My fellow book lovers, I have a confession to make. I am failing and I am failing miserably. I am not sure how this happened, and I don’t think I have ever felt more ashamed, but I have a “resistant” reader in my house. I know what all the research says, and I have spent […]
June
29
Top Ten Picture Books According to Fourth Graders by Kim Haines
posted by CBethM
For the past two school years, I have embarked on the #classroombookaday challenge. Each and every day of the school year, my fourth grade class reads a picture book, sometimes two, and we end the year having read 180 titles together as a community. I engage in this daily practice for many reasons. Provide mentor […]
June
24
20,000 Pennies: How a Book Club Transformed our School Community by Sarah FitzHenry
posted by CBethM
I stood in the middle of the room and listened to the sound of more than 20,000 pennies clinking and jingling around me. To my left, a fourth grade student helped her first grade buddy to count the nickels held in her sweaty palm (they had to start over after losing count at 12). To […]
June
22
Claire’s Day: Celebrating Young Readers by Julie K. Rubini
posted by CBethM
“Thank you for all you do,” the father said, with tears in his eyes. “You don’t understand what this award means to my daughter. She’s had it on her calendar for a month, crossing off the days counting down to Claire’s Day.” Nearly nineteen years ago, my ten-year-old daughter, Claire, gave me “just one more […]
June
20
Five Reasons to Add Patron Saints of Nothing to Your High School Curriculum by Oona Marie Abrams
posted by CBethM
Last November, I had the opportunity to meet Randy Ribay at NCTE in Houston, where I received a signed copy of his novel After the Shot Drops. Ironically, I haven’t gotten my hands on the book for several months, because it is constantly checked out of my classroom library. Recently, though, I received several advance […]
June
18
SEEK THE TRUTH, BUT GIVE IT TIME by Ammi-Joan Paquette
posted by CBethM
When Laurie Ann Thompson and I do school visit presentations based on our TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE book series, one of the things we like to start with is reading our author bios, as printed in the first book in the series, Two Truths and a Lie: It’s Alive! Each of us included three […]
June
17
“I Like Your Hair Better Down”: An Examination of YA Male Protagonists and Their Obsession With The Way Females Wear Their Hair by Janine Quimby
posted by CBethM
In the second half of the Victorian dramatic monologue “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning, the speaker of the poem, allegedly so overcome with Porphyria’s goodness and virginal beauty (and thus wanting to prevent her from spoiling her innocence), commits the following act: “A thing to do, and all her hair/ In one long yellow string […]
June
15
Dog Man to The Rescue: How Book Access Saved My Third Grade Student by Renee Bowman
posted by CBethM
Teachers, you already know the student I am about to describe. The one who arrives halfway through the year from out of state, with a mother unsure of which grade her son was in just last week. The 9 year-old who carries a chip on his shoulder as if he were 29. The third grader […]
June
11
Book Clutchers by Megan Frazer Blakemore
posted by CBethM
At the beginning of the school year, in preparation for an upcoming book club, I had the book York: The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby on display at the circulation desk. One of my fifth graders passed by and gave the book a gentle pat. Another child gave a Mercy Watson book a squeeze before […]
June
10
Why the School Nurse’s Office Should Have a Well-Stocked Library by Melissa McDonald and Melanie Roy
posted by CBethM
Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele wrote “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Being a school nurse teacher I deeply believe in this quote. My mother instilled in me a deep love of reading. Growing up I witnessed her donate countless books to projects and children in need. When I […]
