The NCRA and some middle grade fiction
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...