Making Connections with you and some good books!

It's been so long since I have had the time to write. However yesterday I heard from a dear friend. She said, "Sarah, I love when you post things about reading. It gives me ideas!" It was a thoughtful message but something resonated with me. She is probably one of the most well read friends I have the pleasure of calling a friend. She has an upbeat personality and works hard to provide enriching experiences for her two kids once they come home from school. Yes Karin, I am calling you out. I have had the pleasure of knowing this woman for several years, since out first borns were in diapers. Her comment got me thinking..... I love to teach reading. I can't explain it to you, I just do! I love to work with struggling readers and fluent readers. They all have something to learn and ideas to share with me. I love watching a kid "get it" and see their smile when they realize they are successful and feel successful. I oftentimes share things on facebook so that my family can keep up with the kids or so that I can share something interesting that I think one person might like or need. I liked knowing the Karin was the one person who liked or needed what I was sharing. But, then I started thinking.... other mom friends have asked me questions and it made me think that I wasn't giving enough of myself or my knowledge. Maybe I could share myself and my knowledge with other parents, maybe I could give them the tools they needed to make them begin to LOVE teaching reading too! But, then I thought, there are enough blogs out there for people to use, why would they care about mine? So, I thought again.... this time for a while.... and today, it came to me.... I will write for Karin and my other friends like Karin. I have an obligation to pay my knowledge forward. I shouldn't keep it inside.... what use is it to anyone if I keep it inside? I don't pretend to know everything but I certainly want to know more. So, maybe the more I share, the more I will learn because interested people will ask me questions and I have expertise to research their question and help guide them toward success. So, here is my first post since 2010- for you Karin! Most of the parents I know have kids around my kids ages. They are somewhere between 9 and 2 (some a little younger and some a little older) and they can't seem to find the right book to read aloud to bridge the gap between their ages. During the last month, in my spare time, between teaching my kids, cooking dinner, working with my students, reading for pleasure, and getting kids to whatever enrichment activity (I don't prentend to be the busiest mom, we are all busy so we gotta find free time somewhere)I started searching for books to read aloud (FYI: Reading aloud is widely recognized as the single most important activity leading to literacy acquisition. Among other things, reading aloud builds word-sound awareness in children, a potent predictor of reading success.) to both boys (ages 4 going on 15 and 8 going on 8). I needed to find something that would captivate and hold both of their attention. This is never an easy task because chapter books can be overwhelming to JP and picture books can seem too immature for T. And, truth be told, I am having a difficult time finding recent chapter books that I even want to read aloud to my boys. So, I simply googled (yes, google is a verb in my vocabulary) classic chapter books. I searched probably a million sites, reviewed probably double the number of books. The first ones I settled on ordering were two chapter books by Alice Dalgliesh. Maybe you have heard of them, maybe you have not... maybe you have read them and treasure them and maybe you forgot all about them.... the two books we have read are "The Courage of Sarah Noble" and "The Bears on Hemlock Mountain" both were written in the 1950's and both are considered Historical Fiction (Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the action takes place in the past.) First, there was something romantic about reading wholesome books written in the 1950's. Something romantic about reading books that have stood the test of time... something our parents and our children's grandparents might have read. So, I "Amazoned and Primed" those chapter books and got them in 2 days (yep, again with the verbing of two words that are not verbs). Wow! What great books to read aloud. They were perfect to bridge the gap between the boys and I absolutely LOVED the central theme of both books. The "Courage of Sarah Noble" is a story about an 8 year-old girl named, Sarah (yes, I loved her from the start) who sets out into the wilderness with her father, leaving behind her mother and siblings and her treasure baby doll because their is no room in order to help her father build a new home (year: 1707 in Connecticut). Her task is to keep house by cleaning and cooking. Her biggest fear is crossing paths with "Indians" who might hurt her. She learns what it means to "keep up her courage" and the truth behind the Native Americans who live in the wilderness down the hill from her home. The story is filled with figurative yet simple language to accompany the simple but exciting story. Questions to ask while reading: Do you think Sarah is brave? Why does she need to keep up her courage? Why do you think Sarah's dad is nervous to bring her with him? Why does she keep her cloak with her? Why does it make her feel better? What things frighten Sarah? When Sarah's father left, why did she try not to cry? How are Sarah and Native Americans different? How are Sarah and the Native Americans the same? Why did Sarah's mother think a "squaw" couldn't keep house like she could? Vocabulary: settlement, cloak, valley, kindness, courage, wilderness, brave, comfortable "The Bears on Hemlock Mountain" is a story about a young boy named Jonathan who has to travel over Hemlock Mountain, a place that is to be inhabited by bears! EEK! Jonathan has to be brave to get over the mountain to retreive a pot from his Aunt Emma and then use quick thinking to get back over the mountain and steer clear of possible bears. This story, similar to "Sarah Noble" talks about courage and bravery. Questionst to ask while reading: Do you really think his mother like feeding all of those people? Why? Why not? How does Jonathan build his courage on the mountain? Why is he worried when he hears the dripping sound coming from the mountain? How do you think he felt when he was under the pot hiding from the bears? Why didn't his mother just call his Aunt Emma and ask her to drive the pot over the mountain? What would you do if you saw a bear? Vocabulary: scamper, courage, munched, truthfully, comfortable, wilderness chattering, muffler, Figurative language: drip, tick-tock, Purr-rr-rr, crack, crunch Both stories have the central theme of keeping up your courage and being brave. So, we used a few strategies to help us Make Connections (Schema is the background knowledge and experience readers bring to the text. Good readers draw on prior knowledge and experience to help them understand what they are reading and are thus able to use that knowledge to make connections.We used Text-Text connections and text-to self connections. These are easy to talk about, just start by asking, "What did this story make you think about? Have you ever experienced having to keep up your courage? Or have you ever gone on a trip by yourself? And then you can have them make connections between the book by using a Venn Diagarm to compare and contrast the stories and the main characters.

Here are a few other activities you could consider doing with your kiddo: 1. Work on having your child retell a summary by answering these three questions:Who was the main character? What was the problem? What was the solution? 2. Talk about sequencing by typing out main ideas from each chapter and have him or her put them in order. Or have them draw pictures of the story in sequence. These books would be good read alouds for ages late 4- 8 or 9 and good independent reading for ages 7-9 (depending on your child's independent reading level). Please feel free to ask questions and leave comments!