In recent weeks, I have been reading many posts about getting students interested in reading over the summer. This is a hot topic for me because I am always pushing more reading for pleasure with students. My own children have already made two trips to the bookstore since we finished school, and we may have to go again today. My son finished reading all three books in the Land of Stories series by Colfer, and my daughter read the first Emily Windsnap by Kessler and is looking for the sequel.

I think many of us employ the same tricks to keep children reading during non-school months. Here are three suggestions I have to keep reading alive. What are ways you encourage reading during June, July, and August?

• Generate a large list to send with your students over the summer. My school has required summer reading, and each grade level has an approved list of books. The list for my grade level is multiple pages, sorted by genre, and includes a wide variety of reading levels. I also add an asterisk to my favorite books, so students have a place to start if the list seems overwhelming. Recommending specific books is often more successful than saying, "Go read something."

• If your school has required summer reading, keep any related assignments light. I ask students to keep a chart with the title and author and also complete a brief comprehension bookmark with notes while reading (pictured at the top). No big book reports. If assignments related to summer reading are too long, students treat reading like a chore rather than a treat. If you need help creating a summer reading assignment and book list for students, THIS ONE can help you get started.

• Get involved in a reading incentive program. Our local library has a summer reading challenge. Students complete a chart based on minutes read. Local businesses and organizations donate free coupons, so students can earn tickets to a minor league baseball game, free frozen yogurt, complimentary karate class at a local karate school, etc. Barnes and Noble has a similar reading program. Children complete a reading journal as they finish reading books. When the journal is complete, bring it to a local Barnes and Noble to redeem for a free book. Our librarian sent a copy of the reading journal home with each student in the final take home packet of the year.

If you are looking for summer reading ideas for upper elementary students, here are a few books on my list:

• The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm
• Savvy by Ingrid Law
• The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
• Under the Egg by Laura Max Fitzgerald
• Graceful by Wendy Mass
• The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
• Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin
• Greenglass House by Kate Milford

Happy Reading and Happy Summer!

Caitlin (TheRoomMom)

The Business of Teaching Literature

My co-teacher and I have a business theme that is the backbone to our 4th grade curriculum. One piece of our academic plan is literature with a business focus. There are many book recommendations (see list below) that portray a main character who gets things going. The character might run a business, be the leader of a project, or become responsible for something significant.

This type of storyline promotes creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit. Many of these books teach students about the basics of business (profit, loss, partnership, etc.). While there is almost always a supportive adult in the story, I like the fact that these books depict children as problem-solvers without a parent or adult handing them the easy solution. 

Chapter Books

• The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies (click for novel unit)
• The Bread Winner by Arvella Whitmore (click for novel unit)
• Crunch by Leslie Connor
• The Secret School by Avi
• Lunch Money by Andrew Clements (click for novel unit)
• School Story by Andrew Clements
• Frindle by Andrew Clements (click for novel unit)
• Hotel for Dogs by Lois Duncan
• Tarantula Shoes by Tom Birdseye
• Lawn Boy and Lawn Boy Returns by Gary Paulsen
• Henry and the Paper Route by Beverly Cleary
• Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
• The Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin
• The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill
• Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life by Ann M. Martin

Non-Fiction

• The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton
• Everyone Wears His Name: A Biography of Levi Strauss by Sondra Henry
• Model T: How Henry Ford Built a Legend by David Weitzman
• Chocolate by Hershey: A Story About Milton S. Hershey by Betty Burford
• Kidpreneurs, Young Entrepeneurs with Big Ideas by Adam Toren and Matthew Toren
• Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids by Gail Karlitz and Debbie Honig

Classroom Ideas

• Have students write a personal business plan for a company they could start at school. After reading The Lemonade War, my students wrote a business plan for a lemonade stand that we ran during student recess. We used the best ideas from all of the students business plans to create a master plan for the class that we took to our principal. 
• Do the math. In books like Lunch Money by Clements and The Bread Winner by Whitmore, students can use details in the book to calculate business costs and profits. It is fun to project how much money the characters could potentially earn in a year, two years, or five years.

• Create a business using advance orders. Film and edit a commercial to share with the school if that technology is available to you. As orders arrive, students use spreadsheets to track and sort orders by class. You can create graphs that show which grades buy the most of a product. This year, my group is selling Mason Jar Cookie Mixes. Not only did we have to record the orders, the students had a ton of recipe math to complete. Our original recipes for the mix made 2 jars. We had to calculate ingredient amounts for 267 jars of cookies mix! I even had the students track down the stores with the best prices (FYI-- Walmart for jars, white chocolate chips, and M&Ms, Costco for the other ingredients in our area).

Books with business provide such rich learning opportunities for students. It makes it so easy to incorporate many layers of skills. What are your best novel studies that give you more bang for your buck?

Happy Reading!

TheRoomMom

Man's Best Friend

I have a student this year who is on the hunt for all chapter books with a dog. As luck would have it, I happen to teach a few books that have a dog as a central character. Books with dogs are great books to share with your class because it is usually easy to get both boys and girls interested in the story.

The dog and main human character rely on each other and develop a deep friendship, and the human (usually a child about the same age as our students) has to take responsibility for the animal. These themes of companionship, trust, responsibility, and independence can be found in many animal books and are reasons I think kids love to read books with animal characters.

One drawback to the dog books is often an animal dies, so be aware if you have a particularly tender-hearted teacher student in your class who might start crying in front of others at the end of the story. 

Below is a list of dog-centered chapter books that I like to use in the classroom as a read aloud or novel study: 

• Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (click for novel unit)
• A Dog Called Homeless by Sarah Lean
• A Dog Called Kitty by Bill Wallace
• The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford (click for novel unit)
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (click for novel unit)
• Julie of the Wolves series by Jean Craighead George
• Kavik the Wolf Dog by Walt Morey
• Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (click for novel unit)
• My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen (middle school+)
• Ribsy by Beverly Cleary
• Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Sounder by William H. Armstrong
• Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner (click for novel unit)
• What the Dog Said by Randi Reisfeld
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

A few favorite activities I use with the dog books I teach could easily be adapted for other novel studies:

One activity I have been using for a long time is to have students write point of view journals as we read a novel. It is an activity that works well for different novels, but it is particularly successful with The Incredible Journey.

Students pick one animal after reading the first few chapters of the book. After we complete each chapter, the students retell the chapter from the point of view of their chosen animal. We share one journal from each animal every day and compare the different versions of the story depending on which animal's journal we hear. Students love comparing and contrasting the scenes in the story based on Luath, Bodger, or Tao's viewpoint. Students also love making the foldable burrito books that they use to write their incredible journals!

Another great assignment to help with citing textual evidence is to have students draw a "map" of a specific character's journey based on details in the text. With the novel, Stone Fox, students draw and label the race course based on clues in the story. There are many novels that involve a journey of some kind, and drawing and labeling the character's route using details from the story is an activity that requires close reading.

Do you read any animal books to your students? Are they successful?

Caitlin

TheRoomMom

Protecting Paperback Books

My classroom library is my pride and joy. It is like a third child to me, and I take great pains to protect it. Many student hands come in daily contact with the book collection and have the potential to destroy one of my cherished books. One defense I use to protect my library is to wrap each book in clear contact paper. This is a labor of love for sure but well worth it. If you have invested both time and money in a quality classroom library, wrapping your books will extend their lifespan.

Materials

• Con-Tact Brand Shelf Adhesive Shelf Liner clear with matte finish and gridlines (I usually purchase at WalMart or Staples)
• paperback books
• sharp scissors
• clear, flat surface like a large tabletop with a straight edge

Directions

• For standard sized paperback books, measure 2 books of about the same size at the same time. Unroll a little of the contact paper with the gridlines facing down and the roll unwrapping to the left. Set two books, cover facing up, on the contact paper. The books act as a weight to hold the contact paper still as well as guidelines for measuring the size of the cover needed for the book.

• Carefully take the fattest book and roll it over the contact paper to the left, so the cover will be face down. This measures the length of contact paper you will need for both books. Cut the contact paper about 1 inch beyond the edge of the fatter book. Use the gridlines to help cut straight lines.

• Keeping the books spaced on the contact paper, cut down the center of the two books making sure there is (roughly) even amounts of contact paper above and below the edges of each book.

• Cut sheets of contact paper for all books that need to be covered at one time to make the process more efficient. Keep each book with its matching piece of contact paper.

• Take one piece of contact paper and put it on a flat, clear surface with the gridlines down. Set the book that goes with that piece of contact paper on top. The paper rolls up a little, and the book helps keep the contact paper spread out. Using your fingernail, gently peel away the paper backing starting at the top or bottom corner. I like to start with the top right corner, and I am right-handed. If you do not pull the backing away evenly, the paper will crease leaving a line that looks like a scratch (which drives me crazy). As you pull the backing away, lift the paper up off the table letting the book fall off.

• Once the backing is off the contact paper exposing the sticky side, place the paper sticky side up on your flat surface landscape direction. Have the bottom edge of the contact paper line up with the bottom, straight edge of the table. This will help keep book placement on the contact paper straight and even.
• Gently set the back cover of your book near the right edge of the contact paper. Try to leave about a 1-inch border on the top, bottom, and right side of the book. In other words, center the top and bottom of the book on the contact paper and have the book close to the right edge of the contact paper.

• Pick up the book from the right side and smooth the back of the book with your free hand. Begin to wrap and push the contact paper around the spine of the book. Turn the book over and carefully press the contact paper across the cover pushing from the spine towards the loose end of the pages.

• Smooth out any bubbles between the book and contact paper by pushing gently with your fingers and/or heel of your hand to the closest edge.

• With your scissors, cut diagonally along the top 2 outside corners and the bottom 2 outside corners. You will snip off triangles.

• Make diagonal snips on the front and back corners near the spine.

• Press the sticky tab of contact paper on the top of the spine to your pointer finger and pull it back and down until it separates just a little below the spine of the book. Snip the tab of contact paper off the book. Repeat at the other edge of the spine.

• You will now have 3 flaps hanging over the edge of the front cover of the book and 3 flaps on the back. Carefully wrap the flaps around the cover of the book and stick them down to the inside of the covers, pressing carefully to avoid wrinkles.

Notes

• Your first few books will probably have wrinkles and mis-aligned contact paper. You get better (and faster) at covering the more you practice!
• There are a variety of clear "shelf" papers available. The Con-Tact brand is my favorite, and the easiest for me to use.
• If you have a large library, I would not recommend going back to cover every book. I would begin covering any new books that you add to your collection and any damaged books that you have.
• To cover a damaged book (hardback or paperback), repair with clear packing tape first, then wrap in contact paper.

 I would love to hear some other suggestions to help care for a classroom library. What steps do you take to keep the books in good condition and accounted for? 

Caitlin Tobin

TheRoomMom

TpT Store

Characters with Differences

Reading a story is one way to travel by imagination to a new location or try an activity that a child might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience. Reading stories can also be an avenue for understanding another's person situation and developing empathy. I will never know what it is like to be blind or deaf or struggle with a reading disability, but I can read a book with characters who do have these differences and gain an appreciation for their challenges. I can also recognize similarities between my life and these characters and develop a connection to them.

Sharing books in class that have characters with physical disabilities or learning differences give students an opportunity to see a diverse range of people. This topic is as important as sharing information about different cultures and backgrounds.

It is harder to locate books that include characters with disabilities. Until recent years, there were not that many choices. Look for books that have been given the Schneider Family Book Award. This is an award given to juvenile literature that incorporates a disability experience in some way.

Below is my starter list of books that have a character with a difference. It is not always a main character, and it is not always revealed at the beginning of the story. Are there other books that work well for upper elementary and middle school students that I should add to the list?

Character with Physical Differences

• The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
• Deenie by Judy Blume
• A Dog Called Homeless by Sarah Lean
• Gathering Blue (and any Giver companions) by Lois Lowry
• Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech
• Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby
• The Million Dollar Putt by Dan Gutman
• The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
• A View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
• Wonder by R.J. Palacio
• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Characters with Learning Differences

• Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
• Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
• Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
• Hank Zipzer series by Henry Winkler
• Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
• Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool
• Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
• Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Many of the titles on my list make me cry, but they are so good, I read them anyway-- even if it means shedding a tear in front of my students. I have found one humorous realistic fiction book that works well for reluctant upper elementary readers and is tissue free. The Million Dollar Putt by Gutman is about a blind kid who is a natural at golf. He attends his local school and is in regular ed classes. This is a great book to share with students and offers many opportunities to discuss differences in friends, classmates, or any people we encounter in our daily lives.

If you use one of these books in your classroom this year, follow up with this Characters with Differences Activity Page, which asks students to think about how daily activities change when you live with a challenge. To purchase materials related to The Million Dollar Putt, Click Here.

Caitlin Tobin

TheRoomMom