Summer Reading

We wrote about some of the ways we set students up for summer reading a few years ago, and I still am not a fan of forced or assigned reading. There is research that reading logs actually reduce students’ motivation to read and negatively affect their attitudes toward reading. And honestly, they are just annoying! Imagine having to log how long you read and how many pages you read when you are reading before bed to relax. This applies to summer reading as well. Assigning a book or list of books students must read takes the joy out of reading. It’s much better to give them freedom and encouragement to find something they want to read and (hopefully) enjoy it!

This has been a long, hard year for teachers, so it’s also really important that you find your own summer reading that is rejuvenating! When everything feels out of my control, I find detective novels or mysteries help me escape into another world and provide a solution that I can try to figure out or guess, but am not at all responsible for. Your summer reading does not have to be books about teaching or really anything “productive.” Just find something that you’re excited to read.

That should be your assignment for your students as well. We try to give customized, thoughtful book recommendations and get students into series through recommendations, book clubs, read alouds, and more. We also try to provide opportunities for students to review or share their thoughts on books in ways that are fun and genuine. When we taught 5th grade, we used Goodreads for this and it was really great as well as being on the computer so students loved using it. You can read more about how we introduced Goodreads to our students here. However, for younger students, we give opportunities to share book reviews, recommend books to each other, and create “shelfies” (see cover photo)! We drew our shelfies using this linked template, but students could also take pictures of themselves with books they enjoyed over the summer and share them with their teachers in the fall. 

Some do’s and don’ts that I’ve learned over the years are: definitely encourage public library use, have students think about their own reading goals and routines for the summer, and model and promote excitement around books, book reviews and recommendations, and reading all year long. Remember that listening to audiobooks is another way to read and a lovely way for a family or group of people to enjoy a book together. Avoid telling students they need to read books at a certain level or a certain number of books. If parents ask about summer reading, tell them to help students to find books they enjoy and make reading part of their daily routine (for example, reading before bed or reading after dinner) as a family, whether that means listening to an audiobook, reading aloud, or reading independently.. Remember that librarians are magic and always have amazing, customized book recommendations. 

Happy almost summer!

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March Book Madness

Happy March! I usually find there is so much to look forward to this month: spring, Women’s History Month, spring break (at my school at least), more sun, and MARCH BOOK MADNESS! March Book Madness is exactly what it sounds like. It is March Madness, but for books! There are 3 categories: picture books, middle grade books, and young adult books. Each gets its own bracket and anyone can vote on the website for each round. They start with 16 books (“Sweet 16”) and have “games” between two books and slowly go through rounds until we reach the championship. 

When I taught 5th grade, we followed the middle grade bracket, and in 3rd we follow the picture book bracket. It is so much fun and gets students excited about reading in so many ways. Often, students who are resistant to trying out a new genre are happy to expand their reading horizons when they get to vote on books. Also, it encourages social reading habits and joy around reading. Students love to explain why you should vote for a certain book and often get into passionate debates about which book(s) should win. So much critical thinking about comparing literature is fun and also essential practice for being a lifelong, thoughtful reader. 

We have collaborated with younger classes in the past. One year when we had Kindergarten reading buddies (we haven’t been able to reinstate this due to the pandemic), we introduced March Book Madness (MBM) altogether and buddies had the option to read MBM books when they read together. We’ve also worked with 1st grade and shared our predictions and books. We usually start by explaining the contest, looking at the map of participants on the website and adding a pin for our school. Students love that this is an international activity. We always take time to go over what a bracket is and how it works. There are usually a few March (basketball) Madness fans who are happy to share their knowledge!

Last year, we gave our students their own copies of the bracket so they could make their own predictions or follow along as they wished. They loved having their own copies and took each round of voting very seriously. We also used MBM as an opportunity to review genres of books as we worked together to figure out what genre each book fit into and explain why. Some students even asked to write book reviews to include in the book or to share when voting came around again. 

The wonderful thing about MBM is that it can be as big or small of a deal as you want! If you can’t buy the books you can get them from the library or just watch video read alouds of them and put up photos of the covers if you want a display. Our former school librarian would make a MBM bulletin board recreating the bracket and students loved seeing it in the hall and sharing what was happening with other classes. 

This year (as always), the books look wonderful. There are many I already like under picture books, but some that I am excited to discover. MBM always ends up being an opportunity for me to genuinely model and share my love of books and constant quest for new books I love to my students. They love hearing about how I am torn and can’t decide what book to vote for and sometimes even suggest ways to help me make up my mind. Everything about this activity makes reading (even more) fun and exciting. If you are interested in participating, 1st round voting is open today (March 2nd) and closes on March 8th at 7PM. We usually vote as a class, but students could also vote individually. Happy reading!

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Book Review: From the Desk of Zoe Washington

I just finished From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks and this book has so much potential for classroom use! It is a delightful read and a wonderful middle grade novel to share with kids in many ways. The main character is having both friend and family drama which will be so relatable to many upper elementary students and middle schoolers. Also, she loves to bake and wants to be a pastry chef so the descriptions of cupcakes alone will pull some students in. I’ve always loved books that included letters between characters, and Zoe (the main character) exchanges letters with her biological father, Marcus, who is in prison. Many students (and adults) don’t hear any humanizing stories about people who are incarcerated or the toll our massive incarceration rates has on families and children. 

Zoe’s father, Marcus, says he is innocent, and Zoe talks to her grandmother about how that could even be possible. She connects this new information with what she knows about Black Lives Matter and systemic racism. The connections are clear and not overly simplified, yet also at a kid-friendly level. She also learns about The Innocence Project and grapples with the mystifying fact that innocent people can go to prison. The author doesn’t shy away from the fact that this knowledge is heavy and many parts of what Zoe is learning are scary for her. Her parents and grandma try to shield her and forbid her from following up with what she has learned and the depiction of the frustration of being dismissed as just a kid is very accurate and would strike a chord with many students.

This book could be a wonderful whole class read aloud or book group book, as the chapters are a good length for both of these formats. Students could learn about wrongful conviction, the toll of incarceration on families (at least 5 million children have had a parent behind bars), advocacy and representation, systemic racism, justice system reform, and more. Zoe’s choice to defy her parents’ and grandma’s restrictions would also be a wonderful discussion point with students. At one point, Zoe thinks to herself, “All of the lying was wrong, I knew that. But maybe it was okay to do something wrong if you were doing it for the right reason.” (p.180). I’ve talked to students in the past about when it’s okay to break the rules and how you might still have to accept the consequences of your actions, but you choose to break the rules because of something more important. Zoe models this as she gets in trouble and apologizes for lying and breaking her family’s trust, but her actions end up setting some changes in motion.

While this book ultimately has a happy ending, it still talks about the reality that appealing a wrongful conviction takes years and is very difficult and complicated and that many people who get out of prison (whether they are innocent or not) have trouble finding jobs and struggle financially for a variety of reasons. There are educational resources available through the Equal Justice Initiative to help you give students more background and understanding of the scale and scope of the issues. The Marshall Project is also a great resource. It’s targeted towards adults, but will help you have the background you need to have these important conversations with students. If you haven’t read this book yet, run and get a copy! It belongs in the hands of readers!

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New Fall 2018 Books to Snag!

Hi everyone-- Gabby here writing to you from Oregon! 

While one of us gearing up for another great year leading the classroom, the other one of us is actually getting ready to be a student again... (cue the student-esque excitement annnd cue the whining about homework... well, hopefully I’ve outgrown that!). When I wasn’t packing or convincing cats that it’s fun to fly on planes to their new home, I have been doing my best read some soon to be released middle grade and YA lit. I have been loving the ARC (advanced reader copy) life. 

Here are a few of the recently released or soon to be released (!!) notable reads from the summer. Hopefully, you haven’t spent your whole classroom budget (like we did last year!) and you’ve got room to add a few of these to your shiny classroom library to kick off the year right!

Picture books-

This cover is so fabulous we won't even try to make it smaller! 

• Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (cover photo from this beautiful book, too), is hands down my favorite picture book of the summer, likely the year. If you cry reading this too, we should probably be friends? This book is absolute perfection. Buy it for every room, gift it to every friend!

• Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton, is a new addition to the Splat collection. This one is fun and back to school relevant for home reading or in the classroom. Yes, sometimes even we can get behind an animal book (then we can all relate to them and they often don't get too gendered!). 

• Love, by Matt de la Pena. This one isn’t all that new, but it is new enough and we continue to adore it!

 

Middle grade picks- 

• Sheets by Brenna Thummler was a fantastic surprise and our recent favorite kid-appropriate graphic novel. The art is gorgeous, you are totally pulled in, the characters are so very human (doing the best they can), Socio-economic status is part of the story (so great to see a white characters struggling with class), OH, and there are supernatural ghosts ... I mean, how cool and different is that ? This one is unique and melancholy and good.

• Front Desk by Kelly Yang is one of our current favorites for the year. Don’t miss this one! We waited patiently for it to come out, and it was worth the wait!

• Love Like Sky by Leslie C. Youngblood (if this cover alone doesn’t make you swoon I don’t know what will!) This is the book to have ready in your classroom library. This one takes you on a real emotional rollercoaster from blended family dynamics to friendships to just growing up. It’s very well done and would be an easy win recommendation for many students— with its charming, relatable characters and loving family. There’s some sadness and nerve wracking moments that will definitely provide drama and keep readers hooked. I wish I had this one last year to pass to my kids, but now you can!

• Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina. Ah, I just loved this one. This one has so many great pieces and it is done so naturally. A thoughtful feisty 6th grader (Merci) figuring out life and getting a scholarship to a private school, all the while a multi-generational family going through the changes as everyone gets older. Merci has to be a buddy to a new kid she doesn’t like and figure out friendships at her new school-- an excellent coming of age story. This is my vote for classroom read alouds this year.

• The Magic of Melwick Orchard by Rebecca Caprara. This one was just lovely. This one has beautiful nature, a super loving family, and an awesome main character (11 year old) who is trying to keep her family afloat when her baby sister gets deathly ill. A great book for those readers who love one of those good, sad-feels ones. This was done so well, we’re amazed this is Caprara’s first MG novel.

• All Summer Long by Hope Larson (graphic novel). This one would be especially solid for late 4th, but even more so 5th for relatability about navigating friendships (and shifts), and finding your ‘thing’. The main character is an artsy rocker girl so this would be an extra win for any super musically inspired young people who might ‘get’ her.

• The much anticipated Rick Riordan presents, Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes has its strong points. It wasn’t quite as beautifully written as we would’ve hoped, BUT the Mayan mythology and story turns were super fun.There were also some great female characters. We would definitely pass this one on to Percy Jackson lovers and see what they thought! We are moving on to read the next Rick Riordan published author, Yoon Ha Lee’s ARC of Dragon Pearl next!

Middle/high school teachers here are a few we would love to teach-

• “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands”, the first short story from How to Love A Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs is a must-use this year (and for years to come). This piece would be incredible for the discussions students would have on this layered identity piece.. let’s just say if you teach this one please invite us to be flies on the wall! Discussions would be brilliant. BRILLIANT.

• Autoboyagraphy by Christina Lauren. This super cute, super gay book packs a punch with its look into navigating relationships, differences, and identity. It was even better than we thought it would be! Nuance and conflict and love and getting to know yourself and others..it was so good.

• Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor. So full disclosure this one isn’t new (2011), but I’m late to the party and I want to plug it here. I’m thinking early middle school for this one, but it had spectacular world-building, fun characters, and some great features. It’s especially great to enjoy Sunny, the go-getter main character as she analyzes her identity (both the fantasy one and the one where she was born in NY but now lives in Nigeria), and to enjoy her new ‘schooling’ as she learns more about her more magical self...

• Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi. The texting is done so well in this one, and speaking of another beautiful cover! This one is for the older end of middle school, it’s pacing and (hipster?) style is just for older teens, but its characters are moody and lovable and doing their best.

• A Darker Shade of Magic series by V.E. Schwab. A well-written sci-fi / fantasy to rehook that crew who thinks they’ve read everything good. It’s got some blood but not in a gory kind of way, and for once, we don’t have vampires or a bunch of kids who have to kill each other. This one has great worldbuilding and the best (cross-dressing!?) female character we have read in sci-fi in a while.

• Not new, but could someone please let us know if you teach any Shaun Tan? We would choose The Arrival. We LOVE his work, but it is over younger student’s heads. Older kid teachers should definitely try using his thoughtful, relevant, provocative, and beautiful work! His work makes me want to teach middle school, I can only imagine the beauty middle schoolers would create in an integrated art unit using some of his pieces as inspiration!

For high school specifically -

• Circe by Madeline Miller. Why teach the Odyssey when you can teach Circe?! (I loved reading the odyssey for the first time so I don’t entirely mean that but I do!). I imagine this as an incredible journey and there are so many incredible ways i could see high schoolers discussing feminism and what it  means through this one.. There are some tough scenes/ pain and it really is an epic, which is why it’d be for a high school seminar class... or something! I can’t wait to see educators using this one.

Up next! -

Of course there’s so many we haven’t gotten to yet (Children of Blood and Bone!? new Jackie Woodson ?! Oh, the list is always long). I recently learned a new word, “Tsundoku”, which is Japanese and is loosely and modernly translated to someone who has/buys a bunch of that they don’t read and can’t get to, or a great big book pile. That might be me.

Alas! What are some books you’re already excited to reccommend this school year? Any upcoming releases you cannot wait for ?? Ask us about any of these in more detail if you’d like (or other books:), and be sure to check out some of our favorite all class read alouds for other ideas on what to bring into your classroom this year! Happy reading and sharing love of reading with your new crews. Or if you are in my boat, happy school reading and may we make time for fun reading, too! 

Setting Students Up for Summer Reading

It’s so close to the end of the year (and summer!) that we have started getting questions about summer work and summer reading. We absolutely want to encourage students to read over the summer in order to maintain their good reading habits (which are important life skills) and avoid the dreaded summer slide. In our class (and at our school), we’ve found our students tend to have consistent access to books and reading options all summer, so for the population we work with, the most important way to encourage summer reading is to promote reading all year long!

All year, we have read alouds in our 3rd grade class. While we know this takes up a lot of instructional time, we have found that reading chapter books out loud to our 3rd graders has improved their comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and engagement as readers (and more!). They have developed (or maintained) an incredibly high level of appreciation for wonderful books, reading, read alouds, authors, sequels, new vocabulary, cliffhangers, and more!

Apart from read alouds, we also encourage solid independent reading habits. We gave up on reading logs early this year as they felt like a drag and a chore and instead added a section on homework grids (they receive a new one every week with homework choices that are due Friday) that says, “What is one book you enjoyed this week?” Some students write as many as three or four books they enjoyed that week, and some add comments about the books too! We also have students share out periodically about books they are enjoying and encourage them to recommend books to each other. This genuine sharing of books and authentic pleasure in reading is gold.

Another amazing tool to prep students to be readers all summer long (and beyond) are book clubs! We are just wrapping up a book clubs unit that has been so powerful. Again, talking to each other about books you enjoy is a life skill and a genuine, authentic way to communicate about books. We also tried to tap into books that were the first in a series so some of our more reluctant readers would be really into the first book because they read it with their book club, and now have many more books with the same beloved characters to read all summer.

Finally, (and we can’t emphasize this enough), encourage library use! We are so lucky to be in DC where we have an amazing public library system that runs a phenomenal summer reading program for kids. However, just reminding students that libraries exist is important. For all of our research projects this year, we’ve brought in books from the DC public library (and reminded our students to take extra good care of them since they are “our personal library books.”) Modeling library use (and of course, active reading as adults/teachers) can motivate students to use the public library themselves (and of course, provide them with books all summer). Librarians are our priceless and valuable partners in our quest to get kids reading. If your students may not have consistent access to books this summer, ask a librarian for help! Depending on your flexibility with taking students out of the building or inviting people in as guest speakers, there are multiple ways to set students up to be public library users.

A student's summer reading goals: "read as many books as possible!"

We don’t assign a list of required reading over the summer (and are fortunate to have this flexibility at our school), but we do have students set summer reading goals and create lists of books they might like to read over the summer (and we share our own). This “Summer Reading Bingo” from the Curriculum Corner looks fun. How does summer reading work in your classroom (or school or household)?  We’d love to hear more ideas!

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Asian American Heritage Month

Oh how we love representation, it is so essential and of course, it benefits all of us. As we typically note, designated 'months' for any given demographic of humans is not something we follow-- every day is a day to learn about communities and cultures you do or don't belong to! However, we do appreciate the added push for elevating underrepresented voices and perspectives!
 

Representation was our focus this month, ensuring that as many API perspectives were integrated into our daily learning as possible. Here are a few resources that our students especially loved during "API Heritage Month"!

1. Representation through awesome characters:

Aru Shah and the End of Time and The Serpent's Secret (both pictured above) are both great adventure novels were tons of fun, and both were packed with mythology and had bright heroines! We felt like we learned a lot and the world building in both was strong and captivating.

The Alvin Ho series (first book also pictured above) is one that we have come love and deeply appreciate as elementary educators. It is at the right level for so many of our readers, it has solid representation of a Chinese family, strong girls characters (We love Flea and his little sis Annibelly!), and it talks openly about Alvin struggling with anxiety, talking with a therapist etc. Of course, it is also goofy and appeals to 'boys' so Alvin runs away from his piano teacher, tries to miss school, and tries out Shakespearean curses on his therapist. We'll take it for the way it brings our students in, and the conversations we have been able to have through it. This one is great to unpack with students and led to some thoughtful conversations about gender and mental health in our classroom. It's exciting that this is a series because a few of our reluctant readers can't wait for the next one, which is the perfect way to send them off to the summer (prepped for their next book!).

There are also of course other great resources besides fiction, like Newsela's API Text Set that can provide some great resources for continuing learning and staying up to date!

2. Representation through music:

We love starting the morning calm and and centered and we always have music playing. It has been especially fun to play all sorts of different music from different countries in Asia. We have been more partial to Chinese music we've found, likely because we have both been there and we have been able to find some really calming pieces. It's also likely that my (Gabby's) attempts at learning Erhu and Guzhen make it even more exciting to share with the students! They love looking at the different instruments, learning facts (like how the guzhen has a history that is over 2,500 years old), and comparing it to instruments that they may play or know (the guzhen was compared to a sliding guitar so we did some compare and contrasting the other day!).

3. Representation through Images:

We always start the morning off with a projected image. This gives us the easy lean into a conversation we may want to have with students, or a way to pre-assess and see what they know (or are excited about). This month, all of our images were pictures from different Asian countries. Be warned, these images made us all yearning for some serious travel! The students always wanted to know where the pictures were taken, and it always got us talking, which leads us to….

4. Representation through maps, statistics reminders:

The morning images usually brought us to looking at the given country on a map! We would talk about where it was nearby (if we had already discussed a neighboring country) and it got us thinking about population, too. We love to remind students (not just in May!) that the continent of Asia has over half the world's population (we are talking over 4 billion humans!!!). We love this video if the world were a village of 100 people, because we think it helps bring some perspective!  

5. Representation through…. GIFS! (because we are oh-so trendy and cool!).

James Curan's Tokyo Gif-a-thon has hands down been one of our student's favorite activities and breaks this month. We earn it (sly teachers!) by getting cleaned up early or having an extra moment before we need to start the next class. We love doing the reveal of the next gif, and then we all stare in wonder at what he created. The students have endless (actually endless, the DETAILS they notices surprise us all of the time!) observations of how he made the gif, why he made it that way, and the most miniscule details within the art. As the reveals and months go on, they are able to make more and more connections as to what he might be referencing about Tokyo. We've been to (and love!) Tokyo, so this is also fun for us to share additional background information about why he made certain gifs and what it might be connected to in the city. We were especially intrigued about how the conversation about cherry blossoms ended connecting us back here to where we live-- DC!

These are just a few of the ways we try to infuse additional representation into our classroom (we've also had a ton of fun with languages this month!), but it never ends and we are always thinking of how to do more, and do it better. If you have ideas or other things you've been trying out, we'd love to hear!

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Book Review: Save Me a Seat

Our first chapter book read aloud this year was Save Me a Seat by Gita Varadarajan and Sarah Weeks. It’s an amazing book for so many reasons, and was the perfect first read aloud for our class. While we felt it allowed for natural segues into many of the beginning of the school year discussions and activities, it’s a perfect book for anytime of the year.

There are two narrators which leads to two vastly different perspectives (often on the same event). Our students reflected often on how two people can experience the same events very differently. This helped them brainstorm ways to be understanding and empathic. One of our students referenced part of the book as an explanation of how misunderstandings happen and why assumptions are dangerous.

One of the main characters, Ravi, is a new student (and recent immigrant). His experiences helped us talk about how we want people to feel in our classroom. Joe, the other main character, feels like a target at school, and before we brainstormed agreements (rules) for our class contract, we discussed what we can do to make sure no one has to feel like Joe did  in our community. Students also really identified with Ravi’s frustration when his name was mispronounced and talked seriously about the importance of using names carefully and respectfully. The other day, when a substitute teacher was in our class, the students took it upon themselves to carefully learn her name even after she said it was a hard name and they were welcome to call her Mrs. K instead.

Save Me a Seat also teaches students about the significance of an apology. Sometimes (for kids) it can feel like saying sorry is simply a stepping stone towards moving on or getting out of trouble. But in Save Me a Seat, Joe’s father writes him a moving and heartfelt letter accepting responsibility for how he made Joe feel (instead of saying I didn’t mean to or focusing only on his intent) and acknowledging that it is okay for men (and boys) to have feelings after all. Especially with third graders who can have difficulty genuinely connecting abstract concepts, reading and discussing this part of the book was such an important lesson in apologizing, accepting responsibility, and discounting messages of how you are “supposed to” feel, act, or behave (because of gender, coolness, or something else).

Our students also learned so much and wanted to learn so much from reading this book. They asked questions (and we investigated) about Bangalore, South Indian food, Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), and more. They repeatedly asked us to share the recipes found in the book and poured over the glossaries for each main character in the back. We (teachers) also loved that there was a glossary for each main character as opposed to only one for Ravi.

Including two glossaries makes them a tool for each character to be understood more fully instead of an indication of Ravi’s foreign state. It also made me (as an Indian-American), happy because it means that readers were less likely to ask me (or other South Asian people) to explain or translate words or references in the book. The South Indian food in the book was not portrayed as foreign or weird or (my personal pet peeve) something only “adventurous” people eat. It was simply food, just like the food Joe ate.

Save Me a Seat is also a great mentor text. We will keep coming back to it all year as an example of how to develop characters, use descriptive language, write dialogue and more. The fact that each chapter ends in a cliff hanger makes it an exceptional read aloud.

Our students were so enthralled with the book that we decided to have a mini-celebration at the end complete with South Indian food. We ordered idli and sambar from Pansaari, a local restaurant, and the students were so excited to eat one of Ravi’s favorite foods. We had talked about respecting other people’s likes and dislikes and the students were quick to point out that this applies to food as well. Even students who said they don’t like spicy food or who are very picky about what they eat for lunch were excited to try the idli, sambar, and coconut chutney. While they ate, we (teachers) read aloud and finished the book. We also talked about our favorite parts of the book and looked at different locations from the book on a map.

Since we finished our read aloud, six of our students have eagerly reread Save Me a Seat independently (which works well for their development of comprehension and decoding skills in third grade). Many other students have asked if they can have the book next. They also trust our recommendations so much more! We love all of the enthusiasm around reading (and incorporating food, geography, kindness, and more). We truly couldn’t recommend this book more highly!

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Book Review (and read-aloud plug): Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech is our read aloud for the last few months of the school year. Aside from being an incredibly captivating story with beautiful writing, it also fits perfectly with our curriculum as we are studying storytelling (and Sal, the main character, is telling a story) and American Indian studies (Sal has Indigenous ancestors and visits sacred Native sites). We also study Health & Wellness so the budding young romance is perfect for our class to experience as well. There are also many other relevant and significant issues skillfully woven into this story (mental illness and the related stigma, family dynamics, and gender equality, to name a few).

We have a bin full of books by Sharon Creech that we only bring out of the closet (with a lot of fanfare) when we start reading Walk Two Moons. Soon, the books are fought over (especially Absolutely Normal Chaos as it features a character from Walk Two Moons) and students are excitedly announcing book “shout outs” with lots of reminders from their classmates that spoilers are not allowed!

We use Walk Two Moons as a mentor text during Writing instruction, finding examples of how Sharon Creech communicates context without explicitly saying where, when something is taking place. We also find a lot of meaning, action, and character development and dialogue.

It is also a wonderful read aloud with lots of emotions! We felt happy, sad, cried, laughed, and more as we read it together. Many chapters end in cliff hangers, and students have ample opportunities to make predictions, connections, find meaning and theme and more. It’s also a reminder that not all stories have happy endings and events don’t always work out perfectly, and that’s life. But life is also beautiful, unexpected, and hilarious as well.

We always say we don’t have time to do a chapter book read aloud, but somehow we always find the time because reading aloud and experiencing a book together is so powerful. Even our reluctant readers would get excited when it was time for read aloud, and beg us to keep reading even if we were running out of time. We finished the book on the last day of school, which felt appropriately final and anticipatory. Many of us were teary after a sad part (teachers included, to the delight and amazement of our students), and some students had questions about what happened next (to which we replied, what do you think?), but it was best described by one of our students, who said (with a huge smile), “That was so good! And sad. But so good!”

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Book Review: Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean

This is one of our favorite books! Ms. Arca reads this one, but we both relate.

Summary: This book is a rhyming text (we call it a poem) in which a little girl asks the main character why his hair is so "crazy". He responds with the most dazzling array of answers. There are beasts that live in his hair, and a circus, and hot air balloons.. The art is also phenomenal. Each stanza ends with "..inside my crazy hair" and even our 5th graders will fill in that section and join in the reading.

How we use it: We use this text in our poetry unit. We LOVE it. This is one of the last poems that we have our students write in the unit because it is more personal. The prompt for this poem is to take back ownership and claim an aspect of yourself that you sometimes feel insecure, judged, or uncomfortable about. I (Ms. Arca) then talk about how even though people ask about my hair, touch my hair without asking etc.. this poem embodies my claiming of this part of myself with PRIDE. Our students write poems about hairy arms, big feet, 'funny' ears, "being weird", 'tallness", freckles.. The list goes on. It is a hard and vulnerable poem-- but we love the social-emotional work that this lesson brings to the table and the poems are personal mantras of hard internal and academic work!

Questions / conversations with the students:

• There are always students who feel resistant to this poem, it makes them feel uncomfortable  ("I like everything about myself" or "I can't think of anything"). For these students we return back to a brainstorming list we've done in the past.

• "Crazy" is a complicated word, and we know that. One thing we talk about in this context is how since this is your poem of ownership-- you can call it whatever you'd like to. I make a point to share that I do NOT like it when other people tell me that my hair is "crazy". We talk about the difference between what you or an inner community can call itself, versus what doesn't feel okay for others to say about you. This conversation comes up again and again in our room in different veins.

• We make a point to celebrate what they share. It is brave to take something on that you don't always feel secure about and claim it with pride. We tell them how proud we are of them for doing this work and how as humans this is hard, but important work to do. We all have to be our own cheerleaders sometimes!

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