Would I be interested in helping arrange Young Adult books? November 10, 2009

Need you ask twice? Not only would I love to put my hands on new YA books, I’ll even have it done in time for the Walking Tour! A local bookstore and I are going to put our heads together-much fun!

This is perfect timing as I get ready to head to NCTE-ALAN two weekends from now. I’m trying to decide which author I am most excited about seeing-I think it’s Lois Lowry-I love her new Crow Calls book. I was geekily excited to start looking through the 380 page program that arrived yesterday afternoon.

Here’s the write-up:

From its opening keynote session, with author Gregory Macguire (WICKED) to its mid-session keynote with teacher/author LouAnne Johnson (DANGEROUS MINDS) and its closing session with California teacher/YA novelist Alan Sitomer, this two-day workshop will provide participants with whole-group opportunities to hear and interact with leading authors whose books are having an impact on the lives of today’s adolescents. Participants will also be able to choose from among a large selection of small group breakout sessions in which ideas for using  YA books in school, library, and other settings will be explored.  Publishers donate generously so that each participate leaves with the beginnings of, or additions to, a wonderful YA collection of his or her own.

Where to get book suggestions November 9, 2009

Yesterday I posted about a Hornbook editorial. If you aren’t familiar with that gem of a magazine, go over to HERE and check it out. There are many things I love about Hornbook-the book reviews, the articles, the editor’s editorials and blog Roger Reads (and rants!)

If you are starting to think about books to buy as gifts, check them out.

If you are looking for the best Christmas books, check them out.

If you are wanting to know the newest and greatest releases for kids, check them out.
Subscribe to (and read) their free newsletter and you too can become the best aunt (grandma, uncle, dad, godmother…you get the idea) ever when it comes to giving books as gifts.

Meet Scaredy! November 9, 2009

If you aren’t familiar with Scaredy Squirrel, you need to make his acquaintance.  Check out my new Scaredy Squirrel puppet! I LOVE him. Now if I could only figure out how to make him wearable to perch on my shoulder like a parrot. I would love to walk around with my pal Scaredy on classroom visits.

Shouldn’t we be outside hiking? November 8, 2009

Beautiful Sunny, Sunday afternoon in Ohio

husband-”What are you doing?” (asked hopefully?)

wife-”Trying to wrestle rTI law into submission for the school district” (sipping coffee and still wearing PJs)

husband-”Wrestling who?!”

wife-”Wrestling rTI into submission for school”

husband-”I have no idea what that means, but it’s better than what I thought you said you are doing. I guess I’ll go outside and rake leaves. Is it going to take a long time?”

wife-”Reading of multiple research article, government sites, and books to produce summary documents. Probably a trip to Columbus to pick up another book I don’t have.”

husband-sighs-”See you later”

 

What he doesn’t remember is if I wasn’t wrestling this beast, I would be wrestling parent teacher conference forms or some other equally weighty beast. No matter how beautiful it is, this weekend in our area will have most teachers inside fretfully compiling data into reports, be they individual student progress reports or RtI summaries.

While I would never trade working in education for anything in the world, anyone who thinks it’s an easy job, is seriously underestimating the job!

Trouble is what keeps things interesting… November 8, 2009

I can’t find a link to article but I found this editorial from Hornbook fascinating. I regularly hear people say that they don’t want kids to read “sad” books or “hard” books. I love this take on trouble and why we need it in books…

From the Editor of Hornbook

“You think your kids are trouble? Have a look at the September/October Horn Book Magazine, a special issue devoted to the rascals who write, publish, and populate books for children and young adults.

Books — and children — need trouble. It’s how they keep us interested. I recently spoke at a writer’s conference at which one fledgling author said she wanted to write children’s books because they were “nice.” Hell to the no: while it is certainly true that “nice” books get published regularly, it’s no wonder that they tend to be referred to, brutally but honestly, as “grandma traps.” Such books are designed to look harmless and pretty to nostalgic grown-ups’ eyes, but as far as a kid is concerned, they are unlikely to evoke any response beyond a dutiful thank-you-grandma-for-the-nice-book note written under the threat of withheld allowance. In twenty-five years of trying to figure out the key to finding good books for young people, the one precept that has guided me best is that kids read for the same reasons adults do, and high on the list of adult reading pleasures is the allure of vicarious trouble. Whether it’s a detective on the trail of a serial killer, a mountain climber dangling from a precipice, or simply a family who has it worse off than your own, we like to read accounts of things not going well, from disappointments to disasters. In an odd way, it’s because we want to help — that crusading lawyer needs us to turn the pages if she’s going to win her case. Kids are the same way: Max has to growl at his mother, Ramona needs to get into trouble at school, Brian needs to land in the woods with only a hatchet. Not only does conflict provoke plot, it asks us to choose a side — and makes a story matter.”

A Week Flies By November 7, 2009

We’ve had three weeks where our landline would not work.

My husband took time off Monday for them to come and fix it.

They didn’t show up.

They had called that morning and left a message on our dead landline. Duh!

They arrive Tuesday night to fix it.

The phone now works.

The internet only does when it feels like it (which is not much!).

Have to wait for another appointment for them to fix it.

While not having access to internet, I’ve reclaimed several hours from e-mail answering and blogging that I’ve spent reading. Not so much kid-lit, but adult book club kind of stuff and YA in preparation for NCTE-ALAN.

I finished up The Elegance of the Hedgehog by  Muriel Barbery. LOVE IT. A definite must read! It kept being recommended by staff developers at TC last summer. They were so right!

I finished Zombie Blondes by Brian James. Don’t ask me why. My daughter did, and all I could come up with was, “Sometimes it’s entertaining to read an easy book that is kind of silly”. On the other hand, I can see tons of middle schoolers devouring it.  It’s definitely one of those YA books that is for YA, not adults who like YA.

I finished listening to City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Also YA. The first in a trilogy. I really enjoyed it, but because I was listening to it on my iPod, it took me longer than I would have preferred to get through it. I must get one of the those doo-hickeys to hook my iPod to my car so I can listen there.

I’m tearing my way through My Life in France by Julia Child and . When my book club picked this book, I really wasn’t sure I was going to read it. There is was at the bookstore Wednesday and I haven’t been able to put it down since! I shouldn’t be surprised that I love it-I do love cooking and lived in Europe myself for half a year. It has me missing those days of teaching at the American International School, grocery shopping at little stands, and trying to figure out how to stay warm in winter (but not to the extreme they had in Paris post-World War II).

School Visit–Reading & Writing Workshop November 6, 2009

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I miss Viola Swamp October 30, 2009

One of many things I miss about being a classroom teacher is the week leading up to the Halloween party. My fourth grade colleagues and I would “transform” slowly over the week into the character Viola Swamp. It started with one fingernail being painted black. Then another. Perhaps the whole hand was the second day.  We would all swear up and down, backwards and forwards that we had no idea what had caused the black nails. Perhaps the water? Perhaps nuclear waste in the microwave?

Unit of Study Fiction Writing Grades 3-5 October 27, 2009

Here are my notes from my first session at TCRWP Reunion Weekend. The presenter was a dynamo!

Writing- Short Fiction

Quick Look at Writing Process:

• Generating (3-4 days)
• Choosing (1 day)
• Developing (5-6 days)
• Drafting (1-2 days)
• Revising (3 days)
• Editing (2 days)
• Publishing (1 day)

 

Generating (3 days; 4 if not enough blurbs to choose from Writing Story Blurbs-what the story could be about (do for 3-4 days)

• Chart: Writers Generate Ideas By:
  • Paying attention to the issues (problems) in their lives –don’t let them pick too big of an idea
  • Imaging stories we wish existed in the world
  • Rereading their narrative entries in their writers notebooks and asking themselves, “How could I turn this into a different story?”
    • be very focused-specific-don’t pick whole story (example-playground)
      • 3^rd grade-friendship-what happens at recess, can relate to through many times
      • Stories should match their age!!

3-4 days of Story Blurb Writing-We are filling up our notebooks!

Don’t worry about spelling and grammar at this point

Immediately draw a line and have 10-12 pieces (story blurbs) to choose from

• Story Blurb examples:
• Maybe I could write about these two girls competing…
• Maybe I could write about a boy who goes to summer camp…
• I wish I could read a story about a boy named Josh…

Writers, you are always saying there are no good stories to read in the library and…

• Somebody…Wanted…But…So

          Pushes them to develop problem

Somebody	Wanted (Feared, cared)	Because	But/so
Jade	Cared about her dog Scruffy	Because Scruffy was very special to her	Her dog ran away and didn’t come back
Bill	Wanted to find out why his mom was going out at night	Because his mom had just gotten divorced	He followed her and found out she was dating

Pick one from chart and stretch out into a story blurb

Mentor Text-Those Shoes

          Not “perfect” ending

          Not she wanted a dog so her mom bought her a dog

• Choosing (1 day to select)
• Developing/Nurturing/Rehearsal-need to spend more time on this so 1 day on story mountains or timelines 
• Drafting
• Revising
  • Dictionary definition-
    • to prepare a newly edited version (of a text)
    • to reconsider and change or modify-put on a different set of lenses
    • Editing
    • Publishing (1 day)

Possible Teaching Points for Generating with some Predictable problems and strategies Trouble Coming Up with a Story Idea Story Doesn’t Match the Genre Students writing stories about themselves Students Do Not Understand the Problem Arc

 

• Trouble Coming Up with a Story Idea

                    Bring in mentor texts—that you could take and change-example Those Shoes

                   If you were reading this book what would you say about it? Is it interesting. Would you tell me what isn’t interesting. Let’s make something happen! Make idea stronger and working with it.

• Story Doesn’t Match the Genre (flying, ghosts-we will do fantasy later in the year)
  • Ask Yourself, “Can it happen to you?” no superhero magic endings

• Students writing stories about themselves

          How Can we tweak this?
                   Maybe different problem

                   Never say, “bad idea”-say “great idea-Let’s try tweaking it.”

• Students Do Not Understand the problem arc-they solve the story immediately

Possible Teaching Points for Developing with some Predictable problems and strategies Choosing a story they think is strong enough, one they want to work on and one they think they can write well Which one do you want to work on and which one do you think they can write really well. Writers can develop their internal and external traits and not holding on to the problem in the story—

• Choosing a story they think is strong enough, one they want to work on and one they think they can write well
  • Which one do you want to work on and which one do you think they can write really well.
  • Writers can develop their internal and external traits and not holding on to the problem in the story—

Struggle	Problem	Internal (limit the #)	External
He wants to be popular so he lies and says he cheated when he didn’t	Bob has let his friend cheat from his test. He gets caught because teacher thinks	Usually honest Good student Smart lonely	medium heightbrown hair only child freckles

• Think about problem first
• Shy girl problem-wouldn’t be super friendly and loud
• 3^rd Grade-booklets
  • Storytelling using story booklets-touch page and say aloud-do at least twice each
• 4^th/5^th Grade
  • Creating story mountains with small actions
  • Breaking down their story mountains into smaller scenes by thinking about:
    •  change of setting
    • change of time
    • when new characters enter or leave the scene

Sketching our scene

• Use a sentence strip
  • Rules: have to show time of day by including a clock or night/day

• Bigger scenes-more happens
• Smaller scenes-make boxes reflect that
• Notebooks away-no looking during sketching the story

1	2	3	4	5	6

Story Mountain example- Illustrate how to put—Boxes around scene

On Choosing Day:

• have them bring notebook and put a little star next to which one they think is strong enough
• thumbs-up when you have your idea
• give post-it note to thumbs-up and quickly see/assess ideas
• 10-20 minutes on rug to choose
• Let strugglers take notebook home the night before to pre-pick

Predictable Problems During Choosing/Developing 1 dimensional characters Story doesn’t have a clear plot Struggling with creating a scene The solution is without struggle There is no tension building up

• 1 dimensional characters
  • Really evil or really nice
• Story doesn’t have a clear plot (story doesn’t make sense)
  • Bring them back to Somebody, wanted, but, so
• Struggling with creating a scene (what could happen before she got what she wanted)
• The solution is without struggle
• There is no tension building up
  • Teach how to slow scene down
    • Add: show don’t tell
      • Show internal thinking
      • Add action or dialogue

ALL BEFORE DRAFTING!!!

What does drafting look like:

          Big scene-full sheet of paper

          Small scene-half sheet of paper

An Amazing Experience October 26, 2009

I should get out a thesaurus and include all the words for amazing that are listed, but my brain is tired and my life is busy.

The school visit to PS 41 was better than my wildest expectations. I will add photos and post more about it later this week. TCRWP Fall Reunion was also top-notch. Katherine Patterson gave an amazing talk about heroes. My first session answered every question I had ever had about the unit of study on writing fiction with third through fifth graders.