Staying Up Late with Sarah Weeks

Greetings!

I love my blog! I love how it looks every time I click onto it - thanks to Barbara at Ruby Slippers for her lovely design. And when I finally get here, I love to write a post. But that seems to be the problem.  I keep promising myself I'm going to write on this every single week - and then time just seems to slip by . . . and by . . . and by . . .

But here I am with renewed vigor and  promise - to write and let you know what I have been reading and when I get back to school, how I've been coaching! So let's talk books first because it's summer and I have been indulging myself and not only reading a lot but buying a lot - shhh - don't let anyone know, ok? It will just be between you and me!

I have fallen in love with a new author for the chapter book crowd and her name is Sarah Weeks. Now, it's not that SHE is new, it's just that she is new to me and that's because I was a picture book girl for 22 years when I was a kindergarten teacher. Now that I am a literacy specialist and work with K-5th graders, there is a whole new world of books out there for me to read and explore and they are sooo fantastic! I read these two books by Sarah this past week and both were page turners - stay up late until you're done, books:

The first book I read was:

               

jumping the scratch  - no, I didn't forget the capital letters (remember, I'm a literacy specialist - LOL!) that is how the title of this book is written and I am showing you two book covers - I have the first one with the red cover, but you might also see it with the main character, Jamie, on the front.

This is a fabulous book and made me fall in love with Sarah Weeks and her writing and want to scoop up everything else she writes. The main character, Jamie, is having a tough time of it, and moving to a new town right after his cat dies is only the start of it. Jamie and his mom have to move to take care of his aunt Sapphy who has had an accident at work and has no short term memory. Sarah has a wonderful way of developing her characters to the point that you feel like you know them, care about them and want to jump into the book and help them!

Here comes my coaching tip - this is a short enough chapter book that even the most reluctant reader won't look at it and think, "I can't read that - it's too long!" Sometimes that is one of the biggest problems for our kids that don't like to read - even if it is a fantastic story - if it's a "fat" book, they aren't going to attempt it - give it up! This is a great book for 4th grade and up and I think would hook a reader on Sarah Weeks and have them asking for more.

So, YOU are asking for more? I'm so glad you asked because I picked up the next book I had bought by Sarah at midnight, thinking, "l'll just start it" . . . and at 3:38 a.m. I finally went to bed! I knew it was 3:38 a.m. because I was curious as to what time I had finished it. There was NO WAY I was going to be able to sleep until I knew what had happened to these people that I had come to care about so much. See what I mean? Sarah has the touch . . . she really makes you care about her characters. All I can say is, I'm glad I didn't have to work the next day because I slept until 2:00 p.m. LOL! Oh, and the name of the book you ask?

              

       

So B. It - Interesting title and an even more interesting book. Twelve-year-old Heidi doesn't know much about her past - that is because her mother, So B. It, only knows 23 words and can't tell her. Luckily, they have been befriended by their neighbor, who has pretty much taken care of them, since Heidi can remember. The only problem is - Bernadette has agoraphobia! As Heidi gets older though, she has questions. Who has been paying the bills? When is her birthday? And why does her mother always say "soof" and what in the world does it mean? Is it a clue to her past? When she finds an old camera and develops the pictures that give her some clues to her past, Heidi starts out on a cross-country trip that leads her to answers that she may not want to hear.

Again, another magnificent story with many life lessons to be learned along the way. You will fall in love with Heidi, her neighbor Bernadette and want to wrap your arms around her mother. It is a must read! And here is some more amazing news - So B. It is going to be a movie. Usually this doesn't make me happy but if you click on the link below to Sarah's webpage and when you are there, click onto her blog, you will see that the movie is being made privately to ensure creativity control - that is a good thing!

Please explore Sarah's website - there are a lot of great things there - Reader's Theater, Author Study, info on her, a blog, etc.

Sarah Week's Website

Please leave a comment if you have read these books or any other books by Sarah!

Status of the Class

As a literacy coach this year, I have had my job description tweaked a bit and I no longer coach classroom teachers and students but work with individual groups of students that have fallen behind. I need to do a lot of work with fluency, as I wrote about in my last post, because like it or not, these are scores that many people place a lot of emphasis on. But my emphasis has been, and always will be on, engaging students with text. Long after the tests are over and they have left school, will they be lifelong readers? Will they be able to travel around the world in a book? Will they be so wrapped up in the characters and plot of a story that they lose themselves for just a little while? And what can I do to influence and encourage this reading with a minimal amount of time?

Enter Status of the Class! Many of you are familiar with Status of the Class from your writing workshop days. It is a quick check-in as to where each student is in the writing process. But I have used Status of the Class in reading as well - as a quick check in with each student as to what book they are reading during free choice reading and what page they are on. That's it - quick and simple but oh so powerful. It lets each of my struggling readers know a couple of  things. First off, it lets them know I care about what they are reading but I also find out how much they are reading. They know that every single day I am going to ask how them how their book is and what page they are on. This provides an incredible accountability factor as well and lets me know if kids are truly reading . . . and how much. I also know when they have finished a book so I can be ready with a stack of recommendations for them.

That is the part they really like - the book recommendations. There is nothing better then feeling special and when a teacher comes in with a stack of books that they have picked out just for you, what is more motivating than that? I have found that the students I work with have responded to this simple Status of the Class in an astounding fashion and have read more pages and more books than ever before. Try it and let me know how it works for you. After I did it for a few weeks, I asked the five reading associates that work with me to start using it with their students as well. Our work has spread to the classrooms as teachers have seen it and have incorporated it into their teaching and are using it with their entire class. 

Coaches - now that's how to do it - lead by example - but not by force - gently . . . :-)

You can find a classroom form at this great website- Teacher2TeacherHelp.com, just put Status of the Class in the search box and it will take you to the correct link.

If you go to this Pinterest link, you will see a great individual form to use as well!

Fluency

Fluency

     Fluency is a hot button issue these days with so much emphasis being placed on fluency test scores. Universal screenings are being required by many states, my state of Maine included, and quick and fast is the name of the game. Some of the big names in this testing frenzy are Dibels and Aimsweb. Sound familiar? Well if they are, then you know that the fluency test is usually a one minute cold read of a passage based solely on word count per minute. We do know that fluency and comprehension have a correlation but sometimes we are placing a lot of emphasis on this one test. 

The Common Core Reading Standards also include fluency. The Foundational skills include fluency and the K-5 standard for fluency is as follows:

         "Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension." 

 

     So, teachers and coaches, let's put some fun into this practice! Have you heard of Voki?

If not, then listen up!  Voki is an online technology tool that allows students to create an animated character or avatar and record themselves reading a poem or short passage. But of course before they can create this character, they must practice it for expression, phrasing, fluidity and pacing. Hmm - those sound suspiciously like fluency skills, don't they?

     But students will want to practice and there will be total engagement and buy-in because Voki is so much fun. In addition, Voki gives you the option of emailing their recording to parents, friends and family members as well as embedding it into a website or blog. 

     As a literacy coach, I gave students several funny poems to choose from and then gave them two copies - one to practice at home and one to practice at school. Once they felt they were ready to record, they got to choose the character  they felt was the best choice to read their poem. Now we are at the point where the small group of students I work with, will listen and critique them. We will develop a rubric together and then re-record after the students decide how they can improve their first attempts.

 

So I'm not sure why the rest of my posts won't follow under this one but make sure you click on "older posts" or you won't get to see my really cool book recommendations with a comment from one of the authors. They don't show up in the archives either!