This past week was my students first week to checkout in grades 2-5. While my students were waiting to checkout, I asked grades 3-5 to fill out a Fall Reading Interview courtesy of a Scholastic Blogger (I know it says to interview them, but it worked just fine as a passed out sheet). I even told them to write specific books, so I'd know what book order to place for them. Wow! I'm so happy with the responses on the interview. And my students were really excited to tell me what kind of books they wanted.
I did realize that my library needs to start heading in the direction of diary-style writing books because most of my students love Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries. And so begins my second FAVORITE part of being a book pusher--finding new books to recommend to my students! Some of them were content with me passing Big Nate or Dear Dumb Diary to them, but that only lasted so long because then I ran out those series, too. Only a few would be placated with Captain Underpants.
My new library needs the "Amanda" touch (aka more of what my students want). Here is what I'm ordering...
Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja series by Marcus Emerson
Stick Dog by Tom Watson
Origami Yoda Series by Tom Angleberger
My Life series by Janet Tashjian
The newest Dork Diaries and Big Nate, too
YAY! More books!
This post! Ha ha!
While searching other sites and blogs to come up with a way for students to be self-sufficient when it came to choosing the next book they would read, I came across the free no sign-up required YourNextRead.com. It is simple to use with the search feature on the home page. All students have to do is enter the title of a book, author or genre they like and up pops suggestions for them!
I chose this site over the others I was researching because it displays book covers and doesn't overwhelm the student with millions of choices (and again, no sign-up). It simply displays a graphic web of 8 other titles. You are not guaranteed to get back 8 results, but user recommendations can be suggested. The user can even agree or disagree that the the suggested books would be a good match.
The site has additional features, but really all I want is bare bones book recommendations.
During the past couple of weeks, I have been teaching the 1st graders about biographies. I've been using guidance form the site, ReadWorks.org. This site recommended using The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and The Picture Book Biography series by David. A Adler.
I introduced biogrpahies to students by explaining that they were stories about real people. They seem like fictional stories because of how they are written, but they are not. And for the whole first lesson, continued to answer the question, "Is this person real?" At least, they didn't ask that question anymore after the second and third lesson. They moved on to, "Is this person dead?"
The first graders really enjoyed the book, The Story of Ruby Bridges, which was expecially effective since Ruby Bridges is their age in the book. I asked them to point out characteristics of Ruby throughout the story. With examples of Ruby walking through a crowd of angry adults, Ruby praying for those angry adults, and Ruby continuing her education despite being the only child in the classroom, no wonder it is such a powerful example of not only biography, but character, as well. Students came out realizing how strong, brave, courageous, and kind Ruby was.
The series I will admit to being a little prejudice against (and for no reason, whatsoever) is Adler's Picture Book bios. I decided to give one a try and boy, did my students respond well! I decided to read them A Picture Book Biography of Helen Keller. The target of the lesson was to be able to use the beginning, middle, and end of the story to tell about the events in Keller's
life. The story was written so well, that my students easily picked out events to string together Keller's life.
I also used World Book Online to show them what the Braille alphabet looked like and a photo of what it looked like being read. Then, I pulled up My Discovery Education streaming video and played a clip from Maya and Miguel, "Give Me a Little Sign," where Tito befriends a new boy, Marco, who is deaf. The real winner was passing out books on sign language to my students. They lOVED it! They were so intrigued by the language and practicing it themselves. A couple of my students would come up to me and say, "Ms. Ehll, what does this mean?", "Ms. Ehll, look what I learned!" And that my friends, is worth its weight in gold.
