World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge

It's the World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge!

World Read Aloud Day is a day to raise our voices in support of global literacy initiatives and global literacy programs. 

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Week 2: February 17 - 23

My daughter, Madeleine, and I answer the questions below.  

1. I think everyone in the world should read…

Me: 
I think everyone in the world should read Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo. There's a reason this book was awarded the Newbery. There are so many gifts wrapped up in this story and it makes for a great shared reading experience. 

Madeleine: 
I think everyone in the world should read Wonder by R.J. Palacio. A story about compassion that people of all ages should read. I am currently reading it with my fourth grade students and hoping they will choose kind.

2. If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be…

Me: 
If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be my mother.

Madeleine: 
If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be my mother (awwww...thank you!)

3. When I read aloud, my favorite character to impersonate is…

Me: 
My favorite character to impersonate is the character in the book that I am reading! If I had to choose a type of character it would be a sassy and fun character.

Madeleine: 
My favorite character to impersonate is Mrs. Bennett from Pride and Prejudice because she is so ridiculous and I can really ham it up.

4. The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf  is…

...hard to determine! For the both of us! We are diverse readers and a quick glance at the book shelves in our house demonstrates this.

5. My favorite part about reading aloud or being read to is...

Me: 
My favorite part about reading aloud is watching a story take hold of a listener's heart and finding a space within it.
Me: 
My favorite part about being read to is how comforting it is.

Madeleine: 
My favorite part about reading aloud is being a part of a shared reading experience.
Madeleine: 
My favorite part about being read to is how comforting it is.

I hope you will find someone to read with on March 4th. Share the moment. Create a memory. Raise Your Voice in support of global literacy.

These Wordles and Tagxedos are totally WRAD!

I mean, totally, World Read Aloud Day. 

My students are raising their voices in support of global literacy. The 5th grader spent February 14th exploring what last year's students created for WRAD, as well as refreshing their understanding about the initiative. I then gave the students the option of using one of our tools to communicate why reading is important to them. 

I find it interesting that so many students chose to use the hand symbol for their message. These students were not seeing each other's work.  **My apologies...these photos have been accidentally deleted.

Also, because we have been exploring Storybird, here are four stories that some students created to share their message about the power of story. 

How will you raise your voice in support of global literacy?

First Line Book Hooks and Stories, Oh My!

The fifth graders are enjoying their access to Storybird.

The First Line Book Hook assignment has passed, but apparently they are not finished with it. I was checking through the class (computers 1-30) for the stories that students had started to create last week (the week after the book hook assignment). I found quite a few new first line book hooks! I think they like the challenge of this format. 

Below, I am sharing a few of the book hooks and many of the stories. I think they exemplify one of the strengths of this tool, Storybird is giving my students the opportunity to play with language, to exercise their storytelling chops/techniques/skills, and to use their imaginations.

First Line Book Hooks:

Stories:

Nonfiction PB 10 for 10: Picture Book Biographies

This is my first year participating in Nonfiction 10 for 10.  I am really excited! I love thinking about books and these challenges make me do just that!

Non-Fiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Alyson at Kid Lit Frenzy but today is also NF PB 10 x 10 hosted by Cathy Mere from Reflect and Refine, Mandy Robek from Enjoy and Embrace Learning and Julie Balen from Write at the Edge! All posts will be linked up at Write at the Edge and then moved over to this jog later in the week! 

Here's my 10 for 10

I was once criticized by a student for reading biographies mainly about women. I was surprised because there are quite a few biographies about men that I always read or promote, such as: Boys of Steel, An Eye for Color, Jacques Cousteau, Roberto Clemente, and the Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins (to say nothing of more well-known political figures whose biographies sell themselves). 

So, today, here are ten biographies about women - women who have inspired me and hopefully my students!

1. Fannie in the Kitchen by Deborah Hopkinson

2. Quiet No More by Doreen Rappaport

3. Planting the Trees of Kenya by Claire Nivola

4. What to Do About Alice? by Barbara Kerley

5. Moses by Carole Boston Weatherford

6. I Could Do That! by Linda Arms White

7. Elizabeth Leads the Way! by Tanya Lee Stone

8. Uncommon Traveler by Don Brown

9. Mrs. Harkness and the Panda by Alicia Potter

10. Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell

First Line Book Hooks with Storybird

"Storybird meet the fifth graders."

"Fifth graders meet Storybird."

And here a great relationship was formed.

After introducing Storybird to the second graders (see the post, O Pioneers!), I decided to see how I might integrate the tool into the fifth grade curriculum.   I created an assignment - to write a first line book hook for one of the pieces of art. The assignment had to be short because this thirty minute lesson needed to include how to access Storybird, how to log in, followed by a quick tour of the tool. I created a class with 30 students. I named each student the same but added the number of a laptop. I created a generic password. The students login with the same username plus the number laptop they are on and then use the same generic password. 

How much did the students like using Storybird? They were completely engaged. Many begged not to have to browse and borrow to keep working longer. There is so little space within the current ELA Curriculum for creative writing that it was as if a dam had been let lose.  The students did not want to stop, they were committed to their stories. Most students asked if they could continue their stories the next week.

Check out these first line book hooks:

Slice of Life: An aquarium visits sparks a memory of a shared reading experience

Around the time we are were about to welcome our first child, a co-worker of my husband told us about a recently published book her husband had written and illustrated. (It seemed so funny to know an author or illustrator then, how different it feels now.) We immediately went out and purchased it.

 Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Sasha became one of our favorite family read aloud's, a book pulled from the shelf again and again. Part magical journey, part beautiful family relationship, and part seaside childhood, this book is so many things and the best of them is the art. The illustrations are a celebration of all that this book represents. We would look and look at the scenes, taking the story in.  The years have passed, my children are older, and this book now sits on the favorite family reads bookshelf.

Night of the Moonjellies may sit on the shelf, but the story actively lives within us, as evidenced by today's experience. My now twenty-one-year old daughter and I were at the New England Aquarium today. (Lucky me, it's February vacation and she's doing her full practicum for teaching, so has the same week off!)

We were down in the jellies exhibit, looking at the moon jellies when we both said, "This makes me think of Night of the Moonjellies," and just like that we were holding this story in our hearts at the same time.  We were transported. We were here and there, back then and right now. This is the gift of shared reading experiences. This day was memorable before this experience, but added to that will be new memories now attached to this one book. "Yes, I remember the time we were at the aquarium looking at the jellies..."

More sights from our visit to the 

New England Aquarium!

Octopus

Sea dragons

Little Blues!

Balloon fish