Book Talk Tuesday: Mom Made Us Write This

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for another Book Talk Tuesday...

Please please please click on the book cover below to check out my post from Sunday raving about this new series about twins Max and Maggie... Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer by Ali Maier

Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer

I am SO excited to share about a wonderful book today! Introducing a new series "Max and Maggie" in their first journal-story entitled Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer by Ali Maier. I LOVE stories that encourage students to write and this is one that most definitely will! It even includes a section of pages at the end where readers can start their own journal!
I plan on reading this at the end of the year (this year) to encourage my kiddos to write over the summer and then next year I will read it at the beginning of the year to help kiddos come up with some great journaling ideas about their summer experience. I think I will use my document camera when reading aloud so my students can see how interactive the story is.
I would categorize this story with Gooney Bird Green in it's future importance in my class for writing motivation!

In Maier's children's novel, twins Max and Maggie just started their summer after fourth grade. Their mom, who is a former English teacher, gives them a journal in which they must write throughout the summer. WRITING... TOGETHER... IN THE SUMMER.... yikes!!! They each have to write 12 entries, switching who picks the topic. They are expected to read each others' entries and are allowed to comment on each others' entries (as long as they're polite). The back and forth comments between Max and Maggie in addition to seeing each twin's perspective keeps the reader engaged! Their comments to each other are funny and sarcastic and keep the narrative moving. I guarantee your students will love the uniqueness that the opposing views, different handwriting, variety of doodles and more. Max and Maggie are very likable characters and I found myself wanting to know even more about them!

Journaling books are super popular right now (and honestly, I LOVE them!) and this book is certainly accessible and of interest to students in grades 2-6 which as a 2nd grade teacher is a huge deal for me.

I find that many journaling style books although high interest, are not necessarily as accessible or "appropriate" for 2nd and 3rd graders, so I'm loving the possibilities this series will present for my 2nd graders who can't seem to get away from the journal type books no matter who the intended audience is!

This journaling story is also unique because of the two different views... this truly is a book that boys AND girls will enjoy equally! Not to mention ANYONE with a sibling!!!
Do you want to check out this book yet? You should!!!

Reading Level: This book is very new and has yet to make any lists with DRA, Guided Reading or Lexile levels. I will update this when one of these levels is available.
Everything I read said this story was appropriate for grades 2-6.

Teachers: here are some resources to help you use this book in your class...

Web Resources:

• Video - Show this video of a 4th grader reviewing the story to get students excited about reading Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer
• Character Blogs - Okay so the website for this book is outstanding... it includes character blogs... how exciting for students to be able to interact with the book's characters after reading!?
• Journaling - Yet another source from the book's website... this page offers a set of links for using a journal at home or at school!
• Book Website - All of the above resources are available through the book's website, which has even more for you to look through, so go check it out!
• Facebook Page - go check out the facebook page for this series so you know all about it when a new book comes out! Right now there are create your own journal books available as a part of the series.

 Vocabulary:
As I read, I jotted down any words students might need exposure to ahead of time or could be great words to ask students to create a 4-square for (during reading) and maybe even jigsaw to help ALL your students understand the words. Your need to focus on these words will certainly depend on the grade level & ability level of your students.
All words that I chose are tier 2 words... exceptional, interchangeably, innocent, hysterical, irritated, defiance, sarcastic, excessive, petrified, arrogant.

Activities:
Before Reading: Have students discuss their experience with keeping a journal.. Have you ever had a journal? What did you/would you write about? Would you ever share a journal with someone?

During Reading:

• Choose an entry and have students compare and contrast Maggie and Max's points of view.
• Choose an entry where Max and Maggie have opposing views. Ask students to discuss why they think Max and Maggie have different points of view. This would be a great opportunity to discuss point of view in regards to characters in reading as well as problem solving issues between classmates when there are differing points of view!

After Reading:

• Launch student journals after reading this book!
• Use the pages at the end of the story for students to brainstorm what they will include in their journal and answer questions about their journal.

I really enjoyed this book and I hope you will consider using it in your classroom! You can purchase a copy on Amazon. I see no better way to encourage students to write than using books like this one that are both about children writing AND high interest!

Book Talk Tuesday: Books on Books on Books

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for Book Talk Tuesday and I have a unique post for you today.

As some of you may know my blog started out in college as a blog to review books and offer teaching suggestions and resources.

I recently updated my "Great Books" tab to include a direct link to every book I've ever reviewed or posted on Book Talk Tuesday. I hope this will serve as a resource to those of you who are looking for a great read aloud or book for your students to read. Included with every "review" is reading level & resources. In addition, most of the book links include vocabulary, web resources, before/during/after reading ideas & more.

If you don't want to go check out the Great Books tab now... here are picture links to a few of my favorite books that I've posted about...

Enjoy!

Book Talk Tuesday: My Abuelita

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for another Book Talk Tuesday!

Today I'm sharing a book that we use as a mentor text for writing. It is fabulous for teaching figurative languages, specifically similes and metaphors... My Abuelita by Tony Johnston Illustrated by Yuyi Morales

In addition to the beautiful language, the style of illustrations make the pages come alive...

see what I  mean?...

Reading Level:
Grade Level Equivalent 2.6
(This is the only level I could find, if anyone else can find another leveling system, let me know!)

Resources for teaching...

Web Resources:

• Book Discussion & Activity Guide: This resource focuses on the importance of relationships mothers and grandmothers have with their children.
• Making My Abuelita: Find out how the illustrations for this book were made!

Vocabulary: What's great about this book is although MANY Spanish words are used, the narrator defines the words immediately after using them.
A few words you may want to preteach:  limber, robust, jalopy, audience

Activities:
Before Reading: Ask students how they think the illustrations were made. They are so unique that they practically scream out to talk about them! Show the video above to get kiddos excited about the illustrations and excited to hear the story.

During Reading: This story lends itself to working on predictions. I had my kiddos make a prediction about what they think Abuelita's job is (during the whole story she's getting ready for work, but you don't find out what she is until the last page). This story gives students opportunities to adjust their prediction as the story goes on.

After Reading: Have students try to come up with metaphors to describe themselves or someone they know or about an object. I give my kiddos a little help with sentence frames such as: _____ is as white as _______ or _______ is as round as __________. Be sure to remind kiddos to be kind if they are writing about someone.

Think about buying this book, especially if you teach about metaphors/similes or about family!

Book Talk Tuesday: The Wednesday Suprise

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for Book Talk Tuesday!

I'm sure many of you have read The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting, but I'd love to share how I used this story with my students a couple weeks ago.

If you haven't read it, it is a wonderful story about a birthday surprise the young girl Anna and her grandmother have planned for her father's birthday.

They work on the surprise while grandma babysits on Wednesday nights.

I won't ruin it for you if you've never read it, but for obvious reason it's a GREAT book to use for questioning as it elicits many curious questions, the most obvious being: what is the surprise!?

Reading Level:
DRA 18
Guided Reading K
Lexile 540L


I used this book for a questioning lesson. I had previously introduced and modeled asking questions during a think aloud mini lesson where I read a few pages from another book, asking questions as I went. I also created an anchor chart to help support students in answer questions during reading.

When I read this story, I stopped to model twice in the early pages of the story, asking questions during my think aloud. I think stopped at previously selected places in the book and asked students to turn and talk to a partner (teach, okay in my WBT room) then, stop and jot their question on a sticky note. We did this 3 times throughout the story. At the end of the book, I asked kiddos to choose their best question and stick it to our questioning anchor chart we had made during a previous lesson.

We then went back the next day to see if we could answer our questions. We sorted our questions by "Right There" Answers, "Inference"/"Book & Brain" Answers and "Unanswerable" I have since made a nicer chart for students to sort their stickies onto (which I keep neglecting to take a picture of), and this photo is from a sort for a different book, but you get the idea...

I also made sure with each lesson on questioning to encourage students to ask questions while they participate in Read to Self. I gave each student stickies to do so during the following days. After 2 Read to Self sessions, and an individual conference with most students, I collected their "best 2" Read to Self question and sorted them out for my self to see if kiddos weren't asking questions, were asking thin questions or were asking thick questions. I had about half and half as far as thick/thin go as well as many students who were asking a combination of both. I simply stuck the sticky notes to a tri-folded piece of construction paper for my own visual of where my class was. Again, like the above chart, not so pretty, but effective for my purposes!

I hope these simple to implement ideas might help you to teach questioning or that I have introduced you to a great read aloud :)

Book Talk Tuesday: Diary of a Worm

I'm linking up again with Mrs. Jump's class for Book Talk Tuesday.

This week I'm going to be sharing one you've probably already read... Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. I promise this post will be worth reading even if you've already read this book!

In this story, the main character, Worm, is telling his story through journal entries. Kiddos will learn about being a worm...

... and meet Worm's friend Spider...

If you haven't read this one, I can promise your kiddos will love it and laugh, asking for it to be read again! I didn't use this book as a read aloud this past year (I did the year before) but it still was VERY well loved in my classroom library!

Reading Level: DRA 18
          Guided Reading K
                         Lexile 360L

Resources for teaching...

Web Resources:

• Writing Lesson: This lesson from scholastic will have kiddos writing an animal diary after researching about that animal.
• Sequence Lesson: This lesson (also from scholastic) offers a printable to help students organize the order of events in the story.
• Activity Ideas: Here are a bunch of activity ideas for using this book in your classroom

Vocabulary: This book has pretty simple vocabulary. If your students do some worm research following reading this book, you may want to use some words that relate to worms for vocabulary instruction. For example: topsoil, compost, decompose, nutrients, minerals

Activities:
Before Reading:

• Create a KWL (filling out the K&W) to find out what your kiddos already know and want to learn about worms. This is a great activity to do if you plan on doing some nonfiction reading about worms or having students research about worms.

During Reading:

• Have students answer comprehension questions aloud as you read. I have my students "teach" each other the answer in the "teach, okay" Whole Brain Teaching model, but a turn and talk for this would work just fine. Use the questions below so students are ready to complete the comprehension sheet after reading. Click below for a copy of 2 versions of comprehension sheets (one with and one without sentence frames).

After Reading:

• To practice fluency, use this reader's theater version of Diary of a Worm. Click below to get a copy.

Extensions: Nonfiction/Science

• Have kiddos research worms! Click below for a kiddo-friendly worm fact sheet...

•  After your kiddos learn about worms, have them fill out one of these 2 facts sheets...

Hope you can use one or more of these freebies in your classroom! If your kiddos like this book, make sure you check out Diary of a Spider & Diary of a Fly too!

Book Talk Tuesday with freebies (7.22)

I'm linking up again with Mrs. Jump for Book Talk Tuesday.

Today I'll be sharing Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptol. It is an African Cinderella Tale.

One of my favorite reading units is Fairy Tales. We read a bunch of different Cinderella stories and compare and contrast the stories in a variety of ways. Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters is one of my favorites for a few reasons. First are the beautiful life-like illustrations and secondly, it teaches a wonderful lesson about being kind and thoughtful.

In this story, there are 2 sisters: Nyasha and Manyara. Nyasha is kind and loving whereas Manyara is opposite from Nyasha in every way. She is bad-tempered and unkind. Manyara is often unkind to Manyara, but Manyara does not complain to their father and instead tends to her garden and befriends a snake named Nyoka. When the family hears that the kind is searching for a wife, the family plans a journey to meet him in hopes he will take one of the daughters as his wife.

On the journy, Nyoka transforms into various forms. Manyara is rude and selfish when confronted by Nyoka's forms, whereas Nyasha is kind and self-less. (SPOILER ALERT) In a surprise ending, Nyoka ends up being the king himself, and rewards Nyasha's kindness by taking her as his wife. The contrast of the two sisters shows that good things happen when you are kind.

Reading Level: DRA 30
                 Guided Reading N
                 Lexile 720L

Resources:

Web Resources:

• Scholastic Lesson: Go here for lesson ideas, including cross-curricular connections
• Reading Rainbow: Watch the Reading Rainbow episode of Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters
• Literature Guide: This link has before/during/after questions and various activities to go along with the book

Vocabulary: Here are some words you may want to pre-teach... ignored, considerate, acknowledge, transfixed, proclaimed, bountiful, garments, enclosure, grieve, silhouetted, commotion, hysterically, millet, grove, plumed, chamber

*When there are so many vocabulary words important to the reading of a story, I like to do a jig-saw. I make groups of 4-5 students and give them 2 vocabulary words. They fill out the vocabulary 4-square (below as a freebie) together. Then, I rotate the groups so that 1 member of each of the original groups is in each of the new groups. The group members then each "teach" their 2 words to the other group members. I try to have the starting and ending groups prepared ahead of time, because otherwise the switch to jig-saw can be chaotic and wastes time.*

Activities:
Before Reading:

• Do the vocabulary jig-saw described above so students have at least a basic understanding of some of the difficult words in the story.
• Talk about where this fairy tale originates to give students some background knowledge.

During Reading:

• If you've taught fairy tale elements (see my post on fairy tales here) have students hold up a stop sign when they hear a fairy tale element in the story. We kept track of which stories had which elements throughout our entire Fairy Tale unit.
• Have students compare and contrast the 2 sisters while reading. Keep track of the observations they make about the sisters by using a chart paper t-chart or have the kiddos each get a copy like the one below (another freebie) and keep track on clip boards throughout the reading.

After Reading:

• Have students compare/contrast Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters with the Classic Cinderella (or other Cinderella story). 
• This can be as simple as using a Venn Diagram. 
• Students can work in small groups, partnerships or independently. 
• If time is limited you can also have students write 1 way the stories are alike and 1 way they are different as an "exit ticket." 

Thanks for stopping by for today's book talk, if you love teaching Fairy Tales as much as I do, this is a must-have for your Fairy Tale collection!
Tune into my blog tomorrow for Whole Brain Wednesday!