It's Monday... It's ELA Common Core Day! Tips From The Field

Happy Common Core Monday to you!  Big apologies coming from me - I have been off the radar for a couple of months.  I'm back!  

I had the pleasure of working with exemplary teachers, administrators, interventionists, and student teachers in the Northeast this week.  THANK YOU to the teachers in Albany, Hartford, Boston, Long Island, and Cherry Hill, NJ!  The following tips are their contribution:

• Create a resource web page for your school to share teacher ideas/materials. (Haviland Ave Elem/Audubon Schools)

• Resource: The Decoding Solution: Rime Magic and Fast Success for Struggling Readers by Sharon Zinke (Scholastic)

• Select non-fiction together

• Moo-o.com - record stories and watch animated playback

• Let children use a microphone to read their writings.  They read like professionals!

• www.printablepaper.net - free... tons of paper resources to print

• Use Google Images on Smart Board for student background knowledge (preview first!!)

• Text Talk: Interactive Read Aloud - a vocab-building reading program. Great books. Two of each book - one for teaching, one for your library

• Collaborate with team as often as possible

• Encourage students to talk and discuss

• Read to self with timers/stop watches

• Read to Buddy (improves fluency and expression)

• Center Task Sheets - students check off [their accomplishments] themselves

• Beanie Baby Decoding Strategies

• Samsonsclassroom.com - practice on sight words, spelling, reading

• Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers (Everything is there for you!)

• Pinterest!!!  Having the kids "mirror" my/our objectives

• Recorder Plus. Free APP for modulation in fluency

• Garage Band on i-pad for intonation and fluency

• Time to read

• Story Wheel APP for creating stories and listening to them read back to you

• Talking Carl [Talking Tom, etc] APPs for fluency.  Use for oral reading

• Taxedo.com.  Word spashes like Wordle

• DiscoveryEducation.com. Nonfiction films at various levels.

• PBS - free nonfiction films

• teachingchannel.com

• Farfaria App APP.  The "Netflix" of children's literature at a touch of a button

• Books on tape - "Voice"

• Resource: Comprehension Connections by Tammy McGregor.  Concrete lessons and examples given for inferences, determining importance, etc.  (Highly recommended by 2nd grade teachers at Bristol Hubbell School.)

Read aloud to your students everyday.  And until next time, share a literacy strategy!

Denise Gudwin

Happy New Year - 2013 Thoughts

Mr. Moses lived on the street where I grew up.  From as far back as I can remember, early on New Year's Day each year my mother got up and dressed and let me get up with her so that we were ready and standing in the vestibule when Mr. Moses rang our doorbell.

He got up at dawn, dressed impeccably in a suit and vest and tie and overcoat and dress hat and started at one end of the block, going to each house and ringing the doorbell.  When greeted, he'd take off his hat and step across the threshold just enough so that he was inside. When invited in, he'd decline, saying that he had to keep going but wanted to be sure that the first person who entered our home in the new year brought good tidings and well wishes for all of us. He went to every house, then quietly turned around and walked the length of the long block back to his. It was many, many years later when I'd grown up and moved away that I wondered if there had ever been someone who came to his house to do that for him.

I wish you a year of good health, wholeheartedness, increased commitment, strengthening community, shared laughter, new adventures, continual reward, accelerated compassion, faith, and gratitude.

From a childhood story Mr. Moses by Marian SkottMyhre - As shared with me from my brother, @Rene.

100 Best Ever Teen Novels

After the 100 Books Every Child Should Hear Before Starting School, (posted in August) and then the 100 Best Middle Grade Books posted Oct. 25th, it's time for the 100 Best Ever Teen Novels, thanks to the folks at NPR.  "Should I read to my high school students?" you ask.  YES! Absolutely!

Next week, we'll talk more about read alouds. But in the meantime, here are some of the best for teens - enjoy checking off the ones you've already read, and enjoy looking forward to choose the next one you will read.

100 Best Ever Teen Novels (www.npr.org)

1.Harry Potter Series

2.The Hunger Games Series

3.To Kill a Mockingbird

4.The Fault in Our Stars

5.The Hobbit

6.The Catcher in the Rye

7.The Lord of the Rings

8.Fahrenheit 451

9.Looking for Alaska

10.  The Book Thief

11.  The Giver Series

12.  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series

13.  The Outsiders

14.  Anne of Green Gables Series

15.  His Dark Materials Series

16.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower

17.  The Princess Bride

18.  Lord of the Flies

19.  Divergent Series

20.  Paper Towns

21.  The Mortal Instruments Series

22.  An Abundance of Katherines

23.  Flowers for Algernon

24.  Thirteen Reasons Why

25.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime

26.  Speak

27.  Twilight Series

28.  Uglies Series

29.  The Infernal Devices Series

30.  Tuck Everlasting

31.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

32.  The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series

33.  The Call of the Wild

34.  Will Grayson, Will Grayson

35.  Go Ask Alice

36.  Howl’s Moving Castle

37.  Stargirl

38.  A Separate Peace

39.  Vampire Academy Series

40.  Abhorsen Trilogy

41.  Dune

42.  Discworld/Tiffany Aching Series

43.  My Sister’s Keeper

44.  The Dark Is Rising Sequence

45.  Graceling Series

46.  Forever

47.  Earthsea Series

48.  The Inheritance Cycle

49.  The Princess Diaries Series

50.  Song of the Lioness Series

51.  Treasure Island

52.  Delirium Series

53.  Anna and the French Kiss

54.  Hush, Hush Saga

55.  Little Blue Envelopes

56.  It’s Kind of a Funny Story

57.  The Gemma Doyle Trilogy

58.  Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

59.  The House on Mango Street

60.  Something Wicked This Way Comes

61.  The Chocolate War

62.  Just Listen

63.  A Ring of Endless Light

64.  The Truth About Forever

65.  The Bartimaeus Trilogy

66.  Bloodlines Series

67.  Fallen Series

68.  House of Night Series

69.  I Capture the Castle

70.  Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist

71.  Before I Fall

72.  Unwind

73.  The Last Unicorn

74.  The Maze Runner Series

75.  If I Stay

76.  The Blue Sword

77.  Crank Series

78.  Matched Series

79.  Gallagher Girls Series

80.  The Goose Girl

81.  Daughter of the Lioness/Tricksters Series

82.  I Am the Messenger

83.  The Immortals Series

84.  The Enchanted Forest Chronicles

85.  Chaos Walking Series

86.  Circle of Magic Series

87.  Daughter of Smoke & Bone

88.  Feed

89.  Weetzie Bat Series

90.  Along for the Ride

91.  Confessions of Georgia Nicolson Series

92.  Leviathan Series

93.  The House of the Scorpion

94.  The Chronicles of Chrestomanci

95.  This Lullaby

96.  Gone Series

97.  Shiver Trilogy

98.  The Hero and the Crown

99.  Wintergirls

100.   Betsy-Tacy Books

Read aloud to your students everyday.  And until next time, share a literacy strategy!

Denise Gudwin

Best Middle Grade Books!

After the 100 Books Every Child Should Hear Before Starting School (one of my postings in August), I promised you books for older students.  

Here is my compilation of the BEST Middle Grade Books.  Remember to continue reading aloud to your students, no matter what grade you teach!  Next week, I'll post the Best YA Books - Stay tuned!

Middle Grade Books

Enjoy this list of the best middle grade books.  Read aloud to your students every day, even if it's just a teaser, to get them hooked on the story . 

Best Books of 2011 and 2012: Children’s Middle Grade Books (www.Amazon.com)  and Best Middle Grade and Chapter Books (www.books4yourkids.com) and the Ten Middle Grade Novels I’m Looking Forward To In 2012 (Blog.schoollibraryjournal.com), and Best Middle Grade Fiction (www.granitemedia.org)

1.Okay for Now

2.Something to Hold

3.Wonderstruck

4.Every Thing On It

5.The Son of Neptune

6.Close to Famous

7.The Emerald Atlas

8.The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

9.The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales

10.  Liesl & Po

11.  Breadcrumbs

12.  Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes

13.  Vanished

14.  Wildwood

15.  The Unforgotten Coat

16.  Waiting for the Magic

17.  The Midnight Zoo

18.  A Year Without Autumn

19.  A Talk Dark & Grimm

20.  The Seven Sorcerers

21.  Horton Halfpott

22.  One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street

23.  Lime Pickle Juice on a Cookie

24.  Kat, Incorrigible

25.  Nerd Camp

26.  Small Acts of Amazing Courage

27.  Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Sea, Air, and Land

28.  Giants Beware

29.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again

30.  Merits of Mischief

31.  The Mighty Miss Malone

32.  Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms

33.  Remarkable

34.  The Paradise Trap

35.  The False Prince

36.  Cold Cereal

37.  Lone Bean

38.  Kaspar the Titanic Cat

39.  Illsionolgy

40.  Castle of Shadows

41.  Wonder

42.  The Case of the Deadly Desperados: Western Mysteries

43.  Mr. and Mrs. Bunny – Detectives Extraordinaire!

44.  May B.

45.  Glory Be

46.  The One and Only Ivan

47.  See You at Harry’s

48.  The Prince Who Fell from the Sky

49.  Three Times Lucky

50.  The Crafty Criminals

51.  Chomp

52.  Ruby Redfort Look Into My Eyes

53.  Remarkable

54.  The Great Cake Mystery

55.  The Whole Story of Half a Girl

56.  Never Say Genius

57.  Chained

58.  The Humming Room

59.  The Amazing Adventures of John Smith, Jr., A.K.A. Houdini

60.  Oddfellow’s Orphanage

61.  A Monster Calls

62.  The Unseen Guest

63.  The Edgar Awards

64.  Ten Miles Past Normal

65.  Superfan

66.  One Dog and His Boy

67.  Winterling

68.  The Grave Robber’s Apprentice

69.  Wilma Tenderfoot: The Case of the Frozen Hearts

70.  Fake Mustache

71.  Hidden

72.  29 Clues: The Medusa Plot

73.  13 Gufts

74.  Secrets at Sea

75.  The Flint Heart

76.  Turtle in Paradise

77.  Floors

78.  True (… Sort of)

79.  The Emerald Atlas

80.  Ruby Red

81.  The Lovely Shoes

82.  The Bridge to Never Land

83.  With a Name Like Love

84.  The Cabinet of Earths

85.  Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading

86.  Breaking Stalin’s Nose

87.  Dead End in Norvelt

88.  Moon over Manifest

89.  When You Reach Me

90.  One Dog and His Boy

91.  Like the Willow Tree

92.  Bigger Than a Bread Box

93.  The Visconti House

94.  Zora and Me

95.  Wondenstein: The Creature from My Closet

96.  Pippi Longstocking

97.  The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth

98.  My Name is RachelJunonia

99.  The Other Felix

100.  The Magic Cake Shop

Read aloud to your students today.  It's that important. Even if just for 5 minutes.

Until next time, share a literacy strategy!

Denise Gudwin