Let's start with the books that I have already read:
The Reading Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers by Jennifer Serravallo. Whether you use readers workshop, Daily 5, Guided Reading, text book, or any other approach, this book will complement and extend your teaching. The book provides 300 strategies that support 13 main goals including everything from fluency to literacy analysis. No matter what level readers you have in your class, this book will give you a strategy to help them move forward. Each strategy is cross linked to skills, genres, and Fountas & Pinnell reading levels, so that you can find the right lessons your students need.
You can check out this video about this book if you would like to know more.
Unlike a traditional book, this is more like a recipe book where you look for specific strategies and needs. However, I do recommend reading it through so that you can orientate yourself to what is included and how the book it set up. I tabbed my sections to make them easier to find and prepared some mini-anchor charts based on the lessons. I will be sharing how I did this in a future blog post!
The Literacy Teacher's Playbook, Grades 3-6: Four Steps for Turning Assessment Data into Goal-Directed Instruction by Jennifer Serravallo.
I am sure that my school is not the only one to be a bit data collection crazy, but what do you do with all of that data once you collect it? This book gives you step by step directions on both collecting data and how to use it once you have collected. This book has been gold in my literacy instruction! I teach 4th grade, so I read this book, but she also has a K-2 version if you teach lower grades.
You can view a video of Jen teaching a strategy group here.
As you can probably tell, I am a bit of a Jennifer Serravallo fan! I have read all of her books and regularly follow her blog. She also has a podcast called Teachers Ask Jen Serravallo. I can not recommend her resources enough! She is AMAZING!
Teach Like a Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator by Dave Burgess
This book is based on the author's popular Teach Like a PIRATE seminars and offers inspiration, techniques, and ideas for increasing student engagement. If you have not had the opportunity to hear Dave Burgess speak, you will definitely want to check out this Ted Talk with him. He is so inspiring!
Learn Like a Pirate: Empower Your Students to Collaborate, Lead, and Succeed by Paul Solarz
Collaboration and student-led classrooms are key buzzwords in education right now, but how exactly do you implement it without complete and total anarchy? This book will tell you how! Using the acronym PIRATE - Solarz leads you through a variety of methods and strategies for designing classroom experiences that encourage students to be risk takers who explore learning in a motivation, supportive environment where improvement, rather than grades is the focus.
Peer Collaboration
Improvement Focused Learning
Responsibility
Active Learning
Twenty-First Century Skills
Empowerment
Last summer I participated in a book study of Learn Like a Pirate, and you can read my thoughts here. I was so inspired by the two Pirate books last year that I even created a pirate themed classroom. It was amazing!
And just so you know, I am not a total teaching nerd who only reads PD books (although I really am), I am also recommending the Game of Thrones book set by George R.R. Martin. I am super addicted to the show, so my son bought me this set for Christmas two years ago. I devoured the whole set over my Christmas Break and am waiting not so patiently for the next one to come out.
And now the books that I am excited to read:
Explore Like a PIRATE: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners by Michael Matera.
Who's Doing the Work? How to Say Less So Readers Can Do More by Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris. I am about half-way through this and am LOVING it! It has been a slow read only because I have to stop to take notes every other paragraph of ideas that I want to implement next year. It is definitely a must read! The authors talk about how teachers always ask them how they can do more to help students become better readers, but they believe that teachers need to do LESS so students can do more. They suggest small but powerful adjustments that teachers can make in their instruction that will allow students to be more accountable for their own learning.
DIY Literacy: Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Rigor, and Independence by Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts.
This book is all about making your own visual teaching tools and using them in the best way possible. It's also about helping kids to think strategically using these tools so that they too can be DIY learners. I love this quote from the Amazon listing:
"We have never seen teachers work harder than we do now. These tools inspire kids to work as hard as we are."
-Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts
The Big Book of Details: 46 Moves for Teaching Writers to Elaborate by Rozlyn Linder
We have been using the Writing Units from Lucy Calkins, and my students have definitely become better writers, but many still lack those important details and elaboration. Whenever I ask them to add more details, they often write longer pieces, but they are not necessarily better. I am excited to see the suggestions Roz Linder has!
And last... my non-teacher-nerd book pick!
Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir by Wednesday Martin PhD This is Wednesday Martin's memoir of life as a mother in Manhattan's Upper East Side. The author has an anthropological background and applies that to her experience. She had a difficult time fitting in with the glamorous, rich mommies around her, but begins to analyze her new "tribe" and their behaviors and eventually learns to fit in and enjoy her new life. A friend of mine recommended this and I can't wait to try it during those times I need a break from my more academic reads.
What's on your summer reading list?
I am always on the hunt for more books to read! Leave a comment below or link up with Lucky to be in First. Don't forget to check out the other blog posts for even more great reads to add to your own list!
Before you go though, make sure you check out my giveaways page to enter our current giveaway!
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