Two years ago, I had a teacher friend make a post on social media challenging teachers to take an honest look/walk-through their classroom library and look for books that offered diversity among the characters, discussed difficult topics, or highlighted individuals who represented specific races and cultures. I took on the challenge and quickly realized that the books in our classroom library were severely lacking any sense of diversity, and I took action. I began researching about books that would help our students navigate hard topics, talk about diverse issues, inspire great thinking and writing, spark creativity, and create a reading community in the classroom. As teachers, I believe that it is feverishly important that we acknowledge and reflect on the important role that picture books, chapter books, and nonfictional resources can and will play in our students' lives. I feel passionate about helping students ignite a desire for reading and foster a love for ...
books
Part 1- Unique Picture Books for Social Studies
As a Social Studies and Reading teacher(who also happens to be an AVID book lover), I am always on the hunt for picture books that I can use to help teach content topics, introduce important people and events, and bring some joy and excitement to learning. That is why I am so excited about the following 4 books. I learned about most of these titles while I was at Nerd Camp this past summer and knew that they would be valuable stories for me to share with my students. The first is Unspoken by Henry Cole. Three major things make this book a must have. 1) The book has no words. The story is told strictly through the remarkable black and white illustrations. This also means that the students are encouraged to really pay attention to the details of the pictures and the sequencing of the illustrations in order to piece together the storyline. 2) The story offers a unique twist on the Underground Railroad. Instead of telling the story through the eyes of a ...
Back to School Bash
Happy Back to School season!!! It is here and it is going to be THE BEST YEAR YET!!! And, Back to School means that it's time for the annual and much anticipated Back to School blogger bash! There are so many amazing prizes up for grabs this year by some of my favorite bloggers. It is an honor to join in with my favorite peeps this year. Here's how it works... You'll have a couple of days to hop around blogs and enter the giveaways using a Rafflecopter. At the bottom of each post there will be a button that will lead you to the next giveaway! The more blogs you enter on, the better your chances are of winning :))) Check out my Bash Basket. My basket is....... 1) An Amazon Kindle!!!!!!! I am so stoked about this. I use my Kindle all the time. There are just way too many good books out there to read and my #tbrlist is a little out of control at the moment. Pretty sure my FAVORITE thing about the Kindle is the fact that I can take it anywhere that ...
