Aimee’s Comments (group member since Mar 04, 2017)

Aimee’s comments from the Collaborating Teachers group.

Paper Bag Princess
Last Stop on Market Street
Love
Trouble with Trolls
The Mitten
Mother Bruce
Come with Me
Why Am I Me?

Wonder
Real Friends
Sunny Side Up
Roller Girl
El Deafo
Amulet
One and Only Ivan
Wishtree
Save Me a Seat
Nine, Ten
Last Kids on Earth
Amina's Voice
Ghost by Jason Reynolds
As Brave As You
Booked
Gauntlet
Bud Not Buddy
One Crazy Summer
Lemonade War
Lightning Thief

I loved Amina's Voice! I thought it was wonderful. I'm reading Refugee right now and am very impressed so far. I also love Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate.

https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2...

I also found this helpful.

Also, Donalyn Miller's other book, Reading in the Wild, is even more helpful as far as classroom implementation is concerned.

I started to implement it last year. I did a ton of book talks and really worked to make sure my students were reading independently. I ended doing small group novels 2 days a week and independent reading days with conferences 3 days a week. Most students did fine juggling a small group novel and an independent novel. They also did great tracking their reading and selecting books from a wide variety of genres. My students loved the independent reading days and I had fewer off-task students these days. This year I'm diving right into independent reading novels and conferences all 5 days. I cannot wait.

I also just finished Wolk's new book, Beyond the Bright Sea. I love the way she develops the setting in both books, not to mention the phenomenal character development. She is an amazing writer!

I have read it. It is a powerful story that gave me chills. I also just finished Wolk

I teach 5th grade and start the school year with Wonder every year. The students always love it. I then reference it for the remainder of the school year anytime we need to have a discussion about kindness. This year I had some issues with bullying. We discussed Summer, Jack, Julian, and August and their character traits at the beginning of the book. The kids then wrote about which character or combination of characters they were and which ones they would like to be. We especially had good conversations about Jack and going along with our friends, whom we compared to Summer doing what was right in spite of friends. We then ended each morning meeting with " Which Wonder character will you be today?" I am really hoping the lesson sticks as they go to middle school next year. It's such an amazing book.