Here's are some of our favs - Part I :)

Books meant for little ones but edifying for everyone!
Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo [Thank you, Terri Cramer!]
Rules by Cynthia Lord [Thank you, Carol Wilcox!]
The Underneath by Kathy Appelt
One Boy
One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II
Across the Alley
A Circle of Friends
Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech
The One O'Clock Chop by Ralph Fletcher
Big Words for Little People by Jamie Lee Curtis
Bats at the Library by B. Lies
Brothers by Yin
Henry's Freedom Box
That Book Woman by Heather Henson
Wave by Suzy Lee

Great Book for Parents:
Look Who's Learning to Read: 50 Fun Ways to Instill a Love of Reading in Young Children by Shelley Harwayne
[And thank you Wanda Coleman for the supportive "empty nest" books, too!]

Wonderful Resource for Presenters and Teachers:
Presentation Zen [Thank you, Angela Peery!]

Books for Big People :)
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
Summer People by Brian Groh
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Dream Me Home Safely: Writers on Growing Up in America
The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading by Spufford
The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading
The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
A New Earth

Dave Benson nominated for Colorado Teacher of the Year!

Tim and I salute our favorite history teacher and ask you to join us in lifting up our glasses to Dave! We are so proud of you, Sweetie! Hooray!!

Benson's Best Books of 2008

A Benson family tradition is sharing some of favorite reads from the year with all of you as a wee holiday gift. We will soon be adding our "best books" to my blog (We just have to finish up a few Christmas tasks first!). For some of our thoughts, look back to my August 12 entries for a list of some of our recent favorites (The first long lists are mostly for educators. The next listings should include some interesting titles for all passionate readers.).

One to share now: How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor

Please check back in soon for our updated and more inclusive list. Also, we love hearing your recommendations. So, please offer us your "best books" ideas...and any of your favorite movies or plays for the year, too. :) [We DO love stories.] Wishing you abundant joy, glowing peace, and infinite love now and always. Happy holidays!
Dave, Laura, and Tim Benson (with hugs from Buddy and Chester) xoxoxo

Short and SPIRITED Texts

Going Short to Go Long: Supporting Students' Literacy Growth and Passion with Short and Spirited Texts
(c) Laura Benson

[*Cutting and pasting these notes into this blog template is creating some adjustments in formatting. Please forgive the lack of italics and alignment here.]

Finding short and spirited texts for students, I often harvest texts from unusual and often free sources. Here are some of my favorite “beg, borrow, and steal” wells of short and spirited texts:
+STUDENT-AUTHORED TEXTS: First and foremost, I turn to these. The writing students produce can provide us with superb short texts. Student-authored texts often represent not only excellent sources of brief and motivating texts but accessible language/vocabulary and schema, too. A huge bonus – student authors always give us permission to duplicate their writing make their pieces perfect for book clubs, guided reading, and shared reading!

+NEWSPAPER ARTICLES: Reflecting on my life as reader, newspapers launch my day. It’s like newspaper reading is my brain warm up for the rest of the day. Every newspaper contains a variety of genres and styles of writing. So, now, as I read the paper each morning and linger over two or three papers each Sunday, I do so with a pair of scissors to snatch that “just right” piece for a current group of students. When you read the newspaper, think outside of the box, too. How about using a map or the captions to new photographs as the text for your next small group (guided reading, interactive writing group, book club, etc.)? What about turning to your own newspaper reading to develop your next reading comprehension demonstration? Why not steer students to book reviews and movie reviews from your favorite journalists to help the kids know how to craft their own powerful synthesis texts?

+FREEBIES: With your teaching antennas tuned in to short and spirited texts, you will soon find millions of free texts as you go about your daily life in and out of school. Free texts such as museum and art exhibit brochures; community newsletters; flyers; computer manuals; insurance form or tax form direction cards; book store bookmarks (which often profile biographical information about authors);

+FREE TIME PASSIONS: What students love to do outside of school and how they learn beyond our classrooms can give us a bounty of short and spirited texts.
o CD jacket covers frequently offer juicy information about the singer or band as well as insights about how the composer gets and crafts his/her ideas for music making.
o Photo Albums, especially with captions, are compelling short and spirited texts and can often be connected to many content area themes or literacy studies.
o Pet care guides or reference texts are fabulous options for bringing concise and motivating texts into students’ lives. Each time we take our pets to the vet, I come home with excellent – and short – examples of nonfiction texts complete with supportive graphics, too.

+WORLD WIDE WEB: Google www [just about any topic or author’s name] and you will find so many which will draw you into the site more deeply. Among all these treasures, I can consistently find texts which reflect students’ passions, strengths, and/or needs.

+MAGAZINES: I adore magazines of all kinds. I cannot pass by a rack of free magazines outside a store or recycled magazines at our local library without stuffing a few in my bag (not to mention that magazine “logs” stuffing my mailbox each week)! I almost always have a pair of scissors as I read magazines because I find so many short and spirited texts for Pre-K to 12th grade students (Think pictures for younger students and longer pieces such as book reviews, essays, one page biographies, and a provocative chart for older students.). A few periodicals that my son, nieces, nephews, and students have loved include:
o Adventure Box
o American Girls
o Appleseed
o Ask
o Baby Bug
o Boy’s Life
o Boy’s Quest
o Brio
o Calliope
o Career World
o Chickadee
o Children’s Digest
o Chirp
o Cicada
o Comics (numerous titles)
o Cousteau Kids
o Creative Kids
o Cricket
o Crinkles
o Dig
o Disney Adventures
o Dogs for Kids
o ESPN Magazine
o Girls’ Life
o Highlights
o Hopscotch
o Horn Book
o Humpty Dumpty
o Jack and Jill
o Junior Baseball
o Kid Zone
o Kids Discover
o Kids On Wheels
o Ladybug
o Muse
o National Geographic for Little Kids
o Nick
o Owl
o Ranger Rick
o Scholastic News
o Skipping Stones
o Spider
o Sports Illustrated for Kids
o Teen People (in English and in Spanish)
o Time for Kids
o Tracks
o Turtle
o Weekly Reader
o Winner
o Young Rider
o Your Big Backyard
o Zillions
o Zoo Books
+POETRY: Poems are perfect for the pocket reading, another way my students and I describe short and spirited texts because they are small enough for us to easily carry them around. Every child should know and come to love poetry because it is good for the soul. To keep joy at the center of their reading practice with poetry, I often develop rituals such as Theater Thursday. During the week, as child read and find a favorite poem, they have the opportunity to practice the poem as if it is a script so that they can read or act out the poem to us on Thursday afternoon (Students are also encouraged to find favorite scenes in the fiction or biography they read and exciting facts in creating readers’ theater sharing during our Theater Thursday rituals.). Sometimes students read their poem alone and sometimes students perform a poem with peers (The kids have time to meet, discuss, and practice their performance during Readers’ Workshop and/or D.E.A.R./Drop Everything And Read time after lunch.). Mastery of a short poem would cause students to feel confident and successful early in the program, similar to the success that other researchers found in the use of short texts in conjunction with fluency development (Rasinski, Padak, Linek, & Sturtevant, 1994) and gains in students’ comprehension and motivation (Homan, Klesius, & Hite, 1993; Moyer, 1982; Rasinski, 2000). For these reasons and more, draw from the following cornucopias of poetry to infuse poems into your students’ independent reading, collaborative reading or guided reading, and for our modeling, too.

*POETRY collections:
o Baseball, Snakes, and Summer Squash: Poems About Growing Up by Donald Graves
o The Book Worms Feast: A Potluck of Poems by Lewis
o The Bug in Teacher’s Coffee and Other School Poems by Kalli Dakoss
o Definitions by Sara Holbrook
o The Dog Ate My Homework by Sara Holbrook
o Extra Innings: Baseball Poems by Lee Bennett Hopkins
o A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children by Caroline Kennedy
o Fireflies in the Night by Jonathan London
o the flag of childhood: poems from the middle east Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
o Fold Me a Poem by Kristin O’Connell George
o The Forest Has Eyes by Bev Doolittle and Elise Maclay
o The Great Frog Race by Kristin O’Connell George
o Heartsongs by Mattie Stepanek [CHILD POET]
o Hello School! A Classroom Full of Poems by Dee Lillegard
o Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems by Eloise Greenfield
o if there would be no light… by Sahara Sunday Spain [CHILD POET]
o In the Land of Words by Eloise Greenfield
o It’s About Dogs by Tony Johnston, Tony
o A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms selected by Paul Janeczko
o Least Things: Poems About Small Natures by Jane Yolen
o Like Butter On Pancakes by Jonathan London
o Little Dog Poems and Little Dog and Duncan by Kristine O’Connell George
o Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
o Me I Am! by Jack Prelutsky [book-length poem]
o Mountain Dance by Thomas Locker
o Ordinary Things: Poems from a Walk in Early Spring by Ralph Fletcher
o Pass it On: An African American Poetry for Children by Wade Hudson
o Popcorn by James Stevenson
o Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems by Kristin O’Connell George
o Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems by Kristin O’Connell George
o Wham! It’s a Poetry Jam: Discovering Performance Poetry by Sara Holbrook
o Wonderful Words by Lee Bennett Hopkins
o A Writing Kind of Day: Poems for Young Poets by Ralph Fletcher
o Zany Zoo by William Wise

Novels written in poetic form:
*Creech, Sharon Hate That Cat
*Creech, Sharon Heartbeat
*Creech, Sharon Love That Dog
*Myers, Walter Dean Monster [for high school and college level students]

Poet Author Studies: I love connecting students to the poetry of the following poets because their poems are invitations. Their poems say “Come in. Read me.” and “You can do this, too! Put your thoughts into a poem…and grow your readers’ hearts!”
§ Students as Mentor Poets
§ Maya Angelou
§ Byrd Baylor
§ Billy Collins
§ Sharon Creech
§ Douglas Florian
§ Robert Frost
§ Kristin O’Connell George
§ Donald Graves
§ Eloise Greenfield
§ Nikki Grimes
§ Georgia Heard
§ Sara Holbrook
§ Lee Bennett Hopkins
§ Langston Hughes
§ Paul Januzco
§ Jonathan London
§ George Ella Lyon
§ Sharon Olds
§ Valerie Worth
§ Jane Yolen
§ Charlotte Zolotow
§

NONFICTION TEXTS: Take an appetizer out of a longer volume of nonfiction to create a rich and juicy short text for your students’ guided reading or independent reading. For example, in studying clouds with students during our weather unit, I have drawn one to four page pieces from Spencer Christian’s It’s Raining Cats and Dogs (while also giving students a variety of other texts and genres so that they can read about clouds
v Dogs and Cats by Steve Jenkins
v Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women by Catherine Thimmesh and Melissa Sweet
v Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What is an Adjective? by Brian Cleary
v It’s Raining Cats & Dogs by Spencer Christian
v What a Great Idea! Inventions That Changed Our Lives
v On Earth by Brian Karas
v Only You by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
v Owen and Mzee by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff and Paula Kahumbu
v Thank You, World by Alice B. McGinty
v Tiger Math by Ann Whitehead Nagda
v Transformed: How Everyday Things Are Made by Bill Slavin
v Until I Met Dudley: How Everyday Things Really Work by Roger McGough & Chris Riddell
v We by Alice Shertle
v We Are One by Ysaye Barnwell & Brian Pinkney
v What Stinks? by Marilyn Singer

Nonfiction Mentors for Author Study:
§ Aliki
§ Melvin Berger
§ Franklyn Branley
§ Joanna Cole
§ Donald Crews
§ Lois Ehlert
§ Allan Fowler
§ Rita Golden Gelman
§ Gail Gibbons
§ Linda Glasser
§ Ruth Heller
§ Barnabas & Annabel Kindersley
§ Patricia Lauber
§ Milton Meltzer
§ Charles Micucci
§ Ann Morris
§ Ifeoma Onyefulu
§ Mary Pope Osborne
§ Jerry Pallotta
§ Laurence Pringle
§ Seymour Simon
§ Gail Saunders Smith
§ Jane Yolen
§ Also, check out all the authors who contribute to www.guysread.com



BIOGRAPHIES & HISTORICAL FICTION
v Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America by Sharon Robinson
v John’s Secret Dreams by Doreen Rappaport
v Rosa by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Bryan Collier
v Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson


Living Literate Lives Text Set
Living a Literate Life
Amber on the Mountain – Tony Johnston
Aunt Chip and the Triple Creek Dam Affair – Patricia Polacco
Book – George Ella Lyon
The Girl Who Hated Books – Manjusha Pawagi
I Can Read with My Eyes Shut – Dr. Suess
Library Lil – Suzanne Williams
Oh, How I Wished I Could Read – John Gile
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! – Dr. Seuss
Oh, the Thinks You Can Think – Dr. Seuss
More Than Anything Else – Marie Bradby
Papa’s Stories – Delores Johnson
Read to Me Momma – Vashanti Rahaman
Richard Wright and the Library Card – William Miller
Thank You, Mr. Faulker – Patricia Polacco
Wednesday Surprise – Eve Bunting
Wolf – Becky Bloom

Journal Book BundleWhile some of the following texts are collections, I draw short and spirited selections from them for modeling, collaborative practice, and students’ independent reading. Additionally, to create their short and spirited texts journal or diary type texts, the following mentor text offer students a variety of ways to structure their own journal/diary writing.
Adshead, Paul Puzzle Island
Cronin, Doreen Diary of a Worm
Filopovic, Zlata Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo Fitzhugh, Louise Harriet the SpyHunter, Latoya The Diary of Latoya Hunter: My First Year in Jr. HighMoss, Marissa Amelia’s Notebooks (numerous titles)Park, Barbara Junie B., First Grader (at last!)Snyder, Carol Memo: To Myself When I Have A Teenage KidTalbott, Hudson Safari Journal
Wardlaw, Lee 101 Ways To Bug Your ParentsWatt, Melanie Chester (journal style writing, animals as writers)
Wilder, Laura Ingalls On The Way Home
LETTERS
Dear Children of Earth: A Letter from Home – Schim Schimmel
Dear Dragon…and Other Useful Letter Forms for Young Ladies and Gentlemen Engaged in Everyday Correspondence –Sesyle Joslin
Dear Mr. Blueberry – James Simon
The Jolly Christmas Postman – Janet and Allan Ahlberg
The Jolly Postman, of Other People’s Letters – Janet and Allan Ahlberg
The Teacher from the Black Lagoon – Mike Thaler
Ada, Alma Flor With Love, Little Red HenAda, Alma Flor Yours Truly, Goldilocks
Ahlberg, Janet & Allen The Jolly Postman Or Other’s People’s Letters The Jolly Pocket Postman Banotuk, Nick Griffin and Sabine (trilogy) Caseley, Judith Dear AnnieChristelow, Eileen Letter From a Desperate Dog
Cleary, Beverly Dear Mr. HenshawCronin, Doreen Click Clack Moo Cows That Type
Diary of a Spider
Diary of a Worm
Giggle Giggle Quack
Dannenberg, Julie First Year Letters
Day, Alexandra Special DeliveriesDupasquier, Philippe Dear Daddy...Fox, Mem Dear Mem Fox, I Have Read All Your Books Even The Pathetic OnesGeorge, Jean Dear Rebecca, Winter Is HereGiff, Patricia Reilly The War Began at Supper: Letter To Miss LoriaJames, Simon Dear Mr. BlueberryJohnston, Tony Amber On The MountainNagda, Ann Whitehead Dear WhiskersNichol, Barbara Beethoven Lives UpstairsNordlicht, Lillian A Medal for MikeNye, Naomi Shihab Sitti’s Secret
Pak, Soyung Dear JunoPomerantz, Charlotte The Birthday Letters Ross, Tony Little Wolf’s Book of BadnessSelway, Martina Don’t Forget To WriteWhybrow, Ian Little Wolf’s Book of Badness


PICTURE BOOKS
An earnest plea: Picture books are very much a forever genre for our students and for us. If you teach students in third grade and above and especially if you are secondary teachers, continue to guide your students to picture books. Many picture books focus on content or messages intended for more mature readers. All picture books represent an invitation to Pre-K to 12th grade writers; picture books are a genre worth all students writing study and practice.
v Alice & Anatole by Sam Childs
v Am I a Color Too? by Heidi Cole & Nancy Vogl
v The Boy Who Love Words
v Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan by Mary Williams
v Carmine: A Little More Read by Melissa Sweet
v Charlie Cook’s Favorite Book by Julia Donaldson
v The Golden Rule by Ilene Cooper
v Imagine by
v Is There a Human Race? by Jamie Lee Curtis
v Hubert Horatio Bartle Bobton-Trent by Lauren Child
v How Much? Visiting Markets Around the World by Ted Lewin
v Keep Climbing, Girls by Beah Richards
v Letter From a Desperate Dog by Eileen Christelow
v The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq by Jeanette Winter
v Meet Wild Boars by Meg Rosoff & Sophie Blackall
v The Milestone Project by Richard Steckel and Michele Steckel
v Miss Malarkey Doesn’t Live in Room 10 by Judy Finchler
v My Librarian Is a Camel by Margriet Ruurs
v No Dogs Allowed! by Sonia Manzano
v The Pickle Patch Bathtub by Frances Kennedy
v Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
v The Secret by Lindsay Barrett George
v The Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson
v Tsunami: Helping Each Other by Ann Morris and Heidi Larson
v What a Family by Rachel Isadora
v Why War is Never a Good Idea by Alice Walker
v Wild About Books by Judy Sierra
v


Humor Texts
Calmenson, Stephanie What Am I? Very First RiddlesdePaola, Tomie Hey Diddle Diddle and Other Mother Goose RhymesKeane, Bil Pun-Abridged Dictionary
Merriam, Eve Higgle Wiggle: Happy RhymesO’Donnell, Rosie Kids Are Funny 1 & 2Terban, Marvin In A Pickle and Other Funny IdiomsFunk, Charles Hog On Ice & Other Curious Expressions.
Gwynne, Fred Chocolate Moose for Dinner
Gwynne, Fred The King Who Rained
Wonderful Pictures Books for Grades 3 – 12


Literary Focus
Character Analysis
Amazing Grace – Mary Hoffman
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters – John Steptoe
Oliver Button is a Sissy – Tomie dePaola
Conflict/Resolution
Agatha’s Featherbed – Carmen Agra Deddy
Creativity & Topic Generation
A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog – Mercer Mayer
A Boy, a Dog, A Frog and A Friend – Mercer Mayer
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – Judith Viorst
The First Forest – John Gile
Flying Saucer Full of Spaghetti – Fernando Krahn
Freefall – David Wiesner
Frog Goes to Dinner – Mercer Mayer
Frog on His Own – Mercer Mayer
Frog Where are You? – Mercer Mayer
Fortunately – Reny Charlip
The Fortune Tellers – Lloyd Alexander
The Important Book – Margaret Wise Brown
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick – Chris Van Allsburg
The Paper Bag Princess – Robert Munsch
The Relatives Came – Cynthia Rylant
Squids will be Squids - Jon Scieszka
Time Flies – Chris Can Allsburg
Tuesday – David Wiesner
Parody
The Book that Jack Wrote - Jon Scieszka
The Frog Prince Continued - Jon Scieszka
Slender Ella and Her Fairy Hogfather – Vivian Sathre
The Stinky Cheese Man - Jon Scieszka
Grammar, Conventions, & Parts of Speech
Behind the Mask: A Book About Prepositions – Ruth Heller
A Cache of Jewels and Other Collective Nouns – Ruth Heller
Eats, Shoots, & Leaves: Why Commas Really DO Make a Difference! - Lynn Truss
Fantastic! Wow! and Unreal!: A Book About Interjections and Conjunctions – Ruth Heller
Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What is an Adjective? - Brian Cleary
Kites Sail High: A Book About Verbs – Ruth Heller
Many Luscious Lollipops: A Book About Adjectives – Ruth Heller
Merry-Go-Round: A Book About Nouns – Ruth Heller
Mine, All Mine: A Book About Pronouns – Ruth Heller
Up, Up and Away: A Book About Adverbs – Ruth Heller
The War Between the Vowels and the Consonants – Priscilla Turner
Personification
Chester – Melanie Watt
George & Martha – James Marshall
Mouse Soup – Arnold Lobel
Owl at Home – Arnold Lobel
Stella Luna – Janell Cannon

Play on Words/Vocabulary Focus
A Chocolate Moose For Dinner – Fred Gwynne
Crash, Bang, and Boom – Peter Spier
Fingers are Always Bringing Me News – May O’Neil
The King Who Rained – Fred Gwynne
Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Distaster – Debra Frasier
Ounce Dice Trice – Alastar Reid
Previously – Allan Ahlberg
The Sixteen Hand Horse – Fred Gwynne
What is that Sound – May O’Neil
What is that Thing? Whose Stuff if This? – John Gile
Point of View
Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing – Judi & Ron Barrett
Encounter – Jane Yolen
Morning Milking – Linda Morris
Piggie Pie! – Margie Palatini
Somebody and the Three Blairs
Something Beautiful – Sharon Wyeth
The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig – Eugene Trivizas
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs – Jon Scieszka
Setting
The Three Little Javelina’s – Susan Lowell
Symbolism
Fly Away Home – Even Bunting
The Roosters Gift – Pam Conrad

Wordless Picture Books
Dylan’s Day Out – Peter Catalanotto
Why? – Nikolai Popov

s
Social Studies
African American History
Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom – Walter Dean Myers
At the Crossroads – Rachel Isadora
Black Snowman – Jacob Miller
Chicken Sunday – Patricia Polacco
Christmas in the Big House/Christmas in the Quarters – Patricia McKissack
Cornrows – Camille Yarbrough
From Slave Ship to Freedom Road – Rod Brown
Follow the Drinking Gourd – Jeanete Winter
Harlem – Walter Dean Myers
Smoky Night – Eve Bunting
The Sound that Jazz Makes – Carole Boston Weatherford
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt – Deborah Hopkinson
Tar Beach – Faith Ringgold
Through My Eyes – Ruby Bridges
The Wagon – Tony Johnston
Ancient Civilizations
Hieroglyphs from A to Z – Peter Der Manuelian
Look at the Moon – May Garelick
Asian American History
Grandfather’s Journey – Allen Say
Stranger in the Mirror – Allen Say
Biographies
Amelia and Elanor Go for a Ride – Pam Munoz Ryan
Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare – Diane Stanley
Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations – Diane Stanley
Cleopatra – Diane Stanley
Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes – Floyd Cooper
Duke Ellington – Andrea Davis Pikney
Eleanor – Barbara Cooney
Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England – Diane Stanley
Joan of Arc – Diane Stanley
Leonardo Da Vinci – Diane Stanley
Michelangelo- Diane Stanley
Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman – Alan Schroeder
My Dream of Martin Luther King – Faith Ringgold
Peter the Great – Diane Stanley

Civil Rights Movement
Freedom School, Yes! – Amy Littlesugar
I Have a Dream – Martin Luther King, Jr.
If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks – Faith Ringgold
Civil War
Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky – Faith Ringgold
Diary of a Drummer Boy – Marlene Brill
Pink and Say – Patricia Polacco
The Promise Quilt – Candice Ransom
Colonial America
The First Thanksgiving – Jean Craighead George
On the Mayflower – Kate Waters
Samuel Eaton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy – Kate Waters
Sarah Morton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl – Kate Waters
The Thanksgiving Story – Alice Dalgliesh
Depression Era
The Gardener – Sarah Stewart
Potato – Kate Lied
Something Permanent – Cynthia Rylant
Immigration
A Day’s Work – Eve Bunting
How Many Days to America? – Eve Bunting
Immigrant Kids – Russell Freedman
Peppe the Lamplighter – Elisa Bartone
The Memory Coat – Elvira Woodruff
My Grandmother’s Journey – John Cech
Watch the Stars Come Out – Riki Levinson
When I First Came to This Land – Harriet Ziefert
Native American History
Abuelita’s Heart – Amy Cordova
Children of the Earth and Sky – Stephen Krensky
Hiawatha – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Knots on a Counting Rope – Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush – Tomie dePaola
Love Flute – Paul Goble

Religions
The Faith Club [to pull short vignettes]
Hanukkah – Miriam Nerlove
Just Plain Fancy – Patricia Polacco
Mrs. Katz and Tush – Patricia Polacco
Tikvah Means Hope – Patricia Polacco
The Trees of the Dancing Goats – Patricia Polacco
What is Hanukkah? – Harriet Ziefert
Revolutionary War
Boston Tea Party – Pamela Edwards
Paul Revere’s Ride – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Vietnam
Grandfather’s Dream – Holly Keller
Journey Home – Lawrence McKay
Sweet Dried Apples: A Vietnamese Wartime Childhood – Rosemary Breckler
The Wall – Eve Bunting
War/Conflict
All Those Secrets of the World – Jane Yolen
The Butter Battle Book – Dr. Suess
The Cello of Mr. O – Jane Cutler
Westward Expansion
Going West – Jean Van Leeuwen
Gold Fever – Verla Kay
World War II/Holocaust
Baseball Saved Us – Ken Mochizuki
The Bracelet – Yoshiko Uchida
The Butterfly – Patricia Polacco
The Faithful Elephants – Yukio Tsuchiya
Hiding from the Nazis – David Adler
Let the Celebrations Begin – Margaret Wild
The Lily Cupboard: A Story of the Holocaust – Shulamith Oppenheim
One Yellow Daffodil – David Adler
Pearl Harbor Child – Dorinda Nicholson
Rose Blanche – Roberto Innocetti
Star of Fear, Star of Hope – Jo Hoestlandt
Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust – Eve Bunting
Science

*See texts and web pages from Steve Spangler

Animals
Animals Nobody Loves – Seymour Simon
Big Cats – Seymour Simon
Bird Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
Butterfly Alphabet – Kjell Sandved
The Butterfly Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
Crocodiles and Alligators – Seymour Simon
The Freshwater Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
Frog Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
Furry Animal Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
Gorillas – Seymour Simon
How to Hide a Crocodile – Ruth Heller
How to Hide a Parakeet – Ruth Heller
The Icky Bug Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
They Walk the Earth: The Extraordinary Travel of Animals on Land – Seymour Simon
Saving Endangered Birds! Ensuring a Future in the Wild – Thane Maynard
Snakes – Seymour Simon
Wolves - Seymour Simon
Yucky Reptile Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
Biography
Starry Messenger – Peter Sis
Talking with Adventurers – Pat Cummings
Climates
Antarctic Diary – Trish Hart
The Desert Alphabet Book - Jerry Palotta
Deserts – Seymour Simon
Icebergs and Glaciers - Seymour Simon
Ecology/Nature
Earth Keeper – Joan Anderson
Everglades – J. C. George
The Great Kapok Tree – Lynn Cherry
Just a Dream – Chris Van Allsburg
Loon Lake – Ron Hirschi
Marshes and Swamps – Gail Gibbons
Wildfires - Seymour Simon
Vanishing Habitats – Noel Simon
Volcanoes – Seymour Simon
Experiments/Observations
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
Peanuts, Popcorn, Ice Cream, Candy and Soda Pop: How They Began by Solveig Russell
June 29, 1999 by David Wiesner
Human Body
Bones: Our Skeletal System – Seymour Simon
The Brain: Our Nervous System – Seymour Simon
The Heart: Our Circulatory System – Seymour Simon
It’s Disgusting & You Ate It!
Muscles: Our Muscular System – Seymour Simon
Stephen Biesty’s Incredible Body – S. Richard Platt
Planets and Space
Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids - Seymour Simon
Destination: Jupiter - Seymour Simon
Destination: Mars– Seymour Simon
Galaxies – Seymour Simon
Mars – Seymour Simon
Mercury – Seymour Simon
Neptune – Seymour Simon
Nova’s Ark – David Kirk
Our Solar System – Seymour Simon
Saturn – Seymour Simon
Stars – Seymour Simon
Sun – Seymour Simon
The Universe - Seymour Simon
Uranus – Seymour Simon
Venus - Seymour Simon
Plants
The Flower Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
The Tiny Seed – Eric Carle
Sea Life
Dory Story – Jerry Pallotta
The Ocean Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
Oceans – Seymour Simon
Out of the Ocean – Debra Frasier
Sea Songs – Myra Livingston
Sharks - Seymour Simon
They Swim the Seas: The Mysteries of Animal Migration – Seymour Simon
The Underwater Alphabet Book – Jerry Pallotta
Whales - Seymour Simon
Weather
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – Judi Barrett
Earthquakes - Seymour Simon
It’s Raining Cats & Dogs – Spencer Christian
Lightening – Seymour Simon
Storms - Seymour Simon
Snowflake Bentley – Jacqueline Martin
Tornadoes - Seymour Simon
Weather - Seymour Simon
Math Picture Books
Division
Divide and Ride – Stuart Murphy
The Doorbell Rang – Pat Hutchins
How Hungry are You? – Donna Napoli
A Remainder of One – Elinor J. Pinczes
Fractions
Eating Fractions – Bruce McMillian
Fraction Action – Loreen Leedy
Fraction Fun –David Adler
Gator Pie – Louise Matthews
Hershey’s Fraction Book – Pat Hutchins
Skittles Riddles – Barbara McGrath
Estimation
Betcha! – Stuart Murphy
Geometry
A Cloak for the Dreamer –Aileen Friedman
The Greedy Triangle – Marilyn Burns
The King’s Chessboard – David Burch
Sir Cumfrance and the Dragon of Pi - Cindy Neuschwander
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table – Cindy Neuschwander
Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland: A Math Adventure – Cindy Neuschwander
Spaghetti and Meatballs for All: A Mathematical Story – Marilyn Burns

Graphing
Lemonade for Sale – Stuart Murphy
Tiger Math - Ann Whitehead Nagda

Math Concepts:
A Dozen Dozens – Harriet Ziefert
Anno’s Math Games – Mitsumasa Anno
Anno’s Magic Seeds – Mitsumasa Anno
The Best Vacation Ever – Stuart Murphy
Counting of Frank – Rod Clement
A Dollar for Penny – Julie Glass
The Fly on the Ceiling: A Math Myth – Julie Glass
G is for Google – Stephen Kellogg
The Grapes of Math – Greg Tang
Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? – Robert Wells
Knots on a Counting Rope – Bill Martin & John Archambault
Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems – Lee Bennett Hopkins
Math Curse – Jon Scieszka
Math Riddles – Harriet Ziefert
More M&M’s Brand Chocolate Candies Math – Barbara McGrath
Mother Goose Math – Harriet Ziefert
Oh, Beyond a Million: An Amazing Math Journey – David Schwartz
One Grain of Rice – Demi
One Hundred Hungry Ants – Elinor Pinczes
Measurement
How Tall, How Short, How Far Away – David Adler
Room for Ripley – Stuart Murphy
Super Sandcastle Saturday – Stuart Murphy
Twelve Snails to One Lizard: A Tale of Mischief and Measurement – Susan Hightower
Multiplication
Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream- Cindy Neuschwander
The Amazing Pop-Up Multiplication Book – Kate Petty
Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar – Mitsumasa Anno
Bats on Parade – Kathi Appelt
The Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Multiplication Book – Jerry Pallotta
Percentages
Twizzlers Percentages Book - – Jerry Pallotta
Probability
Jumanji-Chris Van Allsburg
Probably Pistachio – Stuart Murphy
Tangrams
Grandfather Tang’s Story – Ann Tompert

POWER HOUSE: A Tribute to Dr. Angela Peery

In honor and gratitude for a treasured mentor and beloved friend, Dr. Angela Peery...
Angela, you grow my thinking to new vistas. Your wisdom lights my path. Please know that YOU make a difference in the lives of thousands of children and educators. We are blessed by your energy, brilliance, and integrity. Here's to you - our sage, our own "Nancy Grace-Parker Palmer" power house of pedagogy!

"In her classroom our speculations ranged the world.
She breathed curiosity into us, so that each morning we came to her carrying new truths, new facts, new ideas, cupped and sheltered in our hands like captured fireflies."
John Steinbeck

ROCKET FUELS for Learning: Questioning and Inferring Strategies to Support Student Engagement

UNLIMITED ENGAGEMENT!
Questioning and Inferring: Rocket Fuels for Learning!

Brain Show & Tell: Model your rocket fuel brain work - why and how you wonder and infer before, during, and after you read/learn/view/etc. and practice the self talk of great thinkers with students:
o “I wonder….”
o “I bet…”
o “I think ____ will happen because…”
o “Why did they….?”
o “What…when…where…how…why…?”
o “I am really curious about….because…”
o I wonder…I found out…”
o “I bet…I knew it…&/or I was surprised to learn…”


Go Public: Publish students’ insights by building an Anchor Chart with students. This serves as a touchstone as you work with your students to define the why's and how's of questioning and inferring (and later this ritual can be a touchstone for harvesting students’ questions and inferences in units of study for any/all content areas). Add guiding questions as students innovate, discover, or learn new questioning-inferring self talk.
o See Bloom question examples
o Provide students with bookmarks to nudge their questioning and predicting as they engage in independent and partner work. Please see my “Thinking Strategy Bookmarks” and “Stop Sign Reading” tools as well as some of my articles (especially "Deep Thinking").
o Offer students a choice of (previously modeled) advanced organizers to guide their meaning making and trigger their own questioning and inferring.


Word Clues: Key Word Prediction
o Working in small, cooperative groups, give each cluster a collection of magazine pictures (or photographs) with the invitation to predict the content or key points you will make in studying a current unit of study/focus topic.
§ Study your picture set and choose one provocative print. Make your choice with this question as your compass: “What do you predict we will discuss as we explore (this topic)?” or “What do you think we will be studying today?” or “What do you predict this word has to do with ________ (current focus/unit of study)?”
o Adaptations: Picture Prediction, Picture Prediction Walk, video clips as text/key words

Title Tip: Turn the title of the text into a question

Go Short to Go Long! Engage students in reading, writing, and hearing short and spirited texts to marinate students in key concepts, build their schema/ background knowledge, foster their wonder and inferential thinking, and expand their confidence and motivation.
o Poetry
o Short video clip
o Letter to the editor
o Picture books
o Flash fiction
o One paragraph or one page essay
o Magazine articles
o Newspaper articles
o Songs/lyrics


In The Mind of Sherlock Holmes: Detective Thinking
o Looking for clues: reading to answer your own questions; attending to important ideas; identifying signal words
o What if…What then… thinking/writing/drawing


Get In The Game! Utilize Power Point games to ignite students’ curiosity and to launch or deepen students’ generative thinking.
o Good old Jeopardy can be a wonderful juicy vehicle for exploring questioning with students. As partners or small groups, students can develop a category for a whole class game of Jeopardy.

Reciprocal Teaching


QARS
o Utilizing student generated questions and/or end of the chapter (or other provided) questions, engage students in Question-Answer-Relationships/ QARS to marinate them in key concepts and birth their curiosity about unit of study/focus of student learning

RESEARCH QUOTES in Support of "Rocket Fuel" Pedagogy:
Proficient readers use their existing knowledge to facilitate their understanding of new ideas encountered in text.
Nell Duke & P. David Pearson, 2002

Good readers use many types of connections to help them relate and understand what they are reading. They know that background knowledge helps them relate to characters, visualize, avoid boredom, pay attention to the text, listen to other’s responses, read actively, remember information, question the text, and infer answers.
Cris Tovani, 2000

Research has shown that the improved ability to compare correlates well to increased success in academic tasks.
Robert Marzano, 2001

Thoughtful reading is only rarely a matter of flashy insight.
More often it is a gradual, groping process.
Dennie Palmer Wolf, Harvard University