Josh Schneider wins the coveted 2012 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award.
An announcement in Dallas this week made Josh Schneider a very happy man. The author and illustrator is the recipient of the 2012 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for his children’s book, “Tales for Very Picky Eaters.”
The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is given to the author and illustrator of the book deemed as the “most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year.” The Association Library Service to Children (ALSC) – a division of the American Library Association (ALA) – administers the award annually. This year the award was announced in Dallas during ALA’s mid-winter meeting, Jan. 20-24.
The award is given in memory of Theodor Geisel, the renowned children’s author known as “Dr. Seuss,” and to recognize contemporary winners for “their literary and artistic achievements that demonstrate creativity and imagination to engage children in reading.” The first Theodor Seuss Geisel Award was presented in 2006 to author Cynthia Rylant and illustrator Suçie Stevenson for their book “Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas.”
Schneider and other honorees will receive their awards in June in Anaheim, Ca., during the ALA’s annual conference.
“Tales for Very Picky Eaters” is a five-chapter book about a boy named James, who refuses to eat foods he considers disgusting, smelly, repulsive, lumpy or slimy. His clever dad plays a big role in the storyline, offering outrageous suggestions and rationale to get his son to be more daring with his dining. The text is paired with cartoon-like illustrations executed in watercolor, colored pencil, and pen and ink.
“The dialogue presents some preposterous situations but even the most challenging words are presented in context so beginning readers can easily discern their meaning,” said Carole Fiore, head of the Geisel Award Committee. “The touches of humor make this book an engaging page turner.”
Three additional Geisel Honor Books were named:
- “I Broke My Trunk,” the story of an elephant, written and illustrated by Mo Willems and published by Hyperion Books for Children.
- “I Want My Hat Back,” a story about honesty and loss, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen and published by Candlewick Press.
- “See Me Run,” a dog-infused story, written and illustrated by Paul Meisel and published by Holiday House.
With more than 4,000 children’s librarians, literature experts, publishers and educational faculty in its network, ALSC is dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children to create a better future for the next generation. Big Universe Learning also is a champion of children’s education and literacy. At last count, the online learning community had:
- 272,389 members from 166 countries
- 3,506 publishing company books, read 2,384,653 times
- 673,494 books stored on members’ personal bookshelves
- 172,575 bookshelves followed by members
- 42,500 books created by members
***NOTE: Humor is a great way to engage readers, both young and old. Check out “Humor: Be Still My ‘Beeting’ Heart,” a blog I wrote about another children’s book that deals with eating issues. It’s on Big Universe, and it’s one of my favs!
Ever wonder why students seem to remember rules, operations, or facts when put to a catchy tune? Have you ever wanted to create or find a song for that concept that just seemed to be too difficult for some to remember or learn? After becoming quite frustrated that some of my students in my word study group were not catching onto the “vowel consonant-e” pattern, I began to think of a way in which I could get it to “stick.”
A colleague of mine recently found many songs on YouTube that related to various concepts, including word study. In previous blog posts, I have commented on using YouTube for science or social studies, but also wanted to make readers aware of the songs teachers can use during Language Arts.
As always, it is best practice to view the complete video before showing them to students. It is also best practice to monitor the advertisements and commercials that tend to come with some of the videos on the site.
Word Study Videos:
The Electric Company: Veronica Jackson’s “Bossy R”
Super “e”!!!! (hip children’s song by Mark D. Pencil)
Vowels Save the Day
Short Vowel Song
Song About Contractions: A Contraction has an Apostrophe by Miss Jenny
Contraction Rap 1st Grade
Teaching By Magic- Homophones
Song About Compound Words: Compound Word Whiz With Miss Jenny
Prefixes and Suffixes
Eight Parts of Speech!
Parts of Speech Music Video
It was amazing how many different videos were on YouTube related to these various concepts! The visual and audio aspect of learning is captured during these types of learning experiences, and can really impact a particular child’s understanding. When all else has failed and you are about to pull your hair out (haha!) just remember to think outside of the box, or use modern technology to help you out! It is amazing what our kids remember and connect to in this generation…good luck and rock on!
A while back I attended a workshop on reading instruction and one thing that really struck me (and the rest of the group) was the value of independent reading. I have been asking my students to Drop Everything And Read for as long as I’ve been a teacher (13 years so far), but during this workshop I was forced to realize how I had strayed from purposeful, reflective, independent reading.
There are some students, of course, who will sit with a book for hours if you let them and those who will turn pages creating the illusion of reading. My job then becomes to coach both types and levels of readers (and all those in between) and to help them engage more with their reading.
Holding students accountable for their reading balanced with time to reflect on their reading after a period of time is important and the model which I have committed to use for the remainder of the year. I expect students to keep a log of what they read, including the title, author and dates they read the book or story. I am also asking students to take a reflection moment at the end of our time to write down what they are thinking. It may be a question, a comment, a connection or a prediction. The students are deciding what is the best way for them to do this individually. Some are using sticky notes and putting them in the pages of the book. Others are using sticky notes and placing them on the back of a recycled piece of paper to keep in their binder. Others are writing their thoughts on a lined piece of paper, noting the date and page number as well as their idea or question.
Some students love reading independently on Big Universe. These students can use sticky notes or a log to keep track of their thoughts and questions or use an online resource to do so. Evernote could prove to be useful. The favorite among online users, though is to create a Google doc to track their ideas as they read through a book, toggling between Big Universe screens and Gdoc screens.
Giving students this 2-5 minutes of reflection time on their own independent reading has been great. It allows struggling readers to think back about their text and check for understanding and it allows high level readers to think even more deeply about their texts. And I must say that more and more students are enjoying the opportunity to take a quick trip to the Computer Clubhouse or Lab to do their independent reading on Big U.
How do you structure your independent reading time?
~EMP
I recently came across this image and really like the way it explains the pieces of Balanced Literacy.
I have written several blog posts in the past concerning Balanced Literacy and Big Universe Learning:
I recently attended a workshop that focused on the Common Core Standards, and specifically, on the shifts in literacy instruction that are taking place to support these standards. The new Standards will require students to read more informational texts, and so teachers will be required to embed literacy into every subject and discipline. Reading materials will become increasingly complex, and students will need to read carefully, and to support their responses with evidence to prove comprehension of the text. During this workshop we learned to design a Close Reading Literacy Task, in which the students and teacher read a short, rich text together, and use questions and evidence-based answers to derive meaning from the text.
Big Universe is perfectly suited to support Close Reading Tasks and the increasing demand for concise texts on a variety of topics. Since the exercise begins with the students reading the text independently, teachers can assign specific books to the students, and check that students have read the material before the group activity begins. The class can use a display unit so that they can view the text together when the selection is re-read. During this group reading, the teacher should be sure that all students understand the vocabulary that is being used. The students can then share responses to questions as a group, to ensure that they understand the content, and the author’s purpose for writing the text. The answers should require that the students return to the text, rereading and using specific passages to support their reasoning. The questions check that the students understand the meaning of words and phrases within the text, of sentences and how they relate to the story as a whole, to passages within the selection, and how they help develop the whole, and of the story as a whole, including possibly its themes and morals. Students can then read related stories in Big Universe, or books with similar themes.
Since the books in Big Universe are leveled, teachers are able to choose appropriate material on a wide variety of topics for a Close Reading Task. And, as the books can be read individually or collectively, and saved in Bookshelves for future reference, Big Universe provides an instant resource for Literacy instruction and for supplemental texts for any subject.
For more information about the Six Shifts and the Common Core Standards, see EngageNY, (http://engageny.org/resource/common-core-shifts/) and this site about the Common Core which describes the Six Shifts: http://commoncorestandards.com/ela/6-shifts-in-learning-ccss-style/
What is important to know for working more effectively with learning disabled children?
Recently I watched the video, “How Difficult Can This Be?” presented by Richard Lavoie. This is a great professional video that emphasizes the need for us to be much more sensitive to the feelings and perspectives of children with learning disabilities. A few points that I found interesting include: how deficits and differences in visual perception impact students; why student engagement is difficult to achieve and maintain; and how processing delays cause students to become further behind. If you have not seen this video and would like to learn more about how children with learning disabilities struggle, this is definitely one to check-out!
Since watching this video, I’ve noticed just how much more sensitive I am to the students struggling in my classroom. I’ve tried to make every effort to consider my students’ capabilities and weaknesses prior to setting lesson objectives and learning goals. I thought I would share a few questions I often ask myself before planning my reading instruction for my struggling students:
- At what reading level is this student performing? What reading behaviors are evident and/or lacking?
- What is the student’s stage of writing and spelling development? How does this information help me understand the student’s stage of reading development?
- Does this student have an IEP? If so, what are the goals and accommodations? How can I best adjust my instruction to help this student meet his goals?
- What are the reading strengths/challenges of this student? What reading goals can I help this student set and eventually meet?
- What reading program is most appropriate for this student at this time in their reading stage of development?
- What resources do I have that will help this student meet the lesson objective?
- What is the student’s affective development? Does this student display a weak or strong reader self-concept? Why? How can I help in this area?
- What strategies do I currently use to work effectively with learning disabled children?
- How is this student performing in the regular classroom? How can I help bridge the gap between the student’s intervention services and classroom small group instruction?
- How can I best motivate this student to accomplish his work?
- What is this student’s level of social and emotional development? How can I use this information to help this student stay focused and on task?
What information is important for you to know prior to working with a student with a learning disability? What strategies do you use that help you work effectively with a struggling student? As we learn to be sensitive to our struggling students, our lesson objectives can be met successfully and our students definitely grow in more ways than one!
My daughter is in Kindergarten and has been coming home the last few days telling me that they are having trouble with Lily because she is not behaving. I started trying to figure out who she was talking about …
There is not a Lily in her class ..
There is not a Lily in her dance class …
There is not a Lily in her daycare class …
So I had no idea who she was talking about … until I looked at the class newsletter yesterday ..
Lily is one of the bears they have been watching by logging in to view a “Den Cam” (that would be a web cam focused on the den of the bears). The North American Bear Center offers 3 Live Den Cams:
- Lily & Faith
- Jewel
- Honey & Lucky
Based on the detailed descriptions we are getting at home, I can only imagine how excited those students are when they see the bears moving and just being bears. Wouldn’t that be a great opportunity to focus on details and descriptive writing? What if each student pretended to be one of the bears? I am sure we could bring in drawing of the bear and surroundings.
Even though my daughter is in Kindergarten, I think about the many grade levels that could use something like this to look at animals, adaptations, environments, habitats.
Check out these books available on Big Universe (fiction and nonfiction):
Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is how to continuously engage my students in their learning. Ok, let’s face it, that is something I’m constantly thinking about. I bet we all are! We want our students to be invested and interested in what they are doing, and when they are engaged with the material they are working on, great things happen.
Motivated learners are the ultimate and I’m finding that on Big Universe, my students are naturally motivated and engaged. Recently, I posed a writing challenge to some of my students. They are currently working in groups on writing and publishing an ebook on a math concept of their choice. With very little assistance from me, all the students (10 of them) are collaboratively working every moment they can during the day.
Still some of my students have really found a hook into reading through the variety of books on the site. One girl has built a bookshelf of history books to peruse. Another has great fictional books about adolescence – chapter books that she keeps returning to at various times in the day. One boy has built a heafty bookshelf on all sorts of topics and loves sharing it with others by sending messages to his classmates.
It’s a new type of engagement with literacy, a 21st century engagement where students interact with technology and social media in a safe environment and share in the enjoyment and excitement that literacy can bring.
At least once a week, our class takes a trip to our Computer Clubhouse to use the computers and Big Universe freely. My students covet this time and are very disappointed if the time is cut short. Many read a new text, some work on writing an ebook and of course they all want to send messages to each other both personally and virtually. During that time, we are working on balancing out what we do. In our 30 minutes, I ask that students don’t just take advantage of the social media features, but find something that will engage them for 10-20 minutes. It takes some stamina building, but the kids love the practice because of the pure motivational and engaging value of working online.
This week, my students began learning about the past and present with regards to analyzing how technologies related to communication, transportation, occupations and daily life have changed. The evolution and progress made over time in these areas fascinated my students during our discussions.
I created graphic organizers to help them display their understanding of how communication, transportation, occupations and daily life has changed from past to present. The graphic organizers were set up similar to a time line in that the students could display progress in a sequential order.
Big Universe Learning has a great series of resources for helping students understand how occupations have changed from the past to the present. The series is published by Teacher Created Materials, and the books outlines different occupations and compare how they have changed between “then and now.” Since there are many books in this series, I chose a few and assigned them to groups of students. The groups were required to read the book, determine the main ideas and supporting details, and then share their findings with the rest of the class. This way, the students were experiencing opportunities to learn in a cooperative group setting, as well as, present their findings to their peers.
In addition to these books found on Big Universe, I also used the book titled Pony Express to illustrate how
communication has changed, specifically using chapter four as my focus. This helped the students begin to realize that the technologies that they have grown used to having did not always exist and that trying to communicate with others long ago was much more difficult.
At the end of the unit, I read the book 2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow’s Kids by Amy Zuckerman, James Daly and John Manders. This book helped my students begin to wonder what life might be like in the future, and what technologies haven’t even been invented yet that could help them communicate, travel, create new jobs or make daily life easier. After I read this book, the students were asked to pick a category (communication, transportation, occupation or daily life) and invent something that would impact this category that doesn’t already exist. The students had to then answer reflection questions related to the progression of their chosen category over time. The kids really enjoyed this project and were eager to work on their inventions! It was a great way to culminate this unit, and come full circle in their learning about the past, present and future!
Posted on January 12, 2012 by Suzan Woodard in Classroom Ideas, Integration Ideas, Personal Experiences, Reading Lists, Writing.
Tags: Current Events, Environment, Matilda Snake, Reptiles, Snake Books for Kids, Writing Online
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Wildlife Conservation Society photo of the colorful Matilda viper.
Mention the “S” word and you’ll usually get polar reactions. Some people express revulsion, while others indicate fascination for all things viper. But, it’s safe to bet that everyone has a snake story to tell.
My oldest daughter stepped on a copperhead in her bare feet while playing in our yard. My geologist father stared a few rattlesnakes down in his day while doing field study, and I found a sizeable black snake nesting under the pine shavings in a horse stall a few years back. There was a snake in our church gym’s rafters at a girls’ youth group sleepover, and my mom found “Mr. Thin Lips” lounging on the grill on her porch. Similar anecdotes by students could be the launching pad for writing stories on Big Universe – ones full of sequence words, action verbs and descriptive adjectives!
We all escaped unscathed, except for a few heart palpitations. Our inquisitive chocolate Labrador Retriever was the only family member to ever be bitten. She had a run-in with a copperhead. Her nose swelled, but the vet said she would recover quickly. And, she did.
I’m not particularly fond of being startled by snakes. I’d much rather observe them from behind a nice thick pane of glass or read about them. Big Universe Learning has numerous children’s books about snakes and reptiles that make this possible. These online books are pretty interesting and are the perfect supplement to science units about reptiles or the environment. (See list below.)
Why did I pick this topic for my blog? Well, it’s not because I really enjoy scaly things, but I do love zoology, scientific discovery and current events. An Associated Press (AP) article today heralded a new green-horned snake named after a little British girl called “Matilda.” The rare lemon-colored snake was found in Tanzania and was introduced to the world in the December issue of the scientific journal Zootaxa.
“Only three new vipers have been discovered across Africa the last three decades, making the find rare and important,” according to the AP article.
“My daughter, who was 5 at the time, became fascinated by it and used to love spending time watching it and helping us look after it,” said Tim Davenport, the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Tanzania, who – along with two teammates – discovered the highly endangered snake two years ago. The find was kept under wraps until a conservation plan could be initiated.
Big Universe’s Snake Books for Children
