Listen. Connect. Empower.

When I found this book, I KNEW it would get students' attention.  Any and all things "gross," "weird" or potentially "inappropriate" scream out READ ME! I took this opportunity to purchase it, read it aloud and create a fun activity that would (hopefully) get students' attention (grades 2-5). I chose four animals to feature. Each animal's "behind" had a moment to shine (or block, stink, paralyze, etc). We read and "ewww-ed." Four rear ends that paralyze, communicate, frighten, and block. Then we rated the rump. The book had a 5 emoji rating system, but I modified it so we could have a "four corner" system. I created signs and put them at the corners of our rug. Emojis used to "rate the rumps" Students walked to the emoji rating that best fit their opinion of this rear. Once we took in how the voting landed, we returned to our reading spots and repeated this process for the next rump. Read, rate, repeat! ...

Every year I examine books as mirrors and windows with my students.  Every year I tweak the exploration and this year was no different.  This year's additions included sticky notes and reflections.   Day 1: Mirror moments Sticky notes I created with Tony Vincent's template (link below) After modeling mirror moments (and having students make "me too" signals), students identified a mirror moment from a stack of books at their table.  "This is like my sister and I.  We fight all the time." - 3rd grader "When my mom tells me to clean my room I just sit because I don't know where to start." - 3rd grader Day 2: Window moments In the next class I modeled "window moments" and we drew windows in the air when we heard moments that were "not like us."   Students identified "window moments" at their tables with sticky notes. Students shared their "window moments" through the window we passed around our sharing circl...

This lesson was about making a visual representation of our reading selves.  We drew, we laughed, we learned about each other as readers, and started building a reading community.  We did this on a remote day.  *This was developed in conjunction with my brilliant colleagues.* Standards:  AASL: Inquire/Share I.C.1 . Interacting with content presented by others. I decided we needed a theme to tie a disjointed year together and settled on the question:  I spent much of my summer thinking about "identity" but needed a concrete landing place for those big, abstract thoughts.  I wondered what would happen if we thought about "identity" through a reading lens. We read Reading Makes You Feel Good We practiced looking at two options and showing our choice for where we like to read by holding up that number of fingers. Next, we moved on to our directed draw. When we were done drawing, we had a big reveal.  Students were tasked with looking for someone with ...

I knew this year would be challenging.  After my first 3 days of remote teaching I wasn't sure there would be any life left in me to check out a book or have any brain cells left to compose an email.  Seven days later I admit that I still feel stumped and frustrated, but I have had small victories that are worth celebrating.   The Challenge 1st and 2nd grade students did not have the skills to minimize our Zoom and interact with content. The Solution Create opportunities for students to interact without clicking while we develop these skills.  I developed activities that required students to make a choice (think "This or That" or "Would You Rather" type activities).   Introducing Vocabulary  To launch our celebration of reading, one of the books I read was Wild About Books.  There are so many different animals and potentially unfamiliar words in the book though.  To introduce these, we played several rounds of "Would You Rather Be A..." ...

I was honored and humbled to be interviewed by Amy Hermon for her fabulous podcast School Librarian's United.   Our initial conversations revolved around the topic of nonfiction which is near and dear to my heart. This post is a departure from my traditional blogging of a lesson or a unit that happened in our library, rather it is a compilation of thoughts and activities about nonfiction.  Here we go! How our library supports what is happening in classrooms. And the data to prove it. #msla #tlchat #UAELibrarians pic.twitter.com/37DDP3q4tU — Wendy Garland (@dancelibrarian) January 17, 2020 The #nonfiction section of our library. Can you tell the entire school is reading nonfiction books? Shelves are very empty. What remains is an unorganized disaster. I love it! They are reading! #msla #tlchat pic.twitter.com/NsgI9aKyih — Wendy Garland (@dancelibrarian) January 17, 2020 This was my January.  Nonfiction books were flying off the shelves.  Studen...

I just love it when multiple ideas/concepts come together.  Our coding experience was an example of that this year. We have been celebrating the Hour of Code for the last 7 years.  I love the problem solving and teamwork I see when students code.  However,  I have been struggling with where and how this fits into our library program.  It was feeling like an isolated unit that didn't authentically fit.  I was inspired at #AASL19 by  Ashley Cooksey's  work and how she integrated picture books and coding.  I decided this was the year for change.  I used the month of December to read diverse picture books and problem solve (code). Diverse picture books for coding Wendy Garland's favorite books » Share book reviews and ratings with Wendy, and even join a book club on Goodreads. Why? One of my goals for the year was to audit books chosen to read aloud to stu...