Mrs. HP Teacher Librarian!

  The Radius of Us by Marie Marquardt is about Gretchen and Phoenix.  Both have experienced extreme trauma resulting in mental health issues that plague them and prevent them from moving forward in life. Despite Phoenix inadvertently triggering a panic attach in Gretchen, they come together and support one another as they battle through extreme anxiety and halting guilt.   What I loved about the book was that the author, Marie Marquardt, is an active member at El Refugio - a non profit that serves detained immigrants.  When she tells Phoenix's story as he makes his way out of El Salvador with his younger brother, and awaits the US Courts decisions about remaining in the US, it is authentic.  She knows the stories of people like Phoenix and writes his story with compassion and empathy. What I did not understand was why Gretchen seeks out Phoenix, after fleeing from him when he appears out of nowhere at the park.  Not only does she take off with her little cousins, but she has a full

On a different no As I progress through The Reading Strategies book by Jennifer Serravalino, I stumble through new and familiar strategies.  Strategy 5.4 is the good old plot map.  I added it to my sketch notes, in order to turn my sketch notes into a one pager.  Depending on the reader, this is an activity that be done as the reader progresses through the book, or at the end of the reading.  In the past, I have asked students to pick the five most important events only.  After, students can write a summary of the book if required. On a different note, at one of our professional developments, Penny Kittle spoke.  She briefed over thematic notebooks, in which students write to the theme based off the book they are reading.  Because books hold various themes throughout them, students can write to theme prompts reading a singular book.  (At least this is my understanding).  I created several theme notebooks to practice this.  I try to just pick the next notebook in the pile, as if it was

  This summer, I have been trying to go through Jennifer Serravallo's book The Reading Strategies.  I have always been a big fan of sketch-notes/one pagers, and have incorporated many of her strategies into them.   Strategy 2.16 Choose Books with your ID in Mind      I really liked this strategy because knowing what your likes and dislikes are, it is easier for students to find a genre that will interest them, thus making it easier for them to read.  If I think about building a reading habit, and thinking of James Clear's Atomic Habits , he states that habits should be attractive and satisfying.  Knowing what you like, and finding a book that fits your identity, not only makes the book both attractive and satisfying, but also allows the reader to better connect to the story and want to pick another book when completed.     2.17 Visualize to Focus This a great strategy to help readers visualize and make a movie in their mind's eye while reading.  It is not an unknown strateg

The importance of instilling a love of reading in our students I discovered this book on social media - Instagram, to be exact.  As the librarian at my school site, I know my job is to promote reading.  I picked up this book in order to help generate ideas that I can implement at my school site.   Miller states at the beginning of her book that the goal of any teacher should be to create lifelong readers of our students.   Reading culture is not part of my school site or the community the school is located in.  Yet Miller talks about the importance of having reading role models.  This is an important part of teaching students to become life long readers.  She states:   By allowing students to pass through our classrooms without learning to love reading, we are creating adults (who then become parents & teachers) who don't read much.  . . .  they do not love to read and have few life reading habits to model for children (p.107). If we as educators don't teach our students th

      I stumbled upon book bentos last week, and fell in love with the concept  about talking about a book.  I found a few different ways to create them, but there is no set rules regarding what applications or technology to use to create them.  I loved the idea of finding 5 -8 things that represent the book.  Here are my two creations based on the literature I found.  I created the original image in Google Draw then downloaded it as a PNG.  The second image I created in slides another teacher shared - unfortunately I don't remember who, but they created an amazing template. This image I will use for a social media post and in Schoology to describe what a Book Bento is.  Depending on the size and quality of the image, the text can be difficult to read, that is why I created the slide. I really enjoyed making the book bento, and I think students will too.

  It is Book Trailer Tuesday and today’s book trailer is called Kingston and the Magician’s Lost and Found  by Rucker Moses and Theo Gangi. Kingston and the Magician's Lost and Found  is about Kingston’s father who disappears through a magic mirror and does not return.  The family moves into his father’s old home in Brooklyn, and Kingston begins to see visions of his father.  The book was just released last week, so it has not yet made it to Sora - but soon will.  Still, watch the trailer or listen to the audio excerpt!