Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Women's History Month The Audiobook Edition

As I continue with my Women's History posts, I wanted to share with you several audiobooks that I have recently read with my ears or currently reading. Normally, my posts feature children's nonfiction but my love of nonfiction also encompasses adult nonfiction. Additionally, I discovered several years ago that I love listening to longer nonfiction. Sometimes the author is the reader for the audiobook, and sometimes the reader assumes the identity of the person who is the main focus of the book. In either case, I find this brings the book alive. The one thing about nonfiction that usually drives me back to the book in print is to see the photographs and other visuals that are included in the book and cannot be captured via audiobook. 

Here is what I am (or have finished) reading...

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House by Alyssa Mastromonaco with Lauren Oyler (Twelve, 2017/Hachette Audio, 2017) - This is the shortest of the three audiobooks featured in today's post and the most recent in terms of chronology. Mastromonaco providers readers/listeners with what led her to a career in politics and to eventually becoming President Barack Obama's Deputy Chief of Staff. Though I enjoyed the insider's viewpoint and her candidness and attempts at humor, I would have appreciated less hoping around in terms of the timeframe. 

Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore (Sourcebooks, 2017/Highbridge Audio, 2017) - I first learned about the Radium Girls a few years ago as a historical reference in TV show I was watching that was set in the 1920's. I knew general information about the history of radiation and what I knew has always freaked me out a bit. Though Moore didn't relieve me of any of my radiation/radium fears, but she does succeed in putting faces and names to some of the women who were affected by their work as dial painters. Unfortunately, the outcomes for these women was not good, their strength and suffering led to a big win for worker's rights. 

From the Radium Girls website, there is a short biography on each of the young women from New Jersey and Illinois who filed against the United States Radium Company and Radium Dial Company. 

The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone (Dey Street Books, 2017/Harper Audio, 2017) - Yes, I tend to have more than one book going at a time and given the intense nature of Radium Girls, I have balanced it out with a book that at times almost feels like the reader is swept up in a thriller and love story. Though I knew about the use of code breakers, particularly women during World War II, I didn't realize that there were code breakers going back to World War I. 

Check out this interview with author Jason Fagone in Forbes: Elizabeth Smith Freidman: 'The Woman Who Smashed Codes' 

If shorter listening ventures are more your style, then stop by my new favorite podcast, The History Chicks. The the audio quality can sometimes be a bit off, I love the banter between the two hosts, Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider. 

The most current episode puts the spotlight on Ada Lovelace. 

Episode 103: Ada Lovelace

What audiobooks are you listening to? 

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews...

#Road2Reading Challenge: The Essentials #3 - The Role Observation Plays in Reading

Yesterday, I spent a day in a room full of educators discussing literacy instruction for middle school students with learning disabilities. As someone who has training in the areas of early childhood education, elementary education, and special education, I don't pretend to be an expert on middle school or secondary instruction. When I am in a room full of secondary educators, I tend to listen more than I speak. However, the more time I spend with my colleagues in the secondary world, I am convinced that many of the same techniques and strategies are needed to develop readers at any age. 

At the institute, the focus of the day was on Structured Literacy, a term the presenters were using to describe the type of reading instruction required for students with dyslexia to learn how to read. Many of my literacy friends talk about and support Balanced Literacy and advocate for providing students with choice in reading and writing. The Structured Literacy supporters tend to believe that the Balanced Literacy approach is not intentional enough to provide the kind of structure needed by children with special needs. 

With all of my years in teaching, especially working in an urban community with many students who are English Language Learners and also a significant population of students with learning challenges, I often think we are missing out on some critical things as we search for the panacea that will unlock the key to learning how to read for all children. Reading instruction needs to start with teachers who understand all the various components to reading, including motivation and a safe environment for learning.

Structured or explicit instruction is often scripted instruction or programs in a box. I have seen many teachers implement direct instruction but fail to understand how all of the components fit together or how to teach children to generalize what they are taught. I have also seen teachers who fail to understand how Balanced Literacy is not just "flying by the seat of my pants" but requires planning and intentionality. I learned the structured instruction as part of Special Education training and the Balanced Literacy as part of my general education training, but it was as an elementary principal that I learned how to put the two together. 

Regardless of where we fall as teachers, a key to putting the two sides together and helping all students learn to read is observation. Observation provides teachers with a tool that is extremely powerful and often under appreciated. Observation takes time and effort, which can be hard when you have a large number of students on your caseload. Effective observation means I need to actually make the time to listen to a student as she reads aloud or engage in conversations about what a child is reading or puzzle out what pieces are missing in his learning. Observation helps me understand how two students that score essentially the same on a reading assessment can be two extremely different readers requiring different strategies and instruction.  Observation also helps me to identify what motivates a reader and where their interests fall. And what I learn through observation will make the difference in how I pick books for read alouds or what activities I choose for word study or what questions I ask to help a student comprehend what they are reading. Next time, you have an opportunity to observe a student read, channel your inner Sherlock Holmes, and go beyond the obvious to the core of what your student needs. 

At the end of January, I started a series on several of the essentials needed to create a strong reading environment in order to build a reading culture in your classroom. If you are interested in reading the first post, you can check out here and a follow up post on reading aloud, here.  And  don't miss, Michele Knott had a fabulous read aloud post that you don't want to miss and can find here. 

All journeys have a starting place.
This is a weekly place to find books and tools
that you may use with readers at the start of their reading journey.
Join in the conversation at #road2reading.

Do you work with readers who are starting their journey on the road to reading?  Join Michele Knott from Mrs. Knott's Book Nook and myself every Thursday as we explore books and ideas to help readers have a successful start to independent picture book and chapter book reading. If you blog or have a Goodreads page, please link up with us!

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Women's History Month Continues

During the month of March, I dedicate my Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge posts to Women's History Month and focus on books that celebrate women and their contributions to our world. If you check out the National Women's History Month website, you will discover that their theme for 2018 is "Nevertheless She Persisted". 

Last week, I shared 18 picture books celebrating women that have been or are just about to be released in 2018. You can check out the post, here. This week, I continue to share titles that celebrate women but are longer in length. All of the titles below are from either 2017 or 2018. 

Happy reading...

Maya Lin: Thinking With Her Hands by Susan Goldman Rubin (Chronicle, 2017)

The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science by Joyce Sidman (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2018)

Fly Girls: The Daring American Women Pilots Who Helped with WWII by P. O'Connell Pearson (Simon and Schuster, 2018) 

Roses and Radicals: The Epic Story of How American Women Won the Right to Vote by Susan Zimet (Viking Books for Young Readers, 2018) 

Votes for Women: American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot by Winifred Conkling (Algonquin Books for Young Readers 2018)

March Forward, Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine by Melba Pattillo Beals (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2018)

Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers & Rebels by Linda Skeers; Illustrated by Livi Gosling (Sourcebook Jabberwocky, 2018) 

For the Early Reader & Chapter Book audience....

A Girl Named Rosa: The True Story of Rosa Parks by Denise Lewis Patrick; Illustrated by Melissa Manwell (Scholastic, 2018)

A Girl Named Hillary: The True Story of Hillary Clinton by Rebecca Paley; Illustrated by Melissa Manwell (Scholastic, 2018)

You Should Meet: Roberta Gibb by Laurie Calkhoven; Illustrated by Monique Dong (Simon Spotlight, 2018) 

You Should Meet: Katherine Johnson by Thea Feldman ; Illustrated by Alyssa Petersen (Simon Spotlight, 2017)

And here are a few more picture books, just because I love picture books....

Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor: The Woman Who Loved Reptiles by Illustrated by (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2018)

Write to Me: Letters From Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind by Cynthia Grady; Illustrated by Amiko Hirao (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2018) 

Marie Curie by Demi (Henry Holt and Co., 2018)

Long-Armed Ludy and the First Women's Olympics by Jean L.S. Patrick; Illustrated by Adam Gustavson (Charlesbridge, 2017) 

Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved The First Lunar Landing by Dean Robbins; Illustrated by Lucy Knisley (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2017) 

And for the reader looking for adult titles...

If you are looking for some adult biographies on women, A Mighty Girl has a list of stories of Mighty Women published in 2017, check it out here. 

Artwork by Sarah S. Brannen ©2017

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews...