Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

I love introducing new books to my students. Especially since our school librarian introduced this awesome way of teaching kids how to pick books based on the words inside and not on its cover. It's amazing how often we judge a book by its cover, no?

Mrs. M introduced the read around to our class. She found wonderful books that would captivate readers and placed two books in each spot around the tables. Students were given four minutes to get a glimpse into both of the books and if students were interested in reading the book, they made note of the title.

After many rounds, students were then given the opportunity to voice their opinions about which books to place on the book club list. We had twenty titles go up on the board, but were able to narrow it down to twelve books. The next day, I read a brief synopsis of each book and asked students to provide me with their top three choices. As I tried to fiddle around with the groups and its members while trying to provide students with their first choices, they wouldn't stop asking me if I knew the books they would read! Eager beavers!

We are reading these books in our book clubs...have you read them?

• Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• The Hypnotists by Gordon Korman
• The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins by Walter Dean Myers
• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
• Wild Life by Cynthia DeFelice
• Word Eater by Mary Amato

What do you think about the process of choosing these books? Do you do something similar or is there another process that I could learn from?

But before we began our book clubs, my students had to learn some very valuable lessons in order to work in groups effectively and collaboratively. We really had to target some social skills because I had noticed that some skills needed some improvement. Here are the skills we practiced, in the order we practiced them!

These skills are pretty important to have when working in a group, especially when the group isn't formulated by friendships. We were able to practice these skills in non-risk discussions, such as having a conversation about our favorite movies, books, candy, etc... (This strategy is taken out of Harvey Daniels' Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles.)

Students will be in charge of creating their group's schedule of meetings and how many pages of reading will be due at each meeting. We have had one meeting already, having discussed the first chapter or first few pages in a written conversation! Hopefully, students will also notice the signposts that were taught to help them understand plot, theme, characters, etc... in a more meaningful way!

Stop! Notice & Note

Over the summer, I attended a Common Core conference with Understanding by Design guru, Grant Wiggins. (He is reallllllly smart! I wish I could have a conversation with him one-on-one and pick his brain!) One of the sessions I attended was about how to get students better at close reading and the speaker mentioned a book by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst, Notice & Note. The book was ordered and waiting on the shelf to be read! Seriously, it was probably fifth on my to-read list this summer and I finally got to it a few weeks ago. I wish I had read it sooner because I am gobbling up these signposts!

Before introducing these signposts, we started studying the theory of a character to help start us off in the right direction.

Here are the signposts that I made to hang around the classroom for students to see and use throughout the year!

We have been using these signposts in our read alouds and it is really causing us to think in a more meaningful way! Students' responses are really helping us make better predictions and inferences, and we are learning to comprehend in a deeper way than before!

Do you use these signposts in your classroom? Parents, have you seen a difference in the way that our students are connecting with a book?

Choose Donors Choose!

If you didn't already know, I taught in the Chicago Public Schools for three years before moving to St. Louis. And if you didn't already know, it's rough being a teacher in the CPS. Why? Well, I could create a long list of the reasons why, but I'll just tell you what I learned to do most.

I learned to advocate for my needs as a teacher in terms of resources. My first year of teaching, I received thirty-seven books ($324) to use as mentor texts in writing. My second year of teaching, I received a kidney table ($263) where I could instruct small groups in reading, writing, and math. My third year of teaching, I received an interactive whiteboard ($2,298) so that students could learn to use technology; I also received a grant that helped me purchase $500 worth of books for my classroom library; and I also received a $700 grant that would help pay for a field trip for my class.

Wow. That adds up to $4,085!

So when I moved to St. Louis, I wasn't about to give up on receiving free materials that would help my students succeed in the classroom! Have you heard about DonorsChoose.org? It's a website where public school teachers can post project requests which range from a writing utensil to technology and generous donors donate to these projects! It's where I received my thirty-seven mentor texts, my kidney table, and my interactive whiteboard! Some of my donors were anonymous, some were strangers, and some were family and friends! It doesn't matter if you know them or don't, because all of these donors have hearts of gold!

Well, my fifth year of teaching comes along and I thought I'd try asking again for a generous donation: I asked for twenty-five exercise balls to help students channel their innate need for movement on these ergonomic chairs! Since these balls require balance, students are constantly engaging their core muscles, and helps students focus at the task at hand! (Read more about my request here: http://www.donorschoose.org/mrs.gh) It has only been a couple of weeks, but we have already set up specific rules/norms on how to sit on the balls and when sitting on these balls might be more advantageous to our bodies.

We can't wait to reap the benefits from these wonderful resources in our classroom! And now I'm up to $4,547 in grant money! :)