Year 8's Top Ten Reads of Term 1, 2015

Our Year 8s are prolific readers thanks to Donalyn Miller's 40 Book Challenge.

Term 1 of 2015 has seen this particular group of students really flourishing in their reading and I'm sure its because they have really embraced the concept of building a reading community across the Year 8 team. It is exciting to hear girls chatting excitedly before school about the book they finished the night before. It is exciting to see them bringing in piles of their own books to share with their friends. It is exciting to see them rushing to sign up for our daily Booksell roster. It is exciting to be part of the #kidsbookchat they lead fortnightly for readers around New Zealand. The reading community they have formed is undoubtedly contributing enormously to their individual growth as readers.

Last week, I surveyed them about their Term 1 favourites. Here are the results.

A Must-Read: Book Love by Penny Kittle

There are a number of professional books that have had a profound effect on my teaching. Their content has resonated so strongly with me that it has transformed my practice. Sometimes it is not that the ideas held within are radical or completely new to me, but rather that the book's author has given me the courage to follow my instincts and abandon ineffective classroom practices.

Penny Kittle's Book Love is one such book. Reading it was strangely comforting, like spending time with an old and dear friend; a friend who makes you feel good about yourself and empowered to change! Penny Kittle is inspiring and passionate and a great storyteller; Book Love really is a great read. 

The full title is Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina and Passion in Adolescent Readers and the book is chock full of strategies that seek to do just that. It is a great companion to Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. It is aimed at High School English teachers but as a teacher of Year 8s was still very relevant to me. A lot of what Kittle has to say applies to educators working with all ages of learners although many of the strategies would work best with students about Year 6 and up.

One of Kittle's strategies that worked very well for me in 2014 was calculating personal reading rates and using these to measure one's progress and increased stamina. I used this strategy once a term and it was hugely popular with those learners in my class who liked to see numbers or data as evidence of their growth. It also makes weekly goal setting very easy as students can choose to read more than their current reading rate.

Another strategy I found very helpful was the term reflections. This involved listing books read in the term from most to least difficult. This strategy was powerful because it created in my students, a mindfulness around the challenge level of their reading material. This is turn had the effect of pushing many of them to ensure they had included some challenging books in their reading plans for the following term.

Here is an example that I created. You may or may not agree with the order I have chosen to list my reading material in (and in fact even I now disagree with my own list) but that's actually not important. What is important is this process made me aware of the challenge level of my reading choices. This in turn helps to create depth as learners try to raise their own personal challenge bar. And yes, it became sorely apparent as I created this, that I should probably read more books intended for adults!

I loved this quote that reminds us of the ultimate goal.

 "We have to commit to helping students choose texts they can navigate alone, then teach the skills needed to unravel more difficult texts in class, so that their skills increase while they experience the pleasure of reading. When skills and pleasure align, students begin to choose more difficult texts to read independently." (p. 14) 

I have read the chapter "Creating a School Community of Readers" numerous times. This chapter tells the story of the author's own school's journey to create a lifelong love of reading in every one of their students. There are lots of practical suggestions to help nurture a school-wide reading culture. This section shows what is possible under visionary leadership even if not all are on board.

My principal takeaway from Book Love is that any educator who teaches reading has a duty to read themselves. That sounds incredibly obvious but since reading this book I have heard and read of an alarming number of teachers who comment that they are not readers.  Kittle shared this great quote from Jim Trelease;

Which professional books have you loved? I'd love to hear your recommendations!

 

The Global Read Aloud rocks!

The Power of the Global Read Aloud

This is a post I wrote for the Literacy Online list. I hope its ok to share it here too.

For the past couple of years, I have watched the Global Read Aloud unfold with great longing! This is a global project where classes read together, build connections and form friendships over the same shared book. It was started by the amazing Pernille Ripp (and if you are not following her go and do so right this minute! She is amazing!) I’ve desperately wanted my learners to be a part of the GRA but the timing is horrendous, falling over the New Zealand Term 3 holidays. This year, I decided to bite the bullet and sign up- I’d address the scheduling issues later.  

First my class and I needed to select one of the novels on offer. These five titles had been selected via a social media campaign and the selections ensured there was something for everyone.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane- Kate di Camillo

The Fourteenth Goldfish- Jennifer L. Holm

One for the Murphy’s- Lynda Mullaly Hunt

The Fault in our Stars- John Green

My class selected “One for the Murphys” by Lynda Mullaly Hunt which thankfully only five had read and all five were very keen to read it again. The Global Read Aloud is very well supported by the authors of the selected titles and we were fortunate to be able to watch Lynda Mullaly Hunt herself read the first chapter via a youtube clip.  This was a great experience. She also held frequent open question sessions via google hangout which were able to be watched later on youtube.

Next, I registered to make connections with other classes who had also selected “One for the Murphys”. It was easy to find classes who were very keen to connect with a school at the bottom of the earth in little old Christchurch, New Zealand! I was inundated with tweets and emails, people inviting 8C to connect. I formed a connection with the first class who approached us, a class in Oshawa, Canada. Their teacher and I hit it off right away and started planning fun and meaningful ways to connect our classes. I created a quiz for our buddy class to complete which would eventually result in them establishing that we were in Christchurch, New Zealand and we did a similar thing in 8C, completing quiz questions that eventually led us to their map coordinates. We would have loved to have done this via Mystery Skype but the timezones were completely incompatible. We each created a movie introducing ourselves which highlighted the many differences between us but perhaps more importantly the many similarities we share.

http://8cshs.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/introducing-8c-to-our-buddies-in-oshawa.html

We each created challenges and reflective tasks based on “One for the Murphys” which we shared between our classes.  We collaborated via padlet, our 8C blog and their individual kidblog accounts.

The greatest challenge we faced was timezones. Without organising an out of school event, connecting synchronously was very difficult. Also, 8C uses Twitter a lot for slowchat- type questions but in our buddy class’s district, Twitter is blocked and they were not a google apps school. So there were some initial challenges to work through none of which was insurmountable. They do however use Edmodo and I was inspired to join and learn more about this platform.

About halfway through the novel, we discovered a fantastic site called Flipgrid. This is a paid website but offers a 21 day trial. I used my flipgrid account incessantly during this 21 days and will absolutely be buying a paid account in 2015. I can see so many possibilities for this amazing tool.

Flipgrid enables educators to make grids of questions. The students film themselves responding to the questions and the responses form a grid. We posed questions such as “Be someone’s hero” is an underlying theme in One for the Murphys. Who is your hero in life? Share reasons why.

It was fantastic to see our students from opposite corners of the globe lined up side by side, sharing their reflections on the novel. Their responses were often very personal and the students have requested that I don’t embed the grid into this post. However, here is a screenshot for those of you who are curious to see how Flipgrid might look.

 

“One for the Murphys” is a compelling and emotional story which touched all of us very deeply- it is so moving that I often had to give the book to one of my students to read as I experienced “sweaty eye syndrome”. Having another class with a different perspective and set of life experiences to discuss the book with was a very special experience and one I would love to repeat. There were challenges along the way and things I will do differently next time but despite this, the collaboration between us has been powerful and made our experience of an amazing class novel significantly richer.

Ok, so I've cheated for today's #28daysofwriting challenge by posting something I had already written. It is Waitangi Day here and after a huge couple of weeks at school, I've had a fantastic day with my whanau.....as we all should on Waitangi Day. ;)

Kicking off the 40 Book Challenge

I tried so hard NOT to write my #28daysofwriting about the 40 Book Challenge today because I've blogged about this numerous times, such as here, here and here just to share a few! I don't want to bore anyone or appear to be a "one trick pony" so to speak. It's just that the 40 Book Challenge has impacted so deeply on my practice that I find it impossible not to share my wild enthusiasm.

Donalyn Miller is one of my eduheroes- her books "The Book Whisperer" and "Reading in the Wild" are must-reads if you teach in a primary/ intermediate school or secondary English. The basic premise is that learners are encouraged to read at least 40 books (students set individual goals but 40 is a good minimum number because it is gives enough of a challenge that learners have to work steadily at it throughout the year.) Some girls set the goal of 50, 65 or even 80. Some of these girls will make 80 and need to reassess the goal later in the year. Others might not make 40; like any goal, not meet it is not the end of the world because I guarantee that with this challenge in place, these girls will read more frequently, more deeply and read more widely than they did last year. They will also learn a huge amount about where and how to find reading material they enjoy and they will leave Year 8 with a number of favourite genres and authors. Perhaps most importantly, we will see, as we have in the past two years, 8CF transform from being a collection of children working independently in the same classroom to a truly supportive learning community where girls discuss and share reading experiences, sharing their favourite books and helping each other be successful.     

Today was the third 40 Book Challenge Kick-off party I've held for our Year 8 girls. The girls are now well aware of the challenge before they join Year 8 so today the 40 Book Challenge announcement was met with a mixture of fear and trepidation.....and great, unbridled enthusiasm. Either reaction is perfectly understandable! 

This year, after feedback from last year's girls, I've made some changes. 

1. Picture Books-

I'm sort of shocked at myself for not including picture books in the challenge before now. I'm a huge picture book lover so I'm a bit disgusted at myself for not including these sooner. Ten picture books = one book and we did discuss the importance of variety in these books but the girls "get it" and are grateful for the opportunity to explore the way text and visuals combine to tell a story. 

2. No specific genre numbers- 

Previously I had set the genre guidelines eg 3x Fantasy, 3 NZ Literature and 10 Free Choice. What was I thinking? This year, I've scrapped that but do want them to read at least one book in each category. After that, the world's their oyster so to speak. 

So after sharing the slideshow, we set goals and then we laid out piles of books including many from the National Library. The girls were so, so excited to select books, I was actually concerned there might be a punch up over, "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart. I had two thoughts as this unfolded......

a) Why didn't I bring a first aid kit?

b) How much longer will children around New Zealand get this much joy from National Library books for? (sigh........that's another post!)

Goal setting

On your marks...........

So exciting!

Appletise; Toasting ourselves! Let's do this thing! 

A Picture Book a Day.....

A couple of months ago, I stumbled across this post from an educator I admire and I was immediately spurred unto action.  Jillian Heise 's knowledge of amazing children's literature and her passion for creating readers inspires me enormously. She teaches 7th and 8th grade English (which is equivalent to Year 8 and 9 in New Zealand) and she has, perhaps without knowing, helped me immensely as I built up my classroom library for Year 8s after a move from Year 5 and before that, juniors.

Jillian's post gives numerous compelling reasons advocating the use of picture books in a middle

school classroom. Her goal to read a picture book a day for a full school year is pure genius and with only five weeks of the school year to go, I decided I just HAD to do something similar with my girls.

I have always suffered happily from a picture book addiction; I must have spent thousands of dollars on picture books over my teaching career! Becoming a Mum gave me even more license to purchase as many books as my heart desired with no regard for the Mastercard balance! My own children have been the primary beneficiaries of this policy but the students in my classes have also benefitted enormously. My students and I have always lapped up picture books in large quantities, finding a perfect story for nearly every occasion. 

Then came a move to Year 8. Five months into the year, a parent complained to our principal that I was insulting the students' intelligence by reading my Y8s picture books. This practice was deemed by this parent to be beneath their daughter and inappropriate for a teacher of 11 and 12 year olds. My principal stood up for me but I was incensed! In an ironic twist of fate, one of the many sophisticated picture books we'd spent a huge amount of time discussing turned out to be the essay prompt in the child's high school entrance exam and she came back to school "high as a kite" and thanking me for equipping her so well for the exam! Hilarious. The parent however, remained adamant that picture books should firmly remain in the early years classrooms.

It turns out that this parent was not alone in their view. I have ploughed on in my use of picture books and I remain firmly committed to using them with my learners for many reasons. When I came across Jillian's post, I wanted to give her a virtual fist bump. I felt vindicated and like I'd been given official permission to continue using picture books with wild abandon!

My girls were about to start their very last month of primary school ready to embark on the next phase in their education adventure, secondary school. So I decided that we would, inspired by Jillian, read a picture book every day for their final month at school. Jillian suggested some titles and I spent a lot of time carefully planning which books we'd read together, using a mixture of my own personal books as well as placing many holds at the amazing Christchurch City Libraries. Books that made the cut included some stories about the experience of refugees (related to our Unit of Inquiry) a couple of Christmas picture books and a large dose of encouragement and pearls of wisdom as they head off to high school.

So many amazing titles! 

The girls loved the routine of beginning each school day at 8.30am with a story. They'd curl up on beanbags or under desks or cuddle up close to one another ready and waiting for the day's instalment of picture book joy.  From 8am on, they'd be trying to weasle out of me what today's title was and at the conclusion of the story, there was often spontaneous applause if the book had hit the right spot.

There are so many reasons why I think this very simple addition to our day was so successful but the most compelling reason is the ability of a story to enhance community through shared experience. This community bonding was exactly what my girls needed as the day came ever closer that they would splinter off to attend their various high schools.

I loved every single one of these books but one really stands out because every single student loved it, all three teachers adored it and my own two children loved it so much that my daughter wants to scan the pages and frame them for her walls. I had to return it to the library so you guessed it, I bought my very own beautiful copy.

An incredible book about friendship; such an important message before the girls move on to new schools. 

And one more deserves an honourable mention. Jillian recommended this for my girls' very last day at school. I read it to them before we shared memories of their years together and it gave many of us "sweaty eyes"......... but we're good with that! :)

Buy this book if you have a child starting school or leaving for their O.E. or....well, I'm sure you can find an excuse! 

I now believe that this is something I will do every year to finish my learners' primary school experience with a bang. So here's a question for you; which are your favourite picture books? Which do you think I should add to my collection?

Thanks again to Jillian Heise for the inspiration. I hope you are enjoying "The House that Jack Built" by Gavin Bishop; a fantastic author/illustrator from my home town of Christchurch, New Zealand.