Literacy – Page 21 – Pernille Ripp

I have been on the hunt as of late for books that I can hand to one of my hardest student groups; my resistant readers. Not just reluctant readers, not just readers that may have forgotten how much they like reading, no, the students that really do not want to read and would rather fake read every single day of the year rather than actually read. These are the kids I am book hunting for. So what are some of the books that seem to be hooking not just my reluctant readers but even my resistant ones (and almost every other reader as well)?

Handed Cold Day in the Sun by Sara Biren to one of my hockey players and she could not put it down. Her word of mouth recommendation means that it is flying through the classroom, and kids who told me they hate reading are devouring it.

Image result for hey kiddo

Kids cannot believe that this is a graphic novel. With its unflinching look at how addiction shaped his life and his talents, Hey, Kiddo by Jarret J. Krosoczka is flying through the room.

“Mrs. Ripp, I only want to read books like this one…” so said one of my most resistant readers this year, and it happens every year. Jordan Sonnenblick’s Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pies is one of those books I can count on to be a great reading experience for almost every child I hand it to.

Dear Martin by Nic Stone is one of those books that takes you by the heart and then twists it painfully. Unyielding in its honesty, this book stays with you long after the last page.

What happens when the alpha bully at a middle school hits his head and forgets everything about himself? I think so many of my students can connect with Gordon Korman’s Restart for many different reasons. It is fast-paced and Chases’ dilemma makes you want to read on; will he go back to how he was?

Jason Reynolds is a natural treasure and his latest free verse book Long Way Down is haunting. Written in the aftermath of Will’s brother’s murder, this whole story is set in an elevator as he decided whether to follow the rules of the neighborhood and shoot the boy who killed his brother.

Also by Jason Reynolds, Miles Morales – Spiderman is the first full-length novel that features the comic book character Miles Morales as Spiderman. Need I say more?

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt has hands-down been the biggest game changer for a lot of my readers. I have 7 copies circulating and none of them sit on the shelf for more than a day. We have it on Audible as well for students who prefer to listen to their books.

Another frequently read book (and listened to as well) is All American Boys by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds. Masterful story telling and a gripping narrative means that this book has been flying off the shelves.

Noggin’ by John Corey Whaley is one that has been passed from student to student and is probably one of the most frequently book-talked books in our room. The story is easily accessible to many levels of reading development and grips the students with its premise of cryogenics and what it means to be 16 in a a 21-year-old’s body.

Rhyme Schemer also by K.A. Holt is about a bully who becomes the victim. I love how students relate to this story and often see this passed from kid to kid.

Who would think that our most resistant readers start to fall in love with reading through free verse? What Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover has done for our reading life cannot be underestimated. I have already had to replace my copies of this book this year and students are eagerly awaiting Booked on it’s arrival date of April 5th.

Reality Boy by A.S.King may have a very angry protagonist but I think the anger and “realness” of the books is what draws readers to it. This is another book that is often recommended from student to student.

Another free verse book, this one is House Arrest by K.A. Holt has been making the rounds as well. The discussions in class that this book leads to are powerful for many students.

When a resistant reader recommended this book to me I knew it had staying power in our classroom. Carl Deuker’s Gym Candy is not your typical sports book and I think that is why it has been so popular with many resistant readers. It is a little bit raw and a little bit unresolved, a perfect choice for many of my more picky readers.

Another Jason Reynolds book, Ghost is book one in the Track series and left my students wanting to read the next book, Patina, right away. Easily accessible langueg with a relatable character who does not have the easiest life, this was a book many kids declared as a favorite.

Boost by Kathy Mackel was book talked last week and has not been in my classroom since, quickly passing hands from student to student.

For the first time ever, I used We Were Liars by e.lockhart (Emily Jenkins’ pen name for her YA books) and I was not disappointed. It was clear that my group of readers quickly became absorbed as they begged for just one more minute of reading time.

It can come as no surprise that Monster by Walter Dean Meyers is a book many readers gravitate to. I have loved the reflections and thoughtful dialogue that this book creates but even more so how many students have recommended to each other.

What are your must adds/must-reads that will hook resistant readers?

being a teacher, books, classroom setup, Literacy, Reading

On the Need for Classroom Libraries for All Ages

March 16, 2016 Pernille Ripp

It took me 3 seconds to decide that I was going to move my entire classroom library into my 7th grade classroom. Coming from 5th grade I wasn’t quite sure what the use of a classroom library would be on my new adventure, after all, we would only have 45 minutes together, but I couldn’t leave my books behind. I couldn’t leave them in boxes. Even if we didn’t need the books as a class, I needed them. My books were home to me and when you change schools, when you change districts, when you change grade levels, you need all of the pieces of home you can find.

My husband carried every single box of books into my classroom. There were more than 100 and they took up an entire wall as I waited for my bookshelves to arrive. He didn’t mind too much, he has realized a long time ago that I my obsession with books is part of who I am. As I opened each box and shelved the books in their new home, I couldn’t help but wonder if any child would ever read them? If dust would soon become their second skin rather than the hands of children. Was there any point in my meticulous placement of books?

On the first day as a 7th grade teacher, I was not sure how the students would react to the books. After all, in elementary school, most kids expected a classroom library. Most kids were used to the access. So I waited and soon enough the comments came.

“Are these all of your books?”

“Have you read them all?”

“How many books do you have?”

“Can we read them?”

Slowly, students began to ask more pointed questions.

“How do I check this one out?”

“Can I read this one?”

“Did you read this book, I have wanted to read it…”

It turns out my worry was unfounded. It turns out that middle schoolers in all of their bravado love classroom libraries as much as younger kids. That middle schoolers get as much use out of a classroom library if we let them. That they needs books now just as much as they needed them then.

In the past 2 years as a 7th grade teacher our classroom library has only grown. Teaching more than 100 students quickly made me realize just how many books I need to keep all readers invested and engaged with their reading. In fact, I started with the research on classroom library sizes and knew that while these were great starting points, that was exactly it, a start. When you teach that many students with reading abilities ranging from 2nd to 12th grade, interests spanning all topics, you need way more than you think, because middle schoolers can be fickle, so the message that my classroom library sends is; there is always another book waiting, there is always another chance at falling in love or remaining in love with reading.

And it is not because we do not have a school library, we have a beautiful one, one that is filled with incredible books and staffed with incredible people. But when the students are with me, during our 45 minutes of instruction every day, they also need books right at their fingertips. As Donalyn Miller and Teri Lesesne have said even a school library right across the hall from you is too far away for many students. And it is true, even a beautiful, well-stocked school library is too far away when a child needs a book right then. Because our students need to be enticed by another book the moment they finish or abandon their current one. They need books as a way to create community as they share their love (or dislike) of them with others. They need books to hand to their friends, to their teachers. They need books that will inspire them to read more. To discover who they are as a readers and who they want to become. They need to be able to go into our library and come out with something that speaks to them. Not just because the teacher tells them they have to read or the assignment requires them to.

I asked a child last year if our classroom library made a difference and his answer was simple yet powerful. “It made the biggest difference because the books were right there, so I read them.” And that is what I see every single day in our classroom, books being read because they are right there and there is no option to not read them.

As we increase the demand on students to read for knowledge rather than pleasure, we see their love of reading decline. Students have less time and less choice as they go through their years of schooling. So is it any wonder that by the time students graduate high school, 33% of them will never read another book? Having a classroom library in our middle and high school classrooms is therefore not a frivolous thrill, it is a vital necessity to create passionate reading environments. Having a classroom library should not be an investment we only make for our younger students, but should be one we make for all students, no matter their age. And it is not too late to start right now. We start by buying one book, then another, and we build our collection day by day. We book talk and we hand books to students. We create displays that entice, we create time to read, but first we have to have the books and access to them for all the kids we teach.

Our collection now probably holds more than 1,000 books and I know that I still do not have enough. After all, there are still students that search our shelves and come up empty-handed, but at least they had books to browse, at least they had books to try. I continue to add whenever I can, knowing that one day I will run out of walls pace and bookshelf space, but that when that day comes it will be a day of celebration because perhaps we now have a book for every interest, for every reader, for every child we teach.

For more ideas on creating a classroom library and knowing books to purchase, go here.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

being a teacher, books, Literacy, picture books, Reading

How I Use Picture Books in Our Middle School Classroom

March 13, 2016 Pernille Ripp

Wherever I go I seem to bring the love of picture books with me. In fact, whenever I travel, I try to pick up at least one new picture book from wherever I am as a way to remember the adventure. I have lost count of the picture books in my own house. In fact, we have long ago run out of shelf space at home and some now reside to my dismay in boxes instead of out in the open. Our picture book collection in our classroom has surpassed 200, with displays wherever there is a ledge, with piles on the tables, and special books waiting to be shared. Being a picture book aficionado comes at a wonderful, cluttered, price.

I have written before of why I use picture books with my middle school students, the changes it has created for us as we build our community of readers. I have shared lists upon lists of our favorite books as well, hoping to help others find the very best value in the books they bring in, hoping to inspire others to make them an integral part of their classroom. This is not a post on the why, but instead on the how.

I often get asked how I use picture books as a teaching tool. What does that actual process look like, so hopefully this will clear up some of those questions.

Which book I choose to share depends on the lesson. I treat it much like a short story in what I want students to get out of it so it has to suit the very purpose we are trying to understand. I introduce the concept by sharing a story and then I ask my students to come as close as they can to the rocking chair in our corner. Once settled, whether on the floor, on balls or on chairs, I read it aloud. We stop and talk throughout as needed but not on every page, it should not take more than 10 minutes at most to get through an average size picture book. If it is a brand new concept I may just have students listen, while other times they might engage in a turn-and-talk. I have an easel right next to me and at times we write our thoughts on that. Sometimes we make an anchor chart, it really just depends on the purpose of the lesson. Often a picture book is used as one type of media on a topic and we can then branch into excepts from text, video, or audio that relates to the topic.

Because I teach the same class 5 times in a row, I often switch out the picture books I use with the different classes. There are some that you can still love reading after 4 times, while others get to be a bit tedious, so I adjust as needed. This is why having a lot of great picture books to choose from is something I am committed to.

I do not have multiple copies of really any picture books, I don’t see it as needed. Instead, I pick the picture book to read aloud and then find “companion books,” other picture books that share the same concept, for example easily identifiable themes. These are spread out on tables, waiting for the students to select them. This way, when I ask students to work with them they are truly testing out the skill and not just whether they can spot the same things that we just practiced together. Often times, students can choose to work with a partner as they explore their self-selected books.

Some times students write after reading the picture books, other times they do not. Sometimes we use them as mentor texts where we mimic the way language is used or how a story is set up. I use them a lot as a way to do a quick check-in to see if students need re-teaching or are on the right path. If students write about them it tends to be just one paragraph or so.

We do use some of the same picture books again and again as a way to practice close reading but also as a way to see different aspects of the same story. Once students have heard or read it to discover the story, we can focus on other things such as language use or author’s craft as we rediscover it.

Picture books tend to stay in the classroom because they get lost really easily, however, students may ask if they can borrow one to take home. Usually I say yes as long as they bring it back the very next day.

Picture books are shelved together in our classroom but not organized by theme or author. I simply do not have room for splitting up the groups, so I try to display the picture books by theme in our classroom instead. For example, whenever it is a new month or after a break, our display is always changed out. I want students to want to read them as much as possible and a fresh new display helps entice them.

When a new picture book enters our classroom, it has already been read by me and I may even book talk it to students. I should keep a list of which picture books would be great for what, I guess my lists of picture books to use kind of counts as that, but I do not have a personal list. This is on purpose because it offers me chance to reread books I may have forgotten and browse my own collection with fresh eyes when I search for that perfect book.

I am amazed at the sheer usage I get out of the picture books in our room from a teaching stand point, but also so grateful for the reading experience they provide for my students. Picture books may just be a key to helping students fall in love with reading again.

being a teacher, Literacy, Reading

On Reading Gaps and Book Recommendations

March 12, 2016 Pernille Ripp

I have been racing through the pages of Carl Deuker’s Gym Candy this weekend. Finding every moment I can to read it. Not because I love football books, anyone who knows me would probably laugh at that considering I don’t watch any football, ever. Not because I am under a special deadline to get it done. The book is mine, I can read it as slowly as I would like to. No, because the book was recommended to me by an 8th grader and I know just the right 7th grader to pass it to. But first I want to read it, to add it to my repertoire of books my resistant readers may embrace. And so this weekend, Gym Candy and I have been spending a lot of time together and it has led me to contemplate my own reading identity.

I speak and write (and even think) a lot about how our classroom needs to be filled with books and children eager to read them. How one of my biggest missions in teaching is to help students fall in love with reading or remain there. How we must create interest for many genres of books and then expose students to them through informal book talks or reading displays. But what about our own reading identities? Do we give as much thought to what we read, what we share, what we embrace, as we do that of the students? Are we branching out and putting ourselves through the very motions that we try to put our students through?

I know I am not. If you were to look at my reading display you would notice a pattern; science fiction, fantasy (but not too fantasy-y) and a great realistic fiction story now and then. Mostly new books, geared at 12 plus in ages. Even though I should be reading for the Global Read Aloud. It seems as if I have found myself as a reader a long time ago and firmly stayed there, happy with the destination. Yet, within my own reading preferences I am creating limitations in how I teach. I am missing out on entire genres of books that some of my students might fall in love with. I am becoming less of a book lover and more of a genre lover. And that is a problem.

When we only read for ourselves, even with a mission to find great books to share with students, we forget to study our own habits. We forget to see the book gaps, which many have blogged about before, and how these gaps affect us as book recommenders. If you had asked me to recommend a great sports book, my list would have had 2 on them, now it has 3, and that is still not enough.

So when my former student told me to read Gym Candy he only had to mention it twice. Not because I owed it to him and our continuing book conversations. Not because this would probably be the only way he would ever recommend another book to me. While both important, these were not the biggest reasons, but instead because it allowed me to make an investment in the students I have yet to reach. In the students who need my experience with books to guide them. For the students who don’t know what to read and hate the very genres I love.

So I pledge to read more widely. I pledge to ask more questions. I pledge to not judge and I pledge to recognize my own deficiencies in order to inspire my students to do the same. There are entire genres I would never read on my own where I would be just fine as a reader, but I would not be fine as a teacher. So as I finish the pages of this book, I look forward to the next challenge and not to the comfort of the books I would naturally read. Who knows; there may be an entire genre for me to fall in love with. I just need to find it first.

being a teacher, books, Literacy, picture books, Reading, Student Engagement

12 Word Book Summaries – A Great Way to End our Book Clubs

March 11, 2016 Pernille Ripp

Once in a while I get a surprise package of books at my house. It honestly feels like Christmas. And while I love my chapter books as I try to figure out who the Global Read Aloud contenders should be, when picture books show up it is an even bigger celebration. So imagine my delight when Chronicle Books sent me 4 of their Cozy Classics.

While they are meant to be baby board books, I immediately saw great potential for them as a tool in the classroom. Having just finished their self-selected book clubs, I wanted my students to somehow wrap up their projects while also doing some deeper analysis of the stories they had read and discussed. Summarizing and analyzing are both skills we work on throughout the year, as is our public speaking skills. Yet I did not want them to write a paper about their books, since I had had them do other writing throughout. So this is exactly why the Cozy Classics were perfect; would my students be able to succinctly summarize their entire book in just 12 words?

This week I read War and Peace to my students and once their excitement died down I set them on their task; create a 12 word book summary that summarizes the entire book and then perform it for the class. Throughout the week they would get a few blocks of 5 to 10 minute times and today they performed them. The results were fantastic; students clearly had not only given a lot of thought to which words would best describe their stories, but also in how they should perform them for the class.

Here is one group performing their summary for Jennifer A. Nielsen’s A Night Divided, which by the way is a wonderful book to have in your classroom library.

Sometimes it is the smallest ideas that can have the greatest impact.

being a teacher, books, Literacy, picture books, Reading

More Picture Books to Teach Theme

March 6, 2016August 21, 2016 Pernille Ripp

I was going to simply update my original post on teaching theme through picture books, but then realized that I had so many new picture books to add to it that it deserved its own post. It is a great time to be a lover of picture books. So behold, even more amazing picture books to teach theme and please feel free to add your own suggestions as well.

If you would like just a list without images and theme suggestion,please go here.

I cried the first time I read Ida, Always by Caron Lewis and Charles Santoso. I cried the second time I read it as well. With its story of love surpassing death, it is a must add to any classroom.

Yard Sale written by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Lauren Castillo is a fantastic book to discuss what it means to have a home and a family. This is another book that made me cry.

We discuss needing diverse books in our classrooms and Jacob’s New Dress is most definitely a book we need. Written by Sarah and Ian Hoffman for their own son, my students had wonderful discussions about what it means to fit the mold that society gives us.

The Night Gardener by the Fan Brothers is beautiful not only in its illustrations, but also in its message about what one person can do for a community.

Be A Friend by Salina Yoon is a wonderful addition to any classroom collection. Its simple story allows for a rich discussion about friendship and finding our place in the world.

The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers (Global Read Aloud contender) is a masterful book for students in discovering theme. Love, loss, death, acceptance and rediscovery were all themes my students fund in the book.

The Wildest Race Ever: The Story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon by Megan McCarthy is a great addition to our theme collection. I love when non-fiction picture books can be used to discuss theme.

I have several of Pat Zietlow Miller’s picture books in our classroom and find them all to be incredible additions. Sophie’s Squash always makes me laugh. Pat’s latest picture book The Quickest Kid in Clarksville illustrated by Frank Morrison was an instant hit with my students and the theme only brought further conversation.

Another non-fiction picture book, Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea by Robert Burleigh and illustrated by Raul Colon has made its way into our classroom, not only teaching us about the incredible life of Marie Tharp but also about perseverance, having dreams, and the power of curiosity.

Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be In This Book) written by Julie Falatko and illustrated by Tim Miller is a sure hit with kids and adults alike. Funny and with a great message of friendship, my students have read this one multiple times.

I am an unabashedly major fan of Bob Shea and his books show up on many of my lists. The second installment of his Ballet Cat series is already a favorite in our classroom as well as with my own children. In Dance! Dance! Underpants! we can find the themes of friendships, judgment, and also how to succeed while getting another great laugh.

I love wordless picture books for discussing theme because it lets readers look at just the illustrations without wondering about the words. Skunk on a String by Thao Lam is a great conversation starter for perseverance and creativity.

Using picture books to teach theme to my middle schoolers has been one of the best decisions I ever made. The illustrations pull them in but the stories are what keeps us coming back.

If you would like to see more of our favorite books, please go here.