Stretching Our Thinking--21st Century Literacies

We have dabbled in using more technology in the classroom and have been interested in learning more about authentic uses of new tools for our students. Our big goal is to make sure our use of 21st century tools matches our philosophy about how children learn language. For the last several years, we've both been reading and thinking about what it means to be a literacy teacher these days. How do we best meet the needs of our students? The NCTE Annual Convention themed SHIFT HAPPENS helped us to solidify our thinking a bit and to see new possibilities.

We have silently followed a few blogs--listening in on the thinking of some key tech people who seem to share our philosophies. We have learned lots and also realized how very much we have to learn. So, we have decided to dedicate more of our blog time to following the thinking of this group. We are adding a few of those that we have been reading to our blogroll and hope to find many more as we listen in on the tech network. We have had Bud the Teacher on our blogroll for some time and appreciate his role in helping us think through our changing roles. We have also followed Karl Fisch's blog, The Fischbowl and were fortunate enough to hear him at NCTE. His constructivist theory is evident in all that he does in his teaching. Dr. Tim Tyson has a blog that focuses on the work of his middle schoolers when he was principal. His focus is on student contribution and his respect for students and their work is amazing. Bill at Mr. Bass is a Technology Integration Specialist and shares thoughts on using tech in the classroom. We love the intro to Kevin's Meandering Mind. He says to readers "This blog is a place where I explore writing and teaching and technology. But I don’t like to go on such a journey by myself and I want you to come along as a companion." Bill Kist focuses on new medias and social networking. We are excited to learn from all of these educators and hope to add more as we continue on this learning journey.

We love books and children's literature. And it will always be the anchor of our work. But we can't be comfortable being literacy teachers today without expanding our notion of what it means to be literate in the 21st Century and to learn from experts who have a different set of expertise. We have no idea where this new thinking will take us but we are confident that we'll learn some exciting things and open new possibilities for our students. We know that many of you are on the same journey--thinking about our teaching lives and how new tools will change things.

Franki and Mary Lee

Join Team Shift Happens on Kiva

Karl Fisch of THE FISCHBOWL is taking the opportunity to invite his blog readers to think about giving a gift to KIVA during this holiday season.  He shares:

Kiva allows individuals to contribute a small amount of money that is then loaned to entrepreneurs in impoverished communities. When that loan is repaid (currently almost 97% are repaid), then the individual that originally made the loan can choose to loan the money out to another entrepreneur, donate it to kiva to help with their operating expenses, or actually get the money back.

Fisch has created TEAM SHIFT HAPPENS as a way to encourage people to give and to Pay It Forward.

You can either make a $25 loan yourself, or, what I’d love to see, do the same thing that I’m doing (make a $25 loan, then purchase two $25 gift certificates and email them to folks you know and ask them to do the same). If you’re a blogger, also consider blogging about this and making the same request to your readers. I realize not everyone will be comfortable with that, or has $75 to spare, so please contribute what you can. If you wish, it would be great if you then add your loan so it counts toward Team Shift Happens so we can see what we can accomplish together, and leave a comment on this post.

After reading lots on Kiva's website, I am convinced that this is a good place for me to donate a bit.  This organization supports women in poverty.  So, I have donated $25 to this woman in Guatemala. I wanted to donate something to the country of Guatemala so I searched the site and chose this woman's business.  You can find a cause or a country that you are committed to helping and make your decision that way.  I also purchased a Gift Certificate for Mary Lee so that she can choose an one of Kiva's entrepreneurs to lend to. Then I invited her to Pay It Forward by purchasing a gift certificate for someone else.  

I thought this idea was a good one and wanted to bring it to the Kidlitosphere and invite our readers to participate. 

The thing I love most about blogging is the way that it brings communities together.  When we started this blog, authors and librarians were not part of our social and professional network. Now they are. As we begin to learn more about 21st century literacies, we find ourselves reading lots of tech/ed blogs.   The learning communities are no longer separate and we love that about blogging.  So this seemed like a perfect team to join:-) Hope you'll check it out. 

THE BIG BIGGER BIGGEST BOOK

Thanksgiving vacation gave me some extra time to spend at the bookstore finding new books for the library. One that I am excited about is THE BIG BIGGER BIGGEST BOOK. I knew immediately that I liked it.

Each spread shows an object with a word such as "FAST". When you lift or unfold the flap, you'll find a similar object with a new label (FASTER). Then you get to lift or unfold one more time for the completed illustration and the last word (FASTEST).

The book is quite fun. The flap lifting is a bit different on each page depending on the object and the way it is defined. Some spreads unfold horizontally while others unfold vertically. The variety adds to the fun.

The illustations are bright and colorful. Many use primary colors and the objects are all things that most kids are familiar with.
I see this book being popular for lots of reasons. First of all, the fold-outs make it quite fun. For new readers, the picture clues will allow them to read the simple text on their own. ANd it will support concepts in size and measurement. I can also see using it when thinking about playing with words or thinking about word choice in writing. I am not sure how teachers will use it but I see lots of possibilities!

The Lightning Thief: I Get it Now

The Lightning Thief

by Rick Riordan

Hyperion, 2005

Review copy purchased for my classroom to replace the copy that is in tatters

I'm glad I took time to read this. I get it now. I understand the popularity. If I had more time, I'd read them all.

1.  The perfect anti-hero hero: a dyslexic hyperactive teenage boy.  Dyslexic, "That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD -- you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

2.  Plenty of humor. As Percy and his friends enter Hades, they see the Fields of Punishment, "which glowed and smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas. Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music."

3.  Loads of action. Fight scenes with his evil math teacher, Medusa, The Furies, and Ares, just to name a few.

  

1000th Post: The Past and Future of A Year of Reading

1000 posts ago, this blog was created for a conversation between two people. It was about our reading journeys as we attempted to have read the Newbery. We didn't have a blogroll back then because we barely knew how to link.

After about six months, we joined the larger Kidlitosphere conversation and our blogroll started to grow.

When stories about how we use books in our classrooms started to seep into our blogging, we began to read and be read by teacher and librarian blogs. Our blogroll grew and the conversation about books and reading included a wider audience.

We found that we could listen in on lots of Mock Newbery and Caldecott Conversations including those run by past Newbery Committee members.

As we look to the future of our blog and our teaching, we are beginning to explore ways to expand our understanding of literacy. We are thinking about what it means to be literate in the 21st century and how to expand our thinking to include things beyond books in our own and our students' reading lives. We are (kind of) learning to Twitter. Our blogroll will continue to grow and we will do our best to take part in conversations where we sometimes only understand 50% of the words! We love the fact that people come together in ways they couldn't before blogging. We've learned so much from people who we weren't able to learn from before (librarians, authors, journal editors, etc.)

We've made so many new friends over the two years. We have started to get together with old and new blogger friends in Columbus to chat about books and to shop for new books!

We really had no idea what we were doing when we started this blog (Franki, even less than Mary Lee). But after 1000 posts, we are still loving it and can't wait to see what we learn next!

Poetry Friday: Grace

Grace
by Wendell Berry

for Gurney Norman, quoting him

The woods is shining this morning.
Red, gold and green, the leaves
lie on the ground, or fall,
or hang full of light in the air still.
Perfect in its rise and in its fall, it takes
the place it has been coming to forever.

(the rest is here)


I am thankful for this five days off to "be still" and relocate the grace in my life. Wishing the same for you in some way, shape, or form.

The round up this week is at Under the Covers.

NCTE in Words and Pictures: Franki's Version

Mary Lee inspired me to share my NCTE convention week in words and pictures!  As did everyone else, I had a great time and learned lots.  The energy at the convention was amazing and I came home with my head spinning from all of the new learning. I mentioned earlier that I heard several sessions on 21st century literacies and am glad to have had the chance to hear Karl Fisch after having followed his blog for so long.  I loved his message. Too often I got to "tech" workshops and the focus is on the technology or the product but the actual teaching goes against what I believe about kids and learning.  But Karl Fisch is grounded in good teaching and understands learning. It was definitely a highlight.
The convention opened with speaker Gary Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop. What a great opening!  So many great things going on at Sesame Street. As always, I was amazed with their mission not only in the US but around the world. I was also happy to hear that "THE ELECTRIC COMPANY" will be returning! Wooohooo!  We saw some great clips and it was a great celebration of learning and literacy. And guess who joined Gary Knell at NCTE?  One of my favorite muppets--GROVER! What a treat!  You can see that my friend, Shari Frost, and I had our photo taken with him after the opening celebration. Check out the Sesame Street website and keep your eye out for The Electric Company that is sure to be a hit again!

Another treat was the Books for Children Luncheon featuring children's author, Tomie dePaola!  It was a great celebration with so many children's authors--one at every table. It was so fun to be in a room with so many children's authors and children's books!  I was excited to be able to sit at Tomie dePaola's table and I received a copy of his new and gorgeous pop-up book, BRAVA, STREGA NONA: A HEARTWARMING POP-UP BOOK  I LOVE this book. Growing up in a 100% Italian Family, this book is a true gift. Strega Nona gives us her secrets to a magical life and they include things like family and friends and food! The pop-up art is amazing and Tomie dePaola demonstrated how to open and close the book properly to see the gorgeous art! I had not heard dePaola speak for about 15+ years so it was such a treat. He talked a bit about some of the books he has coming out soon so we can look forward to those as well. But if you are looking for a great gift for a family member (especially an Italian one) this new pop-up book says so much!


If you don't know Nancy Johnson, she was a key person on the Elementary Section Steering Committee who organized the luncheon and she is the perfect person to do this! (You should check out her book THE WONDER OF IT ALL: WHEN LITERATURE AND LITERACY INTERSECT.) Here she is with Ralph Fletcher getting last minute details figured out before the event. Ralph announced this year's NCTE Excellence in Poetry Award winner which will be announced on the NCTE website soon!



Other highlights included Kathi Yancey's general session on Sunday, Barbara Ehrenreich's talk on her book NICKEL AND DIMED IN AMERICA, and Regie Routman's talk entitled, "Raising Expectation, Results and Enjoyment for All Learners: What Does It Take?" If you have the chance to hear any of these speakers, they were phenomenal!

NCTE In Words and Pictures

How often do you get to meet one of your personal heroes (or sheroes, as the case may be)?  The absolute highlight for me of NCTE 2008 was hearing Lynne Cox speak and meeting her in person.  Lynne Cox is an extraordinary open water swimmer.  She is as physically adapted to cold water swims as Lance Armstrong is to long distance biking.  She has swum from the U.S. to Russia through the Bering Straits, and she has swum with icebergs in Antarctica.  She is an amazing story teller with amazing stories to tell.  (I reviewed her book GRAYSON here.)


San Antonio was a lovely city for a conference.  I was struck how different evening rush hour in the center of the city was this year, compared to last year in NYC.  This is the Times Square of San Antonio.  

I had several memorable meals, but alas, neglected to take any food pictures. Use your imagination. At Rosario's I had a beautiful (and tasty) Prickly Pear margarita and (delicious) fish tacos (grilled talapia). The fish tacos were a risk, but I figured the best place to try them would be in Tex-Mex land. They were seasoned with lime and cilantro, so how could I go wrong? At the Random House author dinner at Little Rhein Steakhouse I had a fabulous steak. It looked just like the one in the ads on the convention center wall, if you were there. Yum. I sat at a table with Wendelin Van Draanen and got to hear about her new book CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL KILLER, and her upcoming new series THE GECKO AND STICKY (watch for a review soon). Finally, at Liberty Bar I had SALMON ENCILANTRADO, grilled salmon marinated in cilantro sauce. It came with a side of cilantro pesto, which I am definitely going to try to make!


Along with the obligatory Tex-Mex and the obligatory steak, there was the obligatory visit to the Alamo. Alas, we got there too late to go inside and take the tour, but we remembered (ha ha) to go.

There were several sessions that I really really really wanted to attend, but meetings or paid breakfasts or other mandatory sessions got in the way. I didn't get to hear Greg Mortenson (of THREE CUPS OF TEA fame), but I did see his extensive autographing line. I didn't get to go to the session on literature circles. I didn't get to hear Kathleen Yancy speak. (There's more, but I don't remember them, and it's a good thing I left my conference book behind -- my checked suitcase weighed EXACTLY 50 lbs., what with all the books I crammed in it!) 

Probably my favorite session was the impromptu Tech On The Go session that I did in the Hilton Lobby (the only place I could find with free wireless access) for Katie and Karen. Both of them got set up with GoogleReader and we played around with podcasting and composing on GarageBand. Katie swooned when Debbie Miller stopped by to chat and look over our shoulders at GarageBand. 

No, wait! My favorite session was the NCTE Notable Books session. I've never been to this Sunday from 1:00-3:00 session because I always left right after the CLA breakfast. I won't miss this session ever again...and especially not for the next few years since I'm on the Notables committee! What's so fun about it? First, you get to hear about each of the Notables. Then the authors do "speed dating" talks at each of the round tables. Audience sits still, authors rotate to you. This year there were EIGHT (!!) authors: Ralph Fletcher, Ann Bausum, Peggy Gifford, Jacqueline Woodson, Emily Gravett, Gary Schmidt, Linda Sue Park, and Ruth Forman. Ann Bausum brought historical documents for us to look at while she talked to us about MUCKRAKERS. Peggy Gifford confirmed that the stepfather in her MOXY MAXWELL books is indeed her brother in-law J. Patrick Lewis. Linda Sue Park taught us about sijo.  Ruth Forman read us YOUNG CORNROWS CALLIN OUT THE MOON, which is now on my to-get list. But my turn came to swoon when I got to hold and look at Emily Gravett's sketchbook for LITTLE MOUSE'S BIG BOOK OF FEARS!!! Wow. Wow. She read to us from THE ODD EGG, her next book out in the U.S. in January. Okay if I say it one more time? Wow. Emily Gravett. Wow. (Okay, I'll stop.)

NCTE Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment

Last week, NCTE adopted a Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment.  Bill at Mr. Bass explains it will in his blog post today.  As a teacher and as a librarian, I think it has lots of possibilities. It ties in the NCTE/IRA standards. I think it will give me a tool to really think about the kinds of things I am asking of my students and help me become smarter about my practice.  See what you think.

NCTE

I think you'll see lots of posts this week reflecting on NCTE. I just visited a few bloggers who have already reflected on the weekend.

21st Century Literacies was definitely something I thought about all week. The theme of the conference was SHIFT HAPPENS and I worked hard to get to several sessions dealing by people such as Karl Fisch and Tim Tyson. I was amazed at what they had to share. I loved the message from both of them and it all fits with what I believe about classrooms and schools. Amazing presenters and I feel lucky to have heard them. I plan to keep up with some new blogs--blogs that focus on these 21st Century issues. I am pretty excited about it.

And after talking with friends who are clearly more technologically savvy than I am, I decided that my technological world needs to expand a bit (actually, a lot!). I am going to try to add a few things to my life in the next few weeks. I just added blogs to Google Reader and am going to work to use the tool. I am also going to think about twitter (since Mary Lee is on the brink of twittering!) and I am also interested in learning more about Photovoice and a few other things. I am on a mission and hope to have fun playing around with all of the tools that I learned about in sessions and in informal conversations with friends!