My Reading Recovery partner and I also LOVE the Pioneer Valley books! And, more importantly, the kids love them! One thing we like about these books, especially at the lowest levels, is that the texts have lots of high frequency words that are repeated frequently, but the texts are not so patterned that the kids don't have to look at the print. Also, even at the harder levels, these books don't have so much text closely spaced on a page. Sometimes that will totally freak out a hard-to-teach kid. The little stories have good plots for this kind of book, also, whereas books from some other publishers don't have a lot of meaning. And if you have ELL learners, most of the Pioneer Valley books are great. (And, no, I'm not getting paid for this endorsement!)
Most kids totally fall in love with Bella and Rosie. Bella is always the adventurous one, and Rosie is more timid. I have had Reading Recovery students who wrote the author of the Bella and Rosie books (who happens to be a RR teacher). I mailed the letters to her c/o of Pioneer Valley, and she answers back, with a hand-written letter! Mary M. TX -----Original Message----- From: understand-boun...@literacyworkshop.org [mailto:understand-boun...@literacyworkshop.org] On Behalf Of Palmer, Jennifer Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 7:15 PM To: Special Chat List for "To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension" Subject: Re: [Understand] Chapter six? Who is the publisher? Are these tradebooks or books written specifically for teaching reading? Where can I find them? Jennifer Palmer Reading Specialist, National Board Certified Teacher, FLES "Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable!" -Augustine Birrell ________________________________ From: understand-boun...@literacyworkshop.org on behalf of janelle dorr Sent: Sat 2/7/2009 8:10 PM To: pehinerman...@yahoo.com; Special Chat List for "To Understand: New Horizons inReadingComprehension" Subject: Re: [Understand] Chapter six? to piggyback on this, I love Pioneer Valley's character, Danny the dog. My first graders love him too!!! janelle ----- Original Message ----- From: "Phyllis Hinerman" <pehinerman...@yahoo.com> To: "Special Chat List for To Understand: New Horizons in ReadingComprehension" <understand@literacyworkshop.org> Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 2:30 PM Subject: Re: [Understand] Chapter six? > >> Tell me more about the Pioneer Valley books...:-) >> > Jennifer, We have used a lot of the books published by Pioneer > Valley. I am a Reading Recovery teacher during part of my day, so I > look especially closely at the spacing between words, the form of the > 'a' and 'g', and the match between the words and the pictures. > Pioneer Valley books have been great in all those areas. > > There are several different 'series' containing the same characters, > and the books with these characters come in many levels. For > instance, Rosie and Bella are two little poodle-type white dogs. The > books containing these characters range from very low all the way up > to easy level chapter books. In addition, the illustrations are real > photographs! That is just one example of the 'series'. > > Within the last year or two, Pioneer Valley introduced an extensive > set of nonfiction titles. Once again, they range from very easy to > more difficult and the illustrations are wonderful photographs. > > I hope that information may help answer your request for more information. > > Phyllis > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > Understand@literacyworkshop.org > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworksh > op.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list Understand@literacyworkshop.org http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list Understand@literacyworkshop.org http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
