Yesterday, I shared the favorite reads in a Children’s Literature course I teach for preservice elementary teachers. Today, I’m focusing on their key learnings from the course. For the second part of their final exam, I ask them to present the 5 big ideas they learned about reading this semester. I think it feels like…
One of my favorite truths from Donalyn Miller’s wonderful book, Reading in the Wild, is that readers have plans. I love to make reading plans. I am constantly cooking up some new plan for myself. Sometimes, maybe even often, I spend more time making reading plans than I do actually reading. I’m not sure what Donalyn…
Photo CC-By Bob I’m a relentless tinkerer in my classes and rarely start a semester the same way twice. But there is one thing I do on the first day of Children’s Literature that never changes. I show this video of third-grade teacher Colby Sharp on his first day of school: This video is absolute…
This week, I’m celebrating my students’ work and sharing some of their blog posts that I’ve enjoyed most over the past couple of weeks. If you have a moment to click through and leave a comment, I know they’d be thrilled. Reflections on NCTE15 Kelsey is now my colleague, and I learned so much…
This week in my Children’s Literature class, we did a Mock Caldecott unit. First, we read and discussed A Sick Day for Amos McGee, one of my very favorite Caldecott winners, and viewed a short video of Erin Stead describing her process. Then, students worked in small groups to read and discuss 8 former Caldecott…
This post is the second in a new “So You Want to Read” series designed for my students in Children’s Literature. My course is online this semester, which means that many of my students are learning at a distance and I can’t do what I like to do best to grow readers: show up to…
This week in my Children’s Literature class, I have invited my students to design their own reading plan for the rest of the semester. Last semester as I tried to transition this course to a reading workshop, I asked students to commit to a reading challenge at the beginning of the course when most of them…
This week, the students in my Children’s Literature class are reading The One and Only Ivan and thinking about the criteria for the Newbery Award. Next week, they will select one or more Newbery books on their own to read and review for the class. I thought I would share fifteen of my favorites. I tried to…
For picture book lovers, #pb10for10 is one of the best days of the year. Dozens of bloggers participate in this annual event hosted by Mandy at Enjoy and Embrace Learning and Cathy at Reflect & Refine. Participation is easy: curate your own list of 10 favorite picture books and share the list at Mandy’s or Cathy’s blog.…
My favorite reading challenge in 2014 is Kid Lit Frenzy’s Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge. Visit Alyson’s blog to find out what nonfiction picture books others are sharing this week. This week, my son and I read several picture book biographies of women innovators and pioneers. Mermaid Queen, written in a lively style by Shana Corey…
the dirigible plum 