You can find additional resources on our Summer Reading Padlet - see below. I will continue to add  resources throughout the upcoming weeks and hope you will discover many books to enjoy. You will also be able to follow what I am reading through the Padlet. 

​Happy Summer Reading!

We are just a couple of days away from the end of the school year, the start of the long summer break - and summer reading! Last Monday, I already shared a few ideas of how parents can continue to kindle our students' love for reading over the break, in the same way we do this in school throughout the school year, mentioning by surrounding students with books, giving them choice in what to read, making time to read every day, providing shared reading experiences and modelling our own reading lives (to read the full post, click here).

This coming week, I will talk with our students about summer reading, showing them where they will be able to find suggestions and ideas for books (all links will be shared through this blog next Monday). Further, I will encourage them to keep some form of record of what they are reading and experiencing. I know many of us will go on exciting journeys during the upcoming weeks, making beautiful new memories. Why not collect these memories in a summer (reader) journal/scrapbook? There are no rules on what should go into such a journal, no requirements on how much or how little to include or how to record it. Just suggestions and ideas to spark our students' creativity. A summer (reader) journal can be kept individually by each child or be created by the whole family together.

The entries in my journals always vary considerably in length and depth, some are just very brief, like the one in the picture above, others are more elaborate. I usually include the author and title of the book, a few keywords to remind me what the book was about, some favourite passages/quotes as well as some pictures and other mementoes like boarding passes or train, bus and cinema tickets. (If I was more artistic, I would also include sketches and drawings.) At times, I also include other memories made around the time I read the book.

Other things that can be included besides entries about books read:

• a want-to-read book list
• a want-to-do list for the summer
• guest pages (let family members and friends you meet over the summer write an entry)
• a genre tally
• a daily and/or monthly log (simple bullet lists of what you did, upcoming travel dates, visits etc.)

I have no doubt that when I ask our students this week, they will have many more ideas on what to add. The most important thing in creating a summer (reader) journal: not letting it become a task but having fun with it, seeing it as a wonderful treasure in the making.

On May 30, we – G4 students, teachers and librarians - had the incredible honor and great pleasure to Skype with Lauren Tarshis, famous among readers around the world especially for her I Survived series. Also in our library, the books are among the most popular and most requested books – we have multiple copies of most titles in the series and still, there are hardly ever any on the shelves as they get checked out again almost immediately after they have been returned. 

​In the months leading up to the Skype, we shared one of the books as a class read-aloud (I Survived the Hindenburg Disaster, 1937) and explored online resources to find out more about Mrs. Tarshis. Our students also looked more into the I Survived series (in addition to reading the books), to find out for example about the geographic distribution of the books’ events. They created a timeline based on when the events happened. As a result, we learned a lot, as for example that Mrs. Tarshis is also a journalist, has been for many years the editor of Storyworks magazine and is the Editor in Chief/Publisher of Scholastic’s Class Magazine Division. We discovered that a lot of research goes into the making of her books, that she visits every place she writes about, and that she gets suggestions of what topic to write about from the Scholastic team. The more we discovered, the more questions we had though, many that could only be answered by the author herself. Therefore, how very fortunate were we to get this incredible opportunity to meet her via Skype! 

​There was an immediate connection between Mrs. Tarshis and our students, no doubt, as she asked each student who came up to the screen to ask a question their name and their countries of origin. I could tell our students were in awe, having such a famous author in front of them but Mrs. Tarshis’ warmth and beautiful smile made everyone feel at ease in no time. Students said to me after the Skype, “she really liked us” with big, big smiles on their faces. 

Here are the questions our students asked:

• Have you been in any natural disasters or dangerous situations yourself?
• Which I Survived book do you like the most - if any?
• Do you get requests from your own children on what to write about?
• What is your reading life like? What kind of reader are you?
• Did you like to write stories/historical fiction when you were young?
• Is it more interesting to write with a boy or a girl as a protagonist?
• How long does it take you to write a novel and get published? How do you make the I Survived books? What is your writing process? 
• Does being a journalist help you to get stories, research and write them? How long is the research process?

And Mrs. Tarshis answered them all in depth, explaining in detail how she researches and writes; how challenging the writing process is and remains no matter how many books you have already written, how much research is part of the writing process, and not only for nonfiction but for all writing, because, as she said, “you need to feed your imagination with details”.

​Especially touching was to hear her speak about how challenging reading used to be for her and how difficult the start to her writing career was (we loved the anecdote she shared about meeting another very famous author). It was something many of our students later commented on, after the visit and during our reflections. It provided motivation and inspiration for their own reading and writing lives. As one of our students reflected, “you always have the chance to become a reader or writer – it is never too late”.

Yet with all the learning, our students are not done with wondering and asking questions. In fact, the Skype visit made them want to read even more books by Mrs. Tarshis and learn more about and from her. They still wonder for example what else she would be interested to write about, whether she has ever thought of her books becoming movies, whether she would consider collaborating with another author on a book, and what her latest book in the I Survived series, the one she just finished, is about. 

And then there is of course that question close to the heart of many of our students: would she consider writing an I Survived book about Typhoon Mangkhut that hit Hong Kong in September last year? (It was as strong as Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 Hurricane.) Our students thought that it would be a good idea because:

• When looking at the settings of the I Survived books, they noticed that most of the books are set in the United States and there is only one book with a setting in Asia so far, the one about the Tsunami in Japan. It would be great to have more stories set in Asia.
• When they made a timeline to look at when the disasters in the books took place, they thought it would be great to have more stories from the 21st century.
• Also, it would add another book on a natural disaster to the I Survived series - as there are currently fewer among the I Survived books.
• Further, if she chose Typhoon Manghkut as one of her topics, we all could get her lots of first hand information and collect resources for her. She could interview us as most of us where here in Hong Kong when it happened.

 
What do you think, Mrs. Tarshis, might this be an idea?

We are so grateful for having been invited into Mrs. Tarshis’ home via Skype, for having had this amazing opportunity to meet her and be inspired by her in so many ways. An absolutely memorable and unforgettable event for all of us.
 
Here are some messages from our students for you, Mrs. Tarshis:
 
Great job on the I Survived series! I really like all the books; they are so good. I keep reading them over and over again without getting bored.
 
I really enjoyed the Skype that we had and I learnt a lot. I think your books are amazing!
 
Thank you for skyping with us. I learned a lot about being a reader and a writer.
 
I enjoyed every single second of our Skype. When I got home I told my whole family about our Skype and they were happy for me.
 
You really inspired me to write books and to get creative with my thinking and helping me to see new purpose in writing.
 
It was so nice of you to say that you were honored to Skype with us when we are the ones feeling honored as you are such a famous author.
 
I hope you make more books – I love them!
 
You are very nice and funny. Thank you for meeting us. I hope that you will not stop being an author.
 
Thank you for sharing your reading insecurity – that was very brave and it inspired me.
 
You are the best author in the world!

It was wonderful reading and listening to our students' reflections of who they are as readers over the past two weeks. The confidence with which they spoke about their reader identity, noticing preferences, acknowledging growth as well as next steps on their reading journey, and most importantly, speaking passionately about favourite books. It warmed my heart - and at the same time, it made me wonder, how we can make sure we keep this passion alive, kindle it further throughout the upcoming long break. It made me reflect on what we do throughout the school year to nurture a lifelong love for reading in our students and I came up with the following list (in no particular order) as well as ideas how you might recreate this for your family during the upcoming break.

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS - Surrounding students with books in the library and classrooms, introducing them to authors and their creative works, book talking, and making personalised reading recommendations.

What you might do during the break:
=> Visit public libraries and bookstores together, explore what is on offer, some might even have special events including author readings and book signings. Tell your child about some of your childhood favourites - books, authors, series. And have books always available in easy reach for your child.

CHOICE - Allowing students to choose what they want to read, while providing general guidance and suggestions.

What you might do during the break:
=> Encourage your child to share with you what they like to read and why. Let them have the final say in what to read, whether it is a read-aloud or a book choice for independent reading.

​SHARED READING EXPERIENCES - Daily read-alouds in the library and in classrooms, book clubs and literature circles for older students

What you might do during the break:
=> Read aloud to your child every day, no matter their age, and chat about the books you are reading. Share your thinking with your child and encourage them to share with you their thoughts and wonderings about the book. You might even like to consider a family book club - this can be done with all kinds of books: wordless picture books, picture books, chapter books, novels.

MODELLING - modelling what it means to be a reader, sharing our own reading lives, talking with students about what we read, and letting them see us read.

What you might do during the break:
=> Let your child see you read, share about your reading life and reader identity. Make sure to include books for yourself when you are preparing for summer reading with your child.

When we do these reflections with input from check out histories, we always stress that this is of course just a part of their reading lives. We know that many of our students have their own collections of books at home that are not included here. So it is not so much about the numbers but rather identifying general trends. Over the years, I have noticed an increase in genre diversity in our students' bar graphs. Yes, also through book clubs, literature circles and participation in Battle of the Books, our students include a variety of genres in their reading, while often having very clear favourites (as you can see in my bar graph as well :) It is great seeing them explore different genres, keeping an open mind to genres they might not (yet) consider favourites.

Overall once again, our students did a great job - I am always impressed how reflective they are, how spot on their observations and comments are. I especially enjoy listening to the conversations at the tables as students chat with each other about the books they read, as they excitedly share when they come across a book on their list that they especially enjoyed reading. It is like a little trip down reading memory lane. 

​If you have a child in grades 3-5, I encourage you to invite them to share with you how they feel as readers at the end of this school year, what some of the outcomes of this reflection were for them.

Here are a few snapshots of from the different grade levels as they are reflecting on their reading journeys:

​After almost an entire school year of preparations, of reading from a list of twenty wonderful children’s books, of learning to confidently say the twenty authors and titles, of attending weekly meetings (and giving up recess time for it voluntarily), of practising to confer with team members and to identify books through the clues provided in the respective questions, the day was finally here: the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Battle of the Books Championships 2019 for Primary school students. 

​Our 12 student-strong traveling team (the maximum number of students allowed to compete in the actual semi-finals) was ready to represent Hong Kong Academy and the entire PS BoB Team at Kowloon Junior School against teams from the host school, Chinese International School, Glenealy School, Renaissance College and Nord Anglia. 

​It was wonderful seeing how close our team had grown together, how supportive they were of each other at all times. Noticeable this year was also how balanced our team was, an equal number of boys and girls, which is note-worthy in a competition that still tends to have a larger number of female competitors. And on top of all that we also had an amazing turnout from our parents. In addition to having supported their child in preparing for the event throughout the year, they had made time to come to the semi-finals, supporting our students with their presence and encouraging words.

The winner of this semi-final was the team from Kowloon Junior School who showed a strong performance from the very first round, not just answering many of their own questions but also picking up bonus points from questions dropped by opponents. Congratulations to Kowloon Junior School on winning and on organising such a great event! We wish you the best of luck for the finals.

​The smiles on the faces of our students and their parents at the end of the competition clearly showed though that we all felt like winners too – and rightly though, looking at what we had achieved and how excited we were to have been part of this competition around reading. The best proof of how much our students love being part of Battle of the Books and what passionate readers they are is that they cannot wait to find out what the books on the lists for the 2019-2020 competition will be.

Stay tuned – as we will post the new lists for the Primary (open to students in grades 4 and 5) and the Secondary (open to students in grades 6-8) categories on the day of the finals in two weeks!

Breaking News: Congratulations to our Secondary School Team who showed an outstanding performance in their semi-final, coming in as runner-ups and missing the final by the tiniest of margins. 

How was your Spring break? I hope you enjoyed a wonderful time with family and friends, feeling relaxed and re-energized as we head into the last couple of weeks of the school year. Hasn't time flown by, not just over this Spring break, but the school year in general? 

Like every holiday, I appreciated the extra time I had to read; and when the weather is rainy and grey, which it was quite a bit here in Hong Kong, even more. I came across some wonderful books in the process - some written for children, some for young adults and others for grown-ups. Some of the books I enjoyed in traditional print, others through the Kindle app on my iPad or in the form of an audiobook. Aren't we lucky to have all kinds of books, in all different formats, at any time in reach? I am just loving this! Even though I did not leave Hong Kong, these wonderful stories took me to different times - past and present - and places, real and imagined: China, South Korea, Malaysia, the United States, South Africa, and Australia. 

As always, I am curious to hear about your holiday reading. What books did you enjoy? Please share them in a comment to this post or let me know in person the next time you are in the library. I would love to hear about them! Have a great start into this super short week!

During the past week, we spent time with each class reflecting on our Literacy Week. With our youngest readers, we initiated the conversations with a read-aloud of Todd Parr's The Thankful Book. Some of the things our students in EC were thankful for during Literacy Week were:

• Being comfy and reading lots during Pyjama Day
• Enjoying hot cocoa and cookies with read-alouds
• Buying new books during the book fair
• Finding out what everyone's favourite book was during Book Character Day

...and, of course, the author visits by Ya Chin Chang and Mio Debnam, our students especially enjoying their great storytelling skills and learning more about how books are being made.

Our students in Upper Primary not only shared what they enjoyed during Literacy Week but also what they learned from Mio Debnam's author visit. Here are some examples:

What we enjoyed during Literacy Week...

• Creativity during the Book Character Day parade - so many different characters and books
• Feeling nice and cozy while reading throughout the day on Pyjama Day
• Multiage literacy activities - all connected to magic and involving the unlocking of boxes
• "Under cover" reading spots in the library
• Lots of books to choose from during the book fair
• Being part of and seeing others on the 12h Continuous Reading Chair
• Meeting Mio Debnam
• Hot cocoa & cookie storytime

 
What we learned from/about Mio Debnam...

• The behind the scenes of how a news article is written
• Alliteartions are important in writing news headlines
• The editor is responsible for choosing the illustrator
• She became a reader when she found the right books
• In making books there is writing, editing and proof-reading
• You can be an author and editor at the same time
• She started writing for a school newspaper
• She had 18 books published so far.

Further, they suggested some new ideas we librarians might want to consider for next year's Literacy Week:

• Book character fashion show
• Book writing competition
• Schoolwide book hunt
• Everyone adding to a Google document about the book characters spotted during Book Character Day
• Keeping multiage literacy activities connected to a theme/a book like this year
• Read Aloud Day / reading all day
• Students sharing their books/writing.

Generally, it was wonderful hearing everyone still speak so enthusiastically about our Literacy Week celebrations and I am so thankful for everyone who helped make it such a special week.

Last week, HKA went "under cover" to celebrate Literacy Week with a wide range of literacy-based activities, events and initiatives, and of course lots and lots of extra reading time. There was a wonderful buzz of excitement felt throughout the school throughout the week, the level of engagement and participation from across the community showing once again how much literacy is valued and appreciated at HKA. Our Literacy Week celebrations were, as we had planned and hoped, received as a precious gift. While it will take me some time to share with you the many wonderful moments from the past week, I want to begin by giving you an overview of my Top 10, in the order they happened last week. As we reflect with students about the week and events, I will share more through this blog. Enjoy!

Our week started with an inspiring visit by author, editor and journalist Mio Debnam who provided fantastic insights into the writing and publishing process, both for books and news stories. It was wonderful seeing the instant connection between Mrs. Debnam and our students who clearly enjoyed sharing some of their knowledge around writing and learning more from such an experienced writer. A special treat in the sessions for K-1 and G2-3 was seeing and hearing the exciting story Jifu's Twist of Luck, as Mrs Debnam is also a wonderful storyteller. Our Grade 4 & 5 students co-wrote a news story in their session with Mrs Debnam who had brought along a scoop, which is still much discussed in our library, about Mr Dean falling into a river while salmon fishing in Oregon last weekend.

On Tuesday, we had author / illustrator / artist Ya Chin Chang with us. She shared her beautiful wordless story The Window as well as the creative process she went through in making it. It was wonderful seeing also our youngest readers and writers engage with Ms. Chang, confidently helping her to tell the story and sharing their wonderings about the story and the making of it with her. A special treat for our students was getting to help re-create The Window on one of our library windows and receiving a copy of a sketch from Ms. Chang to add their own illustrations to. One of our PK2 students excitedly brought along to the session a copy of her book which he had discovered and bought at the book fair - which Ms. Chang then signed for him.

On Tuesday, our students also enjoyed visiting a book fair, organised by local Sai Kung book store Kidnapped. It was wonderful hearing our students excitedly call out to each other on discovering books they know, on seeing them handle the books with much care and appreciation, and at times, simply sitting down and beginning to read right then and there. Our students really know and love their books; and the Kidnapped staff  always does a wonderful job in preparing for and running the fair.

Wednesday was our much anticipated Book Character Day. What stood out to me was that over the years students have fully embraced it as a day of celebrating a favourite book, making sure that they have this book with them on the day to talk about it with others during the parade. Further, I don't think we have ever had such a wide variety of books and characters represented. Yes, there were favourites like the Harry Potters but overall there were many, many different characters, some from books that have been loved for years, others from very recent publications. Our students definitely know their books and characters - and have wonderfully supportive parents, helping them in getting their often very creative outfits together.

After the book character parade on Wednesday, our students in K-5 went through stations of literacy-based activities, inspired by Brian Selznick's book The Houdini Box. Students got to hear the story of a young boy who desperately wants to become a magician and escape artists like his idol Harry Houdini. Then they got a chance to try out for themselves to be like Houdini by learning magic tricks (ask your child to show you the magic pencil tricks, it is brilliant!) and by solving riddles and clues to unlock the combination padlocks of our breakout boxes. I always love seeing our older students taking the younger ones under their wings and engaging them in the activities.

On Thursday, our PS Battle of the Books team was up against a well prepared team of parents and teachers to show their knowledge around five of the twenty books from this year's list. It seems that parents and students take turns in winning this match which has become a much anticipated event on our Literacy Week calendar: this year, it was again the parents turn to win. Congratulations! While most were new to the process, they clearly had very detailed knowledge of the books - another great example of how our parents model their own reading lives and love for reading for our students. Beautiful!

We celebrated the grand finale of the week on Friday amongst others with a Pyjama day and the very popular Continuous Reading Chairs. From 7:30am to 7:30pm, at two different locations and livestreamed by our amazing Tech Department, members from across the HKA community could be seen reading, either independently or at times with a group/class of students. The reading chairs are always a great example of HKA being a community that shares a great love for reading. 

In numbers never seen before in our library, students and parents joined our Hot Cocoa and Cookie Storytime on Friday afternoon. We knew how excited our students were about the event but were still blown away by the fantastic turnout. Many families took advantage of the extended opening hours until 7:30pm, some stopping by for a shorter amount of time, others staying up to the end. It was great seeing families read together, students sharing stories with each other or just sitting together, reading independently. As the title of the book Ms Marné shared at the beginning of the afternoon, it was indeed Not a Quiet Library but wonderful to see how it didn't stop anyone from enjoying books together, embracing our students' contagious excitement and enthusiasm around reading.

 Walking through the halls last week, I loved seeing the classroom door displays evolve continuously. There was much variety and creativity in the displays and I encourage you, should you be on campus this week, to have a closer look. We were also excited that by Friday night our library window project to re-create the window from Ya Chin Chang's book was completed. Feel free to stop by the library to read the full story.

Throughout the week, students were caught reading - and enthusiastically pointed out peers they had caught reading. 

It was a wonderful week and I am filled with much gratitude to everyone who helped prepare, plan, and celebrate this week. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! 

Literacy Week is finally here! Celebrate with us a week with fun literacy-based initiatives and events. The main events to look out for this week are:

MONDAY: Author visit by Mio Debnam (K-5)

TUESDAY: Author visit by Ya Chin Chang (PK1 & PK2) and Book Fair (UG)

WEDNESDAY: Book Character Day and Literacy Activities; (Author visit by Howard Wong, G6-8)

THURSDAY: BoB friendly match against parents

FRIDAY: Pyjama Day, Continuous Reading Chair, and Hot Cocoa & Cookie Storytime (RSVP!)

We will update the blog regularly. So stay tuned!

Happy Literacy Week!