Getting Students Ready for Summer Reading

I updated my door for summer reading.
It seemed the perfect place to share
professional books, middle grade books,
early chapter books, and picture books.
Of course, we had to have a coming soon section.
There was a lot of excitement over these
"coming soon" titles.

As a classroom teacher, I've always looked forward to our end of year conversations about reading as we reflect on all we have read with an eye toward summer reading.  Each year we spend the last weeks creating posters of our favorite books and characters for the next year's class, reflecting on the reading we've done together (using our class library and Shelfari), discussing books/authors/characters we've loved, and using this information to create lists for summer reading.  In the classroom we've also talked about ways to stay connected across the summer.

This year I have been working with students in first and second grade who need additional reading support in their classrooms.  I still wanted to be able to prepare students for summer reading and have these important end of year conversations, but I knew this year it would have to be different.

Here are a few ways I tried to build summer reading conversations in our school community:

Parent Information Meeting:  To help parents to hear about new book titles, ways to keep their children reading across the summer, and to share other information, I invited parents to school to hear more about summer reading.  The ELL teacher and our media specialist jumped in to help.  We offered two different times for parents in hopes of making it possible for more parents to attend.  Key discussion topics included:  getting kids excited about summer reading, places to find books, ways to connect with other readers, using our reading website for updated information across the summer and strategies for supporting young readers.

Our Summer Hub:  Since going digital, I've kept a hub at Weebly for my classroom.  When I moved to a reading support position, I knew I wanted to continue this.  For summer, I updated the hub, merelyreading.weebly.com, with information for parents and pages for students.  I wanted parents to know how to access these resources so we spent some time going through the site.

Reading Lunch:  Reading lunch has become a popular part of our reading community.  Students I support were able to choose a friend to come to reading lunch to talk about books for summer reading.  We ate lunch, shared titles, and exchanged books.  There was also a prize drawing for students which included books, writing notebooks, and fancy pens/pencils.  We've had several reading lunches across the year.  It's something I hope to continue next year.

Classroom Visits:  During the last few weeks, I have been able to spend time with the classrooms I have been working in this year.  During the time I shared new books students might want to read this summer, talked about our reading hub, campaigned for guest book bloggers for our iRecommend site (let's hope this works), talked up Shelfari and Mystery Shelf, and of course, read a book.  I had to read my current favorite to classes:  My Grandma's a Ninja by Todd Tarpley.

You have to love being able to spend the last days of the school year spreading reading love everywhere you go.

Planning Summer Reading

As part of a continuous collaboration among educators interested in digital learning, Margaret Simon has started a weekly Digital Learning round-up on her blog:  DigiLit Sunday.  I'm joining the event again today.  Stop by Reflections on the Teche to read, discover, and link.

As the school doors close behind me and I look forward to my first steps into summer, Mother Reader's 48 Hour Reading Challenge is always my kickoff event.  This year, "in solidarity of the cause of #WeNeedDiverseBooks, this year's 48 Hour Book Challenge is dedicated to reading, sharing and reviewing books that show diversity in all ways."  As I peruse Google, Shelfari, Goodreads, Pinterest, book reviews, and blogposts, I can't help but marvel at how the way I find books has changed because of the internet.

Digital tools have changed the way I find, plan, purchase, and record books I have read or plan to read. I used to wander the shelves of the bookstore or library to find titles of interest.  Now my list of books I plan to read is filled by readers I connect with via Twitter, suggested titles as I request books from the library, the virtual shelves of friends, publishers' blogs and book trailers, book review posts, and book websites.

This change has seeped into the classroom as well, and this evolution was apparent during the last few weeks of school.  As a class, we started to look at the books we had read across the year on our Shelfari shelf.  We discussed books we loved, books we'd read again and again, as well as books we'd recommend.  Then we began to shift our focus to the books we hoped to read in the summer.  We loved Mo Willems.  Did he have books we hadn't read?  We enjoyed Otis.  Had the author written other titles about this favorite character?  We began to run through the lists of authors, characters, and topics we enjoyed reading as well as those we hoped to begin to discover.  We added books we all agreed might be worth reading to our class "plan to read" Shelfari shelf.

Students then began to make summer reading lists in their "summer spirals."  Students went to Shelfari shelves to find new titles.  They went to author's websites to find new titles.  They read posts by friends on Kidblog to find new reads.  They pulled up our library website and searched for books of interest.  While this isn't the same as holding a book to decide if you plan to read it, it is a first step in making a plan.  Student lists grew across the week as did their excitement for summer.

As students departed on the last day of school with their new summer reading bags, their small summer reading spirals were tucked safely inside.  Digital tools had helped us make a plan for our summer reading.

Here It Is! July's #cyberPD Title!

I know you're wondering about this year's #CyberPD title.  Honestly, for close to 48 hours Jill, Laura and I wondered too.  This was definitely the hardest year to choose a title, but we had so much fun discussing the possibilities.  (I think all three of us have much longer professional reading lists for the summer thanks to all of you!  Amazon loves us!  Oh my!)  We truly hope you are as excited about it as we are.

This year as we looked at the #CyberPD stack posts and tweets we were puzzled.  Most years the title has just jumped out at us, but this year there were so many possibilities.  The initial list had 16 titles that had appeared several times in a variety of stacks.  As Laura Komos (Our Camp Read-a-Lot), Jill Fisch (My Primary Passion), and I talked through the stacks we were impressed with the quality of the choices.  We knew for our 3rd Annual #CyberPD event we wanted a book that would be interesting across grade levels, hadn't already been talked about heavily on Twitter or across blogs, and one that we think would be the basis for a deep discussion that would help us all in the coming year.

After much debate, we chose....


Wait for it....


I know you want to know.....


Sorry, since school has been out I've had a lot of sleep.  It makes me think I might be funny.  (My children think quite differently.)


Here it is...

Our Selection
OK, seriously, we chose Who Owns the Learning by Alan November (@globalearner).  The book first crossed our radar thanks to Lesa Haney of Footprints on the Moon.  The book reappeared here and there as we went through stacks.  The more we considered it, the more we thought it would be the perfect follow-up to last year's discussion about Opening Minds.  I'm excited because the book is available in eReader format!!  Of course, it is available in paperback too.  

July's 3rd Annual #CyberPD
Now for the fun.  In July we will discuss November's book across blogs and on Twitter.  We will read sections and then share our thinking.

#CyberPD Dates and Host Site:

• July 3rd:  Chapters 1 & 2 here at Reflect and Refine
• July 10th:  Chapters 3 & 4 at My Primary Passion
• July 17th:  Chapters 5, 6 & Epilogue at Our Camp Read-a-Lot 
• To by announced:  We will end with a final chat on Twitter.   That date will be announced.  

You can participate in July's #cyberPD event by: 

• Blog Reflection:  If you have a blog you may join us each posting date with your reflection of the chapters read.  Then link your blog to the host blog by leaving a comment and your link.  If you don't have a blog, but have been considering getting started this is the perfect opportunity.
• Blog Commenting:  If you do not have a blog, you are welcome to comment on the host blog to join the conversation.
• Twitter:  You can also participate by commenting any time on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD.  
• Other:  Last year we had people participate using other sites as well.  If you can link, they will come.  :o)  We love a little creativity.  

Past #CyberPD Events

• 2011 #cyberPD:  Conferring:  The Keystone of Reader's Workshop
• 2012 #cyberPD:  Opening Minds
• 2013 #cyberPD:  To Be Announced

Join Us

We hope to see all of you there participating in the discussion.  Past participants will agree the books have always been fabulous, but the conversation always takes it to another level.  As Mindi Rench said on Twitter last night:

Professional Conversations: 3rd Annual #cyberPD

It started a few years ago when Jill Fisch, Laura Komos, and I were comparing all the similar books in our book stacks.  We decided it would be interesting to talk about the books together so we chose a common title, found some willing colleagues, and changed the way we learn --- #cyberPD was born.  Since then we've enjoyed not only the conversations during #cyberPD, but the supportive community it creates that helps us along the way to implement changes.

This year we're excited about our 3rd Annual #cyberPD event that will take place in July.  We're hoping you'll join us, and start today by posting your list of professional books in your "to be read" pile.  We'll look across the lists and choose a title we see often and know will work for a collaborative discussion.

Share Your Stack
Today you can share your summer professional reading stack by:

• taking a picture and tweeting it with the hashtag #cyberPD
• leaving professional titles you plan to read in the comments section on one of our blogs
• writing a post for your blog  
• actually, any way you can get your list to us will help it be considered in our decision making for July's event.  

Follow the hashtag #cyberPD for the book we'll focus our conversation around in July.  

My Stack

I'm afraid to see the stacks of others as I don't need to add one other book to my list.  Looking at the books I hope to read I know it will be nearly impossible to read them all during the summer --- especially if I hope to pause to consider the changes I need to make as a result of new thinking.  I think I'd have to read nearly one a week to get done by the end of summer (and I have a little pleasure reading planned too).  Wish me luck! 

I prefer to read books on my Kindle so I have many e-copies and had to figure out a way to show them.  I decided to build my stack on Shelfari and snap a photo.  

Here's my list:

My Plan to Read Stack

I guess that's my top 10!  This doesn't include the books I hope to revisit like Assessment in Perspective, Math Exchanges, A Place of Wonder, and Opening Minds.  It doesn't include the books I hope to spend time with as I plan such as Teaching Student Center Mathematics, The Common Core Writing Book & Lesson Book, and many nonfiction professional texts.  

Yep, I think I need to prioritize.  That's where all of you come in as I know you'll help guide me to the one I most need to study --- really study.  I know together we'll find the title that I will learn more by chatting with everyone across blogs in July.

July's #cyberPD Event will take place on Wednesdays in July (3, 10, 17).  Stay tuned!  We can't wait!  Hope you're joining us!  

Keeping Kids Connected

This year as we said our goodbyes my hope was to keep us connected across the summer.  I talked with students about keeping our Kidblog site open for them to stop by.  Many of my friends on Twitter participate in "It's Monday.  What Are You Reading?" posts.  Each Monday participants write about the books they are reading.  I thought this might be a great way to help our class to stay connected and learning this summer.

We've been out of school for two weeks.  So far about one third of the students have stopped by to post.  Students have been sharing their favorite books as well as what has been happening in their lives.  One student stopped by to share the news that he finally - after a year of waiting expectantly - lost his first tooth.  Another told us of cookies she helped her mom bake.  Many have talked about their reading and their participation in our library's summer reading program.

I'm hoping to improve the participation in summer blogging by adding my own posts regularly, commenting often, sending updates through our class news site on Shutterfly, and occasional emails to families.  We'll see how it goes!

Opening Minds to #cyberPD

Summer is the perfect time to catch up on summer professional reading.  Over the last few weeks, colleagues have been sharing their stacks of reading.  These posts are getting dangerous for me to read as my stack was already too big.  As I've stopped by blogs (Laura, Jill, Franki, Maria, Nicole, Jaquelyn) I've added more to my "to be read" pile knowing there will never be enough time.  So many books...so little time.

#cyberPD
We are happy to announce our July #cyberPD event.  Twitter has definitely made summer reading a greater learning experience as talking with colleagues about books helps me to think more deeply about ways to put this new learning into practice.  Last year, Laura Komos, Jill Fisch, and I hosted our first #cyberPD event where colleagues from all over talked together about Patrick Allen's:  Conferring (the entire conversation is living here).  The event was such a success, we wanted to host it again this year.  After viewing everyone's professional reading stacks we have decided upon Opening Minds by Peter Johnston.  This book seemed to be on a multitude of lists and is a professional read that would be helpful to educators in a variety of teaching and learning positions.

Opening Minds:   Event Schedule
I know everyone is excited to begin Peter Johnston's new book, but if you can wait until July we'd love to have you join us.  We are dividing the book into three sections.  Each week we will be posting a reflection on our blogs and the host blog will be the place to leave links of other blogs participating in the event.

July 11th  Chapters 1-3  Hosted here at Reflect and Refine
July 18th  Chapters 4-6  Hosted by Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion
July 25th  Chapter 7-9  Hosted by Laura Komos at Camp Read-a-Lot
July 26th  Twitter Chat (time to be announced)

How to Participate

• Blog Reflection:  If you have a blog you may join us each posting date with your reflection of the chapters read.  Then link your blog to the host blog by leaving a comment and your link.  If you don't have a blog, but have been considering getting started this is the perfect opportunity.
• Blog Commenting:  If you do not have a blog, you are welcome to comment on the host blog to join the conversation.
• Twitter:  You can also participate by commenting any time on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberPD.  
• Other:  Last year we had people participate using other sites as well.  If you can link, they will come.  :o)  We love a little creativity.  

Getting the Book

Peter's book is published by Stenhouse.  You can preview the book at their website.  The book is available in hard copy or e-book. (Though I haven't found it in an e-reader version yet that allows you to highlight and annotate.  Please let me know if you discover it somewhere.)  

We look forward to learning with all of you in July.  I hope you'll join us!

Summer Professional Reading #cyberPD

It's hard to believe there are only 5 school days left until the end of the year.  I'm looking forward to some time to reenergize and dig into new learning.  I've already scheduled some summer professional development classes, have made tech plans, and have compiled my summer reading stack.

Today I'm sharing my reading stack along with Laura Komos at Our Camp Read-a-Lot and Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion.  With a break on the horizon the three of us our starting to plan another #cyberPD opportunity.  Last year's event was a great learning experience.

My Professional Reading Stack
This year I likely have an overly ambitious reading stack (my stack last year).  I'm not sure I'll quite make it through all of these, but I'm going to give it a try.

Habits of the Mind, Charles Duhigg
Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
A Place for Wonder, Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough
Number Sense Routines, Jessica Shumway
Talk About Understanding:  Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Comprehension, Ellin Keene
Small Steps, Big Changes:  Eight Essential Practices to Transform Schools Through Mathematics, Chris Confer and Marco Ramirez
I See What You Mean, Steve Moline
Pathways to the Common Core, Calkins, Ehrenworth & Lehman
Visible Learning for Teachers, John Hattie
Investigate the Number System:  Getting Started with Contexts for Learning Mathematics, Catherine Fosnot
Write Like This, Kelly Gallagher
Comprehension Going Forward, Keene et. al

What Are You Reading?
What's in your reading stack?  We'd love to know.  Feel free to post about your reading stack and link it to the comments below.  You can also tweet a picture if you'd prefer using the hashtag #cyberPD.  Laura, Jill, and I will soon be sharing more information about this year's #cyberPD learning opportunity.