Hi friends! This blog is for teachers and families- all for the sheer joy of literacy. When we are enthusiastic about reading and writing our students and our own kids become excited to read and write. I hope that we all can be models for those in our care- how did you show your passion for reading, writing, learning, language, or words today?? It's in those small, daily moments that we teach kids to love literacy.
I went to the library today, and brought back a couple of books I thought my students would enjoy.
Anna Hibiscus Book 1 and 2, by Atinuke
This is in our library's Moving Up section. It's set in Africa and the main character, Anna Hibiscus, has biracial parents (a Canadian mom and an African dad) and 2 younger twin brothers. I am eager to read this book because I think it will be a good book to provide basic background knowledge about Africa for some of my students, and I know it will appeal to older students with lower read levels. I think it would work for kids reading at the 2nd or 3rd grade level.
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, by Barry Deutsch
This is a juvenile graphic novel and the by line intrigued me, "Yet another troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl." That's all I needed! I'll let you know how it reads.
These are the books I recently downloaded on my Kindle:
I've seen Faith: A Novel by Jennifer Haigh on a number of blogs. It looks like a book I would like. Murder and the Vicarage and Tears of the Giraffe I downloaded for the Cozy Mystery Challenge. Hopefully I'll get around to reading these books sooner rather than later!
Kindle announced that library lending will be possible this coming fall. How cool is that? I can't wait!
Hope you're enjoying the heat (if you're in the US), and that you have time to duck into a cool library!
I'm linking up: Library Loot it at The Captive Reader this week. Library Loot is a weekly event that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
We're always looking for a new way to give a book report, right? These video book interviews may seem fairly obvious, but I'll give you a run down on how and why I used video book interviews with some students. And, if you scroll down, you can watch the end product.
I working with a couple of my students this summer on their reading. It's all very low key. I wanted to give them time and space to discover the joys of readings. Our school is very standards focused, so there usually isn't a lot of class time for projects or the arts- even if it is literature based. With these two girls, also best friends, we've done partner reading, read alouds, multiple trips to the library, and a couple of hands-on projects in response to their readings.
The girls recently finished Elisa in the Middle and Jigsaw Pony. They did a video review of these two books (see videos below). These were books they chose on their own. They partner read Elisa in the Middle. They checked out 2 copies at the library and switches off (2 pages at a time) reading it aloud to each other. And one of the students read Jigsaw Pony independently. She likes horses, so this book was a natural choice for her.
I think video reviews make for fun summer projects, but I can also see them being used in the classroom (or home school) setting. Every body has a quick way to video themselves nowadays (phone, flip camera, computer camera). Videos lend themselves to deeper comprehension. I didn't give much direction before the girls made these videos because I also want to use this as an assessment to see how well these two students are able to synthesize information after reading. It definitely gives me valuable insight on how to tweak their instruction in the future. Distilling information to find the main idea will be one of our big focus's in the weeks ahead.
Why use Video Book Interviews with your students?
Students will syntheses book material, which is high up in Blooms' Taxonomy
Students learn how to perform (and write) for an audience
Students practice purposeful writing when creating interview questions and their responses
Students practice public speaking
Students evaluate the video of themselves post-interview, encouraging meta-cognitive thinking
Students will understand that reading books is a (fun) social event, and hopefully this will encourage reluctant readers to read
Repeated practice readings encourages reading fluency
Video Interview How-to
Pre-teach:
Discuss how to write open- ended interview questions
Brainstorm which type of questions would work best for a book review
Discuss the nature and length of the responses to the interview questions
Discuss performing for an audience and what that would entail (expressiveness, voice projection, non-verbal communication, etc...)
Before you shoot the video:
Have the students create cue cards or notes to read responses from
Create a rubric together, or review the rubric you've created, especially of you're doing this for a class
Have the students practice their responses several times
Brainstorm ideas for students to make it their own. The two students I work with wanted to title the interviews The Joy of Literacy, because they knew we were going to post them on this blog. I loved seeing them coming up with their own ideas and having fun with it.
Get dressed up and set the stage! The girls wanted to wear my heels for the interview (very fun of them). They also got coffee cups (filled with lemonade, of course!), set up interview chairs, and filled a basket of books on the table behind the interview.
After you shoot the video:
Watch it together. Pause to ask clarifying questions
Assess according to a rubric, especially of you're doing this for a class
Share with family, classmates, or community to get their feedback
Elisa in the Middle:
Jigsaw Pony Part 1
Jigsaw Pony Part 2
Let me know if you have any feedback for the girls, I'll make sure to share it with them!
Also, I'd be interested how you might use this with your own kids or in your classroom. Leave comments below.
When reading we all come to the table with our experiences, background knowledge, otherwise known to educators as schemata or schema. All of these experiences we've had inform how we read what we read. I work with struggling readers usually 2 years behind (or more), and my experience of working with these low readers day in and day out shapes my perception of most kid's books. I'm always hoping to find books that would be interesting to my reluctant readers, but not too far above their reading level.
So, in light of this, I decided to start a new series of posts about hi/lo books. Hi/lo books are books written at a high interest level for lower readers. [You can by sets of hi/lo book for reluctant readers. I haven't been too impressed with these book sets though.] If I come across a book I think would work well as a hi/lo book, I'll review it as a part of this series. I'll also include books that my reading intervention students enjoy reading as well.
I ran across this Nikki Grimes' book, Almost Zero, the other day at the library. Grimes' is a prolific children's author. I read the entire 96 page book while my husband was getting dinner ready. It was a fast read.
I really like the main character Dyamonde. Her personality reminds me of many of mt students'- trying to be tough and play her mom, when she's just a big insecure sweety on the inside. Dyamonde learns lesson the hard way in this book. She has a good mom that know what she needs most in life (and it's not fancy red sneakers!). Grimes really knows how the mind of an older elementary works, and I think a lot of kids will connect with this book.
Here's an excerpt from the book:
Wednesday morning, Dyamonde stomped and banged doors as loudly as she could, hoping to make her mom as mad as she was. But it didn't work. Her mom pretended not to notice. "Big deal," Dyamonde muttered to herself. "So what if I have to wear the same stupid clothes I had on yesterday. I don't care." Dyamonde's lie sounded pretty weak, even to herself.
Dyamonde pulled on her red T-shirt, which had a quarter-size mustard stain on it from the bite of hot dog Free gave her at lunch the day before.
"Shoot!" said Dyamonde.
Here's why I'd think it would work as a hi/lo book:
Colorful, inviting, and fresh cover: This gets major points, really! Don't you gravitate toward the book with the cool cover?
Graphics on every page: This is inviting for lower readers.
Inviting illustrations: This helps lower comprehenders follow the plot and feel more confident while reading. It also helps them understand the book better.
Bigger text: This is less intimidating for struggling readers.
Less text per page: Nuff said!
Lots of dialogue: Usually dialogue usually uses a vernacular that kids understand, so it makes the book easier to comprehend.
Shorter sentences: This will help with comprehension for lower reader. The longer a sentence gets, the more complex it gets.
Font style changes on title, body, and on sections throughout: This brings more energy and movement to the text, which motivates students to keep reading!
It has chapters! This helps lower reader to feel more confident in what they're reading, making it feel a lot less babyish.
Scholastic's Teacher Book Wizard places another book in this series at 3.5 grade reading level and a 3-5 grade interest level. However, I could see a 6th grader reading at a 2nd grade level enjoying this book, so I'd stretch scholastic's numbers a bit.
Dyamonde really wants red high-top sneakers. Too bad they're so expensive! A classmate tells her it's her mom's job to give her what she needs, but when Dyamonde tries that argument, her mom teaches her a lesson by literally only giving her what she needs. Now Dyamonde is down to almost zero outfits! But then she finds out one of her friends has it much worse, and she's determined to do what she can to help.
Coretta Scott King Award winner Nikki Grimes' third book starring the unstoppable Dyamonde Daniel will delight fans and new readers alike, with energetic storytelling, relatable situations and Dyamonde's spitfire personality.
Hardcover, 96 pages
Published October 28th 2010 by Penguin Group (USA)
