Why do read alouds fail? When I first started teaching, I wasn't given much direction in terms of read alouds. In my literacy class I had read that a read aloud was part of a balanced literacy program and that I should do one. I wasn't really told anything more but my professor did read us Thank You, Mr. Falker and cried. Read alouds could be powerful, but my first year as a teacher (and sometimes even now), my read alouds fail. Over the years, I've learned a lot about read alouds and every year less and less of my read alouds fail. In this blog post, I'm going to talk about why read alouds fail and how to prevent it using strategies I've learned over the years. Fail #1: Not Doing A Read Aloud When I was student teaching with a Kindergarten teacher, she NEVER did a read aloud. When you read that she never did a read aloud, you probably thought ... read more
A Picture Book A Day Challenge Week 5 Recap
I'm a little over an eighth of my way through my picture book a day challenge with these next 7 books, and another week closer to being a dad. Here I'll recap the picture books I read this week. Honestly, though, depending on your questioning and support, any picture book could work for any grade level. Most of these books are also great bilingual read alouds or Spanish read alouds for dual language bilingual classrooms! The books available in Spanish are noted. With it being Thanksgiving this week as of this writing, I read two Thanksgiving books to find a good one for my students. There are affiliate links in many of the posts on this site. This means your purchase supports myself, my business, and my family when you click through to buy - at no additional cost to you. Let's get to the books from my picture book a day challenge! Book 29: So Few ... read more
A Picture Book A Day Challenge Week 4 Recap
I'm a little over an eighth of my way through my picture book a day challenge with these next 7 book, and another week closer to being a dad. Here I'll recap the picture books I read this week. Honestly, though, depending on your questioning and support, any picture book could work for any grade level. Most of these books are also great bilingual read alouds or Spanish read alouds for dual language bilingual classrooms! The books available in Spanish are noted. With it being Thanksgiving this week as of this writing, I read two Thanksgiving books to find a good one for my students. There are affiliate links in many of the posts on this site. This means your purchase supports myself, my business, and my family when you click through to buy - at no additional cost to you. Let's get to the books! Book 22: Leo - A Ghost Story by Mac Barnett and ... read more
A Picture Book A Day Challenge Week 3 Recap
3 Weeks of a Picture Book a Day 3 weeks into my a picture book a day challenge, and another week closer being a dad. Here I'll recap the picture books I read this week and the grade levels I think they would be most appropriate for. Honestly, though, depending on your questioning and support, any picture book could work for any grade level. Most of these picture books are also great bilingual read alouds or Spanish read alouds for dual language bilingual classrooms! The books available in Spanish are noted. There are affiliate links in many of the posts on this site. This means your purchase supports myself, my business, and my family when you click through to buy - at no additional cost to you. Book 15: Gleam and Glow by Eve Bunting WHOA! That's what I said after I read this book. There was a time when upper elementary teachers ... read more
A Picture Book A Day Challenge Week 2 Recap
2 weeks into my picture book a day challenge, and 11 weeks into my wife's pregnancy. The doctors tell us that we should be getting into the so-called second trimester in about a week. I'm hoping it also means the end of my wife's horrible morning sickness. Whoever called it morning sickness had no idea what they were talking about. It's all day. Even though I'm not experiencing the nausea and all of the other wonders of pregnancy, I am having to get more and more creative with keeping my wife's spirits up. One can only get sick so many times a day before the joy of pregnancy wears off. That where my picture book a day selections came in this week! Each one of the books this week I chose with the special purpose of trying to bring a little cheer to my wife. I think your kids will like them too. Here I'll recap the books I read this ... read more
A Picture Book A Day Challenge Week 1 Recap
I'm one week into my 200 Days of a Picture Book a Day Challenge, and so far I've read some awesome picture books. My wife was really excited about it at first. I was sharing some of the books with her. She was hearing some interesting stories about animals and strong women. What was not to like? We literally have each of those as categories on our Netflix. Then on Wednesday I started getting some grumblings. Apparently having 10 picture books stacked up on the kitchen table is "too many" and "we have company this weekend." That was precisely my thinking, though! My wife's friend who is also pregnant is visiting us, and I wanted to share some of the books with her. Who doesn't like picture books?! Well, I had to find a place to store my pile of books along with my flip flops that I refuse to stop wearing. No snow, no shoes! 200 Picture Books in 200 Days? Before I forget, why ... read more
My Favorite Character Education Books
The new school year is upon us and I'm here with my recommendations for teaching character education. I'm kind of obsessed with picture books, and I'm convinced there's at least one picture book for every situation. These books are great for teaching character so your students can grow up to be respectful and responsible human beings. Before I get into my recommendations, I want to really emphasize the importance of the discussion after the read aloud. Student to student talk is so critical, and really helps bring home the message from the stories. Even though I plan for comprehension and/or reading response questions for every day of the read aloud, my main focus is on student discussion. Check out the linked plans for the discussion questions and comprehension activities. Oliver Button is a Sissy Oliver Button is a Sissy by Tomie dePaola is one of my ... read more
Tips and Tricks For Launching Thoughtful Logs
4 years ago I had just gone through an intense 3 day training on Comprehensive Literacy. Every teacher in my district had somehow been voluntold to report for the training in July. Even more surprising than teachers giving up 3 days of summer? All of us had to sit on hard cafeteria benches the entire time. Of the endless amounts of new things we were told to implement, the one that seemed the most tangible was the thoughtful log. We didn't get a lot of direction or any tips for using them, though. 4 years later, I've figured out a lot of tricks for using the thoughtful logs to make them manageable, and none of them did I learn with my butt sat on a cafeteria bench. There are affiliate links in many of the posts on this site. This means your purchase supports myself, my business, and my family when you click through to buy - at no additional cost to ... read more
7 New and Noteworthy Growth Mindset Read Alouds For Elementary
Let's talk growth mindset read alouds. How often do you have to coax, encourage or even beg your students to just TRY a new activity? How about those GT students who explode when they suddenly meet a challenge that pushes their thinking? Or that student who MUST do everything perfectly? Or YOU find out in a PD that you've been doing readers workshop wrong for the last five years? Okay that was me. Regardless, these seven growth mindset read alouds are great for any any age (even us teachers). Better yet, each one could easily be a mentor text you could bring back multiple times during the year for different purposes! The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds // El punto This book by the amazing author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds tells the story about a girl named Vashti who is CONVINCED that she is not an artist. So much so that she spends an entire ... read more
Night Before the First Day of School Reflections
Twas the night before the first day of school, and all through the school, one teacher was worrying, would fourth grade be cool? Okay okay, I'll stop, but when I get nervous, for some reason, I like to make parodies of songs and poems. Seriously, though, last year I wrote a great bus duty song based on the song "Dancing in the Moonlight" that I sang over the loud speaker at the end of the day because I was nervous about an evaluation meeting I had with my principal. It was called "Dancing in the Bus Line." It was awesome. I completely digress, though. It's the night before the start of my sixth year of teaching, and I'm nervous. My first five years of teaching were all spent in 1st grade, and now I'm moving on up to fourth grade. I was at the point that I could literally name all of the first grade reading and math Common Core standards ... read more