Teaching Grammar and Conventions: An Interview With Jeff Anderson

Last week, Jeff Anderson was one of the speakers at the Dublin Literacy Conference. It was a great day and Jeff's sessions got rave reviews. Jeff is the author of MECHANICALLY INCLINED--a must have for Language Arts teacher in grades 4-8. He's answered so many of my concerns and questions about teaching grammar and mechanics in the context of real reading and writing. He seems to have figured it out so that kids actually transfer what they learn to their writing. It is a great book. He also has a video series coming out with Stenhouse this spring that will show some of the things in action. I can't wait! We interviewed Jeff about his book and his work. A Year of Reading: What inspired you to write Mechanically Inclined? Jeff Anderson: Teaching grammar and editing skills in the context of reading is what I have found to be effective. That's why I do it. When I taught skills in isolation--they kids seemed to know the material, but they couldn't or didn't apply it to their writing. Plain and simple, grammar and editing skill are part of the writing process. When grammar and editing are taught as separate activities, kids don't necessarily apply it to the writing. So the more we can connect and integrate skills within the process, the more the kids remember. It's about using grammar and editing as tools to shape the messages they want to write. In reading it's about how the ideas, structures, and patterns work together. It's not that we can't break a skill down to its smallest chunk of meaning. I like to call that zooming in, but the point is we need to make it about meaning and how everything fits together. A Year of Reading: What is the most effective thing that you do that helps your students understand the skills you are teaching. Jeff Anderson: First we can't minimize the importance of how kids feel about grammar and editing. We need to invite kids in with positive examples from professional and student writers. It needs to be about how effective things are rather than an "error hunt" (Weaver, 1996). Students get excited when they look at a sentence from Flush or The Invention of Hugo Cabret. They get pulled in--and they have fun imitating and playing with patterns, seeing what effect they have. Using models or mentor text to help kids find their power. That's been the number one thing that has made my teaching of grammar and editing more effect. A Year of Reading: What are the most common questions do you get from teachers about your work? Jeff Anderson: How do you replace DOL (Daily Oral Language?) How do you come up with the sentences you do? I have a dirty little secret. I find an incredible amount of powerful texts in the first lines or first paragraphs of novels. That's where the authors put in a lot of work and the sentence often end up inspiring kids to write more. A Year of Reading: Are you working on any new projects? Jeff Anderson: The DVD that was filmed in my classroom in January is coming out in May at IRA. It's called The Craft of Grammar. I am also working on a book of daily invitations to edit. I hope to create a sound alternative to DOL, that is systematic and authentic that invites students into the world of editing and the power of all those little marks we call punctuation. If you love this interview so much that you'd love to read more, you can visit Jeff at his website

Updates

New books added to the Master List of Books about Books and Reading. Thanks, sanam.

New blogs added to the blogroll:

Brotherhood 2.0 -- vaguely related to children's literature. Mostly for fun.

NYC Teacher: Mentor Texts -- great stuff going on in this writing workshop! Check it out!

New blog name:

The SLJ Blog is now Bowllan's Blog, and she wants to know if handwriting still matters. Go weigh in.

I know we need to let it die, but I just can't resist one more

That Word used in context by a three year-old.

I'm not sure which are funnier, nanny stories, or library patron stories. Us teachers, we're being slightly neurotic about real careful with sharing our kid stories, but don't think for a minute that our kids don't say and do funny things!

Cynthia Lord Rules! (get it?)

I just received the best packet from Cynthia Lord, author oF RULES and the timing couldn't be better! Cynthia Lord has a teacher packet that she uses during author visits. The packet shares her whole writing process, including pages of the revision process and more. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the book. We are just getting ready to finish Rules and the discussion has been amazing. It has been a great read aloud. And now we can take a look at the process Cynthia Lord went through to write this book. The packet from Cynthia Lord came right at the perfect moment. We are set to finish the book this week. And, last week, Georgia Heard (author of several poetry books for kids and professional books for teachers) visited our school as part of a yearlong study put on by The Literacy Connection. We had all read and discussed her book THE REVISION TOOLBOX which is a must-have for teachers who have writer's workshop in their classrooms. 

Georgia Heard taught a lesson in a first grade classroom and in our classroom on Friday. Today, I attended a full day workshop that Georgia led about revision. I learned lots and am anxious to bring the new learning to the classroom. I know my students will benefit greatly from all of the ways my thinking has changed on revision work.

CRACKER: THE BEST DOG IN VIETNAM

CRACKER!: THE BEST DOG IN VIETNAM
by Cynthia Kadohata
Atheneum, February 2007
Review copy purchased at Liberty Books

Cracker is completely devoted to his boy, Willie. Unfortunately, Willie's dad lost his job and the family has to move into an apartment building that does not allow pets. Willie has one month to find a new home for Cracker. Time is running out when Willie sees the notice that German Shepherds are wanted by the Army for use in the Vietnam War.

Because the book is told from the dual perspectives of Cracker and the humans in his life, we get a sense of how hard this separation is for both Cracker and Willie. Besides being devoted, Cracker is smart, independent, and quite willful. His new handler, Rick, joined the army at 17 planning to "whip the world" and escape running the family hardware store. Rick is inexperienced and naive, gets on the wrong side of the sarge, and winds up with Cracker as his dog.

It takes some time and not a few forbidden hot dog treats, but Rick and Cracker become a team.

The book takes the reader through the process of training a military dog to sniff out booby traps and snipers, and the reader accompanies Rick and Cracker on missions. Dogs die, friends die, legs are blown off, and Rick suffers mental anguish about all he sees and experiences.

In the end, though, the book is about the incredible bond of loyalty between a man and his dog.

In the author's note, Kadohata explains that 4,000 dogs served in Vietnam. "Dogs were considered military equipment; at the war's end they were considered surplus military equipment." These dogs saved approximately 10,000 human lives. 1,000 dogs died in Vietnam. 200 dogs were reassigned to other U.S. military bases. It is unknown what became of the rest. Kadohata interviewed dog handlers who served in the Vietnam War, and several photos in the back of the book show some of the men and their dogs.

I asked Amazing 5th Grade Girl Reader (AGR) to read CRACKER! and let me know what she thought of it. AGR has read KIRA, KIRA and WEEDFLOWER, so she is in a position to place CRACKER in the context of Kadohata's other books.

CRACKER was AGR's least favorite of Kadohata's books. She thought it was slower, and not as exciting. The war part was intense, but confusing. AGR said she would have appreciated a glossary of place names, weapons, vehicles, and military jargon, such as "Charlie" for Viet Cong. She now has some idea of what the Vietnam War was about -- something she never knew before. She enjoyed reading from the point of view of the dog and thinking about how dogs might interpret our words.

Another one of my 5th graders is currently reading CRACKER!. He is a military history buff, so stay tuned for his quite different take on the book.

Links: Author's website (has an excerpt from the first chapter)

POETRY FRIDAY!

Dream Maker The shining silver moon Is a coin hung in the sky To pay the old Dream Maker Whenever he goes by. by Jane Yolen This poem is from a new book of poems called HERE'S A LITTLE POEM: A VERY FIRST BOOK OF POETRY. I shop the poetry shelf often when I visit Cover to Cover. I have a good collection of poetry books and am always on the lookout for a new one to add to my collection. This one is definitely a new favorite! The cover is adorable. Inviting. It is a larger size book. The print is large. The illustrations are by Polly Dunbar and they are absolutely perfect for the book. The book is filled with happy pictures. The poems are all great poems to share with readers of all ages. Some old favorites like "Bananas and Cream" are included. This is a great collection of poems by some of our favorite poets.

EGGS by Jerry Spinelli

Today, we have a guest review by Larry Swartz. This weekend, we had our Dublin Literacy Conference. This conference is a teacher conference put on by the Dublin City Schools run by a committee of teachers. We had lots of great speakers--children's authors, professional authors, teachers, and more! It was a great day. Larry Swartz was one of the speakers. 

Larry Swartz is an instructor in the Elementary Pre-service Program at OISE/UT and the Principal of Dramatic Arts Additional Qualifications courses at OISE/UT. He is frequently called upon to share his expertise with children's literature, classroom talk, and anti-bullying strategies. Here is his review of EGGS by Jerry Spinelli. I’ll start off by saying that I think Jerry Spinelli is one of the best authors for readers 10 – 13 years old. I would say that his books appeal to boys and girls. His characterization is always rich. The problems that he presents in his books connect to his readers because they can easily identify with them (i.e., peer pressure in Wringer, belonging in Loser, outcast in Star Girl, heroism in Maniac Magee). The stories have just enough of an imaginative twist to take readers into an imaginative world that is the stuff of fiction (Does a community exist that forces boys to wring the neck of pigeons?). Milkweed aside, there is a veneer of humour in Spinelli’s novel events, in the dialogue and in character quirks. A student teacher recently gave me an advance copy of his newest novel EGGS and since I was heading off on a plane, I was thrilled to have a new Spinelli to keep me company. A good read it was. As I was reading, I couldn’t help thinking about the novels that I recently read that featured characters whose parents have died. . Give me a fifth grade class and I would love to organize Literature Circles (when all titles are available in paperback) around THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY, JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE, WING NUT and EGGS, not only because one or more character has a missing parent, but because they get inside the skin and hearts of these kids who are coping with life’s rotten eggs and hoping to make omelets out of life’s dilemmas-large and small. Take David and Primrose. David lost his mother to a freak accident. His father is often away on business and so the young boy lives with his grandmother. Primrose only knows of her father from a photograph. She lives with a mother whose talent is telling fortunes and whose outlook on life is a little less mature than her daughter’s. David and Primrose are friends, despite an age difference of four years (Primrose is older). It’s very tempting to use an egg metaphor as a review of this book (hard boiled, scrambled, over easy, poached) but here I’ll pay tribute to the egg carton and offer a dozen reasons for admiring and respecting Spinelli’s new work. 1. Boy and girl protagonists. I’m a bit concerned about boy reads and girl reads. Yes, enjoyed the Newbery winner, but few boys are going to choose this book by the cover, by the title and because of its female protagonist. Spinnelli’s strength is in boy characters, but here he has a friendship between a boy and a girl. How clever too to make Primrose an ‘older’ friend. Without reading the book, can’t you imagine how a character named ‘Primrose’ might behave? 2. 224 pages. 42 chapters. Book is divided into sections (Eggs, The Waving Man, Nightcrawlers, Painted Windows, Who Cares, Only Children). I like / many kids like short chapters. 3. The “Ha Ha” factor. When David first meets, Primrose’s fortune-telling mother, she predicts his future by reading the soul of his bare foot. 4. The Gross factor. David and Primrose have a tug of war fight over a nightcrawler. Each wants to capture the twelve-inch worm to raise money. Primrose pulled. David pulled - Thp. Each then held six inches of flailing nightcrawler. Gross! 5. A moment to touch-your-heart factor. Memories of David’s dead mother linger throughout. On the day she died in a bad fall, David decided to never break any rules. David believe if he went long enough without breaking a rule. sooner or later his mother would come back and they would together see the sunrise, that she promised they’d see together. In one episode, David clings to Primrose, sobbing. “I’m not her you, she,” she whispered hoarsely. “I’m only me. Primrose.” He nodded against her. “I know.” (Goosebumps.) 6. Great dialogue… “Are we gonna be out all night?” “Yerp.” “You don’t even care. Do you? “Nerp.” 7. This-only-happens-in-books episode. David first meets Primrose during an Easter Egg Hunt. While on his search, he comes across the still body of a girl hidden amongst the leaves. He takes a yellow egg from the mouth of the body and asks, “Are you dead yet?”. The girl does not answer. Later we learn, that the body belonged to Primrose who was just playing a trick on the boy, just like Spinelli was playing a trick on the reader. This is not a murder mystery. 8. A quirky character (or two). Spinelli’s short descriptions of a character paint a wide portrait in a sentence or two. Refrigerator John, “who was neither as tall nor as wide as a refrigerator. “His own right leg had been withered since birth. When he walked, the leg flapped out sideways, as though he were shaking a dog loose. Madame Dufee. Her body was lost in a robe of flowers, birds, and dragons with flaming tongues. Golden hoops you could pitch a baseball through hung from her earlobes.” 9. Two characters, so different, so the same. They plot together. They argue. “What was with these two? The thirteen year-old girl, the nine year old boy. What brought them together? Sometimes they acted their own ages, Sometimes they switched. Sometimes they both seemed to be nine, other times thirteen. Both were touchy, ready to squawk over nothing.” (note to publisher: Terrific passage for a book jacket blurb). 10. The omelets-out-of rotten-egg factor. David and Primrose take the bad things that life offers and learn to make the best of them. They learn from each other. They need each other. They take care of each other. They’re going to be all right! 11. A touch of symbolism giving readers lots to think about. Eggs figure into the plot (early in the book, David goes on an Easter Egg Hunt, vandals splatter eggs against Primrose’s bedroom window, the sunrise is described as crisp and sharp and beautiful and smooth as a painted egg.). I would love to ask ten year-olds what the title makes them think about: Does it tell the truth of the story?Why six eggs on the cover? How are David and Primrose like eggs? What kind of egg dish might each character be? 12. Great cover. No boys. No girls. Just six eggs resting in a robin’s egg blue carton.

Censorship Revisited.....

Thanks to Pixie Stix Kids' post "Apparently it's not censorship if you don't like the book" for this link. A mother in Florida found her own way to get rid of books that she decided children shouldn't read. It appears that she didn't like the censorship process that was in place. So, she checked the book out and has decided not to return it...ever.

Next Read Aloud--Advice Needed

So, we are almost finished with RULES by Cynthia Lord. It has been a great read aloud. Lots of great talk around the book. Kids are doing great thinking in their notebooks as we read and chat. Many seem to be thinking hard about the characters in the book.

As I think ahead to our next read aloud, I am thinking maybe THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick. I haven't read much of it and I have always struggled with reading aloud books with graphics. And the graphics are almost half of this book. But with all of the new technology, I think I can project the pages onto a screen and we can think through it all together. Has anyone finished it? I would love to hear what anyone has to say about the appropriateness for grades 3 and 4 and whether it is worth reading aloud using a screen for the graphic pages. I think it could be a pretty fun experience if it can work. I think the technology piece can really expand the kinds of books we read together as a class.

Poetry Friday -- Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew
by Ron Koertge

Merely pretty, she made up for it with vim.
And she got to say things like, "But, gosh,
what if these plans should fall into the wrong
hands?" and it was pretty clear she didn't mean
plans for a party or a trip to the museum, but
something involving espionage and a Nazi or two.

In fact, the handsome exchange student turns
out to be a Fascist sympathizer. When he snatches
Nancy along with some blueprints, she knows he
has something more sinister in mind than kissing
her with his mouth open

Locked in the pantry of an abandoned farm house,
Nancy makes a radio out of a shoelace and a muffin.
Pretty soon the police show up, and everything's
hunky dory.

(Read on to find out what Nancy learned from this experience.)