WINNER of the Wimpy Kid Announced!

Recently, we asked you to tell us what you’d do with a life-size Greg Heffley cutout. Congratulations to Karon Bybee of Lakeside Elementary in Texas, grand prize winner of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid contest!

Karon’s idea:

I am the literacy coach at Lakeside Elementary and would love to involve the school in a Wimpy Kid week. I would like to move the cut out around the school to pop up unexpectedly, so all the classes could participate in activities. We might read from Wimpy kid at lunch to peak interest. I would like for my struggling readers to watch the interview with Jeff Kinney and then create their own interview with Greg. We would broadcast the interview on the morning announcements to kick off the festivities. I would like to have my younger students draw themselves as a character to add into a wimpy kid adventure, which we would write either as a shared book or an individual story depending on the level. I would like to turn their adventures in to a podcast for parents to view. Finally to end the week with a celebration on “your favorite wimpy story” and I’ve been known to create some wimpy cookies.

We really love Karon’s plan to share Greg with the whole school through morning announcements, and involve everyone by writing their own wimpy adventure. Sharing these stories with parents and others through podcasts and videos is a great way to get parents involved and hopefully get students reading at home, too. (And we’d like to go on record to say that while the promise of cookies did not sway our vote, we’d still love it if Karon would send a few our way!) Karon will win a host of goodies for Lakeside Elementary, including the coveted cardboard wimpy kid.

We wish we had more than one wimpy kid to give away! Alas, there is only one Greg Heffley. So we also picked three runners up, who will each win one CD audiobook and one print book for one of the books in the Wimpy Kid series. Those winners are:
• Kathy Scott (Hallsville), who suggested that Greg Heffley write a column for the school newspaper
• Becky Norgard (Elim Christian Services), who planned to involve both younger and older students in a skit where the kids could see cutouts of themselves palling around with Greg (how cute!)
• Shellie Swanson (Bayfield School District Library), who suggested using Greg as a basis for a character education discussion for middle schoolers

Because there were just too many great entries, we also picked two second runners up, who will each recieve one copy on CD of one of the Wimpy Kid books.
• Cheryl Ford (Rock Hill, SC), who hoped Greg would inspire her kids to reach a 75 books a year goal (wow!)
• Jerry Jarrell (Frank Stone Middle School), who suggested Greg hang out at the book fair and answer kids’ most burning questions

We hope you all still move forward with your great wimpy kid plans. If you do, please share with us! To read all of the wonderful submissions, click here.

Just a note…

Just a note…we’re received so many great entries for the Wimpy Kid contest that it’s going to take us longer than expencted to go through them all! Expect an announcement of the winner by Wednesday.

In the mean-time, we encourage you to read through the comments for some great ideas that you can incorporate into your classroom, whether you have a cardboard Greg Heffley or not!

Eva Ibbotson 1925-2010

We are very sad to have to share the news that one of the stars of children’s literature, Eva Ibbotson, died at her home in England on October 20. She was 85.

Ibbotson was the author of more than 20 beloved novels for children and adults, including The Beasts of Clawstone Castle, The Star of Kazan, The Dragonfly Pool, A Company of Swans, A Countess Below Stairs, and Journey to the River Sea published by Recorded Books. Her most recent title, The Ogre of Oglefort, has just been published in England and will come out in the US in summer 2011.

Free Pass to NMSA Exhibit Hall

Thinking about visiting this year’s National Middle School Association Conference in Baltimore, but don’t have a show pass? Check out the exhibit fall for free and see what’s new with a free exhibit hall pass from Recorded Books! We’ll be featuring one of our curriculum products, Dr. Janet Allen’s Plugged-in to Reading. lf you use our pass, be sure to come to booth 521 and let us know!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE EXHIBIT PASS

Guest Post: Audiobooks and Comprehension

Recently, we featured audiobook reviews from guest blogger Jana Warnell, an elementary school librarian in Montana. You can read her reviews of Clementine, The Thief, and The Ranger’s Apprentice: Ruins of Gorlan. She also shared with us how to hook reluctant readers with audio and on audiobooks and fluency. Check out more reviews and librarian insights from Jana at her blog, http://janasbooklist.blogspot.com/.

Today, Jana shares with us how audiobooks can assist students with reading comprehension.

I have covered hooking reluctant readers and increasing fluency using audio books. Now I am going to cover how audio books improve comprehension.

When I was in high school I was assigned a lot of “classics” to read. I really dislike classics. I disliked them back then and I dislike them today. We had to read a Shakespeare play. Ugh. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. So I started reading it aloud to my mom, and she took turns reading it to me. It was like a light bulb clicked on for me. When I heard the story I understood the story. I am an auditory learner.

The school I am a librarian at uses the Accelerated Reader program. It is a very hard program for some kids because reading is not a strong point for them. So, even when they read some of the lower level books they have a hard time with comprehension. Luckily, I had some Playaways available. I asked the teachers to allow some of the lower students to use those. Wow. The scores for the students that used the Playaways increased dramatically. When they heard the story it made more sense to them.

I also used this method for my older son. He was assigned a book in class (Number the Stars) that was giving him problems. Our read aloud time was limited due to activities so I checked out the audio book. He was able to listen and read along, pass his tests and turn in a great final project. He wouldn’t have been as excited about any of the assignments that went along with the book if he didn’t understand what he was reading.

Audio books can also be a great way to bridge a gap between reading levels for kids. Sometimes they want to read a book leveled higher than they are ready for. Rather than tell them they cannot read it, provide the audio book for them. They will be able to follow along and understand what they are reading. This will also help them firmly move up into that reading level.

You need to remember that the first way you get kids interested in books is by reading aloud to them. Over and over and over. When they are older that doesn’t change. Their interest is peaked when they hear a book out loud. And their interest can be heightened even more with the use of professionally done audio books. Don’t stop because they are older!

What do you do to help your students’ comprehension? Have you seen gains since using audiobooks? Share your story here or at http://www.facebook.com/recordedbooksk12.

Have You Listened to a Banned Book Lately?

Celebrate banned books week by reading or listening to a banned book this week. See a list of some banned books available on audio from Recorded Books HERE and check out some links on censorship HERE.

If you’re listening to a banned book (one that’s on the list or not!), copy the image above to link to this blog post and share how you’re celebrating Banned Books Week. Your trackback will be shown in the comments section, or you can leave a comment linking to your blog post below. We’ll pick some of our favorites to win a copy of a banned (audio)book!

Here are some additional resources you might find useful:
–Top 10 Things to Do with a Banned Text
-Several books have recently been challenged, and Twitter users and bloggers are rallying against it. Here’s a great list of resources about the current challenge and about banned/challenged books in general (plus several more giveaways).

ELL and ESL Resources

Looking for free and inexpensive resources for your ELL/ESL students, or grants and funding options for your ELL/ESL classroom? Check out the Big Deal eBook for Educators of English Language Learners!

Here’s just a sampling of the great links you’ll find inside:
• View the free demo DVD of the Parent/Teacher Kon-ver-SAY-shun Kit: Conversation Starters in English and Spanish, a color-coded flip chart with bilingual scripts on school issues. http://www.bentiva.com
• Provide opportunities for your English learners to interact with environmental print, such as street signs. In this free lesson from ReadWriteThink, students read words found on everyday objects and use them to identify individual letters. They then create captions for an electronic book with preselected logos and illustrations. Finally, they create an original little book choosing their own logos, captions and images. http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/stop-signs-mcdonald-cheerios-949.html
• Make phonics fun for your ESL students with free phonics games, phonics worksheets, and reading and spelling games from Fun Fonix. The resources are organized into an introduction (hard consonants and short vowels) and three printable books: short vowels, digraphs and long vowels with silent e. The ebooks are supplemented with a worksheet maker. http://www.funfonix.com

Recorded Books awarded exclusive audio rights for best-selling Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series

PRESS RELEASE
Company is only producer of many of 2009’s best-selling children’s audio titles

Recorded Books K-12, a leading publisher of K-12 education curriculum and the world’s largest independent producer of audiobooks, is proud to announce that it has exclusive audio rights for many of the best-selling children’s book titles of 2009.

These titles have been flying off bookshelves nationwide, and now schools and libraries will have audiobook options to meet the high demand for these titles. Recorded Books’ offerings include Jeff Kinney’s best-sellers The Last Straw (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, book three) and Dog Days (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, book four), along with series for readers of all ages such as Melissa de la Cruz’s Blue Blood series, Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series and Kelley Armstrong’s Darkest Powers series.

These titles and hundreds of others are now available through Recorded Books for schools and libraries to purchase multiple formats including unabridged CD, Playaway digital audiobook and unabridged cassette.

“These popular books are already instilling a love of reading in younger readers, and now these audiobooks will truly capture the adventure and emotions in each tale for today’s iPod generation of readers,” says Scott Williams, CEO of Recorded Books. “Bringing authentic literature to today’s learners is part of our company’s mission, and we look forward to adding new titles to our catalog of over 800 titles available on OneClick download.”

To find out more about the new titles available from Recorded Books or to order new titles visit http://www.recordedbooks.com/school.

What Are the Top 20 Children’s Audiobooks?

The Fuse #8 blog at School Library Journal has been tallying up the results of the Top 100 Children’s Novels Poll. That got us wondering, “What are the Top Children’s Audiobooks?” While many of the books would be the same, adding audio into the mix may change the list a little. So we want to hear from you!

We’ll be compiling a list of the top 20—beginning readers, children’s books, children’s classics, or YA novels are all acceptable submissions. Please see below for rules. Everyone who sends in a list of nominations will be entered to win a the grand prize: a set of 10 audiobooks from the top 20!

1. Leave a comment below listing your top 20 children’s audiobooks, from number 20 all the way up to number 1, in order. Feel free to leave a sentence or two describing your favorites. If you don’t have 20 favorites, list as many as you’d like.
2. Submissions will close on May 30, 2010. We’ll tally up the results, assigning points to titles based on their ranking in your list.
3. We’ll pick one random grand prize winner on June 14, 2010. That winner will receive 10 CD audiobooks from the compiled top 20 audiobooks list. Grand prize audiobooks will be chosen by Recorded Books.
4. Contest is open to all K-12 educators in the United States. Recorded Books reserves the right to confirm eligibility and alter rules to this contest at any time.

Celebrate National Poetry Month

In celebration of National Poetry Month, we’re again sharing excerpts and accompanying activities for some of our favorite poetry on audio for K-12. Poetry on audio is a great way to introduce students to poetry—they hear proper meter, diction, and pronunciation, allowing them to more easily analyze complex figurative language. If you use this or other audio in your classroom, leave a comment to this post telling us how and you’ll be entered to win a copy of one of the books below on CD! (See the end of this post for details.) All of the audiobooks mentioned in this post are available unabridged from Recorded Books.

The Spoken Arts Treasury Volume 2: 100 Modern American Poets Reading Their Poetry
AudioFile Earphones Award Winner
Bonus Audio Download!: “Falling Asleep Over the Aeneid” by Robert Lowell (text version)
Audio Excerpt: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes (text and additional audio)
Lesson Plan: Narration Comparison and Close Reading

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Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
AudioFile Earphones Award Winner, National Book Award Finalist (Young People’s Literature), Coretta Scott King Honor Book
Audio Excerpt: List Poem
Lesson Plan: Write Your Own List Poem

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Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
Newbery Award Winner
See our past posts for four sets of complete lesson plans, plus the entire downloadable audiobook!
Lesson Plans 1: Identify how form influences function.
Lesson Plans 2: Descriptive Verbs, Alliteration, Metaphors and Similes
Lesson Plans 3: Point of View
Lesson Plans 4: Meter, Rhythm, and Tempo

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If You’re Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand: Poems About School by Kalli Dakos
An International Reading Association Children’s Choice
Audio Excerpt: Hiding in the Bathroom & A Lifetime in Third Grade
Lesson Plan: Point of View and Figurative Language (2 pages)

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CONTEST RULES:

* Leave a comment below (be sure to enter a valid email address, or we won’t be able to contact you if you win!) telling us how you share poetry with your students or what your favorite National Poetry Month activity is. We’ll pick our favorite response to win!
* Tweet (we’re @recordedbooks) or blog about the contest using the hashtag #rbk12 and you can leave a second comment linking to your tweet or post—you’ll get another contest entry. Spread the word!
* Again, be sure you leave a valid email address with your comment so we can contact you. If you’re picked as a winner and we can’t contact you, the prize will got to the next winner. (You don’t need to re-enter your address within the body of the comment, though. Just be sure it’s in the form when you leave your comment.)
* Drawing will be held on April 30, 2010 at 12:00PM Eastern time. Winners will be contacted by email to get mailing information. The winner will receive one copy of one of the titles mentioned above (winner’s choice) on CD.