Back to school is one of my favorite times of the school year! As a coach, I schedule read alouds in every classroom to introduce myself to students and enjoy a great book together. Whenever I work with teachers, I always find a resource to share with them that supports the work I’m doing. For my first round of read alouds at Center, I shared the teacher’s grade level section about interactive read aloud from Fountas and Pinnell’s Literacy Continuum. During my second year, I shared Lester Laminack’s “Read Aloud Often and Well” from NCTE. This year, I decided to go with creating my own little cheat sheet about one of my favorite literacy practices: #classroombookaday. #classroombookaday is an initiative started by a teacher librarian in Wisconsin, Jillian Heise, to read aloud a picture book every single day for pleasure. No required curriculum connections, no higher order thinking questions preplanned, just a simple read aloud. My cheat sheet briefly describes the practice and provides resources to explore. I’m hoping it piques the interest of some teachers. Imagine if every teacher at Center did their own #classroombookaday!

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

• Social Emotional Learning Booklist – Free download from Booksource
• John Schu’s Best Books of 2019 is one of my go-to resource when I’m looking for a new book to read or book talk (since they’re all new releases, they’re more likely to have publisher-made book trailers)
• Do you have a reading log in your life? Here’s a perspective to consider. I deeply regret having assigned reading logs to former students.
• Jacqueline Woodson’s TED Talk, “What Slow Reading Taught Me About Writing”
• Mental Health Break – When social media does good ❤