Monday, September 26, 2016

New Books

Greetings!

Some of you have been asking for new books. I have three to share with you today that we are using for our Sunflower Award. I am partnering with our seventh and eighth grade language arts teacher who is giving advanced reading credit to any and all students who read a minimum of twelve of our Sunflower books. These three are all published in 2016, so they are quite new and most likely your students will not have read them. Although we are saving them for the seventh and eighth graders, you will likely have students in the fifth and sixth grades that will enjoy them, as well.


Kid Owner by Tim Green
Take Ryan, 12-year-old boy who wants to play middle school football, add in a mother who does not want her son to play football. Then add in a father that Ryan never knew who unexpectedly dies and leaves to Ryan the Dallas Cowboys football team. Of course, Ryan is thrilled beyond belief, but owning the Cowboys does not bring him friendship. He now has many more complicated problems to deal with and then to top it off, he must deal with a jealous stepmother and half-brother he knew nothing about. His stepmother wants her son to have the Cowboys and is working the legal system to get this inheritance changed. What will happen to Ryan? Will he remain the ‘kid owner’ or will the football team be taken from him?


A Bandit’s Tale: The Muddled Misadventures of a Pickpocket by Deborah Hopkinson
Rocco, an 11-year-old boy, is sold by his parents to a *padrone and brought to the United States from Italy to work in the streets. His family believes the padrone is honorable man and do not realize that Rocco must entertain people in the streets trying to earn money. The padrone takes the money and if Rocco and the other boys do not bring in at least a dollar a day, they are beaten, starved, and punished in other ways. Rocco meets a pickpocket and thinks that he would be better off if he begins to include this new method of earning money. Is Rocco a poor boy sold to a villain or is he a scoundrel who deserves what he gets?
This story by Deborah Hopkinson takes the reader back to nineteenth century New York where we learn what it was like to live back then. Child labor, immigration, animal cruelty are all topics that are addressed in this story.
*a contract labor system that many immigrants used to find employment in the United States.


Sweet Home Alaska by Carole Estby Dagg
Terpsichore loves Laura Ingalls Wilder books and wants to be a pioneer. Her chance comes when the family decide to move from Wisconsin to Alaska to be pioneers. Terpsichore is loving this new adventure and falls in love with Alaska. The only problem is her mother who is homesick for Wisconsin and polite society. Terpsichore hatches a plan to convince her mother that Alaska can be a wonderful, civilized home.
This story is based on Alaska’s real life Palmer Colony.

I will have more in a few weeks. I just need to get them read, first. Thank goodness I have some parents who help read them for me!

Have a great week!

Audrey

Monday, September 19, 2016

Motivating Reading

Greetings!

I have a real burden for encouraging children to read in their leisure time. I discovered I was really good at this when I first started teaching in a two teacher school in Tallahassee, FL. . I had seventeen students in grades 5 – 8. All my students could read, but only one or two really would read. I implemented three simple and easy things in my classroom and by the end of the year all but one student (who had learning differences) were reading well and enjoyed it. Over the four years I was there, parents and grandparents came to me and expressed their appreciation for helping their children learn to enjoy reading.

My three simple and easy things are simple and easy because they do not require any lesson plans, very little preparation, and students learn quickly to love reading which really makes them lifelong readers.

What are these simple and easy things? I have mentioned these in previous posts, but I also believe that it does not hurt to repeat them every now and then.

Simple Thing 1: I had a Sustained Silent Reading time every day. Call it what you like, but have it every day. Schedule it like your other classes. Do not treat it like a leftover activity that you’ll do if you have time. If you are running low on time, shorten your time for that day, but please do not skip it if at all possible. By putting it on the schedule, you are silently telling students that this is important. If you skip it regularly, you send the message that it is not very important. If it is not on the schedule, it can be easy to forget. (My ‘rules’ for the silent reading time are listed at the end of this email.)

In my classes, this time is silent and students and I are reading. Students get ready by getting enough books or reading material to have at their desks so they don’t have to get up and get more. If you allow students to get up to get more, they distract others and little reading is done. When you first start this, there will be some students who do not judge what they will need and do run out. I am reading my book, too, but I watch for these students out of the corner of my eye. I have done one of two things. I myself get up and give them a few books. I have also stopped my timer – I have to set a timer or I will not stop in time – allow the student to go get books, then I ask if everyone is ready to resume our reading time, and start the timer again. This helps students to realize that the time is important and students seldom run out of books the next time. I also ask before we begin, if everyone thinks they have enough for the reading time.

With my students in grades 5 – 8, I started this with just 10 minutes. After a couple of weeks, it was routine and we talked about adding another 5 minutes. We worked up to 20 minutes by the end of a month or so, and kept it there. With my 3rd graders, I started with 5 minutes and at the end of a week or two I added another 5 minutes, and we worked up to 20 minutes every day by the end of two months or so. Believe it or not, they loved it. Extra reading time was a prize they asked for and worked toward as a class. We had special Reading Days about once a month usually on a Friday morning. Students could bring a pillow or blanket and snuggle under their desks and we’d read for 30 minutes. Can you imagine your students asking for extra reading time? It can happen.

Simple Thing 2: I read aloud to them every day. I read for worship from a book, I read after lunch from another book, and I read in between times when it worked out. Now, I am a good oral reader. Not everyone is skilled at this. I understand, but children of all ages need to hear books ready by an accomplished reader. If you don’t feel comfortable with reading or don’t feel that you do it well, you can begin with listening as a classroom to books on tape read by professional readers. If you have an Audible subscription, you can get lots of books there. If you feel that you cannot afford this, it may be that some of your parents will purchase books on tape for the school. Check out your local public library and see what they have. Check out used bookstores. It may be that you find books on tape there, too.

Simple Thing 3: I took them to the library. At my school in Tallahassee, we did not have a large school library, so I piled some in my car and another parent piled some in her car – (that was so long ago, that we were not yet required to have seatbelts on every child!) and we drove the 3 miles to the public library. Every student got a library card and for the two students who did not live in town, I put their books on my card. We went every two weeks and they checked out books. This was difficult to arrange, but it showed yet again that books are important.

When I taught 3rd grade, we had a school library and students had a weekly library time. Teachers were not required to stay with the students, but I usually did. I helped them find books to read and I also checked out. I modeled the behavior I wanted them to have. I stood in line along with them to check out and read my books during our silent reading time. I checked out all kinds of books and when I had one that I thought the students would like I would be a little bit sneaky. I would read silently at my desk during our silent reading time and when I got to a funny part, I would giggle just a tiny bit, just loud enough for them to hear. They would look up at me, and I would silently shake with laughter with my hand over my mouth. They all knew that it was a silent time, but when the timer rang, they were bursting with questions. I would just laugh out loud and read a little bit of the book, and it never failed that a few of them wanted to read my book. I made them wait until we went to the library to check out again.

If you do not have the opportunity or time for regular field trips to the local public library and do not have a school library, then make sure your classroom library is good. Find books at used bookstores, Goodwill, thrift shops, garage sales, anywhere you can.

These three simple things really are three ways to emphasize one main idea. Reading is fun and is important for everyone.

My Silent Reading ‘Rules’
1. Everyone in the classroom reads for the specified time. This includes students, the teacher, student teachers, and visitors.
2. There is no talking during the time period so we do not distract others from reading.
3. Set a timer so I, the teacher, will not have to keep looking at the time.
4. Everyone reads self-selected books. I discourage magazines, because usually students will not actually read, but will instead flip through the pages and browse. This is a time for READING. Browsing can happen other times.
5. If you have younger students who cannot yet read, then have them get a basket or a pile of books to look through. They may need to have quite a few books – possibly 25 or more. By participating in the silent reading time, they are learning the procedure of choosing books and silently ‘reading’ for fun. Another option is to have the non-readers sit in the classroom library and be able to pull one book, then another during the reading time. Personally, I prefer them choosing a stack of books rather than sitting in the library. They are prepared for the ‘silent reading class if they have their basket or stack of books just like the older students.

I would encourage you to find 10 – 15 minutes a day to implement a silent reading time. Try it for a year and see how much your students’ progress.

Have a great week!

Audrey

Currently reading:
Betsy’s Wedding by Maud Hart Lovelace
Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good by Jan Karon
Kid Owner by Tim Green
Country Living by Ellen G. White