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Children’s Book Week is this week, May 4-10, 2015!

Children’s Book Week is the annual celebration of children’s books and reading. Established in 1919, it is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country. The program is administered by Every Child a Reader (ECAR) and the Children’s Book Council (CBC) is the anchor sponsor.

In 2014, Official Events — which give kids the opportunity to connect with their favorite authors and illustrators in person — were hosted in all 50 states for the first time in the initiative’s history.

Here is the official 2015 Children’s Book Week Poster by Grace Lee! Grab your copy HERE.

The official poster commemorates the 96th annual celebration of Children’s Book Week (May 4-10, 2015), the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country.

Reading is a daily journey, a ritual to spend time with our favorite authors and with each other. A time to go to places imagined, to meet characters who have become friends or shortly will be. As the book is passed between us, our rolls change from listener to reader and back to listener again.

Family story time should be an illumined hour when the sun is gone and the stars have come out of hiding. It’s not about how quickly we can get through a book or how many accelerated reader points its worth or how well the kids will do on their exams, it’s all about us, the happily ever after reading family.

Creating a Slow Family Reading Moment:

• Try and choose the same time of day for your family reading session. It doesn’t have to be the exact hour just around the same time of day.
• Unplug. No cell phones, TV, instant messages, beepers, buzzers or alarm clocks. Basically anything which makes noise must be off.
• Be comfortable. Wear comfortable clothing.
• Make a cozy environment. Bring out your favorite blankets and pillows. Many people like to have beverages such as hot herbal teas, cider, lemonade etc. For ourselves we also add the element of sitting by the fireplace or fire pit in Autumn through the end of spring and then out onto the screen porch in the summer.
• Choose a book that everyone in the family can understand and enjoy.
• Create a system for choosing who will read next. Sometimes my husband or I will start the reading session and then quietly pass the book onto the next child. At first as your family is young, you will be the primary reader.By slowing down and reading from a place of timelessness and expectations, we create connections to each other. We are enraptured by books that inspire us and our creativity. Though not explicitly, children learn that the love of reading is an enjoyment we all share. There is an old proverb which says :”A fig tree, looking on a fig tree, becomes fruitful.” Children, by participating with their families in reading will grow to love reading for the adventures and insights it holds.

Let’s celebrate Children’s Book Week with a Super Spring Sale! I have two of my most popular books on a super special sale until May18th!

The Waldorf Homeschool Handbook: The Simple Step-by-Step guide to creating a Waldorf-inspired #homeschool. And for a limited time, this best-selling book by Donna Ashton, The Waldorf #Homeschool Handbook is now only $17.95 until May18, 2015 ! http://amzn.to/1OhTfoT

Enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden! A Year in the Secret Garden is a delightful children’s book with over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. AND, it’s on sale for a limited time! Grab your copy ASAP and “meet me in the garden!” http://amzn.to/1DTVnuX

The post Children’s Book Week and a Quickie Lesson on Slow Reading Time appeared first on Jump Into A Book.

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been modeling how to do a close reading at several different grade levels. To close out the series: Close Reading in Fifth Grade using the X level text Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall.

One way to structure close reading questioning is to use the format laid out by the Institute for Learning of the University of Pittsburgh. Under their framework, students read the text selection four times: first, to get the gist; second, to find significant moments or ideas; third, to interpret the ideas in the text; and finally, to analyze the author’s methods (craft). Here’s an example of how to plan out your questions for close reading of the first poem of Under the Mesquite, entitled ”the story of us.”

1st reading (read to get the gist):

• Who is the narrator? What have we learned about her? What can we infer about her so far? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• What is Mami like?  What have we learned about her?  What can we infer about her so far?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• What happened in the first poem?  What was Lupita doing?  What was she looking for? What does she find?  How does Mami react?  What can you infer about their relationship?   Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

2nd reading (read to find significant moments or ideas):

• What is the most important thing you learned or that happened in this section of the text? Why is it significant?  What was the purpose of this poem?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

3rd reading (read to interpret ideas):

• “No, today I am Eve in the garden, / stealing secretos, / mining for knowledge, / hoping for a taste / of the forbidden fruit.”  What is this section of the poem an allusion to?  What does this reference reveal about Lupita and her background?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• Why does Mami keep Lupita’s umbilical cord?  What does it mean to her? What is the cord a symbol of?   What does that tell you about their relationship? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

4th reading (read to analyze the author’s methods/craft):

• How is this text organized? How is it different from other novels you’ve read? How is it similar? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• What is the tone of the piece?  Formal?  Informal?  Serious?  Light? etc.  What effect does the tone have on the way the audience reads the piece?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• What are some of the strongest images Garcia McCall has created so far? How do these images set the mood for the piece?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

By asking students to ground their responses in the text by citing text-based support for their answers, the following Common Core Standard is addressed:

Reading Literature, Grade 5, Key Ideas and Details, Strand 1: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

How does close reading look in your classroom? Any tricks and tips to share?

Further reading:

• What is close reading?
• What does close reading look like in Kindergarten?
• What does close reading look like in First Grade?
• What does close reading look like in Second Grade?
• What does close reading look like in Third Grade?
• What does close reading look like in Fourth Grade?

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been modeling how to do a close reading at several different grade levels. Next up: Close Reading in Fourth Grade using the T level text Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet written and illustrated by Andrea Cheng, out this January!

One way to structure close reading questioning is to use the format laid out by the Institute for Learning of the University of Pittsburgh. Under their framework, students read the text selection four times: first, to get the gist; second, to find significant moments or ideas; third, to interpret the ideas in the text; and finally, to analyze the author’s methods (craft). Here’s an example of how to plan out your questions for close reading of the introduction through the first 13 pages of Etched in Clay:

1st reading (read to get the gist):

• Who is Dr. Abner Landrum? What have we learned about him? What can we infer about him so far? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• Who is Harvey Drake? What have we learned about him? What can we infer about him so far? Who is Amos Landrum? How is Harvey different than Amos? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• Who is Dave? What have we learned about him? What can we infer about him so far? How does he feel about the work he’s been given to do? About being renamed “Dave”? About his first pottery lesson? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• What major events have occurred so far? How much time has passed? During what period in history are the events taking place? How do you know? What do you know about this period in American history that can help your reading of the text? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• What was important to Dr. Abner Landrum? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

2nd reading (read to find significant moments or ideas):

• What is the most important thing you learned or that happened in this section of the text? Why is it significant?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answer. 

3rd reading (read to interpret ideas):

• In the poem “Augusta Auction”, how does the auctioneer view Dave? How does Harvey Drake view Dave? What can you infer about how Harvey Drake feels about slavery? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• On page 7 in the poem “Augusta Auction,” Harvey Drake describes the slaves at auction as follows: “The Negro mothers wail/while their children cling to them/like melons to their vines.” Cheng’s passage serves two purposes, one descriptive and one historical/sociological. Discuss the dual meanings of the image she creates. Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

4th reading (read to analyze the author’s methods/craft):

• How is this text organized? How is it different than other biographical texts or historical fiction you’ve read? How is it similar? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• Who is the audience for this text? Why does Andrea Cheng consistently shift narrator? What effect does this have on how the story is told and how the information is presented? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• What are some of the strongest images Cheng has created so far? How do these images set the mood for the piece? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

By asking students to ground their responses in the text by citing text-based support for their answers, the following Common Core Standard is addressed:

Reading Literature, Grade 4, Key Ideas and Details, Strand 1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

How does close reading look in your classroom? Any tricks and tips to share?

Further reading:

• What is close reading?
• What does close reading look like in Kindergarten?
• What does close reading look like in First Grade?
• What does close reading look like in Second Grade?
• What does close reading look like in Third Grade?

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been modeling how to do a close reading at several different grade levels. Next up: Close Reading in Third Grade using the O level text  Baseball Saved Us by  Ken Mochizuki and illustrated by Dom Lee.

One way to structure close reading questioning is to use the format laid out by the Institute for Learning of the University of Pittsburgh.  Under their framework, students read the text selection four times: first, to get the gist; second, to find significant moments or ideas; third, to interpret the ideas in the text; and finally, to analyze the author’s methods (craft).  Here’s an example of how to plan out your questions for close reading of just the first 8 pages of Baseball Saved Us:

1st reading (read to get the gist): 

• Which characters have we met so far in the story?  What do we know about each character so far? Cite evidence from the text to support your answers.
• Where does the story take place?  In what country?  During what period in history?  How do you know?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answers.
• How did the characters get to the camp?  Why are they there?  What is the purpose of the camp?  What hardships did the main character’s family face at the camp? How is life at the camp similar to or different from life at home? How does life at the camp affect the people in the story?  How do you know? Cite evidence from the text to support your answers.
• Summarize what you have learned about the narrator.  How does he see himself?  How do others view him?  How do you know? Cite evidence from the text to support your answers.

2nd reading (read to find significant moments or ideas): 

• What is the most important thing you learned or that happened in this section of the story? Why is it significant?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answers.

3rd reading (read to interpret ideas):

• The characters in Baseball Saved Us were Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast at a time when the United States was fighting a war with Japan. Do you think it was fair for the government to take them from their homes and make them move into an internment camp? Why do you think the government made this decision?  Do you agree with the decision? What does it mean to be an American?  Do you think the author would agree with you?  Do you think the character of Dad would agree with you? Why or why not?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answers.

4th reading (read to analyze the author’s methods/craft):

• Based on what you have read so far, how do you think author Ken Mochizuki feels about Japanese internment during World War II? How does he want you to feel about internment camps, specifically about the camp in the story?  How do you know?  What details does he choose to include in order to influence the reader?  Cite evidence from the text to support your answers.
• What is the mood of the story so far?  How does illustrator Dom Lee create this mood in his illustrations? Cite evidence from the text to support your answers.

By asking students to ground their responses in the text by citing text-based support for their answers, the following Common Core Standard is addressed:

Reading Literature, Grade 3, Key Ideas and Details, Strand 1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

How does close reading look in your classroom?  Any tricks and tips to share?

Further reading:

• What is close reading?
• What does close reading look like in Kindergarten?
• What does close reading look like in First Grade?
• What does close reading look like in Second Grade?

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.

Before I start discussing close reading in the second grade classroom, I want to take a minute to acknowledge educators and students across the Northeast, who over the past two weeks have dealt with not just superstorm Sandy, but a Nor’easter!  Some schools sustained significant flooding and damage, or have classrooms without heat or power.  And in some areas, even though the children are back in the classrooms, after a long day teachers and students head home to clean and repair damage sustained to their own homes and communities.  And last week, they did that in the wind and snow.  If that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is.  My thoughts are with everyone who continues to be affected by this awful streak of weather.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Over the next several weeks, I’ll be modeling how to do a close reading at several different grade levels.  Last week, I wrote about close reading in first grade. Next up: Close Reading in Second Grade using the L level text  Under the Lemon Moon by  Edith Hope Fine and illustrated by Rene King Moreno.

In terms of student questioning, start general and move up Bloom’s Taxonomy by gradually increasing the rigor.  For example, say you want to focus your close reading of Under the Lemon Moon on author’s craft, specifically focusing on language and word choice in just the first six pages of the story  (2nd grade reading standard for literature, Craft and Structure, strand 4,  AND 2nd grade language standards, Vocabulary Acquisition and Use, strands 4-6 from the Common Core Standards).  Here are the questions I would ask:

Question 1 (Knowledge):  Can you list several examples of onomatopoeia in the story so far?  Why do authors use onomatopoeia?

Question 2 (Comprehension & Analysis):  How would you rephrase the meaning of “mi arbolito”? What clues does the author give you as to the meaning of that phrase?  What language is that phrase?  How do you know?  What clues does the author give you? Why do you think the author chose to include Spanish words and phrases in this story?

Question 3 (Comprehension):  What details does Edith Hope Fine include on the first page to set the scene for the story?  Why does she choose to include these details?

Question 4 (Application):  Edith Hope Fine has chosen strong, specific verbs so far.  For example, on page 5, she uses the strong, specific verb “crooned” instead of the everyday verb “sang.”  What are some other examples of strong, specific verbs that Edith Hope Fine used to describe characters’ actions?

Question 5 (Analysis):  In the beginning of the story, instead of telling us Rosalinda scared the Night Man away, Edith Hope Fine described what Rosalinda and Blanca did that caused the Night Man to cry out and run away.  Can you identify other parts in the story where the author used that same “show not tell” strategy?

Question 6 (Synthesis):  What words or images did the author use to build suspense?  What other words or details would you add to the story to further build suspense?

Question 7 (Evaluation):  Edith Hope Fine chooses to name the stranger in the garden “Night Man.”  Why do you think she made the choice to give him a name? Do you agree with her choice of name?  What would you have called the stranger in the garden if you were writing the story?

Additional questions to ask:

• Make a list of words that were unfamiliar to you before you read this story.  How did you figure out what these words meant?
• Choose the most important sentence from the story so far.  Why did you choose this sentence?  Why do you feel it is so important?
• Choose a word that you learned or particularly liked from the beginning of the story.  Write the meaning of the word in your own words, then draw a picture that shows what the word means.
• Choose a word that best represents the story so far.  Is there a time in your life when this word applied to or was important to you? Is there a time when this word was important in another text you read?
• List some descriptive words Edith Hope Fine uses to set the scene or to show characters thoughts, actions and feelings.
• What techniques did the author use to hook you into the story?  To make the story suspenseful?  To make the writing lively?
• So far, what word best describes Rosalinda? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.
• What words or phrases from the story helped you visualize the story?

What are your favorite questions to ask when doing a close reading focused on author’s craft, language and word choice?

Further reading:

What does close reading look like in First Grade?

What does close reading look like in Kindergarten?

What is close reading?

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be modeling how to do a close reading at several different grade levels.  First up: Close Reading in Kindergarten using the D level text Bedtime Fun by Barbara J. Newkirk and illustrated by Laura Freeman.

In terms of student questioning, start general and move up Bloom’s Taxonomy by gradually increasing the rigor.  For example, say you want to focus your close reading of Bedtime Fun on character development.  Here are the questions I would ask:

Question 1 (Knowledge):  Who is the main character in the story?  Who is the story mostly about?  Who are the other characters in the story? How do you know?

Question 2 (Comprehension): What was the big thing that the entire story was about? How do you know?

Question 3 (Comprehension):  Can you explain what is happening on page 3?  On page 4?  On page 6?  How does the little boy change over the course of the story?  What clues does the illustrator give us that show that the little boy is changing?  How do you know?

Question 4 (Application): What would have happened if the little boy had tried to lay down and go to sleep after page 4?  What makes you think that?

Question 5 (Analysis):  Why do you think the little boy chose to play with his bear, jump on his bed, stand on his head, etc?  What makes you think that?  Make a connection to your own life or to another book you’ve read to support your answer.

Question 6 (Analysis):  How would you describe the little boy?  What is he like?  How does he behave?  How do you know?

Question 7 (Synthesis): Can you think of another thing the little boy could have done so he could stay up later?

Question 8 (Evaluation):  What did you think of the little boy?  Did you agree with the choices he made?  Think about the author.  Did you like the choices she made for the main character?  Did you like the way the author ended the story?  Why or why not?

Additional questions to ask:

• How does the main character remind you of yourself or of a character in another book you’ve read?
• Why do you think the author included Mama and Papa in the story?
• How do you think the little boy probably behaves when it’s time to get up and get ready for school?  What makes you think that?
• What is important to the little boy?  How do you know?
• What did the author do to make the little boy realistic?

Even an 8 page book can serve as the foundation for some rigorous student discussions when read closely!

What are your favorite questions to ask when doing a close reading focused on character development?

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.

One of the most critical elements of the new Common Core Standards is the emphasis placed on close reading. In the anchor standards for reading for grades K-12, the first item under the heading Key Ideas and Details states that students should be able to:

“Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.”  (pages 10, 35, 60)

In the past, some curricula spent a huge amount of time on the accuracy and speed at which a student was able to read, and stopped there.  This emphasis on fluency isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as the teacher recognizes that just because students sound fluent, it doesn’t automatically mean they’ve fully understood what they’ve read.  Making meaning from text is a process and should be explicitly taught during every Read Aloud and Guided Reading.

The Common Core’s mention of close reading shifts the collective focus back to meaning.  It asks teachers to spend time with rigorous, complex texts, reading and rereading a text, moving from the big ideas to paragraphs to sentences to individual word choice, focusing on meaning and craft in a thorough way.  Time is still spent on retelling the story and basic comprehension questions, but the bulk of the discussions focus on meatier topics such as word choice, author’s purpose, character development, mood, etc.  In my opinion, those lessons are incredibly interesting to plan and a lot of fun to teach because the student discussions that result (after sustained practice at this slow, deliberate reading) are really insightful!

But what does close reading look like in practice?  Over the next few weeks, I’m going to walk you through how to do a close reading using several of our titles.  Hopefully this modeling will demystify the process and help you as you plan more Read Alouds centered on close reading!