Beauty

It's is no secret to my students, I'm a fan of sunsets. Sunrises too, actually. As a matter of fact, I have begun walking our dog, Rosie, every morning. My favorite part is watching the sun move up in the sky. It is breathtaking every. single. time. One of my favorite quotes comes from the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed. In it, she shares a quote her mom said that used to drive her crazy: 

There's a sunrise and a sunset every day, and you can choose to be there for it. You can put yourself in the way of beauty.

I choose to be there, to appreciate beauty. 

Recently I came upon the newest Dove commercial on Facebook: 

It really made me pause. My students are hitting that age of insecurity, middle school is looming. I look out at a sea of 78 faces every single day. They are all beautiful to me, boys and girls alike. Yet, I know they don't always feel it. So, I decided to show them the video as our quick write on Friday to see what they thought.

When we do a quick write off of a video, I use it much like a poem, short text, or image. I show it, without much comment. Ask them to write for a short period (often two minutes) and then we talk about what it meant to them.

The kids had a lot to say about this video. We talked about how we are all unique, and that is beautiful. We questioned what beauty was, anyway. And we talked of self-confidence. A lot. 

The students agreed to share their thoughts with you. I loved reading through their comments on this Padlet, getting the chance to see inside their brains. Here is a peek for you. Hope you enjoy it. 

Created with Padlet

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I'm thrilled to link up with Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers each Monday and share our reading lives. Check out their sites for more information. 

Ahh! My poor blog. Last week was nuts, nuts I say! And with six meetings outside of school hours and two track meets happening this week, I'm not sure it will be any better. But, one can hope. 

Anyway, I have to leave for school in twenty minutes, I'm not ready, and just realized I hadn't posted my reading for last week. Please forgive the lack of commentary on the books - obviously from the stars you can see that they were all brilliant! What a lovely reading week I had. Hope you all did too.

Happy Reading! 

Dear Hank Williams by Kimberly Willis Holt

First, let's just be upfront about something. I'm a huge fan of diary-type books. You know, books written in letters? Ever since I met Mr. Henshaw through Leigh's eyes when I was in fifth grade, I've been hooked. So when I received a copy of Dear Hank Williams by Kimberly Willis Holt and flipped through the book, I was delighted. Letters! I settled down to read.

Tate has been given an assignment from her teacher – the whole class has. They are to select a pen pal to learn about someone from another location and work on the skill of writing letters. Tate’s teacher has some pen pals in mind, students in Japan. It is 1948 and she believes that might help heal some tensions and create understanding after WWII. Tate, however, has someone else in mind – the new singer, Hank Williams.

Through Tate’s letters we learn about her family, friends, and life in a small town. Tate confides secrets to Mr. Williams and, through the reflection her letter writing provides, begins to heal some old wounds. I loved the character of Tate. She is a feisty, imaginative, loyal, and brave eleven year old. Her voice rings out of these letters as clear as a bell. I think many students will find themselves gripping the pages of the book, turning each one faster and faster, as they fall into Tate’s story and the streets of her small town, Rippling Creek, Louisiana.

I first “met” Kimberly Willis Holt (website) through When Zachary Beaver Came to Town and My Louisiana Sky. Both books are still as popular today in my classroom as they were when they were first released. Her writing is beautiful and mesmerizing. I’m thrilled to introduce my students to Tate and a new story from Holt. This is one they will fall in love with as well.

 Blog Tour

Tuesday, April 7

Read, Write, Reflect

http://readwriteandreflect.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, April 8

Eat the Book

http://www.mretome.wordpress.com/

Thursday, April 9

Librarian in Cute Shoes

http://librarianincuteshoes.blogspot.com/

Friday, April 10

Let’s Get Busy

http://lgbpodcast.blogspot.com/

Sunday, April 12

Watch. Connect. Read.

http://mrschureads.blogspot.com/

Monday, April 13

The Styling Librarian

http://thestylinglibrarian.com/

Tuesday, April 14

Nerdy Book Club

https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I'm thrilled to link up with Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers each Monday and share our reading lives. Check out their sites for more information. 

This was our first week back from Spring Break. I didn't have a ton of reading time, but did find some amazing books: 

Starting from the bottom, I read four picture books at Barnes & Noble the other day. Meet the Dullards, Stick and Stone, and Home are all beautiful books. 

I Wish You More I read and had to buy three copies of, it is that beautiful. This is the book you will want to read on the last day of school, the book to give out at baby showers and high school graduations. The book to give someone just because. I bought one copy for my class, two for my sons. For both, I plan on writing my own poem following the format of the book (I wish you more _____). For Luke and Liam, I will write my poem right into their copies. For my class, I typically write them a letter at the end of the year, this year it will be in poem format thanks to this beautiful book. Love it. 

Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story was so amazing. I absolutely loved Will Grayson, Will Grayson by Leviathan and John Green. When I read it, one of the lasting impressions was the character of Tiny Cooper. He was funny, comfortable in his own skin, and a loyal friend. This book follows the musical Tiny created in Will Grayson, Will Grayson and is written as a script for the musical, complete with Tiny's stage notes. I was worried, at first, that I wouldn't be as connected to the characters in a play format, but Tiny's voice is so strong that I didn't find that to be an issue. So much fun.

Finally, Bone Gap. Holy crap. This book, words fail me. If I was teaching older kids, I would beg them to read this so we could discuss it. As it is, maybe I'll have to flag down some former students and hand it off. Even to describe it is difficult, I know I cannot do it justice. You see, there are two brothers, Finn and Sean, who live in a tiny town in Illinois - Bone Gap. Their parents are gone, Sean has stayed in town to see his brother through high school. One day a girl appears at their farm, beaten and scared. Her name is Roza. They allow Roza to stay in the apartment over their barn and both, in their own ways, love her. Before the book even begins, Roza runs away, and the town who loved her isn't surprised. She was just visiting, after all. But, and you knew there had to be a but, Finn is certain that she did not run away - he saw her and believes she was abducted. No one believes him, and there is where our story begins. 

To say that Bone Gap is one of the best young adult books I have read this year would be an understatement. It is joining my "top books I've ever read" list. The writing is beautiful. The book is captivating. I finished on Friday and struggle to begin another book, nothing can compare right now. I've reread passages over this weekend because I don't want to be done, it's that good.

And that was my reading week! Hope yours has been wonderful as well.

Happy Reading! 

39-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

Almost two years ago my friend, Colby Sharp, told me to add another book to my “to read” pile. It was by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton and was called The 13-Story Treehouse. I immediately picked it up, read it, and laughed a lot along the way. Who wouldn’t? It’s about two guys (Andy and Terry) with the craziest treehouse imaginable. It had a see-through swimming pool, marshmallow machine, self-making beds, and a library full of comics, for Pete’s sake. I enjoyed the book.

My son, however, devoured it. Liam was seven at the time and it was the first book that made him feel like a “real reader.” (His words, not mine.) He loved that it was longer than what he was reading, but had chapters and illustrations. He thought the humor was hilarious. As he turned pages, he’d quote new sections to me and tell me what items he had just “discovered” in their treehouse. He was hooked.

I brought the book into my classroom musing that if a second grader loved it, surely it couldn’t be for fifth graders. Wrong. The kids not only enjoyed the book, but began sketching out their own crazy treehouses as well.

My students and son have been huge fans of the first book and the second (26-Story Treehouse.) Liam was incensed when he discovered that if you live in Australia, you would have several more books in the series already. I informed him we were not moving, and only have to wait three more days for The 39-Story Treehouse to hit the stores. Until then, please enjoy this interview Liam and I had with Andy Griffith, the author of the series. (Terry Denton is the illustrator.) Our questions are in purple, his answers are in black. Enjoy!

Questions from Katherine:

Katherine: My students are always curious about the writing process for authors. It varies so much from person to person. Can you share a bit what your writing process looks like? Are you a notebook user, or do you draft solely on the computer?

Andy: Although I dearly love computers to help with the editing process, I still can’t go past the simple freedom and joy I feel with a pen in my hand and a cheap notebook in my lap. The notebook gives me the freedom to draw, list and set my ideas down in a fast and scrappy form. I can scribble out, start again, build an idea, destroy an idea and then recombine the elements into something that works.

As the idea deepens and I want to explore it further in more detail I will generally hit the computer and start expanding it into a form that looks something like it might look in book form. But there will still be many rewrites to follow, and when I strike a problem with the story, I will revert to my notebook to free things up and start playing again … then back to the computer. It’s a continual back and forth between the two mediums.

My students also often work collaboratively on writing projects with their classmates. Sometimes this goes well, sometimes it could be improved upon. What are your tips for working collaboratively? You and Terry seem to have found the secret. 

I’ve been fortunate to have a creative partnership with illustrator Terry Denton for almost twenty years. The process usually starts with me coming up with a very loose outline of a story or an idea and then he starts providing some images that might suit it. These images often include elements that I hadn’t thought about and then I expand the outline to include those ideas and the story starts developing naturally.

Each of us keeps pushing the other to places we might not be able to get to by ourselves. There is never an argument about ‘whose idea is best’ … we are only interested in coming up with the best possible story and it really doesn’t matter who comes up with what … usually we can’t even remember.

The main feature of our collaboration is that we are continually playing and experimenting and having fun. If we are not enjoying what we are doing, it’s a warning sign that we need to rethink what we are doing.

Questions from Liam (9 years old):

Liam: What do you think is the funniest book you have written? 

Andy: Hmmm … that’s a very difficult question because people differ so wildly in what they think is funny! I love the extremely silly nonsense of ‘Killer Koalas from Outer Space’ but it’s not necessarily everybody’s idea of a good time. I think the Treehouse series is our most successful series yet that blends many different styles of humor into a book that most people can enjoy.

If you could spend a day in your tree house, what would you do? 

Well, I guess I’d start off with a swim in the shark tank, head to the ice cream parlor for breakfast, do a little bit of writing with Terry, have a marshmallow lunch and then climb up to the trampoline at the top of the tree and bounce so high that I end up on top of a jet and take a flight to a mystery destination.

Is there something you would like to add to the tree house, but haven't? It does have a volcano, so maybe it has everything. 

I think we need a time machine. I’d really like to go back in time and see a Bignoseasaurus!

Thanks to Andy for stopping by and answering our questions. Look for 39-Story Treehouse out this Tuesday. 

What I Know To Be True

Recently, I read some tweets from a high school teacher. In it she shared her lack of faith that engagement and choice were important in the classroom. That discussing classic literature was more important than choice reading, even if students weren’t engaged. Then, I read an article in The Atlantic that implied that motivation really doesn’t lead to gains in the classroom.

To that, I can simply say, “Really?”

Research is important, but I think we can find “research” to support almost any claim you want. There are questions that my friends who read research know to ask – who performed the research, what was control, how large was the study, was it unbiased, who funding it, etc. Those questions are important. But I think also important is what I know in my heart to be true.

Engagement matters. Choice matters. Motivation matters. I see it every day I teach.

Yesterday, my student teacher was observed by her university supervisor. She taught a mini-lesson on inference and then they moved off to read and write independently. While her supervisor got caught up on notes, I moved around the room to check-in with kids, ask them what they were reading and writing, and help a few find books. I then met with her supervisor for a quick meeting before he met with my student teacher.

In our meeting he asked how I saw the kids applying this lesson in tomorrow’s work. I replied that we didn’t have school Friday or Monday, but where I saw it headed next week. He looked at me in surprise and asked when the end of our school day was. I looked up at the clock and replied that we had about an hour left. He looked puzzled and then made a comment that maybe the kids were trying to quickly finish their homework before break, and that was why they had been so hard at work in the independent work period.

I smiled and explained that they had no homework. Jackson was writing a song; Andrew and Isaiah were researching dog breeds; Ethan was working on a poem; Katy, Teya, Preston, and Cal were discussing a series that they were all in different books in; and on and on. I hadn’t assigned any of that. I had simply asked them to read or write what they wanted. So yes, sixty minutes before a four-day break, my students were hard at work. They were engaged, they had choice, and I know how much that matters.

On Wednesday my second period class had the opportunity to Skype with a class of student teachers at a university in Pennsylvania. We were Skyping in to teach these students why picture books matter in the upper grades. I had asked my students for their opinions, we created a top ten list from that, and we began. I started the Skype visit with a few books I have used lately and why, then we shared our top ten, and then the students were going to ask my kids questions.

When we reached that part of the Skype visit, I felt a bit of trepidation. What could they possibly want to know from this group of fifth graders? They asked some great questions, but the one that stopped me in my tracks was, “What makes a great reading teacher?”

My students shot their hands up.

She surrounds you with books.

She writes.

Book talks.

She doesn’t make you read at just one level.

She wants you to read whatever you want.

She cares about what you like to read and write.

She likes graphic novels.

She knows that graphic novels and picture books are “real reading.”

She gives you choice.

She is a reader too.

My heart swelled as I listened to these beautiful kids. And then, one of my kids sitting on the floor by my legs tapped me. I glanced over and she whispered, “She loves us.”

Oh geez.

Looking at these two experiences I saw my students through fresh eyes – they eyes of a university supervisor, and the eyes of these college students. Sometimes it is beneficial to take a step back, especially at this time of year, and see what you have accomplished. Maybe The Atlantic doesn’t think motivation is important. Maybe there are teachers out there who do not believe that choice or engagement matter in the scheme of things. But watching my students, I can tell you with my entire heart that I think choice and engagement are the keys to motivation. And motivation will inspire learning. (So will relationships, but I digress.) J  I wouldn’t want to teach without these beliefs, and I wouldn’t want my children in a classroom with a teacher who didn’t believe this either. You can throw all of the research around that you want, but this I know to be true.