Reading Ideas and Book Finds

What's in a Name? 

I love books! As a reading  teacher, I love it even more when a student surprises me with an astute observation!

I am reading Winn Dixie with my 5th graders. The students were reading independently and a new character was introduced. The character's name is "Gloria Dump." One of my students said to me, "Wow, look at this character's name. The words don't belong together, but they really describe the character." 
I actually did a double take as my book geek teacher-self yelled "YES! " inside my head! We had a great discussion about the character, her personality, and how they relate to her name! 

So Many Books.... So Little Time !

The Pout Pout Fish 
By: Deborah Diesen


A cute, rhyming picture book about a gloomy fish who discovers that being glum isn't really his destiny. I love the beautiful, engaging illustrations in this book!



I love this book as a read aloud! Of course there are many teachable attributes. There are rhyming patterns, the ocean habitat, or the theme of friendship. There is also a variety of emotions on the other sea creatures in the story.

A Poetry Read Aloud

Here is a fun story written by Andrew Clements. I fell in love with this book when I saw it at my school book fair last week!

Dogku has a haiku on every page, but is also a clever little story about a stray dog who finds a home. I can read it to my first graders and then have them write their own little dog stories. I can read it to my 5th graders and then have them write their own haiku books. The text also lends itself to making inferences.

Making Inferences

One of my followers mentioned she loves finding new books for teaching the comprehension strategy of making inferences.
I struggled with this concept year after year. When I started using picture books to introduce inferences, it started to click more for me and the kidos!

Here are a few of my favorite books to teach inference:
The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg
The Three Pigs by David Wiesner
Flotsam by David Wiesner
Big Al by Andrew Clements
                                                 Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague

To teach inference I sometimes cover up the text of a picture book and making inferences about the pictures. I then go back to read the story. We compare our visual interpretations with the text. We also talk about how we may have made predictions instead of inferences. 

Happy Reading!