Reading in the Wild Chapter Two

Hi friends!

I hope you’re enjoying our summer book club! I know I’ve written soooo many plans for next year, and we’re only on Chapter Two!

Reading in the Wild Book Club

Let’s Collaborate on our Padlet!

Here is our embedded Padlet.

[padlet key=’vb9tj10gexl4′ width=’100%’ height=’480′]

Or you can click this link to go to the Padlet website.

What ideas and questions were sparked in YOUR brain as you read Chapter 2? Click the pink circle to add to our Padlet discussion! Here are some of my big takeaways.

Building Self-Selection Skills

Has anyone else had the experience of trying to help a student find the next book to read, and having that student reject every single one? No? Just me? Well, I will try the idea of preview stacks next year, (discussed on pages 71-74) to give them an opportunity to learn about several different books at once.

I know that self-selecting books intimidates many students. I would like to build more time in our schedule next year for “speed dating” type events, where I have books on tables for students to look through and quickly discuss. I also want to spend more time on class discussions of good books that students have read and want to recommend to others.

Curating Your Library

On page 81, Mrs. Miller says, “don’t load up your bookshelves with award-winning titles if they lack kid appeal. It’s a waste of money and space.” Have you found this to be true in your school library? In our library, I no longer have a complete collection of all of the Newbery award and honor books. (gasp!) Some of the older ones were just falling apart on the shelves, with no one reading them. While I can’t keep The One and Only Ivan on the shelf because it’s so popular (short chapters! narrated by a gorilla!), Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village was not finding its readers.

Mrs. Miller lists her classroom library rules on page 83. I’m finding that library rules need to be explicitly taught and often repeated. Even our fifth graders need to be reminded to keep their books away from pets and not to peel off the bar code stickers. I’m not sure why this surprises me every year!

Is your library MUSTIE? How are you at removing (weeding) books that are Misleading, Ugly, Superseded, Trivial, Irrelevant, or Elsewhere? Although this is one of my LEAST favorite parts of my job, I do LOVE how our shelves look when the old, outdated, ugly books are gone!

Let’s Collaborate on a Google Doc!

On pages 48-56, Mrs Miller talks about the importance of reading aloud as part of growing wild readers. I don’t think any of us would disagree with the benefits she lists of building community, helping students find new authors, books, or genres to read on their own, supporting developing readers, and reinforcing that reading is FUN!

Because I don’t have time in my schedule to read aloud to all 900 of our students, I need to find a better way to encourage teachers to read aloud to their classes. I’m going to email each grade level at the beginning of the school year with a list of suggested read-alouds. They can take 10-15 minutes each day to read a book that will lead students to more book choices.

I currently have very few teachers who consistently read aloud to their students, so I know this will be a challenge. I’m hopeful that if I provide book choices and even deliver the books to their classroom, I can help teachers make room for reading aloud to our students. I can have a few book clubs during my lunch time, but I need to team with our teachers to make read-alouds happen campus-wide.

Read Aloud Book List

I’ve created this Google Doc, so that we can share our ideas for recommended books and authors for each grade level. You can add your suggestions and see what others have posted. We want our read-aloud choices to lead our students to more books by the same author, to grow them in their book selection skills.

Books Teach You How to Read Them

This was my favorite quote from Chapter 2, on page 62. I feel like our school spends so much time “intervening” with our struggling readers, when we could be giving them time to actually READ BOOKS! Who could love reading when we make it such a chore for them? If all you gave me to read were test “passages,” why would I be motivated to become a better reader? That text is BORING!

Books Teach You How to Read

Thank You

Thank you for being part of our Reading in the Wild book club. You are such an encouragement to me, and I cherish the ideas, thoughts, and questions that you share!

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    2 Comments

    1. I love the idea of collaborating on a list of books in a series that make great read aloud selections to share with teachers. I had trouble putting books with a particular grade. I wonder if a spreadsheet with a column for each grade level would be easier. Then a grade range could be marked for each series. In each row a series with the title and author would be given. In the same row, we could put an X for the grade levels for which we recommended the book. Then the list could be sorted by that column, so that we could print a list for that grade level. Here’s an example:
      https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1k-kAmAAvAjn2D9JFFaiT-ZQWxArQp3pcETWP1fHsRNU/edit?usp=sharing

      1. Diane, thanks for your great idea! I’ve changed the blog post to link to your spreadsheet! We’ll collaborate there now. I’m so glad you suggested this format!
        Cari

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