Read Around the World

Shame on me for not posting yet about my “Read Around the World” program. I’m considering it to be one of my biggest successes this year. Why? Because my students are starting to read outside of their comfort zone!!!

“Read Around the World” may not have been the most fitting name, but it’s what I went with. Here’s the scoop on what we’re doing:

Students who are interested in participating picked up a “Reading Passport” from me in the library. I made it cute and colorful. On the inside is a 3×3 grid with different genres. Students are to read one book from each of the following categories: a picture book, a chapter book, an award winning book, an animal book, a science book, a book about a place they’ve never been, a folk or fairy tale, a biography, and a free book of whatever they want. So many kids were stuck in a series and weren’t reading anything else. My great geography, folk/fairy tale, and biography sections were getting so little love. I made a few catchy videos to promote the program, and let them come to me if they wanted to do this. It has been such a wonderful experience for the students, teachers, and myself. Are they all participating? No, but many (if not most) of them are and they’re actually reading some variety! So many times a day I’m asked where the biographies (pronounced beeographies by so many of them) are. And they love it! They’re telling me about the things they’re learning about other states they’re reading about. Teachers are commenting on how much this is expanding their knowledge base and how they hear them talking about what they’ve read with other students. The first week in May I’m going to have a drawing of all of the completed passports and a student will get the entire Diary of a Wimpy Kid set. Plus I got some bookmarks from Raising Canes for a free kid’s combo, so I’m giving those out to students who turn in their completed passports.

As I’m sure you can tell, I’m so proud and totally pumped about the results from this program. My awesome assistant principal shared this new free tool called Prezi with me the other day. I had to play around with it, of course, and I created a little Prezi for read around the world — check it out below. You’ve got to click here and actually see how Prezi works. It’s quite a nifty presentation tool.

Teaching Information Resouces

In preparation for the upcoming iLEAP testing, I’m trying to prepare our students for the information resources section. I’m trying to expose students to the types of resources they might see on the test, but I’m trying to pull it together in a relevant way. I know they’ve been practicing for this section in class a little bit in class. I also know that these resources really won’t mean much to them if they don’t actually put their hands on them.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to pull in some books relating to geography and different cultures. I heard the teachers talking about what a hard time their kids have with understanding how life is different in other places around the world, so I thought it would be good to pull in some multicultural literature.

Last week, we read Grandfather’s Journey, by Allen Say. It’s a beautiful book and wonderful, simple story. It’s a Caldacott winner, which we talked about in relation to our “Read Around the World” program (I’ll write about this later on this week). After reading the story, we talked about the geography of this story. I really honed in on talking about continent, country, state, and city because I found this was something the students were struggling with. Then, we started talking about reference books and how they help us. I introduced the atlas, put them in their hands, and let them explore. We used the table of contents, looked and different kinds of maps, found Japan & California from our story, and talked about real life situations where an atlas could be used. Kids love maps, so giving them a chance to explore was fun for them. I think it was a pretty successful lesson! I did it with both grades, but pushed it more with 3rd grade. It was less structured with the 2nd graders, but I think they benefited from the exposure of this lesson.

This week, I’m planning to read When Marion Copied by Brook Berg. I read this one with my 3rd graders last year, and I really love the Marion series. My plan for this week is to read this story with both grades. Afterwards, we are going to look at some copyright pages and the sample bibliography page that is provided on iLEAP.  Once again, I’ll push the activity further with 3rd graders, but I want the 2nd graders to get this exposure now.

Next week, I’d like to pull in some magazine articles somehow. I’m still in the thinking process on how I’m going to pull it all together. I’m sure I’ll read a fun Easter/Spring story to 2nd grade since we’ll be off for Easter break the following week.

I’m really in shock over how quickly time is flying by. We have Easter break right around the corner, we come back for a week, then we have testing. After that, we only have 6 more weeks! It’s going to be overwhelming with DIBELs, DRA, inventory…and packing up the entire library since they’re redoing the roof at school. You heard me correctly. We are packing up the library. Please pray for me.

The Help

I’m so far behind on my posts. Lately there has been too much going on in my crazy little head for me to communicate coherently. I’m trying to get my brain back on its tracks.

Here’s my post about my March (grown-up) book club meeting. For February, we decided to read The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The date we had originally scheduled ended up being the day that the Saints went to the Super Bowl, so we just pushed our meeting back to March. I actually read the book in February, so there was a long wait between then and this meeting. I absolutely adored this book. It’s a weighty topic – the role of black maids in high society white families in 1960s Jackson, MS.

Kathryn Stockett did an amazing job with this topic. The characters in this book made the story. They were all so real and complex and (most of them) lovable. I laughed, I cried, I was angry, I was filled with joy for the characters. This really is a beautiful, well written book. I highly recommend it.

This was a very good discussion book, as well. My book club consists of a small group of 20-somethings. Most of us were raised here in the South, but we do have a dear friend who was raised up yonder (shout out to Belle!). We can’t identify with the way of life that is described in this book, it seems so…fictional, I guess. But many of our grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, coworkers, etc. remember this from their childhood. I think this book really opened up some interesting converstations with people from older generations that we all have in our lives. And could you really ask for anything more in a book? I think not. So you really must read this one.

I’ve already passed my copy along to a coworker. Being the librarian makes me the resident book guru, which I obviously love. Not only do I have teachers coming to me for recommendations on books to use with their students, but I even have some coworkers who come to me asking for suggestions on good adult fiction for themselves. (See, darling husband, my personal excessive book collection is completely necessary!!!) I love nothing more than loaning out a great book, and having it returned with a big smile because it was loved!

So I’m going to try and catch up with my posts…look forward to hearing about two great things this week: my success with “Read Around the World” and the ways I’m trying to pull in reference resouces to prep students for iLEAP.

Last Book Club Meeting

Time is flying by, and I can hardly keep up! I’ve been in a funk lately, so I haven’t been posting. A lot has been on my mind, including make the decision to withdraw from the Take One! program. I may see about deferring to next year, but I’m definitely not going to submit my entry this year. This has been a very difficult decision, but I was unable to really commit myself to doing this whole-heartedly and I cannot scramble to get everything submitted in the next month.

Today was the last meeting of our after school book club. This was really an incredible experience for all involved. I am so happy that my principal suggested this and that we were able to make it happen. I think the students really got a lot out of this experience. My group read Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Cricket in Times Square, and A Good Night for Ghosts and loved them all. They made commercials, informational videos using PhotoStory, newspaper articles, and book reviews. We are going to have another round after Easter break and testing, but this one will be 4 weeks (which I think will be better). I’m not looking forward to the pressure/stress of choosing the students to invite for this round, but I know those students will be so excited to get an invitation letter!

Tomorrow is a conference day, so I should be able to get my book orders done…YAY!