best books of 2017-2017

This school year I have finished 22 books! Here's a list of all the books I have finished:

1. Dogman, Dav Pilkey
2. The Outsiders, SE Hinton
3. Ghost, Jason Reynolds
4. The Water Princess, Susan Verde
5. Life, Cynthia Rylant
6. Jabari Jumps, Gaia Cornwall
7. Solo, Kwame Alexander
8. Wishtree, Katherine Applegate
9. Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom, Lynda Blackmon Lowery
10. Refugee, Alan Gratz
11. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, Trevor Noah
12. Inside Out and Back Again, Thanhha Lai
13. After, Anna Todd
14. After We Collided, Anna Todd
15. After We Fell, Anna Todd
16. After Ever Happy, Anna Todd
17. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
18. The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, Langston Hughes
19. One Last Word, Nikki Grimes
20. Love, Hate, and Other Filters, Samira Ahmed
21. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Saenz
22. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

Looking back at the list, I feel super proud that I was able to accomplish all of that. Our goal was 25, but 21 is still great. By reading this books, I was reminded that you can get lost in a book (the After Series by Anna Todd was that!), that sometimes you just need to read something super easy for fun (Dogman), and that sometimes books are written so beautifully, you want to pick out all the little lines and put them all around your home (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe). Here are my top three books from this school year that you should read!

#3 The After Series, by Anna Todd

So these are romance books, and definitely edgier than even YA books. Love stories, drama with a couple of college kids, and the back and forth of the relationship between Tessa and Hardin. She's the good girl, he's the bad boy, and there's all kinds of secrets and drama at play. I'm pretty sure I read all four of these books in December - they were so good all I wanted to do was read in my free time. Books can definitely be even better than the movies or TV; and speaking of, this series is in production for a movie for next year!

#2 Love, Hate, and Other Filters

I loved this book because it told the story of someone so different from me. Maya Aziz is American-born, but she is Indian and Muslim. I was able to learn lots about that culture and religion, and the book is set in Chicago, so I loved to see what train she might be taking or the neighborhoods she was hanging out in. The main character is also REALLY into creating videos, so it was cool to see how she viewed her world through a camera lens. Finally, theres a big theme about not judging people based on their outward appearances. A bombing happens, and immediately, Maya's family is targeted because of their race and religion. That isn't cool, so it's good to live her experiences to see what that might feel like, and to be aware of our own biases we might hold.

#1 Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Best book, hands down. It's the story of Ari and Dante, both high school guys. Ari has never had a friend, and Dante is very social. They meet by accident, and then go on to have this awesome friendship. Eventually Dante comes out of the closet and shares with his family and friends that he is gay, so you have to see how that plays a part in the book. I don't want to give much more away, but read this to be mesmerized by the beautiful language and the tale of friendship. It also shows that boys don't always have to be these tough guys, and shows how we all deal with emotions and feelings differently.

So there you have it. What are you favorite books of this school year? How many have you finished?

winter wonderland blog hop

Hello friends! Welcome to BigTime Literacy and the Reading in a Winter Wonderland Hop! I'm so excited to share with you on this annual tradition, and I hope you like what you find here from me!

Before we get to the good stuff, just a little bit of housekeeping for this link up... The Reading Crew and I decided not to present this as a hop, but as a closed link-up. At the bottom of this post, you can find the maps for both the K-2nd and 3rd-5th bloggers who are participating. That way, you can jump around from blog to blog however you'd like to.

We are giving away two collections of books! Each book that is featured on each blog is part of the collection. So, be sure to collect the mystery words that are listed on each bloggers' page in blue, so then you'll have the opportunity to enter to win the collections of books we're giving away!

In addition to featuring a great book for this time of year, we are also sharing freebies to use with it. Please note: my freebies will only be available for a limited time, so make sure to get a copy before they are changed to a paid product!

So without any further ado, let's get to it!

Enjoy the blog hop and have a wonderful holiday season!

The Legend of the Poinsettia

I have to come clean up front - I picked a great book - The Legend of the Poinsettia - a long time ago. I just love Tomie dePaola's books - the stories are great and I love the illustrations. When I was in the classroom, I used her Legend of the Bluebonnet as part of my Traditional Literature unit, which is what led me to her Legend of the Poinsettia. Well, working last minute like I usually do, I wasn't loving the text I chose - but only because the most obvious reason to use it is for teaching about the genre of Traditional Literature. Unfortunately, I waited too long to switch my text, so I'm delivering some great resources, but they are going to be bigger than the theme of this blog hop. I guess that's okay since you might not even teach a unit on Traditional Literature at this time of year, anyways!

About the book

This book tells the story of how the Poinsettia came to be. This Mexican legend explains how we all came to know this beautiful flower that adorns our homes at Christmastime. The main character, Lucida, and her mother are set to make the blanket for the Christ child, but then when Lucida's mother becomes ill, things don't go as planned. Lucida is left without a gift to give to baby Jesus. In a last minute attempt to bring something, anything, she grabs and arm full of weeds growing outside the church. In a Christmas miracle, they are transformed into the brilliant flowers we today call the Poinsettia.

Teaching with this text

This book would best be used as part of a larger unit on Traditional Literature. My idea would be to have groups of students study the various types of traditional literature: Fables, Fairy Tales, Legends, Myths, and Tall Tales. I would start by talking about the characteristics of all Traditional Literature: 

Then, together in groups, students would be given 3-5 books within that subset to read so they can construct their knowledge of TL. I've created this matrix for students to use as they are reading and studying their books:

I think a Matrix is a better version of a Venn Diagram. What's great about it is that kids compare and contrast within different characteristics, in this case, by characters, the setting, problem and solution, and another category that they can develop themselves. Then, after they complete all the similarities and differences (which Marzano cites as a high-yield strategy for learning) they can then think about generalizations they can make about that subset of TL.

I'm guessing that the research wouldn't end there - students could then go on to research online more books that could fit the genre and also check if their predictions about qualities of the genre are correct. Finally, I'm envisioning it ending with the groups teaching the rest of the class about their subset of TL.

My Freebie

You're going to love my freebie! It includes Traditional Literature Posters, a matrix that matches the posters, and also blackline masters of the matrix that are editable so you can modify them to meet your needs. Additionally, I've complied a brief bibliography of books that could be used to support this unit on Traditional Literature. Please note: this freebie will only be available for the weekend of November 27, 2015!

Well, that's all I have for you today! I hope you've found something helpful here at BigTime Literacy, and if you did, be sure to follow my blog! Don't forget about our giveaway! In case you missed it, my mystery word is poinsettia. You can enter it onto your sheet or into the Rafflecopter below. Good luck and happy holidays!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

flipping for fall blog hop: reading with a writer's eye

Hi and welcome to BigTime Literacy! If this is your first time landing here, I'm Michelle, a Literacy Coach, advocate for Reading and Writing Workshop, and a writer myself. I'm really excited to be joining a group of amazing Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches to share some mentor texts for the fall season!

Do you love fall as much as I do? It's been beautiful here in Chicago - 60's and 70's and sunny even! The leaves aren't falling yet, but I'm excited for that, and cool nights sleeping with the windows open, college football with friends, watching the Bears lose every week (grrr!), and sweaters and boots. I actually moved back to Chicago from Phoenix in 2009 for this season, if that is any indication of how much I love it!

With fall on our minds, each blogger from our tribe, The Reading Crew, has chosen a favorite fall mentor text to share with you. I've chosen is Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant.

In this text, Rylant very thoughtfully and deliberately has described Scarecrow, and so it's the perfect mentor text to study with students who are working on personal narratives or fiction stories, so they can learn to craft characters just like she has. Rylant repeats one thing over and over, how even though the materials used to make Scarecrow are borrowed, it really is all about what is inside that counts.

Close Reading with a Writer's Eye
Many people often think of Close Reading as reading a passage or short text multiple times and annotating it. While those are some of the steps we go through as we close read, I believe it's more about looking through varying lenses to study what the author is saying. In the case of this text, as I kept reading, the word borrowed was repeated over and over, I began close reading to determine the significance of that word, which in the end, led me to theme. I was also looking closely for ways that Rylant revealed the Scarecrow, through his feelings, actions, physical traits, words, and thoughts. What close reading is really about is studying an author's craft and wondering she wrote in the way she did. This lesson, while about writing characters, is also naturally about close reading.

The Freebie!

Now that you have a fabulous recommendation for a Mentor Text, I have created a Characterization freebie for you to take and use with it! In this document, you can find the mini-lesson directions, the complete text of the book to use for close reading and study, a handout to model your anchor chart after, and a handout for students to sketch and rehearse ideas for the characters in their stories. I hope you will find it useful with your students!



If you like what you've read here at BigTime Literacy, be sure to keep in touch, here on the blog, or on any of my social media outlets! I love to collaborate with anyone who engages with my blog!

Did you find my secret word? If you missed it, it was the word in orange: borrowed. Be sure to record that to be eligible for our amazing prize package, copies of all the mentor texts we're sharing! You can find the details for the challenge and prizes on Gay's blog, The Book Units Teacher. Click over there if you want to go back to the beginning of the hop!

But, if you're ready for the next stop on the blog hop, it's time to head over to Pawsitively Teaching and see what Lisa has for you! 

Fall is my most favorite season, hope you enjoy yours this year!      

     

summer blog party: books for 8th grade holocaust study

Hey all! Summer Blog Party is back! Today we're sharing best books for a grade level of our choice, and I bring you my favorites to use for a Holocaust Unit. I know, depressing topic, but I always taught it in October, November, and December, and then we worked on researching causes of interest and doing a community service project as a way to Change the World in the spring. Eighth graders loved it!

A little bit about my old middle school classroom - I had a huge rug, an armchair, and space for 7th and 8th graders to gather and read together. I read them lots - novels, of course, but also picture books. They thought it was odd at first, but then were used to it, and then loved it. Don't think kids are too old to be read to - I am in a Writing Workshop and love when the instructor reads to us, and I'm in my 30's!

Picture Books
Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust (Bunting, Eve)

In this book, the Terrible Things keep coming for groups of animals, and no one ever stands up to save any of the animals. So, one by one, the groups of bunnies, frogs, and birds all get taken away. Great introduction to the unit and also, great way to teach allegory. Also, when looking for the image, I just found this video of the book!

The Butterfly (Polacco, Patricia)

From Amazon: Ever since the Nazis marched into Monique?s small French village, terrorizing it, nothing surprises her, until the night Monique encounters ?the little ghost? sitting at the end of her bed. She turns out to be a girl named Sevrine, who has been hiding from the Nazis in Monique?s basement. Playing after dark, the two become friends, until, in a terrifying moment, they are discovered, sending both of their families into a nighttime flight.

Another great story to orient the kids to the history in a fictional way with characters they can connect to. If you love Polacco, you'll love this book, too!

I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944 (Volavkova, Hana & Havel, Vaclav)

This is a book of poems and drawings composed by children who were relocated to Terezin Concentration Camp. What's cool about the book is that the appendix lists the each poet's fate - whether or not they survived the Holocaust.

Here's how I used it: All kids made a butterfly that was strung from the ceiling. Those represented the child of the poem they were then assigned to study. Pairs of kids would then get a poem and/or drawing to close read. Together, they practiced reading the poem because they would later read it to their classmates, and share their interpretation. After they shared about their poem, I would let them know about the fate of their child. If the child lived, their butterfly remained hanging from the ceiling. If the child perished, we cut the butterfly down (leaving the string) and put the butterfly on a bulletin board. At the end of all the poem presentations, they kids had a good visual of the impact of those who died in the Holocaust. I wish I had pictures of this from the last time I did this....I would love to show you!

Book Clubs
For our book clubs, kids got to choose between these novels:

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

It's a classic, and I think all eighth graders should read it, but your students definitely have to have the stamina and background knowledge for it. Last time I taught this, the kids really liked it, and a good part of that was because they had the structures of book clubs to support them through the novel!

Night (Wiesel, Elie)

From Amazon: Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man.

This is not my favorite - I didn't like reading it at home at night when I read it, but there will definitely be some groups of kids who might like to try it. Again, the thing with these books are the structures set in place so kids can talk authentically about the books they are reading. That will be a post for another day, but this is one you should have for your above-level and mature readers.


Number the Stars (Lowry, Lois)

From Amazon: As the German troops begin their campaign to "relocate" all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen’s family takes in Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family.

Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.

This title is one we had available for our below average readers. I'm kind of embarrassed to tell you that I haven't read it, and I'm sitting here thinking about one of the other literacy coaches in my district who finished it recently and raved about it. Must add to my list for the summer! My kids who read it really liked it!

Maus (Spiegelman, Art)

From Amazon: A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.

Another I haven't read, and didn't even have available for kids, but if I ever go back, I'd grab a set of these! Graphic novel and has another book in the series, very appealing to kids!

So what about you? Have some great books to share for your grade level or content area? Please, write up a post and link up with us!

family writing project

Looking for a great new way to engage families in school? I have just the thing for you.... Family Writing Project!

Family Writing Project (FWP) is a Writer's Workshop for students and their families that is after school. Families meet their kiddos at school at 3:00 and for an hour and a half we build a community of writers that listens to stories and then publishes their own. We spend five sessions together as writers, and then one as published authors at an Author's Chair.

Our PTA was amazing and provided snacks for each of the first five sessions and then at the Author's Chair, families all brought something to share. As you can see, we had quite the spread for our celebration!

But before we get to the Author's Chair, let me just share about the writing we did preparing for the celebration...

Session 1: In My Family

During our first session, I shared this book, which is written in Spanish and English. I asked one of the parents to read the Spanish text with me as I read the English. This book shared all kinds of traditions that families had and then our participants were prompted to write about their family traditions.

Session 2: My Map Book

During session 2, we began with a "Mix and Mingle" for families to get to know one another better by talking about get-to-know-you questions. Then, I shared My Map Book (Sarah Fanelli), which details all kinds of maps: map of my bedroom, my pet, my neighborhood, my heart. Then, families could make their own map and write from that. A few participants shared their heart maps in our final collection of work!

Session 3: Culture Bags

At the end of session 2, everyone was given a brown paper bag to fill with their prized possessions. These were brought back to session 3 as their Culture Bags. These bags were full of special mementos - art projects, coins, ribbons, pictures, stuffed animals, etc. We met in small groups to share our favorite items and then wrote the stories of these objects!

Session 4: Poetry

In session four, I shared a bunch of poetry, including a "Do Now" of writing a family acrostic poem. I read from Gary Soto's Neighborhood Odes and Ralph Fletcher's A Writing Kind of Day. This poetry was pretty popular...one of our second grade students wrote an ode and a few other kiddos also wrote poetry!

Session 5: The Relatives Came

In our fifth session, we began by making family trees and then I read from Cynthia Rylant's The Relatives Came. Families were encouraged to think of stories about the people on their family tree and then write those. 

Session 6: Author's Chair Celebration

Prior to the sixth session, families had to submit their final piece (either typed, written, or drawn) and I put together a book with everyone's work:

Then, each family came up to the Author's Chairs and read their work to the group. Each family was given a copy of the book as a keepsake and so while participants were reading, the audience followed along.

We shared great food, great stories, and voices in two languages. It really was so so special!

Looking back through my (limited) pictures, I realize that I have more videos than I thought. I can't wait to share these with you, so as soon as the surveys come back from the families, I'll be sure and share their thoughts and the videos of our event!

Have you ever run a Family Writing Project? Please tell me about yours! I'm so thankful for my friend Tracey for coaching me through this amazing experience!

Happy Friday!

black friday giveaway!

Hello friends! Happy Black Friday! I am not a fan of waking up in the middle of the night to go shopping, and honestly, it really bothers me that stores are opening up on Thanksgiving to make money. Can't we just have one whole day for family and friends?

I'm here because I'd like to give away a few copies of my new product on TpT! My most recent product on TpT are my Writing Process Posters. I love teaching the wring process to kids and have great ideas to share with you in this product!

So what you get in this product are the posters above for each of the six stages of writing: rehearsal, writing, receive the piece, revision, editing, and publishing. I've also included one page for each of the six stages that explains the stage and gives some suggestions for teaching it.

For example, on the sheet that goes with Rehearsal, I give a few tips for teaching at this stage: writing from literature, heart mapping, writing from a list, and the neighborhood map. Let me share even a bit more on writing from literature...

This is the easiest strategy to get kids to write "seeds" in their writer's notebooks. You read a picture book to students and then have them write from ideas that were built on that story. One book I always use is Fireflies by Brinkloe. I begin my workshop each year with this book - a book about the summertime tradition of catching fireflies. After I read the story to kids, I ask them, "So who catches fireflies in the summer? What other summer activities do you do?" We create a shared list, and then kids can write about any of the ideas from the list (or any other idea they would like to, as long as everyone writes in the genre assigned).

Some other books I use when doing memoir rehearsal with students:

Julius the Baby of the World - Students share stories of their siblings after hearing this story.

Amos and Boris - and stories of friendship with this one!

The Relatives Came - Students share stories of extended family after this story.

Courage - Times of great courage will be written about after this one

Owl Moon - and stories of special traditions will come from Owl Moon

If you're interested in any of these activities to teach the Writing Process, jump in my giveaway - I will select three winners to receive a copy of this product! To enter, you simply need follow me on Facebook - find all those details in the Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That's all for me today! Enjoy your time off with family and friends!

a harvest of freebies blog hop: plot problems

Hello and welcome to BigTime Literacy! I'm Michelle and I'm so excited be be working alongside some amazing Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches for this fall-themed blog hop!

So teaching plot is something we all do - I taught it in middle school and now, as a Literacy Coach, I see teachers across the elementary school teaching it in various forms: Beginning, Middle, and End in the younger grades, and then with the same plot line I used in middle school in the intermediate grades!

When I first started teaching, I ran into a few roadblocks with the plot structure. First, the rising action. Kids wanted to list *ALL* events of the story on the rising action. I didn't know how to stop this! I knew there had to be a better way....and then I find, there is!

Another problem was determining the climax. When I began teaching, I always would say that the climax was the "most exciting part" of the story. Well - one kid's most exciting part does not always equal another's. I knew there had to be an answer to this  burning plot predicament, and when I came across this book, I had found it!

Grand Conversations (Peterson & Eeds) is a great book about authentic book clubs that work with fiction texts, including great tips for teaching plot (that I'm about to share with you here!) I highly recommend this book if you are interested in book clubs!

Here are two quick tips for teaching plot with your kiddos - young or older!

Rising Action: Points of Tension

When you think of the rising action and what should be put on that list and what should be left off, think about tension. Any event that causes the conflict to become more intense, that's tension, and that should be added to the rising action. If the event causes tension, add it to your plot diagram. If the event doesn't cause tension, leave it off.

Climax: The Turning Point

Telling kids that the climax is the most exciting part of the story simply does not work. Instead, teach it as the turning point, or the part of the story when the conflict is no longer a conflict. It's the moment in the story that makes the conflict cease to exist. It might be a line of dialog or a characters inner monologue. It might be a fight or a handshake. Whatever it is, if it turns the conflict, it's the climax.

Maybe I was just late to the game, but these two pointers really helped me focus my instruction on the plot structure for fiction text. Hopefully they are new to some of you out there as well!

Before I get to my freebie, I also wanted to share a great read aloud for kids young and old: The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey:

This book, written by the same author as the Captain Underpants series, is a cute story about a little wiener dog named Oscar who doesn't want to hurt his mom's feelings when she wants him to dress up as a hot dog for Halloween. Filled with tons of plays on words (a wiener dog named Oscar, anyone?) and super cute drawings, this book will make you laugh and also share a great message.

I've read this book to kinders and to 7th graders and they all love it. The older kids can easily do a plot structure on this book, and, with the two tips I shared with you today, it will be a breeze!

Download my freebie - a spiffy-clean plot diagram - to use with this text or any of your choice!

Aaaannnnndddd.... if you like what you've read here, be sure to follow me on Bloglovin!

Now it's time to head on over to Comprehension Connection to hear about another great freebie from my friend, Carla!

In the rush to get everything done in your classroom this month, don't forget to slow down and enjoy all the splendor of the season:  the leaves changing colors, the crisp air, and an abundance of Pumpkin Spice Lattes!

Happy fall!