JK Rowling Podcast

The school year is flying by and I've been silent on my blog.  It certainly doesn't mean I don't have anything to say, but that I've been too busy to say it!

In October all of our 3rd-5th grader "attended" J.K. Rowling's webcast.  They all ate lunch in the library and listened to Ms. Rowling discuss writing and Harry.  During the webcast she mentioned her website/game Pottermore.  Out of this came a tremendous interest in creating a Pottermore Club.  So finally today, (the calendar and the weather has been conspiring against us!) we'll have our first meeting.  We'll meet during lunch.  It seems like a wonderful opportunity to talk about books and practice digital citizenship at the same time.

Here's J.K. Rowling discussing why she created Pottermore and what she's hoping to accomplish with the site.

Summer Reading

At my school the librarians are responsible for selecting the summer reading for our students. It's a boys' school. All the research tells us the situation with boys and literacy is grim. That is not my experience. Just as with anything, one needs to have the right carrot to dangle before the reader. That carrot that works for me and my students is the Summer Reading Challenge.

It came about because I was thinking about summer reading and what we know about boys and reading. In a nutshell, boys like choice, technology, competition, and being social. I combined all of those aspects into a summer reading program. The Summer Reading Challenge consists of selecting a task, reading a book that meets the requirements of the task, and making a post about the book. There are 15 tasks to choose from. They are varied and go from being very specific (read a specific book), to very general (read a book in a tent). The boys access the Summer Reading Challenge through Moodle -- which is the learning environment they use starting in 3rd grade and progressing through 12th grade. The students get to see each others comments about books and can respond to classmates. They can also see the books others are reading and may be inspired to also read that book.

Putting this all online enables the students to access it anywhere they have Internet access, allows a level of interactivity that a paper list doesn't allow, and gives an added depth to the list because I can embed links, photos, videos and the like.

This is our second year doing summer reading for 4th and 5th graders this way and it's a hit.  Here's to many more summers!!

All Star Readers

Last Friday we had a celebration lunch in the library.  The boys who read all 10 nominated Black-Eyed Susan books were treated to lunch from Pepe's the local pizzeria/diner.  This year 12 boys read all 10 books.  I'm really proud of them.  They were reading from November through April.

At our lunch we chatted about favorite books, least favorite books and waxed nostalgic about nominees from years' past (at least last year's nominees -- which seems like oh so long ago!)  We also chatted about strategies the boys use to be able to complete all 10 books.  Strategies include: listen to some in the car, read the books you think will be bad first, and just keep going and hope the book gets better.


Boys will read and they are thoughtful and insightful in their reading.  They will even read "girl books".  I think too often we are selling our boys short.  Way to go boys!!

Reading Challenge

I've never done a very good job of keeping track of the books I read.  I've always loved the idea of keeping a journal, but I never got around to doing it.  This year one of my New Year's resolutions was to keep track of my reading.  Just as I was deciding on my resolution I happened upon the Goodreads Reading Challenge.  A match made in heaven!  I set the goal of reading 52 books this year with the thought that I could read one book a week.  I added the badge to this blog to help me stay on track.  So far, I'm really happy with my progress, especially since I always read a lot more once school is out for the summer.  I'm trying to always work on two books -- one adult and one child.  I'm only including "chapter" books in my count.  I'm surprised at how competitive I can be and how much I'm loving this challenge.

Maryland's Black-Eyed Susan

Maryland's children's choice award is the Maryland Black Eyed-Susan Book Award.  It is sponsored annually by MASL (Maryland Association of School Librarians).  We've been participating for several years now and I'm continually impressed by the boys and their thoughts and insights.  We had almost 40 3rd-5th grade boys participate this year.  The guys have been reading from the list of nominated books since November.  Today was our voting lunch.  We gathered, ate pizza, spoke for books we felt strongly about, and then the boys voted for their favorite.  The winner at my school -- by one vote -- is The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mar Barnett.  The statewide winner will be announced in the beginning of May.  Watch and listen to author Mac Barnett talk about his book.

Party in the Library

Each fall my school holds a Bull and Oyster Roast as a fund raiser.  One activity at the Bull Roast is a silent auction which benefits the Parent's Association.  The Parent's Association is always encouraging faculty members to make donations to the silent auction and this year I decided to contribute a party in the library for a lower school student and 6 friends -- The Library Lock In.  In all honesty I was a little afraid that no one would bid on it, but it sold for a healthy amount to a pair of 5th grade parents.

Friday night was party night.  It was held from immediately after school until 9:00.  We played dodge ball, made balloon propelled cars, ate pizza, had a Wii tournament, played board games, and watched a movie (or part of a movie--we ran out of time!).  I was initially worried that the boys would grow tired of being in the library.  Time flew by and we could have probably gone a bit longer.

I loved the whole evening.  I enlisted my family members to help -- 20 something daughters and good sport husband.  I loved seeing the boys be boys.  Watching them take great delight in playing with balloons, and seeing their playfulness while playing board games was a highlight of my night. 

World Read Aloud Day

We just celebrated our first World Read Aloud Day and it was a huge success. 

We set up tents and filled them with pillows and books.  They were available to boys and classes for reading all day long.  (Thank goodness we've had a very temperate winter and a 65 degree yesterday!)  We have a lower school teacher who is in the process of finding a publisher for a picture book he's written and he read his book to the pre-primary boys.  We have an amazing upper school teacher, author, storyteller, folklorist who volunteered to tell folktales to the entire lower school.  He was captivating as we heard about Jack, Baba Yaga, Medio Pollito, Jabuti and others.  We had several upper school teachers bring their classes over to read with lower school boys.  Our Director of College Counseling came over to participate in a reader's theater session.  We ended our day with a coffeehouse complete with snacks and open mike poetry readings.

It was a day to love and celebrate reading and community.  I couldn't have done it without the support of my colleagues.  They brought in pillows and tents, they brought their class, they interrupted their instruction, and donated their precious time and they supported me with all of their kind words.  It was definitely one of my most favorite days EVER!!

Big Boys and Little Boys

Yesterday I discovered 4 middle school boys in the lower school library just as a kindergarten class was due to arrive.  The older boys needed a place to be for an hour because of a conflict with a special event hosted in the middle school.  They were sent to my library with a book and told to read independently.  3 of the 4 were former lower school students and all 4 are reluctant readers.

Middle school boys are like rock stars to kindergarteners.  There is no way they could attend to class while ignoring the big boys.  Just prior to the kindergarten class arriving I asked the middle schoolers if they would mind reading to the little boys.  Two of the boys said they couldn't read aloud.  I suggested they read a favorite book from their kindergarten days.  Another boy said he's never had a favorite book.

The kindergarten class arrived and the middle school boys were thrown into my lesson - reluctantly.  Each big boy was paired with 3 little boys and they read to them.  It was AMAZING!  The big boys read David books by David Shannon, Seuss books, and The Day the Dog Dressed Like Dad by Amico and Proimos.  The reluctant big boys were poised and fluent.  The enthralled little boys hung on their every word.  One of the little boys end up on one of the big boy's lap by the time the book was finished -- he couldn't get enough.

Developing positive attitudes about reading is half the battle in creating life long readers.  What happened yesterday in class went far beyond any lesson I could have offered for either the big or the little boys. 

Blogging from my phone

Wow!  I recently got a new phone and am posting this blog from it.  I'm much faster and more accurate on a traditional keyboard, but I think this has potential.

I'll blog more later when I'm at my computer.  Trying something new everyday!