Need a Day Off? The Sustained Reader Can Help!

As every educator knows, classroom teaching may be the only profession where it’s more difficult NOT to show up to work!  Consequently, many a sick, exhausted, or feeling-a-little-crispy-around-the-edges teacher drags herself into the classroom instead of taking that well-deserved rest. Fortunately, The Sustained Reader (TSR) has had an idea! Drawing upon her 27 years of classroom teaching, TSR is creating a cache of objectives-based, classroom-tested teaching bundles for use on just such occasions!

The first bundle, titled “Teaching with Rabbit Ears: 'How the Leopard Got His Spots',”* is designed, in part, to provide substitute teachers with engaging and easy-to-implement lessons that ensure meaningful instruction continues in your absence. Best of all, each lesson includes an extension activity that requires your students to apply the skills they've practiced together to the Silent Sustained Reading book they've selected for themselves.

If, like The Sustained Reader, you've become immune to all student-borne bacteria, you'll be happy to know these lessons are also perfect for those crazy days before a holiday as well as that occasional day when you just want your students to hear a different voice. (Great for home-school use, too!)

Each "Teaching with Rabbit Ears" lesson is intended for use with a Rabbit Ears picture book and CD set, all of which are available, new and used, at Amazon.com and often at Half-Price Books. Because of the extremely high quality of Rabbit Ears products, most school librarians will be happy to purchase them for campus-wide access. Given her book hoarding tendencies, though, The Sustained Reader never felt much inclined to share such academic treasures, nor would she have wanted to leave them behind should she transfer to a different campus.  So, she bought them for herself, loaning them out only very occasionally to her dearest and most desperate friends; to this day, her extensive Rabbit Ears collection has proven to be among the most useful purchases she ever made as a teacher.  

  Throat a little scratchy? Crazy-making holiday coming up? There's no time like the present to prepare for the future. Go to TeachersPayTeachers.com and look for The Sustained Reader brand. You'll be happy you did -- and so will your substitute!

*Here's your direct link to TeachersPayTeachers.com: Teaching with Rabbit Ears: "How the Leopard Got His Spots"

A Dynamic Duo: You and Your School Librarian

     Holy Hard Work, Teachers!  Does that look familiar?  Promoting school literacy can be a daunting job -- even for the most tireless Language Arts advocates!  And because the quest is never-ending, sometimes even a super-hero needs help. 

     Take heart, my Classroom Crusaders. Your perfect partner may be as close as the school library!  Contrary to her mild-mannered appearance, the librarian (an oft-overlooked resource) has super-powers far beyond calming class cut-ups with a single, "SHHHHH!"  And, she's eager to share them!

     As you may recall from our last thrilling installment,  Getting All aTwitter About Books, "the number one job of a Language Arts teacher is getting her students excited about reading."  But how, you may ask, can our librarian help?  With a mere touch of the keyboard, your school librarian can conjure up book lists tailored to entice even the most reluctant readers.  You just have to know how to use them.

          For reasons obvious to any middle school teacher, let's call this first printout our "But, Mom!  EVERYBODY'S Reading It!" book list.  Notoriously motivated by whatever their peers are doing, students in grades sixth through eight cannot help but gravitate to a list of the twenty-five books most frequently chosen by their classmates during the first semester of school.  With a piece of poster board, some colorful markers, and a few willing accomplices -- (aka student aides, teaching interns, or that kid who just loves hanging around your classroom) -- the list below easily becomes "poster perfect" for a quick classroom Book Buzz.* Yes, you will have to recreate this poster each year as student choices change, but in my experience, the interest it sparked throughout my classes made it worth the effort.

     OR, as librarians say, check this out:  Sustained Readers -- (which your students soon will be) -- learn to hunt down books that appeal to their personal interests.**  With spring just around the corner, many of them will begin to exhibit symptoms of baseball fever.  What better time to tempt your "jocks" with a list of fiction and nonfiction titles to feed their current obsession?  The list below is only one of sixteen pages to appear when your cagey companion runs a search for "books about baseball."  

     In the interests of keeping this task manageable, you may want to ask your savvy sidekick to winnow the list down to ten or so of the most popular titles.  Those "Top Ten Baseball Books" then become a poster to display after the class reads some baseball-related text.  (For sixth graders, might I suggest a choral reading of Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer?)  If you ask nicely, your newest -- and best? -- campus resource may even pull out the tantalizing volumes for display during your classes' next Library Day!  [Added bonus:  This is a poster you can use year after year.]

   

     Swing by soon to plot these and other amazing escapades with your school librarian!  Together, you may discover a whole new world of academic adventure!

  * Click here for a quick refresher on Starting the Student Book Buzz!

** For more on "How to Choose a Book You Will Enjoy," take a peek at So Many Books, So Little Time.

The Sustained Reader gratefully dedicates this article to the Dynamic Duo of Erin Flynn and Brenda Sparks Specks who immediately (and without any grumbling whatsoever) came to the rescue in running the kinds of book lists I needed for illustrative purposes.