It's Here!

It has been a few weeks, and I have to admit that my copy of Reality Checks arrived almost 2 weeks ago (shame on me, I know).  Things have been quite busy at school.  My little first graders are busy preparing for their play, A Year with Frog and Toad.  We perform on May 4th and we need lots of practice! They are actually doing pretty great considering the number of times they have been able to practice together.  There is something so magical and adorable about watching 6 and 7 year olds sing and act. We have also been busy preparing for Mother's Day.

Additionally, I have been reading the book Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor.  If you have not picked up this book yet, you should.  What a great read it has been! The book is fitting for grades K-6.  In this book Tanny provides ideas for introducing comprehension strategies in concrete ways.  She offers lessons for the 6 key areas of comprehension, schema,  inferring, visualizing, determining importance, questioning, and synthesizing.  Beyond the concrete introductory lesson, Tanny goes on to offer sensory experiences for students through art and music to help them further grasp these concepts. 

I've been lucky enough to also take her webinar for this book.  It has been great.  There is something fantastic about being able to hear an author speak from the comfort of my pajama pants and my couch.  Beyond the comfort, the conversations have been great.  A chat room is provided to communicate with other participants and the author as well.  She even provides time to "turn and talk" with one another about the strategies, our thoughts, and questions.  My favorite component so far has been how Tanny expands what she has written in the book.  She has provided us with new methods she has learned since writing the book, provided insight into what has worked best, and given examples of forms she has used.  I would highly recommend this webinar to anyone who is wanting to read the text or has read it previously.  It really has something for everyone. 

Between the craziness at school and reading and preparing for the weekly webinars I have not had the opportunity to dive deep into Reality Checks.  I just completed reading Comprehension Connections this week and plan on using the weekend to begin reading Tony Steads book.  Just glancing through the table of contents and scanning the sections I am getting excited for what this book has to offer.  With Common Core bringing forth the importance of using nonfiction on a regular basis in the classroom, I feel this book will be a great guide. These is a specific section on using nonfiction in guided reading.  This chapter, in particualr, appeals to me.  Currently, in my guided reading groups I am attempting to read a minimum of one nonfiction book a week.  It's been going well, but I feel like my conversations could be deeper and more focused. 

I'm off to get started, Happy Reading!