This is a guest post from Gara Goldenstein, Media Specialist at Jacobson Elementary in Rush City, MN. Read more CMLE scholarship reports here.
I attended the What’s New in Children’s Literature workshop through BER. This workshop highlighted books published in 2019.
Jonathon Hunt was the presenter and he did a fantastic job! It was a little different as we attended through Zoom. I was worried about how effective it would be attending using Zoom. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went!
A website I was introduced to is the ALA Best Websites for Teaching & Learning. There is also the Best Apps for Teaching & Learning website. These are great resources to find technology to enhance your teaching.
One app I highly recommend is Novel Effect. It is free and it will play sound effects as you read a picture book. The really cool thing for students is the app listens for key words so it will work no matter what speed the book is read.
One discussion that I found interesting was the benefits of having large print books. They especially recommend this for struggling readers. It is easier for them to physically track the words and leads to large gains in comprehension. I haven’t seen many children’s books offered in large print, but it’s something I will be looking for!
Here’s my list of top 10 book recommendations. It was super hard to narrow this down!!
- Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds (gr 4-7) Short stories of students walking home from school.
- Pay Attention, Carter Jones by Gary D. Schmidt (gr 4-7) His family inherits a snooty British butler! Humorous!
- Fly by Mark Teague (K-3) A baby bird wants to use a variety of methods of transportation, except it’s wings!
- Beneath the Bed and Other Scary Stories by Max Brailler (K-3) Acorn Scholastic book – beginning chapter book
- Monstrous: The Lore, The Gore, And Science Behind Your Favorite Monsters (Gr 5-8) Great infographics!
- Monkey and Cake series by Drew Daywalt (K-3) Great for those beginning readers! Very humorous!
- Five Minutes by Liz Garton Scanlon and Audrey Vernick ( K-3) How 5 minutes sometimes seems long, sometimes short.
- Torpedoed by Deborah Heiligman ( Gr 5-8) WWII setting. A ship leaves London bringing children to Canada. It is torpedoed by a German submarine.
- How to Two by David Soman (K-3) Focuses on how to play on a playground. Also a counting book.
- Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy (Gr 4-7) A girl’s parents get divorced but her dad moves in just down the street!
Thank you so much for the scholarship that provided me the opportunity to attend this workshop! This workshop is offered every year and I highly recommend it!