First Day Read Alouds at Choice Literacy

There is a great new article at Choice Literacy about great read alouds for the first day of school. It is written by Shari Frost--thought since we were chatting about the beginning of school, some of you might be interested. I already ordered one of the books on the list!

Any Advice?

I'm going to switch our template (finally) from Old Blogger to New Blogger.

Based on your experience, do you have any suggestions or warnings? Or will it be easy and trauma free?!? (What big change ever is?!?!)

While I'm asking for advice and suggestions...I'm back at the beginning of a loop and thinking about how I will introduce myself and my classroom to a new set of parents and students. Those of you who do that every year (I'm a 2-year looping teacher, so it's every other year for me), what kinds of things do you do to introduce yourself and your classroom before school starts, in the first weeks, and at your Curriculum Night/Parent Information Night?

MEOW RUFF: A STORY IN CONCRETE POETRY

I picked up this new book, MEOW RUFF: A STORY IN CONCRETE POETRY by Joyce Sidman, last week at Cover to Cover. What a great book. I needed to spend some time with it--it didn't make a lot of sense to me when I browsed. I was expecting a regular poetry book. This one is concrete poems. But the best thing is that the concrete poems go together to tell a story. It almost reads like a graphic novel. As a reader, I had to pull together what was going on in the pictures with the words all over the page.

Different from other concrete poetry books, each page consists of several concrete poems--nearly every object in each illustration has some type of words or poetry connected to it. I can use it with DOGKU by Andrew Clements since they are both stories about dogs talk in different types of poetry. Fun writing for kids to play with.

The pages go together to tell about a new friendship between a dog and a cat. The illustrations are colorful--younger kids would love the story. Older kids could really study the writing and the way the pictures and words work together.

Definitely glad I picked this one up.

No Talking

Fuse is right.
Maybe Clements' best.
Too didactic?
Awaiting kids' reactions.
Note to self:
Read aloud contender.

(Why three words?
Read the book!
I'd participate willingly!
Would you?)

Her Date is a 3000 Year-Old Mummy

The Professor's Daughter
by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert
Translated by Alexis Siegel
First Second, 2007 (originally, 1997)

I predict that this book will be one of the strong contenders for the 2007 Cybils Graphic Novel (Age 13-up) Award.

Lillian Bowell, daughter of the greatest British archaeologist, the esteemed Professor Bowell, needs an escort so she can walk to Kensington. Her father won't be home until later that evening. What's a girl to do? What indeed: take the mummy of Imhotep IV out of his sarcophagus, dress him up in tails and top hat, and go for a stroll!

The story veers from ludicrous to touching (Imhotep cries when he hears Mozart for the first time and gets drunk on tea) to slapstick funny (Imhotep declares his love for Lillian and his intention to marry her to her father who replies, "You are the property of the British museum. You are dead. Stay out of this.") all in the course of the first twenty pages.

A crime is committed, Lillian is kidnapped (turns out, by Imhotep III, father of Imhotep IV...you guessed it, another mummy), Imhotep IV is lost and found, and he sets out to rescue Lillian.

Queen Victoria makes an appearance late in the story, but she refuses to be of any help, so Imhotep III dumps her in the Thames. The Guards remark, "Doesn't it look like the queen is crossing the Thames doing the backstroke?"

The ending is satisfying, and brings closure to the two dream sequences during the story that reveal interesting truths about Imhotep's very first love and his very first children.

I can't tell you any more. You just have to read it for yourself. And then smile, shake your head, and read it again. (Make sure you get the Collector's Edition, which includes Guibert's "London Sketches From the British Museum and the Streets of London, 1977." You can see the characters and settings begin to come to life.)

bookshelves of doom's review
Comics Worth Reading's review

Teaching Meme

Mentor Texts tagged us for this meme. Franki's answers are first, in green. Mary Lee's answers are in purple. We each answered the prompts and then combined our answers, so any overlap is...because our thinking overlaps!

I am a good teacher because...I work really hard to get to know each of my students. I never sit back and think I'm a good teacher. Every year (sometimes every DAY) there are new challenges that cause me to grow and reinvent myself.

If I weren't a teacher I'd be a/an...I'd be a full time reader (is that a job?) Architect. (A story for another time: one high school teacher's gender discrimination killed a dream.)

My teaching style is...inquiry based/talk-based. Continually evolving.

My classroom is...chatty. I think kids learn a lot by talking so there is a lot of talking between kids all day. Full of books!

My lesson plans...don't ever fit into neat boxes. Begin in my imagination.

One of my teaching goals is...to keep as much student ownership in the day as possible. We are being pressured to get rid of that in the name of testing and it is the way kids seem to learn best. Create a classroom community as quickly as possible at the beginning of the year.

The toughest part of teaching is...that you never stop thinking about it--It is really the best part too--we never have it totally figured out and that makes it fun and challenging at the same time. Trying to make sure the work we do is authentic.

The thing I love most about teaching is...seeing kids grow and change and become themselves. When the lightbulbs go off (theirs or mine)!

A common misconception about teaching is...that we can all just follow a scripted program and all will be better. Meeting the needs of every child is much harder than that. "Joe/Jane Public/Politician" knows better than I do how I should be doing my job.

The most important thing I've learned since I've started teaching is...that kids do best with lots of choice and usually when I get out of the way, the totally surpass any expectations I had! There is more art than science in teaching.

*************
We're tagging Read, Read, Read and Creative Literacy.

Larger Than Life Lara

I picked up this book at Cover to Cover a few weeks ago. I am always looking for short, easier chapter books that have depth--things to talk about. When I taught 5th grade, I could find lots and lots of great books for them that were worth talking about--books that dealt with issues. It is a bit trickier in third grade. The kids are still learning to follow plot so I try to find books with a good, easy to follow plot, as well as real life issues to talk about. I think LARGER THAN LIFE LARA by Dandi Daley Mackall will be a great book for read aloud and/or booktalks with 3rd and 4th graders. It has so many things to talk about. Mackall also weaves in reminders about story elements as we read which is a unique thing and something kids would enjoy. Lara moves into Laney's 4th grade classroom and is immediately the target of meanness and bullying. Lara is very large--so big that she has to have a special chair and she swishes when she walks. Lara handles the meanness with a positive attitude and is always able to find the best in people. It doesn't end quite the way I had predicted which is always nice--I love a little surprise. It isn't really a happy ending, but there is closure. There are lots of things that kids would find to discuss with this book. It is a great new book with lots of possibilities.

Snow Baby

The Snow Baby: The Arctic Childhood of Admiral Robert E. Peary's Daring Daughter
by Katheri Kirkpatrick
Holiday House, 2007
Guest review by A.J. Wald, resident Arctic and Antarctic expert

I do so love a surprise. That is probably why I gladly read Katherine Kirkpatrick’s The Snow Baby, even though I have shelves groaning under the weight of books on Arctic and Antarctic exploration. Book after book of determined adventurer’s and scientist’s tales of grim survival under the trials of cold, darkness, fear and, sometimes, madness. Not a single one of these volumes, however, tells the story of the sweet-faced little tyke born to Robert E. Peary and his wife Josephine Diebitsch Peary on September 12, 1893 on the shores of Smith Sound, Greenland.

Other books on the Arctic barely mention the birth of Marie Ahnighito (the woman who sewed Marie’s fox skin coat and caribou skin trousers also provided the baby’s middle name) Peary. Marie’s story is important, however, within the context of Arctic exploration and in light of her own, unique experiences.

It will come as no shock that Marie Peary did not have a stereotypical childhood. Beginning her life in Greenland, she was taken south to Washington D.C. at age 11 months. There, the Snow Baby lived with her mother and her maternal family while her explorer father continued to strive to reach the North Pole. A pattern developed that brought Marie and Mrs. Peary back to the Arctic for periodic reunions with Robert Peary, interspersed with time in ‘civilization’.

During the Arctic episodes, Marie meets a who’s who of North Pole exploration, from the indispensable Inuit, to the ice pilot Bartlett, to Mathew Henson. Marie has her own adventures too, skidding across glaciers, literally by the ‘seat of her pants’.

Her life, both in the far North and in the urbane strictures of Victorian America, fascinates and informs the reader about the history and the society of the times. Ms. Kirkpatrick does not shy away from the recognition of Robert Peary’s ‘other’ children, produced by his liaisons with Inuit women. Her frank, tasteful explanation of the historical existence of Marie’s half-brothers and sisters was refreshing in its tact and honesty.

There is a truly excellent map of Robert Peary’s expeditions and delightful photographs of the Pearys and the extended family, the Inuit of Greenland, the ships, dogs and characters that were part of Marie’s life. A fine bibliography of research works and a useful index round out this very worthwhile fifty page edition.

Upper level 4th and 5th grade readers, girls or boys, will be able to glean a great deal from The Snow Baby, as will anyone who delves into the exciting and complex life Marie Ahnighito Peary.

Poetry Friday -- Reading by Flashlight

My recent reading has not turned loose of me just yet.

I took out my copy of Poets Against the War (edited by Sam Hamill) and browsed a bit and shook my head that this book was published three years ago when the first lady uninvited poets from her poetry forum after getting wind that they might speak against the war. Time flies when it's not your town getting bombed.

I found today's poem on the Poets Against The War website. It is a poem that speaks of the consequences of war (as did Greetings From Planet Earth, although Kerley's book was more about human consequences), reading by flashlight (as did Letters from Rapunzel) and the question of "why do I have so much when others have so little?" (as did How to Steal a Dog).

Here is the end of Nancy Flynn's poem:

Reading The Oregonian by Flashlight

.
.
.
My flashlight makes a circle, enough light to read by,
and I feel like Abraham Lincoln. Isn't this
what character is made from?

In Baghdad, three years now, and electricity's
only reliable four hours a day.



Read the whole poem here.

MsMac at Check it Out has the round up this week.

Interesting Trio of Books

Greetings From Planet Earth by Barbara Kerley (website)
Letters from Rapunzel by Sara Lewis Holmes (website and blog)
How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor (website and blog)

I checked out all three from the library to see whether or not I needed to own them. I read them all and I just purchased all three.

Dads are missing from all three stories: In Greetings, he hasn't returned home from Vietnam; in Letters, he's in the hospital with clinical depression; in Steal a Dog, he walked out on the family, leaving them homeless.

Great boy character in Greetings. Harry and Taran are the only other good boy characters in my summer reading (not on purpose). Theo is smart and curious and persistent.

Smart and curious and persistent also describe Cadence in Letters. Holmes captures/creates an authentic voice in the letters that Cadence writes. Georgina's voice in Steal a Dog is also spot on and crystal clear.

All three books are similar in the way the authors have masterfully woven the plot line. In Greetings, Kerley weaves together the best and worst of our nation in the late 1970's: space travel and the Vietnam War. In Letters, Holmes combines clinical depression, fairy tales, poetry, and the trials and tribulations of the gifted child. In Steal a Dog, Holmes gives poverty and homelessness a variety of different faces and voices which defy common sterotypes.

Out of all three, it was Steal a Dog that gripped my gut and made me talk out loud to the main character. ("What do you think you're doing?!?!?") I had thought there was a sense of doom and foreboding in Wringer, by Jerry Spinelli. Turns out, watching a character wait for his 10th birthday and the awfulness of becoming a wringer at the town pigeon shoot was nothing compared to watching Georgina blunder her way through the social and emotional chaos of living out of a car, the plan, the theft, the cover-up, and the realization that she has gotten herself in so deep that there is no graceful way out.

I'll keep Greetings and Letters for personal recommendations to 4th/5th graders. How to Steal a Dog will be one of my first read alouds.

* * * *

Mindy's interview of Barbara Kerley at propernoun
Kelly's interview of Barbara Kerley at Big A little a
7-Imp's interview of Barbara Kerley at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Little Willow's Poetry Friday from Letters from Rapunzel
7-Imp's review of Letters from Rapunzel
BooksForKidsBlog's review of Letters From Rapunzel
Midwestern Lodestar's thoughts on How to Steal a Dog
Brianne Reads and Reviews review of How to Steal a Dog
Barbara O'Connor's story of how a failed picture book turned into two novels: How to Steal a Dog and, coming in spring 2008, Greetings from Nowhere

EDITED TO ADD: Julius Lester's thoughts on Vietnam vs. Iraq, an interesting companion to Greetings from Planet Earth