Friday, January 22, 2010

I'm back...

The past few weeks have found me traveling... two staff development trips to Casper, Wyoming and one week in Portland, Oregon, doing a two-day "Investigating Thinking Strategies" workshop and a two-day literacy conference organized by a wonderful group of teachers at RethinkingLiteracy.org.  So, I've been a bit behind in the blog realm...

     Of course, no trip to Portland is complete without a trip (or two) to Powell's.  While there I ran across a copy of 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore by Jenny Offill and Nancy Carpenter.  The cover caught my eye... and the inside cracked me up. 
     It's about a precocious little girl who does things like try to staple her brother's hair to his pillow, walk to school backward, and even set a classmate's shoe on fire with a magnifying glass.  The book has a great pattern, "I had an idea to staple my brother's hair to his pillow. I am not allowed to use the stapler anymore," throughout the text.  This little girl is full a piss an' vinegar (ala grandpa in The Grapes of Wrath)... and my laughs echoed through Powell's when I read it!
     Yeah, sure, she's naughty... but it I loved the illustrations and the gentle twist at the end!  I love when I find a book that strikes me funny... a lot of inferring.  It's a keeper and could serve as great mentor text.
     I used the book as a mentor text for a group of adults I was working with in Casper.  After two days of learning, I had them chart "I used to..." and "Now I need to..."  It was a great way to synthesize our learning for the two days.

2 comments:

  1. Glad your back. I missed reading your blogs.

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  2. Glad you're back. I wondered what you were up to. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book! I have yet to find kids who love it as much as I do, but it is one that makes me laugh every time!

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