Tour de France

Began the stage with a light breakfast at hotel's French cafe.

Keynote Speaker: Lois Lowry, author of 40 books, including Number the Stars, The Giver.

Lois Lowry signing my copy of “Gathering Blue” – a book I picked up from the “give-away table” several years ago and ritually used as my fake Silent Reading book at the beginning of each school year, (when I used to do Silent Reading). I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never finished the book. Though I always looked forward to rereading the start each fall.

Jen Serravallo Session:

Her research found that there is little or no correlation between the text leveling systems used by publishers. In fact, many texts are inaccurately leveled within a publisher’s own leveling system. Use Book Wizard as a rough guide.

Non Fiction Text Considerations to Examine When Leveling Books:

-How explicit is the text?

-Density of the text

-Vocabulary

-Text features

Non Fiction Instruction Points :

-Determine main ideas

-Determine key details that support main idea

-Figure out meaning of vocabulary

-Utilize text features – not just saying, “This is a glossary”, but actually using the glossary and knowing how it supports understanding the text.

Barb Golub Day session:

-Read Aloud Assessment (formative assessment)

-Cross-Genre Non Fiction Reading unit – academic content reading using a variety of genres to learn about a single content.

Saw a staged reading of “The Silent Boy” by Lois Lowry.

Headed for the French finish line at Bar Boulud, (heard about this chef on Lynn Rosetto Kasper's Splendid Table on NPR), where I made the mistake of being seated inside at the cool, chic, bar, rather than at a hot and muggy, noisy, table on the street, (these are the kind of ops one gets where they roll into fine restaurants Anthony Bourdain style - no reservations). Thought I could soak in the quality dining atmosphere better if I were indoors. Indeed I did. I had the opportunity to soak in the off-gas of young love. The "bar" was an elegant community table where I joined two sets of beautiful, 2o-something lovebirds. I would have practically been in one couple's lap, had there not been as much smooching and cooing and getting to know each other better that kept them intertwined. Thank goodness I had brought along a 3rd grade level chapter book, (The Stories Julian Tells), to divert my attention! Nonetheless, my dinner was quite delicious.

Crossed the French finish line just a couple doors down at Epicerie Boulud, (same chef - Daniel Boulud), where I purchased a dessert I could savor in solitude.

...Finally, a moment alone, a with my new love-interest, the canele and decaf.

As I walked back to subway I took in the final Frenchiness, a zydeco band playing next to Lincoln Center.

After we had become more intimate