Mock Newbery

As I have been laying around this afternoon (nice to say, finally!) I've been scanning the Internet for books. I plan to hit the bookstore tomorrow to create a stack of books I want to read. Of course that makes me think of possible Newbery Award winners. I loved this year's selection, Moon Over Manifest, particularly because it came out of nowhere to win the Newbery.

That leads me to a plan for next year. This summer I am going to use some of the various resources out there to compile a list of 10-12 books that I want to circulate, and get kids to read in the fall. That will be in hopes of having our own Mock Newbery discussion in the fall. This will work well with our movement to Communicator, an online system that essentially creates a hub for blogging and wiki-ing. I'll share some of those resources I've found soon!

Looking Forward, Thinking Back

The calendar is about to turn to June, which means school is nearly over. There are still a myriad of projects to finish up and content to cover, but we're certainly in the home stretch. Novel study is wrapped up with only a quick survey of kids' favorite books remaining on my to-do list. We're in the midst of some report writing linked to the World Cup. It is pretty neat to see kids deciphering information on countries, and trying to put it into writing that makes sense to a reader.

As I look ahead, I am excited to get started for next year (with a break included of course). Having a variety of novels to pick from in novel study will be paramount. I was more than slightly hamstrung by a lack of volume in my novel study selections. Yesterday I started the process of adding additional copies of books to my library. From Wringer to Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, I found second, third, and fourth copies of books. The hope is that I can have a mixture of old and new literature to chose from next year when we get started. I've tried to focus in on Newberry Award Winners and other books of note, wanting be steer kids towards books that have been recognized as quality works. But I'll admit that I've also been looking for books that are popular in the classroom, or that I've seen through the Reading Zone. The School Library Journal Top 100 has been helpful too, along with the Sasquatch Book List.

After completing A Wrinkle in Time this morning, I've moved on to When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead with the Lightning Thief coming up soon after. My goal is to read all of my prospective novel study books by August, and add on a few others as well. The days of reading a ton of school policy, education books are likely in my rear view mirror (aside from those aimed at instruction).