The Book Whisperer

If you teach intermediate grades and you don't own this book, The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller, you're just not doing literacy learning right.  You have to let kids read.....and read and read and read.  By the intermediate grades, they have had lots of instruction and have a good handle on vocabulary.  The practice is what they need the most now.  Give them a 40-book challenge and enough time to get there and they will reach that goal.  I make suggestions all the time and I never require a specific title.  Instead, students read what works for them and report back to me in the form of a letter.  Watch for a coming blog post about reading letters.  Donalyn Miller's method will change the way you teach and will increase achievement.  The best part is that your students learn to love reading!  That changes a student for the good forever!  Click HERE to go to her blog.

Book Talk

Yesterday, when I was at the library, I checked out a CD set to listen to during a long (4 hours) drive today.  The book is one that I read several years ago and suggested to my 5th graders several times last school year.  Today I shared it with Princess Miller.

Among the Hidden is the first book in The Shadow Children Series written by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  Here's a summary of the book from www.haddixbooks.com/:

PLOT: Luke has never been to school. He's never had a birthday party, or gone to a friend's house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend.

    Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He's lived his entire life in hiding, and now, with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family's farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside.

    Then, one day Luke sees a girl's face in the window of a house where he knows two other children already live. Finally, he's met a shadow child like himself. Jen is willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows--does Luke dare to become involved in her dangerous plan? Can he afford not to?

Among the Hidden kept me and my 9 year old passenger at the edge of our seat.  Usually, Princess Miller would talk all the way to our destination and back.  Usually, I would love chatting with her for the first half hour and then I would be annoyed that I had no think time during the drive.  Today we glanced at each other during suspenseful parts of the story, talked about the characters and our predictions for the rest of the story, and held hands at the end.  Sharing good books is so enjoyable - for both of us.

Why chiller? I live and work about 5 blocks away from Lake Superior, a.k.a. Gitche Gumee.  It's a well-known fact that the lake is our natural air conditioner.  HERE is a link to more info about Lake Superior.  Our city of Duluth, Minnesota is beautiful all year long. We celebrate all four seasons with outdoor activities including hiking, water sports, hockey, cross country and downhill skiing, fishing, hunting, and more.  Photo by Tim Mlodozyniec Photography.