World Read Aloud Day AND It's Monday Post - rolled into one

Doing a mash-up of two blog posts today. One, Jen and Kellee’s wonderful It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? World Read Aloud also is doing a blog post this week on your reading life. So, being a multi-tasker I decided to make a video that would fit the needs of both.

Couple of notes from the video:

Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle is listed on Amazon with a release date of 4/30.

Illinois Reads website can be found here: http://www.illinoisreads.org/

World Read Aloud Day – Now & Then

 World Read Aloud Day is right around the corner – March 6^th! This week as part of their blogging challenge I’m answering the following questions as I would have when I was in fifth grade and then again as I would answer today.

1. I think everyone in the world should read...

When I was 10: Superfudge by Judy Blume

Now: I’m cheating. I have three from 2012 – Wonder by R.J. Palacio, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, and See You at Harry’s by Jo Knowles.

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

When I was 10: My mom.

Now: Katie Wood Ray. I love listening to her voice.

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

When I was 10: Grover from The Monster at the End of This Book

Now: Grover from The Monster at the End of This Book

4. The genre that takes up the most room on my bookshelf (or e-reader) is...

When I was 10: Realistic Fiction

Now: Fantasy

5. The last book I wish I’d written or inspired me to write my own story is...

When I was 10: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume

Now: The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller

World Read Aloud Day

There is a special day just around the corner…. No, I’m not referring to Valentine’s Day today or even my birthday, but on March 6^th many of us will be celebrating World Read Aloud Day or WRAD for short. This is a fabulous that’s purpose is to educate the world – reading and writing should belong to us all! Now that’s a message I can get behind. This week I am joining the WRAD Blogging Challenge  - for more information on it click here.

WRAD asked us to think about

What do you think is special about reading aloud?

I couldn’t teach without reading aloud. I’m not sure I could be the same parent that I am without reading aloud. My best memories from school center around my teacher reading to our class. Some of my favorite memories from growing up also center around a shared text. With my boys I have shared many a picture book while we were curled up on my bed. But as a teacher…

If you were in my classroom yesterday you would have heard pleading. Wednesday was an early out day. We also had two specials. It was one of “those days.” I wouldn’t have more than 45 minutes in the morning with my class, and 45 minutes after lunch. The begging began. “Mrs. S, can’t you just read Fablehaven today? Can’t we finish?” The lobbying. The promises to get more work done tomorrow. Looking at those faces, I couldn’t resist. I cleared my throat and began.

Telling my husband this tonight upon arriving home he was surprised – I read for a total of 90 minutes today. Did they really pay attention the entire time? Absolutely! As we journeyed with Kendra and the fairies to the Forgotten Chapel, there were gasps. How would she save her family? Learning of Lena’s fate, we were shocked. As the conclusion came after lunch, I slowly closed the book. Many kids cheered, several rushed our “Mull” basket to see if they could claim the second book. One child looked at the clock and pointed out that there was eight minutes left until dismissal. Twenty-three faces swiveled in my direction and waited. My response?

Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. And I opened the pages to The Lightning Thief to cheers. Awesome way to end the day; the magic of read aloud was alive in our room. 

Slice of Life Eight - WRAD

 Slice of Life is sponsored every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth from Two Writing Teachers. For the month of March we are challenging ourself to write a Slice A Day. Here we go! 

Today I tried something different, when thinking of a “slice” of my day I decided to video tape my drive to grad school yesterday. My daily commute to my school is nothing, ¼ of a mile in a town of 5,000 with two traffic lights. (Not stop lights – I’m married to an engineer who deals with traffic and he’s pretty particular about that term.) So today I thought I’d show you my drive to grad school – roughly 30 miles away. I’ve blogged that it allows me to relax and reflect and I wanted to show you why.

Note, that is not a Christmas tree,
but Thalia who protects our classroom.

Also, Wednesday was World Read Aloud Day hosted by LitWorld. I kicked off the day with my mom in my classroom reading Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, a childhood favorite.

We then turned our attention to ISAT tests where my students worked so hard. Finally, we wrapped up the day with three picture books that are new to my collection:

·      And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano

·      Otto the Book Bear by Katie Cleminson

·      One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo

We also had our chapter book read aloud, The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone. Marianne is visiting my classroom next Wednesday and we are quickly finishing her book in anticipation of her arrival. 


It was a great celebration of reading. I had emailed the teachers in my district to see who would participate. If they wanted to join they needed to let me know today how many kids they read to. As of the typing of this blog I have a total just over 1,600. There are just over 1,600 students enrolled in our district. Some kids have been counted more than once because they were read to in their classroom and a special. But overall I'm thrilled. What a great day of reading! 

WRAD

World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) is almost upon us – March 7^th this year. I’ve already shared here what the day is and how I have celebrated in the past. This year the day falls right during our state testing. When debating on what to do to celebrate, I decided to just focus on reading to my students on a local level. I typed up the blog about WRAD and sent out an email to the teachers in my district and asked if they would be interested in participating.

The emails began rolling in. Elementary, Middle School, High School. Classroom teachers, special teachers, administrators. English teachers, math teachers, AP Chemistry teachers, Agriculture teachers, and more. We are small district, but as of right now around 45 teachers have signed up. Each day I get another email from another teacher. To say I am grateful for their participation is an understatement.

Yesterday a journalist from our tiny local paper came to interview me asking, What is this World Read Aloud Day we’re hearing about. I attempted to explain it. It isn’t my idea, I’m just passing it on. We talked about reading aloud to children, why it was important, and literacy rates. Then, she asked me a question that made me stop and think. What did I hope to accomplish with this event?

First, I don’t really think of this as my event. I sent an email to the staff at my amazing district. Beyond that, I am not really “doing” anything. But, why should we bring attention to this in our school or in our town? I had a few reasons. One, by having teachers and administrators read to our students we show them that we do believe literacy is important. We give them another reading role model. I am beyond grateful that English teachers are signing up, but I loved seeing Science and Math teachers there as well. Sometimes I think the kids just assume I love reading – I’m their reading teacher. Having others read to them to shows that it isn’t just me.

But what else do I hope we accomplish? By the newspaper running a story, I hope we are just one more reminder to parents about the benefit to reading with your children. Schedules and lives are busy. I know for many parents once their children can read, shared reading comes to a halt. And I get that. But some of the best experiences in our family have been through shared books. (Lately, the book WONDER) And it doesn’t always have to be chapter books. My boys and I shared I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen with Chris last year. An amazing picture book that became part of our family conversation.

Are you participating in WRAD? Please sign up at the site. And spread the word – they are trying to do some amazing things in the name of literacy.

World Read Aloud Day

Read Aloud, I cannot imagine a day of teaching without it. On a daily basis I am reading picture books, excerpts from chapter books, guided reading books, current event articles, and our class read aloud book (Currently Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone), to my fifth graders. Two years ago my building switched from self-contained classrooms to semi-departmentalization at fourth and fifth. My biggest frustration? It cut into my read aloud time.

As I’ve written on this blog before, I realized the power of a read aloud when I was in second grade. (1982 if you’d like to know the year). My first grade teacher, Miss Jan Tuck (or Miss Stretchberry to me) asked me to read aloud to her first grade class. I read Monster at the End of This Book to them and felt magic as I read. I have enjoyed reading to my students but also my children. I think the power of a read aloud is palpable.

My student teacher, Jackie,
reading aloud to the class.

I know many teachers question reading aloud after students read a certain age. Just as I still find it important at my home even though my boys can read to themselves, I think read aloud is critical in the older classes at school as well. In my reading classes I read aloud Extra Yarn two weeks ago. I wish I had been able to put a camera on my shoulder to capture the faces of fifth graders as this picture book unfolded in front of them. There were so many magical moments. When they saw Klassen’s “Bear and Rabbit” I had fingers pointed at me, screaming out, “I want my hat back!” When the archduke hired the robbers, there were gasps. When the text said he opened the box, before I turned the page I heard kids whispering predictions to each other. It was amazing. Picture books, fifth graders, a wonderful combination.

When should real aloud stop? In my experience, never. At the elementary grades it should be occurring daily. But even when I was in high school, I remember being read to. Ms. Flock, one of my high school English teachers read to us. I remember her reading part of A Separate Peace as I held my breath. Mrs. Lindsay, another high school English teacher, read Shakespeare to us. I clearly recall her telling us that Shakespeare was meant to be read aloud. I didn’t understand it when I’d read it at home, but she’d read to us, her green eyes flashing, and I was mesmerized. Mr. Engle, my high school Social Studies teacher, would read current events from the newspaper. Barb Dress, my methods teacher in graduate school, would read aloud from children’s literature at the end of every single class. I attribute my deep appreciate for Patricia MacLachlan’s writing to her reading the book Journey to me over two weeks. Amazing.

I think when we read aloud to our students we create wonderful models for them. We bring them to books they might not pick up on their own. We create a community around text. And, we give them role models for reading.

With this in mind, LitWorld is celebrating their third annual World Read Aloud Day on March 7, 2012. 793 million people worldwide remain illiterate. World Read Aloud Day is a day to celebrate the power of words. By celebrating this day in our classroom, we show our students the importance of literacy and the power of words.

Last year I celebrated by Skyping with several authors (Kate Messner, Riley Carney, Laurel Snyder, and with Shannon Miller’s classroom). My students loved it and I couldn’t wait to participate again.

This year I am challenging my district to see how many teachers Kindergarten – twelve can incorporate read aloud into their day. I am asking them to email me how many students they read to, and when, so we can see our reach in a tiny, rural district. I am asking my mom to be a guest reader in my classroom. And while it is, unfortunately, during state testing week, I will find pockets of time to read aloud throughout the day.

Will you join us? You can find more information at LitWorld’s website. Feel free to ask questions in the comments. Let’s join together to show the world that reading and writing belongs to us all and brings us together.

To close, let me share a favorite quote by C. Alexander London.

It’s a fact: people can survive without books. People can even have wonderful, full lives without books. But they can’t long endure without community, and community is built on stories.

My classroom community is built around the stories I read. It is how I share my love of reading with my students and how we begin to speak the language of readers. I hope you will join us on March 7^th. Spread the word.