Poetry Friday

Here's a possible cure for the AYP Blues in my Monday Poetry Stretch poem. I'm not sure, however, that the politicians would go for this as a proposed solution for NCLB...


The Tables Turned
by William Wordsworth

Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.


I found this poem at Poetryfoundation.org.
Round-up this week is at ReadWriteBelieve.

Monday Poetry Stretch

The Monday Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect is blues poetry. Tricia listened to blues music to get in the mood to write. The recommendation from The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms is "think of something that depresses you."

I started to write a self-serving, whiney poem about too many meetings that each generate more work to be done and yet eat up all the time in the day in which that work might actually get done.

Then I decided to write about something far more important and exponentially more depressing. I've got...

The AYP* Blues

No child left behind, brother
No child left behind
No child left behind, sister
No child left behind

Why measure progress with one test
And call it accountability?
The bar's so high it can't be reached
In some parts of the city.

Poor child left behind, brother
Poor child left behind
ELL child left behind, sister
ELL child left behind

Let's tell our leaders what we need:
a model based on GROWTH.
Measure each child's yearly learning
And see who GAINS the most.

No child left behind, brother
No child left behind
No child left behind, sister
No child left behind


*AYP stands for Adequate Yearly Progress. It is part of No Child Left Behind. The name is misleading. AYP does not really measure progress, it measures the ability of children to get a certain score on a single test. Children take the test whether or not they are fluent (or even proficient at a basic level) in English. The bar is the same height for children who have had all the advantages of an affluent home life, and for children whose only two meals of the day are the free breakfast and lunch they receive at school. Researchers are able to predict with 95% accuracy which schools will not make AYP based on such factors as poverty levels, and number of English Language Learners (ELLs).

A more sane approach would be to measure student learning with a pretest at the beginning of the year and a posttest at the end of the year. Teachers should be required to make sure that every child achieves a year's growth in a year. This would actually be more challenging for teachers in schools that easily meet AYP. Their students are already so close to the bar that it's no stretch to make it over. If they had to make a year's gain in a year's time, those students would really have to stretch for once.

Parallel Worlds

I was supposed to be at the health club swimming. I was supposed to be at school putting up bulletin boards and dissecting the Social Studies Standards. I was supposed to be folding laundry.

Instead, I was standing at the sink snipping basil leaves from basil stems. Endlessly. I should have taken pictures so you could see just how many leaves there were on my four basil BUSHES this year. Suffice it to say, I made six batches of pesto. Six food processors full.

Six containers of distilled summer, captured and preserved on this crisp hint-of-fall day.

As I snipped and washed and packed and ground and glopped and slopped, I had a lot of time to think. I thought about summer and photosynthesis. I thought about fall and endings. I thought about winter and snow.

Thoughts of snow turned to thoughts of Robert's Snow, and the enormous amazing outpouring of support for Grace Lin and her family and all those whose lives might be touched by the cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

I feel like I live in parallel worlds. In the one that is most tangible, strangers rarely reach out to strangers. Yet in the world behind and beyond my computer screen, connections that start as invisible electronic impulses become a web of heart strings that give me hope for humanity.

Details from the posting at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast:

"This year, more than 200 well-known children’s book illustrators from around the world have been given a five-inch wooden snowflake to decorate at will. Like actual snowflakes, each design is unique. The 2007 online auctions for bidding on these hand-painted snowflakes will take place in three separate auctions, open to everyone, from November 19 to 23, November 26-30, and December 3-7. You can read here for more information.

What we in the kidlitosphere community want to do to help drive traffic to the site for this year’s auctions and help raise money for the cause is highlight at our blogs the illustrators who have created snowflakes for these upcoming ’07 auctions — as well as post the unique snowflakes they have made (one at a time at each blog, which the DFCI has graciously given us permission to do), ultimately driving as much traffic as we possibly can to the Robert’s Snow online auctions."

Constitution and Citizenship Day

Monday is Constitution and Citizenship Day. If you're wondering why you should recognize or celebrate it, consider this point of view from the Teaching Tolerance website:

"In many ways, the nation's history can be read as a struggle to embrace who 'We the People' are."

Here are some books and web links to help you plan your recognition of one of the greatest documents in human history -- The Constitution.

BOOKS FOR CONSTITUTION DAY:

1787 by Joan Anderson
Historical fiction from the point of view of James Madison's aide during the Constitutional Convention.

We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States by David Catrow
The Preamble in kid-friendly language.

Shh! We're Writing the Constitution by Jean Fritz
A fun and fact-filled account of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Illustrated by Tomie dePaola.

D Is For Democracy: A Citizen's Alphabet by Elissa Grodin
An A-Z trip through our country's democratic form of government.

Everyone Counts: A Citizen's Number Book by Elissa Grodin
This tour of U.S. governments is number based. (How many justices on the Supreme Court?)

If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution by Elizabeth Levy
The story of the signing of the constitution in question/answer format.

A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution by Betsy Maestro
An excellent, well-balanced version of the story of the constitution.

We the People by Peter Spier
This beautifully illustrated 1987 classic is out of print. Check your library for availability.

WEBSITES FOR CONSTITUTION DAY:

Blackwell's Best: Constitution Day
A huge collection of links for Constitution Day.

The Constitution For Kids
From the U.S. Constitution Online comes this EXCELLENT site which translates the Constitution into kid-friendly language. The link is for K-3 students, but you can navigate to versions for older kids from this page.

Teaching Tolerance
Constitution Day activities for the Anti-Bias Classroom.

Constitution Day
Lessons and links from the group that founded Constitution Day.

Teaching With Documents: Observing Constitution Day
Lessons from the National Archives site.

Celebrate Constitution Day
Lessons from The Bill of Rights Institute site.

Poetry Friday -- Special Delivery

Even if you're completely overwhelmed by ARCs and review copies, you gotta admit: your heart beat a little faster this week when the L.L. Bean Christmas catalog came.


Why I Have A Crush On You, UPS Man
by Alice N. Persons

you bring me all the things I order
are never in a bad mood
always have a jaunty wave as you drive away
look good in your brown shorts
we have an ideal uncomplicated relationship
you're like a cute boyfriend with great legs
who always brings the perfect present
(why, it's just what I've always wanted!)
and then is considerate enough to go away
oh, UPS Man, let's hop in your clean brown truck and elope !


The rest is here. Round up is at Hip Writer Mama.

Best of 2007--So Far--New Series Book Characters

Two new series book characters that I LOVE and highly recommend--

MOXY MAXWELL of Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford

and

VIOLET BING of Violet Bing and the Grand House by Jennifer Paros


Two new characters you really can't live without!

Remembering September 11

Educating Alice has a powerful post remembering September 11.

Best of 2007--So Far--Professional Books

I haven't spent as much time as usual reading professional books. But the ones I have read are great. These are the 5 that I have found the most helpful for my literacy teaching. I highly recommend all of them.

Smart Answers to Tough Questions by Elaine Garan, in my opinion, is a book that we all need to have on our shelves. For anyone who is teaching well in this climate of testing and politics, this book reminds us of the reasons we do what we do in our classrooms. Garan also gives us research for further support of our work.
Adolescent Literacy by Kylene Beers, Robert Probst, and Linda Rief gives us the best thinking from the best thinkers in the field on adolescent literacy. Although I teach grades 3-5, this book is applicable to all that I do too.

Mentor Texts by Lyn Dorfman and Rose Cappelli is a great new book on ways to use great children's literature in our writing workshops.

Don't Forget to Share by Leah Mermelstein is a great reminder on the importance of share time in writers' workshops. This is a great book on how to take advantage of the teaching possibilities during share time.

The Reading Zone by Nancie Atwell brings us back to the original intent of the readers' workshop. We want kids to fall in love with books and to become lifelong, passionate readers and learners.

Picture Book Carnival

NYC Teacher is looking for submissions for the next Picture Book Carnival at Mentor Texts & More. Deadline is October 5.

Best of 2007--So Far--Middle Grade Novels

This is my longest list. I think it is a GREAT year for middle grade novels. There are some years where I just can't find great new books for my 3-5th graders. But this year, I found lots that I love. I decided not to include YA stuff in my "BEST OF 2007--SO FAR" lists. I don't really keep up on those and I don't really know that age reader as well. So, I am listing these as the best of for upper elementary students. I love every one! For me, every one of these would be a great read aloud and they are all perfect titles to add to classroom libraries and school libraries. (For this list, I am going to link back to the blog entries where I reviewed each book. For the few that I haven't had time to review, I'll add a few words.)

Middle Grade Novels
Larger Than Life Lara
Aurora County All Stars
Castle Corona
Paint the Wind
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Emma Jean
Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
Beth at Cover to Cover recommended this book to me. It is a great fairy tale where we come to know favorite fairy tale characters in new ways. Similar to the SISTERS GRIMM series, the reader gets an inside look at fairy tales although this book has a bit less humor and a bit more depth than other fairy tale takeoffs that I've read. The concept of this one is great and the characters are quite believable.

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell
This one may have been the most enjoyable read for me in terms of middle level novels. It is really a fun book. So much is combined from some of my favorite reads--a child who isn't getting lots of attention from her parents, a mean nanny, magic and friendship. It is a very unique story told in a way that makes it fun and suspenseful.

(I did not include new series books in this list--those will be in a separate list later this week!)