Reading in the Wild Chapter 3

Be sure to click the picture above to be taken to other posts on this chapter.

Chapter 3 of Reading in the Wild is about readers sharing books and their reading with other readers.  My students share together when they read the same books in literature circles, but I haven't had anything in place for students to share their choice reading with each other.  I'm still figuring out edmodo, but am thinking this might be a good place for students to post reviews.  

I've been learning what a valuable connecting resource Twitter is this summer.  I started tweeting just a little at the end of last year with my students, but tweeting out to connect with authors and other classes to share book reviews would be a wonderful way to get students sharing with other readers and authors.  I learned from George Couros, a Canadian ed tech expert, at the Utah Technology Conference last spring that I could have students tweet from my account and just add the hashtags and student initials to the tweet.  I have so many things going on just with Dilly Dabbles, that adding another account would be crazy for me.  So, I just use tweet deck and have a student write the tweet, add his/her initials and the hashtags and then send it.  If you're really wanting to keep your blogging world a secret from your school, you'll want to set up an account just for your class.  I'm pretty out there now with my school, district and community, so I've just decided to go with it. You can find me and my class on twitter @dillydabbles.  Posts from my class will be tagged with #sierrabonitabears or #sierrabonita5 along with any other relevant tags. 

Ms. Miller mentions many other groups and websites available online as well.  Be sure to read this section to see what would be the best fit for your classroom.  

Another great way that my students might share their reviews is a quick video.  I do have 2 ipads in my classroom and should have 7 chromebooks this fall.  Students can record a quick review of their book and post it on our class website or to edmodo.  There are several apps that would allow students to do this without having to load it to a site like YouTube.  Fotobabble allows you to take a picture and then record a narration.  Students could take a picture of the book cover and then give the review. There are many other similar apps that could work for this.  Fotobabble saves the recording and gives a URL to access the saved file.  Students can share the URL on a blog for others to access. That could also be tweeted out or shared with other groups. 

How do you engage your students in sharing and conversing about reading? 

Reading in the Wild Summer Book Study Chapter 2

I am loving this book by Donalyn Miller.  The more I read, the more I love it.  Chapter 2 is focused on getting students to select reading material.  One of the main focuses of this chapter is on teacher read alouds.  

I LOVE reading aloud to my students and I'm always amazed at how much they pay attention while I read.  Students love it too.  It seems a few years ago there was quite the controversy as to whether time should be "wasted" in the classroom on read alouds.  I think many teachers knew the value of it and found ways to make it happen.  

I was never asked to drop read aloud, but was asked to make in "meaningful" by incorporating think alouds and comprehension discussions during the read aloud.  I think, however, that sometimes we just need to read for fun.  Students aren't going to learn the pleasure of reading themselves if they never have the opportunity to just read for pleasure.  For this reason, the sole purpose of my read aloud time is enjoyment. We do some light discussion generally, but it's not required and not the sole purpose of our reading.

Here's a list of the books I read to my class last year: (Links will take you to the books on Amazon.)

The Hundred Dresses

I start most years out with this one to establish a tone of community with my class. 

The Witches

Whole class, everyone had a copy.  I used this one a little differently than other read alouds, it's my model for responding in our reading journals and intro lessons to comprehension strategies.

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

I was able to attend a presentation by Kate DiCamillo in September 2014 where she talked about her new book.  So fun to hear all the background behind the story.  My students laughed through this book. 

Wonder

New to me this year, and wonderful!

Out of My Mind

New to me this year, recommended by a teammate, fabulous!

Because of Mr. Terupt

Again, new to me, recommended by Jen of Runde's Room, my students loved it.  There's a sequel that I opted not to read to my students nor have in my classroom library because of the nature of some of the situations.  The sequel might be best for Jr. High aged students. 

Next year I'm planning to start out with:

 The Hundred Dresses 

and then 

Maniac Magee, 

which will be the whole class shared reading like I did with The Witches.

Then we'll do a brand new book, The Fourteenth Goldfish, which comes out in August.

I was so blessed to receive an advanced copy of this book to read.  I stayed up all night last Tuesday to read it. I highly suggest it to any 3-6 student or class.  I'm joining the Global Read Aloud, which you can learn more about here.

What are your favorite read aloud books?

Reading in the Wild Summer Book Study Chapter 1

I'm also linking up with the Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller book study today.  Since this is the first time I'm linking up, I'm going to share my thoughts and reflections on all of chapter 1.  To see the schedule and read the posts from last week on the first half of chapter 1, see the book study landing and information page here.  It's hosted by Catherine at

Reading in the Wild is the perfect companion read to Notice and Note.  Notice and Note is all about helping students understand and comprehend the text and Reading in the Wild is about building students as readers; a perfect pairing.  I really appreciate all of the experience that Donalyn shares.  It's all about how it's worked for her in her classroom and she's not shy to admit that it might work differently for other teachers.  She shares examples of the forms she uses and blank ones, however she encourages teachers to adjust the forms to fit their style and needs.  This first chapter concentrates on noticing student reading habits and supporting students in developing better ones when needed.  I'm thinking that a reading inventory might be good for my students to do around late October and again maybe in February.  It would be great to compare the differences over time.  Donalyn suggests perhaps doing this in the spring, but I fear that's too late for students to recognize some patterns about themselves as readers.  In October, we're established enough in routines and expectations that I think it might be a good time to inventory, reflect and make some goals. 
I loved the idea of the reading time observation.  Making it more concrete by recording observations is just what I needed to hear.  I feel like I do a lot of anecdotal observing and assessing, but it would be so much more helpful to me to record it.  I've gotten away from that and this was a good reminder to me, not only for those I suspect of being fake readers, but in all aspects of my classroom and teaching. 
I also had an aha when Donalyn shared how she worked with "Nathan" after observing him.  Not only did she talk with him about specific ways to change and improve, they wrote the goals down.  Again, writing it down is key.  She says, "With students who struggle to complete books or set attainable reading goals, writing page goals into their planners or reader's notebook holds them accountable and helps them see that they will finish a book if they read a little bit each day."
She also validated my plans to have students respond and write about their reading using edmodo.  She mentioned doing exactly what I was planning to do, which really helped me know that I was going in the right direction.  
The final section of chapter 1 is about scheduling.  She shares her schedule and some additional options.  Again, she really iterates that you have to create a schedule that works for you.  Here's the schedule I had last year, including my language arts time.  I'll post about my schedule for next year when I have that figured out.  It all depends on when my principal schedules specialists and intervention times for us. 
Schedule in my classroom: 
9:00-10:10 Guided Reading and Literature Activities 10:15-11:25 Math 11:30 Specialists (Rotated among P.E., visual art, library, math extra, drama/music) 12:00 lunch 12:40 Shared reading (lesson from our basal text, Journey's) 1:10 Read Aloud 1:20 Writing 2:00 Recess 2:15 Science / Social Studies 3:15 Dismiss
What is your basic daily schedule?