What Are You Reading: May 2015

1. Andrea says, "I am reading - and I know this may seem strange - What’s Math Got to Do With It? by Joan Boaler (the revised and updated version for 2015).   It's really about changing our mindset about mathematics instruction and I find it absolutely fascinating.  I share an office with our math coach and she recommended that I read it."

2. Heather is reading Endangered Eliot Schrefer. She summarizes it as follows: "Sophie is visiting her mother in the Congo.  Her mother is passionate about saving bonobos and Sophie ends up taking care of a bobonbo she names Otto.  Then war breaks out where Sophie is and she needs to try to save both her life and Otto's life."

3. Heather is also reading Brown Girl Dreaming in which author Jacqueline Woodson uses verse to tell her story about growing up in South Carolina in the 1960s and then moving to New York.

4. Julie is reading Kay Psencik's The Coach's Craft - Powerful Practices to Support School Leaders. It is about using coaching to build the capacity of school leaders.

5. Diane is reading 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know by Jeff Anderson. She says, "I love the layout of this book as it seems to be very user friendly.  Jeff Anderson focuses on developing the concepts and application of ten essential aspects of good writing—motion, models, focus, detail, form, frames, cohesion, energy, words, and clutter. Throughout the book, Jeff provides dozens of model texts, both fiction and nonfiction, that bring alive the ten things every writer needs to know. I can see using this book as a book study.  He has quotes for each chapters and gives you ready to use strategies that I have shared with my teachers."

6. Barb is reading More Than This by Patrick Ness.  It's the April Read on Wisconsin book. She says, "Ness’s 400+ page YA dystopian  novel begins with a first-person narration by Seth who commits suicide by drowning himself. He wakes up in a town he once lived in with his family; however, it is completely abandoned. He has to figure out what’s going on (after life?) and how he will survive. It has some CRAZY twists. I’ve wanted to throw it across the room at least three times."

7. Bobbi says this about Gretchen Owocki's Common Core Writing Book, K - 5: "I love this book because it is practical and easy to use. Owocki illustrates how the standards can bring out the best in our students, while engaging them in rigorous content."

8. Heather is reading Don't Call Me Ishmael by Michael Gerard Bauer. She explains, "Ishmael does not get along with the class bully, Billy.  When a new student, Scobie, starts school, he helps Ishmael come out of his shell."

9. Carrie is reading Drive by Daniel Pink. She says, "In his book, Drive, Pink talks about what motivates and inspires humans to achieve their goals and find satisfaction. A great read to inspire both teachers and students to strive for fulfillment in their daily lives."


10. Diane is catching up on her young adult fiction to find connections to disciplinary literacy. Someone recommended she read The Barn Burner by Patricia Willis. Diane says, "The story takes place in 1933  during the height of the depression era.  14 year old Ross leaves home after his father wrongly accuses him of stealing and his mother tells him to get out, Ross roams the countryside sleeping in barns and doing odd jobs. When the barn he is sleeping in catches fire, Ross is afraid people will think he did it. He decides to stay with the family that's taken him in until the barn burner is caught. Staying with the Warfields reminds him of his own family. As time passes, Ross wonders will he be able to go home some day? This book is centered around the theme of Ross trying to prove his innocence."

11. Barb read The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. She says, "This one has been passed between the cubes of the DPI literacy consultants. I read it (listened to it, actually), and then Laura and Marci read it, finishing within days of each other. It's a captivating mystery told from alternating perspectives of three unreliable narrators."