Celebrate Reading

June has slid away and July has crept in. This week I celebrate reading and the gift of time.  The month of June was perfect for me.  Filled with my favorite activities: reading, gardening, visiting, and of course more reading. I also have more time for Saturday celebration blog posts.Thanks Ruth for encouraging us to celebrate and connect with my Saturday friends from near and far. 

My summer office with a view.

• Visiting my favorite Ostrander Library weekly and talking to my friends.  Walking in and hearing, "You have several titles on the shelf today."  Discussing which ones that I reserved through Search Ohio that I think the Delaware Libraries should consider purchasing.  I celebrate amazing conversations about books and the opportunity to influence the purchase of new titles. 
• Gift of time to read blogs and tweets. The Newberry Buzz started this week with Elizabeth posting at Fuse 8.  It's like an early Christmas present to see if I am on target or way off the mark.  This year I have done pretty well with my picks so far, and of course there were a few new titles that I wasn't aware of YET.
• Gift of time to discuss books with friends that visit, through twitter, facebook and our BE google list that Bill, Margaret and Ben keep going all summer with new titles and front runners for Newberry.
• I celebrate last year's class and their class gift which were gift cards, so I could purchase my new books for next year's class.  Every year I have a student ask me about the "new books," and I explain how it's important to pay it forward. Explaining that last year's readers are already supporting this year's readers. A full circle moment connecting the end of one year and start of a new year. 
• Visiting my favorite bookstore, Fundamentals and discussing books with my friend Tami. It's always a fun day when she gives me an ARC  and this week I got Wishtree by Katherine Applegate.  I am excited to share that the Scholastic Summer Road Trip will be coming to her store in Delaware, Ohio.  That will truly be a celebration for everyone!!!
  

Celebrating Learners in Room 234

It's been a grand week in Room 234!  Several students accomplished their goals in reading and math.  I celebrate their smile as they tell me 

• "I finally read a Historical Fiction book and I really liked it.  Where's another one?"
• "Did you know that I connected with Margaret in Are You There God? It's me Margaret."  One of my favorite books from fifth grade.  Thank you Judy Blume. 
• Over 60 families attended Grand Discussion discussing Save me a Seat on Thursday night with their mom or dad
• We had our second Newberry Club meeting - students are enthusiastic about their reading and casted their first vote of the season
• EO made connections with Base 10 and the Metric System.

• Students played with water to explore Metric Capacity. 

Inquiry: how many liters in a gallon? Getting water is a popular tool. Investigating metric capacity. @228BES pic.twitter.com/3C7AqYrQMB

— Maria Caplin (@mariacaplin) November 15, 2016

• "I've never had so much fun in math1"  
• "I never compared a liter to a gallon."

Celebrating learners in Room 234 and their inspiration to continue to grow. Asking great questions and most of all beginning to take ownership of their own learning. Several students set higher reading goals because  they had the confidence which has been building since August.  I hope all my friends are enjoying the learning at NCTE and tweet away. Thanks Ruth for encouraging us to celebrate.  

Finally Found the Lost Piece

For those who read my blog regularly, you know that I have been struggling with the direction I was given at my school to use guided reading groups in my classroom.  First let me say again, I am not opposed to guided reading groups however in fifth grade it is extremely difficult not to have them turn into redbird, bluebird and greenbird in my opinion.  I tried everything last school year, I changed the group members frequently, focused on reading levels, focused on strategies, focused on vocabulary but I never found the missing piece of the puzzle.  I spent all summer thinking about how to change guided reading groups since I knew I would have to use them again this school year. This school year, I chose purposefully not to start guided reading groups until second trimester which gave me 12 weeks to build our reading community.  To help all students become readers, allowed me enough time to learn about my students, and most importantly we had a established community of readers from Preprimer (my new ELL student) to Junie B. Jones,  to Andrew Clements, to five students participating in Newberry Club to classics including Moby Dick.

With our classroom rapport established, the first change was to name my guided reading (Book Clubs) what a difference in the opinions of 10 year old.  Second, I placed the students based on their reading lives not their fluency level, DRA level, not if they are in special ed or in our LEAP (gifted) program, but who they are as readers. Already I felt better about the reading groups.

Enjoying A Day's Work by Eve Bunting

Next I extended the time of the book clubs, I allowed them to choose the days of the week they met, they were able to bring a drink for one club meeting, and they decided if they would have homework. I started with four book clubs based on picture books that I knew each group would connect with because I knew my students as readers.  Ownership of the club became theirs.  Huge with fifth grade students!

I did set the focus for the clubs: to practice the fictional reading strategies that we had learned the first trimester.  I gave them a rubric that I would use to grade their thinking in addition a timeline of expectations.  Again they were in control with my guidance.  Powerful! 

Finally I was able to meet with each group on drop in visits.  I would just pull a stool up to the club and listen to their conversations. I would take some notes if I needed to touch base with a student later to ask a question.  Occasionally I would leave a note with a club to help guide their conversations for the day:  How did the character's motivation influence his choice at the garden?  

For the first time in two years, I am pleased with my reading groups now officially called book clubs.  My students view book clubs as an extension of our classroom reading and most importantly they value the time they spend in their small group discussing, learning and extending their reading lives. 

Enjoying Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco

Bird in a Box is Awesome

I just finished my favorite book of the summer, Bird in a Box, by Andrea Davis Pinkney.  I could not put it down and when I had to put it down all I kept doing was thinking about Hibernia, Willie, and Otis.  Three children growing up in upstate New York during the Great Depression during the time when Joe Louis was fighting which is in integral part of the story with different fights being announced from their old radios.  The development of these characters is amazing, and I love the way the book is organized by the character's names.  So many times I wanted to skip ahead because I wanted to know what happened to Ottis after the horrible incident that changed his life forever or I wanted to reach out and hug Willie when I had I had tears in my eyes after his life changing experience or I wanted to go sit outside the church where Hibernia would sing so beautifully just wishing her mother could hear her.  Their three lives eventually intertwine in the most unique setting which is the Mercy Home for Negro Orphans. I was entranced throughout the book, and I am very hopeful this book is recognized for a Newberry award in the fall.  I know I am putting it at the top of my list for our BES Newberry Club in the fall. Bill from Literate Lives and I both loved the book.

Newbery Club has Started!

My friend Bill from Literate Lives always had a dream to start a Newbery Club. When we used to team teach together, he always said that it would be neat if he along with the students would read the Newberry winner before it was announced. Well his dream came true Wednesday morning at 8:00 AM.  Bill asked me to help with organization of it as well as how to help the students be able to talk about the books through wikis/blogs. Wednesday morning we had 17 5th graders show up to begin discussing the Newberry books.  Bill posted before me so I am going to tag along with some extra details in case  you're interested in starting your own club.


In our school district, we have the availability to set up group blogs, so Bill sent a list of students who committed to the club to our tech coordinator, and he set the blog up for us.  The students have a password and it is linked through Bill's web page for the library.  This is the second best part of the club, I will tell you the best part later.  I love the fact that all 18 students call talk to each other, leave comments, ask questions as well as follow their friend's reading. Bill, Joyce (of Grand Discussion) and I also can talk to the kids. Just last night I talked to 7 different students, and this morning a boy in my class told me thanks for reading his comment.


The best part is that 18 students want to read and are in a group that will support their reading. I just sat back and listened at our first 8:00 meeting like Bill said all students had read one or two books. Today during study hall, two of the club members were discussing which book they would read next:  Countdown or Out of my Mind and how they could trade books if they finished in the same time line.  They are talking about books. I am excited to try and keep up with their reading-they are even pushing me!