Writing that lasts for more than a day | Connected: Literacy for Generation Z by Dr. Julie Wood | Blogs about Reading | Reading Rockets

Writing that lasts for more than a day | Connected: Literacy for Generation Z by Dr. Julie Wood | Blogs about Reading | Reading Rockets

Three Pigs by David Weisner

The Three Pigs by David Weisner is a wonderful deviation from the normal fairy tale. Although the story starts out  the same with the little pigs gathering materials and heading out to build their various structures the wolf ends up blowing the first little pig right out of the story. Only David Weisner with his brilliant artistic sense could create such a departure. He takes the reader in and out of stories allowing the little pig to fill his curiosity by jumping in and out of stories while the pig remains stuck. 

As a teacher I would use this book to begin "What if" discussions and see where the students were willing to go. This would be a great imaginative exercise allowing the students to flex their creative muscles. I also like the way that Weisner begins the known tale in the same way but is able to take the reader and seemingly the pigs on a wild adventure. It's exciting to read and the pictures make the adventures come alive. This is a great book for K-3 but I can also think of many activities to help older students learn to take risks in their writing. 

The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster and Chris Raschka
Caldecott Medal (2006)


This story is about a window, a magical window for one little girl. It's her Nana and Popa's kitchen window and to her it's a gateway in which everything exciting happens near it. Whether she is looking through it, beyond it or near it the window captures the ordinary and she makes it extraordinary. What a wonderful celebration of life. The pictures make the story come alive as they intertwine with the words throughout the tale.

Teachers can use this book to:

• Open up a conversation with children about their family relationships. 
• Create a magic window to use in the classroom to help "change the perspective" and get a new view of a situation.
• Begin a letter writing project in which students write to grandparents.
• Invite parents to share about their grandparents and special experiences.
• What makes a special memory.
• Work with the art teacher to create a poetry/art creation with students.
• How can artwork change the poetry and words. The power of words and pictures

Summary:

I didn't think I was going to like the book because of the type of artwork, it was very contemporary and  it's not normally my "cup of tea". As I read through the book a few times I began to understand the artwork and to me it felt like a perfect representation of the girls' vision of the magic window. This is a great book to share with children of all ages. My mother-in-law fell in love with it because of the loving  way the girl shares the story of the wonderful things that happen near the window. I think people of all ages can relate to the special memories they have from their childhood.

Technology and the classroom

In today's classroom the rules of engagement are changing quickly. Teachers are faced with more regulations, guidelines, larger class sizes and less money. The trend toward merit pay has raised the threshold and puts even more pressure on both teachers and students. That is why it is important for educators to stay on top of the changes in technology. Our students live in a world that is greatly impacted by the influence of new technology, they are able to search, create and invent in ways that we, as children, could only dream about. The Livescribe is a a wifi pen that connect the paper and pen feel to the tablet. This type of technology with its versatility can be a revolutionary tool in the classroom. Review on Notebook technology for classrooms and teachers

 There is more work to be done to make this type of technology accessible in the classrooms but that will primarily come from teacher attitudes. When teachers embrace new changes the chances of success are much higher. So often schools adopt new programs and technology to have it sit in the corner of the classroom. Check out the Livescribe and see how many uses you could find in your classroom. Livescribe site

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

National Book Award Finalist
Newbery 



Summary: The story takes place in Saigon in 1975. Ha, the main character is the youngest and only daughter in her family. The war has impacted her life because she fled from North Vietnam at the beginning and her father has been missing in action for years. As the fighting gets closer and Ha's mother fears the worst she allows a family friend help them to escape on a Navy ship full of refugees. The family winds up in Alabama and it's a very different world. Ha has to learn a new language, new foods and customs and new friends. Life is different and hard but Ha is still surrounded by a family who loves and supports her, this makes a big difference in the daily struggles of assimilating into a new culture in a time of controversy.

Ha is able to relate the information in verse in a matter of fact way of a child.  The verse not only gives the sense of broken language and you can hear Ha's voice throughout the story. The verse also allows the reader to gain the most important words, there is no fluff, and the choice of words and phrases become a powerful representation of Ha's consciousness. 

I loved every member of the family and the way the story unfolded. This is a book that I will go back and read over and over again because there is so much left unsaid, waiting to be discovered. 

This book is based on the author's own experiences as a ten year old. The genre of historical fiction allows her latitude in deciding about details surrounding dates and names. It also creates a beautiful platform for expressing her feelings and remembrances about that time in her life.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

This books carried me back to a time on the outskirts of my memories. My mom is a wilted flower child who still seems to exist in the 1970's. She is strong willed, passionate and always working for the cause, any cause. As I read the story and tried to figure out what went wrong. Why would Cecile leave right after Fern was born? Was she crazy? Did she not care about her girls? What could have been so important as to make her leave her babies and travel to the other side of the country? I read the book hoping the answer was simple that maybe she was planning on returning but didn't know how. I was transported back to a little girl wondering where her mother had gone. Why had she left? When would we see her again? 
I could feel Delphine's strength and determination to do things rights and set them straight. I understood inherently the role of the oldest sister living in a home without a mother. I wanted Cecile to say sorry that she made a mistake that it was just a miscommunication and everything would be okay. Delphine looked out for her sisters even when Cecile could not or would not. She tried to resist the "cause" and fought hard to block out the Black Panthers, poetry and news surrounding her but she slowly began to give in to the collective spirit surrounding her. Delphine found herself in a battle of will between the voices of Cecile and those of her father and Big Ma at home. It was in this struggle that resolution was found. Although Cecile didn't apologize or come back she was better understood and forgiven at the end of the novel. I felt an overwhelmingly connection to Delphine as my mother was called away in the same way. I still don't understand how it happened or why but I do forgive her and try to understand her now. 

This was a beautifully written book full of historic connections and wonderful teaching moments. 

This is a video of Rita Williams Garcia discussing One Crazy Summer

The Trouble with AR (Accelerated Reader)

My concern about the AR program has grown in the past few years. Accelerated Reader is book reading incentive program that claims to motivate readers of all levels. This is a computer based literacy program our schools us,  in which my sons attend and both schools have adopted this program and use it to exhaustion. The makers of the program claim that by leveling children they will have more success and therefore embrace reading faster thereby increasing achievement levels. I have found that although this program can help to motivate a reluctant reader by guiding them towards books that will hopefully find success in reading; it is limiting and I don't feel as though my children think of the literature they have read in meaningful ways.

For example: I recently read The Giver by Lowis Lowry to my fifth and seventh grade boys. They enjoyed the story but as I asked questions throughout the chapters their answers were low level. They were "thinking" about the concepts or symbols in the book. Mostly they wanted to understand who the characters were and what they did in order to answer the questions correctly on the AR quiz. What a shame. At that point I slowed it down and turned it into a project at home and forced them to dig deeper and find meaning in the story. They objected at first (because it was not required by school) but eventually complied with my requests. We began to have deeper conversations about what it would be like in a world filled with "sameness". I found them discussing the different situations on the car ride to soccer and debating over their own perspectives on the positives and negatives of the story line. I don't feel as though I pushed them to hard, just enough to cross the line into a state of higher order thinking. 

At this time my seventh grader has an assignment to read and test on a biography. He has looked and I have looked for books that he is interested in that are in his "level". This has been a challenge to say the least. I wish an exception could be made throughout the reading program to allow students to read books and possibly do an old fashioned book report! I don't think my boys have ever done one. The confines in which their reading education is held are too stringent and according to research done by Mallette, Henk and Melnick at Marquette University the data used to substantiate the AR programs' claims are less than solid. They are not the only researchers to come to this conclusion. I believe we, as an educated population, must allow our teachers some control in their own classrooms. It is important to individualize education and not only teach reading to improve achievement levels but to instill a love for reading for life.

In my opinion systems and programs are good to create a solid structure but the creativity and individualization of design must be fostered as well to create a high level education.

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm

Newbery Honor Book (2010)

Golden Kite Award Winner

The main character Turtle is eleven years old and is sent to Key West by her mother to live with relatives. She is tough on the outside but has a tender underbelly like the creature she is named for. The story is engaging and we are rooting for Turtle throughout her trials and tribulations in dealing with her new found cousins and their rules. Turtle is proud of her shoes that her mom's boyfriend bought for her before sending her South to Florida. They stick out in her new environment as no kids where shoes in the keys. They end up being stolen and the first thing she wants to do is replace them but as parts of her life become unraveled and a sense of hope rises in her she realizes that her place is in the keys with her extended family and father and the shoes she longed for no longer fit; they are tight and pinch and inhibit her feet from being free. This is symbolic of her transition from a mainland girl to an official "Conch".