Read Aloud Roundup: December 2014

It can be hard to find winter holiday books that are appropriate for public school. Naturally, many of them are explicitly religious. Our community foundation is the arm of a church (admittedly one that recognizes many faith paths), and I'm sensitive to the appearance that we're preaching to the classroom. At the same time, most of the students are African-American or Latino and celebrate Christmas with their families, which I want to acknowledge. Additionally, some of the winter-themed stories focus a lot on snow... which San Francisco kids just don't have. So I usually use the December Read Aloud to introduce diverse or interfaith/intercultural holiday traditions. This year it falls in the middle of Hanukkah, and several of the books are about that celebration. Discussion usually centers on family traditions and what the children will do over their winter break.

Read Aloud Roundup: February 2014

Black History Month came again, with a new round of children's books! Some favorite authors and illustrators made their appearance -- Jacqueline Woodson, Andrea Davis Pinkney, and Kadir Nelson are always excellent choices. My wife reminds me that I should seek out biographies of activists like Bayard Rustin (watched this documentary today) and Malcolm X (for kids? maybe middle school) for next year. I had an overflow of books about African-American women, so a couple will be featured in March for Women's History Month.

I had some trouble finding accurate and thoughtful books suitable for our youngest students, so both kindergarten classes were assigned poetry -- one short poem per book, which was closer to the usual picturebook experience than the anthologies I'd tried earlier this year. Still, the big ideas behind the little words means more work for the volunteer reader leading the discussion. If I'd had unlimited time and funds, I would have tried to find something better for kindergarten.

Read Aloud Roundup (December 2013)

This month's reading session came right before the school closes for winter break. I found some fun stories about Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Solstice to share -- while many of them had a special lesson about giving, sharing, believing, or learning, I wanted the focus to be on the enjoyment of the story. There were a few bonus books this month -- mostly nonfiction titles that are supplementary, and definitely relevant, but not the best for reading aloud. There were also some special requests from the teachers. I love filling those! It's nice feeling more connected to the classroom curricula, even though I'm not there in person to discuss these things.

Read Aloud Roundup: November 2013

This month we had a number of holidays to choose topics from -- my selections for Read Aloud covered Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah. I had an extra Hanukkah book left over from last year, which was fortunate, 'cause the kindergarten book Veterans: Heroes in Our Neighborhood turned out to be written in stilted verse. The message was still inspiring, but the book was not as great as I thought it would be for reading aloud. Things got reshuffled. (And I ordered a used copy of How Many Days to America? by accident -- it was a withdrawn library copy with markings -- and managed to order a new one in time.) I included a "bonus" book that I can't use next month, as a backup in case any of the readers didn't like the assigned book. Here are the discussion questions for November.

Read Aloud Roundup: October 2013

Read Aloud has a new crew of volunteer readers this school year! My wife has sat in for the past couple of months while the roster got sorted out, and now we have some fresh faces along with the "old hands" who have read to the same teacher's classroom for many years in a row. I think it's great for kids to have that ongoing connection (even part-time) with an adult role model, and to have that adult lead discussions on big topics.

This month's general theme was Being Different. (A new title about Dia de los Muertos fit the bill as well as being seasonally appropriate.) I asked the readers (particularly the newer ones) to keep in mind the school's mission: to empower student learning by teaching awareness, acceptance and non-violence, celebrating our diversity, achieving academic excellence, and fostering strong family-school-community connections.

Read Aloud Roundup: September 2013

Yesterday was the first Read Aloud session of the school year! The books we used for the K-5 classrooms and the discussion questions are included below. You can click on the links for summaries, reviews, and more.

The feedback I received from the reader volunteers was positive overall; we have a few new faces as well as some that have been with the program for more than a decade. We also had a couple of unexpected absences, so my wife stepped in to cover the 5th grade session. She said they had a good conversation about beauty norms and judging a person by more than appearances.

Ban kids from reading "too much"?

On my virtual desk today (although it's from last week) was this article, in which a public librarian discouraged a 9-year-old from participating in the reading contest he's won for the past 5 years.

That's right, a librarian who tried to ban a child from reading.

I'll wait.

Children with Incarcerated Parents

Today I read a frightening statistic. 1 in 28 children in the U.S. have a parent who is serving a prison sentence. That's an average of one or more per classroom (though probably more concentrated in urban areas like mine). Many more who know incarcerated people -- family members, neighbors, etc.

Okay, this settles it: This year I'm using Visiting Day in Read Aloud.

Choosing Books for Read Aloud

Although I get the summer "off" from bookbuying, I still do some work on the Read Aloud program. The bigger headstart I have at the beginning of the school year, the less pressure there is each month, I've found. So even without making purchases until the end of August, I've kept up my list of possibilities and I explore them in person when possible. (A library trip is great for this!)

CC by San Jose Library (Flickr)
The Read Aloud program I volunteer with is not affiliated with SJPL. These photos are for illustration only.

Read Aloud Roundup: May 2013

April's Read Aloud was cancelled with short notice (schoolwide testing), so the books stayed on until May. The spring theme is still appropriate after Earth Day, thankfully. This was the last session of the year!

Volunteer for Green Branch May-September

Because I answered a similar volunteer call last summer and found myself with an unexpected but very worthwhile internship, I have to pass on this message from Green Branch Library's executive director, Shari Leskowitz:

We Need Volunteers!

Internship Week 12 (by the school calendar)

I realized where the disconnect was in my scheduling! I forgot to skip the week of spring break in my counting. So this is only Week 12. I am on what may be my last project for the CPL internship, and it's a doozy.

Read Aloud Roundup: March 2013

For Women's History Month, I selected stories about strong, smart, spunky girls and women -- most of them real historical figures, but also a few modern fictional characters. Nearly all of the titles are appropriate for, say, grades 1-4. There wasn't much difference in reading level/complexity, and the subject matter didn't have notable violence, say, as some of the more challenging titles I've had before (Henry's Freedom Box, Your Move) do.

One of my prospective titles didn't arrive in time, but I do have a few on hand to fill in gaps for this purpose (they're left over from previous months now and again, or donations I've picked up) and one was a great fit! Be Who You Are is the story of a child who realizes that she feels more like a girl than a boy, and has supportive family members who help her transition gender at school and in the world. We've often talked about the different roles people have for boys and girls, issues of equality and fairness (kids feel this deeply!), and respect for others, so this picks up the topic at a more advanced level. I gave it to the 2nd-grade reader who really liked 10,000 Dresses.

I also donated 3 additional books for the 3 classrooms of 4th and 5th graders. They’re longer selections that weren't appropriate for Read Aloud, but will be great for chapter book readers or for a longer unit with the teacher another time.

Sweethearts of Rhythm

It Can’t Be Done, Nellie Bly!

The Woman in the Moon

Internship Week 7 review

Last week was a busy one with the CPL internship. I submitted one new project and completed an ongoing one, logging 19 hours in Week 7.

Read Aloud Roundup: February 2013

This month's theme was an obvious choice for an elementary with "civil rights" in its name: Black History Month.

I offer books representing people of color as a year-round practice, but in February I focus on particular events and eras of African-American history, like slavery, Jim Crow, school desegregation, and voting rights. The familiar names -- Martin Luther King, Jr.; Rosa Parks; Harriet Tubman; Ruby Bridges -- certainly come up, but this year I made an effort to branch out and look at some less well-known individuals and also at the communities involved. Civil rights didn't happen because of one person giving a speech or going to jail -- of course, they didn't just happen, but were fought for and are still being won today -- but were the result of many years of many people standing up for what they believed was right, and overcoming a majority who wanted to keep the status quo. That valuable lesson is one that repeats in many of these titles and the related discussions.

Black History Month often means talking about big ideas with little people, so most of these discussion question sets begin with an overview or some talking points before the reading. That gives the reader a chance to find out what the class has already studied, and where the general maturity level is regarding the topic of race. (By February, these recurring readers should have a grasp on what works for that grade level, and the kids have had half a year to become accustomed to discussion of sensitive or uncomfortable topics. Also, they'll be well into units on civil rights and Black History Month, so these topics aren't coming out of nowhere.)

Internship, Week 5

On Saturday I turned in my second report, which was a series of booklists based on the activities in this Family Science and Math handout.

• Exploring Science with Kids
• Explore Shadows with Your Child
• Explore Water with Your Child
• Explore Plants with Your Child
• Explore Color with Your Child
• Explore Sound with Your Child
• Explore Ramps with Your Child
• Explore Patterns with Your Child
• Explore Measuring with Your Child

I finished up early (11 hours) and did a little background research into the next topic; however, because of the long weekend I didn't get the details of that assignment until this morning. So I'm still behind on total hours.

Internship Update: Week 3-4

On Monday I turned in my first research assignment, which was to create a fact sheet and toolkit for CPL children's librarians to use with new LEGO DUPLO kits. I also discussed with my site supervisor how best to use my time and complete the required number of hours.

Library Policy on Unattended Children

As a child, I spent a lot of time at the school libraries and at the public library. I wasn't always directly supervised, although my mother was usually in the building. (When we visited the public library, I was with her and often my younger sister, because we were too young to travel there by ourselves.)

I have no idea whether there was a formal policy on unattended children for our small town library, or what ages were considered mature enough to visit without adult supervision. I spent plenty of hours in the children's room and the juvenile/YA stacks, though, and I never got into trouble. Usually I'd browse the shelves long enough to fill a plastic bucket with books, then check them out, and sit down to read while waiting for my mom and sister. Happy reader!

So I've been surprised recently to find out that many public libraries have concerns about children who are unsupervised and/or disruptive -- not always both. Sometimes it's just that school-aged children are in the library "alone" that's enough to call for stricter policies about age, and that doesn't make sense to me. If the kids are well-behaved and using the library for its intended purpose (education, entertainment, community gathering space... not daycare), why bar their access?

Read Aloud Roundup: January 2013

This month was a bit of a mishmash as I put together some of the books leftover from previous themes. I'll be touching on specific themes later -- Black History Month, Women's History Month, Earth Day/Environmentalism/Spring, etc. Some of the books for the older grades were poetry or non-fiction, so I recommended selections to be read and discussed during the session. I also got a lot of feedback this month, so I held off on publishing this post until I could add those notes.

Read Aloud Roundup: December 2012

This month the volunteers read on on a day just before school let out for break. I picked out books to touch on several winter holidays: Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice. I'd purchased Mrs. Greenberg's Messy Hanukkah, but somehow it didn't make it into the stack. I'll have to put it aside for next year. :/