Fun Finds

Here are the states I've visited.

What can I say? Long road trips used to be a way of life! Think Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon. (Thanks to Tricia, at The Miss Rumphius Effect, for the link.)

create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

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On a completely different note, Yahoo! is preparing to launch Yahoo!Teachers. "Get ready! It's coming...The easy-to-use site and peer network designed by and for teachers. Get ready to create, modify and share standards-based curriculum." Like Bud the Teacher (thanks for the link), I'm still a little leery about this (and, no, my school isn't in their network, either). Additionally, BtheT brings up some other details/angles/slants about which I wasn't even aware...Google Certified Teachers? Yahoo Teachers of Merit? Here's a little peer networking: if you need to belong to a group of really smart literacy educators, all you really need is Choice Literacy. Sign up for the free weekly newsletter. You'll see.

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This has to be ab.so.lute.ly the CUTEST baby picture ever! Can you tell that mom is a member of the Kidlitosphere?!? Congrats, Stephanie (Children's Literature Book Club)!

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And this fun find comes to you from the lobby of the doctor's office. I was in for a "how many ways can you start to fall apart" kind of appointment on Friday morning. A mother, grandmother, and two little (3 years? 4? I can never tell...) twin boys were leaving just as I sat down to wait. One of the boys approached the automatic sliding glass doors, raised his arms and said, "OPEN, SESAME!" And, like magic, the doors opened. Mom said, "Let 'Other Kid' do these," and the other boy magically opened the second set of doors.

Let's not forget that magic is real and alive and it's as close as the doors in the doctor's office. In case you don't walk around with twin preschool boys to show you the magic, you might need to get in touch with your own inner preschooler to find it, but it's there. The magic is there. It doesn't leave when we grow older. We leave it. But it's still there, waiting, any time we're ready to say, "Open Sesame!"

Poetry Friday -- Did I Miss Anything?

Don't you love Poetry 180? The idea of a poem a day for high schoolers, to be read over the announcements, is brilliant.

Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate, is brilliant.

I have both volumes of the poems because I can just about guarantee that if I open either one anywhere, I can find an accessible and spot-on poem. Which is what I did today.

Today's poem goes out to anyone who struggles sometimes to keep up with life, with (school) work, with parenting, with blogging (reading and/or writing), and with all the rest of everything that gets dumped on the plate you're trying desperately to keep balanced. It's for all those times when we wanted to be there, but just couldn't make it.

(the whole poem is here)

DID I MISS ANYTHING?
by Tom Wayman

Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 percent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I’m about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 percent

.
.
.

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human experience
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
gathered

but it was one place

And you weren’t here

All That (and a bag of chips)

A Year of Reading has been honored by Wild Rose Reader with a poem in our honor today! Check out her poem of address written as a FAX to Pluto, informing Pluto of its demotion from planet to dwarf. It is the perfect companion to an earlier poem that she wrote when Pluto was first demoted. Thanks, Elaine!

AND...

We have been selected as Thinking Bloggers by InlandEmpireGirl at Gathering Around the Table. What an honor!

InlandEmpireGirl's blog is full of recipes, gardening tips, thoughts on teaching and writing, and GORGEOUS photographs! Go check it out.

Here are some blogs that make US think:

Borderland writes indepth posts about education issues and about his classroom in Alaska.
PunditMom tackles politics and motherhood.
The Miss Rumphius Effect shares great thematic book lists that she uses in her teacher education courses.
Julius Lester's A Commonplace Book is a feast for the eyes as well as a place that makes us (and others) think. His "Books That Changed Your Life" series is fascinating. Educating Alice's Monica Edinger is featured today, and she's another blogger that makes us think hard about our teaching and our students' learning.

HEY BATTA BATTA SWING! THE WILD OLD DAYS OF BASEBALL

I can already predict that this will be a new favorite during our class's Nonfiction Reading Time. HEY BATTA BATTA SWING! is a great new nonfiction book by Sally Cook and James Charlton. This is one of those longer-size picture books, about 45 pages. The book shares lots of interesting stories about baseball history. The illustrations give you the feel of the old days in baseball. The writing is perfect for kids in the middle elementary/early middle school grades. The narrative is good and easy to follow. The author embeds words and their definitions throughout the books. The subheadings help readers know what is ahead. I have been on the lookout for nonfiction books that invite readers to read cover to cover. So many that I have in my classroom have more of a magazine layout. This one is definitely one that you'd read from front to back. An enjoyable read with lots of interesting new info about baseball!

Graphic Novels in Education

I'm impressed. The lag time between the explosion of graphic novels and ideas for what else to do with them in the classroom besides let kids read them has been fairly short.

The NCTE Inbox Blog has information about a new NCTE professional book, Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel by Panel, ed. James Bucky Carter. Unfortunately for elementary teachers, this book is for teachers in grades 7-12.

However, the ReadWriteThink lesson "The Comic Book Show and Tell" looks as if it could be adapted for younger readers and writers. Especially nice is the Comic Vocabulary Interactive, which gives definitions and visual examples of text, layout and design, and angles. I'd like to gather multiple copies of BabyMouse books from the library (once again, what would I do without the public library?!?!) and try to adapt this lesson for my graphic novel-obsessed 5th graders.

"Graphic novels and comic books provide rich opportunities to explore multimodal literacy. They’re anything but simple. The sophisticated relationships among images and words and layout encourage deep thinking and critical analysis. If we can help students “get” graphic novels, we will simultaneously teach them the literacy strategies they need for navigating many of the other multimodal texts they encounter in their daily lives." Traci Gardner, NCTE Inbox Blog

James Bucky Carter's Blog EN/SANE World
Graphic Novel Reviews for kids and teens at No Flying No Tights
Cybils Graphic Novel Finalists

Dexter the Tough

I just finished reading DEXTER THE TOUGH by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I am a big Haddix fan. For starters, she is from Ohio. And I became totally hooked on her SHADOW CHILDREN series. She has written several great middle great books lately--THE GIRL WITH 500 MIDDLE NAMES and SAY WHAT? My very favorite by Margaret Peterson Haddix is BECAUSE OF ANYA--an amazing story about a girl who is dealing with the loss of her hair.

So, I was thrilled to see a new book for this age group. Each of Haddix's books for middle readers deals with a real-life issue. The issues all make for lots of thinking and great conversations. Haddix does a great job of writing about issues in ways that are appropriate for students in grades 3-5. She takes on big issues and helps us come to know the character as he/she deals with it.

DEXTER THE TOUGH is a short novel--144 pages. Dexter has just moved to a new school. He is having a bad first day. He is angry about his life and we find out, as the story unfolds, that his father is going through aggressive cancer treatment, so his parents have sent him to live with his grandmother during treatment. He covers his pain with anger but grows as he makes a friend. I think this would be great book for a book talk in the middle grades.

An Interview With Rose Kent--Author Of Kimchi and Calamari

I am VERY excited about today's release of KIMCHI and CALAMARI by Rose Kent. I read and reviewed it earlier when I had received an advanced copy. As a member of the adoption community AND as a fan of great children's books, I can't say enough about this book. I interviewed Rose to celebrate the publication of this book! Franki: What inspired you to write Kimchi and Calamari? Rose: My inspiration came wrapped in a diaper and drinking a bottle of soymilk, all the way from South Korea. I'm referring to Connor, my third child, who we nicknamed Buddha Baba because of his plump cheeks and glowing smile. Adopting Connor was a true joy and believe me that's how I felt. But I also realized early on that it also involved a primal loss for him. I remember holding him in my arms and worrying about how he would cope later, especially during puberty, a natural time for such reflection. I knew I couldn't spare him from some hurt, but I wanted him to know that I "got it"- that who he was as a person didn't begin the moment he arrived in America. So while Joseph's story is all his own, KIMCHI & CALAMARI came from a place where I wanted to connect with kids reflecting on their identities. And it isn't just adopted kids needing this knowledge; all kids do. I love that old proverb that says children need to know their roots to develop their wings. Nobody cruises through middle school without some struggle to figure out who they are and where they fit in. Franki: What do you hope readers come away with? Rose: Above all else, I hope they enjoy a juicy page-turner that makes them laugh and think a bit. We authors love giving readers a bit of a roller coaster. And I would like kids to relate to Joseph, since he has both unique and every kid qualities. I try not to preach in KIMCHI & CALAMARI - we writers at best are storytellers. Yet I do feel that kids today are pulled in different directions. Because he's adopted, Joseph calls himself an "ethnic sandwich." Other kids feel "sandwiched" by interests, expectations, friend groups, perhaps divorce, different ethnicities, the list goes on. No matter what the pulls, I think kids need to understand that who they are, in all its varying pieces is okay. They are okay. Franki: What kind of response are you getting from the adoption community? Rose: It's been wonderful. Adoption Family Magazine was kind enough to review KIMCHI & CALAMARI this month, and Multicultural Review will be covering it soon too. And I've been able to speak to families at a number of adoption conferences and meetings. The feedback that most pleases me is when adopted kids tell me they related to Joseph -- that he felt real to them. And several adoption cultural camps will be using the book for discussion this summer, and that makes me happy too. Franki: I love how realistic it is. I love how the birthmother search does not stop other things from happening in his life. How did you decide to have it work that way? Rose: Well I know that nothing in families occurs in a vacuum. I'm the mom of four children and stepmom of two children, ranging from 20-years-old down to eight. The same day that one of my older children was experiencing her first boyfriend break up, another was whooping it up over his All Star team win. Meanwhile, dinner was burning and someone else was yelling because he there was no soap in the shower. Life is one big mishmash of joys-struggles-and absurdities all packed in twenty-hour hours at a time, so I couldn't make Joseph's search for his birth parent be the only happening in his middle school life. I did, though, try to show respect for the significance of such a search and what it meant to Joseph. Franki: I believe that books are a great way for kids to make sense of the world. Are there books that did this for your children as they were growing up? Rose: Yes, Franki, many. My older kids still recall many touching books we read together, such as A WRINKLE IN TIME, MRS. FRISBY & THE RATS OF NYMPH, SKELLIG and REDWALL. As a teacher I bet you'll agree that special characters stay with you forever. We hear the term character development a lot in education these days, and I really feel kids learn a lot of the right stuff, if you will, from fiction -- when characters step up, in spite of struggle and do the right thing. This is really topical because my family recently experienced a death of a close friend. This was my younger children's first close encounter with death, and we'd just finished reading EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS by Deborah Wiles together. My daughter Theresa echoed back words Comfort Snowberger had spoken to comfort herself and her cousin Peach after the deaths of Great-great Aunt Florentine and Great Uncle Edesto. The story gave Theresa strength to deal with her grief. Franki: Your characters are immediately likable and you were able to portray the feelings of all family members and friends realistically when it came to the birthmother search. Was this autobiographical or based on other things? Rose: Thanks, Franki. Well I don't turn my friends and family into characters. They wouldn't like it and I don't think it would ring true. I do, though, try to tap into feelings that are real and relatable, and of course as an adoptive mom that's what I did in KIMCHI & CALAMARI. I've had many talks with people touched by adoption, including adoptees, birth mothers and adoptive parents, and those feelings fed into Joseph's search for his birthmother. I wanted to show that in this search, Joseph was not only looking for his birthmother, but also himself. Franki: The school project was an interesting one. The whole issue started with that assignment. What made you choose that as the main catalyst for the problem? Rose: I'm a great believer in the value of thoughtful school assignments. I remember a teacher-friend assigning an essay to her students at the start of the new year explaining the origins of the student's name. I loved that idea. Not only do these assignments involve writing, but they get kids talking to their parents, beyond the logistical chatter we all experience at home. Of course the ancestry essay represented a sticky point for Joseph who was adopted, but in the end, writing it helped him make realizations about himself. Franki: How did your children respond to KIMCHI & CALAMARI? Rose: My kids would be first to tell you they deserve mucho credit for Joseph's voice, and they are right. I often read sections of KIMCHI & CALAMARI to them, and they'd give me feedback on not only the plot, but also if the voice worked. And you know how kids are; they don't mince words. If Joseph didn't sound fourteen and boyish, they'd shout out "Uggh!" or "That's goofy, Mom!" Now that the book is coming out, they are very excited. It's also been a nice way for my adopted children to continue conversations about their origins. But as with many mothers who have jobs and other responsibilities, Mom the Author is quickly forgotten when Mom the Cook or Mom the Chauffer is needed! Franki: Are you working on any new books? Rose: I'm finishing up a novel about a girl who moves to upstate NY from Texas with her mom and deaf brother to open an ice cream shop. (This is a tasty story to research. :)) And my other work-in- progress is a baseball story, in tribute to the men in my life and their maniac obsession with this game--I live with a Yankee fan, a Mets fan, and a member of Red Sox nation. Now there's true diversity. (For another great interview with Rose Kent, visit Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog.)

New Versions of Old Favorites

I just came across two versions of old favorites. There are lots of these out there and I always wonder what attracts me to the ones I purchase. I have a large collection of picture books in my room and a whole shelf full of different versions of various "favorite stories".

OUT OF THE EGG by Tina Matthews is a new version of THE LITTLE RED HEN. As usual, the Little Red Hen does all of the work (this time planting a tree) and the Fat Cat, the Dirty Rat and the Greedy Pig have no interest in helping. But this Little Red Hen also lays an egg and a little red chick is born. The baby chick teaches his mother a good lesson about sharing. A great surprise ending makes this a great one!

GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS by Caralyn Buehner drew me in with the cover illustrations. The illustrator Mark Buehner, illustrated SNOWMEN AT NIGHT, a favorite at our house. The bear family on the cover looks so....friendly. You can tell it will be a great version of this story. The story is basically the same, but this Goldilocks is full of energy and rhyme. When she sees the 3 chairs, Goldilocks says, "Big chair, middle chair, little chair too, Somebody's here to bounce on you!" She proceeds to jump rope on each of the chairs. Goldilocks proceeds through the house with her jumprope. Her facial expressions are worth a closer look. I like this one because it stays true to the story but the author/illustrator team have given it a new energy.

GIVING NEW READERS A DIET OF MORE THAN LEVELED BOOKS

I just wrote an article for Choice Literacy about the limits of leveled books. It includes a booklist of great books for new readers if you are interested. Here is the beginning of it.


GIVING NEW READERS A DIET OF MORE THAN LEVELED BOOKS

I am going on another diet. Not one of my favorite things, but something I have to do. I know that for the diet to last through all of the weight I need to lose, I need a little variety. I can't eat lettuce, grilled chicken and oatmeal for months at a time. When I have gone on diets without variety, I have always ended up deciding that I'd rather just be a little plump. It isn't really worth it.

I am wondering if this is the same thing that our youngest readers feel when they are given only a diet of leveled books. I wonder if after months and months of leveled books as their only independent reading material, they feel as we chronic dieters do. Do they watch other students in the room reading "real books" in the same way that we watch size 5 colleagues in the lounge eating brownies? Do they think maybe they'd just rather not be readers? (Click here for the rest of the article on the Choice Literacy Website.)

Poetry Friday: Tour America

Tour America: A Journey Through Poems and Art
by Diane Siebert
Illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson
Review copy courtesy of Chronicle Books

Poetry Friday roundup this week at Big A little a.


Here's another book that would prompt these questions for my students: "Where in the library should this book be shelved? Is it poetry? Nonfiction? Geography? Art?"

Our social studies standards say that every fifth grader in the state should be able to

Use maps to identify the location of:
a. The three largest countries of North America;
b. The 50 states of the United States;
c. The Rocky and Appalachian mountain systems;
d. The Mississippi, Rio Grande and St. Lawrence rivers;
e. The Great Lakes.

Wouldn't it be fun to study the way Siebert and Johnson have highlighted, with poetry and art, the 22 states in TOUR AMERICA, and then try to make a supplemental volume that features the other 28 states? Or make a volume specific to the natural beauty, the historical significance, the unique events, and the known (or unknown landmarks) of your state or city?

Author Interview

Awards: School Library Journal Starred Review, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, Cybils Honor Book

Reviews:
Wordswimmer
Bartography
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