Reading in the Wild Ch. 3 & 4 (#cyberPD)

Time for Week 2 of #cyberPD!  Last week's #cyberPD led to a discussion about collaboratively developing parent workshops, so I'm going to continue my thinking through that lens.  It's fitting since Chapter 3 discusses the importance of fostering school and home reading communities.

Thoughts from Chapter 3: Wild Readers Share Books and Reading with Other Readers
Big B was gifted some money for his birthday.  We were online shopping at the LEGO store today, as he debated how he might spend his money.  He naturally gravitated towards the reviews to guide his decision (despite my encouragement to check out something other than the Guardians of the Galaxy sets).  I'm thinking I need to find ways to build off of how he "naturally" interacts with technology.  Checking reviews is a part of the shopping experience for him.  He doesn't even know a world without Amazon where you couldn't go online and find out what other people are thinking about a product.  Similarly, I rely on social media (Goodreads, Twitter, blogs) for my book recommendations, especially since leaving the classroom.  So, how can I (or any parent) teach our child about sharing books and reading with other readers that they can use forever?  This is a twist on one of the big questions that Donalyn Miller shared at nErDcampMI -- What am I teaching my students about reading that they can use forever? I am going to start by letting Big B (such a lucky kid!) try out BiblioNasium.  I'm hopeful it will expand his reading life...so his mother, teacher, and teacher librarian are not his only epicenter readers!  

This chapter also made me long for a classroom of my own, which happens from time to time in my new role.  So many great ideas, such as shelfies, book commercials, and reading doors! I'm wondering how I could adapt the Reading Graffiti/Reading Doors idea for parents or teachers.  The Padlet wall for our #cyberPD group made me wonder if we could create a virtual Reading Graffiti wall for some of our professional book study groups in our district.  With the widespread popularity of Pinterest, could we create shared boards for parents or teachers to pin book recommendations?

Thoughts from Chapter 4: Wild Readers Have Reading Plans
At the beginning of this chapter, Donalyn writes, "The difference between readers and nonreaders is that readers have plans."  During my hiatus from fiction reading, I didn't have a plan, except to read any book that Jodi Picoult writes.  Here's how that looks -- read My Sister's Keeper, wait a year, read Nineteen Minutes, wait a year, read Change of Heart, wait a year, read Handle with Care, wait a year, read House Rules, realize you can now predict the endings, stop reading.  Don't worry, I have much better plans now.  In fact, I have a TBR list of 171 books and a physical pile of about 10 books.  (I am trying not to buy and make better use of my public library!)  This spring, I tried to read off of my TBR list by genre -- fantasy one week, nonfiction one week, historical fiction one week, etc.  Right now, Big B's plans seem partially based on series and partially based on what is sitting on his nightstand.  He's reading the Lunch Lady books (plus Comics Squad Recess!  Woot woot!) and the Disney encyclopedias, which were birthday gifts.  As Big B gets more into series chapter books, I look for this to become more of his reading plans.  I'm also thinking it might be fun to get Little C into the action.  I'm wondering if we might do an Elephant and Piggie challenge.  We've read most of them, but I'm certain we've missed a few and we tend to reread We Are In A Book! and Let's Go for a Drive.  But this does mean that I need to the order the newest Elephant and Piggie book immediately! Off to the bookstore...

Happy reading!
Annie