Reading Review Board

Summer Reading

I'm looking for some great summer reading. What are you planning to read this summer? If you cheated and read it before summer arrived, I'd like to know that as well.

Please share your plans for summer reading with the rest of the review board.

Thanks,

Carol

A Virtual Bookshelf

I learned about an intriguing site recently. It's called library thing, and it lets you set up a personalized, catalogued, organized bookshelf of your  books. By searching for the edition of the book you have or want to get, you'll find all the information about the book as well as a snapshot of the book jacket. Some of you will certainly want to try it out.

    

Kite Runner discussion

Welcome to the ORC Reading Review Board book discussion of Kite Runner.  The dynamic themes of this compelling book revolve around the tensions between loyalty and betrayal, guilt and redemption. All this human drama plays out against the sociopolitical backdrop of a peaceful monarchy that falls prey to invasion, occupation and the rise of a totalitarian regime

If you haven’t already seen it, we suggest a visit to Khaled Hosseini’s official website. If you haven’t yet read the book, the short essay in which Hosseini draws parallels between his own return with that of his protagonist, Amir, will set the tone.  If you have read the book, the essay may bring to mind times when you have experienced a similar return to a former place. 

We offer these questions to begin our discussion. Please take them where you will!

A Book Discussion

Everyone is hard at work!!! Nancy Fordham's graduate students at Bowling Green discuss their responses to My Thirteenth Winter in the pictures below. In some photos, they are putting their comments into the ORC reading blog and reading the comments of others in the blog.

Is anyone familiar with this book?

I was just reading through some of the news sent out by NCTE in the weekly InBox, and I was especially intrigued by an article about boys and reading. The article, Making Learning a Guy Thing, is based on the book The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons from Falling Behind in Life and School, by Kathy Stevens (co-author). I recall reading one of your entries in the blog about the close relationship of reading and math, and I was immediately reminded of that as I read the article about a third-grade boy who was failing in math because he couldn't read directions.

Is this a book we should think about adding to our book club list? Please take a look at the article and share your knowledge of the book and researchers with the rest of us.

Carol 

AdLIT In Perspective

If you haven't checked the ORC home page in the last two days, you probably haven't yet seen the January In Perspective that was just launched. It's a particularly timely issue, focused on assessment and going beyond the teaching to the test mentality that we often hear about. The lead article by Janet Angelis is terrific and one you'll want to share with colleagues and teacher candidates or graduate students.

I started (finally) reading Choice Words and noticed that Janet Angelis is mentioned as a Langer-Applebee staff member who helped with the book. I read just enough of the book to discover that it is truly compelling. I've been aware of the classroom/teacher language for a long time -- ever since I read the Halliday study about the influence teacher talk (commands, inquiry, etc.) has on the school language and behaviors of young children. Pete Johnston takes it much farther, looking at student success as it's linked to classroom talk.

One more note about the new In Perspective -- ORC now has an AdLit weblog which Nicole aptly named blogTalk. Each article in the new issue of In Perspective has a link on the right that lets the reader comment on this issue. The link, of course, goes directly to blogTalk where Nicole and I posted topics and questions for discussion. We hope you'll help to get this feature started (especially since you're such experienced bloggers) by getting the discussion started. You might also want to use this feature for your students in graduate or teacher prep classes. We really want teachers to comment on the magazine, but sometimes it takes a while to people used to this. If you can help us jump-start the discussion, Nicole and I will be eternally grateful!

Carol

Math LD is topic of Mayo research report

You'll probably be interested in reading about this research study on Math LD from Mayo Clinic. I was intrigued by a couple of things. The first is that the problem is never referred to as dyscalcula but only as Math LD. That made me wonder whether or not they are the same disorder or whether the name for the disorder has changed. The other is the link between Math LD and Reading LD.

Judy Spicer, a mathematics specialist at ORC, shared the article with me and promised to look into the issue. By the way, Judy's currently reading my copy of My Thirteenth Winter, so of course, she shared the article with me.

Carol

Choice Words by Peter H. Johnston

I just finished chapter 4 of this book yesterday, and already I'm filled with ideas about how to better confer with and teach my students!  The chapter that I read last night had to do with Agency and how students need to believe that they all have the capability to succeed in their work.  Page 35 was especially of interest to me.  When I'm working one-on-one with kids, I'll frequently say, "I like how you did _______, BUT..." I've always hated the big BUT, BUT I've never really thought about how to get around it.  The author fully discusses how BUT undermines what a student has worked so hard to achieve.  He suggests a better way that I plan on implementing tomorrow.  For example, "I like how you did _____, and if you, . . . then . . ."  Wow!  What a powerful way to help students while not using even the adult-dreaded BUT word.  I'm excited about using this remedy and seeing its results.  Thanks for inviting me to read this fun and thought-provoking text!  :-)

Terese Tye

(I copied Terese's discussion topic to the home page so you'll all see it. I was afraid it would be buried in the discussion about My 13th winter. -Carol)

My Thirteenth Winter

Welcome to a brand new feature --  an online book club/discussion for Ohio teachers made possible through ORC's Community Weblog!

Educators should find our first book, My Thirteenth Winter by Samantha Abeel, compelling. Samantha's memoir chronicles her lifelong struggles with Dyscalculia and, specifically, its profound effect on her as an adolescent.

Not familiar with Dyscalculia?

Before you begin reading, you might want to visit http://dyscalculia.org, where you can browse the links related to this learning disability. Some other things to ponder as you prepare to read:

• Have you ever dealt with students who are gifted yet have learning disabilities?
• What unique characteristics did they display?
• How do you think learning disabilities affect students' self-esteem and general emotional well-being? 
• Can teachers possibly know the full impact of these disabilities on students and their families?

During and after reading, you might want to consider, among other things: What keeps Samantha afloat? How and where does she find solace? How can classroom teachers help?

That's it! All you need to get started is a copy of the book and a comfortable spot for reading. We want to hear from you after you've finished. (Our targeted completion date is November 11.) Then, join the weblog by following the links and prompts, and share your candid responses with colleagues from across Ohio. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Click recent discussion on the left to go directly to the discussion topics.

Facilitators: Nancy Fordham, Bowling Green State University, Alexa Sandmann, Kent State University

Welcome to ORC's Reading Blog!

Hi! Welcome to our first blog conversation! On pages 10-12 in "Best Practice" (third edition), Zemelman, Daniels and Hyde describe principles of "Best Practice" across the curriculum. As an ORC reviewer, what do you look for in a website for evidence that it is a "good" or "best" practice? Does their list have value for us as reviewers of electronic resources?  Let's share our thoughts!