Fantastic Flying Books

I love this book.  It fascinates me.  It piques my curiosity.  It makes me wonder.  It makes me ponder.  The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (click to see more) is brilliant!  It's charming.  (As is the Academy Award winning film.)

     When you read a book that opens like this...

Morris Lessmore loved words.

He loved stories.

He loved books.

His life was a book of his own writing, one orderly page

after another.  He would open it every morning and write

of his joys and sorrows, of all that he knew

and everything that he hoped for.

     When I read it to my students last week (as part of our study of how "Wise Readers Monitor for Meaning"), we all decided that those very words were worth tucking into our hearts and minds... to make them available when we need inspiration as readers and writers.  My friend, Linda, summed it up this way, "I think the 'wow' was... Everyone's story matters.  Just sayin'!"  She right.

     Read the book to your students.  Then if you have a chance, buy the short film on iTunes.  Watch it.  Show it to your students.  Then ask them, "So what do you think?"  You'll be amazed by their answers!  William Joyce more than deserved the accolades and awards for this brilliant piece of work.  One of my students say, "It's really about heaven, I think... it's about growing old and letting go..."  Story matters.

     This is a run, don't walk, kind of book!  This is a get-to-your-favorite-independent-bookstore-and-buy-it kind of book!  This is a book that should be in your classroom and on your coffee table.  It's generational.  It's a metaphor for life--especially if you love books, love reading, love words.  Thank you, William Joyce, for sharing your brilliance.

And so our story ends as it began...

...with the opening of a book!

LIterature That Supports the Workshop Structure

I'm always searching for books to use to reintroduce my students to the workshop structure... books we can compare to our work as learners.  Next year as I revisit the rituals, routines, and roles of the workshop structure (reader's, writer's, mathematician's, etc.), I've found two new choices.  It's important for us to talk about the specifics of the structure of the workshop (crafting, composing, reflecting) and to define our roles within that structure as learners (I wrote about this in Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop).  Although the structure of the workshop is a familiar one, I think students need opportunities to explore the structure in new learning environments, contexts, and with varied expectations from teacher to teacher.  I've run across two nice choices:

     The first book is Workshop by Andrew Clements (recommended by my friend, Lori).  It's a simple book that describes the "tools" necessary to have at the ready in a workshop... the book is written in free-verse, wonderfully written.  The late David Wisniewski's artwork is beautiful cut-paper.  Throughout the text, a young apprentice assists in the creative of a carousel.  It introduces the reader to the "tools" necessary to create something worth building with pride and care.  I'm thinking it will be a nice companion text to use during our beginning of the year discussions of the "tools" we use as learners... comparing and contrasting a wonderful metaphor for learning.
     The second book is Wendel's Workshop by Chris Riddell.  In this book, Wendal is a mouse inventor... who experiments, starts over, experiments, starts over.  He invents a robot name Clunk to help tidy up his experiments, but eventually sends Clunk to the junk pile after he makes a few frustrating mistakes (Clunk is, well, Clunky and awkward).  Wendle then builds a bigger, more aggressive robot named Wendelbot, who goes a bit "wacko" and sends Wendel to the junk heap only to be reunited with Clunk.  Using the remains of his previous experiments--broken pieces and parts--he creates an army of robots to take over the workshop.  In the classroom, I will use this text to discuss the decision-making involved in experimentation and developing endurance as learners.  It's a quaint little book.  Simple story line, but with a message that can be easily compared to the workshop structure!
    It's important that we talk to learners about the workshop structure.  It's important that help learners their roles and responsibilities within the workshop structure.  It's important to challenge students to view their learning through the lens of literature and how their responsibilities fit within the workshop structure.  
     Is there a better way than through the use of literature?  More...