I believe in independent reading.
I believe in high quality mini-lessons.
I believe in reading aloud.
Reading a ton of self-selected books every single day, coupled with high quality mini-lessons and read alouds make for a pretty rocking reading environment. I also want to provide my readers with reading events. Events, centered around reading, that rock their 10-year-old worlds. I want my fourth graders to go home at the end of the school day and have something big to tell their parents when asked the question, “What did you do at school today?” I believe that these positive moments that can give the dormant readers an opportunity to allow themselves to fall in love with reading.
At the end of the school year I asked my students to come with a list of their 10 reading events. Our brainstormed list included well over 30 events. They reluctantly narrowed them down to 10.
The list in is chronological order.
1. Darth Paper Strikes Back Party
The day that I got my class list, in early August, I called every single one of my students and invited them to a reading party to celebrate the “Book Birthday” of Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger. I invited all of my students from the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school year. Close to 30 students showed up at the party. It was so much fun. My incoming students got to see: how crazy I am about reading, hear my first book talks, ask my students from the previous year questions, hear book talks done by former fourth graders, and they got to drink Yoda Soda. I feel that this party really set the tone for the school year.
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I hit my students with this “pump up” speech the very first morning of the very first day of the school year.
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On September 27, my students and I celebrated the “book birthday” of Bigger Than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder and Squish 2 by throwing a party complete with chocolate cake for Bread Box (flavor of the cake chosen by Laurel Snyder) and pink lemonade to celebrate Squish (pink because we LOVE Babymouse).
After cake, juice, and booktalks we Skyped with one of the nicest ladies in children’s literature – Laurel Snyder. I was so excited for my students to get an opportunity to chat with Ms. Snyder. After the Skype, Bigger Than a Bread Box was in student readers’ hands for 6 straight months.
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Near the end of September we finish our first chapter book read aloud: Fig Pudding. One of the chapters near the end is called A Steaming Bow of Sadness. This is the chapter where my students first saw me cry while reading. This isn’t as exciting as some of the other moments we shared together, but I think that it sets the tone for year. When students see this old guy cry, they see that reading is serious, powerful, and important. I think that it helps them to emotionally connect with books in a way that they previously did not know was possible.
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5. Author Visit-Michael Scotto
On October 12, my students and I had the pleasure of hosting author Michael Scotto at our school. Mr. Scotto spoke to the third and fourth graders at our school the importance of reading your writing aloud. My students thought they were so cool when they found out that they got to be some of the first students to see the book trailer to Michael’s book, Latasha and the Little Red Tornado.
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My students often clap after a picture book read aloud. It always makes me smile. After I read them aloud Blackout they clapped, and then they started begging me to read it again. They often ask to hear our picture book read alouds a second time, but I could tell that they REALLY wanted this to happen. During the second reading a student stood at the light switch, and when the power goes out in the book he flipped off the lights in the classroom. It created an amazing atmosphere in the room as I read Blackout in the dark. When the power came back on in the book he flipped the lights back on. Rereading Blackout to my readers was so much fun.
7. ALA Awards
I think that it is important that we celebrate books, like normal people celebrate movies, sports, and music. When it was time for the American Library Association to announce the Newbery and Caldecott my class tuned in. We popped popcorn, drank juice boxes, and took a few minutes of our day and watched.
Please understand that I’m not sharing this video to show disrespect to the Caldecott winner. The reason my students reacted the way that they did, is because they fell so madly in love with the other candidates, that they were devastated that “their book” didn’t win. After the awards we read A Ball for Daisy, and they liked it:)
OH NO! I am running out of words. We try to stick to a 1000 word limit on Nerdy Book Club, so I am going to be brief with my last 3 reading events.
8. Linda Urban Visit
Linda Urban visited our classroom? Seriously, the Linda Urban spent two plus hours hanging out and talking with my readers. WOW!
9. Donalyn Miller Visit
Donalyn Miller visited my district to lead professional development for a day. She was there to help us grow. I tried telling my students that, but they decided that Donalyn Miller was their to hang out and talk books with them. They felt like a reading celebrity was coming to visit. They were right.
9 Four-Way Skype
My students were able to connect via Skype with Mr. Schu’s students, Jennifer Holm, and Matthew Holm. It was Babymousetastic!
10. Babymouse Lip Dub
I am out of words. I hope this video, that we filmed at the end of the year, speaks for itself.
YOU are an inspiration, Colby. Wow. I haven’t even had coffee yet, so I’m not at my sharpest (har har) yet, but I’m so moved by your passion for books and teaching.
Thank you, Joanne.
Wonderful and inspiring! I wish every classroom celebrated reading this way.
Fun activities Colby. I bet your students look forward to coming to school every day.
If I could go back to fourth grade….which would some kind or miracle in the making…I think the year was 1958…I would want to be in your class. Despite the fact that there would have been so many fewer books, you would have inspired me to read even more than I was already reading. How truly blessed the kids are who share your space, and see every day your love of books and reading. What a great post….thanks so much!
You brought a few tears with this, Colby. It’s a wonderful piece, & I don’t need more inspiration to read, but you did inspire me over & over. Thank you for all you do for your students! As Sally said above, they are blessed to have you. I love that Babymouse video; kids inspire me, too!
I want to be in your class. So, I will have to do the next best thing: bring a bit of your class to mine. Thank you for sharing so openly through the Nerdy Book Club, Sharpread, and Twitter to make it possible for us to run (we could never just walk calmly after being influenced by your energy) away inspired by your work with readers. I teach 8th grade and I can’t help but think about how lucky the 5th grade teachers are who get your students. They have such a solid foundation on which to build. You simply rock.
Colby – I’m going to keep this brief. I wish you were teaching my sons and across the hall from me.
Katherine
My goal as a teacher is to inspire life long readers….not lifelong worksheet doers. Thank you for this blog! Your ideas help me inspire my students. I love your enthusiasm and the book birthday is a brilliant idea!
Laurie
Chickadee Jubilee
When I grow up, I want to be like you. That’s all.
Love this post- from the belief statements you begin with to the glimpse you give us into your classroom through the stories you shared. Like others wish I could put my children in your classroom. I really believe that as much as I do at home to create a love of books, when it is part of a book rich classroom culture, the power of the joy of reading is even stronger. Keep sharing what you do. We all benefit!
Thank you so much for sharing this. Inspiring to say the least. All best to the kids as they head off into summer and grade five! Hope they find many more reading adventures and teachers as amazing as you, Mr. Sharp.
It’s hard to choose a favorite celebration when they all sound fantastic. What a super list!
Colby, you are a rock star!
Amazing ideas! Thank you for sharing them! Now I want to come back as a fourth grade student and be in your class! You are so inspiring!
This is so great! I feel like all the videos you do are a correspondence course for every fourth grader in the country who doesn’t have you as a teacher.
Wow! This is exactly the sort of experience I wanted for my son when he was in 4th grade last year. Unfortunately, great literature was almost completely snuffed out by test-prep, practice tests and data-driven instruction. So much of our kid’s reading instruction is focused on skills, comprehension questions, summarizing and other assorted worksheets. Food is always a great motivator; when my students and I read “The LIon, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, we all partook of Turkish delight. Tomorrow at book club, we will be eating papaya, coconut and lime salad as we continue reading “Esperanza Rising.” Children improve their reading ability when they read more and students read more when they are actively engaged in reading quality, meaningful literature. Keep up the great work, Mr. Sharp!
Loved taking a peek into your classroom across the year – definitely sharing with my 4thgrade teachers. Reading and writing workshop can be a quiet,independent time but you show how, above all, it’s about building community (sometimes a noisy one!) I bet you’ll be handing out a lot of diplomas when these kids are seniors …
I just read this and watched every video and I had tears running down my cheeks at the end. You have inspired me this summer Colby. I called my principal this morning and requested that I be moved from my current first grade position to the open fourth grade one. I have taught sixth grade before and missed it a lot lately. If I get it I will be scouring your blog for ideas. Thanks for always paying it forward. A life well lived and all that.
Last week I happened upon my new favorite blog (this one, obviously) while searching for the next great read-aloud. Sure, I have my yearly standbys, but I wanted something new and fresh. I loved this post, and the idea of reading events, so I shared it with my class. When I showed them the “Fig Pudding” event they immediately begged to have that as our next read aloud, and cheered when I held it up! I have never read aloud a book that I haven’t already read myself, but decided to trust you. And on Thursday, when we got to chapter 7, my students got to see my genuine emotion as I experienced it with them. Thanks for giving us that; what an amazing book~hilarious and heart-wrenching, just like riding a roller coaster, and just what kids need to see more often! Lots of learning happened that day, not to mention the fact that my class got to see me attempt to read and cry at the same time. You are my new superhero, Mr. Sharp!