Posted on September 30, 2008 by thereadingzone
This year I am extremely excited to be a member of the middle grades panel for the Cybil Awards. Are you ready for the awards?!
Cybils Nominations Open October 1st: How Can You Participate?
Nominations for the third annual Children’ s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (the Cybils) will be open Wednesday, October 1st through Wednesday, October [...]
Filed under: awards, kidlitosphere | Tagged: cybils | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 28, 2008 by thereadingzone
Assessment in Reading Workshop is always difficult, especially in an education culture that begs for grades at every turn. I always struggle with how to assess my readers without cramming quizzes and tests down their throat at every turn. I do test their basic comprehension when we read class novels- a necessary habit/evil that they [...]
Filed under: assessment, reading log, reading workshop | Tagged: reading log | 3 Comments »
Posted on September 28, 2008 by thereadingzone
Very few of my students are familiar with the situation in Northern Ireland over the course of their lifetime. However, this contemporary situation is one that should be taught. Before I read Eve Bunting’s newest offering, Walking to School, I wasn’t really sure how to do it. Now, I know I will share this story [...]
Filed under: mentor texts, reviews | Tagged: northern ireland conflict, picture books for advanced readers | Leave a Comment »
Posted on September 27, 2008 by thereadingzone
Jeff Kinney is a godsend for reluctant readers. His Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is my go-to for students who hate reading. Everytime, within only a few pages of Greg Heffley’s “diary” they are laughing and telling their friends what a great book it is. I can’t tell you how many of my students [...]
Filed under: reviews | Tagged: do-it-yourself book, jeff kinney, reluctant readers, reluctant writers | 5 Comments »
Posted on September 27, 2008 by thereadingzone
I am the crazy butterfly lady, no doubt about it. If a book so much as even mentions monarch butterflies I must have it for my classroom collection. Imagine my excitement when I received a review copy of Houdini the Amazing Caterpillar from Clarion Books this week!
Houdini is a monarch caterpillar who lives [...]
Filed under: monarch butterflies, reviews | Tagged: houdini the amazing caterpillar, janet pedersen, monarch butterflies | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 24, 2008 by thereadingzone
I spent little bit of time tonight playing with Jogtheweb. Jogtheweb allows you to create tracks, or trails, on the internet. Tracks lead readers from one sight to the next. You can set up any type of track you can imagine and I can see this being a great resource for research or web quests.
I [...]
Filed under: technology | Tagged: jog the web, jogtheweb.com, web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 23, 2008 by thereadingzone
Thanks to Jen for the link to National Punctuation Day!
From the press release:
Why is punctuation important Jeff Rubin the Punctuation Man and founder of National Punctuation Day explains that without punctuation you would not be able to express your feelings in writing not to mention know when to pause or stop or ask a question [...]
Filed under: grammar | Tagged: national punctuation day | 3 Comments »
Posted on September 22, 2008 by thereadingzone
Today I used Wordle in the classroom for the first time. I loved it! More importantly, the kids loved it!
We have been working on thinking about our reading in reading workshop and today’s mini-lesson was about using our thinking to write a paragraph explaining our thoughts. We were reading Sandra Cisneros’ “Eleven” (one of my personal [...]
Filed under: technology | Tagged: document camera, web 2.0, wordle | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 21, 2008 by thereadingzone
Wow! This past week both of my classes were witness to one of nature’s miracles- the emergence of a monarch butterfly from its chrysalis. I have never managed to have both classes view this miracle as monarch usually emerge early in the morning, before we arrive at school. This year, I remembered [...]
Filed under: monarch butterflies, monarchs, technology | Tagged: document camera, monarch butterfly emergence | Leave a Comment »
Posted on September 20, 2008 by thereadingzone
Below is a brief slideshow of the monarch release our team held earlier this week. All of the pictures were taken by our “class paparazzi” who did a great job!
Make a Smilebox photobook
Filed under: monarch butterflies | Tagged: monarch release | Leave a Comment »