A great find...

Found this little gem at The Boulder Bookstore today.  My friend, Troy, and I went to Boulder for the morning and made a quick trip into the bookstore.  I picked it up because of the cover and was pleasantly surprised by what I discovered.  The author is a philatelist and uses U.S. postage stamps to trace the journey of American history.  The details of each historical event are limited (I wanted to read more), but I thought it was an interesting way to trace the history of America.  A nice timeline with wonderful watercolors and simply written text.  
     I loved the reproductions of U.S. postage stamps throughout the book.  The author, C. H. Colman, uses his lifetime love of postage stamps to guide the reader through the text.  I love the passion he has for his "collection" and shares that he's been mesmerized by stamps since he was a little boy.  Colman decided to share his passion through stories of bald eagles (something he noticed took a prominent place in a lot of the stamps in his collection) intermingled with historic events in our country's history.  I think students will be intrigued by the colorful stamps represented in the book.  The historical events might just nudge students to discover more... and might just show them how to turn their own passions into a collection of writings. 

Planning...

This morning, I was playing around with planning a unit of study that couched both reader's workshop and writer's workshop within the context of a specific thinking strategy - specifically Creating Sensory Images.  I pulled out our new standards, some of my favorite resources, a planning guide, some old charts and files, my notebook, and then went to work...
     In Carl Anderson's book Assessing Writers he asks several great questions to think about when planning a unit of study in writing:
     What are our students' needs? 
     What are our students' interests?  
     What have the students studied in previous grades? 
     What units of study do we know well enough to teach?  
     What curriculum mandates are we required to meet?"  
Good questions to think about, eh?  I read a bit of Katie Wood Ray's Writer's Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts and They're All Hard Parts, Shelley Harwayne's Writing Through Childhood, and Don Graves' A Fresh Look at Writing.  I always find it helpful to go to the mentors I trust, with whom I've learned, and that I hold in esteem.  The mentors from whom I've come to understand writers.  The mentors who taught me about the power of being a writer.  The mentors who spent years perfecting, revising, and perfecting their craft.
     I pulled out the work of my favorite poets... Kristine O'Connell George, Georgia Heard, Ralph Fletcher, Jane Yolen, Donald Graves, Randi Allison, Lee Bennett Hopkins.  I pulled out other helpful resources from my bookshelves... A Note Slipped Under the Door by Nick Flynn and Shirley McPhillips, Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard, Writing Toward Home by Georgia Heard, For the Good of the Earth and Sun by Georgia Heard, Study Driven by Katie Wood Ray, Notebook Connections by Aimee Buckner, Poetry Matters by Ralph Fletcher.  I pulled out my own notebooks to look for writing of my own that might be work re-exploring.  I pulled out notes on previous attempts of teaching both Sensory Images and poetry.  I searched.  I pondered.  I jotted.  I surmised.   I wondered.  I wrote.
     Then I sketched out a preliminary plan - paralleling sensory images and poetry.  I think the possibilities are amazing (and endless) when we look carefully at the what and how we teach specific skills and strategies when we investigate them within the auspices of a specific "thinking strategy."
     It seems that so often teachers are asking for a pretty packaged curriculum, something they can follow step-by-step.  I can't tell you how often I hear teachers say, "Just tell me what to teach!"  The problem is, if we say that too loudly and too often and too quickly, it happens... someone tells you exactly what to teach and exactly when to teach it.  But I don't think in a "Stepford" manner, so for me the quest of my own inquiry, based on my students' needs and interests, gives me the energy to investigate... to challenge... to experiment... to forge ahead.  
     If we want every child to be a writer, we don't need a canned curriculum to teach from... we need to use our own writing, resources within our reach, and the depth that great writing teachers offer us.  Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with using something as a preliminary guide... but who knows our students better than we do?  My friend and colleague, Lori Conrad, once told me that the "scope" of what to teach is what our children are showing us they need (based on what our district/state curriculum and what we see/hear children doing) and the "sequence" is when our students are showing us they need it (or we deem it important within a specific study).
     Am I finished, nope.  But I have an idea of where I'm headed when I track back on at the end of April.  And... once I'm in front of my students, then I'll be able to see where this study leads.  But for now, I have some more thinking to do... if you need me, just slip a note under the door.

Poetry Links

I sent these five links to my third graders yesterday (we are on our three week break) and challenged them to think about writing a poem every day in April (thanks to Mary Lee Hahn for suggesting it).  You might like to check these sites out and share some tidbits with your students (or with your notebook).   

http://www.ralphfletcher.com
http://georgiaheard.com
http://www.poetry4kids.com
http://janeyolen.com
http://www.kristinegeorge.com   
What are your favorite poetry links?

In Your Dreams...

Accepting Mary Lee's nudge http://readingyear.blogspot.com to write a poem each day in April has been a great challenge (of course, she's posting her poetry... I love Franki's poem about the red KitchenAid).  Here's a poem (just to inspire us a bit to write... not just about wildflowers, but about anything that's resting in our head or our heart) by Linda Pastan that my friend and colleague , Randi Allison, sent us this week.  Randi is sending us a poem each day via email and I loved this one... 

     A New Poet

Finding a new poet
is like finding a new wildflower
out in the woods. You don't see

its name in the flower books, and
nobody you tell believes
in its odd color or the way

its leaves grow in splayed rows
down the whole length of the page. In fact
the very page smells of spilled

red wine and the mustiness of the sea
on a foggy day - the odor of truth
and of lying.

And the words are so familiar,
so strangely new, words
you almost wrote yourself, if only

in your dreams there had been a pencil
or a pen or even a paintbrush,
if only there had been a flower.

Photo by R. Crawford

By the way, today is my wife's birthday... presents are wrapped, Susan's sleeping in (I drove the kids to school), soon we'll start our day.  I love that her birthday falls so close to Easter.  I love that Susan means "Lily".  Each year I'm reminded of two amazing gifts God gave me (neither one deserved, both from the Lily of the Valley)... one is eternal life and one is someone with whom to share my earthly life.  It's a week of blessings


Here's another poem Randi sent us.  I think I might share it with Susan today...


A Birthday Candle
Donald Justice

Thirty today, I saw
The trees flare briefly like
The candles on a cake,
As the sun went down the sky,
A momentary flash,
Yet there was time to wish.

Mangiare, Mangiare, Mangiare! Un Libro...

The Book That Eats People by John Perry, illustrated by Mark Fearing, is just unique.  You're warned from the first page that this book eats people and throughout the book Sam, Victoria, and Mr. Singh learn the hard way that, indeed, it does!

     I love Mark Fearing's illustrations... as you read, you'll see that "fearing" is exactly what you'll be doing.  This book made me chuckle a bit.  As I read through it, I was in awe of the collage-like artwork.  Throughout the book we learn the history of the book's unfortunate characters (or should I say victims)... poor Sam, his bones coughed up and clattered across the floor!

     The reader is warned never to turn your back on the book and you wonder if children might heed the words, literally.  Bravery is the only requirement for reading this book.  Page after page the reader is greeted with the fangs and slanted eyes of the book as it waits for its next meal.  Victoria's demise came when she picked up All About Dolphins... only to discover that it was a book that eats peoples that traded places with the dolphin book.  

     Try this book... you might find it in poor taste or you might find that it's deliciously sweet, wicked, sinister, and just plain fun!  Check out Mark Fearing's wonderful website at: http://www.markfearing.com (it's a delightful one).

The Can Man

The Can Man by Laura E. Williams is a perfect cousin text to books like Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts and Fly Away Home by Even Bunting.
     In The Can Man Tim notices the homeless man gathering cans on the streets and has an idea.  He too decides to collect cans... for a skateboard for his birthday.  Within a week, Tim has collected enough cans to almost reach his goal, but a chance meeting with the "can man" changes everything.  Tim realizes that the "can man" is more than just the homeless man who gathers cans throughout the neighborhood.
     Tim discovers that the "can man" is saving money for a winter coat (not a skateboard) "before the snow starts flying."  Tim learns a valuable lesson (especially when the "can man" offers his cart to Tim).  He learns the differences between a "want" and a "need."  Tim learns that the can man's name is Mr. Peters, who used to work in an auto body shop and in live an apartment until his life took an unexpected turn.  Now Mr. Peters collects cans for survival.
     This is a simple story about a boy who learns not to judge and also learns about the power of sharing with those less fortunate... he eventually gives his profit to Mr. Peters.  To Tim's surprise, he receives a skateboard that Mr. Peters refurbished just for him.

Smile

There is something very endearing about this coming of age graphic novel.  It's funny, it's touching, it's beautifully illustrated.  I was conferring with a 5th grader in Kansas City earlier this week when she introduced it to me.

     You might know Raina Telgameier's work, she also illustrates the graphic novel series of The Baby Sitters Club.  There's something special about this book.  The main character, Raina, is a typical sixth grader who just happens to trip and fall and injure her two front teeth.  The result?  An orthodontic nightmare of braces, headgear, surgeries, a retainer and all the embarrassment it brings to a sixth grader's life (not to mention the friendship struggles, the boy-girl situations, the earthquake).  The plot of this book connects to the life of an adolescent with all its ups and downs.

     When I was conferring with the student in Kansas City, her eyes lit up as I sat next to her and she started talking about the book... about how real it felt, how it made her laugh, how fun it was to read, how much she was inferring as she was reading.  It's a book I can't wait for my own daughter to read.

     The best part - the author based it on her life.  On her website (http://goraina.com) when she was asked if she really knocked her teeth out, she said,"Yes! It’s all true. I was in sixth grade when I fell and knocked out my teeth, and I have been dealing with the consequences ever since. I had braces, a lot of surgery, and a lot of awkward smiles as a result. The comic SMILE was born out of a need to get the whole experience down on paper, since I spent so much time telling people about it."

     The artist's skill as a cartoonist and her brilliance as a writer take the reader to the days of adolescent adjustment and awkwardness.  But with dignity, humor, and insight.  I think it's a must read and a perfect book to discuss as a family.  You won't be disappointed.  Neither will your students.