Reading Brings the World to Our Doorstep

Bamboo People
by Mitali Perkins

Charlesbridge Publishing, 2010

review copy provided by the publisher

It's one thing to read about the current conflict in Myrnmar (formerly Burma) in the news, but it's another when the world comes to life through the characters in the book you're reading. If middle school students could read this book at the same time they are studying some of the historic conflicts in US history -- the Civil Rights Movement and race issues, the removal of native peoples to reservations -- they might better understand the warning about history repeating itself.

Chiko, son of a doctor, is hoping to become a teacher. When he answers an ad for a teaching job, he is conscripted in the Burmese army. Chiko's story is contrasted with that of Tu Reh, one of the ethnic minorities on the other side in the conflict. Their stories intersect. Choices must be made. Both boys grow in understanding and compassion.



Boys Without Names

by Kashmira Sheth

Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins), 2010

review copy provided by the publisher

Middle schoolers studying migrant labor or homeless issues in the US could read this book and expand their study to include child labor and third world sweatshop industries.

Gopal's family moves from rural India to Mumbai to escape debt. They become separated from his father and Gopal wants to try to earn money for their family. He meets someone who promises him a factory job, but who drugs and kidnaps him to work in an attic sweatshop with 5 other boys making beaded frames. Through storytelling, the boys learn to trust one another enough to escape from their cruel boss.

Do You Know Adora Svitak?

I had the opportunity to hear and to meet Adora Svitak at BLC10 last week. (She is pictured here with Meredith Melragon.) Adora is a 12 year-old girl, committed to making sure kids have the voice they deserve. I think as teachers, Adora is someone we need to know. Her work and message are important. Adora spoke in Ohio this winter but I was unable to hear her talk. I did get to watch her TED Talk. WHAT ADULTS CAN LEARN FROM KIDS and I so loved that I got to hear her in person. Adora gave the closing keynote on the first day of BLC10 and her message was powerful. She is working to help everyone, especially educators, see the need for students as real leaders. She began her talk by asking us what we think of when we think of leaders. She then went on to show us the definition of leadership and reminded us that nowhere in the definition does it say that leaders need to be adults. Instead, leadership is the ability to guide, direct and influence people. She continued with her beliefs about why kids can and do make wonderful leaders. She told us about FREE THE CHILDREN, KIDS VS GLOBAL WARMING ALEX'S LEMONADE STAND, and the DAYFINDER app created by a 15 year old.

Adora also told us about an exciting TEDx conference that will be held on September 18--TEDx REDMOND: Power to the Students . Adora is hosting this conference and it sounds amazing. Take some time to learn about the speakers at TEDx Redmond. I plan to spend some time today learning about these amazing people. This talk resonated for me because if you saw my slides from my Literacies for All Session, you know that one of the things I am most excited about these days is the voice that children have and the difference they make in the world. I believe this time in the world is amazing because kids have the tools to be given the global voice they deserve. They are finding passions and doing things that matter. It is something I believe strongly in and something I am committed to. I don't think it is enough to have kids collect pennies or winter coats for a cause teachers determine matters. I agree completely with Adora when she asks us to question the quote, "Children are the leaders of tomorrow." She asks, "Why shouldn't children be leaders today?"

Adora is also a writer. She has published several books and articles. She wants kids to love reading and writing and has created pieces to help do that. I picked up DANCING FINGERS: SELECTED POEMS AND WRITING INSPIRATIONS FROM TWO SISTERS, a book that she wrote with her sister, Adrianna. The introduction to the book begins with these words, "Adora and Adrianna Svitak believe that age should not be a limiting factor when it comes to expressing creativity and imagination through writing and music." This is a book of poetry--but it is more than an anthology. The book is filled with poems written by Adora and Adrianna, but it is also an inspirational book for writers. The book is divided into sections such as Animal Poems, Poems about the wild, Poems inspired by olden times and more. Each section has inviting readers to try different things in their writing. Then the sisters share poems of their own. An amazing book packed with great writing and great inspiration. I am looking excited about adding this book to our school library. Adora also has a book called FLYING FINGERS: MASTER THE TOOLS OF LEARNING THROUGH THE JOY OF WRITING when she was seven.

I feel honored to have heard Adora speak, to have met her in person, and to know more about her work.

Planning for NCTE in November

The Children's Literature Assembly of NCTE hosts a one-day workshop the Monday after the annual conference (this year: Monday, November 22, 9:00-3:30). The theme of this year's workshop is

Literacy and the Arts:

Books that Inspire the Visual Artist, Poet, and Musician in All of Us.

Authors and illustrators that will participate this year include: Bryan Collier (Uptown), Doreen Rappaport (Jack's Path of Courage: The Life of John F. Kennedy), David Diaz (Me, Frida), Laban Carrick Hill (Harlem Stomp), Hester Bass and E.B. Lewis (The Secret World of Walter Anderson), and Marilyn Singer (Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse).

Hope to see you there!

November Learning--Building Learning Communities 2010

I attended one of the best conferences ever last week. My husband, Scott and I attended November Learning's BLC conference in Boston. WOW! It was an amazing experience. Every minute was worth it.

Alan November and his staff ran an unbelievable conference for educators across the world. This conference was one that I had heard about for a while and one that seemed worth going to. I had heard so many good things. When I first heard of Alan November and had the chance to hear him when he spoke in Ohio, my friend, Bill Bass said he was a "Presenter Ninja"! After hearing him speak and hearing more about BLC, I knew I had to go. Not only is Alan November a Presenter Ninja, but he is also a Conference Planning Ninja. He runs a conference that is life-changing for many who attend. It was not my usual--I typically attend literacy conferences and have been immersed in the literacy world for a while. One of the things I love about what Web 2.0 tools are allowing us to do is to connect groups of people that might not normally connect. So this was a new kind of learning for me and I am so glad I stretched myself a bit.

The conference was really not a tech conference, but more about learning and education. One of the things that was important to me was that every speaker had the same beliefs and philosophies about education and the same optimism about what is possible. Technology was definitely a part of everything, but the way tech is being used by the experts here is based in good learning theory. The belief in children and learning was ubiquitous.

Every minute was amazing. Every single session that I attended was worthwhile and gave me so much to think about.

All of the keynote speakers that we heard were amazing. The morning keynotes were given by Mitch Resnick, Michael Wesch, and Rahaf Harfoush. I can't even begin to share all of the thinking these people inspired. Adora Svitak was an afternoon keynote that I heard. I will post more about Adora later this week.

The conference also gave me an opportunity to hear, in person, some people who I have been learning about through blogs and twitter for a while. It was such a great experience to hear presentations given by so many people who have shared their work so willingly online. I will share more as I make sense of all I learned, but if you are looking for new people to follow or learn from, the people I heard have so much to offer through their blogs, twitter accounts, etc.

Since I took the semi-new job as a librarian, Joyce Valenza's work has been so important to my own thinking. Even though she is a high school librarian, her vision for her role has been very inspiring to me. I was able to hear two of Joyce's sessions at BLC and they were amazing. She shared about 10,000 new things--tools, sites, ideas that I need to explore further. If I could just be like Joyce Valenza in my own role...She definitely gave me so much to work toward.

I have been an Angela Maiers fan for a while. We share similar beliefs about elementary literacy instruction. She was actually one of the people who encouraged me to attend the conference and it was great to meet her in person. I was able to attend her session on writing (which I will write more about later this week). She has so many great resources on her site and it was powerful to hear her thinking in person.

I was also able to hear Lee Kolbert. So many of us in Dublin follow her on Twitter and read her blog regularly. It was great to hear the honest work that she is doing with kids. She is doing such amazing things with her students and was honest about the challenges that come with web 2.0 and elementary kids. Loved meeting her too!

I was also able to hear Marco Torres and Jeff Utecht. Marco gave me so many ideas about film and documentaries and Jeff Utech spoke about blended classrooms.

I also found new people to learn from:
Kathy Cassidy, an amazing 1st grade teacher.
Sue Miller and Valerie Becker from http://www.westtisbury-ma.gov/ who shared the work done in Sue's 5th grade classroom. (4 students presented with them in this session.)

Zoe Sprankle (Bob Sprankle's daughter) was a part of Angela Maiers' session. I will be sharing more about what I learned from her later in the week.

Shelley Paul shared her work with teachers and her course on teaching Web 2.0 tools. I had not heard her before but it was clear that her work is so powerful for teachers.

I captured pages and pages of my thinking on Evernote and can't wait to dig in and make sense of it all. I also took lots of pictures, as did other BLC10 participants.

I will be sharing more about the conference throughout the week. I have not had a learning experience like this one in years. I am anxious to make sense of it all and to continue my learning. The dates for 2011 are already set for late July and I am already looking forward to it. This conference is rather addicting. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who wants an amazing learning experience.

10 Things that I am Excited About When It Comes to Teaching and Learning

I put together this slide show for a presentation at Literacies for All Summer Institute in Indianapolis. I loved putting it together. Here is my thinking behind it. Sometimes it feels like it is a hard time to be in education. But it is also the most exciting time to be a teacher. There are so many things to be excited about. I realized how many new things I am excited about these days and I wanted to share them in my talk. I think as teachers we need to find a bit more time to share the things we are exciting about--new things we are discovering, new learning, etc. So, I am making that a mission for the year--paying more attention to the things I am excited about in education today and sharing those with others.

Below is the slideshow I used at the conference a few weeks ago. I am not sure how much sense it will make without the story behind each slide. But maybe you'll find something worthwhile there. All of the links that go with the slides are on my website (www.frankisibberson.com). If you see a slide that you want to know more about, go to the site and find the link. Some slides show videos, some have information on a new tool for kids, etc. All of the links to those things are on the site. Hope you find something to get excited about and then share it out. Then maybe someone else will find something to be excited about and they'll share it....

Poetry Friday -- Going Back Home

GOING BACK
by Gregory Djanikian

We have been cruising, half a block
at a time, my wife, my two children,
all morning, and I have been pointing out
unhurriedly and with some feeling
places of consequence, sacred places,
backyards, lush fields, garages, alleyways.
“There,” I say, “by this big cottonwood,
That’s where I dropped the fly ball, 1959.”
“And in 1961,” I say, “at this very corner,
Barry Sapolsky tripped me up with his gym bag.”
My son has fallen asleep, my daughter
has been nodding “yes” indiscriminately
for the last half hour, and my wife
has the frozen, wide-eyed look of the undead.

(the rest of the poem is at the Poetry Foundation)

I'm leaving tomorrow to go home for a week. I will walk and drive around town remembering the minutiae of my growing up years in much the same way Djanikian remembers his. The Ben Franklin where I worked one Christmas break and where I bought macrame and decoupage supplies. The sewing shop where I took lessons. (I think we made halter tops.) The monkey bars Jay fell off head first in 4th grade. The smell of Orth's Department store. The library (now the City Offices). The swimming pool where I spent most every waking hour of every summer from ages 5-18. The alley where we detonated Matchbox cars with firecrackers every Fourth of July. The lilac bushes I picked flowers from on the walk to school to take to my teachers, assuring them that yes, the flowers were from our yard, when they knew good and well that there were no lilacs in our yard. And places that now exist only in memory: the pond at the old golf course, the old swimming pool, the bowling alley/roller skating rink, the Dairy Queen.

What's your favorite memory of your hometown?

Heidi has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at my juicy little universe. Head on over and leave your links there.

Poetry Friday Roundup

Change of plans:

Heidi at my juicy little universe has the roundup this week!

Learning History Through Story

WOODS RUNNER and STORYTELLER are two very different books that have compelling similarities. Both are set during the American Revolution, and both have young main characters whose families are torn apart by the war and who must overcome extraordinary odds in order to bring their families back together.

Between many of the chapters of WOODS RUNNER, Gary Paulsen weaves short chunks of nonfiction about a variety of Revolutionary War topics that pertain to the story -- frontier life, the weapons used in the war, who fought for each side and why and how, the roles of the civilians, the treatment of prisoners, and more.

Patricia Reilly Giff weaves the stories of two girls -- Elizabeth in modern times, and her ancestor Zee in Revolutionary War times. As Elizabeth learns more about her ancestor and about the war, she learns to value herself and her family.

Neither of these books gives their readers a complete and encyclopedic knowledge of the entire Revolutionary War, but they both do what a text book cannot do for a beginning historian age 9-14 -- they invite the reader into the period through story and help the reader to understand at a human level how war changes lives in immediate and long-lasting ways.

Woods Runner

by Gary Paulsen

Wendy Lamb Books, 2010

review copy provided by the publisher

Other reviews:

bestbookihavenotread

Great Kid Books

Literate Lives

Storyteller

by Patricia Reilly Giff

Wendy Lamb Books, 2010

on shelves in September, read in ARC received at ALA

BANANAGRAMS BOOK FOR KIDS

We visited Kids Ink Children's Bookstore in Indianapolis this week. It was a great bookstore with so many great books.

I was excited to pick up BANANAGRAMS FOR KIDS--a puzzle book to go along with the Bananagrams game. The Bananagrams game was popular with lots of kids in the library last year. Kids who played it often became quite hooked to the game. I think this book might get even more kids interested in the game. We have 6 sets of the game in the library and there is usually one being played by someone.

There are 130 puzzles in this book. Each page has a different type of puzzle. The directions on each page vary. For example, some ask you to use all of the letters to solve a riddle while others ask you to use letter tiles in different ways. (You can see some examples if you go to the "Search Inside" link on amazon.) Kids can use the Bananagrams tiles to solve the puzzles. There is a huge variety of things they can do and I imagine some kids will begin to create their own riddles. I plan to cut this book apart so that it is more usable for kids. I am thinking it would make a great beginning of the year wall display--set up with the game. I envision a wall with several of these mounted inviting kids and families visiting the library to give them a try. Then a basket with the remaining pages (laminated and placed in a cute basket) on the table with the games.

Just another invitation into the game and into word play for kids!

Literacies For All Summer Institute

The theme for NCTE's Whole Language Umbrella "Literacies for All Summer Institute" was

Reflecting on Our Practice: Pathways and Possibilities

Kathryn Mitchell Pierce, a writing teacher, and Edward Kastner, a computer art and photography teacher kicked off the conference with a description of a collaborative PhotoVoice project they did with middle school students. What a fabulous project with so many possibilities for students of all ages. I'm inspired to figure out how I can get digital cameras for my students to take home...

Friday's featured speaker was Eric Paulson, who showed us a fascinating "map" of a reader's eye movements when reading a variety of texts. He discussed the implications of eye movements on miscue analysis. Fascinating!

NCTE past president Kylene Beers and her colleague Robert Probst talked about "a new set of strategies we'll call Notice and Note Mini-lessons that we're using with struggling readers to help them read a literary text more critically." I can't wait to try these strategies with my fourth graders! Here I am with Kylene, Robert and Katie Van Sluys, solving Kylene's Google Reader problem.

Franki and I took a little field trip to Indianapolis' independent children's book store, Kids Ink. We also visited the cupcake shop next door to the bookstore, and the bistro next door to the cupcake shop. It's a marvelously dangerous little neighborhood!

On Saturday, we started the day with children's author Kevin O'Malley giving us a "funny and irreverent look at the world of boys and men in publishing."

Bess Altwerger, Brian Cambourne and Richard Meyer led a fascinating discussion on the future of whole language.

Beatrice Mazoyer, Hadley Smillie and Katie Van Sluys gave their perspectives on the importance of share time in the writing workshop.

We ventured into downtown Indianapolis for dinner Saturday night with David and Pat Schultz. What a fun restaurant!

Franki closed the conference on Sunday morning by "Making the Joy of Teaching and Learning Contagious." You can tell by the joy on the faces below that she was successful! (With Dorothy Watson and Rudine Simms Bishop; with Bess Altwerger and Katie Van Sluys; Katie Van Sluys and me.)