1. Barb read Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang. She says, "I picked this one up because it is a Read On Wisconsin! selection. It's a set of two graphic novels depicting China's Boxer Rebellion (a part of history I embarrassingly knew nothing about) from two points of view. My discussion of the book with colleagues included a lot of talk about text complexity, which is interesting to consider with a graphic novel."
2. Lisa is reading Five Levers to Improve Learning by Tony Frontier and James Rickabaugh (two expert Wisconsin educators!!)
3. Heather is reading Choice Words by Peter Johnston. She describes the book as having many "ideas on how to best use language for effective learning outcomes" and also says, "I know everyone has read this before... I missed the boat. I am checking it out finally."
4. Carrie describes the The Writing Thief by Ruth Culham as ". . . a book that continues to remind us of the importance of modeling and mentor texts. Essays from influential writers included in the text stress this same idea or can be used as mentor texts themselves."
5. Carrie is also reading Best Practice: Bringing Standards to Life in America's Classrooms by Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde. She says, "This book is about excellent teaching and powerful learning. This book defines best practice for young teachers, principals, administrators, instructional coaches, parents and school board members."
6. Jaimie is reading the Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson which begins with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for personal reading. She describes it as a "great mystery with lots of twists" and says, "It definitely keeps you thinking."
7. Bobbi is reading Coaching Conversations by Linda Cheliotes and Marceta Reilly. She says, "This coaching book provides a myriad of questioning strategies to help facilitate a change in practice in order to improve student learning."
8. Bobbi is also reading Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein. Bobbi explains, "This piece of historical fiction takes place during World War II (1943). A British spy plane flown by a young female pilot and her best friend passenger crashes into Nazi occupied France. The passenger, 'Queenie,' is captured and interrogated by the Gestapo."
Use the comments to continue the conversation by telling us what you're reading.
Barb: Boxers & Saints interests me. What grade level do you see it being appropriate? I requested both from my public library and look forward to comparing and contrasting the different viewpoints.
ReplyDeleteBoxers and Saints was super interesting, Rachel. I think you could use the set as low as grade 7, and it definitely had adult appeal. I didn't have any background info about the historical events and am not an avid graphic novel reader, so those aspects were challenging even for me (ad an adult reader).
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