Central Ohio KidLit Bloggers get together to celebrate Award Winning Books January 26, 2009

Central Ohio KidLit Bloggers just can’t get enough of Cover to Cover or books! To celebrate the annoucements of the award winners, we met at our favorite book store and then had dinner at Northstar Cafe. It can’t get much better than that!

Me (Bestbookihavenotread), Karen (half of Literate Lives ), Sally Oddi (bookstore owner extraordinaire!), Katie (Creative Literacy),  Authentic Learner authors,  Franki Sibberson (half of A Year of Reading), author Amjed Qamar (Beneath My Mother’s Feet), and Mary Lee (other half of A Year of Reading).

I’m sure you’ve read the Newbery announcements, but here you go:

Newbery
The Graveyard Book-Neil Gaiman (posted MouseCircus link last week, but just bought tonight)-Franki wins since she and Sally are the only two who have already read it!

Honors:

The Underneath-Kathi Appelt (reviewed here-so glad it is recognized for the amazing book it is!)

Savvy by Ingrid Law (started, but loaned to a student and haven’t finished)

After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson 

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle

Caldecott:  The House in the Night illustrated by Beth Krommes and written by Susan Marie Swanson (Love her Tweets and her book To Be Like the Sun! Will need to purchase this asap!)

Quote to think about January 26, 2009

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” Ray Bradbury

Primary Units of Study-Lucy Calkins January 26, 2009

I’ve had an ongoing book study of Primary Units of Study by Lucy Calkins at the elementary school with kindergarten, first, and half the second grade. One of their building goals to have writing instruction happening in their K-3 classrooms everyday for at least 30 minutes. This past Monday the group had the opportunity to spend half a day with Literacy Guru (my name for her, not her own) Carol. Carol is a retired Language Arts Coordinator from a suburban district and Literacy Consultant. She is also one of the most positive people you can ever hope to meet and has an amazing way of bringing you around to her way of thinking while feeling great about yourself!

The week was going to continue with the opportunity for Carol to model a Writing lesson in a classroom with other teachers watching and then time to discuss what they observed. With the lovely Ohio weather and temperatures, we didn’t get as far as we planned, but will continue the following week.

The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey is being used as the mentor text for the writing lessons. For those who are familiar with Units of Study for Primary Writers. This is a modified lesson from Launching where the little booklets are introduced (I think Lesson 11).

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