Spotlight: Readers Sharing Favorite Books

Me: "I enjoy reading blogs and learning from others."
Friend: "Tell me more"
Me: "I still want to learn, but I am not sure I have any new ideas to share."
Friend: "Why don't you write about what you learn?"
Me: Tell me more"
Friend: "How about lifting up others and placing the spotlight on their tweets/blogs?"
Me: "Brilliant"

compliments of Google images

This tweet spoke to me and said, "What a wonderful connection between readers and books!" I instantly was wishing I could have last year's readers back and have them write their index card. Ahh well, moving on to next year's class. I am going to borrow this idea and make it my own. Isn't that the best part of twitter? A seed is planted and then you help it grow? The first few weeks of a new school year, I ask every reader to bring in their favorite book. They can write their thinking on a large sticky note and place it on the inside cover which will provide instant book conversations:

• similar genres
• similar authors
• different points of view
• sharing their story of why why chose the book

And of course, I will have my favorite books ready as a model. Thanks Kristin Crouch for sharing your idea on Twitter.

Random Literacy Thoughts on Saturday

I have virtually turned a new page in my teaching career this year with twitter. I have found twitter to be the best virtual PD for me because the people I follow have the same genuine interest as well as concerns about literacy.  I do however appreciate that 90% of twitter conversation is positive and rarely goes off the deep end.  The tweet above really hit me as I read it, and I started thinking about reading in my classroom this year.  

As an educator, I often think from year to year about the successes I had and how I will implement them into my classroom the next year.  What I find the most interesting about that is sometimes WONDERFUL plans from last year do not always work with this year's class.  I found this graphic today on face book posted by Edutopia.

Which brings me back to reading, my wonder colleague, Paul Hankin's posted several strong opinions on face book about the power of NOT rewarding students for reading a set # of books.  I followed the entire conversation as a parent of two adult children who still don't love to read, and I believe because they were made to read set # of books or a certain genre every month and as a teacher who does not require a set number of books or required minutes from my students.

Which brings me to the picture above -- my weekend HW. I will be reading my students Reader's NB and writing back to each student reflecting on their thoughts about their JR book, their reading life or just thoughts about reading. To me the power in literacy is about the conversations that happen inside and outside our classrooms including the time I spend reading books so I can book talk, the time I spend reading blogs about new books and ordering new books for our classroom.

Finally, I am thankful for all my "friends" I have never met on twitter or face book that support my literacy thoughts and encourage me to grow virtually. I am anxiously awaiting the summer so I can continue to grow and start to read my ever growing book pile waiting for me on my desk.