We're Back

It has been a very busy start to the school year for us! Not only are we busy teaching our literacy and children's/ya literature courses at Lesley University, but we are also busily writing what we consider a "prequel" to Teaching with Text Sets. It's a book that provides a bit of a back story to our Chapter Three ("Building a Text Set") and serves as a primer for the process of selecting texts for the classroom based on their quality, complexity, role in the curriculum, and the reader(s). We are looking specifically at Standard 10 in the CCSS but also addressing the larger context in which we have always talked about what makes books easier and more difficult to read. We will let you know when we know more about a release date. 

In September, we flew out to Park City, Utah to meet with educators, librarians, speech therapists, and children's book authors at the "Engaged Reading" conference sponsored by Utah Valley University. It was an honor to spend a few days sharing ideas with so many people invested in children, including authors Sara Pennypacker, Jim Murphy, and Loreen Leedy and illustrator Marla Frazee. Our thanks to our host, Nancy Peterson and the whole UVU team. 

This year, Mary Ann is continuing to write with Myra Zarnowski for School Library Journal. You can find our October column on teaching primary grade science using a text set approach at: http://www.slj.com/2013/10/standards/curriculum-connections/inquiry-and-integration-across-the-curriculum-on-common-core-2/. Finally, we are looking forward to seeing some of you at the following annual conferences this fall: Literacy for All, American Association of School Librarians, and the National Council of Teachers of English.