Spring/Summer Book Studies 2015 - Check out Your Options

It's that time!  We're planning for our Spring/Summer book studies for 2015, and you can read about the options below.  Then, visit HERE to vote for the book study you would be most interested in attending.  Your response will help us narrow down the titles for our Spring/Summer book studies.

Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst

"Just as rigor does not reside in the barbell but in the act of lifting it, rigor in reading is not an attribute of a text but rather of a reader's behavior-engaged, observant, responsive, questioning, analytical. The close reading strategies in Notice and Note will help you cultivate those critical reading habits that will make your students more attentive, thoughtful, independent readers."
-Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst

From Amazon:  In Notice and Note Kylene Beers and Bob Probst introduce 6 "signposts" that alert readers to significant moments in a work of literature and encourage students to read closely. Learning first to spot these signposts and then to question them, enables readers to explore the text, any text, finding evidence to support their interpretations. In short, these close reading strategies will help your students to notice and note.

In this timely and practical guide Kylene and Bob:

• examine the new emphasis on text-dependent questions, rigor, text complexity, and what it means to be literate in the 21st century
• identify 6 signposts that help readers understand and respond to character development, conflict, point of view, and theme
• provide 6 text-dependent anchor questions that help readers take note and read more closely
• offer 6 Notice and Note model lessons, including text selections and teaching tools, that help you introduce each signpost to your students.

Notice and Note will help create attentive readers who look closely at a text, interpret it responsibly, and reflect on what it means in their lives. It should help them become the responsive, rigorous, independent readers we not only want students to be but know our democracy demands.

Pathways to the Common Core:  Accelerating Achievement by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman

"As challenging as it must have been to write and finesse the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, that accomplishment is nothing compared to the work of teaching in ways that bring all students to these ambitious expectations. The goal is clear. The pathway is not."
-Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman

From Amazon:  The Common Core is written, but the plan for implementing the Common Core is not.  Lucy Calkins and her colleagues at the Reading and Writing Project have helped thousands of educators design their own pathways to the Common Core. Now, with Pathways to the Common Core, they are ready to help you find your way.

Designed for teachers, school leaders, and professional learning communities looking to navigate the gap between their current literacy practices and the ideals of the Common Core, Pathways to the Common Core will help you:

* understand what the standards say, suggest, and what they don't say;
* recognize the guiding principles that underpin the reading and writing standards;
* identify how the Common Core's infrastructure supports a spiraling K-12 literacy curriculum; and
* scrutinize the context in which the CCSS were written and are being unrolled.

In addition to offering an analytical study of the standards, this guide will also help you and your colleagues implement the standards in ways that lift the level of teaching and learning throughout your school. Specifically, it will help you:

* become a more critical consumer of the "standards-based" mandates that are flooding your desk;
* craft instruction that supports students in reading more complex texts, developing higher level
comprehension skills, and writing at the ambitious levels of the CCSS;
* develop performance assessments and other tools to propel Common Core reforms; and
* create systems of continuous improvement that are transparent, collegial, and accountable.

Above all, this book will help you interpret the Common Core as a rallying cry that ignites deep, wide and lasting reforms and, most importantly, accelerates student achievement.

In the Middle:  A Lifetime of Learning About Writing, Reading, and Adolescents by Nancie Atwell

"The third edition of In the Middle is my invitation to English teachers, both veterans and novices, to understand writing and reading from the inside and recognize our potential to influence our students' literacy for a lifetime. Like the two that preceded it, this edition represents my current best set of blueprints for how I build and maintain a writing-reading workshop-the expectations, demonstrations, models, choices, resources, rules and rituals, pieces of advice, words of caution, and ways of thinking, planning, looking, and talking that make it possible for every student to read with understanding and pleasure and aspire to and produce effective writing."

-Nancie Atwell

From Amazon:  With 80 percent new material, In the Middle, Third Edition brings Nancie Atwell's methods up to date. Nancie guides newcomers to a rich, satisfying practice while sharing her latest innovations and refinements with those who have made In the Middle their teaching touchstone.
Grounded in her classroom practice and in response to questions and requests from twenty years of professional development workshops, Nancie provides:

• detailed procedures for organizing the classroom for workshop teaching and a first-week launch sequence
• hundreds of minilessons and reproducibles that make workshop teaching inviting and doable
• hundreds of new pieces of student writing to use as mentor texts-many are national prize winners
• new, detailed genre studies of poetry, memoirs, reviews, essays, reportage, humor and homage, and short fiction
• a new look at writing conferences, including red flags to notice and strategies for responding to them
• techniques for conferring with individuals about the books they're reading
• a revamping of her widely-adopted literary letters as letter-essays that more than satisfy today's standards for critical reading

This is the chronicle of Nancie Atwell's courageous, compelling journey. Just as the second edition documented her evolution from 1987, this book shows how she continues to shape and refine her teaching, based on her perceptions of what students need and her growing knowledge of literature and the craft of writing. As Nancie describes it, "The third edition of In the Middle is everything I've learned over the past three decades that makes writing-reading workshop the only logical way to teach English."

Comprehension Connections:  Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny  McGregor

From Amazon:  Inferring, questioning, determining importance. It's not easy to explain these abstract reading strategies to elementary readers, yet knowing how they work and how to use them is an important first step to connecting with texts. Fortunately Tanny McGregor has developed visual, tangible, everyday lessons that make abstract thinking concrete and that can help every child in your classroom make more effective use of reading comprehension strategies.

Comprehension Connections is a guide to developing children's ability to fully understand texts by making the comprehension process achievable, accessible, and incremental. McGregor's approach sequences stages of learning for each strategy that take students from a fun object lesson to a nuanced and lasting understanding. Her lessons build bridges between the concrete and the abstract by incorporating writing, discussion, song, art, and movement into a web of creative connections that reinforce each strategy on a variety of levels. All the while Comprehension Connections offers an inside look at the dynamic of McGregor's teaching, showing you how her ideas look in action, and including the language she uses and that she encourages her students to use as they build their facility with:

• schema
• inferring
• questioning
• determining importance
• visualizing
• synthesizing.

Many students struggle to understand what it is they are supposed to do as they learn to read strategically. Help them make connections to the ideas behind reading and watch as your readers go deeper into texts than ever before.

Genre Connections:  Lessons to Launch Literacy and Nonfiction Texts by Tanny McGregor

 

"These lessons work. And not just for kids who read well. They also work for kids who struggle in reading, who don't respond to abstract concepts." -Tanny McGregor

From Amazon:  Inside, every kid wants to love reading-sometimes they need our help to see it.  That's where Tanny McGregor's memorable, sensory-driven lessons come in. "The chapters in this book," she writes, "are a collection of ideas about how to launch genres, how to introduce your students to the personalities of each, and how to build a curiosity and appreciation for what each genre has to offer. Use the seed ideas suggested in this volume with a genre of your choice and see how it grows!"

Genre Connections makes learning achievable, accessible, and incremental for all readers-including struggling readers. Tanny's lessons use everyday objects, works of art, music, and her much-loved anchor charts to help readers get acquainted with seven commonly taught genres and to discover what makes them unique.

Her launching sequences gradually release responsibility for learning about text types, and they can be adapted for any genre. They help readers weave creative, sensory threads into a tapestry of understanding by taking them from a fun introductory object lesson to an immersive experience.

Looking for the perfect partner for Tanny's Comprehension Connections? Or for a new way to bring the inner reader out in any student? Let the ideas in Genre Connections inspire you to help your students get to know genres quickly, confidently, and effectively.

Teaching Science With Interactive Notebooks by Kellie Marcarelli

From Amazon:  Interactive notebooks allow students to record observations, reflect on learning, and self-assess their work. Packed with student examples, this detailed guide explains the unique features that make interactive notebooks more effective tools than conventional notebooks for science classrooms. This resource:

• Describes the nuts and bolts of implementing interactive notebooks, including execution, time management, and grading
• Uses the 5E Learning Cycle as the framework for science instruction
• Emphasizes the importance of writing in science and provides strategies for modeling effective writing
• Explores strategies to encourage collaborative student inquiry and foster whole-class discussions

Problem Solving with Math Models by Nicki Newton

From Amazon: Problem Solving with Math Models is an educational tool to help teach the new Common Core State Standards.  This series specifically focuses on Mathematical Practice 1 (Problem Solving) and Mathematical Practice 4 (Modeling).  The books are designed to lead students through the problem solving process by exploring different tools and models.  Each book in the series is framed around the sesignated Common Core State Standards for the grade.  Each section begins with a small number range and increases as the book builds.

Check out Dr. Nicki Newton's math blog, https://guidedmath.wordpress.com/about/.  It's amazing!

Sparking Student Creativity: Practical Ways to Promote Innovating Thinking and Problem Solving by Patti Drapeau

From Amazon: Teaching isn't merely transmitting knowledge to students; it s also about teaching students to approach learning in engaging and unexpected ways. In Sparking Student Creativity: Practical Ways to Promote Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving, author and researcher Patti Drapeau explores and explains research related to creativity and its relevance in today's standards-based, critical thinking focused classroom. The book vividly and comprehensively shows
- How creative lessons can meet and extend the expectations of curriculum standards such as the Common Core State Standards,
- How to incorporate creativity and assessment into daily classroom practices,
- How to develop a 'Creativity Road Map' to guide instruction, and
- How to design lessons that prompt and support creative thinking.

In addition, the book includes 40 grab and go ideas that infuse lesson plans with a spirit of exploration. No matter what grade levels or content areas you teach, Sparking Student Creativity will help you to produce creative lesson components that directly address critical content, target specific standards, and require thoughtful products from students as they grow into independent learners and become successful students and adults.