I am now at the end of a two week Spring Break holiday and I am happy to celebrate time to . . .

Do the things I don’t always have time to do! Like:

Reclaim my garden from winter’s coverings and a few years of post-reno neglect. I know that the gardening bug has bit me again full force because my head is full of thoughts like this:

  • “If I make a big fruit salad, I will have more peels to put into the compost . . . “
  • “This rain is so good for the plants I just divided and transplanted.”
  • “How should I mark where I want to put bulbs in this fall?”

Celebration: Time to . . .

Tackle the to do list This week I cleaned my closet, organized kitchen drawers, compiled receipts and sorted clothes my children have outgrown.

Visit the bookstore! I love nothing more than hours at the bookstore (Kidsbooks here in Vancouver is one of my very favourite places) to explore. I inevitably lose my children numerous times. My daughter is pretty easy to find. She is usually nestled into a corner reading – lost only in a book that has captured her.

Celebration: Time to . . .

Read a novel with my children and keep reading when they beg for one more chapter 🙂

We are now just chapters away from finishing the highly engaging final book in the Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen – The Shadow Throne.

Celebration: Time to . . .

Write posts that have been swirling about in my head. This week I wrote a post called What also happens here? This post addresses what we don’t often write about as teachers – the upset in the room.

Celebration: Time to . . .

 

What have you celebrated this week?

Celebration: Stories, Special Days and Spring cleaning (no, not windows)

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Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

celebrate link up

Stories

I can’t think of a week where I don’t celebrate the power of stories and connections through stories.

This week I celebrate sharing my student’s comments and responses to Soccer Star written by Mina Javaherbin and illustrated by Renato Alarcão (to be released in April of 2014). Such a special title – my students’ reactions reveal how wonderful this title is to share in the classroom. Thank you to Mina for making sure I got a copy of this book to have in my classroom. It is already treasured.

Soccer Star Celebration: Stories, Special Days and Spring Cleaning There's a Book for That

I also celebrate being mentioned here with such a lovely compliment by one of my favourite authors Deborah Heiligman on the INK blog this week. Thank you to Deborah for honouring my love of nonfiction and my love of my students. I especially love connecting the two! This post reveals exactly how magical Deborah’s book The Boy who Loved Math was in my classroom.

Celebration: Stories, Special Days and Spring Cleaning There's a Book for That

Special Days

Don’t ask my husband because he will not be able to tell you but . . . it was in fact 17 years ago today that I walked down the aisle in a green dress carrying a bouquet of white tulips to the song The Girl from Ipanema and married this man I share my life with. Two beautiful children, lots of strong cups of morning coffee and many memories later, I am happy to celebrate this day! Here he is below (casting for hours) when we celebrated our anniversary last year at our favourite place to rent in the San Juan Islands.

Celebration: Stories, Special Days and Spring Cleaning There's a Book for That

Spring Cleaning (not windows and baseboards but gardens and blogs)

In the garden . . . A few years ago we renovated our house and my lovely garden survived but just barely. Life has been busy (working full time doesn’t lend itself to morning coffee and gardening mid week!) and it is only now that I am truly trying to revive the spaces I love so much. This transformation has no budget so it is basically going like this: Has it survived? Split it, move it, celebrate it. Right now, this involves a lot of cutting back, weeding and contemplating.

Celebration: Stories, Special Days and Spring Cleaning There's a Book for That

On the blog . . .

I have finally had time to deal with all of my little notes to myself to add to certain lists, update posts, etc. on this blog.

In the last few days, I updated these lists with new titles.

Big issue Titles

The appeal of a series: Hook some young readers!

Death & Bereavement

I also had a chance to post this post: Make the Time: 15 things that matter It was something that has been rolling around in my head for a while and with all of the gardening, it came together. I would love if anyone in the Celebration community would like to add a comment on the post. I have the feeling many of you would have much to share. Many thanks!

Celebration: Stories, Special Days and Spring Cleaning There's a Book for That

Celebration: Children’s Art

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Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

celebrate link upThis week I had a visit from someone that spent a lot of time in my classroom last year. She walked into the class, paused and took in all of the wall space and displays.  “I just love all of the art in this classroom. It is always so amazing.” she commented. Yes, I thought, I think so too!

The art all over our walls and on display in the hallways speaks to our spirit, our creativity and our community. Making art together every week is a happy time. Time to talk, to problem solve, and to share. We often have three to four projects on display at once. Often a picture book has been an inspiration for these projects. I also regularly read a variety of art blogs for great ideas.

This week, I am sharing some final projects as well as some in process photos of art projects created in my classroom over the last 12 months or so. I celebrate the art my students produce! It is always a source of joy.

I hope it brings as much happiness to you as it does to us to be surrounded by colour and creativity everyday!

We did gorgeous cityscape pieces last spring using black construction paper, glue lines and vibrant chalk pastel. Our inspiration for these pieces was the book by Robert Neubecker‘s Wow! City! More about this project here.

Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

We were inspired by the “eyepatch” page in Calef Brown’s book Pirateria. Fabulous pirates guarded our hallway after everyone got to work on making some amazing pirate art. More about this project here.

Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

Mini Grey‘s The Very Smart Pea and the Princess-to-Be was part of the inspiration for some princess and pea inspired art. More about this project here.

Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

The book Ten Little Beasties by Ed Emberley was the inspiration for a project to make our own beasties. Lots of colour, lots of fun.

Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

What is Halloween without amazing witches? More about this project here.

Witches Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

I have a thing for owls. Last year we did three projects about owls in art. This year, I just couldn’t resist sneaking one in. More about this project here.

Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

We are VERY fortunate to have Arts Umbrella come in and do a project with us almost every year. This year we did huge insect art. Stunning!

Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

We finished up some gorgeous winter castles in January and added some writing to go with the final pieces on display. I love working really large with projects!

Winter castles Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

For Valentines and Kindness week, my class made Love Robots. Programmed to love. What could be sweeter?

Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

And sometimes art going on display is not a class project, but a body of work by one child. This is an in process photo for a project to be on display after our Spring Break. Thanks to the brilliant inspiration of Miriam, who shares these wonderful children with me, to bust out the gold spray paint!

Celebration: Children's Art There's a Book for That

May your week be filled with colour, creativity and joy!

Celebration: Bookish Things

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Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

This week I am celebrating bookish things. Unfortunately, my family and I have been ill for much of the week – so my week started with a bang and ended much quieter. Book lovers know though that illness creates opportunity for much reading!

#1 Last Saturday I had the opportunity to attend Western Washington’s Children Literature Conference (#wwuclc). What an absolutely fantastic and enlightening day!

First of all I was thrilled to meet #NerdybookClub members: L to R Lorna Wheaton, Adam Shaffer, me, and Shannon Houghton). I know all of these people through twitter and blogging but had never had the opportunity to meet in person. It is amazing how sharing love a love of literature and being passionate about sharing that #booklove has the power to connect. We had much to talk about and share! Hoping that we can all meet again at the next literacy conference in Washington (#wwuclc15)

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

I also did some book shopping. Surprise, surprise! But how could I resist? Our hotel was right across from Village Books and the very same Village Books was selling books by all of the author/photographer/illustrators at the conference.

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

I had wanted to share many things about this conference but being ill has sapped much of my energy. I will let these names speak for themselves: Jennifer Holm. Steve Sheinkin. Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Nic Bishop. I will say that I was completely engrossed in each presentation, in awe of the stories and the passion. I haven’t had such an inspiring or entertaining day for some time. 

I was also honoured to have the chance to introduce photographer/author Nic Bishop. I have been telling my students stories he shared in his presentation all week. My stomach hurt from laughing at his explanations for just how he has taken some of the pictures he has. Before this, I was as curious as my students. We had spent time with Nic Bishop books– many fun ones – Butterflies and Moths, Lizards, Spiders, Frogs, Snakes. I asked the children to explore the books with these questions in mind:

How were these photographs taken?

What skills (besides photography) would the photographer need?

What would be the rewards in this kind of work?

What would be the challenges?

Here are some samples of their questions and observations:

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

#2 Kirby Larson If you don’t know that Kirby Larson is pretty amazing, let me just remind you. Yes, because she writes some incredible books. But also because she sends some pretty significant mail. There is a story here that I can’t completely share. I will just say that this package contained a book that was for a child who needed it for many different reasons. Three adults were able to bear witness to the opening of this package. And . . . wow. Books are gifts. Which makes authors beyond the beyond. Thank you Kirby.

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

#3 Adrienne Gear is my very lovely book loving Vancouver friend who eats books and adores them as voraciously as I do. But she also shares her incredible teaching talent with others through her Reading Power books for teachers. Adrienne’s literacy workshops are some of the most inspiring and feel good (because she is so charming) workshops I have ever attended. This week, Vancouver Kidsbooks hosted a book launch for Adrienne’s fourth book: Nonfiction Writing Power. Check out Adrienne’s website. Buy her book. I happily have all four in my professional collection. Congratulations Adrienne!

Here is the invite from Kidsbooks for Adrienne’s launch and includes images of all of her books:

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

#4  Books, books, books! When life gives you time in bed, take time to read. I’m sure that’s a saying somewhere . . . Well time I had, so in two days of resting I finished one novel and read 5 more. What could be better than that? I will review these titles in my upcoming #IMWAYR post

Celebration: Bookish Things There's a Book for That

Hoping all of you had much to celebrate this week!

Celebration: A rich reading life

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Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

This week, we had a Professional Day in my District and I went to this event: Krashen Redux where I got to virtually watch a Steven Krashen talk and have numerous “discussion” breaks to talk about what we were thinking/learning in response. This was a fantastic morning with rich discussion about what the research reveals about free voluntary reading and what exactly makes a difference for children.

At our table, we talked about the importance of not just access to books and time to read them but also about how essential classroom climate is to help students become avid readers. High school teachers talked about reading when their students read to be models. When my students are reading, I am listening in and conferencing with different children. It is not about reading in front of my students that is the key piece – it is about the personal reading that I do at other times. I need to be a passionate reader who knows books so that I can book talk books, generate excitement and put the right book in the hands of the reader who needs it.  I also need to share my reading life. I tell my students about books I am reading to my children. I share with them about fantastic picture book discoveries I made at the library, books that followed me home from the bookstore and books that kept me up half the night. My students know I am a reader because I share this part of my life fully with them.

So today I am celebrating my rich reading life. Right now I am reading:

My current novel:  Listening for Lucca by Suzanne LaFleur

Listening for Lucca Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

The novel I am reading to my children: The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen

The-Shadow-Throne Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

Nonfiction titles I am reading to my children: The Animal Book by Steve Jenkins and Saving the Ghost of the Mountain: An Expedition Among Snow Leopards in Mongolia  written by Sy Montgomery with photographs by Nic Bishop.

The animal book Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

Saving the Ghost of the Mountain Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

The novel I am reading to my students: Rump by Liesl Shurtliff

Rump Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

Nonfiction titles we have on the go in the classroom:

  • Sophie Scott Goes South by Alison Lester 
  • Lifetime written by Lola Schaefer and illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
  • Down, Down, Down by Steve Jenkins

Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

Lifetime Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

With my student book club (grades 4 to 7): Just starting Jinx by Sage Blackwood

Jinx Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

With my Junior Book club (grades 2 and 3): Charlotte’s Web written by E.B. White

charlotte's web Celebration: A rich reading life There's a Book for That

And then of course there are the picture books that are everywhere. Titles I read at breakfast, while folding laundry, while waiting for my daughter at her class, while brushing my teeth, etc., etc., etc.,

So many books to celebrate! I feel lucky to have such a rich reading life and amazing reading communities to celebrate with like #IMWAYR,  #nfpb2014 and #nerdybookclub

Read anything great lately? Please share!

Celebrating: Truths

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Celebrating Truth There's a Book for That

Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

This week I am celebrating truth. Three pieces of the truth.

Truth that just needs to come out. Truth that speaks to our hearts. Truth that is uttered so beautifully by children.

Truth #1 In the last few years I have learned an important lesson a few times over. Sometimes we need to write to have our truths have weight. More than venting, more than organizing our thinking, writing is also about being read. It is about the response. It is about knowing that someone else might feel the same.

Last week I wrote a post, that for me, needed to be written. In fact, it had been brewing for quite some time: The Part That is True This post talks about Harry, a student who needs flexibility, compassion and respect, not judgement and rejection. The amazing response – via twitter, blog comments and sharing gave me strength and hope. There are many Harrys who need us all.

Thank you to everyone for honouring Harry and how much he matters.

Truth #2 Mid week, I came across this brilliant piece by author and parent Anne Ursu. I love Anne’s novels. Her words are magical. But her voice extends far beyond the world of fiction and speaks to how we treat each other and how we raise our children to understand their peers. Thank you Anne for this: On Autism, Birthday Cards and Empathy It is an absolute must read.

Truth #3 Listen to children talk about big issues and it can be kind of amazing. Especially because they have no idea they are talking about something big. They are just talking about their world – what they wonder, what they notice, what they think. So they talk in terms stripped of jargon, careful word choice and apologies. They just call it. This is part of why I love my job. Children’s voices.

Here’s the story I want to share: My Teacher Librarian and I met with our Gr 2/3 book club today to discuss our book Charlotte’s Web. One child talked about how even though it was fiction, it was kind of cool that we were learning about animals. Then we started talking about how many books have animal characters. We actually looked through a stack of picture books recently read by guest readers. Many of them featured animals. The conversation turned to why. Are animals easier to draw? Do authors/illustrators think we don’t want to see human characters in books? This brought us to what had been some of the most powerful books in our class this year. We realized many of these stories had human characters.

This is a long story to get here: One girl shared,

“But why do the illustrators not draw enough mixed/ different skin? Why don’t they show people from different places? It kind of makes me mad because there are lots of different colours of skin in our class. Lots of books don’t look like they have very real classrooms.”

Then these girls (five girls, all from a different ethnic background, it just so happens) put their arms next to each other and smiled about how all of their skin had different colours.

In this discussion about the big topic of diversity or lack of it in our picture books, not one child mentioned race, ethnicity or culture. They just talked about the colour of their skin: celebrated all of the different hues and lamented that they didn’t see this in lots of picture books. Simply, their truth.

I told this to my husband later and he noted how wonderful it is that these children didn’t see colour in a way that leads to judgement. Instead they boasted about how wonderful it is that we have lots of colours of skin in our room.

*Just before our session ended, one girl grabbed a recent read aloud, Emily’s Art by Peter Catalanotto and we all looked at the first few pages of the children sitting at the carpet.

“Oh he did a good job. Look there are lots of skin colours with these kids. This classroom looks real.”

From Emily's Art Celebrating Truth There's a Book for That

Celebrating Gratitude

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Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

This week I want to celebrate the gratitude that happens in my classroom every week.

I teach a Grade 2/3/4 class of delightful and compassionate children. Here are some of them sending some PEACE to the world after their hip hop performance today.

Celebrate Gratitude There's a Book for That

Every week, at least once, we have a Gratitude Circle and pass a special stone. On the first go around some children might not share (they can say “Pass”). But as the stone comes around again, everyone always takes a turn. We talk about how sharing your gratitude (big or small) is a gift and hearing other people’s gratitude lifts us up.

In our circle on Tuesday, one of our girls said:

“I am grateful for all of the gratefulness in the room.”

This statement stopped us in our tracks for a moment. What a profound observation. What a beautiful community we have created. Because it lifts me up every week, I am sharing some of the precious gratitude statements I got to hear this week here. What better thing to celebrate?

“I am grateful . . .

  • ” . . . for the new nonfiction books and all of the other books in our room.”
  • ” . . . because it is almost my Mom’s birthday.”
  • ” . . . for yoga because it calms us down.”
  • ” . . . because we are going to do a Hip Hop performance and we can Krump!”
  • ” . . . for the Rump book because we all love it and it is so fun.” (Oh how we love you, Liesl Shurtliff!)
  • ” . . . for people who can be kind to each other.”
  • ” . . . for my family.”
  • ” . . . for Valentines day and love.”
  • ” . . . for all the teachers and adults who help us at our school.”

Wishing everyone a week full of moments to stop and be grateful. Thank you for celebrating with me!

Celebration: Different Days

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celebrate link up

Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

This week I am celebrating different days. Each day this week had something out of the ordinary and it made for quite a lovely week with lots to be grateful for each day. Change brings new perspectives and insights. For this, I am grateful.

On Monday, which just so happened to be Family Literacy Day, my children came to school with me. They had a Professional Day at their school and wanted to come hang out in my classroom. They were involved in lots of literacy activities and did a wonderful job supporting and connecting with my students.

Celebration: Different Days There's a Book for That

Tuesday afternoon is typically quite busy in my classroom. This week, we worked on having a very calm p.m. We finished art/writing projects and everyone felt very proud about getting all of our art up on the walls. A sample of student art work – gorgeous winter castles.

Celebration: Different Days There's a Book for That

On Wednesday, we celebrated outside winter play with the FunMobile sponsored by Participaction.

What fun my class had playing outside with our little buddies from Mr. Blanchard’s K/1 class. Lots of activity, much laughter and some creativity with cones . . .

Celebration: Different Days There's a Book for That

On Thursday we celebrated science with Lisa and Nelly, our amazing volunteer scientists from the Let’s Talk Science Program. Students learned how to use different equipment to measure liquids. Celebration: Different Days There's a Book for That

On Friday I had the opportunity to celebrate my own learning with an amazing Professional Development Day. Pat Johnson and Katie Keier authors of Catching Readers Before They Fall were in Vancouver for a full day of presentations and discussions.

catching readers

I could write a LOT about things I took away from this session but I am going to try and limit it to my top ten takeaway comments/ideas/questions/inspirations. Note – these come from sessions with both Pat and Katie.

1. If a child is struggling with a word when reading, don’t help by prompting with the same strategy – use a different one. (i.e. if child is sounding out and not getting word, don’t say “try the other vowel sound” – instead, use a meaning or syntax prompt)

2. Be careful about our language – not “This is what good readers do” but instead ” Readers . . . ” when we talk about the habits/strategies of readers.

3. Our assessment should focus on what it is the child does when stuck. What strategies does he/she have? Which does he/she need to learn?

4. Use Reader’s Statements with your students to communicate what readers do. For example: Readers think about what they read or listen to or Readers make sure what they read makes sense I am already thinking about what statements I want to highlight with my students and where to post these in the room. 

5. Think about the difference between heavy handed strategy teaching and “spotlighting” certain strategies. Integrate strategies because all readers need all of them. There shouldn’t be a continuum where certain comprehension strategies are taught at certain grades.

6. Don’t skip/rush the shared demonstrations. Children need the “do it with me” time. Some need more practice and explicit support linking back to these lessons as they are developing independence with the strategies.

7. The children who struggle (who don’t have a reading processing system happening) do not realize that other readers have all of these things going on while they read – make thinking explicit in modelled read alouds

8. Really think about what fluency means. It is not just speed and accuracy. It is also phrasing, flow, punctuation, expression, etc. Use text to show how punctuation “tells us how to read it”  in shared demonstrations to talk about fluency.

9. Effective literacy programs are anchored in best practices but responsive to today’s world. Think about  purposes for reading/writing when thinking about using new technologies i.e. blogging and sharing with school community, wider world, responding to comments, etc

10. When thinking about having children use technologies – think about a shift from children thinking about technology as a toy to using it as a tool. Is what we are teaching helping our students become literate? Help them be creators/producers and not just consumers.

I also loved that in Pat’s a.m. session she referred to one of my favourite blog posts on the Catching Readers blog: Signal Words This is a great post full of ideas about how to assist students learn how to read nonfiction texts.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

Celebrating readers and writers

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Celebration honoured. This is the loveliest of reasons to share. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week.

This week I am celebrating my young readers and writers. They are learning to express opinions, celebrating writing they love and savouring reading experiences. Sharing a few moments here:

1. I am currently reading Rump by Liesl Shurtliff to my students. Students adore this book wholly and completely.

Proof #1: I have to reread parts aloud to students at recess, after school, during playtime, etc. if someone happened to be out of the room when we read aloud that day.

“I missed the last part of the chapter when my Mom picked me up early, can you read it to me this morning?”

Proof #2: I finished our chapter seconds before the 3:00 bell the other day and one child grabbed the book to her chest. “Please can I hug it now?!” she swooned.

Proof #3: Very little can cause silence in my classroom. When I start reading this book aloud, magical silence descends.

Rump Celebrating Readers and Writers There's a Book for That

2. We often talk about what happens when we put the the right book in the hands of a reader. I realized this week that sometimes this magic also happens when we match the right readers together to share some great books. Every week, we have buddy reading with the K/1 class. While we assign buddies for the day, they might be different each week. This little moment captured in the photo below made me realize that sometimes, we can also find the right buddy match. I think I will be making this match again.

Celebrating Readers and Writers There's a Book for That

3. I often ask students for perspective statements when I know that anxiety might rise around regular things that happen throughout the day. Often when I booktalk new books, many children decide that their day will be ruined if they do not get to be the first one to read a particular book. When you are seven, eight and nine, big drama happens over many things. While I appreciate the book love, the upset does nothing for classroom climate or individual well being. So now I ask for perspective statements. It goes something like this.

Me: “Not everyone can be first to read these new books. Can anyone share a perspective statement?”

Student responses:

“Maybe you can be the one to read it next?”

“I can ask to read it after.”
“We have a room full of books.”

“We’ve got a whole year left to read everything we want.”

I smile with each little share. Students also do this to facilitate solving things:

Celebrating Readers and Writers There's a Book for That

4. I have a some major Shel Silverstein fans in my classroom. They have bookmarked favourite poems and read aloud to each other in Reading Workshop. I haven’t been sharing much poetry lately and certainly haven’t read Silverstein aloud more than twice all year. This is all about independently discovering great writing, being inspired and sharing the #booklove.

Celebrating Readers and Writers There's a Book for That

5. I read The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig to my class this week. I am working on a blog post to try and capture the insightful comments and the writing shared. It was a pretty powerful read aloud session. This picture below says a lot.

“Can I read it to myself now?”

Celebrating Readers and Writers There's a Book for That6. Every week we write book reviews for new books that weekly guest readers bring in to share with us. We rate the books out of 5 and share our thinking. One of my little writers gave a book a 2/5 and told me she didn’t have much to say. I asked her to explain her lower than average rating and she gave me a little look like I had just given her permission for something she thought she wasn’t allowed to do. Here is what she then added to her review:

It was nice but not that exciting. The problem is too easily solved. I would like to read a story with not a really happy ending sometimes.

I feel lucky every week to be in a room of readers and writers that are growing in amazing ways.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!