The Forty Book Challenge Student and Teacher Testimony

The school year ends tomorrow. I wanted to share the footage that I collected the past two weeks from my students. It took me four hours to create this video. I am so excited to share with you the year long journey of reading. My students self selected their books this year. They share book recommendations with each other, wrote literacy letters, shared their love of reading, and learned to read from different genres. This is their year long reading journey. I based my research using Abydos Reading Week and Donalyn Miller's Reading in the Wild. I interviewed my students and asked them about the 40 Book Challenge. I was amazed at their responses. They have become wild readers and writers. I hope you enjoy the video and feel free to share with anyone who you think might benefit from knowing about the forty book challenge and the power of reading.

40 Book Challenge Student Reflections

Today I began my 40 Book Challenge Video Reflection Series. During the week, I will interview my students to get their reflections about the 40 Book Challenge. It has been a wonderful journey with my wild readers. 

Diary of a Whimpy Kid Old School Lottery

My students are bonkers for Dairy of a Whimpy Kid. Yesterday I received my shipment of three books that I preordered from Scholastic. The newly released Dairy of a Whimpy Kid-Old School was a hit. Last week we held a book lottery for the first two ccpies. The selected lottery winners now get first dibs on the reading of these books. They jumped up and down when I showed them the new books. They were fortunate to read them during Ludic reading in the classroom today and also are allowed to take them home to read.  I have a long waiting list. Next Friday, the next three get to read the books. Maybe I should buy more? I am considering it.

It was so fun to see their reaction and joy! They didn't want to put the books down.

My students are such wild readers. Anytime I share my new reads, they want to immediately  borrow the new books. Then I have to start new lotteries. I got the idea of book lotteries from Donalyn Miller's Reading in the Wild. This is such a great way to solve a big problem: my students want to read everything!  It is a great problem to have.

Wild Readers

I made a video about my students. They are proud of the amount of reading that they have accomplished the first month and a half of  school.  I plan on revising this video very soon. I need to add a few more students. We ran out of time on last Friday when I was collecting the data and media. I wanted to get it produced to show it to my students. I know they will be thrilled to see themselves celebrated with all their wild reading. The numbers aren't as important as the fact that they love to read and explore the different authors and books. I am proud of them. I would like to track their reading adventures once a month to track. In the next video, they will talk about the books they recommend and are currently reading. Stay tuned!

Book Extravaganza

I was so happy to be back teaching today. I couldn't wait to show my students all the new books that I had brought with Scholastic points. It was like Christmas or a surprise birthday party for them. You could see their eyes light up when I introduced them to their new friends. They were close to salivating for those books. They really like graphic novels. I ordered more Bone books in the series. I ordered more Diary of a Whimpy Kid. The oooohhed and auuuggged with them Big Nates and then Gumball! I would have thought they had seen One Direction or something. They did  the same thing with the Legos books too. They went crazy of the I Survived Series too!  Wow! What fun! That's why I love teaching so much. When you see the joy in their faces and can help foster a love of reading, then it makes all the sacrifices that we teachers make so worth while.
 "I got dibs on that one!" one said.
 "No, I have dibs on that one!"said another.
 "Well, I said it first!"replied the first one.
"No dibs allowed, " I said. "There has to be better way to settle this!"
I was thinking about having a lottery for some of the books that were popular. It seems that Wonder has become very wonderful for them and I only have a few copies. I also bought the second book to Wonder and they are clamouring for that one too!  Ahh, the problems that great books create! Nice problem to have. What's the alternative? Don't even want to go down that path.

I really, really enjoyed reading and implementing many of the practical ideas that Donalyn Miller suggests in her book called Reading in the Wild. She suggests having a lottery system where students put their names in a hat or something like it. On Friday, a name is drawn for the coveted text.When the teacher chooses a name, that student reads it first and then a list is made. I think that is what I am going to have to do.

I am also calling together my library committee. Several students stepped up to volunteer to be on the committee to organize our classroom library. I will be selecting these members next week. They will formulate a plan to label and organize the library. I asked Ms. O'Quinn if she would be available for an interview. She is the school's librarian. I think she has lots of wisdom of how to organize and maintain a school library. The students took photos of her library the other day. They will be presenting to the class very soon. This will be an adventure. I look forward to seeing what they decide.  So many books, so little time. We will see what happens!  Chou for now!

Two Good Reads

I am reading two professional books right now.  Both are excellent and compliment each other.  Both I am reading in conjunction with a Face Book private online book study.  I am glad that I am able to post out what I think of each chapter, as it occurs to me.  This helps me connect with the book and with my colleagues.  I also get to hear and see their thoughts.  Many share their work in the classroom with me by snapping  quick photos or by sharing a reading victory.

I think that it is easy to do this when the book are high quality and high interest.  The two books that I am reading are Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller and When Kids Can't Read by Kylene Beers. Donalyn Miller's Reading in the Wild offers many strategies to develop yourself as a wild or avid reader, as well as tips on how to promote wild reading in the classroom.  Kylene Beers offers great ideas of how to help our dependent readers by giving the teachers and students tools to be come independent readers.  The many chapters focus on specific strategies that you could use the next day in the classroom from frontloading anticipatory sets, to teaching comprehension before, during and after reading, to  word study and fluency.  There is so much more. I haven't even scratched the surface.

These books are full of classroom research.  You can trust them because they are born from classroom research and the authors are very honest about their work.  When I read through their accounts, I feel as if they are these teachers that I eat lunch with or plan with daily.  They are down to earth and have lots to share with me.

I will post later what I am getting out of each book.  You just might want to give them a try.  My next reads will be The Book Whisperer (which I had started last year) and Kylene's new one Notice and Note about closer reading.  They must be great reads too!