My Quest to Become a Book Whisperer...Continued

Yesterday I went down into the basement and found this on Molly's whiteboard that she uses to play school.

This is her Daily Four:
Read to Self
Read to Someone
Word Work
Work on Writing

This is what Molly does everyday in her second grade classroom except in her classroom, it is the "Daily Five." I think Molly left out "Listen to Reading" because we don't have a computer in the basement for her students to listen to reading. 

Here's one of her students getting ready to do some word work or work on writing.

Here's another student "Reading to Self" in a cozy corner on the floor.

This is what Molly's second grade teacher uses as a foundation for her reading program. It is based on a book by the title The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. What I love about this way of teaching reading is that the students have a choice in what they want to work on. A similar philosophy to Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer, where she talks about giving the students a choice in what books they want to read. Students get to plan their reading time. They can answer questions themselves: What will I do first? What was I working on yesterday that needs to get finished? Who will I work with? They get a say in how they are going to work on reading and writing during this block of time. When I volunteer in the classroom on Thursdays, it is amazing how everyone of these 7 and 8 year olds are on task. They are engaged readers and writers and for Molly, it has obviously overflowed into her own little classroom in our basement. When kids feel they have a say in the matter, it makes a difference.

I've been on this quest to get my kids to read more. I've been trying to match books to my kids that they will want to read. I found this book, The Fourth Stall, last week at the book store and thought it may be a match for Ryan, my most dormant reader. 

 Oh, he can read, and he is on grade level, and he gets good report cards, but he will not pick a book up on his own for enjoyment. I have paraphrased Mark Twain's quote to my kids a number of time, "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." I read the first chapter of The Fourth Stall aloud to him to get him started. He had that look on his face of "Oh, when will this torture be over" but when he went to his room an unusual thing happened to Ryan...he started to read the book. 

The other night I noticed a light coming from under his bedroom door. It was 10 o'clock at night. This usually means he has snuck an ipod touch into his room and is playing a game or he is fooling around with Timmy. But on this night, I walk in and there he was lying in bed reading a book. He didn't even notice me. I pulled out my phone in my back pocket and snapped a picture. No yelling that it was 10 o'clock and you should be sleeping, no confiscating an ipod touch or ds game, no goofing off with his older brother, just a boy quietly reading a book.

Every Tuesday afternoon, Ryan and I sit in the car together for about an hour and a half while Molly does her horseback riding lesson. Our routine is to come home from school so Molly can change her clothes and then we go to Subway to get sandwiches. Molly usually eats hers in the car on the way to her lesson but once we are there, Ryan and I take out ours. We eat together, we talk about our day, I ask him about what's going on in school. It's not often that I get alone time with just one of my kids so I treasure this time that we have together.

Yesterday, I brought Ryan's CCD homework and after we finished our sandwiches we worked on his homework together. Then I pulled out The Fourth Stall for him to read and I pulled out another book, My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian, that I found in his closet for myself. I think I bought it at the last school book fair. The night before, I started looking through some of his books to try and find another match for Ryan. This book caught my eye and I thought I would start to read it. Well, Ryan could have written this book. I could hear Ryan's voice in my head as I read. Chapter one starts with:

"I DON'T WANT TO READ THIS BOOK!"
Ever since my teacher said I was a "reluctant reader," I spend every waking minute avoiding my mother and her latest idea of how I should use my time. WASTE my time is more like it.

"The librarian said you'd love this book." Mom vaults over a basket of laundry, but I'm too fast for her. I dive out my bedroom window onto the roof of the garage. "One chocolate chip per page," she calls.

This is my life in a book as well. But this is a great book. This book says it's a reading level 2.9, it has huge margins on the side of each page, it has Derek's doodles or drawing of his vocabulary words in the margins, it is perfect for the so called "reluctant reader." But this book is also a good story. It may be a level 2.9, but the main character is twelve years old. There is a mystery that would interest an older kid as well. Derek finds a ten year old newspaper in the attic from Martha's Vineyard with an article about a teenage girl that had drowned. Why did his mother save this paper? Who was this girl? They don't even live close to Martha's Vineyard, so what would it have to do with them? But it does. 

So there Ryan and I are, sitting in the car like every other Tuesday afternoon and Ryan asks me what I'm reading. I give him a little summary, I tell him that the book reminds me of him, I read this first line of the book and he is hooked. He wants to trade books, his The Fourth Stall for my My Life as a Book. I tell him to finish the book he is reading now first and when I'm done reading this book I will pass it on to him. So the two of us quietly reading together, both reading different stories but feeling a bit connected to Ryan as we read simultaneously. 

After a while, Ryan looks up and asks, "Do you think if I ask my teacher to read this aloud to the class she would? I think other kids would really like this book as well." 

"I don't know Ry, but it doesn't hurt to ask."

"I'll ask her if she wants to read it after she's done reading the book we are listening to now."

My "reluctant reader" wants to SHARE a book he is reading because he is enjoying it!!! Think about it, he didn't say, "I want to write a 2 page book report," he didn't say, "I want to make a diorama of the setting and the main characters!" He wants to share it with his friends. Isn't that what we do after we watch a great movie. We talk about it with our friends. We ask them if they have seen it too. We tell them, "Oh, it was a great movie, you have to go see it!" We talk about our favorite parts and favorite lines. We need to talk about books like we talk about movies.

Last night at dinner, we shared what we were reading. Molly shared Bunnicula, a book her teacher is reading aloud in class. Timmy is reading Catching Fire but didn't say too much because he knows I'm going to read it and he didn't want to spoil it. Shannon is still reading Countdown and I shared a scene from My Life as a Book, that involved a monkey, a cowboy hat, and a dog. I was laughing out loud as well as everyone else at the table. As all this is going on, I notice Chris quietly sitting at the other end of the table looking down at his lap. 

"Chris, what are you doing?"

"I'm reading The Fourth Stall. I'm up to page 19. This is actually a pretty good book.

I just put The Fourth Stall Part II and My Life as a Stuntboy into my Amazon cart.

My Quest to Become a Book Whisperer

Friday I made a trip to the Tysons Mall to go to The American Girl Store. Molly's birthday is this week and she had a few things on her birthday list. After picking up what I needed there, I made my way down to Barnes and Noble. I love book stores and was so sad when the Borders by us went out of business. I love to pick up the books, read the jackets, skim the first few pages, and just see what's new. I am also a big Amazon fan. At this moment I know there are at least three books in my cart but it is not the same as holding that book in your hand and deciding if you want to enter into this world that the author has created for their reader.

This past year I have read a lot of middle school literature and YA literature. When I was teaching second grade, I read aloud to my class everyday. I would read picture books about the upcoming seasons and holidays, I would read biographies of the historical people we needed to know, I would read chapter books beyond their reading comprehension but not beyond their listening comprehension. And I would talk to them. I would talk to them about the books. I would say, "This book reminds me of the time when I was little and...This book reminds me of the book we read last month...This book reminds me of the Kidpost we read together last week because...So read aloud was not just me reading and 20 kids just sitting quietly listening, we were all engaged in the book. We were all participants. Some people may not see the value in this, but every time a student makes a connection to a book, he is more likely to keep on reading, more likely to pick-up another book that reminds him of a  book he read before and enjoyed, more likely to read another book by an author he fell in love with.

Now as a stay-at-home mom, I am trying to get my own kids to become readers for life. When Shannon entered fifth grade, I started reading books that I thought she would enjoy. I was not as familiar with upper elementary books and middle school books as I was with the lower grades. But when you're trying to match a book up with your kid, it really helps if you read it yourself. I slowly started reading books and would pass them on to her. I remember reading Esperanza Rising and falling in love with the story. I then read Becoming Naomi Leon another story by Pam Munoz Ryan. I would read a book and put it in her room, read a book and put it in her room.

From this one small pile of books in her closet, I have read Charlotte's Web, of course, but also Savvy, Elsewhere, The Teacher's Funeral, A Long Way from Chicago, and Tuck Everlasting. All great stories.

Then a teacher friend recommended a book to me, The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. I fell in love with this book! It is written by a sixth grade teacher and it is about how she gets her students to read 40 books by the end of the school year. Yes, 40 books! I read this book with a pencil in my hand. I underlined sentences and circled whole paragraphs that struck me as "AH HA" moments. I wrote down my own thought in the margins and thought about how I was going to apply all this in my own house as a mom and not as a teacher in the classroom. I loved this book so much that I went out and bought it for all my kids' teacher that year. That same year I was having a conversation with the principal and I asked her if she had read the book. She had heard of it, but hadn't read it yet. The week after Thanksgiving break, I got an email from her saying that she had just read it and that she recommended it to her staff to read it. I told her that there were at least three other copies of the book in the building because I had bought them.

Donalyn Miller's basic philosophy to get kids to read is that she reads what they read. She knows all the books because she has read them herself. She can say, "Joe, I read this book last night and it reminded me of you, I thought you would like it." She gets to know her kids. She knows what they like. She knows who likes sci-fi and who doesn't. She knows who to give a sports book to and who not to. She knows their favorite authors. And eventually as the kids start to read, she has kids coming to her saying, "Mrs. Miller, I just finished reading this book and I think you should add it to your "To Be Read" pile. Her students know that she has read a lot of books, so when they find one that they have read and she hasn't, it just gives them a great feeling.  She gives the kids the power to choose what to read. Choice is a powerful thing and in order to give kids a choice, her classroom is filled with books. And that is what my house looks like.

 

We have books in the basement.

I have categorized books...

...and I have bins by authors as well.

And you always need a comfy places to read.

So back to last Friday in the Barnes and Noble. Even though I have been trying to expand my knowledge of middle school books and YA literature, there are books or genres that don't draw me in. I am not one for vampires, slayers, and witches.

And then there is a whole section called Teen Paranormal Romance, shelves and shelves of Paranormal Romance. 

I then move on to New Teen Fiction and find Wuthering Heights there. Really, in the "New" Teen Fiction? Hmmm, is this book misplaced or is it a new publishing with a updated cover and they are hoping to get teens to read this classic?

 After my own quest to read more middle school books and YA literature began, I realized that I really love these stories and that more and more adults are falling in love with YA lit as well. What is it about these stories that we are drawn to? Last night I was up until 1 o'clock finishing The Hunger Games because Timmy kept asking me, "What are you up to?...What are you up to?" I wanted to finish it for him so we could talk about it but I really loved the book myself, this book that was published by Scholastic Inc., meant for young adults. 


I read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin a few years ago and she talks about her love of kidlit and actually belongs to several book clubs that read kidlit for fun. There was a great article in the New York Times about this upward trend of adults reading kidlit and YA literature.

So after finishing The Hunger Games last night at 1 am, do I read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green? I've read on a few blogs that his books are great.

Do I continue with Catching Fire so that Timmy and I can keep our discussions open?

But then I need to read this book that Ryan has started to read. He is my toughest one to get to read. Trying to find a book for him is difficult. So I really need to read this one so we can talk about it together as well.

 This is Shannon's night stand. A book that she has read a few times already and that is just fine by me.

And these are Molly's books that she is reading. She still loves her picture books but pushes herself as a reader to read the chapter books. Her recent find is The Molly Moon series.


This morning I was reading The Nerdy Book Club blog. A great blog if you are looking for YA lit and kidlit to read. There was a link to another website and I watched this awesome video about what is happening to our kids in middle school and high school in traditional English classrooms when it comes to reading compared to what happens when you surround them with books to choose from and give them the power to choose their own books to read. I think I watched it three times. I love the part when the kids make piles of the books that they read in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade compared to their 12th grade. The power of choice!!! You can watch it here.

The Day Just Moves So Much Slower

The Nealon Kids have been without electronics for one week now. This was the consequence for the flood in their bathroom that worked its way down to my dining room ceiling. No xbox, no wii, no tv, no ds games, no ipods, no computers. It really is amazing how plugged in we have all become. I have never had too many rules put into place about hours in front of the many screens that my kids have. Our routine has always been to come home from school and get homework finished and then read before they can go out and play...and "go out to play" is what my kids do a lot. My boys can spend hours and hours and hours in the driveway shooting hoops. It could be just one of them out there by himself working on his free throws, it could be two brothers playing one on one, and sometimes there maybe a foursome going on with the neighbors. Whole worlds have also been created in our backyard by boys with imaginations. Forts have been built with tree logs, walls have been raised with stones from the creek and endless battles have been fought with nerf guns until the yard looks like it has just rained bright orange darts. Molly still loves our swing set in the backyard and still asks Chris to push her even though she doesn't need that push any more. She will also spend hours in her playhouse...sometimes it's her house, sometimes it's her school, and sometimes it's her store, it just depends on where her imagination leads her that day. Then there are the countless hours of organized sports and activities: soccer, basketball, baseball, football, dance, piano lessons, horseback riding lessons, girl scouts. 


There really doesn't seem like a whole lot of time left in their day for electronics to play such an important part in their lives and yet they do. Three days into "no electronics" Ryan said, " The day just moves so much slower than it did before." I don't think he meant that as a good thing, but I thought that was a good thing. Why should we always be in such a rush?  Why should we always feel like every moment of the day we have to be doing something? Sometimes I think we should just "be" and not "be doing" something. 


So with all this extra time on their hands (and mine as well because I've been trying to keep the TV off and the electronics to a minimum during this) I have been trying once again to get my kids to read more. I realized for myself that it has been a while since I had picked up a book myself. It amazes me that we have to remind ourselves sometimes to do the things we love to do. So I told the kids to all bring their current book that they were reading to the dinner table to share. Some of my kids are always excited to share what they have been reading and some just give me the eye roll and just go along with it because it's easier than putting up a fight.


Dinnertime is sacred in our house. It is the most important part of the day. It is the only time during the day that we are all together, that we can share the events of the day, that we can relax and be ourselves and I try to make them teachable moments as well. This past Friday, Molly had a play date with a friend. First of all, Molly was very concerned about not being able to have electronics while having her friend over. I told her we would play it by ear and see what happens. Well, these two little girls brought home their science textbooks from school and spent the first part of the afternoon doing one science experiment after another. They had blue dyed water in ziplock bags taped to windows in the sun and bags taped to windows in the shade and then they went back every few minutes to see if they could see a change. They were in dark closets with a flashlight telling me if you shine the light on the black paper you can see stars,"Do you see them mom? Don't you see the stars?" "Hmmm, yah, I see them," I tell them. After they were done with experiments, they went outside and played tennis. No electronics needed. Then we collected food for a food bank for their girl scout troop. No electronics needed. Then the two girls went in the backyard and were on the swings with the boys for over an hour. No electronics needed. The phone rings and it was Molly's friend's mom wanting to know how everything was and if she had overstayed her welcome. I told her everything that they had done that afternoon and that right now there were four happy kids in the backyard laughing and giggling and having a great time. She said that that was great and again wanted to make sure her daughter didn't wear out her welcome because she always talks about the "Nealon Dinners" and that they are so much fun. The mom wanted to make sure her daughter wasn't stretching out her play date to stay for our dinner. 


Wow, I thought, someone is always talking about the "Nealon Dinners?" "Oh, yes," the mom continues, "she says the Nealons are just the funniest family. I just love having dinner with them." Now, to be honest, I really don't remember this little girl having too many dinners with us to make that much of an impression. But, I guess we did, and I was so glad that it was a good impression.  


 Yep...some of those "Nealon Dinners" maybe, "Stop, my side hurts too much from laughing so much," but then you have the mom that used to be a teacher with a Masters in Reading telling her four kids, "bring the current book you are reading to the dinner table." Sunday night was that night. Everyone brought a book and while we ate, each of us shared what we were reading. Timmy was rereading a LeBron James book. Ryan was reading a biography about Dr. Seuss. Molly was rereading a book that her teacher had read aloud to the class. Shannon was rereading a book about Derek Jeter. Chris was reading the Steve Jobs book. I thought it was kind of odd that everyone was reading a biography except for Molly. Ryan and Chris got into a discussion about Dr. Suess because Chris recently read a book about him as well. We talked about some of the same qualities that each of these people possess: perseverance and determination. Then it was mom's turn. I brought The Hunger Games to the table. I told them that I had started reading this months ago, got about two-thirds through it and then our busy life got in the way, I got side-tracted, and now wanted to finish it because the movie was coming out. Timmy's eyes lit up.

"I've heard of this book! My friend told me all about it and said it was a great book and I should read it!"


"Why didn't you say something to me that you wanted to read it?"


"I didn't know we had it."


Just the night before Timmy said he needed more books to read. Recently, all Timmy will read are sports books. They could be either fiction or nonfiction but they have to have some kind of sport in them. I've tried to introduce other genres to him but he wasn't interested and that's okay. This was the first time that he wanted to read a sci-fi book. After dinner was over, Timmy took the book and began to read. With no electronics to distract him, he got to chapter 4. The next morning he was in my room at 7:00 in the morning looking for the book. Another three chapters were read. Then, he was starting not to feel too well, cough coming on, throat starting to hurt, and he had a basketball tournament that lasted all day. By Monday night he was exhausted.  He stayed home from school. I felt bad for him. Here he was home all day with no electronics. Do I let him have tv back because he was sick? But Timmy never asked for it back. He lay on the couch all day and read and read and read. Why would I stop that for tv? Why would I feel bad? He was enjoying the book. A book that a friend told him about but a book that I brought to the table Sunday night. 


Sometimes there are things we do as moms that feel like we are banging our heads up agains a brick wall. How many times have I told you to hang up you coat? How many times have I told you to put you shoes away? How many times have I told you to wipe up the water on the bathroom floor? But if you keep on talking, if you keep on trying, if you have determination and perseverance, eventually we moms start to get through. I always have Dory's voice in my head from Nemo..."Keep on swimming, swimming, swimming." If I didn't bring that book to the table Sunday night, Timmy wouldn't have connected to it from the conversation that he had with his friend and he wouldn't have finished reading it in two days. Through the eye rolls, through the sighs, through the, "Ahhh, I don't have a book to talk about right now!" I will keep on swimming. Most night we just share our books. Most nights there are no great connections made, but every once in a while, there is a connection and I feel like I'm finally getting through to them...one little book at a time. 


Now, if you please excuse me, I have to finish The Hunger Games so I can go see the movie next month. I think I have a date night planned with a special eleven year old.

What Happens When You Have Alligators in the Bathtub and The Great Flood of 2012

Alligators in the bathtub...this is what happens when you have alligators in the bathtub...a water damaged dining room ceiling...again. March 1st will mark our 9th year in our house and this will be the third time I will need to repair my dining room ceiling. The kids' bathroom is above the dining room and living room but water always takes the route of least resistance and so the water stains always end up in the middle of my dining room toward the wall near the kitchen. I've had a plumber come in to give me advice as to how to prevent this from happening again. Should I replace the linoleum floor? He said for the cost to put in tile, no, and if there is water on the floor it will still find a way to get in the walls.  Should I install shower doors instead of having a shower curtain? Again, his answer was no and I can't remember all his reasons but they sounded good at the time and so his advice was to just install shower splash guards on either side of the tub and to not take down the shower head because that could lead to potential water getting out of the tub.

Well, a hurricane hit the bathroom Tuesday night. Alligators and sharks were doing everything they could to beat the storm. When the storm was over...the water sat on the bathroom floor. Then another Nealon kid went into the bathroom, saw the results of the storm, teeth were brushed and nothing was said...and then the next Nealon and then the next Nealon and nothing was said. 


Well, the real storm didn't hit until Wednesday morning when the result of the storm the night before slowly made its way to my dining room ceiling while we slept. There was screaming, there was yelling, there was crying. And then there was more screaming and yelling and crying because I heard that phrase that I just can't stand. That phrase that I think bothers me more than any other, IT...WASN'T...ME!!! Really, that's your defense? You feel that the carpet is not just wet but saturated and you don't say anything? You see the water on the floor and you don't say anything? We've had this discussion hundreds of times about water on the floor and you don't say anything? I was mad. I was mad because of the water damage but I was more mad that all four of them knew there was water on the floor to the point that the carpet was now 5 pounds heavier with water and yet they didn't speak up. And then the "Uncle Peter" story was mentioned.


Uncle Peter is one of five Nealon Brothers and then there was Mary Ellen, the only sister. There are many, many  Nealon stories about what it was like to grow up in their house. Stories that have been told and retold over and over again. When the Nealons get together and these stories are told there is always laughter and it is always funny to listen to different points of view of the same story.


For school, Ryan had to interview a family member and he chose his Uncle Peter. One of his questions was, "What's one of your favorite, funny childhood memories?" Peter told the story of the time they were all in Michigan. There was a creek nearby and the boys went down to it to hang out. Mark was trying to fish, Peter was jumping from rock to rock and Chris was hanging out as well. Then Paul shows up and sees Peter jumping and says, "That looks fun, I can do that!" Well when Paul went to jump, Peter said, "Oh, no, I wasn't jumping from that rock. I was jumping from this one!" Which of course was farther away. So Paul jumps, misses and is now in the creek. The story is told that Paul must of landed in the one little part of the creek that was over his head because it wasn't that deep. Chris said that he told him to try and stand because he was only inches away from the edge. How deep could it possibly be? But when Paul tried to stand, he went under. Peter started running to get mom and dad but while he was running back to the house he stops and thought for a second. "If I go get mom and dad, then I'm going to get in trouble." A boy with this dilemma. He wasn't the first and he certainly wasn't the last. What does Peter do? Well, he starts to run back to the creek because he doesn't want to get in trouble but then he turns around and starts to run back toward the house to get help. In the end, he goes back to the creek and they are able to pull Paul out. Mark, who was still fishing, just looks over at them all and says, "Can you keep it down over there, you're scaring all the fish away."


So back to the dining room. The screaming continues..."Uncle Peter didn't want to get in trouble with his mom and dad and I know none of you want to get in trouble either but WHY DIDN'T YOU CLEAN UP THE WATER!!!" The screaming, "not a morning person to begin with" mom banned all electronics until further notice. But that won't solve my water damaged ceiling. Do I ban them from ever taking a bath? Do I take away all the toys that they love to play with in the tub? Do I ban them from the bathroom all together and make them take their showers in the basement bathroom? Chris already kicked them out of our bathroom because he was tired of the water on the floor and the wet towels on the floor so to use our bathroom, it's by invitation only.


I know it's just a ceiling and we can have it fixed...again...but I just had the painter here in November to fix it after having a water stained ceiling for about a year so the angry mom did come out.


Yesterday was a rainy day. The boys couldn't play basketball outside and so when they came home from school they were trying to figure out what to do without ANY electronics...no TV, no xbox, no ds games, no wii, no phones, no ipods...they were lost souls at first. "Mom, what did you and Uncle Robbie and Uncle Brian do in the "old" days with no electronics?" And then the creative juices started to flow. Ryan finished reading a biography on Walt Disney. 

Timmy and Molly worked together to make this board game.

 Timmy pulled some books off the shelf and started rereading some old favorites.

Ryan made his own board trivia game all about the Muppets.

I found Shannon on the floor in the utility room creating something.

All Molly needed was a balloon and a tennis racket.

I also put them to work. My next house project is to paint Molly room. She no longer wants the pink paint that has been there since we found out we were having another girl 8 years ago. Her pretty wallpaper on the bottom needs to be removed. They have learned that things don't magically happen while they are at school all day. The magical fairy is MOM!!!

The only electronics that were allowed was the computer for homework purposes only. Ryan said, "Since there's nothing else to do, I might as well get my blog posts done for the month of February."

Timmy playing with bug toys.

Timmy and Ryan playing together with a paper basketball Valentine card.

Ryan asking his trivia questions at the dinner table. I think I was the Muppet Champion.

And what was Shannon creating in the Utility Room?

A jar to collect money for a Disney Cruise trip. I think in all the ranting and raving  that morning, Chris had said that vacation money would now have to be spent to fix the ceiling.

 This morning while trying to get Molly and Ryan out the door because their ride was almost here, I called up to Molly who was in the bathroom. She yelled back at me, "I'm almost ready, I'm doing number 2!!!" Timmy and I just looked at each other and then she came running down the stairs saying, "I was doing rule number 2, cleaning up my spit out of the sink." Shannon had taken a dry erase marker and wrote some bathroom rules on the mirror.

Have lessons been learn in the Nealon House? I think so. Will I ever have to have my dining room ceiling repaired again? Who knows? But what I learned, is that my kids can come up with things to do without electronics. They can work together to make a game. We can laugh as a family at the dinner table while answering questions about the Muppets. And someday, years from now, my kids will get together with their own families and tell the story about the great flood of 2012.