You know when you don’t see a person ever in your life and then you meet them and you see them every where?

This is now happening to me with Read Together Books . Read Together Books are those books that the emergent reader can’t yet read independently in their entirety but that they can tackle with the help of a grown up. Sometimes the picture gives just enough support for the child to read the last word in a sentence. Sometimes the book rhymes just enough for the grown up to place their finger under the last word on the page and just  by completing the rhyme, the child has the feeling of “reading” the word. Sometimes, a word is repeated often enough and in isolation that the child can “read” it.

These little confidence boosters can sometimes be all a child needs to push them from the world of the non-reader into that magical world of reading.

My latest discovery is Jump! by Scott M. Fischer. In this story, the emergent reader is helped by rhyme and repetition as animals do their best to escape from their larger friends.

Since reading about Read Together Books, have you found any? Please feel free to comment if you have so I can add to my growing list…

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“Ms. Washington would read to us every day after lunch, and her voice was like ten different musical instruments.  She could make her voice go low and deep and strong like a tuba, or hop, hop, hop quick and light like a flute. When she’d read, her voice wrapped around my head and my heart, and it softened and lightened everything up. It put a pain in my heart that felt good. When she told stories it made me want to tell stories. I wanted to read like her, so that I could have that feeling anytime.”

                                           -Excerpt from Ida B, Katherine Hannigan

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Next week I begin a new series of professional development sessions with a local group of teachers. This group will be transitioning from a whole group basal based method of teaching to a reading and writing workshop. This is a huge change for teachers and I anticipate many questions, concerns and some hesitation among the group.

I hope to show them the picture above as inspiration. Katherine has been to kindergarten seven times so far. She began writing workshop at the end of last week. She now carries a notebook and a marker with her, “just in case”. And she writes.

We were at the playground for an hour yesterday while Caroline had soccer practice on the field next to us. The entire time we were there, Katherine drew and wrote as children climbed over her, examining her creations along their way.

Thanks (in part!) to writer’s workshop, a writer is born…

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I really met Brian Seznick.

And he signed my copy of Wonderstruck.  

And I got the typical silly smile that I get around these authors alerting me that my brain is shut off and I’m missing a great opportunity to ask all sorts of thoughtful and insightful questions. All I could muster was, “I can’t wait to go home and start reading!” I bet he’s never gotten that one before.

He was only signing, not presenting, so the only fun tidbits I got (seeing as I was too nervous to speak) were from conversations that I overheard braver people having with him.

Well, another time perhaps but for now, I have this great picture and a signed copy of yet another gorgeous Selznick book.

Now I really am off to go read…

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I love stumbling upon wonderful books, unknown titles that completely amaze. Last week, when Caroline asked me to read and help settle her ‘first day of school butterflies’, I picked up the closest book I could find.  I had grabbed No One But You off the New Books Shelf at the library drawn to it’s calming cover but knowing nothing about it.

No One But You, written by Douglas Wood and illustrated by P.J. Lynch  highlights all the magical ways each of us uniquely experiences this life.

The text is beautiful with passages like these:

“No one but you can smile just your smile or laugh just your laugh. No one but you can remember your own memories…all the things you’ve done, all the places you’ve been, with all your favorite people. And, of course, no one but you can make your new memories-the ones yet to come.”

And the pictures just go on and on like this…

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Lately,  I have had to prevent myself from saying, “Stop reading and play with  your sister.”

Stop reading? What!?

I have been tempted because Katherine so desperately wants to play with her big sister and because the little sister feels particularly left out when Caroline is reading to herself. I always offer to read to Katherine at times like these but she knows that is different. She wants to be doing exactly what Caroline is doing.

Caroline now spends days at a time reading. And I do mean days. I have felt more grateful than ever before for our fantastically wonderful public library. Without it, I’m not sure we would have any money left. Yesterday, Caroline read five books. Admittedly, she is not reading high brow literature but her reading volume is incredible. I am practicing what I preach and celebrating her love of easy series reading. She is devouring the Babysitter’s Club books faster that I can find them.

As I find myself questioning the quality of her choices, I can’t help but be overjoyed in the amount that she is choosing to read.

Donalyn Miller in her fantastic book, The Book Whisperer quotes Richard McKenna who says,

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”

And there are reams of research supporting McKenna’s statement. I’ve recently been investigating the work in the book  Creating Life Long Readers Through Independent Reading.  Just one study conducted by  J.T. Guthrie in 2004 notes that

“a student in the top 10 percentile reads as much in eight days as a a student in the bottom 10 percentile reads during the entire year! Proficient fourth graders read about 500% more than less proficient ones, and struggling fourth graders needed to read three to five hours daily if they were ever to catch up.”

To that I say, bring on the Babysittter’s Club!

 

 

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Somehow the girls and I  just discovered the wonderful series of Dodsworth books.

In these tales, Dodsworth and his companion,  a clever and funny duck, travel the world from New York to London to Paris and Rome. As we finished the first book, Dodsworth in New  York, I said that we would read Dodsworth in London next.

Katherine began to clap and cheer wildy shouting, “I get to go to London! I get to go to London!”

And this is why I read and read and read to these girls. Who knows where we’ll go next…

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Tension was high before we left the house for the first day of school. Hair was done (three times til perfection), clothes were ironed, bags were packed. I looked nervously at the clock as I realized we were ready way too early.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep the girls and their butterfly filled stomach calm for another half hour.

Suddenly, Caroline said, “Mom, can you read to me?”

Can you think of a better antidote to stress? I can’t and apparently neither can Caroline.

What a wonderful truth to discover…

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Today was the day…

Despite the unrelenting rain, both Caroline and Katherine had wonderful days.

When asked their favorite part of their first day they both said, “The whole thing!”

And when asked what she thought of her kindergarten teacher, Katherine will go on record with the one of the best quotes of the year… “She is more than 100 awesomes!”

Can’t beat that… Happy School!

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I love my girls. A lot.

I also love school and the return to a schedule.

It appears that Caroline may be feeling a bit more of my love for school than for her right now…

As she was going to sleep tonight she said, “I think grown ups invented school so that they didn’t have to take care of their kids during the day. ”

Perhaps some extra hugs are in order tomorrow?

 

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