March Slice of Life Day One...Here I Go!

I know this is supposed to be a blog about reading.  But for most readers I know, reading leads to writing.  Today, I was reading a post from a blog I follow, "The Reading Zone", written by a language arts teacher named Sarah, who is participating in the Slice of Life writing challenge.  It's issued by a pair of writing teachers who blog at "Two Writing Teachers".  The challenge is to write a slice of life outside of the classroom to share each day during March.  I'm going to do my best to rise to the challenge!

I had another challenge today after work, and that was shopping for yarn.  I presently have several colleagues expecting babies in the next few months, and I really like to crochet baby blankets for them.  Our counselor has chosen a really pretty nursery pattern for her baby girl--large flowers in a palette of light butter yellow, cream, and gray.  

I'm pretty picky about choosing yarn for my baby projects.  It has to be soft, and it has to be completely machine washable and dry-able; my blankets are meant to be used, not folded up as an heirloom in a drawer!  With this particular project, I have my heart set on making these really pretty flower granny squares, using all three colors to make the blanket.

And there was the problem.  Ideally, you'd want to use the same brand and style of yarn throughout the project.  But I could not find the right yellow, cream, and gray combination in any one brand!  It took me a half hour to finally decide on the yellow from one, and the cream and gray from another.  They are all acrylic and the same weight, so I'm hoping it works out.  Fingers crossed!

Blog forward: Literacy, families and learning: Why Older Readers Should Read Picture Books

I've always felt that children get steered away from reading picture books far too early; that's one reason I still have them on my shelves at home, even though my own children are teens.  Here's one blogger who states the need for picture books in more detail:

Literacy, families and learning: Why Older Readers Should Read Picture Books: I have often observed how keen some parents and teachers can be to move their children's reading on from picture books to chapter books. M...

A Wordle, crocheting, and struggling readers

What fun!  I created a Wordle today by just putting in the URL to this blog.  I like the way "book" and "reading" are the largest words.  I've done Wordles in the past, but it's been awhile since I played with words using this website.  It's a great way to highlight key ideas from your reading, or even to practice spelling words.

I have to admit, I did not read as much as I would have liked this weekend--unless reading a crocheting pattern counts.  Crochet patterns have a language all their own--sc for single crochet, dc for double crochet, ch for chain, cl for cluster...I remember how it felt when I was first learning to crochet, trying to figure out the abbreviations and constantly looking back at my beginning crochet books for reminders of the stitches.  I still struggle with patterns at the intermediate level, and haven't even attempted those at the experienced level.

My difficulty with complicated crochet patterns reminds me of the difficulties struggling readers have with text.  English is a hard language to read:  sh makes a totally different sound than s and h by themselves, vowels sound differently depending on their neighbors, words can have different meanings depending on the context.  There's not always a cheat sheet to fall back on like my crochet manuals; we're just expected to remember all these complicated sounds and rules and language.  Seen through this lens, reading is truly a magnificent skill to master; is it any wonder that some students struggle in their pursuit to find meaning in marks on a page?

My school has invested a lot of time and money in training teachers to help students learn to read.  I've got a lot of tools at my disposal; now I just need to remember the persistence, and patience I've allowed myself in learning to crochet, and have that same persistent patience with my own students.  With crocheting, I've opened the door to wonderful patterns, gifts, and a soothing, relaxing hobby.  With reading, I hope my students gain mastery of the patterns in words and language, discover the gifts in stories and books, and realize that decoding text can become soothing and fun, not just lessons in my classroom.

Writing from my classroom!

We are in writing mode at this moment in my classroom, so it's the perfect opportunity for me to do my writing as well!  We have settled back into our routines after our winter break; that means reading and read-aloud time with my students.  This week, we were very excited to find out that one of our favorite books, This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen, won the Caldecott Award!  The Caldecott is given for the best illustrations in a children's book, and we agree that this book deserved the award.  If you haven't read this book yet, or Klassen's first solo book, Where Is My Hat?, then run to your library or bookstore and check them out!

Other books that my students are really enjoying are The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz, illustrated by Dan Santat, and Mo Willem's Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs.  We are continuing to read Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King as a read-aloud; that will take us quite awhile to get through.  At home, I am finishing up Wonder by R.J. Palacio, and getting ready to read several more books (that I can't list right now, because they're sitting at home, part of my Mt. Everest of to-read books!).  My goal for this weekend is to sit and read at least an hour a day...which is hard for me to do, when household chores, activities with my family, and crocheting projects are in need of my time.  But I'm going to do my best to get some reading done; let me know if you are able to do the same this weekend!  Happy reading!

Book coma, Christmas, and more

 It has been FOREVER since my last post!  Yes, I exaggerate...and I'd like to think that the delay in posting is strictly due to busy-ness in my life.  Alas, it was also due to a lack of in-depth reading.  I can only post so much on my everyday reading of emails, teacher manuals, workshop materials, professional books, comics, and classroom read-alouds without the fear of boring my band of intrepid followers to Snoozeville.  But wait, there is news....

I HAVE READ A BOOK!!!  An actual book, full-length, no pictures, more than 32 pages.  My original plan was to read this book over the course of three days, getting other tasks on my vacation to-do list done as well.  And then it happened.  By page three, I was sucked in, only to find myself turning the last, 313th page, with a sigh--six hours later.  Cooking not started, laundry left undone, crocheting untouched. I had once again fallen into a book coma.  Readers, you know what it's like, right, to have the opportunity to get enmeshed so deeply in a story that all else falls away?  I did that so often growing up, before housekeeping and job and children-related tasks ate up most of my waking hours.  But today, on winter break, with the chicken still defrosting and the teen children minding their own business, I was able to blissfully enter the world of....

John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.  I bought the book awhile back, after reading other novels by Green for Young Adult Lit in grad school.  And there it sat, on my coffee table, gathering dust and getting buried in other book purchases, until an email popped up in my inbox, asking for volunteers to read it for an SHSU book study involving book formats.  I quickly signed up for the "print group" (as opposed to the ebook and audio groups), and set my goal for vacation reading.  So today, I sat down, and six hours later, this is what I posted on the Edmodo group for the study:  

" I love love love John Green's writing! For me, it wasn't even the type of story in which I anxiously awaited the next page; I just got sucked into this world, and didn't want to leave, no matter how sad or tragic. There was just too much love, humor, compassion, and optimism--even wrapped in teenage witticisms--for me to want to let go."

Okay, so there you have my review.  I know The Fault in Our Stars has moved many readers to tears, so I'm putting it out there in case you're interested and don't like being blindsided.  While I had some "oh" and "awwww" and teary-eyed moments, the hope and wisdom I got out of almost every page just wouldn't let me wallow in the sadness that also pervades the story.

No more about that; don't want to give too much away!  So on to the books that were found under our tree this Christmas.  Santa brought two books to my children:  Santa Calls, by William Joyce, and Hercule Poirot's Christmas:  A Holiday Mystery by Agatha Christie.  My son found the cutest board book with an owl finger puppet attached, to add to my owl collection, and he gave his sister a book on Japanese idol statues (they're both fans of anime, and she's studying Japanese in college).    And I'm pretty sure most of us have gift cards to bookstores burning holes in our pockets right now!  It just wouldn't be Christmas without new books.  :-)

My latest read, both for read-aloud at work and for my own pleasure at home, is Laura Geringer and William Joyce's Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, part of the series on which this season's "Rise of the Guardians" movie is based.  I'm hoping to get it done before winter break is over.  If not, I'll find out what happens along with my fourth grade group at work.  I can at least be satisfied that I read at least one book over the holidays!

Happy Holidays, and here's hoping there were books as gifts for you this season!

An apology, and reading beyond the book

I realize it has been OVER A MONTH since I've posted anything on this blog!  I apologize to anyone who has wandered over this link as of late.  In my defense, I have been blogging on my professional website, www.ChristineMargocs.weebly.com .  I've also moved my eldest into college five hours up the road, seen my youngest start his last year of middle school, and somehow managed to work about fifty hours a week at my paying job.  It's been a busy time in our household!

Needless to say, reading longer texts has gone by the wayside, as I tend to nod off not long after my head hits the pillow at night.  What I have been reading: articles and notes from the facilitator of my online learning, professional and personal interest magazines, picture books and a chapter book with my students, teacher manuals, emails, Facebook  and Twitter and blog posts, beginning-of-school-year parent forms, and catalogs.  In the educational field, we refer to this as "environmental text"--stuff we have to read to get by, get informed, get connected.  If there are parents reading this post, please do not ignore this type of reading with your children!  It is an essential life skill; after all, we want them to know how to take their medicine, which bathroom to go to, and whether they should push or pull on a door.  And if there are students reading this, know that reading occurs EVERYWHERE!  It can be the words on your favorite bag of snacks, the directions on your video game, the scrolling announcements on your classroom TV.

Just for today, think about all the ways we read beyond a book...and remember to thank a teacher or parent who helped you figure out what all those letters and words mean.  Oh, and please, ask your librarian about Banned Books Week; one of your favorites may be on that list!  Take another moment to think about the importance of being able to read whatever you want, and why that matters in our democratic society.  Hopefully there will be some book discussion in my next post!




Door image courtesy of Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Freedom image from http://www.stabenow.com/2012/09/30/it-is-banned-books-week-in-america 

Avoiding the inevitable by reading just a little more...

I am a teacher.  At this time of the year, I should be going in before my work calendar officially starts, like all my good teacher friends are, and setting up my classroom.  I should be shopping in teacher supply stores, and finishing up last-minute summer projects at home. But what am I doing instead?  READING, of course!  (To be fair, I did accomplish some online teacher stuff shopping this morning.  But back to the reading part...)

My college-bound daughter had a dorm-room preview day last weekend, and so the whole family loaded up in the car on Friday for the five-hour trip.  Luckily, my neighbor had loaned me John Dunning's The Bookman's Promise, a "Cliff Janeway Book".  I needed another "grownup book" in my repertoire for this summer, so I brought it along for the ride.  I was unfamiliar with Dunning's work, but I have to say, this was a nice introduction!  Janeway is a cop-turned-bookhunter/ bookseller, and in this novel, he makes a promise to an old woman on her deathbed to find the books she believes were stolen from her family.  I'm not schooled in the ways of bookhunting (but obviously, I like books!), so the glimpses into the world of rare and antique book markets were interesting.  There was a historical section that I ended up skimming through because the pacing was a bit slow for me, but the main storyline moved along nicely and had some unexpected twists and turns.  A little romance, a lot of mystery, and some cop drama made for a good read that I finished by the time we got home.

Another Amazon box arrived today, this one containing Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (a fellow Austinite!), Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire (a graphic novel), and the hardback edition of the Academy Award-winning animated short, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.  I can't wait to read Ready Player One along with my teen son, who is really into his video games.  It's also a fantasy/scifi book, which is up my alley--finally, a book we can both appreciate!  The Fantastic Flying Books... short was just so great when I shared it with my students last year, that I just had to be able to hold it in my hands as well.  

I got Underwater Welder on a whim, and read it in one sitting (okay, I was really lying on the couch).  It's a belated coming-of-age story about a 33-year-old  underwater welder who is expecting his first child with his wife.  This major life event, coupled with the upcoming Halloween holiday, is enough to trigger a Twilight Zone-type experience in which he has to deal with ghosts from his past--mainly, his deadbeat alcoholic father.  The pictures truly tell the story, with only minimal precise wording to focus on the feelings of the characters.  A good "guy read" for late middle school on up--younger readers might not have the background to truly "get" the story and its delivery.

So now there's another book on my growing to-read pile.  Hoping that since grad school is now out of the way, I'll get a bit more reading done outside of the classroom this year!