It's Our Birthday!!

It is the fourth year Bill and I have been blogging together and what a great time we've had!!  Thanks for joining us for all our posts, but some that are really memorable are:

• Picks From the Pit feature from Bill
• our notes as we participate in the 48 Hour Challenge each year
• our annual Looking for Newbery series
• thinking from NCTE, Choice Literacy, and Dublin Lit conferences
• sharing our get-togethers and book buys with fellow Central Ohio bloggers

Some new things we are looking forward to:

• Bill's thinking about how he will be using he NCFL grant
• Karen will start participating regularly in "It's Monday, What Are You Reading?" meme
• cross-blogging from time to time at the Nerdy Book Club blog
• and hoping to get more active in Poetry Friday as well

Thanks again for joining us on our adventures with students and books!!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading??

I have been following the bloggers who post on Mondays about what they've been reading, and have loved seeing the variety of books and materials being read.  So, I've decided to join in the fun.  And yes, I do know that today is Tuesday, but my blog partner had such a great post on Monday about what he was doing with a NCFL grant he received, I didn't want to steal his thunder.

So, here are the books I was reading on Monday, or getting ready to read!!

First of all, this past Saturday, many of the Central Ohio bloggers met for breakfast and book browsing at our favorite independent children's bookstore, Cover to Cover.  You know what happens when a bunch of book-lovers are all in the same place?  Recommendations out the wazoo and my credit card getting a strenuous workout!!  But seriously, how fortunate I feel to live so close to such great people, great readers, and great minds!

Second, Bill and I wrapped up our Looking for Newbery series, and we both made the same commitment - we need to read more and track our reading throughout the year.  I have actually set a goal of reading 150 books this year (way up from last year's number), and GoodReads tells me I'm 5 books ahead of where I need to be.  Hope I can keep this up!!  This past week, books I read were:

• Scumble by Ingrid Law
• Neversink by Barry Wolverton
• Eye of the Storm by Kate Messner

In addition, I am one of second round judges for the Cybils nonfiction picture book category and our conversations are starting to intensify, so I finished reading all the finalists in my category as well.  Though, I can't talk about them in depth here, let me say that each book has some great entry points for students.  Here is a picture of those books:

Finally, I am eagerly looking forward to the stack of books I brought home from Cover to Cover last Saturday.  So many great choices, it's hard to know what to read next!  Next week, I'll have more information about what those choices are.

Hope everyone has a great reading week!  Head over to Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts to see what even more people are reading!

An NCFL Grant to Extend My Wonderopolis World

A few months ago, several of my Dublin colleagues and I received $500 grants for technology that would allow us to increase literacy in our classrooms. The grant was awarded by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) the sponsors of the Wonderopolis web site. NCFL was looking for ways to help teachers use technology in creative ways to increase literacy.

My friend Maria at Teaching in the 21st Century, an ambassador for Wonderopolis before she was even selected as an official Wonder Ambassador, told me I needed to apply. I've been using the Wonderopolis web site in the library for a while now, since she put me onto it and have found it to work well with all of the kids grades 1 - 5 that I have each day. I figured I had nothing to lose and knew I had been wanting/needing to get some iPads for our library so I applied. Lo and behold, not only did I get one, Maria got one and our kindergarten teacher Kitsy got one. It seems the good folks at NCFL were intrigued by the collaboration possibilities of three recipients in one building. In order to seal the deal the three of us had to sit down and come up with a way to collaborate with the iPads to bring Wonderopolis to a new place at Bailey.

It's been an exciting journey so far and I think we've come up with some pretty good ideas with our collaboration. For example, I've been playing with QR codes this year, I've converted my Amazing Library Race clues to all QR codes, I've been placing QR codes in random books with links to web sites or extensions of the books and recently I've been going through the non-fiction section and putting codes that link to Wonderopolis where the Wonder of the Day extends the book.

The three of us have some big plans for using Wonderopolis to create a file of QR codes that link to Wonders of the Day that will connect to the curriculum standards and beyond and I'm working on some sort of Wonderopolis scavenger hunt for my 4th and 5th graders. It's amazing what great professional development comes out of three teachers sitting down and working together for the good of the students in their building. Amazingly we didn't talk about data or statistics or grades, just how the creative and innovative use of technology will increase our students knowledge base and literacy. Can't wait to get started.

Thanks NCFL for your support of good teaching!

How I Help My Kids Have Reading Lives (and Join the Nerdy Book Club)

Wow!  What a week this has been for me!  First, we start with all the exciting ALA announcements on Monday.  I had a personal record this year -- I had read and reviewed two of the three Newbery winners in our "Looking for Newbery" series!!  Then, this Saturday, all the Central Ohio bloggers will be gathering to celebrate the awards with breakfast together, followed by a trip to our favorite independent children's bookstore, Cover to Cover.  And I know there will be much conversation as well.

But to top it off, I have an opportunity to do a guest post at The Nerdy Book Club blog today.  I am cross-posting my thinking here, but if you haven't checked out the NBC blog yet, you really need to!  Lots of great weekly posts and ideas!!

I love my job!!  On a daily basis, I have the opportunity to model for my students how I am personally part of a much bigger reading community than just the four walls of our classroom.  I frequently talk to them about my reading life, their reading lives, and how I want them to live the lives of readers. 

I look at how many ways we've been able to break down the physical walls of our classroom, and extend into the virtual reading community; many of those experiences grounded in conversations I had with other book lovers via Twitter.

It was through Twitter that I met Susan Dee (@literarydocent), and discovered that we were both going to begin reading Out of My Mind to our students at precisely the same time.  I teach in Ohio and Susan teaches in Maine.  In 140 characters or less (multiple times!), we came up with a plan for how we could connect our two classrooms via Kidblog.  As we each read this powerful book aloud to our students, we had them take the time to respond to the book on the blog several times a week, and then also respond to each other's thinking.  Their conversations were amazing!!  We capped the experience off with a Skype visit between our two classes.  They were so excited to put names and faces together, especially with the people with whom they had had rich online discussions.  Their "in person" conversations were as thoughtful as their responses on the blog - so delightful!

It was also through Twitter that I met Laurel Snyder (@laurelsnyder), a wonderful author of children's books.  With the upcoming release of her latest book, Bigger Than a Breadbox, this past October, she was offering free Skype visits to classes who might want that experience.  That was a no-brainer for me - I definitely wanted that experience for my students.  Laurel visited us via Skype, but the way she set it up, if felt like we were right there in her living room, just chatting about her book and other issues pertaining to being an author.  After reading the book together and then having a conversation with Laurel, my forty-eight students felt so connected to this author who lives in a different place than they do.  They were thinking and responding like readers in a virtual world.

This year, I have a different teaching situation than before.  I've always taught in a fairly self-contained elementary classroom, but this year I am teaming with another teacher, and I teach two sections of 5th grade language arts each day.  From the beginning, my goal was not to have them be two separate classes; instead, I wanted the physical walls to come down, and have them be part of the same larger reading community.  I turned to my trusty KidBlog again.  I've opened the virtual walls between the two homerooms so that they have conversations with each other about books, recommendations, our read aloud, and their lives as a reader on a regular basis, even when they're not in the same room.  KidBlog is the perfect tool to enable these ongoing discussions.

Recently, I became a member of the Nerdy Book Club (actually, I've been a member all my life; it's just nice to have people organize it so well now!).  I shared my membership in this club with my students, and then asked them what they thought it meant to be part of a book club.  What great conversations ensued!  From the obvious ("you get together and talk about a book") to the more thoughtful ("it gives you a sense of what other people think about the same book you read"), the discussions have been thought-provoking.  And how did I hear about the Nerdy Book Club??  You guessed it -- Twitter again!

Hopefully, the message my students get on a daily basis is that we are all part of a global reading community, and to keep those communities alive, we need to actively participate in them.  I really do want my students to be readers for life, both inside and outside our four classroom walls.   Making that happen is why I love my job!!

New Gordon Korman is a Book Fair Showoff

We're getting ready to set up our second book fair of the year, we always use Scholastic, and they always include some special price hard cover books. The first year I was in the library the book was Swindle by Gordon Korman. It was one of my very first book reviews at Literate Lives and I followed it up about a year later with a review of Zoobreak and about a year later with a review of Framed. Over the years these reviews have received a lot of attention so I figured why not, I'll review the latest installment in the series, Showoff.

Luthor the guard dog is the featured character in this episode. Griffin is spending six weeks with his friend Ben while Mr. and Mrs. Bing are in Europe trying to sell Mr. Bing's inventions. The one rule in place is "No Plans!" Of course Griffin agrees, but when the kids go to the mall to see a grand champion show dog trouble starts.

Samantha the animal lover takes Luthor the doberman and he uncharacteristically charges the stage and injures the champion pooch. Samantha's family is sued by the owner and Luthor is dropped off at the pound. That doesn't sit well with Griffin so he bails Luthor out and sets his plan, Operation Doggie Rehab, into motion.

Griffin intends to turn Luthor into a grand champion show dog to raise the money to pay the lawsuit to help Samantha get her dog back to keep. As usual parts of the plan work, parts don't and Griffin and Ben get mixed up with some interesting characters, most notably world famous dog trainer Dmitri Trebezhov who has dropped out of the dog game to protest the treatment of the show dogs.

The chapters on Dmitri's training techniques were some of my favorites and had me laughing out loud in spots. I think kids are really going to enjoy them too. This installment of the Swindle series doesn't have quite as much action as the other three, and the team doesn't get totally engaged until close to the end, but it's still fun. Gordon Korman has a way in all of his books of drawing the reader in and keeping them. Whether it's the action, or the characters or the plot twists, he writes books that kids love to read.

I have a feeling that Showoff will be flying off of the book fair shelves.

Looking for Newbery - The Picks

We have had the good fortune to sit down a couple of times during the running of our Looking for Newbery series this year and there were some definite themes to our conversations.

The first, as we debated whether or not to go ahead and run the Looking for Newbery series, was that we think people like our Newbery posts. We're not big number watchers here at Literate Lives; we blog because we enjoy reading and writing about good kids' books, but it is clear that our readership goes up every year while we "look for Newbery." We take that to mean that people must like what we are doing during this time of year, and even with the onslaught of blogs dedicated to Newbery predictions, readers are still finding us, so we decided to continue this year.

The second theme we noticed was that we felt our own personal reading was down this year. Neither of us felt we had read nearly the number of books as in years past, and neither of us felt we had read the winner. Last year we believed that one of us had at least read the winner, we just weren't sure what it was. This year we don't have a feel for the winner AND we feel like we probably haven't read it anyway! Maybe we're all in for another Moon Over Manifest surprise, but there's no telling what the committee will do. All of that being said, we've decided to list the books that we really liked this year. If they win we look like geniuses; if they don't, we still look pretty good because we know these are good books that kids like, and isn't that what it really all about?

Bill's Picks:

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt: I liked it from the start when I read the ARC and I like it just as much now. Quality characters and writing everything you expect from this author and I think it's about time he won a gold medal.

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy: I'm still on the read aloud band wagon for this one. If anyone has tried it I'd love to hear about it. Why not celebrate Charles Dickens' 200th birthday with this fun tale.

With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo: I definitely like this one for a future Grand Discussion. It will provide lots of great discussion material. The family dynamics are wonderful and I really like the strong parental units!

Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richardson Jacobson: I know it was a long time ago, but this one sticks with you after you read it. I hope it sticks with the judges too.

Bird in a Box by Andrea Davis Pinkney: I love historical fiction and this one is about a topic that I was totally unaware of until now. I love how the three perspectives weave together.


Karen's favorites this year:

As Bill said, I don't have a good feel for what will win the Newbery this year, but I have had a blast this past month reading frantically to catch up on all the books I felt I had missed in 2011.  I plan on doing a much better job with my reading this year.

Anyway, with no further ado, here are my top 5 (okay, 8!!)  favorites of the year:

Okay For Now - I've listened to the criticisms of this book, but there is something about Doug that just touches my heart.  And the supporting cast including Lil, Mrs. Windemere, and his mom, are so well done and crucial to the plot.  I'm reading this book aloud to one of my language arts classes, and they are as involved with Doug's life as I am.

Inside Out and Back Again - I just reread this one on Friday.  That reread made me once again appreciate how beautiful the language in this story was.  The fact that this story was based on the author's (Thanhha Lai) own life experience as her family fled from Vietnam, made it all the more poignant.  And I'm a sucker for a great novel in verse.

Wonderstruck - I know it probably doesn't even qualify for the Newbery award, but it was absolutely one of my favorite books of the year.  Selznick was a master at illustrating one story, telling another story with words, and then beautifully meshing the two.  Pure genius!!

Ghetto Cowboy - I read this book after hearing about it on twitter, and it has stayed with me ever since.  The concept of a horse stable in the ghetto of Philadelphia was not only intriguing, but also based on true events.  Loved the journey of this main character, and really liked how his dad was trying to make a difference within his own community.

Hound Dog True - Loved this female character, Mattie, and I really, really loved Uncle Potluck.  Such a small story, packed with amazing emotion.  I had many personal connections to this story which added to its power for me.

Cheshire Cheese Cat - Another book that recently came to my attention and I loved it.  I'm not usually a fan of stories with animals as main characters, but I'd most definitely make an exception for this one.  Who knew there could be such great suspense with cheese, mice, cats, a misplaced bird, and Charles Dickens in a pub?!!  Great language abounds in this story, and as an adult, it was fun to know the "inside jokes" in reference to Charles Dickens.

Bigger Than a Breadbox - This story is a great look at how divorce and separation can affect children.  It covers several other themes as well: trying to fit in to a new place and wishing for things you want doesn't always bring you happiness.  I read this aloud to both of my language arts classes and we capped our experience off with a Skype visit with Laurel Snyder.  It was an incredibly thought-provoking read.

Icefall - This was my final read in trying to get to all the best books on mock Newbery lists, and it was such an amazing read.  There was one section of the book where I found myself gasping for air because of the building tension in the action.  At another point, I was sobbing.  Great characters, great setting, Viking folklore, storytelling within a story, and cliffhangers galore.  This one would be slightly old for my 5th graders, but I still loved it!!!!!

So, that wraps it up for this year.  We hope something we've mentioned gets some love on Monday.  But, as Bill said, no matter what, we have both enjoyed some great books this year, and we've had the great opportunity to share them with students as well.

Looking for Newbery - The Aviary

The Aviary by Kathleen O'Dell is an interesting book. Part historical fiction, part mystery it is full of twist and turns that keep the reader guessing and guessing and guessing. I didn't figure it out until the very end and then I'm still not sure I've figured it out!

First there's the Glendoveer Mansion, the family home of a world renown magician whose family perished in a boat crash under mysterious circumstances. The mansion becomes a character in the story with its mysterious rooms and sounds and artifacts. It's the perfect setting for this suspenseful story.

Then there's Clara, the house keeper's daughter. She's a curious girl, but her overprotective mother won't let her leave the house. She looks longingly out the windows when the drapes aren't drawn and wishes she was walking to school with the other neighborhood kids. She believes she suffers from a rare heart disease that makes it to dangerous for her to mingle with the outside world. Clara only knows the Glendoveer Mansion and it's last inhabitant, Mrs. Glendoveer.

Mrs. Glendoveer is the sickly, aged widow of the world renown magician. When she passes away, Clara's only friend is taken away...or is she? Clara still feels her presence and is convinced that there is something she must do so Mrs. Glendoveer can finally rest.

Add, the birds. The birds in the aviary in the backyard. Each a different species, each with a different personality, each with what appear to be very human characteristics. Clara is afraid of the birds, but has promised Mrs. Glendoveer that they will be taken care of after her death. Clara fulfills her promise and begins to notice that the birds are more human than they should be, one of them even speaking.

Begin the investigation. Clara starts to look into things, finding some of the mysterious mansion rooms, sensing the presence of Mrs. Glendoveer and realizing the secret lies with the birds. She befriends one of the school children by waving out an open window and has a partner to help with the investigation since she still isn't allowed to leave the house.

Everything is answered in the end, and the end is satisfying. There are a lot of characters all adding their own piece to the puzzle in interesting and entertaining ways. Although it wasn't a quick easy read, a lot to think about and process, I liked the book. I was a bit afraid that it might be a little long in some places for kids to get into, but several of the Newbery Club members read and liked the book. The writing is certainly well done and the feel Kathleen O'Dell creates with her words definitely works in this mysterious story.