It's Monday! What are you reading? was started by Sheila at Book Journey and was adapted for children's books from picture books through YA by Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers. You can visit either site for a round up of blogs sharing their weekly readings and thoughts or search Twitter for #IMWAYR.
Last Week's Posts
- Bravo! Poetry Friday Roundup. I hosted the weekly Poetry Friday roundup, so in addition to my review of Bravo! Poems about Amazing Hispanics you can also find links to all the other amazing poetry shares for the week.
- #DiverseKidLit: books in a series. Share a link or find the latest diverse book recommendations here.
Middle School
The Great Greene Heist (2014) by Varian Johnson. Tag line: saving the school, one con at a time. In this Oceans 11 meets eighth grade mashup, con-man Jackson Greene is under suspicion at his school after his previous con made him a bit notorious (which makes for a bit of a confusing beginning, because I kept feeling like I had accidentally started on book two of the series, but this is book one). I appreciated the fast-moving plotting and diverse cast of characters but wasn't quite able to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy this one as much as others might.
Professional Development
Disrupting Thinking: why how we read matters (2017) by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. I am reading this book as part of the Book Love Summer Reading Book Club, and even though I haven't commented on any of the discussion posts, I did finish up the book this past week. Disrupting Thinking does a great job of laying out what reading and talking about books should really look like and how to foster a deeper level of engagement between an individual kid and the books they read. I will definitely be digesting this for awhile and trying to figure out how best to incorporate some of the their suggested questions and frameworks.
Happy Reading!
I loved Varian Johnson's Greene series! The second one is just as good.
ReplyDeleteI still need to read Disrupting Thinking--I just need to buy it :)
Happy reading this week!
I enjoyed The Great Greene Heist, but it does go back to other things as you wrote. Nice that you are reading the PD with a group. I have loved doing that in the past!
ReplyDeleteI am currently reading Disrupting Thinking. Plan to read it through once and then go back and take more detailed notes. A really enjoyable read.
ReplyDeleteIf I was still teaching, I would probably be reading Disrupting Thinking, but I am now enjoying reading all kinds of nonfiction not related to work.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the Varian Johnson title when it came out, but not enough to read the sequel.