atychiphobia

It's Monday What are You Reading?

Note: Thanks for  Jen and Kellee from Teach Mentor Texts for inspiring many of us to share what we have been reading.  I will try to join the fun as regularly as possible.

 

This past week was a busy week of diving into picture books for me and my class.  In the previous post I shared our little project about predicting the Caldecott Winners.  So I read a bunch of new picture books for me to plan for last weeks Caldecott shares.  I also read two novels, one for myself and one to model my goal of reading more mysteries.

The Game of Their Lives was a fabulous book in my opinion.  Keep in mind though the story of a 1950s soccer match between the USA and England that focuses on the game and the lives of a few of the members of the USA team is definitely my kind of reading.  If you are not really into soccer or adult narrative nonfiction then I would stay away from this book.  I thought the author did a great job of building tension in the game sequences even though the reader already knows what the final outcome is.

A few weeks ago, my class wrote reading goals for the winter and one of mine was to read more mysteries.  I love mysteries, but when I was modeling how to write a few reading goals I noticed a glaring absence of mysteries from the last year or so of my reading life.  Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer helped to fulfill one of my goals and my son recommended it to me.  So I did feel a little pressured to want to enjoy it.  Thankfully I did.  I am not the biggest John Grisham fan, but I did really like the escapades of Theo in this opening book of what I imagine will be a rather big series.  I felt the writing would appeal to most kids and the mystery is edgy enough for middle readers to think it is bigger than "who stole my lunchbox", but it was also not too intense or graphic for ten year-olds.  Theo gets accidentally involved in a murder trial that has rocked his small town.  And he helps to make sure that all the evidence needed to keep the trial legitimate gets to the judge.  About the only thing I didn't like about this story is the case/trial is still lingering at the end.

The picture books shown above were are solid in my opinion.  My favorite was Perfect Square.  I loved it the most because it reminded me of the Eric Carle books my own children devoured when they were younger.  I thought the illustrations were amazing and the simplesness of the story was very endearing.  If you are a primary teacher or have young kids at home, you should definitely check it out.

To be honest, I am not 100% sure of what I will be reading in the next 7 days.  I have a few books at home in my TBR stack.  Though I know I won't get to them all.  And due to the long weekend we are having, I haven't gone into our school library yet to browse for any new picture books.  My "big books" in my stack include:

 I am currently reading the second Theodore Boone book.  The Charlestown Connection was a cheap download to my kindle and it sounds like fun to me.  The Whisper is a current ARC that I have which is a follow up to The Roar.  I really enjoyed reading The Roar, so I hope The Whisper does not disappoint.  Hopefully my son, finishes it soon because when he saw it, he begged to read it before me.  

Happy Reading this week.

Later,

Tony

Stories from Room 226: Thinking about Theme

During the 10 to 12 days before our Holiday Break the students in my class worked on the idea of determing a theme in a text.  In my opinion this is hard work for an adult, let alone 9 and 10 year olds.  I think determining a theme is hard work because how we define themes in literature is broad and sometimes vague.  Depending on the resource you use theme can be anything from a "big message" to "a central idea" to a "lesson you learn."  I am ok with flexibility and vagueness in a definition of something, but are most kids that comfortable?  I also think things can get muddied a little because what a reader brings to the book can highly influence his or her thinking about themes to be taken from stories.

This year I launched our exploration of theme by trying to be very explicit about the idea that there are some really huge themes that seem to be in an enormous amount of books and movies.  I shared a theme (like "good vs. evil" or "the importance of family") and let the class think and talk and list stories they felt might be good examples of these themes.  We created an anchor "smartboard chart" to highlight some of the general themes and stories that showcase them.  By the end our chart had 12 big themes and example stories.

After this, over the course of a few days, I read aloud several picture books (Angel for Solomon Singer, Amazing Grace and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble) and the kids charted thinking in their reader's/writer's notebooks.  We would debate which theme or themes emerged, but it felt a little like a matching game.  "I think it is # 9 on the chart because ...."

It was during the last day of the read alouds with Sylvester that I saw "the magic" happen.  We all agreed that "the importance of family" was a theme definitely in the book.  But when one of my students asked, "I know it is not on our list of themes, but could something like "Be careful what you wish for" work as a theme in this story?"  I was elated.  I don't think there is any way as a teacher that I could share every single possible theme that is "out there" and this idea was not on our list.  So I responded something like, "I think it would definitely fit.  One of the things to remember about our list of themes is that it is just a general guideline.  It is just to get us thinking."

You could see the class collectively "get it" a little more.  I asked them to talk about the new theme that was shared and the buzz was quick and thoughtful.  I heard snippets great thinking as I bounced around our meeting area.  Some of the comments I heard were:

• There are tons of stories that deal with be careful what you wish for.
• Of course Sylvester has multiple themes, I bet most stories do too.
• Maybe this isn't a be careful what you wish for story because by the end, both Sylvester and his parents got what they wished for.

When we broke into partners that day to read and think about the collection of picture books I pulled for this study, you could see that it was much easier for them to dig in and determine themes because of the freedom to not choose from the list on our anchor chart.  It was energizing to see the kids debate with each other about themes present in their books and defend their thinking with examples (sounds a lot like what one thing 4th graders are supposed to do within the Common Core). I am not sure if I would have been able to lift road block of just using the achor chart themes without the help of the student who took the risk and proposed a theme we hadn't previously discussed.  I love it when a student leads the way in our room.

When we return from break the kids will be writing reviews of some of these picutre books.  One of the items on the rubric for this project is an exploration of theme.  I am thinking it will be a great deal easier for this group of students because of the fact we took the time to slow down, share our thinking and push oursleves to new places in our thinking.

Later,

Tony

Nerdilicious

 

My good friends Colby Sharp and Donalyn Miller started this thing called the Nerdy Book Club.  When you get there, the words, "A Community of Readers" is quietly posted near the top left corner of the page.  I love this idea, a community of readers.  As a middle aged guy living in Upper Suburbia, I don't have much of a community of readers except my family and the students I get to work with on a daily basis.  Not too many guys who read a ton in my neck of the woods (and if there are, I haven't found them).   

I do have lots of other "communities" that I enjoy a great deal:

• My neighborhood community of pleasantries
• My church community of grace
• My teaching community of promoting learning
• My Ohio State fan community of unrealistic expectations
• My soccer community of rightous indignation
• My bar community of microbrew snobbishness ...

But this "Community of Readers", especially those who willingly admit their book nerdiness, is incredibly refreshing to me.  In some ways it feels more like "home" than some of my other commnuties.  When reading is something you treasure, it becomes easy to befriend another who shares that view (even when you don't see her face to face very often).  

It will be interesting to see what happens in the future with this group.  So far the posts on this blog share great stories of why the author is living a life in which books are incredibly important.  My "nerdy" post will go online tomorrow, but before you read mine, be sure to read the posts of Kathy, Kellee, Mindi, Katherine, Jen and Donalyn.  All of these posts made me nod in appreciation of their life long journey with books.  In the coming days, I will be looking forward to see who else will make my day with a new take on the importance of having a "community of readers."

Later,

Tony

 

 

Finding Fellow Travelers on the Path

It has taken me a while to post.  So to all three of my readers, sorry about that.

I went to the NCTE Anuual Convention for the very first time this fall.  I seriously have no excuse for not attending in the past.  I guess I thought that the roughly $1,000 I knew I would spend on conference fees, transportation, hotel, food, drinks and books was too much for me to afford.  After 3 days in Chicago I came to the conclusion that I can't afford not to spend the cash in the future.  Thank goodness my "tweeps" got me to seriously consider going.  Without them I would have missed a tremendous experience.

Thinking that  I am clearly an "odd" teacher has never felt better to me than it did at NCTE.  For nearly 20 years I have meandered along a path that felt like the outskirts of the world of teaching.  I am the guy who spends probably too much time and money on both books for kids and professional books.  The nearly constant process of looking for new thinking and stories has been fulfilling, but often times I have felt rather lonely on this path.  Yes, I have been fortunate enough to develop connections with some great people over the years, but in my school I feel out of place at times.  I love where I work, but it is hard to have a conversation with a colleague about a book they haven't read.  And it is really hard to have conversations with colleagues who say things like, "I know I should read more, but who has the time?"  These colleagues are great people and teachers, but it is hard to completely be myself with them.

The major take-away for me after attending NCTE is that there are literally hundreds of teachers like me.  In fact there are people that make me look like I never crack the spine of a book or think about new ways to inspire kids.  Meeting and learning from people who live in a world filled with the richness of reading and learning was both ridiculously rewarding and humbling.

Creating a list of all the people who welcomed and inspired me at NCTE would make this post about 3,000 words and it would become dreadfully boring, but I feel the need to say thank you to a few old and new friends that helped create the wonderful time that I had.  So thank you very much Franki, Katie, Cathy, Karen, Mandy, Donalyn, Jeff, Terry, Mindi, Katherine, Teresa, Brenda, Bill, Troy, Laura, Ann Marie, Jen, Cindi, Ellie and Colby (who rescued me with a place to stay).  

In different sessions, both Kathy Short and Sara Kajder spoke to the idea that NCTE was home or family to them.  If I hadn't gone, I am not sure I would have completely understood what they both meant.  Their vision of family is probably not the same as mine, but I do think I found a community of fellow travelers at NCTE.  And it sure beats the idea of walking down the path without some company.

Later,

Tony

image credit: m3cfa

Great Overheard Conversation

Last week I vented a little about potentially losing the love of reading if we focus too much on navigating the genre of standardized reading tests.  Today though, I overhead one of my "quasi-reluctant readers" talking to a classmate about Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson.

I have not had the joy of reading this book yet, but based on what I heard, the book is now on my must read list.  Picture a boy holding the book up to talk to a friend as we are rushing to clean up at the end of the day.

M: This is a great book, but if you read it right before going to bed it freaks you out!

R: Why?

M: Because this really happened.  Booth really shot Lincoln and he gets hunted down.  There's real picutres in here and you get to see what people actually did.

R: Well, this book can be kind of freaky too (holding up Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).

M: Yeah, but not like this one, really man, who gets scared by Harry Potter anyway.

R: Yeah, you're right.

I loved hearing this conversation for so many reasons.  Just the mere fact that a boy in my class, who came into this year being adept at reading based on assessment scores, but struggled to find good books that engaged him is trying to sell a book to is friend is undeniably awesome.  Hopefully an excerpt from this book doesn't appear on a reading test and we have to determine what the word "vain" or "depressed" means by applying context clues.

image remixed, original image from josefnovak33's flickr photosteam

 

Later,

Tony