The reality of being a reading specialist in Florida

In September of 2013, I wrote an honest post lamenting my disillusion with the state of reading education in Florida. In 2014, I wrote a paper for one of my doctoral classes titled, "Leaving FCAT Behind: A chance to end harmful impacts in remedial reading classrooms" and it was my great hope as we transitioned to FSA from FCAT (Florida terms for standardized tests) that the politicians would be swayed to abandon the reading mandates in light of a new and untested assessment. In 2015, I was excited to see the mandate dissolve (at least while we awaited calibration of the new assessment)!

A full two years from my original heartfelt posting on being a reading specialist in the state of Florida, I have resigned my position as a reading specialist. My district and school's choosing to continue the segregationist marginalization of minority populations was too much for me to bear. Blaming the politicians in Tallahassee was one thing, being unable to affect change in my own realm of influence was another.

Remembering a great one: Maurice Sendak

Today is the anniversary of Maurice Sendak's birth. Because it SO AMAZINGLY COOL click over to the Google Doodle from June 10, 2013 and watch it again!

May the 4th be with us all today

It is May the 4th! 

A holy day for us Star Wars geeks! 
#maythe4thbewithyou

Here's where you can find some fun: 

Serendipity Saturday

Wonderful article at Smithsonian.com on E.B. White and how his love of animals influenced his writing. HERE










 Books I want to read ASAP:

A bunch of books that I want. Just sayin'

Sparky by Jenny Offill with illustrations by Chris Appelhans
Publishers synopsis: "Sparky stars a pet who has more to offer than meets the eye. When our narrator orders a sloth through the mail, the creature that arrives isn't good at tricks or hide-and-seek . . . or much of anything. Still, there's something about Sparky that is irresistible."
My thoughts:  Love the 'retro' look of the illustrations, think it sounds funny :-)
Available March 11, 2014 / 40 pages /Picture Book / ISBN: 978-0-375-87023-1

Some things just make me smile

-------------------- That's all folks! --------------------

 © 2007-2014 Cheryl Vanatti for www.ReadingRumpus.com

Star Wars Reads Day is finally here!

Get yourself to your local library or bookstore to commence the party! 

If you live in one of the following places, you get to experience the "premier" events:

Serendipity Sunday

It's almost that time again! 

Serendipity Saturday

So many good things popping up in reading and education, I thought it was time for a good old serendipity post.

• It's been 50 years since Where The Wild Things was published, 50 years of children who have been influenced by Max and the Wild Things. Each new baby born to my family and friends gets a copy from me. If a child is going to have a library, and all of the children I have even the slightest influence over WILL have a library, it is going to include Where The Wild Things Are. So it was bittersweet to see the posthumous publication of Maurice Sendak's last finished work, My Brother's Book. It is sad to contemplate, once again a year later, what a great loss Maurice Sendak's death brings to children's literature. There is a good reflection on the brilliance of the man and a comparison of his work to Shakespeare from Harvard humanities professor and forward writer for My Brother's Book, Stephen Greenblatt, in the NY Times, HERE. But perhaps a closer insight on Sendak's final opus might come from his close friend, Tony Kushner, on NPR:

2013 Newbery: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Today was one of those days. I got up early to make a casserole for a work luncheon. I hit the snooze button three times. I had to skip the shower so my hair was kind of greasy (ponytail day!). The minute I stepped out of my car a teacher stopped to ask me a favor. I had 20 students to test so I had to start-up all the computers (Monday), log-in with the "secret" account and load the test website on to each of them. I barely made it as they walked through the door. As the last student left, I could hear my office phone ringing. It was time to work on the School Improvement Plan. After an hour laboring over the 50 page document, I had a collaboration meeting with a teacher to look over her curriculum for the next quarter. I ran out of there to heat the casserole and sing Happy Birthday to my boss (and one of my best friends). After the clean-up, we returned to the School Improvement Plan once again and finished it just as I realized that I hadn't sent the testing schedule out for tomorrow. I ran to my office, typed the schedule at lightening speed, and sent it just as the dismissal bell rang. As I walked to my car, I thought, "Oh! Today was the Newbery announcement!" But my phone rang, it was my aunt, discussing 'family' stuff and then my son beeped in and then I was home. My mother and husband were waiting with hungry eyes.  Hoping to get out of cooking dinner, I told them that I had a tummy ache (I didn't share that it was probably because I had eaten a big slice of birthday cake). As my husband offered to make dinner, I remembered, "Oh! Today was the Newbery day!" I grabbed the phone and nearly passed out.

Reading Competitions, Accelerated Reader and Extrinsic Motivations

Don't know where I stand on the issue of using competition to encourage reading. All five of our reading teachers use Accelerated Reader and I argue how much I hate the low-level complexity and extrinsic motivation involved with it, but they are unyielding and it is still in use at my school.... What do you guys think? 

From BBC: Reading: Competition to encourage love of books

© 2007-2012 Cheryl Vanatti for www.ReadingRumpus.com

Serendipity: education stuff, book love stuff and stuffs I need to read

I am always honored to be invited to work with the excellent folks who are involved with the CYBILS and I sure hope everyone has had a chance to look at the nominees and winners. If not, here's the winner's link!

Read Across America is coming March 2nd - Get ready!

Reading Rockets has all sorts of Read Across America links and ideas.....

CYBILS Reading Weekend

So...

Visionary of the century. RIP Mr. Jobs.

I very rarely post off topic on Reading Rumpus, but....

Serendipity Saturday

Haven't been good with the Serendipity Saturday thing this year. I am here to rectify that! In case you are a newbie to Reading Rumpus, Serendipity Saturday is where I rant about bookish (and sometimes personal) things.....

Here are some books that I have, but need to read:

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

Jay Asher interview at School Library Journal

Ever since I read Thirteen Reasons Why, I have been obsessed with it. I recommend it to everyone and wrote extensively about it HERE. Well, author Jay Asher finally has a new book coming out. Here's the scoop on School Library Journal:  Check out the interview here




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© 2007-2011 Cheryl Vanatti for www.ReadingRumpus.com

JOEY FLY Freebies & Contest Reminder

I wrote about Joey Fly, Private Eye, Book 2: Big Hairy Drama yesterday and posted an awesome cool contest. Seriously, go back a post and enter... But today, I have some great masks for you to print out to add to the Joey Fly fun:

Serendipity Saturday!

I haven't done a Serendipity post in AGES, so today is the day!

There's a fantastic list of Caldecott Medal Winners over on Squidoo titled: The Best Children's Picture Books Are the Caldecott Medal Winners   (found via Elizabeth O. Dulemba) 

I still love Kid Lit!

An explanation is in order. Poor little Reading Rumpus has been way too quiet. I'm still getting awesome books from fantastic publishers, agents and authors (and, I've read 37 of them this summer alone) but I have to explain:

You see..... I took this little job called "reading coach" at a very nice, but large and urban, middle school and I vastly underestimated the change involved in moving, taking a PhD class, selling a house, buying a house and dreaming up reading & literacy schemes for 1200 middle school kids. Somewhere in the craziness I also managed an injury and surgery. Needless to say, that little job is anything but little and the other events of this year pale by comparison.

So Reading Rumpus took the hit. I'm working feverishly to get the 37 reviews done and I've set a goal of one review per week for next year (fingers crossed). In the meantime, I really need to thank some folks for keeping me on their radar: