Last week for
Cyber PD, in response to chapters 1-3 of Peter H. Johnston's book,
Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives
, I offered
a graphic and a single word as my response.
For chapters 4-6, I offer this picture book as my text-to-text connection to Johnston's book:
Nora the Mind Reader
by Orit Gidali
illustrated by Aya Gordon-Noy
Enchanted Lion Books, on shelves September 3, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher
JOHNSTON, Page 69: "The problem with apprenticing children into humanity -- the intellectual and social life of society -- is that much of the action we want them to understand takes place inside people's heads. We have to help them learn to imagine what goes on inside heads, and not just the cognitive strategies being used to solve problems, but the complex social-emotional logic that lies behind their behavior." Page 70: "...students who are not very good at reading faces will cause more disruptions in class because of their social behavior." Page 80: "Developing social imagination is a big deal and should be a curricular goal."
Nora gets her feelings hurt because a boy in her Kindergarten class tells her, "You have flamingo legs!" But Nora's mom gives her a magic wand that allows her to "see what people were saying as well as what they were really thinking." Even though Nora comes to realize that the other children don't always intend for what they say to be hurtful, it's best just to say what you really mean. When Nora's dog gets ahold of the magic wand, the moral of the story is translated into Wag More, Bark Less.
Jill Fisch has the roundup for today's Cyber PD posts at
My Primary Passion.
