Friends,
I just discovered and read an awesome book for teacher librarians. It's called Reading Is Our Business, and the author is Sharon Grimes.
I created this video review to tell you why I love it.
I created this video review to tell you why I love it.
I'm no TV anchorwoman, but I thought that a video would be better than text at capturing my enthusiasm for this book. The author tells you step by step how to incorporate reading comprehension strategies (as in Mosaic of Thought) into your library instruction.
I'm getting ready to start back at the beginning and read through it again. Read it, and let me know what you think!
I think that I'm going to order the book. My county is really pushing research. I would love to make it more meaningful and tied to literature. I wish my teachers would be willing to collaborate more with me.
ReplyDeleteStacey, I know what you mean! Even though we know how important information literacy is for our students, we have to battle the standardized test prep for every minute of their time! It's a challenge. I love the way this author makes research a natural part of the learning process!
ReplyDeleteI totally get the point of the importance of research, but I'm finding it hard to teach students to come up with good questions to ask. Most are not ready to develop their own questions without a lot of guidance. Many feel that they should be able to by 5th Grade. I don't want to forget about the "love of books" aspect of our job. I'm trying to strike a happy balance.
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in trying to set up centers for my library, but it is such a strange shape I'm just not sure how it would all work. It is my goal to be planning to see if it would work out.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. As for centers, you can start with just one, and go from there. I agree that asking questions is a skill our elementary students need to have, and it should be part of their reading comprehension instruction. If they don't get it in the classroom, we need to fill those gaps!
DeleteCari,
ReplyDeleteWould the Kindle edition be okay to purchase or are there forms of any kind to copy? Thanks for your ideas!
That's a good question, Ashley. I'm glad you asked! There are several good single-page forms in the back of the book: Inferring Meaning with Poetry, Most Important Questions, Predictions, 5Ws and an H, Connections, What's the Big Idea, and there's also a 4-page Reading Checklist for assessing student progress. If the Kindle edition is more convenient for you, I don't think it would be too overwhelming to create those forms on your own, looking at the examples in your Kindle edition.
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