Celebrating Nerdiness

Every week, Ruth Ayres over at Discover. Play. Build. invites people to share celebrations from their week.  Please visit and consider linking up your own celebration. 

1. My Nerdy Book Club Post
My first Nerdy Book Club post was published on September 10, 2012.  I had just recently started reading the blog and loved the feeling of community I felt as I read it and all of the things I was learning from it. I tentatively submitted and idea on a whim. I remember being completely shocked that anyone was even remotely interested in anything I had to say.  

This past Friday I was the guest blogger on Nerdy Book Club for the fifth time. Click here if you are interested in seeing any of the posts. 
My topic was finding "The book" that hooks a child and brings them into the world of reading. In it, I share a wonderful experience my daughter and I had as we read Lynda Mullaly Hunts' amazing novel, One for the Murphys. I was overwhelmed by the tweets, comments and emails I received about this post. So many parents have had or are having the same struggles with their own children.  It was heartening and saddening to know that there are so many parents feeling defeated because, despite their best efforts, their child just doesn't like to read.....yet.  

I spent the day just feeling all warm and fuzzy from the genuine kindness of my nerdy community. Thank you my friends. 
For those of you who have thought about writing up a post, I would strongly encourage you to do so. You have a story to tell and we want to read it! 

2. nErDcamp Northern New England is only two weeks away!  
I feel so fortunate to have been on this planning committee. After hearing about nErDcamp Battle Creek last summer and turning green with envy when we couldn't attend, a small group of Mainers, led by the amazingly nerdy Susan Dee, decided that we wanted to join in the nerdiness close to home. The first nErDcamp was spearheaded by Colby Sharp and we are excited to follow suit by providing a day of free literacy professional development for New England educators. Please visit our website for more info if you are interested. 

3. Time to be Nerdy
This vacation has been nice and long. With two additional days off due to snow, I have had lots of time for family and for nerdiness! I have been able to read blogs, go on Twitter, participate in #titletalk, write blog posts and read. It has been wonderful. 

Hoping you have much to celebrate this week!

A Letter to My Class of Readers

Dear Class, 
     I'd like to thank you all for a wonderful year together.  I can't believe it is the end of the school year and you will soon be 5th graders. 
   When looking back on this year, I will remember many things.  One thing I will remember is our read alouds together.  

Remember how nervous we all felt every time "the Nova" was parked in front of Ferris Boyd's house? Or how Delly stopped at nothing to help her friend when Ferris Boyd was missing in True...Sort of?  





Then there was The One and Only Ivan.  I

remember your anger when "the hook" was used on Stella and your happiness when Ivan finally went to the zoo.  We also watched Ivan win the Newbery Award together.  Your cheers when Ivan was announced was one of my favorite moments (even though some of you hoped Wonder would win).

Speaking of Wonder, reading this book as a whole 4th and 5th grade was one of my highlights of this year.  As we read, I noticed more and more copies of the book popping up around the room with all of you huddled around them as we read. Oh how we all grew to love Auggie and his true friends who stood up for him.  We cried when Daisy died and celebrated as Auggie was recognized for his inspiration and courage. These books knit us together and the characters became members of our class. 

We celebrated books and reading whenever we could.  I had so much fun at our Diary of A Wimpy Kid book release party.  We even got to review the new book on The Nerdy Book Club!

I also remember some of you groaning in disbelief when I asked you to read 40 books this year.  There was actual fear in some of your eyes as you tried to imagine yourselves reading so many books. Slowly, you built your reading stamina and were groaning when reading time was over.  It made me smile every time I heard you recommend books to each other or talk about a great part of the book you were reading.  Every time I brought new books into the classroom it was like a feeding frenzy.  I watched each of you find your favorites.  Whether it was: the Amulet series, Origami Yoda books, Out of My Mind, Drama, Dork Diaries, Capture the Flag, Wonder, RULES, A Dog Called Homeless, One for The Murphys or another favorite, you all found books that you liked best. Pretty soon you stopped asking me for recommendations and started asking each other.  

My wish for you is that you continue to be readers.  Reading is not something you do just for school, but a lifelong activity.  I truly feel that reading makes life better.  I wish you the best of luck next year and in years to come.  If you ever need a book recommendation, you know where to find me.

Nerdy Post Middle Grade Novels for Reluctant Readers

This post appears today on my favorite blog site- The Nerdy Book Club

Top Ten (or so) Middle Grade Books to Awaken the Inner Reader in Every Child

We all have them, our go-to books that we use for those students in grades 3-5 who have yet to be bitten by the reading bug.  You know them.  They are the kids who can’t seem to stick with a book from start to finish. They browse the stacks day after day but, despite your recommendations, have trouble deciding on a book to read.  Whether you call them reluctant, dormant, developing readers, or late bloomers, they all need help discovering what kinds of books will really grab them and open the gate to becoming a reader. 

I have told the story of my winding, rocky path to becoming a reader here at The Nerdy Book Club before.   Like all of you, I am determined NOT to let a child leave my fourth grade class without loving to read.  I know posting here is just like preaching to the choir.  However, even after 20 years of teaching, I always learn something new or gain affirmation with each new post I read.  It is my hope with this post to share some tried and true titles that I use. But to keep the possibilities growing, I hope you will comment with YOUR own go-to books.  Then we can all discover (or rediscover) books that might set a student on the path toward becoming a lifelong reader.

Graphic Novels

There are still many teachers and parents who have yet to embrace the value of graphic novels. Yes, they are “real reading” and kids (and adults) love them. To students who may be intimidated by lengthy books with few pictures, graphic novels can be just what they need to discover that reading can be fun.  With these books gaining such popularity in recent years, authors are really jumping on the graphic novel bandwagon.  There are graphic novels that will appeal to every reader: girls, boys, fantasies, historical fiction, biographies, classics, you name it.  Some series my fourth graders love include: The Amulet series, Squish, Smile/Drama, Bone, The Lightning Thief, Lunch Lady, Sidekicks, Big Nate, Wonkenstein, Daniel Boom and of course, Babymouse.

Diary-Style Books

We have Jeff Kinney to thank for the onslaught of diary-style books that are available today.  Of course many students LOVE the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.  This series became so wildly popular that it didn’t take long for other authors to follow suit. Pictures, funky fonts, or colors often support the text in diary books. Books and series such as Dork Diaries, Amelia’s Notebook, Dear Dumb Diary, Justin Case and Tales of a Sixth Grade Muppet are always winners in my class.

 Origami Yoda Series

Once students discover this entertaining series (The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Darth Paper Strikes Back and The Secret of the Fortune Wookie) it does not return to the shelves until at least Christmas. The combination of humor, relatable yet quirky characters and great illustrations makes students want to read all of these books.  They appeal to older readers as well. My desk is always filed with little origami yodas for weeks after. 

Series

Short but interesting chapter books appeal to many students who are strengthening their reading muscles.  Some kiddos just love a series and there are so many available. For some, these books build confidence with the right combination of comfortable text, pictures and familiar characters and format. Some popular series include: My Weird School Daze, Junie B. Jones, Magic Tree House, Marvin Redpost, Sophie books, Captain Underpants and Bailey School Kids.

Marty McGuire

Recently I have added Marty McGuire to my class library.  Students love Marty because she is not a “girly” girl.  She loves to catch frogs, dig for worms and hates to wear dresses.  Although I hope there will be more to come, currently there are two in the series: Marty McGuire and Marty McGuire Digs Worms. 

Non-Fiction

With some middle grade readers, fiction is just not their favorite genre. Some non-fiction books that have been popular in my room include Guinness Book of World Records, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, National Geographic For Kids magazine, sports books, animal stories and anything gross.  You also can’t go wrong with biographies of their favorite people in pop culture.  This year our short biography about the boy band One Direction is well worn. 

Tried and True

Yes, there are many new and interesting titles. However, let’s not ignore the many wonderful books that have stood the test of time. My favorite go-to book for students who think they don’t like to read is Skinny-Bones by Barbara Park.  It has just the right combination of humor and sports (baseball).  It is not a difficult read and, at 128 pages, it is not too long or short. The students can really relate to Alex, his interactions with the bully TJ and some of the wacky things he does in this book.

Other books my developing readers really like, that are not exactly new, include: Stone Fox, Shiloh, There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom How to Eat Fried Worms, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Frindle, The Chocolate Touch, Joey Pigza and practically anything by Roald Dahl.

I know I am leaving out some real gems here. So please comment with your never-fail books for middle graders so we can all add to our growing lists.  

It's Monday Jan 7

Please visit the amazing blog: Teach Mentor Texts 

who host this terrific meme each week. 

I will miss all the time I had to read due to the holidays. I had a great reading week. 

Here is what I read....

                                  My rating- 5 stars! An amazing             My rating-4 Stars   

                                       viually stunning book about the               A mystery of sorts, great book 

                                     history of African Americans in the US        true friendship and growing up.

                                   

A couple of ARC's.  Reviews to follow this week

 

One more Newbery down. 

Went to the bookstore and read a 

bunch of picture books.

       I am in love with this "cutlery" series.  Now I need to find Spork.            Had to buy Hello, Hello.

                   Sooo Cute!                      Hauntingly beautiful wordless         Must read to my class!

                                                        picture book about the 

                                                        Underground Railroad.

What I am reading now....

                                      Can't believe I haven't read    Just started.  Will review this week
                                      this before!

What Are You Reading?

I'm Nerdy!!

This post was featured on The Nerdy Book Club today!  It is similar to my back story, but a bit different.

-->

The Late Bloomer’s Path to Becoming a Reader

by Gigi McAllister

Unlike many teachers, growing up I was that quiet, painfully shy girl who never participated and lived in fear that everyone would find out that I was dumb.  I was the one who could not understand what I read because it was all just words to me.  Well I’m grown up now and I am really angry!

I have read many children’s book blogs to find new books for my students and to read inspirational stories.  Most of them are wonderfully positive stories describing people who were born with a silver book in their hand or were reading Little Women at age 5 and haven’t stopped since.  I am green with envy as I read about adults who grew up as voracious readers and how books helped influence and shape their lives.  I am so happy for them, but this was not my path.  My path to become a reader was paved with shame, disappointment and self-doubt.   

Reading was not really part of my childhood.  Sure, I had to read in school, but I was reminded, by my constant failure, that I was not a good reader.  My teachers “demoted” me to the “low” reading group in what I assume was an attempt to help me, but it just made me feel more stupid.  I felt like they did not expect much of me and I lived up to those expectations.  I just didn’t get it.  I would try to read my little blue basal reader, but try as I might, it just didn’t click. No one ever showed me that books could be wonderful escapes and reading could actually be fun, NO ONE! 

So what’s the big deal? I can obviously read now.  What did I really miss? 

Well…A LOT!

I missed out on being a super sleuth with Nancy Drew or Harriet from Harriet the Spy.  Ramona and I never got into trouble together in Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series and I never watched Charlotte save her friend Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web.  I also missed Judy Blume!  What was the early 80”s for a young girl without Judy Blume? Ok I did read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret  to see what the big deal was, but I missed out on sharing fears with Sheila Tubman in Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great.  I would have loved to hold hands with Mary Lenox in the pages of The Secret Garden. And traveling to Narnia with Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy in The Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis would have been amazing.  I could go on and on.

I did not become a reader until I started teaching in my early twenties..   When I understood what all the fuss was about, and realized what I had missed, I felt cheated

We teachers need to remember that yes, we need to teach skills and strategies like cause and effect, sequencing and author’s purpose.  But we must never forget that it is our ultimate job to inspire and help create lifelong readers.  So let’s keep the emphasis on the books!  I’m sure you can find at least one student just like me each year in your class.  Please show her (or him) that there is more to reading than just reading words.  Show your students that reading can entertain you, inspire you and change you…forever.