Tag Archives: Reading

Summer Reading 2022 @ El Paso Public Library

Check it out! This one’s to motivate our participants to make time for reading. Also extending the opportunity to any of our incoming 6th graders and other Canyon Hills Middle School Cobras. During the first week of school, for students that submit their certificate of completion for their reading goals we’ll have a prize raffle with your name in it. Don’t let the summer pass you by without making some time for reading. Here’s an active link include in the flier to elpasolibrary.beanstack.com. You can also register in-person at branch libraries.

We’ll have copies of this flier available at our Community Chess Connection meetings at the Richard Burges Branch Library up until July 14th.

Reading Comprehension Strategies by Nina Parrish

A great article to return to for strategies to address struggles with reading comprehension! Some highlights from the article include…

“…to address reading comprehension deficits effectively, educators may have to use an approach that teaches vocabulary, thinking skills, and comprehension first in spoken language and then in reading and written language.”

“Since it is impossible to know every word one might encounter, students should be taught about the different types of context clues and how to use them to determine the meaning of unknown words.” …inspires some ideas for a tool I’d like to create to cover the various types of context clue strategies.

“…they often struggle with the complex thinking or sustained attention required to keep up with all of the important details and to access information that is implied but not directly stated.”

I think about the benefits of chess when thinking about developing a student’s ability to sustain attention. There are some strategies linked from the article that can help with this skill especially as it relates to “thinking strategies”.

Love the idea of rotating in the following roles! Questioner, Summarizer, Clarifier, and Predictor.

“Students should have the opportunity to first use the skills with text that they hear the teacher read aloud, and then later with text that they read independently at their own level.”

Parrish, Nina. “5 Ways to Support Students Who Struggle With Reading Comprehension”. edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-ways-support-students-who-struggle-reading-comprehension

Barnes & James

“I am every good thing that makes the world go round. You know-like gravity, or the glow of moonbeams over a field of brand-new snow.

I am good to the core, like the center of a cinnamon roll.

Yeah, that good.”

The creative work of  Derrick Barnes & Gordon C. James caught my eye! Here’s two books to check out, beautiful.

I Am Very Good Thing: click here

Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut: click here

Mr. Lee aka BOOKMAN

Virtual Book Clubs

Pandemic or no pandemic, it’s critical for us to engage children & youth in reading! Some great tips to consider starting virtual book clubs. One of my goals this year…To read the full article by Laura Milligan click on the link –> ‘How to Set Up a Virtual Book Club for Students‘ an online book club organized by a teacher or school librarian can be a good way to foster social interactions during the pandemic. If you’re a parent who’s child is attending Canyon Hills and would like to help facilitate book clubs please reach out or share some ideas!

Here are some quotes from the article:

“Student-to-student conversation is better than student-to-teacher discussion, and the less the teacher chimes in, the better.”

“I try to keep book meetings for elementary and middle schoolers to 30 minutes or less.”

“As I run online book groups, I work hard to both ensure that everyone participates and acknowledge that participation can take many different forms. Intentionally creating space for each student is paramount.” 

“…with the right approach, teachers can use stories to cultivate connections and empathy.”

Mr. Lee aka BOOKMAN

Introducing the #2ndaryLibrary

I stumble across many books, especially when we were back on campus with our awesome school librarian, but today from one social media feed to another, I run into a number of titles that I think would be great for our secondary readers. I’m gonna start listing them here on site to encourage summer reading, to bookmark for myself, or to encourage teachers to integrate into classroom reading, and also to provide visitors with references to books to share with others (especially our younger readers)! The hashtag will be #2ndaryLibrary! on Twitter @mrleebooks!

I heard about the following title from the El Paso Holocaust Museum FaceBook page. It’s written by Erika Sanchez. Amazon page linked from the image below!

Mr. Lee aka BOOKMAN