Advanced Reading Instruction In Middle School: A Novel Approach - Janice I. Robbins, Rh.D.

Genre: Educational

Source: I received a copy from LibraryThing

I received this quite some time ago. I took it to school with me and completely forgot to write my review. So many books I have on my school shelves or have shared with other teachers are all about working with reluctant readers. This book is all about working with those gifted students who read well but don’t respond to the same types of lessons. 

The book starts off with information to help students choose a variety of books. From there it shows you how to help students interact with the books. I have my students keep a notebook. One of the things they use the notebook for is to write down things that pop into their head as they read. They also write down words, phrases or sentences that they find interesting for whatever reason.

There is a section that talks about asking questions about the novel. For those teachers who think that it is ridiculous that someone should talk to them about asking questions, I am here to tell you that after almost thirty years of teaching it is easy to fall into a rut. We need books like this to help remind us of all those great ideas we had when we first started teaching.

For me this book, full of ideas for the gifted reader, but  has ideas that will work for those reluctant readers as well. I loved the sections on different genres. This book is something that every beginning teacher should have.

Nonfiction Recommendations and Something for Teachers

I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters 
by Laruen Tarshis

I have always enjoyed these true stories.  I purchased this book to put on my classroom shelves and had to read it first myself.  This one contained stories about the 2011 Tsunami that took out the power plant in Japan.  I was very familiar with most of that information.  There was a story about the Titanic which we are currently reading about in class.  The Henryville tornado of 2012 was just a couple of years ago.  I was very intrigued with the Children's Blizzard of 1888 since I grew up in Indiana.  I lived in the country and was very familiar with tying ropes from a post on the porch of our house to our wash house, then out to the garage where we kept our chickens, to the barn and finally out to the gate and then the hog houses so we could feed them.  I learned a lot about this blizzard I had never known before. The one I enjoyed the most was the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.  I had heard it mentioned once or twice before but had never read anything about it.  Lauren Tarshis does a fabulous job of making all of the information interesting to the reader.  i also love that after each one she gives information on other similar incidents and gives a list of resources so the reader can do more of their own research.  I really can't wait for my students to read this book.


World's Scariest Prisons by Emma Carlson Berne

This is another wonderful book I purchased for my class. If I know my students and I do, they will look at the title and think this is a book about haunted prisons.  I know I did.  This book describes different prisons from all over the world.  I never thought of teh Roman colosseum as a prison, yet it was.  Each story starts with a fact card at the top. This card lets you know the other names it went by.  It tells you where it is located, the years it was in operation, the number of prisoners and any notable inmates.  I was surprised to learn that social status and money could and often played a role in how a prisoner was treated, what they ate or their accommodations. Just in case you were disappointed about this not being a book about haunted prisons, there are a couple of stories about ghosts in some of the prisons.  I found this to be a very informative book and I'm sure my students will lvoe it as well.


For all of my teacher friends out there I have something for you.

3-Minute Motivators by Kathy Paterson
This book is full of quick little motivators to use when students are lagging. There is a lot of visualization used throughout the book. favorite is found on page 136 "The Unfair Test". Growing up I hated pop quizzes. I considered them to be extremely unfair. I swore I would never do this. In this activity you give a pop quiz and ask questions like "What is H2O", "What is this (hold up a pencil). The reason this test is unfair is because the only correct and acceptable answers are the ridiculous ones such as, H2O is "a home for fish" orthe pencils is "a back scratcher". The different tasks are coded by subjects and whether it is an individual, group or team activity. They also tell you when and why you can use the motivator. There are so many I really want to try with my students.

Teach Children to Read Faster:The Automatic Reading Teacher - Dennis Brooks

Publisher:  Dennis Brooks

Pages:  114

Source:  Review Copy from Author

Genre:  Educational, Reading

Dennis Brooks has come up with something that is not necessarily new, but something that works.  He shows the importance of teaching phonics to kids.  As a former elementary teacher, I remember teaching these to my students. True, this was a private school.  Today kids who don't catch on fast enough get passed over.  I loved the way Mr. Brooks shows the phonetic spelling before the correct spelling.  The progression from vowels to blends, to short sentences makes sense.  The instructions were easy to follow.  There is a section for working with gifted students as well as what parents can do to help them. 

Our math teacher asked for this book since he is working with his daughter.  He said he knows math but he needs all the help he can get with helping his daughter with her reading.  The funny thing is I've had this book review since probably May.  I thought I had posted it.  I found it this weekend in last years school calendar.  I called the math teacher and asked him if he had used the book with his daughter and if so how it had worked.  He said he and another teacher at school have the only two kids in their kindergarten class reading already.  He said it is because they spent this summer working with their kids using this book together.  Their kids are in the same kindergarten class.  I was really glad to hear that he thought the book was the reason the two kids learned to read so early.  It just goes to show that you still can't beat phonics.  I see the effects every day of kids who have not been grounded in phonics.  I have sixth graders who barely read at a second grade level.  I will definitely recommend this book to other teachers and parents.

Is America Dumbing Down Education?

Every year I get more depressed when I see how little we value reading.  I have been a teacher for the past nineteen years.  My passion has always been reading.  In first grade I sat with struggling students during our recess and helped them with their reading.  In middle school I worked with the learning disabled in their classrooms with their reading.  In high school my father moved us from Indiana to Florida.  It was quite the educational shock.  The English books I had used in seventh grade were our tenth grade books.  I had most of my credits so I took every Literature and English course I could.  Imagine my horror when we received a program my senior year called "Individualized College English".  I immediately signed up.  After all I had been taking AP courses so this must be one of those, right?
After the introductory class I learned it was a reading program I'd taken in fourth through sixth grade up north.  It was to help students learn to comprehend what they read and to pick up their speed.  It was an SRA program.  I became the teacher's assistant working with the really low level readers.

 As you can see I have always taught reading.  Both of my younger sisters entered kindergarten reading on a second grade level.  When we lived in the country and had to stay indoors due to bad weather,  we played a multitude of things.  My choice was school.  When our elementary school had burned down, and they placed the smoke damaged text books outside for the taking, I had an entire set of first through sixth grade text books.  I made my sisters and cousins help take them home.  So, we played school.  I was the teacher and taught my sisters before they entered school.

Nineteen years later I still love the idea that I may be able to change one student through teaching.  I dream of inspiring kids to become readers.  However, the longer I teach the more afraid and disillusioned I become.  We as teachers know what we should do to help our students become well rounded, educated, global citizens.  Then we have those above us who tie our hands.

I keep books of all reading levels and genres on my shelves.  I have books for my more mature readers that require parent permission due to subject matter.  These books contain issues that many of my middle schoolers face.  An example book would be Sarah Littman's book, "Want to Go Private".  We live in a technological age where kids are on Facebook talking with total strangers.  This book is the fictional story of one girl who learns through a horrifying lesson how dangerous it is to chat online.  As much as I've been criticized by some parents for having it on my shelves, I've been praised by other parents for having a book that gives them an opening to discuss topics like this with their young teens.

I am not wandering here, there is a point to all of this.  As we near the end of the school year and prepare our summer reading lists I find myself in the same frustrating situations.  We want students to continue to read over the summer so we make up a list of books and some sort of activity or project for them to bring in after school begins.  It sounds like such a lofty idea until told that it has to be simple so parents won't complain or get to frustrated and call the school.  Something as simple as keeping a reading journal with explicit instructions on how to do this, morphed into having the student write a reflective paper about the book, what they liked or didn't like and why.  It also included a collage of words or pictures from the book.

I feel most frustrated because I work in an IB school and feel that we need to up the anti for these future global students.  Why is it that America keeps letting those we are trying to help, the parents, set the rules for how we teach.  We want our students to be able to compete for future jobs on a global scale, yet we continue to dumb down our education.  We can create all kinds of test for our students. We can't continue to listen to parents say, "My child couldn't do their homework last night because they had a football game", and then turn around and complain that their child can't keep up so it must be the teacher's fault.  It is time America wakes up and says, education should be first.  I think we had it right many years ago when we didn't promote a child in a subject until they had mastered it.  Now we promote them so they won't be socially affected, hoping the next teacher will be able to catch them up.  This becomes the snowball affect.  I can't catch catch your child up AND teach them what they need to know for this year at the same time.  At some point parents have to take responsibility for their child's education.  I'm tired of hearing, "I'm a single parent and I have to work two jobs so I can't help my kids with their homework."  I was a single parent, working three part-time jobs and attending college full time and always made sure my kids did their homework.

I've taught international students.  Many of them laugh at our educational system.  In some countries students are all taught the same curriculum.  Those students who fall behind are then put on an educational track to teach them a trade, while those who want to work hard for future college are given that opportunity.  I've taught students who attended classes in an auditorium with 300 students then had to engage a tutor in the evenings so that they could get a good education.

We in America have lost sight of how important an education is.  Our students don't value it.  Many of those higher up evidently don't value it.  If they did they would not advocate dumbing it down to keep from offending parents.

It is time that we take back education, raise the bar and do what is right for our students.

Five Skills Between Confusion and AHA! – Guinevere Durham

Publisher:  Outskirts Press

Pages:  156

Source:  I received a copy from the author in exchange for a review

Genre:  Education

From the press kit:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” (Chinese Proverb) By the same premise, teach children the facts and you prepare them for the test.  Teach them HOW TO LEARN the facts and you prepare them for a lifetime.  In this age of technology, the teacher’s role is no longer that of presenter, lecturer, or the authority on the material.  Today’s teacher is the mentor, guide, facilitator, and supporter.  The educator who teaches the facts isnow obsolete; now in place is the educator who teaches the student HOW TO LEARN THE FACTS.  Teaching methods include the five skills needd in order to LEARN HOW TO LEARN, culminating in being able to access, assess, analyze, and add up all the facts to form a conclusion.  This is accomplished through the many avenues of technology.  Five Skills Between Confusion and AHA! Identifies, explains, and illustrates the competencies needd for this process; Logic, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Investigating, and Experimenting.  The skills may be used either independently of or in collaboration with each other.  The learning style of the child, left-brained/right-brained and visual/auditory/kinesthetic modality, is also explained.  Five Skills Between Confusion and AHA! Is written for both educator and non-educator and provides material to use at home, in a classroom, or in the world.  Educator = everyone in the child’s circle who has a stake in teaching the child HOW TO LEARN for a lifetime.

My Thoughts:

I am so glad I was given the opportunity to read and review this book.  As a teacher I strongly believe every parent should be required to read this book.  It doesn’t matter if their child will be going into a public, private or homeschool situation.  This is valuable information that will give children and parents an edge

Most parents don’t know how their children learn.  They try to help them using their own learning style and then get upset when it doesn’t work for their child.  Another topic she discusses is strategies for learning.  Critical Thinking and Problem Solving skills are what children need today to be successful and the one area they struggle with the most.  The strategies and activities in the book are real life application tools.  They are things every parent can do.  It is time that parents become involved in educating their children.  With all of the learning styles and needs present in schools today it is impossible for teachers to do it all without the help of parents.  Parents don’t usually help because they feel inadequate to help. This book arms them to pick up that slack.  This book is going to be passed on to administration at my school because I feel it is important that they stay in-line with research and methods to help parents.

About the Author:

Dr. Guievere Durham writes “Five Skills Between Confusion and AHA!” from three perspectives, as a parent of six, a teacher and an administrator.  Earning a BS, MS, and Ed.D in education she spent thirty years confronting challenges and reaping blessings, retiring as an elementary principal.  She has been recognized for her teacher workshops and conference presentations in the fields of parenting, school improvement reading, and test-taking skills.  Other published writings include material for the reading textbooks and Sunday school curriculum, and two books, one of which, “Tteaching Test Taking Skills” was her doctoral practicum.  She was nationally acclaimed twice for listing in “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” and once for “Outstanding Administrator of the Year”.

Reviews from my readathon

Saturday was the first full day of Winter Break.  I told my family that I was going to be doing at least two three day readathons.  What follows are reviews for the books I have read since Saturday.  I hope you enjoy them.  This is my attempt to catch up with some of the books and reviews I've gotten so behind on.

The Orphan of Awkward Falls – Keith Graves

Publisher:  Chronicle Books

Pages:  256

Source:  I received the book from LibraryThing in exchange for a review

Genre:  MG Horror

On Amazon this book as listed for ages 8 – 12.  On the author website it states it might not be suitable for anyone under the age of 12.  I will say this.  You must know your child or students reading likes and dislikes, their ability to handle certain material.  The day after I received this book I took it to school and shared part of it with the teacher next door.  She really wanted to read it.

I was intrigued when I read the  first twosentences: “The little town of Awkward Falls was kow for two things:  its canned sauerkraut and its insane asylum.  Both had achieved notoriety for their repulsiveness.”

The asylum is home to the criminally insane, especially one known as Fetid Stenchley.  He is the worst among all of them.  He is in fact a cannibal.  It is he who killed the grandfather of our main character Thaddeus Hibble. Thaddeus lives in a Victorian mansion with only a robot butler and a pieced together, Frankenstein style, talking cat.  Things change when Josephine and her family move  to Awkward Falls and actually move in next door to Thaddeus.  Thaddeus and Josephine meet when she sees something in the fog and goes out to investigate.  She ends up snooping around the place next door and meets Thaddeus.  They become good friends.  Of course this story would not have any tension if the aforementioned cannibal had not escaped.  The problem is he is headed back to where his last crime was.  This puts Josephine, her family and new friend in jeopardy.

There are so many things that I love about this book.  It is a gross, creepy, horrifically humorous book.  Many of the scenes are possibly too frightening for younger children.  Many of my own students read more mature books and more intense horror.   For them this would be a wonderful book.  I still have some who prefer the younger books such as The Magic Tree House series.  For them this would not be an appropriate book.  This is where it is important to know your students or children.  For a book like this I usually send a note home explaining what the book is about and getting parent permission if I think there may be an issue.

The characters were wonderful, the plot moved at a great pace so that I didn’t want to put the book down.  I believe that the majority of children in middle school will love this book.  For those adult who love reading middle grade fiction this is one I recommend to you.  Get the book and find out what happens in Awkward Falls.

Playground – 50 Cent

Publisher:  Razorbill

Pages:  314

Source:  Received a copy from LibraryThing for review

Genre:  Middle Grade/Young Adult Realistic Fiction

Warning:  Although there is mild violence due to the bully issue this book contains some profanity.  Gratefully the author did not feel he needed to use the “F” word.  The language is a part of who the character is and is a part of what makes the character believable.

From Goodreads:

Thirteen-year-old Butterball doesn’t have much going for him. He’s teased mercilessly about his weight. He hates the Long Island suburb his mom moved them to and wishes he still lived with his dad in the city. And now he’s stuck talking to a totally out-of-touch therapist named Liz.

Liz tries to uncover what happened that day on the playground—a day that landed one kid in the hospital and Butterball in detention. Butterball refuses to let her in on the truth, and while he evades her questions, he takes readers on a journey through the moments that made him into the playground bully he is today.

This devastating yet ultimately redemptive story is told in voice-driven prose and accented with drawings and photographs, making it a natural successor to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Loosely inspired by 50 Cent’s own adolescence, and written with his fourteen-year-old son in mind, Playground is sure to captivate wide attention— and spark intense discussion.

My Thoughts:

When I was given the opportunity to possibly win a copy of this book I signed up only because I loved the premise of the book.  I honestly knew nothing about the author except I believed he was a rapper.  After getting the book and reading it I decided to look up the author.  I read several articles on him and his reasons for writing the book.  I could not say I expected him to say he was a bully at some point in his life as I knew nothing about him or his music.  I was pleased to realize that the book came about because of a conversation with his son.  That in itself put him high on my list of parents.  We need more parents willing to have conversations with their children about tough topics.   I was glad that he chose to approach this from the bully’s perspective.  It gave me a better look at some of the reasons children bully others.  As a teacher I see bullying many times a week.  Most of it is not the violent type we saw in the book where the main character Butterball bashes in the face of his ex-friend with a sock full of batteries.  The type of bullying I see at school is just as dangerous and harmful.  Physical wounds can often heal.  It is the psychological ones that take time.  Healing has to happen not only for the victim but also for the bully.  I’ve seen a couple of those students who were “thugs” do a complete turn-around.  This book gives hope to those who know they are bullies.  I think in our society we often look at the bully and write them off.  I applaud the author for his work on this issue.  I hope we see more from him regarding tough topics.  I will not only put this on my shelves at school I will make sure our guidance department knows about this book.

Rippler – Cidney Swanson

Pubisher:  Williams Press

Pages:  288

Source:  I received a copy from LibraryThing in exchange for my honest review.

Genre:  Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy

From Goodreads:

Samantha Ruiz has a freak gene that makes her turn invisible, or ripple. She can’t control it, and it’s getting worse. Afraid of becoming a lab-rat, Sam keeps her ability secret, until fellow runner Will Baker sees her vanish into thin air. Will promises secrecy and help, and Sam begins to fall in love. Together, the two discover there are worse things than being a scientific curiosity. Someone’s been killing people who possess Sam's gene. A mysterious man from France sends letters that offer hope for safety, but also reveal a sinister connection with Nazi experiments. The more time Sam spends with Will, the less she can imagine life without him. When Sam uncovers secrets from her past, she must choose between keeping Will in her life or keeping Will safe.

My Thoughts:

Right from the first line this book grabs you and draws you in.  It has something for everyone.  It has a little bit of history, a mystery, some paranormal elements, realism.  What is there not to like about it so far?

Samantha Ruiz, (Sam) is a typical teenager.  She is on a rafting trip with her cross-country team when something strange happens to her.  She disappears.  Everyone believes she has fallen into the water.  That is everyone except teammate Will.  He helps her.  This rippling, has happened to her twice before, but she was alone and thought she had imagined it.  This time there was no denying it was not her imagination.  Will and his sister try to explain things to her about the “rippler gene”.  She begins reading an old Nazi journal that describes horrible tortures conducted on children.  She also learns that the accident that killed her mother might have actually been an attempt on her life.  Throw in a budding romance and you definitely have a teen winner.

There were enough different elements to keep the reader going non-stop.  I didn’t want to stop for anything.  I can’t wait to read the second book in this series.  I’m just sorry I had to take this long to get around to it.

Take Five! For Language Arts: 180 Bell-ringers That Build Critical Thinking Skills  – Kaye Hagler

Publisher:  Maupin House

Pages:  211

Source:  I won a copy

Genre:  Educational

Product Description from Amazon:

Kaye Hagler s unique bell-ringers for language arts help you transform the first chaotic five minutes of class into authentic opportunities to practice critical-thinking skills.

Students in grades 6-12 exercise their mental muscles as they work collaboratively, warming them up to tackle your standards-based lessons.

Whether your students are inventing secret codes, concocting potions, rewriting history, making conjunction paper chains, or thinking like newspaper editors, these diverse and creative prompts will have them looking forward to the part of the day when they re asked to Take Five for critical thinking.

The 180-plus prompts set up your teaching day from the minute that students step into your class.

Each ready-to-use prompt includes: corresponding standards, supply lists, language arts links, teacher tips, assessment options, rubrics, and digital connections that add more than 100 extension lessons.

My Thoughts:  I could not wait to get to school and try this out.  I was able to start with an prompt that went right along with the unit we were working on.  The students loved it.  I get deeper thinking answers and writing from my students.  I also loved the rubric created by the author.  I plan on starting off next year with this book.  I’ve encouraged the rest of the language arts department to look at purchasing this book.  I think this book should be in every Language Arts Classroom.  I am very pleased with it and happy to recommend it to other teachers.

About the Author:

Kaye Hagler is an educational consultant who mentors teachers throughout the Southeast. She has been an educator for more than twenty years, teaching middle school gifted education and high school English as well as working as an elementary library media specialist and college adjunct instructor. A former journalist and freelance writer, Hagler holds a bachelor's degree in education from Georgia State University, a master's degree with a concentration in English from Troy University and postgraduate endorsement in gifted education from the University of Alabama. She lives in Panama City Beach, Florida.