Lexi Mitchell- Reading in the Wild

 

For my children’s series book I chose the King and Kayla mystery series. I think this is a great series for about first or second graders and is a cute introduction to mysteries! I love the Dog King and how he wishes that he could talk to her. The author gives King his own dialogue and I think that kids would really like hearing the dog’s perspective. There isn’t anything I dislike; I think the story I have read so far is very good. I will definitely buy all of the others to start my classroom collection. This book would be great for kids who like animals and mysteries! The central characters in this book are King (the dog) and Kayla (his owner). Another character that comes up a lot in the series is Jillian (Kayla’s friend) and Thor (her new puppy). There are four books total in this series and the Author Dori Hillstad Butler has a website called kidswriter.com. At her website you can find a King and Kayla dog treat recipe and a King and Kayla decoder game! Those both can be used in the classroom to go along with the books. With the recipe, I might share it with my students and then challenge them to make their own dog food recipe and then choose one to make at home and bring them in for the student’s dogs to try. I could make a little classroom mystery and have the students decode some words to help them solve the clues.

Reading in the Wild is great, I think I realized how much being “plugged in” really matter when you want students to be lifelong readers. I like when she talked about her daughter and how she was very involved in groups and online. I never really thought about how important it is to also surround yourself with readers. I also love the reading itineraries because it takes pressure off of the students. I think this is a great alternative to reading logs and I will be using that idea. I also like the fact that she values bringing a book wherever you go and I don’t think students think about that as much as bringing their technology! A good old-fashioned book never runs out of battery! I’m excited to teach reading more after reading Miller’s tips but it is also scary to me that there is such a push for technology. I see I-ready used in classrooms today and I think that it is more useful to read a book and do a project where you use creativity and critical thinking skills. It is also intimidating to know I need to start reading a lot of children’s stories! I want to be the teacher that can recommend a good book to a student that likes a certain subject.