Reading And A Little Writing

I have come across some good information lately in terms of reading and writing...

First, I found this website, Reading On The Run. I found it because I was looking for more information on The Daily 5. On the website, there is an audio interview, with the sisters, which is awesome.  If you are a Daily 5er you will want to watch this interview! After listening to the sisters, I clicked on an interview with Jim Trelease . In the interview he talks about his book The Read-Aloud Handbook. 

You. Must. Own. This. Book. PERIOD!

I bought it and so far have read the intro, part of the first chapter and skimmed the rest, and it is really, really, really good!! I'm embarrassed I did not know about this book before! Anyway, he talks about ACT scores and their link to reading. He answers questions like, "My son loves comic books is that good or bad?", "If teachers are role models how much should teachers read?" and one chapter title is, "TV, Audio, and Technology: Hurting or Helping Literacy?" At the end of the book, he has compiled a list of read-alouds, short novels ect., their grade level, number of pages, and a summary of the book. This is obviously extremely helpful! The entire book looks amazing. I can't wait to read it cover to cover and will re-read it many times.

Another website I found is Lazy Readers Book Club. The author of this website is a guy who was a reluctant reader as a child but ended up getting his PhD. in education and is a professor in the Teacher Education Department at California State University-Dominguez Hills. He reviews 10 books a month and lists the reviews on his website....according to this website, Google ranked Lazy Readers Book Club #1 for 'cool short book recommendations'. He was also a guest blogger here which is how I found him.

For writing, I found this book...



I started reading it last night. Oh my gosh this book is good!! It's what you'd think...how and why to teach writing with mentor texts. I like it because when you read it you don't feel like you have to change your entire curriculum (or at least wish you could), it just explains more of why a teacher should do what he or she is already (hopefully) doing...if that makes sense...

I have so much more but need to go and be a mom right now :)