Friday Favorites - PD Books

For my first Friday Favorites, I will be sharing some of my favorite professional development books.  I figured this was a great time of year to share PD books because I know many of us spend some of our summer break reading them to get new ideas for our classroom.

So, here are my Favorite PD Books...


Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller - This is one of my all time favorite PD books. Back in AZ, my literacy coach shared this book with me and we taught PD on it at the district office. Debbie covers schema, asking questions, inferring and more. She provides ideas for charts, books to use, and provides specific examples of how she taught these skills in the classroom. This is my favorite book!

All About the Authors by Katie Wood Ray - This book is great for teachers who use Writing Workshop (whether you have Lucy Calkin's Units of Study or not). Many ideas for how to teach writing and the importance of kids spending the majority of their time writing. Provides lesson ideas.

Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller - Another awesome PD book especially for a first year teacher. Debbie explains her practices and the importance of teaching with intention.

Literacy Work Stations by Debbie Diller - This book is perfect for anyone wanting to use literacy stations in their classroom. Debbie walks you through the whole process from how to choose your stations, what to put in your stations, how to run your stations, etc.  This helped me set up literacy stations in my classroom when I started using them years ago.

Math Work Stations by Debbie Diller - Great ideas in this book for using math stations in your classroom. This book is geared more towards K-2, but ideas could be made more challenging for third grade and up. She explains the set-up process and also the classroom management piece of stations. She includes many station ideas for activities and games.

Spaces and Places by Debbie Diller - This book has amazing ideas for how to set-up your classroom. I highly recommend it for new teachers or teachers switching classrooms/schools/grades. Tons of great ideas for things to consider and think about when setting up your room!

Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor - I love this book. It has amazing lessons and ideas for how to help kids understand the different comprehension concepts and make connections with what they are reading.  I actually did a little note-taking and sharing when I read this.  You can read all of my thoughts on this book...here...

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck - A book we read as a school a few years ago. This is perfect to read as most schools are working on a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset. Interesting read!

Check back next Friday for another edition blog post of Friday Favorites. Next Friday, I'll be sharing my favorite class read alouds.