Midwinter's Eve blog hop: Win a 2013 Maurice Sendak calendar

For my portion of the blog hop, I am giving away this beautiful 2013 Maurice Sendak calendar:

Terms and conditions:
You must be 13 or older to enter and have a U.S. mailing address.
Use the Rafflecopter widget to enter.

It's Monday! What are You Reading? 12-17-12

 

Originally hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, Jen and Kellee  over at Teach Mentor Texts also host a kidlit version of It's Monday! What are You Reading?

Last week I finished reading:
 
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
OMG! This book was so good! Between Shades of Gray is a hard act to follow and while nowhere near as moving as her first novel, Sepetys's sophomore novel is equally as compelling. I will write a longer, thorough review closer to the pub date. 


Last week I finished listening:

The Pioneer Woman: High Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond
I love watching Pioneer Woman's Food Network show. Her family just makes me happy. And I equally loved listening to her narrate her own memoir. I hope she starts dipping her toe into the world of fiction too because I think she has a real talent for writing.


Picture books I read and enjoyed last week:

Cat the Cat, Who is That? and What's Your Sound, Hound the Hound? by Mo Willems
Just when I thought these books would be too simplistic for my liking, Mo Willems proves once again why he is a children's picture book powerhouse. \

 
Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown
Homer by Elisha Cooper 


Currently reading:


Just One Day by Gayle Forman
I'm absolutely loving this book so far!


Currently listening:

The Diviners by Libba Bray
Very creepy book. Glad I listen to this on my drive to and from work and not right before bed!


Posts from last week:
Review of Book Love by Penny Kittle
My short response to the Newtown tragedy: Processing... Please Wait

Processing... Please Wait

I was going to write a whole post about the Sandy Hook tragedy but it was starting to leave a sour taste in my mouth. It sounded bitter and resentful which isn't particularly how I want to portray myself right now in this time of national mourning. I was trying to express my grief and sorrow over the events that transpired on Friday, but it soon turned into a political rant about how little respect teachers get in this country despite the fact that, as we have seen by the actions of teachers at Sandy Hook, most of us would take a bullet for our students.

But this isn't the time for politics.

In the coming weeks and months, we need to start having some really hard conversations: about gun control, mental health, the role of the media in perpetuating these tragedies, and yes, education. But right now is a time for grieving. I can't think of one person who wasn't deeply affected by the events of Friday morning. Our hearts break for the families who lost children and loved ones in the wake of such a horrific crime. I'm going to take this time to process it all before I just go spewing rhetoric. And I'm going to make sure that come Monday, I will look all of my students in the eye and tell them how much they mean to me.

Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers by Penny Kittle

"What our students read in school is important; what they read the rest of their lives is more important."

High school teacher and literacy coach Penny Kittle knows something that many English teachers don't: kids don't actually read the books they're assigned in class. And far too many kids are graduating from high school not having experienced the joy and pleasure of living inside the pages of a book, let alone many books. And that's just the problem. Administrators, curriculum writers,  and law makers assume that in order for students to become better readers they must only read intensively and not extensively. They forget that in order to become expert readers, students must build stamina. They can only do that by reading. A lot. Sometimes even books that are too easy for their reading level. And that's where the expertise of the teacher comes in: when do you pull back and let students experience the joy of some "brain candy" and when do you decide the right moment to challenge their thinking and give them a "reach book" as Penny likes to call it.

You see, Book Love my friends, is a revelation. It belongs up on the pedestal where I hold The Book Whisperer. While reading it can benefit teachers of any grade, and I highly encourage every teacher to pick it up no matter what grade you teach, Penny addresses the contention most high school teachers seem to have that reading and writing workshop is just a "middle school thing." Not only does Penny show that workshop absolutely belongs in the high school classroom, but she allows us to see that it's a necessary part of the high school English and literature experience if we are to prepare our students for college and careers beyond the classroom.

Filled with concise, logical arguments as well as emotional stories of Penny's own students to drive her points home, Book Love should be required reading in every high school English department across America. I finished reading the last half of this book on the plane home from NCTE thinking that it would be safe plane reading. Oh how wrong I was. I shed many tears for Penny's students in the last few pages of this book. Her love and commitment to them made me wish to be the teacher to my students that she is to hers. This is a book that is impossible not to think of the Maya Angelou quote (and I'm paraphrasing here): when you know better, you do better. Teachers, read Book Love. And then when you know better, do better for your students. They deserve so much more than the fake, passionless reading they are currently experiencing in classrooms across America. Get them out of the those SparkNotes and into the pages of a real book. LOTS of real books. Let them read widely and voluminously so that they can become lifelong readers. Fill your shelves with many different books, not just the handful of classroom sets of classics that don't even get opened when you "read" them in class. Give them a buy in. Let them drink the Kool-aid. Then and only then will those dusty classics sitting on your shelf seven months of the year actually get read.

Oh, and if you don't believe that students don't actually read the books they're assigned in class, I dare you to continue to feel that way after you watch this video.


Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers by Penny Kittle
Published: October 26, 2012
Publisher: Heinemann
Pages: 173
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Teachers

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12-10-12

 

Originally hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, Jen and Kellee  over at Teach Mentor Texts also host a kidlit version of It's Monday! What are You Reading?

Last week I finished reading:
 
Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America by Jonathan Kozol
This book took me a long time to finish but it was quite compelling. Jonathan Kozol is one of those names that is greatly respected in the educational community. His work continues to expose the inequity and injustice of our educational system.



Last week I finished listening:

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
The Brixton Brothers: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett


Picture books I read and enjoyed last week:
 
Snow Music by Lynne Rae Perkins
Bear Has a Story to Tell by Phillip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead

In the Sea by David Elliott, illustrated by Holly Meade
A Home for Bird by Phillip C. Stead


Currently (still) reading:
 
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys


Currently listening:

Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond

Book Lovers' Holiday Hop

For my portion of the blog hop, I am giving away a signed ARC of Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Shades of Earth by Beth Revis
Series: Across the Universe #3
Publication date: January 15, 2012
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 369
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: ARC acquired at NCTE conference

Goodreads summary:
Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

Terms and conditions:
Must be 13 or older to enter and have a U.S. mailing address
Use the Rafflecopter widget to enter

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 12-3-12

 

Originally hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, Jen and Kellee  over at Teach Mentor Texts also host a kidlit version of It's Monday! What are You Reading?

I took a break from "It's Monday!" for a few weeks to attend NCTE/ALAN and was also away from home for Thanksgiving so I'm currently playing catch up.

Here are some of the books I finished and enjoyed in the past few weeks:
 
Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
Penny from Heaven by Jennifer Holm

 
Book Love by Penny Kittle
Teen Boat! by Dave Roman

 
I'm Bored by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
A Very Babymouse Christmas by Jennifer and Matthew Holm


Currently reading:
 
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys


Currently listening:
 
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond

Also posted this week:
Carrie Harris's Bad Hair Day launch party 
Nudging and Nurturing: A Lesson in Patience

And if you didn't already know, the Nerdy Book Club Award nominees have been posted. Time to get reading before voting opens in two weeks!