We are excited to have Kelsey Keller return to our school district this year for her workshop on the core competencies! Kelsey is a teacher and consultant, who presents all over British Columbia on the revised curriculum, and has done extensive work on implementing the core competencies in her own classroom. She will provide us with new practical and manageable strategies you will be able to use in your classrooms right away! Attached is the poster. Sign up on the staff development calendar. I hope to see you there!
Click here to read Pernille Ripp’s article about kids self selecting books.
I had the pleasure of seeing Lori Jamison Rog present at the Literacy Summit this past weekend. She has some practical suggestions as to how to support our struggling readers.
Struggling readers need to read MORE than other readers.
Our strugglers have GREAT avoidance skills, such as taking a long time to choose a book, going to the bathroom during silent reading, acting out to avoid work, just to name a few.
Struggling readers need to practice sight words, as this will help with fluency when it comes to connected text.
These kids need CHOICE over their reading.
They need time to read books that are not too difficult, AND they need tiptoe books – books that are a bit difficult, but someone is helping them with the text.
They need to hear a lot of read alouds (all kids do!) and building their background knowledge is key.
Here is a booklet from Lori’s workshop. Her ideas come from her book “Struggling Readers: Why Band-Aids Don’t Stick and Worksheets Don’t Work”.
Really, these are just great tips for ALL our students!
There are a lot of resources that will help you teach growth mindset that are free on Teachers Pay Teachers! Check out this link!
Thank you to the teachers who are participating in our “Mindset for Learning” Book Club. Last night was our first session. We had great discussions, and everyone shared wonderful ideas, that inspired so many people. Click here for Growth Mindset Book List
Check out these great lists of chapter books and picture books from Heart-Mind Online!
Heart-Mind Online Picture Book List
Heart Mind Online Chapter Book List
The conversation has come up a lot lately about how books expose children to a lot of emotions, from fear, to jealousy, to joy, to anger. Never has children’s literature and young adult fiction been better, but it’s left many of us wondering if some of our students are losing a part of their innocence through some of the books they are reading. It has left us asking if this is okay. Matt de la Pena wrote a beautiful article below, and Kate DiCamilo responded. Both articles brought tears to my eyes, and I encourage you to read them both – with kleenex.
Adrienne Gear has a great list of beginning chapter books and early readers on her blog. Enjoy!
Thanks Adrienne!
Here is a great article that talks about how we sometimes unintentionally kill the love of reading for our students. Thanks Hanna Foy, at Montecito, for sharing!
stop killing the love of reading
