The Book Search

 Wow, so I guess it's been a busy fall.  There was this little projec t  that kept me busy for awhile. Oh and school ... in the middle of a pandemic... and being available for a relentless amount of tech support to teachers trying to teach a hybrid model of both in person and online classes to 3, 4, and 5 year olds.  BUT this week, I actually had time to read some books!  YAY!!!  Here were two terrific ghost stories with great cultural connections.   The first one is called The Ghost in Apartment 2R by Denis Markell.  Danny is the storyteller.  He lives with his parents and his older brother in an apartment in Brooklyn.  It's a small apartment and his bedroom has always been in a closet.  That was all supposed to change when Danny's older brother, Jake, went to college.  Except that now, his parents decided, in an effort to make some extra money to help pay for Jake's college expenses, they are going to rent out the bedroom on ...

This week I had the opportunity to present at the NCRA (the North Carolina Reading Association).  I've been looking at ways to market my database ( The Booksearch ) which lets you search for books based on the skills you want to teach.  I was presenting about finding just right books and boy, did I have a lot to think about!  I've presented on this topic a few times, but on Monday, I listen to Tim Shanahan, a professor at University of Illinois at Chicago.  (Here's a link to his blog .)  He was talking about teaching reading and he explained that most of the reasons that we work really hard to get books on the right levels for kids is based on a research study done in the 1940s and IT'S WRONG.  Holy cow.  Talk about mind blown.  But I thought it made a lot of sense.  I often have the feeling that when I'm teaching reading that it's mostly my job to show the kids how and then get out of the way.  That's kind of what Shanahan was saying to...