the wisdom of the ages

I'm not saying she was very silly, but one of us was very silly, and it wasn't me.

I'm sorry I said anything about it now. I'll try and find a more agreeable piece of news . . . Old Marjory at the lodge is dead!

from Wives and Daughters

Looking for Alaska

I just read the first half of Looking for Alaska in one sitting. I guess yeah, if you like someone's blog*, you'll probably like their novels. Also, books that get awards tend to be good. I am riveted. (Although slightly disappointed that I cannot recommend this book to any of my pre-teen students. They are a little too young.)







*In the past four weeks, I have read every single post in his archives. His writing significantly improves over time.

Six hours into winter break and I'm already bored...

how to teach reading

So reader K has asked me how I get kids to like reading books. Cue insightful and inspirational post which I will slave over and endlessly edit and then reread months later and wonder what I was thinking. Regardless, here is a description of what I do*. No guarantees that it will have the same effect on your students.

1. READ COOL BOOKS. No kid is going to get excited about reading a two hundred pager unless it contains murder or invisibility. Pick ones that are awesome. If they have magic, mysteries, gangs, secret crushes, survival, or witches, they will probably be popular. Here are some books that my sixth grade students have loved: The Westing Game (murder! mystery!), The Supernaturalist (gangs and parasites), The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (pirates, or men who are like pirates), Sea of Trolls (bizarre creatures), A Wrinkle in Time (time travel), The Witches (witches, obviously), The Book Thief (holocaust setting, narrated by Death), The Cay (survival on an island), Hatchet (survival in a forest), The Giver (alternate reality), Gathering Blue (another alternate reality), The Lightening Thief (Harry Potter-esque only with Greek gods), Despereaux (a fairy tale mouse desperately in love with a human princess), The Watsons Go to Birmingham (delinquent older brother), Bud Not Buddy (looking for his real parents, peeing his pants scene), Tangerine (soccer and blindness), and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. There are, of course, many more newer and equally awesome books, but this is a starter list of guaranteed coolness. (I would give hesitant readers the easier and juicy of the books. Let them have a positive experience before challenging them.)
   


2. The same criteria applies to short stories. Kids like gross and/or twisted stories. Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter" was a huge hit this year. "All Summer in a Day" and "A Rose for Emily" are perennial favorites. Junior Great Books have brilliant, controversial stories. (One reason kids love Greek myths is because of the sleeping around. Students are secretly overjoyed that they get to talk about adultery in school.)
   


3. TALK ABOUT THE BOOKS. This is probably the most important thing to do when teaching reading. We use a Literature Circle model in order to give the kids structure. This way they are talking about their book in the safety of a small peer group. Often, I make them share out in front of the whole class. Don't just recall facts; you should argue opinions, favorite characters, themes, funny bits, comparisons to real life, etc. Regardless of your methods, it is important that students talk about books every day. When they have regular opportunities to share about their reading, they realize that their experience reading books is just as important as those other things you do every day, like, say, review math facts. Also, other students will hear stuff about books and they will want to read! Because everyone is talking about it! (Allow them to dislike books, too.)
   


4. PLAY DEVILS ADVOCATE. To get them to open up or defend their opinions, I make provocative claims, like, "I think Mary had been planning to kill her husband for a few days." Or, "Maybe the Tucks should pour the water into Winnie's mouth when she is sleeping." Then the kids are forced to argue such ludicrous ideas.
   


5. PROJECTS. We let our students do some sort of project about their book when they are done reading. Sometimes they get to choose, sometimes we get to choose. Students usually get a week to work on their projects, and then we dedicate a week to presentations. The presentations are important because kids get practice in public speaking. They also create another space to talk about books. I give the presenters ample Q&A time from the rest of the class. The students often grill each other harder than I do, especially if they read that particular book and want to "test" the other kids. Here are some of our projects: Create a puppet show, act out a commercial for the book, write a newspaper article about the story, dramatic reading, dramatization, yearbook of characters, comic book retelling, to-do lists from the point of view of the characters, write a letter to the author, series of illustrations, create a "map" of the book, talk show with the characters, research project (if historical fiction), write a book review, powerpoint review, create a study guide for the book . . .
   


6. We start with everyone reading the same book, then begin with reading circles of two - five kids reading the same assigned book. This is the training period. When they are ready, we let each group pick their own book. At some point, we let kids pick their own, independent book. They are super excited by then to finally "get" the book they've been hearing about for weeks but haven't been assigned. Even when they are reading their own book, though, I make sure to give them opportunities to share with the class.
   


7. I skip stories or books which bore me. I'd rather save my efforts for literature that I love. (I do let kids read stuff I don't like, I just don't do whole class discussions around it.)
   

*Thanks to all the good teachers and students and parents and peers who have taught me how to become a better teacher over these years.

⌘shift4 is my newest favorite thing.

green is the new lazy

I am proud to report that this month, after living in my apartment for almost two and a half years, I finished my first package of paper towels. (Package = six rolls, which works out to about one roll every five months.) I try to use washcloths to clean and dishtowels to wipe my hands whenever possible. This makes me feel better about creating less waste, plus I got to buy all these colorful kitchen linens.

The paper towels probably would have lasted even longer, except a certain man I used to see would use one to clean his face every time he came over. Which is really weird, when I think about it. Before it used to bug me that he would leave this crumpled up wad on my counter, but now I realize that was the least of his flaws.

Also: I have not taken any plastic shopping bags since Rosh Hashana. I either stash stuff in my purse or bring reusable bags. Once I stopped at Trader Joes unprepared and to honor my pledge, I just bought a new reusable one. (It had pirates on it, so it was a win-win.) When I bought a (fantastic) coat on the fly, I just draped it over my arm and walked it to my car. Imagine! Expending energy!

this is how you learn

I've been obsessed with this author/blogger/videoblogger/nerdfighter guy John Green for a few weeks now. I've been reading his blog archives and keep coming finding great stuff like this:

I find it very strange that we acknowledge children’s ability to grapple with endlessly complex plot—that we don’t for one second question whether a novel is age-appropriate when it contains 430 characters with unpronounceable names, each caring for their own particular subspecies of dragon.

I can't decide whether I'm more excited that I totally agree with him or more excited that I get his kiddie-lit references.

I started teaching literature last year and it's been so interesting to watch kids grow as readers. Most of our students have been fed Open Court since kindergarten and it shows. Many of them have never read a book in school before. It is clear that a few have never even read a book on their own, ever. By the time the fourth lit circle cycle rolls around, and I FINALLY allow them to pick their own books, they cheer and gasp and smile like I handed them a new gaming system.

By the end of October, we have covered "theme," and this is where the children really start to shine. I never knew what the theme* of a book was. I think my eighth grade teacher probably touched upon theme but I was too busy rolling my eyes because she made me EXPLAIN Holden Caufield. The nerve.**

Watching students interact with literature makes me proud to be a reader. I have had students stand up in front of the whole class to argue that Jesse Tuck was selfish, or that Charlotte Doyle was heroic, or to explain that Despereaux really just wanted to be noticed. One student is in the process of explaining twelve reasons why Crispin is the most boring book ever. Another student begged her mom to buy her her own copy of Wolf Brother so that she could read it again later.

I've had students rush in in the morning to tell me how they cried all over the ending of The Book Thief or that they stayed up until three am because Scorpion King was so good. Today we began writing book reviews and one kid came in with EIGHT PAGES already typed up. Just this last week, one boy spent four days in a row sitting on the floor of my class reading The Supernaturalist. For the entire period. (I exempted him from all other work because isn't that the point?)

The moral of the story is that books rock.


*It's the lesson the main character learns, or the moral, or the message the author is trying to teach the reader.

**I could not, COULD NOT, understand why a teacher would force us to reveal our FEELINGS about books. Like, way too personal. Also, symbolism? I really did not want to consider that Salinger invented the red hunting cap as a literary device.

judge a book by its cover

Well, this is just my life here.

I ditched the Bantam edition of “Huck Finn” and when I returned home fished out a second copy I owned. But the experience was exactly the same. The cover of the Signet Classic was a drawing of a ruddy-cheeked scamp, buck teeth prominent, clutching an apple, with a perky little newsboy tam cocked at a saucy Depression-era angle. Here Huck bore an alarming similarity to both Jerry Mathers of “Leave It to Beaver” and Britney Spears. Revolting. So once again my efforts to polish off this peerless classic were stymied. I could never get more than a few pages into the book before the illustration on the cover made me sick.

I had this same edition of Huck Finn and always thought that it was a fifties-ish era treatise on How Young Boys Should Behave. Of course then I was assigned to read it in high school and loved it.

It all added up. Until now, I’d thought that I had set these books aside for so many years because they were too daunting or, in the case of Thomas Mann, too dull. Now I realized that what these books had in common was that they were ugly. Really, really ugly.

A 1997 edition of “The Bad Seed” comes adorned with a photograph of a macabre doll that bears an odd resemblance to a girl I sat next to in fifth grade. A girl who creeped me out.

(From nytimes)

My favorite book from adolescence, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, features a hideous glamor painting of Charlotte leaning against the deck rails of a ship, her face full of longing and what looks like lust. It quite resembles a Harlequin romance novel. The truth is that there is no romance whatsoever in this book, not even a love interest. (Charlotte Doyle is a tale of revenge and murder on the high seas.) I introduce this book to my class by declaring the cover art horrible and then proceed to read the first sentence, which is a MUCH better introduction. ("Not every thirteen year old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty.")

Being an English teacher, I convince my students to read a book for two nights until they pass judgment, but I must confess that I, too, stop at the cover.