Hi Everyone,
Here on the California Central Coast, summer is upon us. I hope you are well into R & R mode. I don’t know about you, but this school year was especially jam-packed busy and I am super excited to relax and recharge this summer! And by recharge, I mean finally having the time to explore new books, and revisit some tried and true favorites, looking for great literacy ideas to bring into to the classroom this next school year.
Like most of you, I have a long list of books that I am hoping to dive into. So in the spirit of summer good reads teacher reading, I will be sharing some books I am especially excited about and ones you may consider worth checking out. And I thought I’d hopefully coax you to join me in Pure Literacy's first ever summer book club! Some things are just better to do with friends, right?
Here’s a short list of some of my favorite books that have influenced my approach to teaching reading and writing in a Workshop Model. If you’ve read one of my favorites, and wish to share your thoughts, or have another title recommendation to add to my list, please share in the comment section at the end of this post.
Up first is the reading professional resources:
1. Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman helps create a scaffold of understanding around the educator’s role and expectations as Reading Workshop teachers.
2. Reading With Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades by Debbie Miller is one of the most inspiring and influential professional reads of my teaching career. It’s an easy-to-read book that provides teachers with a structure that’s easy to replicate. It guides you through setting up a successful Reading Workshop primary classroom, creating a culture of learning with students, and provides a structure for teaching critical thinking and reading strategies.
3. The Reading Strategies Books: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers by Jennifer Serravello a new favorite book for teaching reading comprehension. This book helps teachers identify and create individual goals for learners and determine appropriate strategies as well as provides excellent ideas for intervention lessons.
And let's not forget about the writing professional resources:
1. The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy McCormick Calkins is an invaluable resources about the teaching of writing.
2. Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide by Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi is a wonderful resource and explains everything an elementary teacher needs to know to get writing workshop up and running in their classroom.
3. Writing Workshop:Working Through the Hard Parts, and (They’re All Hard Parts) by Katie Wood Ray is a super practical book chock full of advice for implementing a successful writing workshop in primary grades.
And now for the finale!
The book I'd like to invite you all to join me in reading this summer as we kick off Pure Literacy's first ever summer book club...
DIY Literacy: Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Rigor,and Independence
by Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts.
Here’s our reading game plan:
First, from now through July, we’ll read the newly released DIY Literacy: Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Rigor,and Independence by these two outstanding literacy leaders both of whom are former staff developers from Teachers College Reading Writing Project! On a side note, I've trained with Kate Roberts and think she's absolutely brilliant! So here's why I'm so excited about this book. It offers practical advice to those predictable problems we encounter with reluctant and struggling writers. Although, it’s geared to a upper elementary/middle school audience, I think it has great advice for all of us who teach writing in a writing workshop setting. I am really looking to grow from reading this.
Now, I’ll cover this book a little more in detail in late July/early August. I’m hoping that gives every one joining this online book club plenty of time to read while enjoying some of your other fun non-professional summer good reads and enjoy your other summer activities.
And, to add to the fun I'm giving away a copy to one lucky Pure Literacy fan!
Pure Literacy Good Reads Give Away Details
* This giveaway is for one copy of DIY Literacy Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Rigor, and Independence by Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts. A grateful thanks to Heinemann for donating one copy for one lucky Pure Literacy Reader.
* For a chance to win this copy of DIY Literacy leave a comment and either tell me what great teacher book your excited to read this summer or ask me a thoughtful question regarding literacy.
* All comments must be in by Saturday, July 9th, at 11:59 Pacific Time for a chance to win.
* The lucky winner will be selected at random and announced in Pure Literacy’s next blog post on Sunday, July 10th.
* Stay tuned for next week’s blog post to see if you are the winner! If chosen as the winner, I’ll ask you to send me an email with your contact information so we can be in touch to work out the details of sending you the book.
* Please make sure you stay tuned! Unfortunately, if I do not hear from the winner within five days of the giveaway announcement I will be selecting a new winner.
So what are you waiting for, get to commenting below and either let me know what’s in your beach bag for summer teacher reads or what questions you have about literacy! Can hardly wait to hear from you all!!!
Happy Reading!