Kid Tested ... Teacher Approved! Reading Aloud Some Favorites From This Year #IMWAYR
I spent last Friday morning joining some classrooms to read aloud a few books I fell in LOVE with this summer – what a morning! There is nothing better than reading to kids. Reading for the love of reading. Reading to respond to a story. Reading to grow one’s thinking. Reading to create a community. Thank you, Fisher Elementary School for sharing your students with me!
Here’s what we read together:
I couldn’t love this book more! It is a beautiful personal narrative and a great mentor text for students writing small moment stories. Who hasn’t had a bad hair experience? The illustrations are so expressive, small details in the illustrations add layers of meaning and a few discoveries, and you will be rooting for dad all the way throughout the story. The ending is perfect. You need this book in your collection of mentor texts.
This is a #cbadspotlight book for September. I wanted to experience reading this book with a class in the month of September. This is also a powerful mentor text. These students talked about the turning point in this story and debated what made her decide to share her story. They noticed the close in ending and discussed the author’s message. There are so many entry points to this text, each brings readers together to experience a common theme. Many educators use this book during the first week of school. I liked how it felt reading it five weeks into school. It is not too late – get this book and read it in October!
This is another #cbadspotlight book for September. This is a touching story about appreciating one’s name. Alma learns the significance of her name and finds pride in her story. The mood of the text is carried by the illustrations – I love the calm feeling this story creates. This blog post by Mr. Schu includes an interview with the author. It is a book you will turn to again and again as a read-aloud and mentor text.
If you want to learn more about #cbadspotlight check out Jillian Heise website and follow her on Twitter. I can’t wait to join classrooms to read the #cbadspotlight books for October.
Join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers and share all of the reading you have done over the week and to find out about all of the amazing books the #IMWAYR community has read.
