Revisiting Professional Books

Ahhh, summertime; catching up with friends, doing a bit of gardening and of course time to devour the pile of books by our bedside and review the list of 'want to reads' jotted on the sticky notes in our journals. We also look at this time of year as an opportunity to revisit some of our favorite professional books, reviewing highlighted portions, the notes scribbled in the margins, and tabbed pages of the most poignant thoughts and ideas shared by the authors.

We get asked all the time, "What professional books should I read?" These books that we revisit would probably be at the top of our list.

What Really Matters in Response to Intervention: Research-Based Designs by Richard Allington (or really ANY books by Richard Allington)

Choice Words by Peter Johnston

Best Practices in Literacy Instruction by Michael Pressley, Linda Gambrell, et al

RTI from All Sides: What Every Teacher Needs to Know by Mary Howard

Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It by Kelly Gallagher

Beyond Leveled Books, Second Edition and Still Learning to Read: Teaching Students in Grades 3-6 by Franki Sibberson

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell

Envoy: Your Personal Guide to Classroom Management by Michael Grinder

Reading Essentials: The Specifics You Need to Teach Reading Well by Regie Routman

In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning by Nancy Atwell (an oldy but a goody)

The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers by Nancy Atwell

Notebook Connections: Strategies for the Reader's Notebook and Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook by Aimee Buckner

For Literacy Coaches and Leaders

Becoming a Literacy Leader and A Sense of Belonging: Sustaining and Retaining New Teachers by Jennifer Allen

FAQ

Q: I love the Eye Lighters you gave me at the Daily 5™ conference! I want enough for my whole class. Please tell me where I can get more.

A: We love them too! For those of you who wonder what an Eye Lighter is, it's a 6" long transparent plastic bookmark. It's designed to underline the sentence a child is reading, while not masking the lines below. The ability to track more than one line at a time is important in developing fluency.

They come in four colors, Yellow, Green, Blue and Pink. If readers experiment with each, they may find their eyes prefer one color over the others, helping to maintain reading focus and improve stamina. We are linking to the company's website, because there are other neat gadgets you may be interested in, but these are our favorite for sure!

http://www.TheDailyCafe.com/public/1007.cfm

What should I read next? (Website)

Don't you find finishing a great book to be bittersweet? We love the journeys we take with characters. Closing the cover on them for the last time sometimes feels like a friendship is ending. When it's been an especially good book, knowing what to pick up next can be a bit daunting. That is where this website, Bookseer, comes in. Just plug the title and author of a beloved book into the text boxes, and you'll receive recommendations from Amazon and LibraryThing.

http://www.TheDailyCafe.com/public/1020.cfm

Design Your Own Pensieve

We have had this offer from Dazzle in the Tip of the Week the past few weeks, yet we continue to hear from so many of you asking where to go to make your own Pensieve's. Here you go!

If you haven't discovered Zazzle yet, it is a fantastic website from Avery that allows you to import your own pictures and text to create one of a kind notebooks. Well, Avery contacted us with an offer that many of you won't be able to refuse! They are providing an exclusive promotion to us so that we can create custom binders for our classrooms at a 40% discount. There are many beautiful binders to choose from...

http://www.thedailycafe.com/public/979.cfm

Registration Information for 2010 Summer and Fall Workshops

If your summer plans are already set, consider scheduling a working retreat and join us in the fall. How does Arizona, Maine, or Florida, sound? We thought so! Check out the beautiful places.

http://www.thedailycafe.com/public/754.cfm

New This Week For Members

Interested in becoming a member of The Daily Cafe?

Click here for more information.

Daily 5™ and Literacy Cafe™ Launch - Part 1 (Article)

A Note from Gail and Joan ("The Sisters"): We are working on a new book about launching the school year, with much of the writing to be completed this fall and winter. As we work, we'll be sharing some of our drafts with Daily CAFÉ™ members. We'll start with a three-part excerpt from the beginning of the book which will run for the next few weeks. We hope it is just in time to help you think through the launch of your school year.

Part 1: A Delight and a Disaster: A Tale of Two Launches

http://www.TheDailyCafe.com/members/1015.cfm

Literacy CAFE™ Debrief Intermediate Gail and Joan (Video)

In this video, Gail and Joan discuss the purpose behind brief but frequent conferences, realizing that using a child's existing text helps facilitate short but meaningful interactions with a child

http://www.TheDailyCafe.com/members/938.cfm>

Math (Video)

This week's math video shows a game for students who have beginning number sense and are developing addition and subtraction skills. It's also a great way to use checker or chess boards that no longer have pieces to go with them.

http://www.TheDailyCafe.com/members/1006.cfm

Daily 5 in Heather's Class (Video)

Want to see the Daily 5™ I chart in live 3-D action with intermediate students? In this video, we take a look into Heather's 4th grade class to see this, and more.

http://www.TheDailyCafe.com/members/1011.cfm

Video Updates

With the addition of our new video players with higher resolution and full-screen options, we are reposting many videos in this new format. As we make these improvements, we'll announce them in the newsletter. Here is an updated video you may want to revisit. In this video you will see Natalie and Joan teach the steps of choosing a partner for Read to Someone to Natalie's class. We teach this strategy during the first weeks of school, even before we launch Read to Someone, so they will be ready not only for choosing a partner for Read to Someone, but for partner work in all other subjects as well.

http://www.TheDailyCafe.com/members/1022.cfm

Until Next Week!