TeacherDance

Snowy February Means People Share Snowy Poems

2012-02-23T21:10:00.002-07:00

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jone at Check It Out, so please go over to check all the poems out!

There are a number of connections to this post today for Poetry Friday. February is our second snowiest month in the Denver, Colorado area. March is traditionally the snowiest, so there is more to come! We have had a lot of snow this February, and today, the 23rd, is another snowy day. We’re supposed to have 4-6 inches, not the blizzard of earlier in the month, but still a messy day to drive, although beautiful when viewed out the window. Wednesday, yesterday, was 65 degrees! Our weather continues to be topsy-turvy, and never boring.

At school I seem to be the person with whom poems are shared. Everyone knows how much I love poetry, and recently a friend sent me a snowy poem by a teenager. The day today made me remember it again. It opens with these words:

SNOW

Deep in the night it comes

Covering footprints of summer

Purifying the landscape of the year’s sins

The rest of this snowy poem can be found here.

I love that there are places now online where our students can publish. Teen Ink is one of those sites and it’s been a marvelous pleasure to past students when they had something published outside of regular school, whether online, in a print or online magazine, like Stone Soup, or for a contest. Today, teachers can help even further by setting up classroom blogs or by using Posterous or one of the other online applications for sharing. Writing to an audience, other than the teacher or classmates, has rarely been easier. And knowing one has an audience to write for is empowering to the writer. Even though we tell ourselves we are writing for ourselves, having someone read the words, and respond to them is nice, smile-making, motivating.

A few other snowy poems in which you might find a favorite are by

Billy Collins – Snow Day “Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,”

Claude McKay – The Snow Fairy “Throughout the afternoon I watched them there,/

Snow-fairies falling, falling from the sky,

Mary Oliver – Snow Geese “Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!”

Wallace Stevens – The Snow Man “One must have a mind of winter”

Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Snow Storm – “Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,”

I imagine you have a favorite too that I haven’t listed.

Thus, I share a snowy poem from Teen Ink. I especially enjoyed this young poet’s words about life slowing down in order to observe things around us more closely. Before I begin again that yearning toward spring, I think I will stop and enjoy the beauty of this snowy day.

Expo Has Come and Gone - Here's A Taste

2012-02-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

Slices of Life on Tuesdays Are Hosted by Stacey and Ruth

at the Two Writing Teachers Blog

My school’s Expo was held last Thursday. Excitement permeated the school in interesting ways in the days before. It’s always interesting to me that while the getting ready for the crowds holds challenges for everyone; the days before the event are calm, with students so focused on finishing their displays that it is eerily quiet in the school. As I explained in a post a few weeks ago, each student studies an individual topic around which the curriculum is written. Expo is a day and evening of celebration of the learning thus far for the year, with displays of products completed by each student.

The ways in which my school works is a difficult thing to explain in a few sentences, but in my many years’ experience here I believe much of the approach to learning has to do with questions. I thought I would share the beginnings of the school year with students and what I’ve asked them to do with me as their teacher. Each teacher might do this in a slightly different way, but the basics are the same, all having to do with questions, the answers discovered by both the student and the teacher: What are possible topics of interest? Why? What would you like to increase your skill in? What are your strengths? What might be challenges for you in these strengths? Where are your areas of weaknesses? What might be some ways you can improve these?

I realize that these are sophisticated questions for very young students, yet their teachers follow similar paths to discovery. They are the questions I asked my middle school students, who answered them through beginning research of their unit topic choices, through several conferences with me, and often through talks with their parents. No matter what the age, they are their ‘wonderings’ about something. I have been lately interested in reading about teachers who are exploring the site Wonderopolis because the site mirrors the goal of my school for its students, to find topics to wonder about and to pursue deeper learning within that topic.

After deciding on the topic, and answering some of the questions, a unit of expectations is written by the teacher for each student with input from the student. Weekly assignments are derived from that unit as the student’s weekly goal. The intent of the questions remains the same, but the ways they are asked depend on class levels and with each child. Teachers assess constantly by observing what a student is communicating through the work and through conferring often. A path may start one way and then veer another depending on new information learned and the needs and interests of the student. It is complex, but encompasses all that is being discussed as inquiry and/or project based learning. Students are motivated when they have choice, and Expo is a celebration of the results of their learning choices.

I’ve included a slide show of examples of displays from all the classrooms. Some of the photos show students in process of completing the work and some few show visitors. I didn’t include the crowded evening with parents, grandparents, neighbors, but at that time, the classrooms and halls are filled with those interested in visiting as many displays as possible and learning about the topics themselves.

I visited all day Thursday, asking questions as the students played host to their displays, and taking pictures of representations of the work. It was hard to choose what to show. Over 250 topics have been researched. My mind was swirling as I ended the day, full of questions of my own about certain topics. It is a satisfying celebration of work well done.

Next, students will continue on their journeys with the same topics or will choose another topic of inquiry for the remainder of the year. Lifelong learning is a continuing journey we want all our students to enjoy. Please take a look at some of the photos. There are many, but I wanted to include some from all the ages, five through fourteen.

Slide Show - Expo

Reviews for Monday - Reading Wrap-Up

2012-02-20T06:02:00.001-07:00

You can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor texts, thanks to Jen and Kellee! Please visit to find out what others are reading!

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is another meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys, a variety of reviews to find even more books for your TBR list.

There are some wonderful reviews already written about the book I read this week. You can find two here and here. Sometimes I think books that are reviewed as wonderful are challenging to get into. This was one for me that started slow, and turned out, well, wonderful, just as everyone said.

I read The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis this week, and found that this young woman, Deza, grew more beautiful as a wonderfully strong character as I read page after page. She did what she had to do to survive some very hard times in the Great Depression. After hearing the terrible news about her father missing from a fishing trip on Lake Michigan, Deza shares her feelings: And as I sat on the couch wrapped in Mother’s arms, I felt big hunks falling off of me and thumping to the ground. This must be how a tree feels in autumn when it watches the leaves that have been covering it all summer start to be blown away.

It must feel this hopeless and lonely.

Curtis’ writing is filled with metaphors like the one above that show feelings so real I can imagine the young readers he writes for relating to the feelings even if their life’s challenges are different.

Deza’s next words show her strength, that she must not give up. She thinks: I knew I really had to reach out and pick up the fallen pieces and pull them back. This young woman keeps this strong core through all the book and as she matures, she manages to do some amazing things that support her mother, too. Later in the book she says: I’d learned not to cry or even get angry when all sorts of calamity befell us. I’d learned not to take it personal when people barked at Mother and Jimmie and me about walking across their property. I knew how to swallow the sadness that washed over me when Father used to come home and we could tell by the way he worried the brim of his hat when he asked how we were doing that there’d been no work. I thought I could control it all.

And then this man called Jimmie “sir” and all my hardness melted away.

I believe this is why everyone’s hardness melts away as they read about this character who is called “My Darling Daughter Deza” by her father. Toward the end of the book, she again shows she is a survivor. Hoping is such hard work. It tires you out and you never seem to get any kind of reward. Hoping feels like you’re a balloon that has a pinhole that slowly leaks air. But she doesn’t quit, she doesn’t give up, and although hoping is hard, she does keep hoping.

How can one not like this young woman who has overcome hardships we only imagine? Not me, all the previous reviews are right; it is a terrific book.

As I wrote last week, I am preparing for a short story reading group that will examine short stories and those that speak to the immigration experiences in California today. I haven’t read all of the following books, but they are full of good stories, some essays, and poems that are specific to my group. Here is the bibliography:

Neighborhood Odes by Gary Soto

A Fire In My Hands a book of poems by Gary Soto

Living Up The Street short stories by Gary Soto

Leaving Home stories collected by Hazel Rochman and Darlene Z. McCampbell

First Crossing-stories about teen immigrants edited by Donald R. Gallo

Border Crossings - Emigration and Exile Icarus World Issues Series
American Street, A multicultural Anthology of Stories - edited by Anne Mazer

The first story we will read together is the title story “First Crossing” by Pam Munoz Ryan. It is about a young Mexican boy whose rite of passage is to steal across the border to begin working with his father so they both can send money back home. Men do this and return home about every six months just to see family. It’s both a scary and a sad story about sacrifice and courage for loved ones. The introduction of this anthology states more than 70 different languages are spoken in the public schools of Sacramento, California.

What’s Next: Mostly stories from above and The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne for another book group coming up. I brought home A Step From Heaven by An Na (about immigrant’s experience) and Bigger Than A Breadbox by Laurel Snyder (which I still haven’t read).

A Poem of Loss

2012-02-16T21:59:00.001-07:00

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Myra, Fats and Iphigene at Gathering Books.

Elizabeth Bishop was a respected, but an obscure poet until after her death in 1979. According to The Poetry Foundation “her reputation has grown to the point that many critics, like Larry Rohter in the New York Times, have referred to her as ‘one of the most important American poets’ of the twentieth century. Bishop was a perfectionist who did not write prolifically, preferring instead to spend long periods of time polishing her work. She published only 101 poems during her lifetime.” Yet in that lifetime, she won the Pulitzer Prize for North And South, and the National Book Award for The Complete Poems. This site also states “her reputation increased greatly in the years just prior to her death, particularly after the 1976 publication of Geography III and her winning of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.”

Although some sites I read seemed to believe this poem by Elizabeth Bishop is about divorce or separation, when reading it, I believe the loss could be different things that happen in one’s life. Bishop appears to believe that this grief of loss takes practice, and perhaps then one might accept it. Like all poems, it speaks to each reader personally.

One Art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

and you can read the rest here at Poets.org, as well as find other poems by Elizabeth Bishop.

photo credit: jmtimages via photopin cc

Weeding The Gardens of Our Memoirs

2012-02-13T22:20:00.001-07:00

Tuesday Slices of Life are enjoyed with Ruth and Stacey at the Two Writing Teachers Blog.

Last week, in my final, I’m sad to say, memoir class, we discussed finishing up the pieces. We’d already done some revision and they were ready to say ‘done’, but I wanted one more conversation about narrowing down to exactly the words they wished to say to their audiences.

Valentine’s Day is today and to me that means flowers and spring are on the way. Despite the fact that there is much snow on the ground at my house, and icicles are hanging from the eaves, I am receiving a few seed catalogs online (I’ve gone paperless!) and beginning to imagine my flower beds.

How does this connect to the above revision lesson? Well, I thought of the flower beds and weeds, and how flowers look so much better without weeds crowding them. I must tell you that this is not an original idea. I wish I could give credit to where I have read about it in my reading, but I’ve used it with success several times in the past years, so know it’s been a while since I first saw the idea.

I talked to my students about words that crowd the important messages they wished to communicate in a memoir. As we cut out the weeds to make room for the flowers, we remove the words that are unnecessary. However, sometimes we like the weeds that grow, and although they fill in spaces that seem bare, weeds choke the flowers eventually. Just as we sometimes fill in spaces with wordy sentences, as writers we need to find the unnecessary and delete them. We made a short list of words that might be considered “weeds”. They are words like “very” and “most”, that only weaken the word (just as weeds weaken flowers), and we also determined that the writer personally must choose longer phrases that don’t fit.

I hope the lesson was helpful to the students. I have them just for a short time since I am teaching the group as a part of three different writing experiences their teacher wanted them to have. They will return to their homeroom classroom and write other things, hopefully remembering the weeds in their gardens.

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Finally, last week, for Poetry Friday I shared several antique Valentines I have from my mother-in-law, who was one of those teachers who, after leaving high school, taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920’s. She rose well before sunup, saddled a horse, and left for the country building where her first duty was to start the fire. I love these special Valentines, quite different from the ones we see today, and wanted to share one with all of you too as my Valentine wish.

Oh let’s make life

a jolly lark

A picnic if you

please.

And it will be just

this for me

If words you say

are these:

I Love You!

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

Reading Jill Paton Walsh-A Chance Child

2012-02-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

This is an award-winning challenge hosted by the Gathering Books blog,

You can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor texts, thanks to Jen and Kellee! Visit to find still more books for your TBR list!

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys, a variety of reviews to find even more books that you can't live without.
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I love Jill Paton Walsh’s book, The Green Book, and have put it into the hands of many students, but most of the time recommend it for a terrific read aloud to middle grade readers. It is a good opening to post-Apocalyptic literature, and gives a surprising, satisfying and hopeful end.

So, when looking for an award-winning book for the challenge hosted by the Gathering Books blog, I was happy to see another book by Walsh. It is A Chance Child by Jill Paton Walsh, which won the Phoenix Award in 1998. According to the Children's Literature Association site, this award is given by them, an organization of teachers, scholars, librarians, editors, writers, illustrators, and parents interested in encouraging the serious study of children's literature, created for a book originally published in the English language, and intended to recognize books of high literary merit. The Phoenix Award is named after the fabled bird that rose from its ashes with renewed life and beauty. Phoenix books also rise from the ashes of neglect and obscurity and once again touch the imaginations and enrich the lives of those who read them.

In A Chance Child, the main character’s name is Creep, whose abusive mother names him that and we also find she keeps him in a cupboard most of the time. The opening scene is a dump, from where he takes off along a canal in an abandoned boat. An older brother Chris, who keeps Creep alive by sneaking leftovers to the cupboard, searches frantically when he finds him missing. Although the main story concerns child labor of the 1800’s, there is a link to today’s time in that this family treats their children poorly as well. Walsh seems to want us to see the connection that children are at risk no matter what time they live in.

The book alternates between the stories of Creep in his boat, and Chris on his search, and we find Creep has somehow slipped back into the 19th century, where he meets two runaways. The reader is thrust into the cruel world of child labor. Walsh describes the lives of young children during this Victorian time who work twelve hour plus days in terrible circumstances, while the older brother Chris eventually seeks and finds information about his brother in old historical documents at a library. It’s a complicated and heartbreaking story, made all the more troubling knowing that Walsh has done her homework so well in the research of labor conditions of that time. There is some satisfaction in the ending, however, but sharing that will be telling too much!

Here is one scene from one of the work experiences of the children, many of them pre-teen: One day working at the pot bank was much like another. The first comers to work, very early in the morning, were the little children. They came before the light to kindle the fires in the drying room. There was coal ready, piled damp and cold on the wharf by the riverbank, for the master saw to that. As to dry sticks and ready sparks, that he did not trouble over, but the boys must find those for themselves. So they crept in and out of the hovels, where the furnace mouths blazed red, spaced all around the bottom of the great firing kilns, and the firemen kept watch, ready to chase and beat any child they saw taking out a shovelful of fire; and yet till someone succeeded no new fires could be lit at all, and a beating from the mold workers when they arrived loomed nearer, and stiffened the courage of small creatures risking a beating from the firemen now.

This book is slim, but an extraordinarily well put together time fantasy. I was reminded of the atmosphere of David Almond’s book Skellig as I read. The descriptions of the landscape, the terrible work conditions and the characters are beautifully drawn.

Wikipedia has a good article about Lewis Hine, whose photos aided the end to child labor and the formation of the National Child Labor Committee, which is a non-profit organization in the United States that serves as a leading advocate for child labor reform. Although the book concerns children in Great Britain, similar conditions were happening in the United States also.

Picture Books this week:

I Am Different! Can You Find Me? by Manjula Padmanabhan I just read a review of this from Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading and the next day walked downstairs to a colleague’s primary classroom to tell her about the book (we exchange good finds), and she had just checked out the book from the library. It is a book that can easily cross ages from kindergarten up to encourage good discussions about differences and varied opinions as to what is ‘different’. Please read Mary Lee’s review.

When I was talking with my colleague, she also shared The Wishing Tree by Roseanne Rosethong, another good picture book about wishing and learning that wishes might turn out to be granted in different ways than expected. It’s a good story to encourage conversation about the meaning of cultural traditions and the fact that things are not always what they seem.

What's next: I didn’t finish The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis, but love it so far. After that I will need to prepare for two book groups I’m starting in a couple of weeks. One is reading The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne and another will examine short stories about immigrants in California, background reading by middle school students who will be traveling to California in April. I will be scanning anthologies by different authors looking for about eight or nine stories. If you have a favorite already, I’d love to hear about it.

photo credit: Dystopos via photopin cc

photo credit: John McNab via photopin cc

The Fifth Year of Two Writing Teachers' March Slice of Life Challenge

2012-02-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

It is the fifth year of the March Slice of Life Challenge with Ruth and Stacey at their Two Writing Teachers blog. This link speaks about starting a blog if you need one, but the basic challenge is to post every day in March and to support others through your comments. At this post, scroll down to see the comments of others who blog with us. It's such a supportive and wonderful community of bloggers. One learns much about oneself and others by writing. Please take the plunge and join us.

Sweetness for Valentine's Day

2012-02-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

Poetry Friday is hanging out with Laura Salas-Writing The World For Kids

If you love Valentines

and the sweetest of rhymes,

please read these poems today

written in old fashioned ways!

I had a wonderful mother-in-law named Helen. She warmly welcomed me as a new daughter into her family. Through all the years and visits, she and I had fabulous talks about just everything: raising children as well as politics, people’s behavior along with town events, the virtues of hand-mixing batter or use of an electric mixer. I never heard her say a bad word about others, nor did she complain about anything. As they say, she kept a stiff upper lip, even in the most sorrowful times, like when her husband of many years died suddenly of a heart attack soon after he retired. Broken dreams. She was a kind woman who helped out at the church nursery well past seventy and continued to play the piano for church when needed until the last year of her life. I loved her and still miss her. She just made it into the 21st Century, after having lived almost all of the 20th.

My dear mother-in-law Helen was one of those teachers who, after leaving high school, taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920’s. She rose early, saddled a horse, and rode to the country building where her first duty was to start the fire. Like that story told so eloquently by Charles Portis, she had grit. And, as a true woman of her generation, she saved everything! I am the proud recipient of many old-fashioned Valentines given to her (Miss Helen) by her students, probably about 1928. I thought since we will celebrate St. Valentine’s Day next Tuesday, I would share a little sweetness with all of you.

Here are photos of some, and the rhymes found inside are beneath. Many are intricate, lacy, and pop out. A few have been altered like little hearts have been cut out in them, and it’s clear that it was hand done. You may be able to see which are the pop out ones, but photos did not show that very well.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

To my Valentine

Your voice is like a

song bird

The sweetest thing I’ve

ever heard.

May you be always happy, gay,

And joyous, as you are to-day,

Is what my ardent hopes express

For you, my Love,

and nothing less!

The whole world

loves a lover

So they say—I hope

it’s true,

‘Cause then the world’s

in love with me

‘Cause I’m in love

with you.

Dear Teacher,

Don’t overlook

This One

from

You’re my Valentine

‘Cause you’re sweet

as you can be.

I hope my heart will

reach you

And be there right

on time,

It’s just chock-full of

loving thoughts

For you, dear Valentine.

Oh let’s make life

a jolly lark

A picnic if you

please.

And it will be just

this for me

If words you say

are these:

I Love You!

The Valentine I’m sending

Is sealed with kisses two.

Which I trust will reach you safely,

For both are meant for you.

Of all the girls I know

You are the very best.

To me you seem much brighter

Thank any of the rest.

Postman, handle this with care!

I’m sending my heart to a lady fair,

Who is an old sweetheart of mine

And I want her to be: My Valentine.

I think that I shall try a line,

I hope to catch a Valentine,

There’s only one I want, ‘tis true.

Oh! Can’t you guess that one is you?

Comfort - My One Little Word - In the classroom

2012-02-07T05:36:00.001-07:00

Tuesday Slice of Life Is Hosted by Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers. Check It Out!

Toward the end of October 2011, Ruth Ayres wrote on her own blog, Ruth Ayres Writes-Discover, Play, Build of the importance of noticing the tiny things. One line from Ruth continues to strike me as important in the classroom as it is important in the details of our lives. She writes: This is true in life, teaching, and writing. So I decided to challenge myself to writing small, looking for the tiny in order to make big realizations.

Whenever I am struggling to find a topic on which to write, I return to that post to re-read it. I have copied it to put into my writer’s notebook. This time, like so many other times in my posts, I am making connections. I’m connecting again to Ruth’s ideas, I’m connecting to my One Little Word, Comfort, and I’m connecting to the classroom and teaching. The quote I chose for my first page in my One Little Word book is this: Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things in which smiles, and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort- Humphrey Davy. I am also connecting to Diana and her blog, One Literacy Coach because she sometimes posts such creative and thoughtful graphics like Wordles or something from Tagxedo in her posts.

These are the little things that support, that bring comfort to those with whom I work because I want to communicate that I care about them, them personally along with them learning. I know that you all have chosen your own personal acts of kindness in order to provide comfort. We all need it; we all need to give it. I think I’m beginning to embrace my One Little Word!

Here is my Tagxedo of the things that give comfort to students in the classroom and now the teachers with whom I work:

Two Books Based on Truth - But About Lies

2012-02-06T06:23:00.001-07:00

I managed to finish two books this week: The Blood Lie by Shirley Reva Vernick and An Elephant In The Garden by Michael Morpurgo (War Horse). They are both fiction stories, but based on truth.

The Blood Lie is an alarming story about a little girl lost, prejudices jumping to conclusions, and will be useful in middle school or higher in discussing how people act out of fear when they encounter differences, and the terrible result of a seed planted with rumors and lies. In this particular story, one person needed to move the searchers out of the woods where people were searching for the girl because he was waiting for an illegal liquor delivery. (It was the time of Prohibition.) So, he told the story that Jewish people made sacrifices of young children in order to use their blood on special holy days. It is based on an event that happened in a community of Massena, New York in 1928, when a young girl disappeared and a Jewish boy was accused of her murder. Five years later Hitler held the reins of power in Germany.

Incidents based on the book’s lie have occurred in Russia as recently as 2008, and even more recently been reported in Canadian and Swedish newspapers. The author further reports that in 2004 alone, there were more than 9,000 reported hate offenses in the U.S., according to the FBI. The book is not exciting, but does raise the tension for the reader to discover what will happen to the boy and his community when such lies are told and believed. It does not extend information like the thoughts of others very much, is quite brief in showing any opposing beliefs by non-Jewish friends. I often found myself wanting to know more about the opinions of everyone, and continued to ask myself what would I do in this situation. Using this as a read aloud would bring about much discussion of the sometimes-complex difficulty of doing the right thing, understanding actions by placing them in historical context, considering challenges today also. It is not an enjoyable story, but by studying and discussing the actions and reactions of various people in the community, perhaps we will learn something about ourselves, and our students.

An Elephant In The Garden is a book I grabbed in our school library because I thought it was an interesting title, looked inside to see that it might be another middle grade title (it is), and brought it home. It’s a quick read, based on a story from Belfast, Ireland, about a woman who was given permission to care for an elephant at night during World War II. During World War II, when cities were being bombed, or under the threat of being bombed, zoos decided that when the bombing happened, the animals had to be destroyed, for their own protections and for the community’s.

This story was adapted and placed in Dresden, Germany when a mother, her teenaged daughter and young son had to flee when the Allies were bombing the city of Dresden so heavily. The mother worked at the zoo, and brought the young elephant home at night. They ended up fleeing with the elephant and saving a young Canadian pilot who parachuted from his plane. The predominant story is that of their flight to gain the safety of American troops. The book is told by the teenaged daughter, but it begins in modern times with another single mother who works in a nursing home, and who, with her son, befriends an old woman who turns out to be the teenaged daughter in the book. Each part of the book begins at the nursing home, then turns to the words of the older woman who wants to tell her story of “an elephant in the garden” that previously had been thought to be her ramblings whose memory was not quite right. It is an interesting weaving of the two parts with the consistent theme of telling the truth. Like The Blood Lie, this book too brings up questions of the integrity of telling lies. Is it okay to lie to protect oneself and others? When is it not okay? I can imagine rich conversations about this book throughout the action in the story. The other theme concerns the tragedy of war, the separation of families, the destruction of ways of life, no matter if one is the enemy or the ally. It would be an excellent book for middle readers.

I am reminded of two other books from World War II that tell of this horrible result of being at war, both poignant, excellent and informative: Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya that concerns the zoo in Tokyo, and The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackermann about the Warsaw zoo.

Now: Currently reading A Chance Child by Jill Paton Walsh, concerning child labor, and TBR-The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Finally-I'd like to share this by Carl Sagan: What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Happy Reading Everyone!

A Favorite Anthology

2012-02-02T20:38:00.002-07:00

All the Poetry Friday posts this week can be found at The Iris Chronicles with Karissa.

It’s been a long week, yet I am being renewed by attending our state’s annual Reading Conference. Some days are better than other days as all of you know and I am happy to be able to do something different besides my regular job.

If I cannot run off to a conference full of inspirational people and conversation and books, often I turn to a book that was gifted to me a few years ago by a colleague. It is a poetry anthology titled Teaching With Fire, Poetry That Sustains The Courage To Teach, edited by Sam M. Intrator and Megan Scribner. Considering the year’s challenges to teachers and the newest steps to be taken with the common core standards, it seems that each teacher should be given this book, or at least a poem from it, for personal restoration when there happens one of THOSE days, sometimes weeks. The book is organized into sections like Hearing The Call, Making Contact and Daring To Lead. A brief essay from a teacher, sharing what makes the poem a special one in his or her life, prefaces each poem.

As I browsed my copy of the book, I looked at the poems I had marked with sticky notes. Three are from William Stafford, and those are the three I will share. Each is one I love, and each connects to a personal story that makes me love it even more.

The first is The Way It Is, the whole of the poem found here.

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesn’t change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

When I moved out of the classroom a couple of years ago, my school held a party for me, and our head of school gave a speech of gratitude, something that was both lovely and a little embarrassing. I had loved this poem for a long while, but he surprised me by using it as an example of my work. It was such a compliment, and seemed magical that it was a favorite poem already.

The second is You Reading This, Be Ready, all of which is found here.

Starting here, what do you want to remember?

How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?

What scent of old wood hovers, what softened

sound from outside fills the air?

When I taught, I was one of the Advanced School teachers teaching the middle-school aged classes. Each year the school, and my colleagues and I, held the important ceremony of Continuation for our students who were moving on to high school. It is a rite of passage of great importance to the students at our school. Each student gave a speech; every student in the school attends, as do immediate families, close neighbors, aunts and uncles, and so on. And my colleagues and I also spoke. Each year I began a search for just the right tone, the right theme, and for me, because of my love of poetry, the perfect poem. And this poem fits a leaving so beautifully, and holding on to a moment of time so poignantly. If you can imagine: our Continuation is held in an old gymnasium, with high windows streaming in the sun, onto an old wooden floor.

And the third poem, Silver Star, the entirety is found here.

To be a mountain, you have to climb alone

and accept all that rain and snow. You have to look

far away when evening comes.

When in the past I have taken students on long overnight trips, I made a big deal out of students finding poems and/or quotes to inspire all of us on our journey. One year I used this poem for our inspiration. We were not going to the mountains (we live in the Denver, Colorado area), but we were going to see Mount Hood from the air, and I knew it was an amazing experience when that large mountain began to come into view. It felt as if Stafford had written the poem for Mount Hood, and additionally one can see the verse as a metaphor for strength. As I researched this poem, I also found that it is one of the Methow River poems published on plaques along the river that runs from the heart of the Cascade Mountains to the Columbia River. In the year before Stafford died, he fulfilled a commission from some forest rangers who wished for better words for their interpretive signs. Here is that wonderful story of some of Stafford’s last poems.

I realize I have only told you of the Stafford poems in this marvelous anthology. There are others that I marked, and still others to be enjoyed, by such poets as Nikki Giovanni, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, and Czeslaw Milosz. If you are intrigued, please find a copy to browse, and find a poem that touches you in your own life, as these above have touched me.

Teaching About Expectations - Learning About Them Too

2012-01-30T21:55:00.002-07:00

Slice of Life Tuesday can be enjoyed at Two Writing Writers

It’s an exciting time at my school right now, and teachers are using different methods to help students understand the attributes of satisfactory final products. In written assignments, all of us give the expectations of an assignment, yet seeing examples of real products are important too. The week of Valentine’s Day also happens to hold another important day at my school, an event we call Expo, where every child in the school creates a display of their unit of study learning so far this school year.

As I’ve explained before, each student in my school, kindergarten through eighth grade, studies a specific unit topic of their choice around which the curriculum is built. The nearest I can describe to you about Expo is that it’s similar to a science fair, except there are no prizes and no best of show. Everyone creates a display of the work they have accomplished during the year, the learning they have achieved. There are three-way boards filled with reports and illustrations, artistic 3-D depictions of things as diverse as the Globe Theater, the Golden Gate Bridge and life-sized dolphin. Also, there might be dioramas of survival shelters, posters of advertisements that use stereotypes to sell, sketches of famous people that have been researched and so on, and so on. In recent years, more computer screens are in use, showing Powerpoints and Prezis, videos and artistic slides. Some students offer hands on activities that connect to their topics. There are many displays to view during the day and evening of Expo. In the evening, students sit and/or stand with their work to greet visitors and answer questions about the topic.

During these weeks since the holidays, students have been organizing their already researched work, and at the same time, developing and finishing new products to add to the displays. Since many students have experienced Expo, all but new students know what to expect on the day, but teachers still discuss the attributes of good final products as they have all year.

One of the good practices that all teachers do during the year and up to the time of Expo is to take students to see other student work. For example, if a student has decided to make a poster of the information he has discovered about the environmental issues of polar bears, he will need to understand the attributes of a good-to-see poster. His teacher might take him to view posters already displayed in the halls to take notes in his journal about what he sees that he might incorporate into his own work. Or if a student is planning a diorama of a working farm, it will be helpful to visit another student’s diorama to try to notice all the good things about it. With the youngest students, they might just need to view a diorama in order to understand what it is first, then to examine all its parts.

Even if it doesn’t work to have other classes to visit, it is good practice to show visuals of the product you are asking students to create. Sometimes, I would make the product myself first, and have the class evaluate it. What looks right? What could be improved? How would you change it to improve it? It’s the same as writing with students. If you can show even an approximation of the assignment’s expectation, it will show more than just giving the assignment orally or in writing.

One additional good thing about viewing other work is that students see additional possibilities of how to communicate their learning. They might be looking for good examples of posters, but also notice that someone has created a book instead, or a timeline, or ? School displays of student work can be used as a marvelous catalog of information for other teachers to use with their students. I hear students walking by often during these days, and hear the teachers too. “What do you see that appeals?” “How could you record that in your journal?” “What stands out for you?” “What is a favorite on this bulletin board? Why?” “What colors look good together?” “What are the colors you might choose?”

It is such a great time during this part of the year at school, and anticipating visitors and celebrations of the learning is also a fun part of it. We all look forward to Expo!

Isn't Every Week Full of Wonderful Books?

2012-01-30T07:15:00.003-07:00

You can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor texts, thanks to Jen and Kellee! Here you can discover what others are reading and what they’re saying about them!

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!
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I browsed my school library this week, and found there are books there that should be off the shelf and into the classrooms. You may be familiar with some, but I hope you find a new one here, too.

These first two books give some views of different cultures, and the way small differences really don’t matter, that people have the same needs no matter what culture: the need to love, to be needed and to eat! The next two are true stories of the persistence of the human spirit in personal passions. The final one is a story teaching the lesson of liking oneself.

How My Parents Learned To Eat Ina R. Friedman with illus. by Allen Say

Eating styles and habits separate people. This is a sweet story told by a little girl about how her parents fall in love and try so hard to please each other by learning the ways the other one eats. It’s one of the early books illustrated by Allen Say.

Arctic Son by Jean Craighead George illustrated with paintings by Wendell Minor

Jean Craighead George, author of Julie of The Wolves, My Side of The Mountain, and my favorite, The Talking Earth, takes us to a new culture, showing her usual love for both the culture and the environment. The story is that of Ms. George's grandson, Luke, who lives in Barrow, Alaska, near the top of the world. This is a lovely tribute to the Arctic, particularly the Inupiat Eskimo way of life, and includes some of their language also. The illustrations are beautiful.

Dave the Potter – Artist, poet, slave by Laban Carrick Hill illustrated by Bryan Collier

There is a good review of this by Andi Sibley at A Wrung Sponge. It’s a true story of a slave who became one of the most important potters of the 19th Century and he was also a poet, inscribing some of his poems into the pots. Some of his pots are still in existence. A link here to a South Carolina history site tells more about Dave and his work. The book is both beautiful to see and to hear for it is written in verse.

That Book Woman by Heather Henson illustrations by David Small

It’s always wonderful to find a book that celebrates books! And this is one, a history of those persistent enough to travel by horseback to remote areas to bring books to families, especially children. Here is one link to what is titled Packhorse Librarians in Kentucky during the W.P.A. era. I discovered one other book about them, titled Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky. I could find no reference to this any other place in the US. It’s a fascinating story.

Cabbage Rose by M.C. Helldorfer, illustrated by Julie Downing is another book with a strong and independent young woman whose life changes when she is given a ‘magic paintbrush’ where everything she paints becomes real. It’s a story that includes the family that doesn’t treat Rose so well, and the young woman who makes life good anyway and is rewarded with magic. But, it also gets more complicated with the love of a prince, of course, and the challenge to Rose’s self-esteem, a theme of liking oneself no matter what. In today’s society of ‘looking good’, the book could spark a good conversation about personal values.

Last week I spoke about the first book I read by John Green, An Abundance of Katherines, and this week I read his latest, The Fault In Our Stars. Two weeks ago I finished and wrote about A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. You may hear about these books and feel they have dealt with topics too sad to read about, but the stories are not only about loss because of the premature death of a loved one, but they are also stories of teens choosing to live life as beautifully as can be lived even when one learns firsthand that it can be so fleeting. They were both powerfully sad and equally inspirational. A personal tragedy recently happened in my own family, and these books touched me even more because of it.

I loved meeting the characters in The Fault In Our Stars, Augustus and Hazel. They are lovingly drawn teens who are smart, quirky, silly, impetuous and thoughtful, kind and loving. They are ill, and honest about their illness, learning that life and pain are partners in each of their lives. One revelation to me about those living with imminent death was that they take risks because they must, but also think of friends and family “after death” as often as they think of themselves. It is genuinely a pleasure to live for a while with these two young teenagers.

There are often passages that I find poignant and memorable in books. There were those here in John Green’s book, too. I found this truth in the book, as I found others, and hope you will read to find your own. The pleasure of remembering had been taken from me, because there was no longer anyone to remember with. It felt like losing your co-rememberer meant losing the memory itself, as if the things we’d done were less real and important than they had been hours before.

What's Next? I've started The Blood Lie, by Shirley Reva Vernick and it will be an interesting read! And, I think I'll be returning to my own school library searching for other picture books, plus I'm going to the Colorado Chapter of the International Reading Association Conference this coming Thursday and on. I'm so excited to see what books I do discover.

A Different Kind of Lullaby for Poetry Friday

2012-01-26T22:41:00.001-07:00

Poetry Friday is hanging out today with Jim at Hey, Jim Hill.

My father-in-law and son, a long time ago, final run!

My husband’s father was a railroad engineer for Union Pacific in the last years of his long railroad career. We now have a number of different train memorabilia in our home because of him. My husband talks of many trips his family took on the trains. It sounds like such fun and I am also nostalgic about train trips after reading Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express and watching old movies where love and intrigue reside on the rails. I grew up with others taking those trips and took one myself, with my Girl Scout troop, to Washington D.C. Imagine the hours of giggling, hardly sleeping there and back! I am grateful to our leaders who sacrificed their time and maybe sanity by taking us.

It’s a delight when I find prose and poetry about train travel, I read the words, and sometimes find them memorable enough to read to my husband. Lately, on a website called The Daily Poem, a particular poem appeared with such rhythm and sweetness that I wanted to share it with you, and of course I shared it first with my husband.

I also found a little about Alicia Stallings, who is still writing and has published several books of poetry. She is known as a classical poet, has translated from the Greek and lives with her husband and son in Athens, Greece. More poems and a short bio can be found at The Poetry Foundation.

Lullaby Near The Railroad Tracks

by Alicia E. Stallings

Go back to sleep. The hour is small.

A freight train between stations

Shook you out of sleep with all

Its lonely ululations.

The rest can be found here.

The sheet music to an original composition that was created for a choir using Lullaby Near The Railroad Tracks by Paul Crabtree can be found here, .

As I researched, I found one more poem by Stallings that I thought wonderful to share, titled Fairy-tale Logic. I imagine that students might love this particular poem about fairy tales.

Fairy-tale Logic

Fairy tales are full of impossible tasks:

Gather the chin hairs of a man-eating goat,

Or cross a sulphuric lake in a leaky boat,

Read the rest of those heinous tasks here.

My One Little Word - Needed Exploring

2012-01-25T21:54:00.001-07:00

I signed up for the One Little Word class, and have completed the first assignment, have found some few quotations I like, and written about poems that give me comfort, just as writing poems do, too. I have read others’ posts that talk about their word, and have been interested in what they have invited into their lives because of that word. The posts have been heartfelt, full of feeling and purpose and inspiration.

My word is COMFORT, and the quote I chose is: LIfe is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things in which smiles, and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort, by Humphrey Davy. I have since discovered that Davy was a British chemist who is known for discovering the anesthetic effect of laughing gas (nitrous oxide), among other things. It gives me a laugh, not kidding, that the quote I chose was spoken by the guy that discovered the properties of laughing gas. Terrific, quite an invention.

And so I begin thinking of all the things, like this quirky fact, that means COMFORT to me. I have chosen to tie some things in my life to the synonyms of COMFORT in Webster’s Online Dictionary.

Assurance – That the coffee will be made when I arise in the am, that the water in the shower will be hot and that the sun will rise. There is a Mescalero Apache Song I used to read on campouts with my students when we rose with the sun to set off on our adventures:

The sunbeams stream forward, dawn boys,

with shimmering shoes of yellow.

Cheer – Two people sent me poems this week, knowing how much I love poetry. A student stopped in to have a talk.

Consolation – One usually thinks of this as ‘second prize’, not so good, yet I see it as the tiny events that happen when big things don’t: a coupon for something I never get to save money on, a joke that both my husband and I laugh over at the same time, a few words or lines in a book I’m reading that touch me especially.

Reassurance – Going to the neighborhood Italian restaurant and being greeted as an old friend is better than the meal, which is very good.

Solace – In times of distress, there are a number of people who are there, and will be there, always.

So, that is ‘comforting’ contemplation for my One Little Word this time. It was a good thing to do, to bring the word forward more deliberately into my life. The word COMFORT derives from the Latin confortare, to strengthen, and those things listed above do that for me. Two parts of the word COMFORT make the whole. This time I concentrated on myself, the kinds of comfort that are meaningful in my life. Next time, it’s time to venture outward, to find the COMFORT I can give others.

photo credit: James Jordan via photopin cc

Using Online Tools for All Kinds of Writing

2012-01-23T22:12:00.001-07:00

I'm having a great time in the twenty-one day comment challenge at Mother Reader, but my reader is still filling up. Check out the challenge here. Tomorrow is the final day!

The Slice of Life posts are hosted every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers

After reading the New York Times article concerning future changes in education, and discovering that February 1st is Digital Learning Day, a specific day set aside for adding to your digital learning expertise in order to apply it to education, I thought I’d recommend a few sites that I recently used in an online tools class. Here are some things that happened:

I used Diigo, a bookmarking site (like Delicious if you use that) that you can use with a group or class by acquiring an educator account. Each student has access to the personal ‘library’ set up online of the pages and sites I wanted them to explore, plus they could also recommend other tools they found and/or had already used to tell the rest of us about. You can bookmark, sticky note and highlight specific portions of text. You can add as many tags as you wish. You can give assignments as to the approach of the link given.

I found that the group loved it and looked forward to checking their account to see what had been recently added. I imagine that students could send poems to share & to comment on within the site, or other kinds of text could be shared with a group, or a partner. One project done: I sent several articles of current interest to the students, and we had an online discussion of them with all of us sending comments. One other idea is that students could send a review of a book read and others could agree or disagree with the review after reading the book.

Here are other sites used that might be good for writing workshop:

Make Beliefs Comix—Students can create their own stories & then make a comic of them.

WhenInTime—A timeline building site-impressive, for non-fiction research & communication of the discoveries.

Popplet—for organizing information, for presenting photos, perhaps with short poems. It’s a great visual site.

Glogster—A ‘teacherlight’ account is $29.95 for a year, & you can have up to 50 accounts, perhaps share with another teacher? You can also, like many sites, sign up for a free trial account. It’s a way for students to create posters of their information online, & they are also printable.

Wikispaces—You can create a free educator account and there is an easy way to create individual student accounts with passwords without using real e-mail addresses. We created a Wiki with each student writing a page of tips for good research displays. Each took a part of the ‘how-to’s’, wrote their ideas, then everyone added to the original. My next project is for my memoir writing class. They’ll be able to write their text as a page on the Wiki, and receive feedback for it.

If you like Wordle, you’ll love Tagxedo.

When you use photos or other media for writing inspiration or illustration, it’s good to have less worry about copyright. Here is a site giving numerous links for copyright free images.

Finally, for all bloggers, a free photo site for blogs called Photo Pin. Here's a beautiful photo I found there. It looks like a mystery story to me. What do you think?

I’m having fun finding new ways to invite creativity with words online. There is so much out there, and students may be embracing new things faster than we are. I hope you’ll find something of interest here!

photo credit: *clairity* via photopin cc

What I'm Reading - Late January

2012-01-23T07:52:00.001-07:00

Just watched the awards! Have read some, knew of some & some are ones I guess I'd better look up! Very exciting day for the authors and illustrators. I'm excited for them!

I'm participating in the twenty-one day comment challenge at Mother Reader. It's been terrific finding new blogs to enjoy. It's over on Wednesday. Check it out here.

You can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor texts! Here you can discover what others are reading and what they’re saying about them!

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!
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A colleague and I ate lunch together the other day and shared new picture books we have recently acquired. She showed me two wonderful books. The Child of The Civil Rights Movement by Paula Young Shelton, illustrated by Raul Colón is a memoir told by the author, the youngest child of Andrew Young, one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in the sixties and a friend and follower of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She tells the story in her own words of her family’s and other’s involvement in the marches for the right to vote. The book ends with the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She writes for younger children, explaining the background of the term Jim Crow and telling of sitting under the table listening to the talk of her father’s and mother’s friends whom she calls her Civil Rights Family, people like Dr. King, Ralph Abernathy and Randolph Blackwell. The illustrations are realistic depictions of the scenes described in the text. It’s a good introduction to this history for younger students and for adults, to contemplate the difficult acts that this particular family and others chose even with their small children. It’s inspiring and informative!

“R” is for Research by Toni Buzzeo with illus. by Nicole Wong is an alphabet book that takes the reader through the research process from the Assignment to finding the appropriate books to Organization to use of the Internet responsibly. It’s up to date, including Verification of facts, use of the web and an Evaluation checklist. It’s a book that could support a research project for all ages over and over. The illustrations are wonderfully realistic, showing scenes of work in the library and classroom. I can envision using this as a text to create a classroom book of references with each child creating a page.

I certainly missed John Green week as proposed by Jen and Kellee a few weeks ago at TeachMentorTexts, but now I can say I’ve read my first John Green book because of their enthusiasm for his books. I chose to begin with An Abundance of Katherines, and I loved it. I have lately been immersed in numerous middle grade books, possibly because of the search for reading the books offered as possible Newbery winners. So, I haven’t read a book that I view as a book for mostly high school students, maybe mature eighth graders in a while. I liked the quirky characters, trying to figure out their worlds, and I liked again seeing the energy and enthusiasm that Green managed to imbue into these characters, just like high school students are.

I enjoyed “the immutable tangle between the Dumper and the Dumpee; the coming and the seeing and the conquering and the returning home.”

I agreed with “You can love someone so much, he thought. But you can never love people as much as you can miss them.”

I was sad when “Colin was watching all the things he’d thought were true about himself, all his I sentences, fall away. Suddenly, there was not just one missing piece, but thousands of them.”

And I laughed with the use of the word, “dingleberries”, so apt and poignant between friends.

Finally, I smiled with “And so we all matter—maybe less than a lot, but always more than none.”

If you remember your children as teens or if those children are still with you, if you teach teens or if you have any kind of connection with them, read the book, and discover the wonderful story woven between the lines above.

Next week—goals to finish two: I’ve already started The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, out just a week and a half ago, plus I won the book, The Blood Lie by Shirley Reva Verick in the autumn, and have put it off too long. I’m looking forward to a great week of reading!

Poems Can Be Memoirs

2012-01-20T05:31:00.003-07:00

This time, Poetry Friday can be enjoyed with Elaine at Wild Rose Reader!

I wrote a poem of introduction this week.

I’m teaching students how to write memoir,

to write their lines, a knit of who they are,

with tiny rows that knit one, then pearl two

in colorful skeins of yarn. They can do

a word or more, sew them all together.

Lay the pattern well, it really doesn’t matter

what they choose as long as some truth weaves part

and most that’s kept comes finally from the heart.

There will be prose and poetry written in this class, and I wanted to share a few poems that I will share with students to show them possibilities. We’ve started to find the seeds of what memories we want to write about. Now we’ll write, but then choose the audience we’re writing for, and finally the style, or genre to use to communicate our choices.

Here are some poems I’ll share with my students that have pleased me as memories of the poet’s lives, all different looks at someone’s tiny moments.

The Summer I Was Sixteen by Geraldine Connolly

The Turquoise pool rose up to meet us,

its slide a silver afterthought down which

we plunged… The rest is here.

A Geography of Lunch by Mary Jo Schimelpfenig

My mother asks me if I like my sandwich.

I say I haven’t tasted it yet.

“What are you doing? Are you dreaming

off into space?” she says.

The rest is here.

Marcus Millsap: School Day Afternoon by Dave Etter

I climb the steps of the yellow school bus,

move to a seat in back, and we’re off,

bouncing along the bumpy blacktop.

The rest is here.

Back In The Playground Blues by Adrian Mitchell

Dreamed I was in a school playground, I was about four feet high

Yes dreamed I was back in the playground, and standing about four fee

high

The rest is here.

I hope you’ve had a few memories rise as you read these. If you have favorites you can share with me, please do. I will appreciate it!

A Wrinkle In Time - Still A Great Read After 50 Years!

2012-01-18T21:23:00.001-07:00

This is my first review that celebrates award-winning books to be read and relished, hopefully more than once, sometimes for a lifetime. The ALA will announce 18 awards next Monday, including the renowned Caldecott and Newbery Medals, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards and Printz award, so it’s a good time to start the challenge I have taken at Gathering Books blog. Thanks to Myra and Iphigene and Fats from GatheringBooks for hosting the 2012 award-winning books challenge.

It is the 50th anniversary of the publication of A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle, which won the Newbery Award in 1963. A Publisher’s Weekly article here tells of the year’s plans of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group to commemorate this beloved book, including a 50th anniversary edition that will be released soon. And here is one of L’Engle’s acceptance speeches, when the American Library Association honored her in June, 1998 with the Margaret Edwards award for Lifetime Achievement In Writing in the Field of Young Adult Literature.

According to a Study Guide from Glencoe Publishing, l’Engle once said: I start with what I know with all five senses, what I have experienced, and then the imagination takes over and says, “But what if—” and the story is on. So, how does one review a book that has been in our consciousness for 50 years, has sold over 10 million copies, and even if someone hasn’t read it, they will always say, oh yeah, I know that book? I think I will just respond to the reading I’ve just completed. This is what I enjoyed this time.

I read from an old and tattered paperback that belonged to my daughter, issued in 1973. The back of the book quotes Library Journal: Characterization is excellent; the enormity of the setting is handled with sensitivity, and suspense is well-sustained…Provocative reading for discerning teenagers. And from Horn Book: Fascinating…it makes unusual demands on the imagination and consequently gives great rewards. I agree, and yet wonder how many highschoolers are reading this. It is rated as a 5.8 reading level, yet I know that some are using it in book groups for fourth graders. And what did I think as I read? There are exciting moments in this text that young students can love, and there are oblique references to the Bible that I had a tough time understanding until I did further research. I could find no statement that L’Engle meant this for the very young, but the Newbery award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children, according to the American Library Organization Newbery Home Page. It was written for children, with respect for their ability to figure important things out. That, with all the other books she wrote, is who L’Engle was, a children’s writer.

What I liked: L’Engle’s ability to make us gleeful with anticipation in her descriptions. There was a faint gust of wind, the leaves shivered in it, the patterns of moonlight shifted, and in a circle of silver something shimmered, quivered, and the voice said, “I ddo nott think I will matterrialize completely. I ffindd itt verry ttirinngg, andd wee hhave mmuch ttoo ddoo.”

I loved the small jokes set into the tension that allowed us to breath once in a while. In one frightening scene as Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin are being fed by dark smocked men right after they have met the man with red eyes, seemingly the speaker for IT. I read: There’s something phoney (sic) in the whole setup, Meg thought. There is definitely something rotten in the state of Camazotz.

I noticed: The beginning of the argument for being alike. As Charles Wallace is being drawn into the power of IT, he argues with Meg. On Camazotz we are all happy because we are all alike. Differences create problems. You know that, don’t you, dear sister? This push and pull of sameness being important is the argument that rings true for numerous political ideologies such as communism, socialism and fascism. There are many books written that decry taking away one’s personal rights, among them The Giver by Lois Lowry and 1984 by George Orwell, of “Big Brother is watching you” fame. Students who do not know science fiction should enjoy seeing that people in books have big challenges as we do in our real world of past and present day conflicts. There is a wonderful passage with Mrs. Whatsit using the structure of a sonnet as an analogy. She talks of the fourteen lines in iambic pentameter, a very strict rhythm and meter. She continues: And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it? Further, But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, doesn’t he? Later in the conversation, she ends with: You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you. Our lives are compared to a sonnet. L’Engle says: A strict form, but freedom within it.

The unusual and loving characters were caring as well as effective: Mrs. Whatsit is the youngest of those strange beings that come to help the Murrys find their father. She says, Wild nights are my glory, yet she remains stable and helpful. Mrs. Who, the practical one who speaks in illuminating quotes in foreign languages, like Le Coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point. French, Pascal. The heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing. The next, and it appears the one with most power, Mrs. Which, who speaks rarely, but somberly and with drawn out consonants of the beginnings and endings of words. Mrs. Which, along with Aunt Beast who appears at a crucial time in the story play large roles in the book, and however unusually portrayed, L’Engle manages to keep the loving traits of the characters intact.

Finally, it is important to me as it was to my daughter that the strongest character, the protagonist, is Meg, a girl. She is willful, opinionated, decries her differences but holds fast to them because that is who she is, and she likes herself. In her world of early adolescence, she is shown to want to be liked, but resists the compromises that her peers wish in order to be accepted. She shows heroic characteristics in her capacity to step forward to do right without compromise. A most wonderful thing is that readers can continue to watch Meg grow up in the later books in the series.

This is a brief book by some recent standards. It is less than two hundred pages. I could describe other scenes I loved, show different beautifully written words, but I hope if you haven’t read it lately that you will give some time to an old classic children’s novel.

Sometimes Teachers Just Need To Stand Back

2012-01-17T06:10:00.001-07:00

I'm having a great time in the twenty-one day comment challenge at Mother Reader, but my reader is filling up. Check it out here.

The Slice of Life posts are hosted every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers

Ingrid, my two and one-half year old granddaughter, spent the weekend with us. She is a delightfully energetic young child, always going, going, and rarely serene like her new baby sister. Here is part of our trip to the school playground right by the park behind our house.

The apparatus is one of those tinker toy-like structures, lots of climbing in various ways and one can climb back down, or slide down on one of six slides. Ingrid has gained much self-confidence from attending pre-school since September. This time, she was ready to try most everything except those climbing parts that simply were too high for her. Remember this is the playground for elementary students. I watched and reveled in her curiosity. She went down the slides on her backside, frontside, and head forward, and climbed up them. This might be because she knows that there are rules about slides and she, with her grandma’s approval, was allowed to try all those forbidden ways this time. She is in the ‘no’ and ‘why’ stages all the time now. She also climbed some of the way up on two of the climbing towers that seemed to fit her small hands.

What struck me as I observed is that I walked around with her, would say things like ‘that bridge bounces if you jump on it’ and Ingrid would eventually get to the bridge, jump joyously shouting ‘bounce, bounce, bounce’. Then she would look at me and just smile and smile. She also explored the pea gravel that covers much of this part of the playground. She picked it up and let it fall through her fingers, she threw it up the slides so it would rattle as it came down, and then she made a big discovery.

“Grandma, why are the rocks up here?” She meant on the metal mesh floors of the play space.

I said, “Maybe the kids brought it up here on their shoes.”

She said, “I want to bring it up, too.” And so she did, but it all didn’t stay, and she noticed that some fell through the little holes. She sat down and examined the rocks that were still there, went back down and grabbed two more handfuls. She dropped the rocks, watched some go through and some stay. She repeated this more than one time.

I asked, “Ingrid, what are you doing?”

Her answer: “I’m looking at the rocks that fall through the holes.” Back down for more. She sat down and looked and looked, and that is when I took the photo. She looked up and said, “I need more big rocks.” She proceeded to go back down, carefully chose a few bigger pieces of pea gravel, and brought them up to drop and see that they did NOT fall through.

This learning by doing is such a big deal. The teacher in me that stood back and watched with just a bit of questioning was having a good time accepting the learning and applying this to my own teaching. Sometimes, at all ages, it’s better to stay out of the way and let the learning happen.

What I'm Reading - Mid January

2012-01-16T07:16:00.002-07:00

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During this school year I have read a lot of books. There are only two I read in a day. In early September I read Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt and gave it immediately to a colleague, who then passed it on, and on and on. It’s a marvelous book about a young man named Doug who is helped in a surprising way to find courage in solving his tough personal problems. Yesterday I started and finished A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Its basic premise, a young man who is experiencing great emotional turmoil because his mother is dying, is not surprising, but the metaphorical monster and what happens within and around the story of the interactions with the monster is uniquely poignant. I am reminded of a character of a long while ago, a young man in the book Ordinary People by Judith Guest. The boy’s work with his psychiatrist was heart-wrenching, but not as metaphorical as Ness’s creations in A Monster Calls. The illustrations offer additional insight into the complex confusion of emotions when a loved one is dying. The story asks us for sympathy and calls us to wish for a hint of some goodness in the world. Ness is sly with his sympathy for the reader, but does offer clues that everything will be okay with the main character, Conor. Even in the first encounter with the monster, we learn that Conor, and we the reader, are there to learn the truth, and that Conor will tell it at the end. I can’t tell more, only these early words said to Conor: Stories are the wildest things of all, the monster rumbled. Stories chase and bite and hunt. And this story did.

I have heard that both these books are contenders for the soon-to-be announced Newbery. It’s clear to me that they are both books that should be put into the hands of students, to love and discuss and learn from whether their future covers carry a gold medal or not.

Also read –

It’s the 50th anniversary of A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle. I was grown before I discovered her books, and even then I raced through them, happy to discover the connections throughout. And I know how much they have meant to my own children and to my students over the years. I have read this first one several times, and hope to get the 50th anniversary edition and watch all through the year the events that will be commemorating this fine book. I loved every bit all over again, and will review it soon for a challenge I’m participating in offered by Gathering Books.

Picture Books:

A Carpenter’s Gift, by David Rubel and illustrated by Jim LaMarche – from the cover: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree. This is a pay-it-forward story that follows the growth and history of a pine tree that will become a tree at Rockefeller Center and of the little boy who plants it.

The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel, illustrated by Janet Stevens. This is a whimsical story about the tools in a teacher’s desk that help to save a little red pen so that papers can be graded. It’s a spoof of the Little Red Hen story where all need to learn to work together, but they begin with such fun excuses as from the pencil: I write all day and what do I get? Sharpened down to a nub. Who needs a nub? It’s special to me because Janet Stevens is a parent of one of my former students.

Next: It really is John Green week for me, at least An Abundance of Katherines. And I’ve heard so much about his latest, The Fault In Our Stars, that I might have to go find a copy.

Poems Can Bring Comfort

2012-01-12T22:41:00.002-07:00

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Poetry Friday today is hosted by Tara at A Teaching Life – Enjoy all the wonderful words!

In addition to enjoying Poetry Friday for the recent months, I have this year chosen a One Little Word, COMFORT, for the year. It is hosted by Ali Edwards of the Memory Keeping Website. In this process, we are given monthly challenges, like at this beginning time, to define the word, find an appropriate quote, and so on. I love poetry, and feel it holds a positive place in the lives of men and women, and since I’m a teacher, for children, too. So in addition to directions for a cover page, I’ve decided to begin collecting poems that offer comfort. I don’t mean exactly those one might send to someone with great loss or need, but those that when you read them, you sigh and say ‘this is just great’, and then you read again. Sometimes comfort means tea and sympathy, and sometimes it means looking outside at a snowstorm from inside a warm house, but many times for me it is a poem, or a line, or a particular rhythm and rhyme that touches my heart. I copy and carry poems around with me in a little notebook so I can just pull them out and read them again. Here’s a bit of comfort for you all today:

Sandinista Avioncitos
Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The Little airplanes of the heart
with their brave little propellers

The rest is here.

The World Is Not A Pleasant Place To Be

Nikki Giovanni

the world is not a pleasant place

to be without

someone to hold and be held by

The rest is here.

Domestic Work, 1937

Natasha Trethewey

All week she’s cleaned

someone else’s house,

stared down her own face

in the shine of copper-

bottomed pots, polished

wood, toilets she’d pull

the lid to—that look saying

The rest is here.

ABC

Robert Pinsky

Any body can die, evidently. Few

The rest is here.

Naming

Nancy Mairs

Let me tell you this once

(I will not be able to say it again):

I have lost the meaning of words.

The rest is here.

The Moon

Robert Bly

After writing poems all day,

I go off to see the moon in the pines.

The rest is here.

Going Out With Students To Write

2012-01-12T14:07:00.007-07:00

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If we want our students to write, it is helpful to teach them some ideas of how to observe when they are in the world, riding home with parents as chauffeurs, riding home on the city bus, walking home with or without friends, riding the bike home. We can travel with a small group to a park, a small shopping area, down the block from school to give them a chance to write in a different setting. In class, we talk and talk and list ideas in our writer's notebooks that are good, actually, but nothing holds interest like sitting on a bench in a small town setting and watching people go by.
Every few minutes one can put down a word or two, and in between those minutes, one can imagine: Where is that woman going dressed as if she stepped onto a modeling runway at Saks? Who is that group of three, two older, one younger--lunch for three from the office, the younger tagging along because she just had a fight with-her husband, her girlfriend, her mother-and needs some advice. What is that young boy doing on the side with his scooter? Isn't it school time, shouldn't he be somewhere? Do you see the trash under the bench? Did you notice the cupcakes in the window? Who is the band playing on the loud speakers? Did you see that woman with the dog in her handbag? Did you hear...? Did you smell?

Imagination can take us exactly where we'd like to travel, where we'd like our characters to travel. Perhaps if we took students out to practice writing with imagination they would learn to carry on observing without us?

Here's from my latest trip:

Imagination

I found an empty Brookstone bag

At the bench-yet-I see no nearby Brookstone store.

Was it to impress—packing the chicken salad,

apple, and Dasani into the bag—with

thoughts of a friend lured into the net of

“look where I’ve been”?

Are there any who noticed?

Lunch is over; sack’s adrift, like

its owner. It’s tragic to be abandoned by a date

who went downtown instead,

the idea of a Brookstone man

dulling the senses.

photo credit: E>mar via photopin cc

Preparation for Writing Memoir

2012-01-10T05:56:00.001-07:00

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The Slice of Life posts are hosted every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers

When I wrote in December about using the term backstory, I also included some discussion of teaching memoir writing, and said I would share some resources as I moved closer to the group I will be teaching. Well, the group begins tomorrow, and among all the other reading over break, I’ve been selecting some books to use, including picture books, longer books like Homesick by Jean Fritz, and different poems and scraps of texts I’ve collected.

Since I have been planning, I have noticed more and more ideas that connect to story, so much that I wonder if I shouldn’t have chosen story as my One Little Word, instead of comfort. However, isn’t that what stories are, especially memoir, those collections of words that so often give us comfort? Last week for Poetry Friday, I shared a line from the poem Beach Glass by Sara Holbrook: It takes slow-walking patience to fill a pocket full of untold stories. I hope in this class that I will be able to teach some of this patience to the students.

For my own inspiration and guidance, I have re-read Chapter 12, Memoir: Reading and Writing the Story of Our Lives in Lucy Calkin’s book Living Between The Lines. Calkins shares words I find helpful as the whys of teaching memoir. This is taken out of context, yet I believe you will still find it meaningful. When we hear Updike talking about learning to love the selves we leave behind, when we hear Becker saying that what humans fear is not growing old but growing old without things adding up, we, in our egocentricity, tend to forget that no one is growing old faster than children. It’s children who know the glee, and the sadness, of finding they can no longer squeeze through the gap in the backyard fence. And from David Booth: All we can give children is a sense of story, of something caring and committed to carrying them through their lives.

In addition to taking notes of suggestions from Calkin’s chapter, I have noted other sources that also will help me work with this group. Mary Lee Hahn in her blog A Year of Reading wrote a review of Drawing From Memory by Allen Say and The House Baba Built: An Artist's Childhood in China by Ed Young to help with a study of influences in one’s life. And Alan Wright who writes the blog Living Life Twice discusses how using the influence of other writers and practicing some intriguing parts can help us teach our students. Alan also writes about helping students explore the small moments in this post.

This earlier post by Stacey at Two Writing Teachers discusses a new discovery to use for a mentor text, Grandma’s Scrapbook written by Josephine Nobisso and illustrated by Maureen Hyde. When The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant and What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan are also mentioned.

For this group I will be asking each to read one or several memoirs. Here are some of those titles available in my library: Marshfield Dreams by Ralph Fletcher, Hey World, Here I Am by Jean Little, A Girl From Yamhill by Beverly Cleary, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, Boy, Tales of Childhood and Going Solo by Roald Dahl, Knots In My Yoyo by Jerry Spinelli, Childtimes, by Eloise Greenfield and Lessie Jones Little, A Summer Life by Gary Soto, Homesick by Jean Fritz, But I’ll Be Back Again by Cynthia Rylant, My Life In Dog Years, by Gary Paulsen, Growing Up by Russell Baker, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Dear Mem Fox, I Have Read All Your Books Even the Pathetic Ones by Mem Fox, E.B. White, Some Writer! by Beverly Gherman, Kaffir Boy by Mark Methabane, When I Was Your Age, Volume Two: Original Stories About Growing Up, ed. by Amy Erlich and An American Childhood by Annie Dillard. I hope some will want to search for their own choices, which is fine. They might read a second book, or choose to read parts of what others have recommended. This group will meet for about six weeks. We’ll read, examine, discuss, share, revise and have a final celebration at the end with the rest of their classmates, who are working with two other teachers.

Finally, I spent a bit of time in our school library in the picture book area that is filled with so many books we need more shelves! And I found a few more to tell you about. Some you will recognize, but some were new to me, so I hope will be new discoveries to you, too.

What You Know First, by Patricia MacLachlan, engravings by Barry Moser, a spare-of-words book that brings tears each time I read it. In a young girl’s voice, we find her saying goodbye to her prairie home, describing all the things she will miss. We don’t know, but wonder if they have lost the farm, and will be traveling on to try to make it somewhere else. We hear from the girl: What you know first stays with you, my Papa says. But just in case I forget, I will take a twig of the cottonwood tree. And, as the book flap tells of what MacLachlan does herself, the girl also says I will take a little bag of prairie dirt. I cannot take the sky.

Love As Strong As Ginger, by Lenore Look with illustrations by Stephen T. Johnson is a longer story told also by a young girl who stays with her grandmother on Saturdays while her parents work. Based on the author’s own grandmother who is an immigrant from China, the story tells of a day when young Katie accompanies her grandmother to the crab factory where her grandmother cracks crabs all day. The story shows her grandmother saying: Maybe if I knew English, she said, I would have become . . . a famous actress! because, she follows with in America, you can become whatever you dream. The language as well as the story is beautiful. Katie describes lunch: At lunchtime, she’d make the best meal, clearing space for me in her tiny kitchen where salted butterfish and flounder hung like laundry above our heads.

Show Way, by Jacqueline Woodson with illustrations by Hudson Talbott. The illustrations in this book take one’s breath away, and fill the pages of what the words don’t tell, like parts of quilts that Woodson’s family made from slave time to today to show the way to live, from slavery to freedom, a way to remember the past and celebrate the future. It is not a memoir in the classic sense of sticking to one story with a personal meaning, but is so beautifully poetic in words and pictures that I believe it will inspire students to look harder for a special story in their lives. At night, they cut and sewed. Strange lines and odd designs. People said about Soonie, That child could find some beauty in so many things.

The Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco is only about one quilt, made from clothing memories. The book says: Then from a basket of old clothes she took Uncle Vladimir’s shirt, Aunt Havalah’s nightdress, and an apron of Aunt Natasha’s. We will make a quilt to help us always remember home, Anna’s mother said. In the family, the quilt is used as a huppah for a wedding, to welcome a new baby, to keep Gramma warm, and as a tablecloth to celebrate an important birthday.

I think I’m ready. I hope I’m ready. I know that I’m excited to work with a writing group again, to see what will happen. Just like when I put words on the page, when I teach to a group it is always a lovely surprise to discover the outcome. I’ll let you know!

photo credit: Squire of Cydonia via photopin cc

What I'm Reading - Early January

2012-01-08T22:35:00.001-07:00

I have finally finished reading Chime, by Franny Billingsley, showing such a unique writing style that I had to slowly read and sometimes re-read passages. I admit I struggled with it, and sometimes wondered how it made the finalist list of the National Book Award. I noticed hints early in the book of the resolution, yet they were so subtle I found myself saying things like “no, it couldn’t really work that way”. So I would dismiss that theory and move on. It turned out that Billingsley did what I thought, and wrapped everything up so beautifully that it brought tears to my eyes. Chime is about self-doubt, about courage, about love. For those of you who have read it, I wonder if you have thought of it as a metaphor for something bigger? Every reader brings themselves and his or her life story to the books read, and perhaps, like response to poetry, I see this book as much more than the story about a girl who thinks she is a witch and not very lovable.

Billingsley uses words so beautifully: The wind slapped at the ancient trees. It slapped at me too, but I slapped back... and She looked down the spill of moor. , at the wind tearing through the scrub, at a bundle of ponies tumbling by.

When describing simple buns with cream and jam at a picnic: Eldric handed me a creamy sunset of a bun: mounds of cream, a mere splash of pink.

And about capturing stories: But tha' needs must scribe 'em, mistress! Scribing, it don't never die, but a story what be on a person's tongue--well, there don't be no person what lives forever an' aye. Scribe o' my power that it don't be forgot. Scribe o' how I surges into the fringes o' the sea. And I think about the inevitability of death, and whether it’s not that very inevitability that inspires us to take photographs and make scrapbooks and tell stories. That that’s how we humans find our way to immortality… That that’s how we find our way toward meaning.

And I have finished several new picture books purchased during the holidays. You may recognize some because they have been lately and lovingly reviewed.

Stars by Mary Lyn Ray and Marla Frazee – on several searching-for-Caldecott lists, a beautiful and whimsical book about stars, with the sweetest poetic language. Put a star on a stick and you’ve made a wand. If you hold a wand the right way, you might see a wish come true. And Blow a ball of dandelion and you blow a thousand stars into the sky.

Born and Bred In The Great Depression by Jonah Winter and illustrations by Kimberly Bulcken Root. I wish I could read this book to my mother. She would love the little stories included and would certainly add her own. There are good parts that might lead to further research, about those who had to work hard so they could be rewarded by doing another day of work, and heating water so the wash could be done on the washboard, and those hoboes who left special marks on the mailboxes of homes. My favorite line: And it was a good day if you got to play chess with your dad.

The Nativity by Julie Vivas is that special story of the title, with drawings of the major characters that show expressions that really might have been. These illustrations are whimsical and serious all at the same time.

Plans for this week: I’ll be re-reading A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle. It’s the 50th anniversary of this wonderful book, and a commemorative edition is being released on January 31st. There are plans for special events all through the year, which you can read about in this Publisher’s Weekly article. And reading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, because those at Teach Mentor Texts have convinced me to read some of Green's books during John Green week. I think I'm a little behind, but I did check the book out from the library.

Happy Reading this week everyone!

Looking Back On My Writing

2012-01-08T09:36:00.001-07:00

A comment on yesterday's celebration of my 200th post suggested sharing some popular posts and some favorites. I did a quick look and chose a few. I have struggled with what I want my blog to be, and like others, have focused on teaching the language arts, with some personal moments shared, although almost always with teaching connected in some way. One cannot be a teacher and not connect every part of one's life with that experience. I wonder if those not in this profession know that? Those I know who have different professions do not read the newspaper and say things like "I'll cut this article out to share with my class, or colleagues." or "That comic would be terrific to teach about dialogue". And they do not visit stores ever looking for bargains that would add to the amazing collection of 'stuff' that teachers use: they do not collect egg cartons, two liter pop bottles, cardboard from the shirts at the cleaners, and the netting that holds little potatoes. Thus, my posts tend always to connect my life's adventures to the teaching. Here are a few favorites:

The end of the March Slice of Life challenge at Two Writing Teachers was also the end of my first month. My post described saying goodbye at the end of the year to my students and I wrote a poem of goodbye to the slicers of that month.

Poetry plays an important part in my life and I have lately become involved with the Poetry Friday group. Each day in April I wrote a poem. William Stafford is known to write a poem every day and when asked how he did it, he said he lowered his standards. During April, I certainly did that too, but here is one poem I feel is worthy to re-read.

Like others, I am often surprised where my writing takes me, so when I started a piece about my learning about writing during the poetry month of April, I didn't know it would lead me to words about making a grilled cheese! Here is what I said.

Since I am out of the classroom now and working with teachers as a literacy coach, my thinking approaches work differently, and some posts have been about that. There are several ideas in being a great teacher that are meaningful to me, and having great conversations among colleagues and with students is one of them. I wrote two posts about this, and here is the first one.

Finally, I have three grandchildren, one born at the end of July, and they been the subjects of quite a few posts, and often connected to teaching, too. I have been honored to write two guest posts for Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers this year, and one of them was about my newest granddaughter. I wrote about her and this topic here, and the expanded guest post link is here.

It's been a worthwhile challenge to keep writing my blog posts these past months, and I've learned much by reading other's writing. It's cemented my belief in mentor texts for writers! As I said in yesterday's post, I am so appreciative of the blogger support given, and am excited to see what happens in 2012.

A Celebration

2012-01-07T05:51:00.003-07:00

It's like sitting on a bench with a friend, listening and responding.

from Dr. Seuss

“We’ve GOT to make noises  

in greater amounts! 

So, open your mouth, lad! 

For every voice counts!”

It’s a time for celebration! Yesterday was my 200th blog post at TeacherDance. My first post was March 1st, 2011 when I wrote about starting a workshop on personal essays, an intensive with another teacher with whom I was teaching. I was starting the March Slice of Life writing challenge with Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers, jumping into a pond I didn’t realize was big until I was with them for a while. I talked two other colleagues into doing it with me, but only one stayed, and continues to write. It’s always a pleasure to see her writing at Prose Cents, and we support each other in our writing at school as well.

On that first day I received five comments, and I was hooked. What a special experience to start a new thing and then have strangers actually respond to my writing, my ideas! Wow! During that day (I’ve peeked back) I heard from Tam at Clay Fragments, Tara at A Teaching Life, someone whose blog is no longer among the slicers, Ruth at Two Writing Teachers welcoming me to the challenge, and Mary Helen at BookSavors. Imagine this: except for one, everyone is still here!

Since that first blog, one loyal blogger continued with me during poetry month when we wrote a poem every day, and that is Donna at Mainely Write. Through the months, both Donna and Deb at Coffee With Chloe have been loyal commenters/supporters. I am thankful to them for keeping my motivation high.

And then others began to show up and I learned more about them too, that they mostly were teachers, and like Donna and Deb were interested in good teaching; no matter what they had to question and try new ideas and discuss them. They were ready to show up with their thinking on their blogs, take risks in writing styles, and welcome me into the great community that Ruth and Stacey had started by doing the Tuesday Slice of Life Challenge.

I began very early to look forward to Tuesdays, to what others chose as a topic, to learn about work and home and families and trips and conferences and walks and musings. The slicers I met have continued on Tuesdays and often enough other days, too. I started a Google Reader account with a special file called Slicers so I could read and comment to them especially. Those wonderful writers are: Two Writing Teachers of course, b at Live Write Teach, Diana at One Literacy Coach, Christy at Living, Juliann at Nurturing Curiosity, Fran at Otter Landing, Ruth (Storykeeper) at Windows To My Life, Elizabeth at Word by Word, Mardie at Mardie’s Notebook, Terje (Grade4Wizard) at JustforAMonth, Annie at Write Now In Room 204…, Jennifer at I Hablo Espangish, Katherine at Read, Write, Reflect, Michelle at Literacy Learning Zone, Carol at Carol’s Corner, Elsie at Elsie Tries Writing, One Sunflower who also blogs at Wake Up And Write, Stacey at Reflections of A Mommy, Bonnie at BLKDrama, Mommy K at MooreFamilyFun, Ruth at RuthAyresWrites-Discover, Play, Build, Tammy at KlingerCafe, Reidun at Complacency Conundrum, Jee at Teach To Inspire, and Mrs. V at In Search of Balance.

Lately I have added others to my reader like Myra at Gathering Books because I love to read too, and I am so interested in new technology, and then there is Poetry Friday because poetry is dear to my heart, and I’m beginning to connect there too, like to Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading. Finally there is twitter, something that I am just excited to explore so far.

So-what I have learned this year is even more to appreciate thoughtfulness and creativity. And I have seen those with problems who have worked hard to solve them and those with problems who aren’t solved but not for lack of trying.

And I have seen writing that is clever, writing that is beautiful, writing that is heartfelt, writing that is spare, writing that is clear, and writing that takes my breath away. Never could I have better mentor texts! I love to read, but I think I love to read because I love to write. My blog has given me an outlet, an additional way to share my writing, and with the support those above and others have given me, I am looking forward to a terrific year.

Thank you everyone!

photo credit: VinothChandar via photopin cc

Poetry Friday - Once More With P*Tag

2012-01-05T21:36:00.001-07:00

Poetry Friday today is hosted by JoAnn at Teaching Authors – Please come read and relax; it’s Friday!

I know at least some of the poem Beach Glass by Sara Holbrook has been shared before, so I’ll piggyback a bit on Elaine at WildRose Reader who shared part of the poem from P*Tag, shouted out as “the first ever electronic poetry anthology of new poems by top poets for teens”. My husband has lately been doing some therapy at a local rehab center, and I wait for him as he does it. Earlier this week, I had the chance to take my IPad and relax with a more thorough reading of this e-book, purchased quite a while ago when it came out, but not really READ by me until that morning. If you haven’t already, please purchase this book. It is marvelous to read, and I know will be a treasure also as a mentor text to use when writing poetry with older students, intermediate school and up.

As I read and made notes of response to the poems, I realized that today I want just to focus on one line from Holbrook’s Beach Glass, a line that speaks to me for the coming year in my personal writing, my work as a literacy coach, and my reading life. In my own writing, I keep my intent on the question of the story I am trying to tell. When I speak with the teachers with whom I work, I often bring the focus to story. Whatever genre we are planning or whatever students we are discussing, it all seems to beg the questions: What is the story being told? How can we discover it? What best supports this story? And finally, in reading, the questions fly: What is the main story? Who has the best story? Why is the author telling the story this way? And, What does this story say to me?

And so, Holbrook’s line from Beach Glass: It takes slow-walking patience to fill a pocket full of untold stories.

I hope you’ll be able to obtain the entire book, so filled with stories to add to your lives, as poems tend to do!

My One Little Word - Finally!

2012-01-03T06:07:00.001-07:00

Tuesday Slice of Life is always fun at Two Writing Teachers with Stacey and Ruth

I’ve been fussing about with choosing my One Little Word and doing the class with Ali Edwards this year. I started with a word last year and lasted until March without sharing with anyone, and although it was a good start, I really lost the momentum and just stopped.

This year I have signed up for the class, but haven’t started anything because I have had several words running through my brain, unfortunately never stopping. Until today. I have been writing about my memoir class today and making plans for books I will use and lessons I will do because the class I am teaching begins next week. And in the other part of my brain, I’m thinking about my Christmas week last week, and how empty the house seems with all the decorations put away except for the kitchen tree which I keep up until the twelfth day of Christmas. And it is especially empty because my son, daughter-in-law and grandson Carter left yesterday for home, in Texas. We haven’t seen Carter and Barb since July, and Nathan since September and we spent a little time just falling into our usual rhythm together. They arrived Christmas Eve Day and soon we were back to the old visiting, discussing, elaborating, eating long meals together, and just having a good and comfortable time.

Thus I come to the word, “comfort”. Being apart has taken some of our comfort together away. Even with a long visit by phone, and most especially with a ten year old (by phone or e-mail), it’s hard to be comfortable. I continue to struggle with the challenge. I send a postcard each week that has been a good connection so far, but still, it isn't the same as being a few minutes away. So, it was a wonderful week. I got to make peanut butter toast for my grandson, and cuddle with him on his favorite couch, comfort! We bought this small ~~over-sized chair~~ couch a few years ago and everyone seems to gravitate to it, especially Carter. It was the first thing he did when arriving, jump to the couch and cuddle up with the fleece ~~throw~~ comforter.

Today, pondering the mornings when I was first up, and Carter arrived next, leaped to the couch and said “Good morning, Grandma”, I thought of comfort and all the other places of comfort, sometimes couches that I have enjoyed in my life. My mother-in-law always lived in the house where my husband was born, a big old two story, and in her kitchen she had a couch, whose seats were much fought over at family gatherings. The kitchen was a great place to be at her house. Comfort. I also remember napping on her so-soft living room sofa in the late afternoons while she made cookies with the grandchildren, my children, and let their mother sleep. Comfort. There are other stories, but I will stop with the fact that each classroom in our school has one or more sofas, so sought after during quiet work times or SSR time. Comfort.

So, with a little more research, I think I’ve found my word, and I think it might be the best gift I received for Christmas this year. Comfort.

What I'm Reading This Week

2012-01-02T07:40:00.001-07:00

You can hook up with this kitlit meme: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA at teach mentor texts! Lots to read about books and what people are saying about them!

I received more than one book for Christmas, but one is already a favorite I could use as a mentor text for using factual research to tell a story. It is Heart and Soul, The Story of America and African Americans, by Kadir Nelson, who is not only an accomplished writer, but an extraordinary artist. The story, chapter by chapter with each beginning with an important quote, covers the history from the struggles of slavery to the accomplishment of the Civil Rights Act, ending with a Prologue of the election of President Barack Obama, the country’s first black president. The pages are filled with beautiful full page paintings by the author/illustrator, according to the bookflap, one of our country’s most accomplished, award-winning artists.

The stories in Heart and Soul are told by a kind of ‘everywoman’. Nelson has given her a strong voice that includes quiet words, yet powerful. For example, in the chapter about the great migration, she says: Now, leaving was easier said than done. White folks didn’t exactly want us to go. After all, we worked their fields and paid their rents. If we all upped and left, they would have been in a real fix. So they tried their best to stop us. She goes on to describe the ways that did make it so difficult to move from the south, like being harassed at the train stations.

The woman’s family experiences as well as those of other African-Americans are followed over many years. They are often stories of sadness, but also often end in triumph, even in quiet ways, like the tales of slaves secretly teaching each other to read and write. Walter Dean Myers has written an interesting review in the New York Times, and you can hear another piece about the book on NPR here.

This book can also be a wonderful part of preparation for NCTE’s African American Read-In that can happen any day of the month of February. Although sharing about literature from many cultures should be integrated within the classroom all through the year, this event is a powerful way to focus on African-American literature and to share with the community too.

The friends who gave me this book knew I would love it, and I do! Chapter 12 ends the book with a quote from Angela Davis, revolutionary: “We knew we were going to change the world.”

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T11:58:00.003-07:00

For some strange reason when I think of goodbyes, especially to the old year, I think of The Sound of Music, when the family says goodbye in that song that sticks in our minds, sometimes not even welcome.

Yet it is poignant, that song, full of the grief of leaving something loved, that will not be re-visited. In part, it says "So long, farewell/Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight/I hate to go and leave this pretty sight,” and later "I leave and heave/A sigh and say goodbye".

Goodbye 2011; it's been a year of surprises, wonderful things, and those not so much. I will remember.

And then, I love Rainer Maria Rilke's thoughts:

"And now let us welcome the New Year full of things that have never been."

Happy New Year Everyone!

A Guest Post At Two Writing Teachers

2011-12-30T05:23:00.000-07:00

Maria Robinson said nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. I believe teachers think about change all the time, and they make positive changes, often through much sacrifice of their time and their money. Here's a picture of a classroom of long ago. Consider what has happened since that teacher stood at the front and wrote on the blackboard.

You are invited to read my post today at the Two Writing Teachers blog. The previous time I wrote a post for Ruth and Stacey, the topic was starting students as writers from the very first day of school. This time, also at a time for fresh beginnings, I’m honored to write about meeting the needs of each student one teaches, especially the nice ones, and so grateful to Stacey and Ruth for giving me the chance.
I hope you enjoy it, and take away some ideas for this start to the new year, 2012. Best wishes and Happy New Year!

I will be excited to hear your ideas and opinions too!

Be Kind To Yourself In The New Year

2011-12-27T06:02:00.002-07:00

Slice of Life Tuesday is enjoyed at Stacey and Ruth's Two Writing Teachers blog

One recent reading experience began my thinking again about my theory that writing is deepening my reading. I read Journey, by Patricia MacLachlan a while ago. I love her work, both in picture books and chapter books, and I am excited to see her speak in February when I attend the Colorado Council of the International Reading Association annual conference. In this book, a young child relies on much of his grandfather’s support, and the grandfather’s words are wise. At an earlier time, I might have read the scene below, enjoyed it, and moved on to another part of the book, but this time two things happened. First, I paid particular attention to the lesson, thinking about its application to teachers who work so hard to do their very best; and, second, I noticed that MacLachlan was very good at sneaking life lessons for the reader into her book, but doing it so subtly within dialogue that it seemed just another talk between grandparent and grandchild in order to move the plot along.

While speaking of the grandparent’s comment about a photograph, we first hear Journey, the main character.

“Well, I said, embarrassed and pleased. “Well, it’s not perfect.”

”Perfect!” Grandfather almost spit out the word. His face softened. “What is perfect? Journey, a thing doesn’t have to be perfect to be fine. That goes for a picture. That goes for life.” He paused. “Things can be good enough.”

And as I read this passage, it became a personal connection to the ways we teachers strive for perfection. We read professional books looking for new ideas to make the lessons better, stronger, even more motivating. We talk with our colleagues, we talk with our spouses, we wake up in the middle of the night worried about a particular student or lesson. We try harder! But when I thought about Grandfather’s words, I wondered if sometimes we should give ourselves permission to be good enough. If we stand back, and look at all the many things that happen with our students and in our classrooms, we can say often, “it’s good enough”. We can give ourselves permission to be not perfect, but to be good, good enough. Especially at this beginning of a new year, when we are all making resolutions to change this or that, to do this better, to learn how to do something, etc. perhaps we should consider and choose just a few, and that’s “good enough.”

As I explained earlier, I’m not sure I would have made these connections without having the experience of writing that I’ve had this year. It’s something for me to continue to wonder about, and to explain to the teachers with whom I work, to see if they can do a little research in their classrooms. Let me know if you have observations yourself about it.

What I'm Reading This Week

2011-12-26T11:38:00.003-07:00

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. You can recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and plan out your reading and reviews for the coming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now, to find more ideas for reading

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.

Sometimes the primary teachers at our school talk about the value of helping their students learn how to play, because some young children’s lives are quite structured and they do not have the time for imagination to hold sway in their backyards and in vacant lots down the street. This particular story tells how one of these teachers uses a book to help her students expand their horizons beyond dance lessons and soccer teams.

Right before the winter break I had an extraordinarily wonderful experience. Four young primary students made an appointment to interview me. Their quest, to discover my early memories of favorite places I used to play. They brought their journals so they could record my answers. In the journals they had questions ready, and took turns asking and recording. All this came about from a book their teacher had read to them. It was published in 1991 by Alice McLerran and illustrated by Barbara Cooney, winner of two Caldecott medals for Chanticleer and the Fox and The Ox-Cart Man. She is also known for the books Miss Rumphius and Island Boy.

The book’s title is Roxaboxen, a picture book telling of the playing place of a few children long ago. The story is based on a story told to the author about her mother’s adventures as a child with friends in a place near their homes, a place they named Roxaboxen.
Imaginations were set free in this place they built, each owning their own small created house, fenced by special rocks, and for one, desert glass. They created activities such as pretend stores, someone became the mayor of the town, and others played at war. There is quite a magical ending to this book, which I won’t reveal.

I didn’t know this book until this particular day of the interview, and knew it was a special picture book to add to my collection. I am always looking for books to inspire writing, and this particular one is just perfect to spark some ideas for all ages when writing about their childhood memories. This primary teacher extended the experience so beautifully by having her students interview teachers all over the school so they could create a book of play-place memories. I can’t wait to see their publication.

So this is some of what I’m reading this week of winter break, lots of picture books that will add to students’ imaginations and my own.

From the text: IMAGINE! All you needed for a horse was a stick and some kind of bridle, and you could gallop anywhere.

And-for the rest of the week I want to:

finish Chime by Franny Billingsley

read The Blood Lie, by Shirley Reva Vernick (won from the Two Writing Teachers blog)

at least start Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend, by Susan Orlean, a book I received for Christmas from my daughter, who said it was terrific

read a few more picture books purchased recently because other bloggers reviewed them so well I had to buy

Happy Reading Everyone!

This Poet Gives Another Look At That Special Night

2011-12-22T22:29:00.001-07:00

Poetry Friday is celebrated today with Dori at Dori Reads

I have a friend who sends favorite poems at Christmas time in her cards. It is a thoughtful gift and something I look forward to each Christmas time. A few years ago, she sent the poem BC:AD by UA Fanthorpe. I did not know this poet, or the poem, but it made me want to know more. Fanthorpe has an amazing gift of word knowledge, paring down to what must be said, and then no more, what all poets attempt with varied success. I love the different paths she takes by looking at known topics as new ones. You can find this poem with two others that Fanthorpe wrote about Christmas here. In 2002, the poet’s Christmas poems that she wrote and sent to friends for many years were collected into one volume, Christmas Poems. Several people have set this poem to music too, easily found by a Google search.

Happy Holidays everyone!

This is the beginning:

BC:AD

by UA Fanthorpe:

This was the moment when Before

Turned into After, and the future's

Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.

Reading And Memories

2011-12-19T21:45:00.001-07:00

Tuesday Slice of Life is enjoyed at the Two Writing Teachers blog, with Stacey and Ruth.

This time of year no matter what holiday we celebrate brings back memories, not always good, but mostly warm tender memories of times gone by. Charles Dickens said it best in The Pickwick Papers: Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveler, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! I feel blessed that I had wonderful grandparents well into my adult life, and my numerous connections to them are an important part of who I am. One of those connections has to do with being a passionate reader, and some of my earliest memories begin with a grandfather reading to me, which leads me to Christmas, which leads me to one of our favorite activities, reading the funnies!

I wonder if you remember some of the first books you read, or were read to you, about Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, or? I have spoken before of my childhood when I lived with my maternal grandparents in a little town in Missouri. A favorite memory is my grandfather reading the comics to me from the Kansas City Star, and in those comics were The Adventures of Cuddles and Tuckie. One Christmas time, the author, Frances Royster Williams, wrote quite an adventure that detailed the plight of Santa whose reindeer had been attacked by a wolf, so ran away to the icy Northland mountains. Santa needed help, and called on the White King of the magic white deer herd who had led the reindeer away. Within this series that began as radio broadcasts, part of the verse imagined that a couple of children might help, and according to a Missouri Historical Society article, hundreds of children wrote in with their advice to help Santa find the reindeer so he could deliver all his toys. In the story, Cuddles and Tuckie were asked to ride White King to help bring the reindeer back. And you can read about the rest of the adventures, see the story in verse and the beautiful illustrations here.

There is something magical about this story that made me remember. Part of it is the specialness of my relationship with my grandfather plus our reading together, and the other part is helping me understand and imagine what might happen next. We had a hard time waiting each day for the next episode, and this must have been my introduction to fantasy, a love that has continued all my life. In 1972, Hallmark published a little memento book of this adventure. I discovered it, and it has been a part of our Christmas bookshelf since, and I’ve read it to my children and now grandchildren every year. At the opening of the book, it reads Hope your Christmas is as jolly as Santa is, by golly! I could write no better wish for you, my writing friends!

A Poem That Speaks Forwards and Backwards!

2011-12-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Holidays Everyone – Thanks to the Stenhouse blog for the reverse poem idea. This is a lesson from Kelly Gallagher’s new book Write Like This, which includes the poem The Lost Generation, found here. I loved taking this challenging exercise and applying it to my own life right now. It would be great to do with older students.

My holiday could possibly be not everything I want

So I try not to believe that

All I wish is some time for myself and those I love

It may be surprising to others that

I think education today is too challenging for teachers

I won’t accept that

I can do everything for students

And I might tell others that

It is not worth it

Some educators believe

Hard work pays dividends

I see things differently because

It is not easy to say that

The hours spent correcting papers and creating curriculum are always wise

I am against the belief that

So much personal investment of time is profitable, and

I am convinced that

In the new year

There will be an increase in students behind in their work

I am not certain that

We will benefit from the weeks of rest and recuperation because

Our renewal as teachers stems only in part from sleeping in and eating well, and

It is true that

We do not love our work and definitely

It is a false belief that

We will have a happy holiday because

All of this will stay a reality unless we choose to reverse it.

Read the poem down, then up, thus a reverse poem!

Pantry Stores

2011-12-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

It's always a pleasure to visit Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Kate Coombs at the Book Aunt!

"Oh the weather outside is frightful" and I'm still not delighted! I’m already begrudging the winter weather, and though I might enjoy a white Christmas, I miss the warmer times. It is cold, therefore after the new year, I will start the countdown to spring, beginning with the exciting arrival of seed catalogs. Here is what I did before the temperature dropped:

My Pantry Stores

I traveled all the way up to the sun,

managed to steal a little chunk away

for now it’s winter, and I am thankful

for this warm, bright ray.

I captured the humming buzz of the bees

and the wings of a dragonfly.

I plucked the petals of the flowers because

when they at last are dry

I’ll have life instead of the death

of this icy-fingered world.

And the wings will boost my spirits.

All these things I carefully swirled,

then boiled for several hours on end

to make the charmed ingredients blend.

Finally I filled tiny Mason jars

to ensure spring at my house will never end.

I’ll open only for times less bright,

and if your happiness hangs by a string

I gladly give, too, one jar to help your

winter metamorphose into spring.

Taking A Reading Challenge

2011-12-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

I've finally decided to participate in the 2012 Award-Winning-Books Challenge hosted by the Gathering Books blog. I have been lately been trying to keep up reading books recommended by others as possible Newbery winners and I read many books every year, so this is interesting to me to see if I can make it, with a review for each too. Myra and Iphigene talk about so many books on their blog that it should be easy to find new ideas, and I've never had too much trouble with a TBR list anyway.

So here goes, I'm choosing the silver medal challenge - 11-25 books. If you're interested too, go to the link at Gathering Books!

Another View of A Backstory

2011-12-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Tuesday Slice of Life Posts can be found at Two Writing Teachers.

According to Writer’s Digest, online, In Hollywood-speak, a character’s "backstory" is what happened before he or she leaped onto the silver screen. It’s considered wise to spend time and energy working at the backstory of a fictional character, but I’d also like to introduce this term as a part of lesson planning. This kind of backstory includes the work that either has already occurred or that needs to be introduced before a unit of study begins.

Perhaps it’s an investigation in a study of fiction writing. Maybe you’d like to introduce your students to literature circles. Or poetry group is starting and one idea you’ve read about is that art postcards invite wonderful word images, a motivating introduction to the poetry unit. Students will need at least part of the backstory of whatever topic is being introduced in order to fully participate in the learning, and sometimes different students need different backstories.

Every time I believe it’s time to create a new unit of study, I back up to see what specific skills/experiences are important to include. How do I do that? I begin with working out what I see as the end goal. For example, I will be teaching a group who are choosing to learn about writing memoirs in January. For this, I would consider my goal, and then list all the background skills that seemed important for students to bring to the lesson. As I work, I also list what has already happened during the year that might give support to the experience, too. Since it is not my classroom this time, I will confer with the teacher so I can find this information.

Here’s one way I plan when I want to consider the backstory, and examples of the notes I would take:

The end goal: a written memoir, as opposed to a personal narrative. A memoir differs from the narrative in that although it is a story, it includes the writer’s personal view of the impact of the event (or events) on one’s life. Usually it’s about just a few events. Before starting, I will have discussed with the teacher that students in the class are ready for this kind of writing, different from just narrating an event from their lives. This time they will need to make a personal connection of life learning to the event they will write. It invites a deeper thought process.

Skills & experiences I believe are important in order to reach the goal:

*Ability to write an organized piece in some story form; and to include plot, characters, setting and dialogue if needed.

*Understanding the need to choose an audience for which to write & use a certain style for that audience

*Use of different kinds of sentences in order to make the writing more interesting

*Deeper examination of different memoirs

*Leads are important in all genres, and if students have not had previous lessons in ‘reeling the reader in’, a lesson in this is important.

*Setting is another way to firm up the background of one’s memoir. An examination of the way it works in memoir compared with fiction is important.

*Transitions help the ease of reading any kind of writing, and in the memoir genre, transitions are important because one must lead the reader into both time and place as smoothly as possible. An examination of authors’ style of transitions will add to the students’ skills.

Skills already taught & experiences that have previously occurred:

*Students have written about different memories from writers’ notebook entries and mini-lessons/conversations held in class

*Completed specific lessons in fiction-both reading and writing.

*Read multiple samples of memoirs created for various audiences. (I might introduce some new examples from Ralph Fletcher’s new book, Mentor Author, Mentor Texts)

*Teacher has read aloud memoir samples for discussion.

*Students have worked in a variety of ways with word work, looking both for kinds of wording that authors use, and for different words that appeal.

I realize that one can’t teach every single skill, like how to craft a sentence or how to use more sophisticated punctuation, but by the time I am ready to begin a new genre study, I should know the students’ abilities well, and know what the next step in each individual’s needs might be. Planning some parts of what I call the backstory (in this case for the memoir unit) aids students to move further in the study than if we just jumped right in.

Note: As I gather and organize them, I’ll post a list of sources that are useful in teaching this unit.

Take Time To See!

2011-12-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

We five students and teacher

strolled two blocks from our city school

to enjoy a near patch of green

on this warm winter day.

I’d thought more people would come

to catch the rays, enjoy the balm

but

no one came to see

that pansies here

on December second

were still in bloom.

I gave a thought to them

because others near

just walked right by,

oblivious

of this sweet gift.

Sometimes The Holidays Are Not Always Jolly

2011-12-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

Poetry Friday is to be enjoyed today with Robyn at Read, Write, Howl

In the days of these holidays arriving, and they’ve been arriving since before Halloween, I become excited at the prospect of sitting with family and friends by the fire, perhaps working on a jigsaw puzzle, or reading a story aloud to my grandchildren. I like baking and will certainly bake some Christmas cookies, letting my husband choose which ones he’d like. I enjoy shopping and will be sure to give my business at some small shops as well as order online from some other small businesses. I really do love Christmas and have lots of spirit to go around.

At the same time that I’m enjoying my personal version of a Rockwell Christmas, I also think of those who have few friends, no family close by, or no family at all. I know that there are those who are lonely this time of year especially, and when they view the television commercials or see the newspaper advertisements, they become lonelier. The expectation that is marketed includes lots of gift giving, and parties with happy people, and often enough happy children and happy pets. These advertisements are tough to swallow for anyone who has neither the means nor the opportunity to participate in the merriment that swirls around us in December.

I do attempt to connect with those who might be loneliest this time of year and include them with my family's festivities. At this time while planning this post, I thought I’d search for a poem that might help us understand the feeling. Although this particular poem references Thanksgiving instead of Christmas, I find it fits my imaginings of how it must feel to be so lonely. The author writes a monologue of a man who is ill and is speaking to a visitor. This visitor has dropped in to bring a selection of books for the housebound man. As you read, the voice seems to tremble, and the gush of words shows clearly the appreciation for the visitor, even alongside the apologetic flavor.

The poem is The Transparent Man, by Anthony Hecht.

It begins with

I'm mighty glad to see you, Mrs. Curtis,

And thank you very kindly for this visit--

Especially now when all the others here

Are having holiday visitors, and I feel

A little conspicuous and in the way.

You can read or listen to the rest of the poem here at poets.org. I’m hoping that we all have happy holidays this year, but that we also give some care to those in need.

What Is Happening To My Own Reading?

2011-12-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

Recently I’m noticing more possibilities for lessons from the various books, magazines and journals I read that inform my teaching. Perhaps it’s just that I’m making better choices, but I am really reading more intentionally than ever before. How can that be? I’ve been an avid reader all my life, and read prolifically. I’ve taught reading skills and facilitated countless book groups. I belonged to a book group for several years.

So, I have a theory. Because I have been writing more regularly this year than ever before, I believe the writing is informing my reading. I know that there are numerous connections from reading to writing, but most of them focus on reading makes the better writer. I use mentor texts to teach students writing skills and to learn the lessons myself. Yet, as I write more, I am noticing so much more in the books I read. I wonder if some of the writing we do with students should now place some emphasis on increasing student awareness of entertaining new kinds of questions as they read?

Here are some examples:

Remember when you struggled to write the beginning of your (short story, memoir, personal essay)? What are some of the reasons you had for what you chose? Why do you think this author chose this lead?

What senses do you see this author using in the writing that you have used in your own writing? Which one do you like using the most? Why do you think that’s a favorite?

When you write a poem, what kind of lines seem to end up on the page first? What do you think this poet did in this particular poem? What did he leave out that you might include? How did the lines break? Do you remember thinking about your line breaks? What made sense to you?

What does the author do here to make a connection with the rest of the text? Is there a time you started with a personal story that helped you lead into a report? Do you enjoy authors who do that? Do you have another way that you’ve written when beginning an essay?

If we can move the writing student into examining their reading as they have examined their writing, we might see deeper reading. It could become totally circular, not just reading to writing. I realize there is already some of this back and forth connecting, but also that teachers could become more deliberate in their lessons about writing that leads to better reading. From Lucy Calkins’ Reading and Writing Project FAQ’s: There is a great deal of data suggesting that improvements in writing will have a payoff across the curriculum. This is the only reference I was able to find that appears to address directly what I am suggesting. Numerous other sites give specific ideas in using mentor texts to aid in writing improvement.

In This Season of Giving-One Place To Learn About

2011-12-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

GOOD FOOD!

Today is Colorado Gives Day, a day where giving to your favorite charity can double your money, at least I hope so! It has occurred for a number of years, where a Denver foundation named Community First sponsors a day for donors to give to their favorite non-profits, with the backing of a grant that will match at least a portion of the donations. There are several charities that I support, but one is special to me because a former colleague and her husband created it.
My friend and fellow teacher Libby, and her husband Brad, have long been supporters of those in need. As she taught with us, we all knew that Brad was going to cooking school to become a chef, and at the same time, they volunteered for various organizations like the Ronald McDonald House, giving food and their expertise, good cooking, to help others. They had a dream, to open a restaurant that served good food, where anyone could come to eat, and pay what they could. After Brad graduated, he and Libby opened what they called The Same Cafe, using the acronym Same (So All May Eat). for the first few years of operation, Libby still taught, and worked the other hours of her life at the restaurant. I'm not sure when she slept.
Sadly for us, she resigned and is now working full time at the restaurant. It celebrated its fifth year in business this year! It's a special place, one where one might eat alongside business people, young mothers out to lunch with their toddlers, school kids (they're very close to one of the Denver high schools), a resident in the neighborhood, or a homeless man or woman. They keep a box for donations, they hire people that work for meals, they welcome volunteers. And, they cook great food. The menu varies some, because they buy locally as much as possible, but you can always get a great personal pizza with fresh ingredients, a wonderful bowl of soup, a tasty salad of available greens, and one of Libby's famous sugar cookies.
I imagine that each one of you has a favorite place to give your money or your time at this time of year, or any time of year. There are many who do good works, and deserve all we can do to help. One friend and I often dream, "When we win the lottery, we're..." But for now, I give at different times of the year, but especially on this Tuesday, Colorado Gives Day! And I wanted to pay a tribute in this blog to my friend, Libby. I'm proud of her and her husband for following their dream.

The Tuesday Slice of Life can be found at the Two Writing Teachers blog.