EdTechTeacher is so thrilled to welcome Dr. Rayna Freedman to our team of summer instructors. Rayna is a 5th grade teacher at the Jordan/Jackson Elementary School in Mansfield, MA. She has taught grades 3-5. Rayna is the Past President of MassCUE and has been presenting at the annual conference since 2010. She is a Google Level 2 certified educator, a BrainPOP certified educator, Flipgrid Ambassador, Fablevision Ambassador and Wakelet Ambassador.
Rayna will be facilitating a workshop entitled, Ways to Engage Readers, Bringing Authors into Your Classroom, on August 1, 2, and 4. These three one-hour sessions will take place from 10-11 AM eastern time.
The following article was originally published on Rayna’s blog, A Day in the Life of a Secret Agent on Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Bringing #authors into your classroom
Today we celebrated World Read Aloud Day! Litworld started this tradition thirteen years ago to celebrate a day of reading in our learning communities. Thanks to author Kate Messner, I had the opportunity to bring in some guests to read to us today! Our class is very fortunate to have so many opportunities that connect our secret agents to authors.
This morning’s celebration kicked off with the amazing Elly Swartz. Elly’s realistic fiction books find their way into the hearts of middle grade readers. Her characters often struggle with things many of our students struggle with such as anxiety or OCD, and readers go along a journey with them. I have been working with Elly on teacher curriculum guides for her novels, so it was fun to have her read her newest book to the secret agents. I am hoping to read Dear Student as our next read aloud. It is her best work yet! If you would like a copy Elly sent us this information:
Special signed copies!
If you pre-order DEAR STUDENT (published February 15, 2022) from Eight Cousins, Wellesley Books, or The Brain Lair, your book will be signed to the reader of your choosing and you’ll receive a limited-edition bookmark.
Other prizes!
If you pre-order from Eight Cousins, Wellesley Books, The Brain Lair, or anywhere books are sold, and send proof of purchase to [email protected], you’ll be entered to win one of the three prizes below. Winners randomly chosen on 2/15/22. Good luck!
** Happy Prize. A signed Brave Like Me poster
** Dear Prize. Handwritten letters to you, your bookclub, your group of friends (up to 20), or your class from me in the style of Dear Student.
** Virtual Prize. A free 30 minute virtual Q & A with me
After Elly’s reading Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo came to visit us! She has written poignant stories that open the minds of middle grade readers. I met Jeanne a few years back when she came to the Unlikely Story. Her realistic fiction books are ones readers drive right into! Jeanne does a tremendous amount of research for her books, which is something I am trying to teach the agents about now!
Our final virtual visitor was none other than Christyne Morrell. As you might know, Christyne is our class resident author. She has been teaching the students how to write historical nonfiction. It was so fun to have the agents discuss books and being an author with her!
We have another author coming to visit us virtually in March. Erin Soderberg Downing will be joining us to talk about her latest book coming out in April! We scored an invite to celebrate her new book with her! Here she is reading her first chapter of her book! If anyone is interested in purchasing her books she has offered her local bookstore as an option with a discount. The Red Balloon – has set up a special page for The Peach Pack with a special code (PEACHES) that is good for 20% off. All books ordered through this site will be personalized and/or signed by her: https://www.redballoonbookshop.com/erin-soderberg-downing-virtual-school-visit.
Victoria Coe will also be visiting us as part of her 5 part webinar series agents are engaged in. They are learning how to write a narrative with Victoria’s guidance and my help. Students have learned a lot about writing with detail. They are in the process of writing a first draft, and then we will continue with the webinars where students learn about revision and editing strategies. Victoria will join us to celebrate our young authors later in the year.
We will also be visited by Jo Hackl, author of our book club book, as a culminating activity to our book study. I cannot thank these authors enough for their generosity to our secret agents. I love being able to celebrate books and reading with students and thrilled we can have visits from so many talented authors!
Students lined up to ask questions from our experts every time they visited us. Providing students doors to the world opens their minds!
For more information and to register for Rayna’s workshop, please head to edtechteacher.org/summer!