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The "Mystery Reader" needs a book

My daughter's third-grade teacher does something called The Mystery Reader, which involves a surprise visit by an adult who comes in to read with the class. I'm the Mystery this Friday (shhhh…don't tell Molly!)

I'm looking for funny and engaging picture book read alouds for third graders. I've asked around my neighborhood and my teacher friends, and combed our own bookcases. I have a few ideas, but would love to hear yours!

Some possible titles are below; please tell me what titles have worked well for you! And, with our teacher's permission, here's more information about her "Mystery Reader" program:

The invitation and description

The reminder letter and request for clues

So far, possible titles include:

• Arnie, the Doughnut by Laurie Keller, about a doughnut shocked to discover his fate


• What To Do About Alice? How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! "Theodore Roosevelt had a small problem. Her name was Alice. Alice Lee Roosevelt was hungry to go places, meet people, do things. Father called it running riot."


• Dolores Meets Her Match
  "Until the arrival of Hillary, the new girl in the class, Dolores has been the star of Show-and-Tell and resident cat expert, accustomed to regaling her classmates with tales of her "amazing" cat Duncan. Now she is worried."

My fellow blogger on Page by Page, children's lit expert Maria Salvadore, gave me other suggestions, here are two:

• Ever wonder what writing instruments do when their kid snoozes? Well, Tony finds out in Arthur Yorinks' newish book Homework (published by Walker). Richard Egielski did the boldly outlined and colored illustrations just right for sharing to a group. (This is the author illustrator team that won a Caldecott for Hey, Al, though this is a very different book.)


• A chapter from a Gooney Bird Greene book (any of them) would read aloud well — and 3rd graders might enjoy recalling what life was in 2nd grade. My favorite chapter is in the newest book, Gooney Bird Is So Absurd (Houghton), in which Mrs. Pidgeon introduces the class — including the principal — to the fun of writing limericks.

Update 11/16/09

It was SO fun to be the Mystery Reader! The class caught me in the hallway as I was heading to the classroom, so there wasn't much of a "big reveal," but it was still tons of fun.

I ended up reading two books about writing: We started with Homework that Maria suggested, and then read Chester (that commenter Jaymie recommended - thanks Jaymie!)

The kids LOVED both books, I think Homework appealed more to the boys, and everyone loved Chester.

I almost went with one longer book, and had chosen Henry and the Kite Dragon, which is a book I still want to share with a group of kids.

THANKS for all your suggestions, both here and on Facebook. I really appreciate it!

Pictures in the Mind: Magicians and Elephants

Our new family read aloud is Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant. Although we're only three chapters in, we're all hooked. It's a great read aloud for my kids, ages 7 and 9, and I'm sure other ages would love it too.

An excerpt from Kirkus Reviews:

Ten-year-old Peter Augustus Duchene goes to the market for fish and bread but spends it at the fortuneteller's tent instead. Seeking his long-lost sister, Peter is told, "You must follow the elephant. She will lead you there." And that very night at the Bliffenendorf Opera House, a magician's spell goes awry, conjuring an elephant that crashes through the ceiling and lands on Madam Bettine LaVaughn. Reading like a fable told long ago, with rich language that begs to be read aloud, this is a magical story about hope and love, loss and home, and of questioning the world versus accepting it as it is.

The book's website offers Chapter 1 as an excerpt, as well as an activity kit and a reading group discussion guide.

DiCamillo's writing brings you right there: right to the fortuneteller's tent, right to the magician's prison cell. While the book includes a few illustrations, (beautifully done by Yoko Tanaka) the writing provides a perfect opportunity to help kids develop pictures in their mind while reading or listening. The National Reading Panel includes mental imagery as one of their "top 7" comprehension strategies, citing research that suggests imagery can improve memory, comprehension, and an appreciation for text.

I found two booklists with titles to use with young kids that provide mental imagery practice:

• Into The Book's list chosen by the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison


• and this chapter from Stenhouse Publishing called The Power to Visualize (scroll to the end).

Let's make our own list of books to use with kids that provide powerful mental images, I'll start! You comment in with titles too!

1. The Magician's Elephant — perfect for grades 2-4, see above
2. The Wingdingdilly (by Bill Peet) — my second graders loved drawing their own creature as I read aloud

Managing instruction when kids are sick

Molly went back to school Monday morning after being out sick all last week. She had the double whammy of H1N1 and strep throat. It was a loooong week for her and me! She was miserable, feverish, and missed five days of school.

Flu-related absences present a real instructional challenge for teachers. After all, it's hard to run a reading group with half the group out sick. And what about that new science unit, or the concept in math you planned to teach? Should you hold off new content, or go ahead and teach it and plan to teach it again when the sick kids are back?

The U.S. Department of Education offers some advice in their document Preparing for the Flu: Department of Education Recommendations to Ensure the Continuity of Learning for Schools (K‐12). Included are recommendations that range from sending hard copy packets home to sick kids to recorded class meetings made available online or through podcasts to distance learning courses. Each recommendation seeks to keep the learning going, even when kids are out of school.

Molly's teacher used a simple paper form to communicate missed assignments. Every day she filled out the sections (math, science, social studies), and sent home worksheets and pages to read from the reading group's book. It worked for us, and it's what many teachers do during this time of the year.

For parents, kids under a blanket are a captive audience! Use this opportunity to start a new read aloud at home. Or, check out our booklist called From Book to Film. You can plan a fun day of reading a book and snuggling up for the movie adaptation.

Teachers: What are you doing to keep instruction going in your classroom? Please share your tips and advice!

Parents: What are you doing to occupy your sick child? Got any great tips or advice to share?

Reading at home: "You either get angry or you can bribe them"

Last week's blog post about Accelerated Reader generated some great comments, both here on the blog and also on our Facebook page. I love that the audience for this blog appears to be a combination of parents, teachers, principals, reading specialists, grandparents, special education teachers, graduate students….

A comment from last week's post inspired this week's title. Alex's comment was a dead-on piece of reality:

From a parent's point of view, when you are sitting with your kid and encouraging them to read, meanwhile they are tired and bored and guessing at words and making up games, what can you do? You either get angry and say, "just read this, I know you can and it's getting late and I'm tired!" or you can bribe them...."if you read this, you'll get some sort of special treat." I really haven't seen a deep discussion of how to help during those little times. No practical tips. I hear things like, "pick a regular time each day, continue to read to the kids, make it fun!" but not a lot of practical advice.

Haven't we all been there at some point with a reluctant reader?

Sadly, the "practical advice" needed isn't quick and easy to communicate, and it really is darn hard work. But, if I were to pick one piece of advice to help during those times, it would be this: make sure your child is reading at his or her independent level at home.

A child's independent level is the level at which the material is relatively easy for the student to read, and can be read with at least 95% accuracy. Books at this level aren't hard for the child to read, and dont require the child to sound out lots of words. Most of the words are read quickly and easily.

When a child spends time reading at his independent level, he's getting a chance to practice word recognition and word analysis skills (the ones hopefully being taught at school). Repeated readings of the same book over and over again enable each reading to become smoother. Soon, the reading will begin to "sound like talking." These are all important steps in becoming a fluent reader.

So, get ready to hear those favorite beginning reader books over and over again. Build up a basketful of independent-level books to be read at night, and then read 4 or 6 a night.

A side note: In our house, we "retire" a book when it can be read with eyes closed.

Related: How to Read with a Beginning Reader

Accelerated Reader is not a reading program

My friend B called yesterday to talk about her second grader. A former teacher herself, B was worried because she hasn't seen any language-arts related papers come home. When she asks her daughter about reading groups at school, her daughter simply says, "We don't do reading groups. I take tests on a computer."

Her daughter is right; she is taking tests on the computer. Her school uses Accelerated Reader, which according to the AR site is "the world's most widely used reading software." AR works this way: Student reads a book, student takes a quiz, teacher gets a report that outlines the quiz scores. Students' scores accumulate during the year, and the number of points available differs by book. The easier the book, the fewer the points. For example, in browsing the AR BookFinder site, I learned that Jerry Pinkney's Little Red Riding Hood is worth 0.5 points, Abel's Island (William Steig) is worth 3 points.

The What Works Clearinghouse review of Accelerated Reader found two studies that met the WWC evidence standards. Based on the data from these two studies, WWC concluded:

The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Accelerated Reader to be medium to large for comprehension and small for reading fluency and general reading achievement.

I'm okay with a school having AR in place, and using it for what it may be: a supplemental intervention that may encourage kids to engage in more independent reading. But a word of caution: the National Reading Panel's conclusion of programs that encouraged independent reading was "unable to find a positive relationship between programs and instruction that encourage large amounts of independent reading and improvements in reading achievement, including fluency." p.12), so AR really shouldn't be used as a large part of the LA block.

Accelerated Reader doesn't provide reading instruction. Teachers do. I've encouraged B to call her child's teacher and find out more about the 90 minute block of LA time. Chances are there's a lot more going on than B's daughter recognizes. Stay tuned, I'll let you know what B says when she calls me back!

The U.S. mail and teacher–student relationships

Oh, the wondrous things a postcard with a quick note from a teacher can do! Molly received this post card in the mail from her third-grade teacher. I wish Mrs. M could have seen Molly's face when she realized what the mailman had brought. She rushed in to show me, grinning from ear to ear. This small gesture from Molly's teacher did so much to further Molly's perception of herself in her new classroom.

Cognitive theorists consider learning to be a social event. Recent research suggests that both teachers and students pay the price if they fail to form warm, supportive relationships within the classroom. All kinds of behaviors can be associated with positive "attachments" in the classroom, among them: greater emotional regulation, social competence, and willingness to take on challenges, and with lower levels of ADHD and delinquency, each of which is associated with higher achievement.

Besides postcards, what can teachers do to enhance their relationships with students? According to research from the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, teachers can organize nonacademic extracurricular activities for students and teachers to participate together, have students and teacher eat lunch together in small groups a few times a week, have homeroom teachers act as advisers for students, and create an atmosphere of open communication.

What has worked in your classroom? How do you foster positive relationships with your students?

Building comprehension, one corpse at a time

A runaway train. A ticking clock. Two young kids on an adventure they don’t even know about. Sound exciting? That’s the premise of the first episode of the Exquisite Corpse, a new project sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

From the Exquisite Corpse site:

Ever heard of an Exquisite Corpse? It's not what you might think. An Exquisite Corpse is an old game in which people write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold it over to conceal part of it and pass it on to the next player to do the same. The game ends when someone finishes the story, which is then read aloud.

Teachers have used a similar strategy in the classroom for years, but I’ve usually seen it done orally. Kids sit in a circle, begin a tale, and move around the circle adding and shifting the storyline with each student. One lucky student gets to wrap it up with an ending that pulls it all together.

From a reading teacher’s perspective, this is great practice. To build a successful story, students have to pay attention, formulate their own storyline, and further the plot by providing information that builds on what they’ve learned so far. Sounds like great comprehension work to me!

Jon Scieszka, the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, has written the first episode of this Exquisite Corpse, which is "pieced together out of so many parts that it is not possible to describe them all here, so go ahead and just start reading!" And that’s no joke. Scieszka drops hints about several interesting things that may unfold with the story, including an elephant clown party, real ninjas, fake vampires, a roller-skating baby and more.

There will be a new episode and illustration every two weeks, for a year. The readability seems to be around second or third grade, but the comprehension work can span into many other grade levels.

For teachers, The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and the Butler Center for Children’s Literature at Dominican University have developed a companion educational resource center to support the project. For this episode, the resources include a list of other cliffhanger books kids might like, activities for the classroom that focus on synonyms and antonyms, figurative language, a guide to the characters, and some information about the artwork that accompanies episode one.

Here at Reading Rockets, we have our own “Exquisite Prompt,” and you can learn more about the prompts, author/illustrator resources, and rules here.

I think we’ll be giving the Exquisite Corpse a try around our house. Care to join me?