My Reading Incentenive Program for the 2011-2012 school year

The Reading Incentive Program that I will implement will be called: Reading RULES! I will encourage student reading by rewarding the top five students with the most read books a chance to "Rule the School". "Ruling the School" will basically mean that the students have a chance to be the principal for one day during a one week period. One student Monday, one student Tuesday, etc. The student will have a chance to help with the morning and afternoon announcements, eat lunch with the principal, and have a chance to stand at the main hallway before and after school with the principal greeting students. I will ask all students to keep a log of books they have read during the fall semester. After they read one book, their parents will sign or initial the log that I make for them. They will turn their log books in to their teachers, who will send me their top student from their class. I willl determine the top five students, and announce them the week before they "Rule the School". I think my program will work, and will encourage the entire school to read more because READING RULES!

Book Review: "When Marian Sang"

"When Marian Sang" is a beautiful story about Marian Anderson, her beautiful voice, and her struggle with racism and having her voice heard. It is illustrated by Brian Selznick, a famous illustrator of children books. It is a book intended for 3-5th grade levels, because it is more than just illustrations. The topic it covers, racism in the 1960s, is not something that would be comprehensible to a younger audience. It is a great story of hope and perseverance.

LIbrary Advocacy

General support for the library is shrinking. We must implement strategies that will advocate and maintain a strong and successful library. The following tips will ensure a strong library.

-a well informed, trained librarian
-a justified library budget
-parental and faculty support

Adovocating

My librarian , Mrs. Robinson decided to retire this past school year.  I am sure gonna miss her! We worked really well together, and she taught me a lot. We certainly advocated for our library in many ways. We found that some worked, and other did not. It was a trial and error process, but we found some great ways to get more than just classes coming in!Advocating for your library is important, because in this media-filled environment, it can be hard to get kids and adults motivated to read beyond the computer.   We used incentive programs such as free book drawings to help get kids to return overdue books, and to check out new ones. Mrs. Robinson ran a book-club program, and they had a few parties and activities throughout the year that corresponded with the book they were reading. It was really a lot of fun. Even though Mrs. R will be gone this year, I know I will continue her love of reading and books in Anne Frank by continuing her practices.

Blog #18-COMM 3300

How I will use this

    I think that I will use the tools I have learned in this class is my future ELAR. I would like to require them to have a blog where they post about the things they have learned in the class that week. I would require at least one blog post a week. They would have to email me their blog profile, or send a screen shot of the post every week. I would also love to have them create a glog for books we read throughout the semester, post or embed it to their blog, and send a screen shot to me. I think I would create a wiki for the class, that would have a calendar/syllabus, assignments, etc. on it.

Molly Bang

   This book is about a father and daughter counting backwards from ten at bedtime.  It is composed of highly colorful images.  This book was a lot of fun to read. I enjoyed the aspect of the father reading and counting with his child. It is a nice and refreshing way to display a family without showing the mother.  The colors are soft and warm, indicating to the reader that this is a safe place to be.  It is written by Molly Bang, so many of her picture elements are visible throughout the book. It is a Caldecott Honor book.