Listen. Connect. Empower.

One of my goals this year is to get to know my students better and provide more focused interactions to help them find books.  I love one-on-one interactions, but with many students and little time, it will take me weeks to conference with everyone.  I decided to try mini-groups so I could address students' interests but do so in a way that will allow me to reach more students in less time. 3rd-5th graders began class by reading about 4 different genres. Students then wrote their name on a post-it and placed it on the genre that most interested them.  I broke them into 4 groups according to like genre interests. Groups rotated through 4 stations: B3 (Big Book Bonanza) - looking at books of their chosen genre  Book checkout Jokes Read it/Do It (looking at active non-fiction books) We had only 5 minutes at each station, but this kept everyone moving.  Each group had a "Paper Manager" and a "Navigator" to help keep the group organiz...

We are now six weeks into our school year and it is time to reflect on the whirlwind that was "back to school."  I am making a concerted effort to "make my yeses count" (thank you, Matthew Winner ).  This means I am carefully making choices so I can focus my time and energy on the items most important to me, my students, and our library program.  Relationships Developing relationships with students is first and foremost on my mind.  My goal is to love them first and teach them second.  Actions I have taken this year to do this: I asked for "breakfast duty."  Every morning you will find me in our cafeteria, sitting at a different table of students talking about anything and everything.  (Thanks to my 10-year-old son, I was able to hold my own in a WWE conversation last week).  Here I can find out what makes students tick and what really matters to them. I started a binder of notes about what students are reading.  Inspired by Melan...

Over two weeks this spring my 3rd graders explored the poetry of color.  My goal was to share poetry of primarily diverse authors and illustrators (see my previous post ). We began class by reading author Malathi Michelle Iyengar's note in  Tan to Tamarind: Poems About the Color Brown  about how she vividly remembers scrubbing her brownness off in the bathtub as a child.  She shares with the reader her shame turned to pride in the color of her skin.  As I read, you could hear a pin drop. I then read several poems from Tan to Tamarind: Poems About the Color Brown .   We listened for descriptions that appealed to our senses. We then read the poem Brown from Hailstones to Halibut Bones.   We shared all kinds of luscious smells, sights, and sounds of brown.  Students then went to tables to read poetry or try their hand at writing color poetry on paint chips. Day 2  Day 2 began by reading All the Colors of the Earth. We ...

Why a blog post about something as simple as putting sticky notes on books?  This was something bigger.  This was an experiment in the social reading experience.  Our students are social creatures (mostly).  Reading appears to be a solitary endeavor.  However, when a book moves from the quiet place in our head and our heart into the world, we give a little piece of ourselves away with the recommendation.  Through recommendations, students are connecting with one another and with the text. Student recommendations I believe one of the most powerful ways to spread a love of reading is to share book recommendations with one another.  My TBR list is ridiculously long, but I prioritize these according to what my friends and colleagues are saying about what THEY are reading.  Why not take this same approach with my students? I like to begin class by sharing what we are reading.  We do this in a variety of ways - small groups, partners, wh...

Every year our community participates in a town read.  Books are chosen with incredible attention paid to the ENTIRE community.  There is always an adult choice as well as a related YA and young reader choice.  This year the adults are reading How To Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery while our youngest readers are reading Inky's Amazing Escape .  Here is our school's journey: Day 1 We began class by watching a video of an octopus escaping from a boat to set the scene (thank you Sarah Bickel )!: Students watched the video and "ooh-ed," and "ew-ed" their way through it.  Now I had their attention!  We segued into our book which shares the true story of Inky the Octopus's escape from the New Zealand Aquarium.  Things that caught my students' attention: Octopus are hatched from an egg the size of a grain of rice. They are independent immediately after birth. Inky liked to play with legos and Mr. Potato Head. Inky could fit i...

With April quickly approaching I began to think about our poetry collection which currently does a lot of sitting on the shelves.  Appalling circ stats (see below) proved to me that even during a month when poetry is highlighted, these books still sit on the shelves.  It is time to do something about this situation.   Why aren't students picking up poetry books?  Every year poetry can be found in every nook and cranny of the library.  Some years I hang poetry all over the school.  We read and write our own poetry during library class.  Clearly, these efforts aren't doing the job.  The moral of the story - my students aren't connecting with the material.  Could this be the very root of the problem?   My school has a very diverse population.  Diverse characters are represented in .07% of our poetry books.  Could this be the missing piece to the puzzle?  I decided it was time to find out.  My goal M...