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?

Free Book Resources

With the celebration of Read Across America this week, I thought it would be good to share some online resources for accessing books for FREE!  I love these sites and use them often.  They have been especially handy when I need a little time filler or we have an unexpected indoor recess.  

We Give Books - We Give Books is a new digital initiative that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don't have them, simply by reading online.

We Give Books combines the joy of reading with the power of helping others, providing a platform for caregivers and educators to inspire children to become lifelong readers and lifelong givers.

We Give Books also helps some of the world's best, most inspiring, literacy organizations by spreading the word about their great work and by providing books to the young people these organizations support.

Storyline Online - A production of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, this site offers books read by actors and actresses.  They can also be found on schooltube here.  It seems that more are available on the schooltube link than the main link, so check it out. 

Barnes and Noble Storytime - Currently has 16 books available, most read by the authors.  A new book is added each month. 

Kids AOL - Stories read aloud, including some Arthur stories. 

A Story Before Bed - A collection of books read by their authors. 

International Children's Digital Library - Includes books from around the world in the native language and some translated to English.  This is a great site to introduce students to other reading/writing cultures. 

Online Video Sites - Try searching the book you want to share with your students on video sites such as YouTube, TeacherTube or SchoolTube.  I've been suprised to find some books that are out of print or books that I wanted to use, but didn't have on these sites being read aloud.  

Authors Web Sites - Go the the website of the book author.  Many authors have recordings of a few of their books on their own sites. 

Some other lists I came across: 

                  192 Sites for Free Children's Books Online

                  56 Places for Free Audio Books Online

As with any technology you share with your students, be sure to preview anything you want to share before showing it to students, especially any of the online video sites.  Sometimes videos look like what you want only to have the sound be completely inappropriate.  (I learned from experience folks, don't make the same mistake!)

Additionally, you can always record your own books.  You can use them as a new way to share books with your students or set them up as a center for students to access.  Try having parents, custodians, secretaries, lunch staff and administration record the books too.  Technology is so great now, take advantage of it.

Share with us how you use digital books in your classroom or other sites you use to share books with your students in the comments below or on our Facebook Page.

Kohls Cares Books - Eric Carle and Contest

Do you know about Kohls Cares program?  Kohls offers various books along with matching plush characters for $5 each.  The net profits are donated to support children's health ad education initiatives.  The titles change periodically (not sure exactly how often).  Right now, they are offering 4 Eric Carle books: The Very Busy Spider, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?, Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?, and 10 Little Rubber Ducks each with a matching plush character.  This would be a great way to add to your library and help out a good cause.  These are also fun for take home bags.  Send the book, character and a journal in a tote bag home with students.  Students read the book and journal either about they reflections after reading or about what they did with the character friend.

On another note, First Grade and Fabulous is having a SUPER giveaway contest.  You can win items from many different bloggers, including my making words pack.  Head on over there and enter before 10:00 pm Sunday, April 1st.

UCET and Jackie Robinson

I've been busy attending the UCET (Utah Coalition for Educational Technology) Conference this weekend and haven't posted for a few days.  Don't worry, I'll post some of the tidbits I learned while I was away over the next few weeks.

I wanted to share with you what I did (well what I planned and the substitute did) with my class and other students on Friday to celebrate Read Across America Day.  In the morning the entire school was cross grade grouped (K-6) into groups of about 17 students.  Students were given "passports" and they toured the U.S. "Reading Across America."  Every adult in the building represented a state and shared a book and an activity that somehow related to the state.  Students rotated 5 times, to visit 5 different states.  Each rotation lasted 20 minutes.  It's a little crazy, but a lot of fun.  I chose to represent Georgia.  I lived there for 2 years.  I discovered that Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia, so I focused on baseball.  I introduced a few facts about the state and then introduced Jackie.  Then read this great book Teammates   to the students and discussed it.  Then, each student created their own baseball card using this fun template.  Students drew a picture of themselves on the front and then wrote their "stats" on the back such as name, age, grade and hobbies.  I don't have pictures since I wasn't there, but I think it went well.

Remember the giveaway that I currently have going on.  

Go here to enter. 

 

We Give Books

This amazing online resource has hundreds of books available in an easy to project format for easy use with your projection system.  They are also easily read on the computer screen for at home viewing.  It is a foundation of the Pearson company and continually give books to new causes.  Currently, they are giving books to schools.  Click here to be taken to the site to sign up, just click on the orange button.  While you're there, check out all of the titles that are available.  They add more titles regularly.  Once the current campaign is over, you can select to read for a new campaign.  Not only is it a great resource for books at school an home, each time you read, you help give books.

Learning about Fluency

I've been a little distracted this week as I was voraciously reading this fabulous book:
 
I'm taking taking classes for my reading endorsement and my current class requires a project in the area of comprehension.  One of the comprehension strands we studied was Fluency, and I figured that was an area I wanted to do more with in my classroom.  The project is to develop at least 6 lessons in the area of focus.  One of the resources I chose to help me was The Fluent Reader (2nd Edition): Oral & Silent Reading Strategies for Building Fluency, Word Recognition & Comprehension.  I got it on Wednesday (thanks to Amazon's great shipping!), and finished it up last night.  It was an easy read and so practical!  I loaned it to my friend and classroom neighbor to read over the weekend.  I'm so excited to get started on my project lessons and thinking through how to better implement Fluency into my classroom next year.  What do you do to promote Fluency in your classrooms?
 

Story Book Thursday (A day Late)

Being sick threw off my schedule a bit, so here's storybook Thursday a day late.  One of my favorite childhood middle-grade books was Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.  One of my teachers read it aloud to our class and I have read it many times since; to myself and to my students.  It's one of those classics that I think students should have a taste of.
 
 Here's some other books in the series:
 

Story Share Thursday

 

This is a great story for simple predictions.  Here's Amazon's summary:

Who's Epossumondas? Why, he's his mama's and his auntie's sweet little patootie, that's who. He's also the silliest, most lovable, most muddleheaded possum south of the Mason-Dixon line!
Better choose your words wisely when he's around, 'cause otherwise you never know what you'll get. Epossumondas just might bring you a fist full of crumbs, or a soaking wet puppy, or a scruffy wad of bread--oh, you just wouldn't believe it!
Renowned storyteller Coleen Salley and Caldecott Honor illustrator Janet Stevens team up for this outrageous twist on the Southern story of the noodlehead who takes everything way too literally. (Or is that Epossumondas just pulling his mama's leg?)


It's even better if it's read in a southern accent.  My students loved Epossumondas and predicting what he would do next.  The very end is the best. 


Here's some other stories with Epossumondas: