Engagement

Last weekend, I read two posts that really resonated for me.

The first was Katie's post, describing a conference with a young writer who has grown so much this year, but who was not able to put into words what she does well as a writer.

The second was Carol's post, in which she shared some of her thinking about reading engagement. (She has since expanded her thinking to include what we do as teachers to promote reading engagement. Check it out -- it's great!)

My 4th graders always have a hard time putting into words what they do well as readers. It's something I work on with them every year. At the beginning of 4th grade, my students typically think reading is simply about knowing the words. I was positive that this group has come long way from that, but when I gave Carol's Reading Engagement Survey, I learned that they haven't come nearly as far as I would have thought.

The first thing I noticed was in the free response questions. 8 of 19 students who took the survey were proud of or needed to work on fluency or word recognition. Nearly half of my students are still focused on reading at the word level!

Overall, read aloud was the highest area of engagement for my students, with a total score of 67. No surprise there -- I clearly value read aloud. Two other items -- reading longer independently and not wanting to quit reading at the end of reading time were also high with 62 and 63. We have often talked about their growth from the beginning of the year when they could only sit still for 15-20 minutes.

What did surprise me is that two of the items that probe the social aspects of reading -- talking easily about favorite books, authors and genres, and sharing books with "reading friends" were two of the lowest with 47 and 42. In my mind, the class has come a long way in developing as a community of readers who know each other's tastes and share and talk about books regularly. What have I not done to express this as a valued behavior?

This survey has taught me that I need to be far more explicit about the behaviors of an engaged reader. I need to build in even more time for talk in our reading workshop, and I need to teach my students how to talk about books.

I can't wait to have conversations with each of my students to learn more about their answers.

The behaviors on this survey are not what is "valued" about reading according to the achievement tests our students are required to take. But they are certainly more important in "growing a child's reading heart" and in nurturing life-long readers.

Temporary Poetry Friday Round Up Schedule

Kelly at Big A little a is taking a short sabbatical from Poetry Friday scheduling.

If you're interested in hosting the Poetry Friday round up between now and the end of April, leave a comment and I'll add you to the schedule in the sidebar.

EDITED TO ADD:  The schedule is complete!  Thanks for your quick response!

2 New Picture Books

I picked up 2 new picture books today. First of all, I was THRILLED to see a new Bear book by Greg Foley. I am a huge fan of THANK YOU, BEAR and DON'T WORRY, BEAR. This new one is called GOOD LUCK BEAR and it is just as good as the others. I am working hard to help the primary students at my school find characters they love--characters they want to read about again and again. Bear is one of the characters they know. In this book, Bear finds a clover with three leaves. But his friend teaches him that a four-leaf clover means good luck. So, Bear goes off to find a four-leaf clover. His friends are not so supportive as he looks. The ending is a happy surprise just like we've come to expect from Foley. A great addition to this collection.

The other book that I bought was DUCK! RABBIT! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld. On the cover, there is a picture of a duck. Or is it a rabbit? Hmmm. It could be either and the book goes on to show you how. The book follows a kind of disagreement as to whether the drawing is that of a duck or that of a rabbit and each side of the disagreement tries to prove his point. This is one of those fun visuals that some people will see one way and others will see a different way. The author did a great job of turning the concept into a book for kids. I think kids will love the options and I can see lots of possibilities for talk and picture reading. A fun one to add to the library!

Another New Princess Book

I mentioned before that many of the readers that come into the library love to read about princesses. I am not even sure they want to read about princesses as much as they want to read books that are pink, purple, and glittery. I try lots of fairy tale princess stories that just don't match what these readers have in mind. So, I have been trying to pick up new princess stories.

This weekend I bought PRINCESS BESS GETS DRESSED by Margery Cuyler. The cover alone will make this book a hit--pink and purple, glitter, and a big, fancy dress. The book is a good one. It is written in rhyme which is fun. The book begins:

Princess Bess has loads of clothes
made with satin, snaps, and bows,
buckles, ribbons, silk, and lace,
pearly buttons sewn in place.

Princess Bess is a girl with a new outfit for every event in her day and this book takes us through a day of activities. Each activity requires a different outfit, but she really wanted to wear her FAVORITE things, which she keeps a secret. Bess is a happy, busy girl who does lots of princess things--lunch with the prince, ballet lessons, a joust and more. She is appropriately fancy for each event. But she is most happy at the end of the story when she is able to strip down to her underwear and says, "Now, I'm in my favorite clothes." Now that she is finished with the busy day and comfortable, she can fall asleep!

I liked the rhyme in the story. I liked Princess Bess--how she got through all of her daily activities without a frown is beyond me. Kids will like this book and they will be quite amused by the idea that her underwear are her favorite clothes. Definitely the humor that young children love!

CORETTA SCOTT

WOW! I just picked up CORETTA SCOTT by Ntozake Shange. I was expecting this book because I am a HUGE Kadir Nelson fan these days. I had seen the cover online and read a bit about it, but it so surpassed all that I was expecting. This is a gorgeous book about such an important lady.

The story of Coretta Scott King is told in poetry by Ntozake Shange. It is amazing poetry. Each page is a poem in itself and the pages work together perfectly. Not one word is wasted--each carries power as part of the story of Coretta. The first page reads:

some southern mornings
the moon
sits like an orange
sliver by the treetops

I like so much about this book--a review can't really do it justice. The writing is amazing. The illustrations are unbelievable. The cover is stunning. There is really no way I could have passed the book without buying it. The cover art draws you in and each illustration is as incredible as the one before it. Kadir Nelson at his best--I continue to be amazed at the quantity and quality of the work that he is doing.

When I opened it, I hadn't realized that it was a poem. I was expecting a more typical biography. Instead, Shange uses verse to tell the story of Coretta Scott King before and after she met Martin Luther King, Jr. The way that Shange creates a portait of Coretta in which she is her own person, and also a person connected to Martin Luther King, Jr. is important.

Like I said, no review could do this book justice at all. A very powerful and gorgeous book about an amazing woman.

Life and Death

Ways to Live Forever
by Sally Nicholls
Arthur A. Levine Books, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

I finished WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER on the drive to Tennessee last weekend. It was an experience much like the one I had when I finished reading EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS on the drive home from dog trials: words blurring, tears streaming down my face. EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS is set in a funeral home and has a pet dog in it, so I should have known what I was getting myself into. WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER begins like this:

1. My name is Sam.
2. I am eleven years old.
3. I collect stories and fantastic facts.
4. I have leukemia.
5. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead.

Both books are about death, and that might be reason enough for some to want to keep them out of the hands of children. But both books are also about life, and in my opinion, that's precisely the reason why children should read them. Just last week, we had a conversation in my fourth grade classroom in which one of the great truths of fiction came out: we read fiction as a way to enjoy and learn from the problems of the characters...from a safe distance. Children should read WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER so that they can get to know Sam through the collection of lists and questions and journal entries he writes in the last 4 months of his life. Sam examines death and dying from all possible angles, but on the flip side, Sam makes a list of 8 things he wants to do, and over the course of the book he accomplishes all 8 in some way, shape or form: this is a book about living.

What a contrast it was to put WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER back in my bag, dry the tears off my face, and begin to read THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. I went straight from the heart-wrenching misery of the death of a bright, talented child...to death as a matter-of-fact way of life as a child grows up in a cemetery, surrounded by and taught by ghosts. Whoa.

Despite the shift of perspective from "life looking at death" to "death looking at life," both books accomplish the same mission: they give the reader the safety of distance from which to consider life and death from all angles.

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK is woven through with history, mythology, and fantasy. It brings to mind Ray Bradbury's THE HALLOWEEN TREE and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. And of course, GRANDY THAXTER'S HELPER.

I didn't need a single Kleenex when I read THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, but it kept me on the edge of my seat for the rest of the drive to Nashville, and I opened it again before we left the city limits on the way back home to Ohio. When I closed the book at the end, I sat for a long time just thinking. About life. And about death.

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
illustrated by Dave McKean
HarperCollins, 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

A Possible Addition To "Cool Teachers in Children's Lit"

Today, Beth at Cover to Cover mentioned that Miss Hawthorn from the picture book WILLOW by Denise Brennan-Nelson and Rosemarie Brennan might be a good addition to our Cool Teachers list. So, I started to read the book and decided that Beth may have lost her mind. The first page begins with these words,

"Even on the sunniest days, Miss Hawthorn's art room was cold and dark. Everything was in its place. There wasn't a single broken crayon in the bunch. The students sat in their rows, silent and still, like eggs in a carton."

See why I thought Beth had lost her mind? But I trust Beth on books so I kept reading. It seems that everyone sits silently except for Willow. Willow is a creative spirit and sees things in her own way. Instead of painting brown trees with green leaves, Willow paints pink trees. Willow shares her own art book with her teacher and classmates. She continues to paint things that upset Miss Hawthorn, who frowns and mutters, "Horrid little girl."

I am sure you are wondering what I am possibly thinking, even considering adding Miss Hawthorn to our list... In our original Cool Teachers post we said:

"We're looking for thoughtful teachers who understand kids and learning and are active, intelligent people who love their work."

Miss Hawthorn may qualify because of the ending of this book. Throughout the rest of the story, Willow continues to be her wonderful self, sharing her own thoughts with Miss Hawthorn and others. She even gives Miss Hawthorn a few gifts. The last gift is her well-loved art book. (SPOILER AHEAD but I think you can figure it out anyway.) At the end of the book, Miss Hawthorn discovers her own creativity and her classroom becomes a place where everyone could be themselves!

So, Miss Hawthorn learned from her students. What could be better than that? She became a different kind of a teacher because she listened to the children who were in her class. She ended up becoming a teacher who valued each child's creativity. I think learning from your students and reflecting and changing your practice because of it definitely qualifies her to be on our list. What do you think?

LOVE THE CYBILS WINNERS!

So many of the books I love on this year's CYBILS award list! Congrats to the CYBILS team for another great year!

Poetry Friday -- Dark

WHY ARE YOUR POEMS SO DARK?
by Linda Pastan

Isn't the moon dark too,
most of the time?

And doesn't the white page
seem unfinished

without the dark stain
of alphabets?


The rest of the poem is here.
The round up this week is at Big A little a.


The moon was nearly full on Sunday night as we drove back from Tennessee.

It was not dark at all as it rose up through the winter trees.

But as is the way of the world, the moon's fullness and light lasted for only the briefest moment, and now it is moving back towards darkness again. Nothing full can stay.

When Did You Buy Into a New Tool?

I just read a post by Bill at Tech Intersect on "The True Digital Divide". An interesting post about people buying into or not buying into new tools that technology provides.

I remember years and years ago, sitting in our very first inservice on the internet. A mandated session, I believe.We were a young group of teachers. We were in a computer lab, each with our own computers and the speaker was teaching us about the internet and how to find things. As a group of elementary teachers who saw no connection to our work and saw no need to use this in our own lives, we sat passively doing what the instructor asked. But then, midway through the class, someone discovered that you could find phone numbers and addresses of old friends and boyfriends on the internet. Immediately the room perked up as we looked for people that we had known to see where they were and possibly what they were doing. We were amazed that we could do this and the energy in the room went up quickly. We were immediately hooked on this new tools and the possibilities of the information we could find. Instead of searching topics given to us by an instructor, we had found old friends who we could go home and reconnect with. (This seems like such a small thing now but it was a huge new thing years ago.) We quickly moved beyond this type of search as we wondered what other things we could find on the internet.

I'm not sure what this says about us or about the use of new tools except that users have to buy in and they won't buy in until they see something worthwhile and interesting. Until they have a reason to play with a tool to see what is possible. We don't all buy into the same tools at the same time. Often I need to see what other people can do with a tool before I decide whether or not the tool is worth the time it will take to learn it. Twitter is a perfect example of that. There are so many options out there that I have learned to take my time and choose wisely. I don't feel that I need to be an expert on every tool.

I don't use tech because it makes me a good role model. I use it because it adds meaning to lots that I do. I can't imagine living without the tools that add to my networks and learning and entertainment. I think teachers need to first see how new tools can enhance their own lives and learning. Then, they will find ways to embed those new tools into their teaching.

In Toby Fischer's post at Future of Education, he talks about the importance of educators taking on the role of technology user. For me right now, that is where my thinking and learning is. Committing to using these new tools in way that fit into my life. I will need to think further about implications for the classroom but committing to using the tools will surely impact my teaching.