Recent Reads

I am not a fast reader. I aim to finish a book a week during the school year, but it doesn't always happen. And of course, all the books I put on hold at the library come in at the same time! I know #bookworm problems. :)

I have read a few good ones recently though and wanted to share.

This was a pretty deep story. It follows a family through several generations trying to survive in the Caribbean through some turbulent times. The characters are very well developed and I thought it was very well-written. It made the waiting part of jury duty go much faster!

This is an amazing story. Siobhan Dowd had the idea for this book and then died from breast cancer. So her friend Patrick Ness decided to write it in her honor. It's a powerful story about a little boy dealing with his mother's illness. He conjures up this monster to help him work through all his anger and emotions. It looks like a scary book but it really isn't-it's very poignant and moving. I read that they are making a movie of this-I can't imagine how that would work-like making a movie of Where the Wild Things Are, but we'll see.

I listened to this book read by Lin-Manuel Miranda. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. There were parts that I liked, and then parts that I'm not sure why they were included. It's a story about friendship and teens trying to be themselves.

Max and the Wild Things

I LOVE sharing the book Where the Wild Things Are with the kiddos!

I read it to them and then let them hear it once again another day from the video on Discovery Education. So many rigorous activities and discussions to that can accompany this story!

The one I wanted to share with you today involves ethics. I asked the students whether it was right or wrong for Max to leave the Wild Things-after all, they did not want him to go. 

right because he was homeless, foodless and momless.

Right because he was missing his house.

Right because his dinner was waiting.

Wrong because he wanted to be safe.

Wrong because the monsters said good-bye.

(Now this student told me she meant it was wrong to stay because it was dangerous).

Wrong because his room turned into a jungle.

Wrong because the monsters were mad at him.

Right because he was too scared.

Right because he wanted to go home for his soup.

Wrong because the Wild Things didn't want him to go.

Wrong because the Wild Things loved him.

Big Idea and Charlotte's Web

I love reading chapter books to my classes. Every year I choose different books based on who the kiddos turn out to be. I started out this year reading Charlotte's Web. Now I can tell right away that there are some students who are read to every night by their parents, and some that are not. It takes a while to learn how to listen without relying on illustrations. To use context clues and figure out vocabulary that is unknown to them. But we got into a groove and I would look out and see all these engaged faces listening to the trials and tribulations of Wilbur and Charlotte. We read about a half of a chapter a day. When I read the last line of the book (one of my all-time favorite lines from any book by the way)-"it is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both." I am actually holding back tears as I read. What a meaningful story of friendship and kindness. And then I ask the kids to write about the Big Idea of the story.

Let's just say this choice might have been a little bit over their heads. I am sharing their responses anyway, because I think it's important for teachers to admit that a lesson may not have gone as planned and reflect on how it could have been better. Big Idea is hard for little ones to grasp to begin with-they really have only short-term memory. When I ask them at the end of the year what they learned in Kindergarten, most only relate to what we did that day. So asking them to see an ongoing theme in a story may have been a bit much.

 But here is what they came up with:

Rules for Apples

I think one of the most misunderstood concepts from Kaplan's Depth and Complexity is "Rules". Often when I use this with students they think of it more as rules like "don't run". When I do activities with it, with the little ones, I usually have them think about what is always true about something. It's a challenging concept because as we know there are usually exceptions to every rule. So during my unit on apples, I had the students write "It is always true that apples....".

I LOVE seeing the beginning of progress in writing with my students. One of the hardest parts of teaching beginning writers is getting them to realize the sounds and letters they are learning to read can also be implemented to express their thoughts and they can sound out their words to write. You can see how some of them are starting to do that in their writing here.