Levelmania Continues

So, as reported on Blog from the Windowsill, some kids are not allowed to check out books from the school library that are above or below their "level". UGH! I am trying to get the actual blog link because I really don't want to believe this craziness! The stories about the leveling disaster don't stop. Choice is so important to our newest readers. I agree completely with the title of the post about this: "as if I didn't feel enough like smashing my head into a wall". My feelings exactly. I will let you know if I get the link to the blog that reported this newest leveling disaster.

Boys and Literacy

Ralph Fletcher, author of BOY WRITERS: RECLAIMING THEIR VOICES and Tom Newkirk, author of MISREADING MASCULINITY: BOYS, LITERACY, AND POPULAR CULTURE were interviewed on New Hampshire's Public Radio. You can listen to the interview on the site. Such a hot topic these days.

Go Elf Yourself!

You know you want to be a dancing elf, and now you can!

Mary Lee's an elf! Franki's an elf! Bess the Dog is an elf!

Happy Craziness to all, and to all a good night!

DIBELS, Reading Fluency, and More

Doug at Borderland has a great post about DIBELS, fluency and more. I think for any of us who work with kids, we need to think hard about the messages we give our kids about reading. By administering some of these tests and then teaching TO them, what are our kids learning about what it means to be a reader and a learner? Doug has a great post about lots of this and links to much of the research that tells us what some alternatives are for more authentic, informative assessments. Ken Goodman's paper on DIBELS can be read online and shared with colleagues. His book, THE TRUTH ABOUT DIBELS is also a must read on the test and the harm it is doing. Several experts in the field are part of this book.

Merry Christmas: Graphic Novel Style

MANGA CLAUS (Honor, Loyalty, Tinsel): THE BLADE OF KRINGLE
by Nathaniel Marunas
artwork by Erik Craddock
Razorbill (a division of Penguin Books), 2006

One of Santa's elves, a disgruntled laundry room worker, wants to share some "cutting edge spells" with Santa. You've got to give it to Santa, he has made time on December 23rd to meet with Fritz, even though it's obvious that Fritz is not one of his top-notch elves. Their discussion is interrupted when Santa has to leave to attend an emergency on Assembly Line #47.

Fritz's eyes land on a Ninja nutcracker, a lightbulb goes "Bing!" over his head, and he hatches a plot to make Santa realize that he needs him for more important things than laundry.

Unfortunately, the magic that brings the Ninja nutcracker to life manages to spread to the teddy bears, and the Ninja teddy bears are on the brink of destroying the hydroelectric power plant that powers everything at the North Pole. Santa does indeed need Fritz now -- Fritz must bring Santa the two swords that the Samurai gave Santa a century and a half earlier.

The swords transform Santa into the buff Ninja teddy bear slasher seen on the book's cover, and as expected, he triumphs over evil, and the plant is repaired in time to complete orders for Christmas. In a surprise move, Fritz is promoted from laundry to Special-Effects Coordinator.

I won't spoil the ending, but after you read it, you'll understand why this book is paired with Jon Agee's SMART FELLER FART SMELLER on Amazon.

A fun holiday book for anyone who is a little over all the saccharine of the season.

(Too bad it wasn't a Cybils nominee. I would have definitely included it in my top five in the 8-12 year-old sub-category.)

More fun than anyone should have on a treadmill

Synchronized treadmilling.

Teaching and Learning in a Digital World

It is hard, but not impossible, to be a tail-end Baby Boomer (a Digital Immigrant) teaching Digital Natives. It takes work, though.

I've already embraced multiple digital and nondigital tools for composing in writing workshop. I still have a ways to go (see sidebar for great writing tools).

I'm pushing myself to read and value graphic novels.

I am half-a-step behind Monica in moving towards blogging with my students.

Podcasts like these tantalize me with possibilities for my classroom.

And there's a whole world of E-books just waiting to become another option for reading, and teaching readers. (Thank you, Wrung Sponge, for these links.)

I'll never catch up to the Natives, but I'll die learning, and that's a good thing!

Cats or Dogs?

What's your favorite metaphor for classroom management? Mine used to be "herding cats" until I read this.

My Christmas Wish List

All I have to say is, "Be careful what you wish for."

I'm the kind of reader/compulsive book buyer who doesn't need more books, just more time to read all the ones waiting on my shelves (and in piles at the ends of shelves, and in stacks by my bed, etc.).

Two repaired ruptured discs later, I got my wish: I have the next three weeks free and clear for nothing but reading while I recover from the surgery. (Yes, that's why I dedicated the snake poem to my spine.) Again, be careful what you wish for!

First, as a member of the nominations committee for the graphic novels category of the Cybils, I'm going to read as many of the nominees as I can get my hands on. The scope and breadth of the nominees is amazing -- from BABYMOUSE: BEACHBABE to Yaoi Manga and every possible variation in between! It's like there is a whole room in the library that I've never explored! To further my GN education, I am reading Comic Guru Scott McCloud's books UNDERSTANDING COMICS, REINVENTING COMICS, and MAKING COMICS.

I have some gift books that I'd like to read after the GNs: DEAD IN THE SCRUB by B.J. Oliphant, a mystery set in Colorado given to me by friends who know I'm not a mystery reader, so there must be something special about this one. My German "mom" sent me SNOW by Orhan Pamuk for my birthday. How timely, since the next book for book club is MY NAME IS RED, also by Pamuk. Last year at this time I was agog about listening to David Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS. I got the print version for Christmas, as well as his earlier book NUMBER9DREAM. (I do suppose if there is one book Santa might send, it would be BLACK SWAN GREEN, if it's in paperback.)

I won't be able to swim for three months, but luckily I have HAUNTS OF THE BLACK MASSEUR: THE SWIMMER AS HERO, "a meditation on both the act of swimming and on its cultural, literary and psychological meaning," and GRAYSON, Lynne Cox's (of SWIMMING TO ANTARCTICA fame) new book about her encounter with a baby grey whale while doing a training swim in the ocean.

And of course my to-read pile includes children's books: Penny Colman's ADVENTUROUS WOMEN, which I won in a drawing when I heard her speak more than a year ago; THE CONCH BEARER by Chitra Banerjee Kivakaruni, a book recommended by a librarian in my quest to have more books in my classroom library in which my Indian children could see themselves; IQBAL by Francesco D'Adamo, a novel based on the true story of a modern Pakistani child sold into slavery at a carpet factory; three to finish before I make my short list of Newbery nominations: YELLOW STAR by Jennifer Roy, BREAD AND ROSES, TOO by Katherine Paterson, and THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING by M.T. Anderson; and two that are intriguing hybrids of novel and graphic novel: THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznik, and THE FOG MOUND BOOK 1: TRAVELS OF THELONIOUS by Susan Schade and Jon Buller.

OK, Franki, you asked for it; there it is!

Christmas Books

Stephanie at The Children's Literature Book Club is reviewing Christmas books this week. I already found a new one to check out! It will be fun to read her site this week to get more holiday book ideas.