Literacy Connections
Literacy Links & Resources
November 27, 2016
I hope you all enjoyed a relaxing time with family and friends over the Thanksgiving Break. Report card time is upon us, so I'm keeping the Literacy Connections short. In this edition you'll find a new podcast suggestion and ideas for supporting conferring work. The Book Buzz includes suggestions of new titles I've had time to read over the past few weeks!
Happy Reading!
Susan
The Kitchen Sink
Books Between Podcast
I had a lot of positive feedback on the Heinemann podcast link I shared in a previous Literacy Connections. I've found another one that I am enjoying so I'm passing it along to you! Books Between is hosted by Corinna Allen, a 5th grade teacher in New York. You can give the podcast a try here.
Vacation Reading Plans Sessions for Grades 3-5
As I did last year, I'm offering 20 minute Vacation Reading Plans Book Talk sessions for 3-5 classrooms the week leading up to Christmas Vacation. Use the links below to sign up. Sessions will be offered on a first come, first serve basis so don't delay!
MLS Teachers click here.
DCS Teachers click here.
Don't worry K-2 teachers, I haven't forgotten you! I'll be coming around to schedule a read aloud session with those who are interested later this week.
K-2 Connections
Compliment Conferences
Sometimes the best conference we can have with a young writer is when we explicitly notice and name a skill or craft that they are using with independence (or close to independence). Elizabeth Moore wrote a concise post about this kind of conference. You can read her post here.
3-5 Connections
Teaching Students to Get Better at Conferring
We devote time in our teaching to help students learn how to get better at working independently, being a reading (or writing) partner, being a strong book club member. But have you ever thought about making conferring stronger by actually teaching students how to be the "conferee"? Anna Gratz Crockerille shares ideas for incorporating this idea into a mini lesson. You can read her post here.
The Book Buzz
All book summaries are from Goodreads.com
Kindergarten
Today is the day Nanette gets to get the baguette! Is she set? YOU BET!
Mo Willems' hilarious new picture book, Nanette's Baguette, follows our plucky heroine on her first big solo trip to the bakery. But . . . will Nanette get the baguette from baker Juliette? Or will Nanette soon be beset with regret?
Set in a meticulously handcrafted-paper-modeled French village, the uniquely vibrant laugh-out-loud world of Nanette's Baguette may be Mo's best creation yet. Get set to krack into an irresistible tale you won't soon forget!
Mo Willems' hilarious new picture book, Nanette's Baguette, follows our plucky heroine on her first big solo trip to the bakery. But . . . will Nanette get the baguette from baker Juliette? Or will Nanette soon be beset with regret?
Set in a meticulously handcrafted-paper-modeled French village, the uniquely vibrant laugh-out-loud world of Nanette's Baguette may be Mo's best creation yet. Get set to krack into an irresistible tale you won't soon forget!
Grade 1
Have you ever considered running away to Antarctica? Of course you have! Because it’s a land free of worries and responsibilities! All of your problems will surely be blown away by the icy winds of that lawless paradise! . . . Won’t they?
Think again, my friend. This penguin has come to tell you that his life down there is no more a picnic than yours is here. For starters, it is FREEZING. Also, penguins have a ton of natural predators. Plus, can you imagine trying to find your mom in a big ol’ crowd of identical penguins? No, thank you.
Yes, it seems there is no escaping the drudgery of your daily grind, whatever it might be. Or perhaps we’ve just learned that grumps are everywhere. . . .
Think again, my friend. This penguin has come to tell you that his life down there is no more a picnic than yours is here. For starters, it is FREEZING. Also, penguins have a ton of natural predators. Plus, can you imagine trying to find your mom in a big ol’ crowd of identical penguins? No, thank you.
Yes, it seems there is no escaping the drudgery of your daily grind, whatever it might be. Or perhaps we’ve just learned that grumps are everywhere. . . .
Grade 2
Frank’s grandma is a famous paleontologist (that’s a dinosaur scientist). But she’s also an adult who makes up rules. Rules like: no digging for dinosaur bones when you have a sunburn. That means Frank is stuck playing inside with his annoying cousin, Samantha. But then Grandma finds a fossil of an egg! And when Frank and Sam sneak into the dino lab late at night, they find something even more amazing. . . .
The hilarious Dino Files chapter book series follows a nine-year-old dinosaur expert, his paleontologist grandparents, a cat named Saurus, and fossils that might not be so extinct!
The hilarious Dino Files chapter book series follows a nine-year-old dinosaur expert, his paleontologist grandparents, a cat named Saurus, and fossils that might not be so extinct!
Grade 3
Five friends are ready for their school’s Olympics field day. There will be relay races, archery contests, and more! But not everyone wants to play fair—someone is trying to ruin the events! Can the kids in the Most Valuable Player club solve the mystery, save the Olympics, and take home the gold?
Perfect for kids who love to compete in all kinds of contests and have fun with great friends, David A. Kelly’s new series teaches readers that when you’re a most valuable player, you love sports, always show spirit, and never give up! And don’t miss bonus back matter filled with cool sports facts in every book.
Perfect for kids who love to compete in all kinds of contests and have fun with great friends, David A. Kelly’s new series teaches readers that when you’re a most valuable player, you love sports, always show spirit, and never give up! And don’t miss bonus back matter filled with cool sports facts in every book.
Grade 4
Azalea is not happy about being dropped off to look after Grandmother Clark. Even if she didn't care that much about meeting the new sixth graders in her Texas hometown, those strangers seem much preferable to the ones in Paris Junction. Talk about troubled Willis DeLoach or gossipy Melinda Bowman. Who needs friends like these!
And then there's Billy Wong, a Chinese-American boy who shows up to help in her grandmother's garden. Billy's great-aunt and uncle own the Lucky Foods grocery store, where days are long and some folks aren't friendly. For Azalea, whose family and experiences seem different from most everybody she knows, friendship has never been easy. Maybe this time, it will be.
Inspired by the true accounts of Chinese immigrants who lived in the American South during the civil rights era, these side by side stories--one in Azalea's prose, the other in Billy's poetic narrative--create a poignant novel and reminds us that friends can come to us in the most unexpected ways.
And then there's Billy Wong, a Chinese-American boy who shows up to help in her grandmother's garden. Billy's great-aunt and uncle own the Lucky Foods grocery store, where days are long and some folks aren't friendly. For Azalea, whose family and experiences seem different from most everybody she knows, friendship has never been easy. Maybe this time, it will be.
Inspired by the true accounts of Chinese immigrants who lived in the American South during the civil rights era, these side by side stories--one in Azalea's prose, the other in Billy's poetic narrative--create a poignant novel and reminds us that friends can come to us in the most unexpected ways.
Grade 5
Joe and Ravi might be from very different places, but they're both stuck in the same place: SCHOOL.
Joe's lived in the same town all his life, and was doing just fine until his best friends moved away and left him on his own.
Ravi's family just moved to America from India, and he's finding it pretty hard to figure out where he fits in.
Joe and Ravi don't think they have anything in common -- but soon enough they have a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and a common mission: to take control of their lives over the course of a single crazy week.
Joe's lived in the same town all his life, and was doing just fine until his best friends moved away and left him on his own.
Ravi's family just moved to America from India, and he's finding it pretty hard to figure out where he fits in.
Joe and Ravi don't think they have anything in common -- but soon enough they have a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and a common mission: to take control of their lives over the course of a single crazy week.
Susan Dee K-5 Literacy Strategist
Email: dees@rsu5.org
Website: http://dees18.wixsite.com/literacy-field-notes
Location: Freeport, ME, United States
Phone: 207-865-4561
Twitter: @literacydocent