World Read Aloud Day

Me, reading our current chapter book, Toys Go Out

Bogart, my chihuahua, reading his favorite book.

Today is World Read Aloud Day!  I had planned a day long event including parents and the principal visiting to read a favorite picture book and we also visited a first grade to read aloud to them.  We had planned a Skype session, but ended up needing to reschedule it for another time, which was ok since I have a cold and have nearly lost my voice.  So it was a good thing that everyone else was doing most of the talking and reading!  Please visit my class blog, Mrs. Rosenquist's Classroom Blog, to read more about our day and view photos.

In honor of this special day I want to share a story from my class.  Yesterday when I picked my class up after lunch one of my little boys was upset because someone had called him a nerd.  When I asked if he knew what a nerd was, he shook his head no.  I asked, "Do you want me to tell you what a nerd is? Because I know, because I am a nerd."  Of course all eyes were on me now!  So I explained to my little friends that a nerd is someone that is very curious and always wants to know how things work, and likes to explore the world.  Nerds have lots of questions and look for answers.  Nerds are smart.  As we continued to walk down the hall back to our class, the nerd discussion continued and the little boy that had first been upset now walked down the hallway proudly.  When we got back to class I couldn't believe they still wanted to discuss this concept of "nerd".  So, I continued to explain that there was a special "Nerd Club" called the Nerdy Book Club that I belonged to and they could join also.  When a few students asked when the club had meetings I explained that we had meetings all day long.  Every time readers get together to read or talk about books they were having a Nerdy Book Club meeting.  They seem to love this idea and I could hear them telling each other, "I am in the Nerdy Book Club too."  Today when one of the parents came to read aloud she asked about the Nerdy Book Club because her daughter had come home and discussed being a member of the Nerdy Book Club.  Awesome!  I love that the discussion continued at home.

So now, pick up a book, find someone you care about, snuggle up together and read a book.  Repeat often!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Maybe it's the cold winter weather, but I continue to hunker down and read, read, read.  Here's some highlights of my reading life this past week.  Thanks to Teach Mentor Text blog for the inspirational meme.

Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle
Wow! Wow! Wow!  I really love this wordless picture book and the pages with flip down flaps that help to reveal the story.  Each time I open it and reread it, I enjoy it even more.  Little Flora is precious.  I love her little yellow swim cap and her little round perfect body.  Ok, so little Flora reminds me of my own daughter at around the age of 4!  Molly Idle's illustrations convey perfectly the story of friendship and the joy of dance.  To find out more about this awesome book you must rush over to Nerdy Book Club where author, Molly Idle wrote a recent post, and then get yourself over to Watch Connect Read, where Mr. Schu has a wonderful interview with Molly and the best videos ever.





Brave Girl: Clara and Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel and illustrated by Melissa Sweet
This non-fiction picture book tells the story of a young immigrant, Clara Lemlich, and her fight for fare wages and safe work environments for the mostly female garment workers.  The story is told in narrative form which makes for a great read aloud for many different ages.  It is a good introduction to several topics including the women's suffrage movement, immigration, and unions.  I really enjoy Melissa Sweet's style of illustrations with all the detail, and in this book she includes fabric swatches and even sewing machine stitching.  Many of the pages look like they were inspired by historical photographs. Great book for women's history month! I definitely plan on reading this to my second graders.



Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson

This is the sequel to Hattie Big Sky which I read last summer.  I would put this book in the young adult category, and would recommend it to anyone in 6th grade or up.  I really enjoy historical fiction and this book did not disappoint.  In fact, I read the entire book on Saturday.  Most of the book takes place in San Francisco during the turn of the 20th century, a very different, yet exciting time for women.  I lived in San Francisco for 6 years, so I really enjoyed being swept back in time to the city by the bay.





Other great books I would recommend;

You can check out the other books I read this week on goodreads.

What are you reading this week?

Got any great historical fiction you would recommend?

Classroom Library - Sorting the Non-Fiction

This week I am diving into a big non-fiction unit in Reading workshop. Although I do have a section of the library dedicated to non-fiction I usually add more by taking out several plastic tubs of non-fiction books I have stored in my closet. I also check out tons of non-fiction from our school library to help round out my collection. (Shhhhh....I also take books from our book room and put them in the class library. But you won't tell anyone will you?)  My goal is to have books that second graders can read independently. Most of the books are not leveled. I just have not had the time to level them all, and many probably don't have a Fountas & Pinnell level anyway. It 's on my to-do list! So, we rely on our lessons about choosing a good fit book, and the fact that I regularly confer with students and know them well as readers. I also know the books in my library pretty well which helps me match them to a reader. But, I admit that I need to read more non-fiction!

I like to have my students sort the books into categories and label the book baskets themselves. I do this for several reason. First, it allows students to preview what will be in the library and know where they can find a particular book if they are involved in sorting and labeling the baskets themselves.  Sorting the books together also gives me a chance to assess their knowledge of non-fiction topics. For example, this week I found out that the majority of the class had an understanding of what mammals were, but didn't have a lot of background knowledge about earth science, geography or history.

By the time we began the sorting activity students had noticed that several of the library shelves had been cleared and a a giant cart of books had appeared in the classroom.  So there was already excitement generated. I began the activity by explaining our purpose for sorting. We want to be able to find the books that we are interested in reading. I remind them how our fiction section is organized, but explain that with non-fiction we might want to do it differently. I use our basket of books labeled "non-fiction animals", and ask if we can sort the books into separate categories. Hands go up immediately and students share their ideas. I give each table a pile of books to sort and they get busy. I walk around and talk to the groups about their thinking, mostly asking questions and nudging their discussions or decisions in the right direction.

Once groups have sorted their books, we sit down on the rug and I ask someone to share a category. "We have a lot of books about reptiles." Immediately, there are hands up from other groups that also have reptile books. I give them a basket, a sentence strip, sharpie and a post it with the correct spelling. Off they go to fill our first basket. And I continue this way. I have to admit it gets a bit crazy, but in a good way. There are piles of books everywhere and students eagerly waiting to create a category. Once we get going the tape dispenser and sharpie markers are very popular. And sometimes we end up with duplicate labels.  It took us 2 work sessions to get most of the books sorted.  Exhausting, but important.

So, now we are ready to review our lessons on selecting good fit books with an eye for non-fiction books.  And next week we will begin learning about non-fiction text features and reading strategies.

How do you organize you classroom library for non-fiction?
Do you use a leveled library?

Cart full of books from the library.

A Snapshot of my Reading Life

As part of Litworld's blogging challenge for World Read Aloud Day I decided to share a snapshot of my second grade reading workshop this week.  I take my inspiration from Read Write Reflect blog, where @katsok shared a video of her family's reading life.  My voice is a bit hoarse and the video is a bit shaky but I hope you enjoy seeing what the kids are reading this time of year.

Celebrate World Read Aloud Day on March 6th!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Here's what I have been reading this past week.  Thank you to Teach Mentor Text Blog for their weekly inspiration.

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool

I finished this book last week, but continued to think about the story and the characters, Jack and Early, all week long.  It is an adventure story, set in Maine, shortly after World War II, but it is also a growing up, coming of age story, and a story about dealing with grief. The story of Jack and Early is slowly revealed through the eyes of Jack, who narrates the story. Clare Vanderpool does such a wonderful job creating the voice of Jack and helping the reader see the world through his 13 year old eyes. Early is a quirky and unusual boy that we are drawn to and want to know more about.  Early sees the world of numbers and math differently than most.  For Early numbers are colors and stories.  Early's fairy tale-ish story of Pi is told in between Jack's narrative. and often appears to be paralleling or predicting their own adventure.  The story of Pi gives this book an almost fantasy like quality at times, and I think it mirrors that time in a 13 year old's life - sort of between childhood and growing up.  (The book brought back memories of the short story I read many years ago by Stephen King, and was later made into a movie called Stand by Me, recently mentioned in a Nerdy Book Club post.)
When you read a wonderful book you often think about who you will recommend the book to, who would it be perfect for?  This week I found myself daydreaming about which of my students past and present, would love this book. I love teaching second grade, but books like Navigating Early are one reason I would consider moving to an upper grade! It's meant to be read, shared and discussed. I checked my copy out from the library, but I definitely need to purchase my own copy on my next bookstore visit.

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

This is the current adult novel that I finished. I couldn't put this one down. It is set in the 80's on a reservation in North Dakota, and narrated by Joe, the 13 year old main character. The story starts with a brutal crime having been committed. The story is a little bit mystery, but mostly it's about how the family and community come to grips with everything that has happened. There is also a little bit of historical information weaved in about Native Americans.

This is an unusual reading week for me - no new children's books! But I received a new box of books in the mail yesterday, so I will have some picture book reading to do! I also just started Capture the Flag by Kate Messner.

Hmm... I just realized these 2 books featured a young teenage-boy written by a female writer.  Interesting.

 What have you been reading?

Classroom Library Thoughts

Next week I will be moving into a non-fiction unit for reading workshop. so that got me thinking about my classroom library.  So, I thought I would share how my classroom library is organized, and how it changes as the year progresses.

The upcoming non-fiction study will mean my classroom shelves have to undergo some major changes. Some baskets, like Song books and Abc books will be moved into storage to make room for more non-fiction. Some series books like Biscuit, Fly Guy and Clifford will go back in my storage closet too.  I often wonder if I would keep everything out all year long if I had the room in my library!

The second grade class library needs to be very diverse in terms of reading levels. It's not only that second graders progress through several reading levels through the year, but is also the fact that the characteristics of the books change more than other grades. Second graders rely heavily on pictures early in the year and still need shorter reads to maintain comprehension. And you need a lot of these early transitional readers because they are shorter.  By the end of the year most can read longer chapter books without pictures and have the stamina to maintain their comprehension over more than 100 pages. But of course not all of them progress at the same pace. So that means both Fly Guy and Magic Tree House books are called second grade books in my classroom, and we respect and honor the children who are reading these books. Don't get me wrong, my students know that some children can read "harder" books, they aren't dummies!  But there are always clusters of students reading the same types of books so they can talk about their reading and make recommendations to each other.  No one is left out of the reading "club".  I currently don't have leveled baskets, but prefer to group books by series and categories in my class library. I could write a whole post about leveled books, but suffice to say that while I do benchmark my students according to Fountas & Pinnell, the information I get from these running records, such as guided reading level are a teaching tool and I do not label students publicly as a Level J reader. We spend lots of time learning about choosing good fit, or just right books. It's an ongoing topic throughout the year, both in whole group and individually. I set aside a few mornings a week for students to shop, or select books from the class library when they first arrive at school. During this time I am available to help my little "shoppers" and they are required to check in with my so I can "approve" their selections. I work very hard to spread the idea that the books in our class library are ALL "second grade" books.

Growing Readers and Reading for Real by Kathy Collins, More Than Guided Reading by Cathy Mere and Beyond Leveled Books by Franki Sibberson and Karen Szymusiak are books that have really helped guide me in my thinking about my class library.  I have also found information from Teachers College Reading & Writing Project extremely helpful as well.  They now share resources on their website.

By January I have almost all of my fiction displayed in the class library, but I don't start the year that way. I have made curtains that I attach with Velcro, so I can open and close parts of the library as necessary. I still need to work on how I introduce different baskets to my students. Sometimes it's like Black Friday, and I have 25 kids attacking one or two baskets all at the same time! Not a good idea.

My students know our class library very well, but it can get a bit messy and books often find their way into the wrong basket.  (As you can see there is an Eric Carle book in the Song Book basket.)  Books are backwards and upside down too, which drives me crazy. So, this last Friday we took some time to clean out and organize the baskets. It's great to sit back and watch them work, and take ownership of the class library.  There are always a few oohs and aahs when a student notices an interesting book they never noticed before - and then library organizing becomes shopping for books time.

Here's some pictures from the beginning of the school year.  I am certainly not a interior decorator!  The shelves are mismatched and I am always going to the dollar store for replacement baskets, which rarely match.

And here are some photos of what the library looks like now, in February.  I will share more about how I change my library for our non-fiction unit next week.  I will try to take better photographs!

How do you organize your classroom library?  What do you think about leveling your class library? Care to share your thoughts, pictures or blog?

World Read Aloud Day "Read it Forward" Blogging Challenge

Now and Then

As part of the World Read Aloud Day blogging challenge, Lit World asks us to answer some questions 2 ways. First, as our 10 year old self and second, as our present self.

1. My much younger self would think everyone should read Are You There God, It's Me Margaret? by Judy Blume or the World Book Encyclopedia and Childcraft books that my parents purchased and stored in the shelf above my dad's desk.

My current grown-up self thinks everyone in the world should read Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

2. If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be my 2 children. I would be able to travel back in time whenever I want, to when they were in elementary school and they were just learning to read back in first grade. They are grown now, but I can still hear their little voices reading aloud from a favorite book.

When I was 10 years old I wish that my teachers would have read aloud to me. I am sorry to say my only memory I have of a teacher reading aloud to me is in first or second grade during lunch. She read Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. I loved it! My favorite chapter was called "The Radish Seed Cure".

3. I have many favorite characters to impersonate when I am reading aloud to my class of second graders, so I will list a few here!

• the robot voice in Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman. "Affirmative".
• When I read Gooseberry Park by Cynthia Rylant, I love doing the voice of Murray the Bat. Murray provides the comic relief in the story.
• I also enjoy doing the Cajun accents in the Little Red Riding Hood tale called Petite Rouge by Mike Artell.
• And most recently I have enjoyed doing the voice of Lulu in Judith Viorst's books, Lulu and the Brontosaurus and Lulu Walks the Dogs. I am particularly fond of the way I sing her annoying songs.

Although my mom has told me often that I was always very dramatic, I don't remember impersonating any storybook characters!  I can remember gobbling up every Nancy Drew book that I got my hands on. I wanted to be Nancy, with her fashionable clothes and convertible car. I thought she was so smart.

4. The genre that takes up the most room on my classroom bookshelves right now are series books like Mercy Watson and Babymouse.  Picture books are both my personal and professional obsession.  So I have them at home and in my classroom. Young adult Dystopian novels are the genre taking up my e-reader book shelf.

I don't remember having a book shelf as a ten year old, but I do remember riding my very cool golden colored bicycle with the banana seat and monkey handlebars to my neighborhood library. It was a tiny building, no larger than a one car garage and it smelled old and musty inside. My favorite shelves were the encyclopedias! I loved that there were many different ones. I would open the books to a random page to see what I could learn. I also liked looking up different countries and states. The human body and other science topics were of interest too.

5. The last book I read that I wish I wrote was The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.

When I was 10 I loved to draw, so I think I would have preferred to be an illustrator of any well loved picture book.

Well, that was very fun and very challenging to try any go back more that 4 decades to remember myself as a young reader!

Don't forget to celebrate World Read Aloud Day on March 6th!