20th Annual Dublin Literacy Conference Series

Saturday's DUBLIN LITERACY CONFERENCE was great fun! So many great speakers and authors. This year was the 20th year for the conference. It is a conference planned by teachers in the Dublin City Schools. Between 600 and 800 teachers from around Ohio (and beyond) attend each year. This year's was another great year of learning and conversations.

Many of the concurrent sessions are run by classroom teachers, librarians, administrators, etc. We also hire keynote and featured speakers for many of the sessions. This year, we had 4 professional authors and 5 children's authors. Throughout the week, we will be sharing highlights, new books and new thinking from this year's conference.

I picked up Asma Mobin-Uddin's upcoming book A PARTY IN RAMADAN. A great book and so happy to have a copy. This is the story of Leena, who is invited to a party on the first day of Ramadan. The story takes us through Leena's day--fasting while at a party with friends. As a reader, I learned some of the things that are important about fasting on this day and what the day might be like for some children. A great story by a great author. This book is due out in spring. If you don't know her other books, MY NAME IS BILAL and THE BEST EID EVER, they are all great books --I can't keep the Eid book in the library. The author's website is also full of great resources--children's booklists, columns, information about author visits, and more. So glad I was able to get to know this author and her newest book!

Poetry Friday -- Sleepers Awake

SLEEPERS AWAKE
by John Ashbery

Cervantes was asleep when he wrote Don Quixote.
Joyce slept during the Wandering Rocks section of Ulysses.
Homer nodded and occasionally slept during the greater part of the Iliad; he was awake however when he wrote the Odyssey.
Proust snored his way through The Captive, as have legions of his readers after him.
Melville was asleep at the wheel for much of Moby-Dick.
Fitzgerald slept through Tender Is the Night, which is perhaps not so surprising,
but the fact that Mann slumbered on the very slopes of The Magic Mountain is quite extraordinary—that he wrote it, even more so.
Kafka, of course, never slept, even while not writing or on bank holidays.
No one knows too much about George Eliot’s writing habits—my guess is she would sleep a few minutes, wake up and write something, then pop back to sleep again.
Lew Wallace’s forty winks came, incredibly, during the chariot race in Ben-Hur.
Emily Dickinson slept on her cold, narrow bed in Amherst.
When she awoke there would be a new poem inscribed by Jack Frost on the windowpane; outside, glass foliage chimed.
Good old Walt snored as he wrote and, like so many of us, insisted he didn’t.
Maugham snored on the Riviera.
Agatha Christie slept daintily, as a woman sleeps, which is why her novels are like tea sandwiches—artistic, for the most part.
I sleep when I cannot avoid it; my writing and sleeping are constantly improving.

I have other things to say, but shall not detain you much.
(those other things are here)



Cuileann has the round up this week is at The Holly and the Ivy.

SHOULD WE HAVE PETS? A PERSUASIVE TEXT

I have loved SHOULD THERE BE ZOOS? for years. This book was written by Tony Stead and a class of 4th graders. The persuasive essays argue for or against zoos and it is one of the best mentor texts I have found for persuasive writing for elementary students. Last month, a member of the English Companion NING shared a related title SHOULD WE HAVE PETS by Sylvia Lollis, Joyce Hogan and her second-grade class. My copy arrived in the mail today.

SHOULD WE HAVE PETS is clearly modeled after SHOULD THERE BE ZOOS? Another great sample of persuasive text but one written by younger students. This one follows the same format of SHOULD THERE BE ZOOS? Pairs of children share their own opinion on whether or not we should have pets and focus on one reason to support their argument. At the end of the book, the writers ask you to form your own opinion based on what you read. They also share the process they went through when writing the book. A glossary and index are included.

The thing I like about this one, that seems different from the other, is the use of visuals. The students use photographs to add more meaning to their arguments. For example, when Franklin and Roshanda argue that we should not have pets because so many people abuse their pets, 3 photos of animals being treated poorly add to the information in the text. I can see minilessons on the ways that visuals support an argument because the photos are used very purposefully in this book.

It is hard to find good persuasive text for young students so I am definitely glad I found this one. Anxious to share it with kids!

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?