What Are You Reading Good? (10/28/11)

It's Friday and that means it's time for another Team Read slideshow! I love looking back at all the books my students are reading! It's great! I just finished reading Bigger Than a Breadbox by Laurel Snyder today and finished listening to All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn. If you are looking for a ghost story to read for Halloween, I recommend All the Lovely Bad Ones or Wait Til Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn! Have a great weekend of reading! Go Team REad!

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Genres

When we talk about genres, we talk about what kind of books we are reading. Books can belong to different kinds of books. It's important for kids to recognize what genre they are reading and what characteristics of the book help them to know what genre they are reading.

Here are some different genres:

Non-Fiction

*Biography

*Autobiography

*Memoir

*Informational

Fiction

*Realistic Fiction

*Humor

*Fantasy

*Science Fiction

*Mystery

*Traditional Literature 

(fairy tales, fables, legends, tall tales, myths)

Leave a comment to tell us what book you are reading, what genre it is, and how you know the book is the genre you think it is. Answer this question: How is your book an example of _______(genre)?

Here's an example:

I am reading Bigger Than a Breadbox by Laurel Snyder. This book is an example of fantasy(genre) because the girl in the book wishes for things like money, a diamond, and junk food and it all appears in a breadbox she has in her room! Wishes don't really come true so I know this book is fantasy.

I'm excited to hear about what you are reading and what genres you are reading! Go Team Read!

What Are You Reading Good? (10/21/11)

This was our last week with Ms. Brennan! We will miss her. I'm going to read a scary book next week to get ready for Halloween! What are you reading good, Team Read?

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Retelling What You Read

Every time I see a student, I start off by talking to him or her about what book he or she is reading! I love to hear what kids are reading and to be able to share with them what book I am reading. Being able to retell what you have read so far or recently means you are a good reader. Good readers use reading strategies and retelling the story is a reading strategy!

When a student retells he or she should include:

character or characters

setting

problem

the solution or a prediction

Jodie and Ms. Brennan with our Retell Rewind rubric!

Some of the students use my Retell Rewind rubric to guide them and sometimes we use the rubric to score each other and see if we are able to include with all the important elements of a retell. On the rubric I also include use of a loud clear voice and good expression. I know that I love to talk to friends about what I am reading and get ideas about what to read next from talking to friends. It's important that I can tell a friend about a book I am reading and make it exciting if I really think they would like the book. Also, if a friend is telling me about a book, I hope that it's interesting to listen to them otherwise I'll be bored talking to them and not excited at all to read the book. 

I hope that kids and parents and friends and family and sometimes even strangers, can talk about books.  I love to ask people what they are reading and to find out if they have read books I have read. By doing this you are also practicing a retell! Try it, ask the next person you see what he or she is reading. How about asking the first person you see when you get to school what he or she is reading? Come back and tell us if you learned of any new books! Go Team Read!

What Are You Reading Good? (10/14/11)

We had a great week this week! Lots of Team Read students were able to Skype visit with the author Tom Angleberger on Tuesday at the library! I know a lot of students are reading his books now! Happy reading this weekend! Go Team Read!

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Thanks Tom Angleberger!

Last night many students joined me at the local library to meet other students who are hard of hearing or deaf and to Skype with Tom Angleberger, the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back. Kids took their picture with Darth Paper Strikes Back and then found a place to sit for the chat with Mr. Angleberger. Everyone got to ask Mr. Angleberger a question and then he helped teach us how to fold origami Yodas! They turned out great.

It was fun to see students outside of school and to be able to talk about books they are reading! Mr. Angleberger is coming to a bookstore near us in November and many families were talking about going to meet him in real life.

I love that Tom includes Caroline, a girl who is deaf, in his books. It brings awareness to readers that there are young kids who are deaf or hard of hearing and who wear hearing aids. In Darth Paper Strikes Back, Caroline talks about how people treat her differently because of her hearing aids and sometimes try to yell when they talk to her. Origami Yoda gives her some advice to help her get kids to treat her like any other kid.

Here are some pictures from the event! 

Thanks for everyone who came! Go Team Read!

The individual pictures will be posted on Friday with the Team Read slideshow. Check back to see what books we're reading this week!

Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Visit!

I am so excited that several of my students are going to be able to Skype with Tom Angleberger, the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back tonight! I'm wearing my "Read You Should" Yoda t-shirt today for this special event!

I know students sometimes giggle at my excitement for reading but as a teacher I truly believe it's important for me to be the biggest cheerleader for reading that I can be. I hope that parents catch some of my enthusiasm and read with their children, talk to their children about what they are reading at home and make lots of trips to the library. Reading is not only extremely good for you but also fun. If you don't believe me, believe Yoda. Wise he is! Read you should!

Are you a Star Wars fan? I love Star Wars and we have been watching a lot of it now that my son has been watching the movie. We also check out the Star Wars early readers and I have learned so much more about what the story is all about after reading the books. Did you know they have Star Wars encyclopedias? All the characters you see actually have names. It made me realize how much goes into writing - whether it's writing for a movie or a book - because the author has to imagine a world and know everything about it in order to write about it. I never realized how amazing Star Wars really is! If you like the movies, I definitely recommend checking out some of the books to learn more!

What Are You Reading Good? (10/07/11)

October is here! I chose some spooky music for our slideshow since Halloween will be right around the corner!

Lots of students are reading The Strange Case of Origami Yoda or Darth Paper Strikes Back as we get ready for our author Skype with Tom Angleberger next week!

Make sure you watch the slideshow all the way through, in addition to my students' pictures with their books, we have a picture of Miss Stephanie's preschool class with their Llama Llama Red Pajama books! Thanks for joing Team Read Miss Stephanie and her class! Go Team Read!

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We have been doing more great reading! Good readers use strategies and we have been talking a lot about these strategies and practicing them together. Here are some of the reading strategies that good readers use!

Reread

Visualize

Stop and Think

Infer

Identify Story Elements

Use Background Knowledge

Make Connections

Sometimes we do these and don't even realize we are doing them but other times we need to practice doing these as we read. All of these strategies help us think more about the text as we are reading so we can understand what we are reading. 

If you are using reading strategies while you are reading then you are being a good reader! It's hard to see what a good reader does because all this thinking while reading happens inside your head! A good reader can tell another person what is happening in the story and what they are thinking about as they read. Can you tell another person about the book you are reading? Can you tell him what you are wondering or predicting as you read?

Do you use these strategies? How have these strategies helped you as a reader? Is there a strategy that you think you need to work on more? Please share!