Reflection – Page 14 – Unleashing Readers

Kellee’s Bookish Bucket List

July 20, 2018May 2, 2014 by Kellee

After writing our Bookish Bucket List as one of our Top Ten Tuesday, we learned about Love At First Book’s 50 Bookish Things You Must Do Before You Die . We immediately knew we had to participate. Yesterday, Ricki posted her list of 25 items on her bookish bucket list, and below you can find my (Kellee’s) list. You can also see other lists by checking out Love At First Book.

1. Read a bunch of classics I’ve never read
2. Continue to read at least 200 books a year
3. Get back to 100 novels a year
4. Finish the series I’ve started
5. Continue to read to my son (hopefully) daily
6. Continue keeping up with what my students like and what they may like to read
7. Continue going to NCTE

8. Continue going to ALAN

9. Throw my son a book themed birthday party that I plan myself
10.Visit Wizarding World of Harry Potter

11. Visit Hemingway’s house in the Keys

12. Participate in World Book Night

13. Bring Little Free Library to around my home

14. Read Roald Dahl books aloud to Trent
15. Go to BEA

16. Go to ALA Midwinter to see awards

17. Go to National Book Festival

18. Move my reviews onto Amazon
19. Have a library in my future home
20. Visit Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

21. Host a blog tour
22. Host an in-person book club
23. Get blog business cards
24. Get a book published
25. Finish by TBR (haha!)

Here’s to trying to finish my list! *fingers crossed*

Ricki’s Bookish Bucket List

July 20, 2018May 1, 2014 by Ricki

After writing our Bookish Bucket List as one of our Top Ten Tuesday, we learned about Love At First Book’s 50 Bookish Things You Must Do Before You Die . We immediately knew we had to participate. Today, I will post 25 items on my bookish bucket list, and tomorrow, Kellee will post her list! You can also see other lists by checking out Love At First Book.

1. Read all of John Steinbeck’s books. He is my favorite classic author.

2. Visit The Steinbeck House restaurant. Eat and be merry!

3. Read all of the books that match the movies in my Netflix queue. Then, I can actually watch them instead of having them linger in the queue.

4. Continue to attend the ALAN Workshop until I am physically unable to do so (e.g. on my deathbed).

5. Go on a road trip around the country, visiting all of the major famous author’s houses. Attend every tour.

6. Clear out my TBR list. Ha. Ha. Ha. Imagine?

7. Visit my old high school to thank my teachers for helping me love to read.

8. Get Henry (my son) a library card.

9. Sign up for the mommy-baby reading sessions at our library.

10. Read every Shakespeare play.

11. Try to read at least one NYT bestseller book a month.

12. Read more middle grade books.

13. Finish my YA novel and submit it to be published.

14. Be asked by Amazon to be a Vine member.

15. Attend the ALA Youth Media Awards.

16. Write a children’s book.

17. Host a bookish party!

18.Participate in BookCrossing.

19.Write more thank-you notes to authors.

20. Spend more time spreading the word of the blog!

21. Finish color-coding my bookshelves (three down, one to go!)

22. Have my students over for a book-giving party.

23. Name all of my children after great authors.

24. Host more book giveaways on the blog.

25. Become much more active on Twitter. The bookish crowd is awesome!

Balance, Where Are You?

April 22, 2023March 20, 2014 by Ricki

I wonder if every new mom comes to a point where she asks herself, how do I balance all of this? I only have one child (bless anyone who has more than one), but I often feel as if my eyes are just barely peeking above the surface of the murky swamp. As a new parent, I can’t help but try to balance all of the advice I get—don’t wake a sleeping baby, don’t let him sleep too long, don’t let him get overtired, keep him awake during the day, don’t overstimulate him, schedule naps, nap on demand, and don’t you dare rock him to sleep. I search for balance in my life (as I bounce my four-month-old up and down with my knees—his favorite motion), and I begin to ponder how the elusive qualities of balance might extend beyond parenting.

In my independent study, I am reading some of the greatest contributors to the field of education—Dewey, Bobbit, Apple, and Freire (to name a few). And I get riled up. (If you know me, this shouldn’t be surprising.) Too many philosophers promote one style/theory of teaching, and we, as educators, are forced to juggle all of these philosophies and formulate our own. We read Kozol or Hirsch or Addams, and we try to mish-mosh their theories into one. Too often, philosophers push their theories as absolute, and while I often respect each theory, I crinkle my forehead when each is professed as the only theory. God forbid, when there are disparities between two of those theories, we feel like bad teachers because we see the merit in both. We want to feel firm in our beliefs. I read about Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy, for example, and I nodded in response when I read that our students must be prepared to emerge as literate adults who understand the language of American culture. And then I read his list of 5,000 words/phrases that EVERY literate person must know, and I shook my head. Perhaps, Hirsch is just one lens, and we, as teachers, are able to see our students through thousands of lenses. It seems that each philosophy we learn about adds a lens and makes our classrooms that much clearer.

I look to these philosophers, and I seek balance in my own philosophies, and I wonder why we find comfort in seeing qualities of life in black and white. I am, admittedly, guilty of this. When a friend posts a viewpoint that is so very different from my own, why am I compelled to post an argumentative reply? Can our polarized views—be them teaching, parenting, or politics—be balanced? What is it about this gray area that makes us so nervous?

And amidst this overwhelming stress of being a good mom, a good wife, a good keeper of the house, a good student, a good friend, and a good blogger, my son looks at me as I bounce him and lets out a belly laugh. Across the cyberspace, someone else’s son is laughing right now. That someone else might hold parenting views that are quite different from my own. And in another town, a teacher is grading assignments that are very different from my own. And what she is doing is working. So maybe this mom and I—and this teacher and I—maybe we are all right.

A Response (Ahem…Rant) Regarding E. D. Hirsch Jr.’s Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know

April 22, 2023March 6, 2014 by Ricki

GoodReads Summary:

In this forceful manifesto, Hirsch argues that children in the U.S. are being deprived of the basic knowledge that would enable them to function in contemporary society. Includes 5,000 essential facts to know.

My Review:

This text left me nodding vigorously at some sections and wanting to rip out the pages of other portions. Hirsch gives an impressively extensive background of the establishment of the English language. When my students ask, “Who made these grammar rules and spelling decisions?” I can now give them quite a long answer. I love a book that makes me think, and as an educator, this text truly made me ponder my beliefs about education. Hirsch contends that literate adults know things that illiterate adults do not. They have cultural literacy, and there are common ideas, phrases, and words that literate share that allow them to hold intelligent discussions and read newspapers. I agree with this notion, and Hirsch proves it well.

He then continues by arguing that teaching skills is not enough, and we need our children to learn these extensive facts in order for them to become functioning, literate adults. My biggest problem with this idea is his list. The appendix contains 5,000 words and phrases (about half of the book). If we spent time teaching from this list, our students would suffer. School wouldn’t be about inquiry—but about facts and cold information. I am more aligned with Dewey’s approach. Our students must be given exploratory opportunities to enact inquisition. If we teach our students to be curious, they will want to read and learn, and then they will slowly learn these words and phrases. I imagine educators agreeing with this text and wanting to create multiple choice tests.

My other issue with this text is the fact that Hirsch is narcissistic enough to think that he can create the list of the words and phrases cultured, literate Americans should know. He tries to validate this by arguing that he worked with a few others and they received feedback from over a hundred people. I was not impressed and found this to be quite pompous.

Hirsch ends with practical ways we might approach the integration of these words and phrases into curricula. I was extremely unhappy with his suggestion to provide a test for students at different levels to ensure that they are learning the facts. More tests? We would kill the love of learning with his approach to education.

While there are elements of Hirsch’s argument that are sound, I was disappointed by many of the ideas he put forth. I agree that students need to become culturally literate, and I found this concept to be quite interesting and important, but I don’t think that all educators will agree about which facts are most important. Hirsch does seem to understand this and explains how the process of picking these words and phrases is messy, and for me, the creation of this list is where many of the details of his argument are flawed.

He begins his book by explaining how saddened he is that a literary reference (“The tide falls”) is lost on many people. I understand this allusion, and I disagree with Hirsch. If I used this phrase in a conversation and another person didn’t understand it, I would explain it. That is the power of education and teaching each other. We are always learning, and we can always grow as cultured, literate adults. Knowing these specific 5,000 terms (or the many more his more extensive version) do not make us culturally literate.

Are you culturally literate? I included a few random words/phrases you should know from the “5,000 Essential Names, Phrases, Dates, and Concepts” section:

Luxembourg

metaphysics

microfiche

The Little Red Hen (title)

Interstate Commerce Commission

hubris

L’état c’est moi

Dolley Madison

Planck’s constant

philistinism

wildcat strike

Benedict Arnold

MX missile

juvenilia

intransitive verb

How did you do? Did you get a few?

Kellee’s 2013 Reflection

January 8, 2014January 1, 2014 by Kellee

2013 was a life-changing year for me.
The biggest, and most exciting, change was that I am pregnant with my first child (cannot wait for Baby Boy Moye!). Right after finding out I was pregnant, I was given the opportunity to be the reading coach at my middle school and knew that I couldn’t turn down this opportunity to at least try it. This may not be life-changing permanently, but it definitely was present life-changing. Both of these changes had a major impact on my reading life.

First, pregnancy. If you have been pregnant then you know what I mean when I saw I was tired for 4 months. More tired than I ever could imagine being. And when I was awake, I was not feeling well or just wanted to veg. These first 4 months of pregnancy were June, July, August, and September–right through summer #bookaday!! This really cut into my summer reading. I actually would find myself on Sunday nights about to do my IMWAYR post and realizing I hadn’t read at all so I’d grab a couple of picture books just to have some numbers. This happened more than I let on (mostly because my pregnancy was a secret at this time too!). And to be honest, even after I got almost back to my normal self, reading was out of my routine (and I still need extra sleep than I used to). I am still working on getting it back; however, I know all of that will change when the baby arrives though I am really going to push myself to keep my reading part of my life.

Second, reading coach. I was wary of this change. My love of education is 99% because I love impacting students’ lives and being part of their life daily. Being a reading coach is impacting students in a different way and it has been a struggle for me. I miss my students; however, I try so hard every day to make sure that through my coaching, interventions, and classroom library that I am reaching as many of them still even though they are not in my classroom. I wish that I had had a coach to help me through becoming a coach because it is such a huge change. I’m not sure how long I’ll be out of the classroom, but I am still trying to grow and make an impact daily and I hope to find a nice balance. I think, though, without the pressure of book talks and conferencing and being with students daily, I let my reading slide even more than it would have had I been in the classroom.

Both of these things, unfortunately, made 2013 the lowest reading numbers I’ve had since 2010. (Since 2010 I’ve been blogging, been on twitter regularly, been part of FB’s centurion group, and on a book award committee–all things that have impacted my reading goal and my expectations for myself.) Now, I will say that I am not embarrassed of what I did read in 2013. I am actually very proud based on everything I went through. I just think I had very high expectations for myself this year because I had an amazing reading year in 2012 (I read over 400 books).

For 2013, I originally set my Goodreads goal at 333 books. This was a big under what I read in 2012, but I like reaching my goal so I try to make it realistic. However, in about October or November I realized that there was no way I was going to reach this goal and I knew that not reaching my goal would be devastating to me. So, I reevaluated and set a new goal: 225. This one I did meet- YAY!

In 2013 I read:

79 middle grade/young adult novels
12 early chapter books
25 graphic novels
53 picture books
9 adult novels
5 nonfiction graphic novels
36 nonfiction picture books
9 nonfiction books
8 poetry collections
3 interactive/game/novelty books
4 professional books
8 reread young adult novels

Totaling: 251 books!

Overall, I am very proud of my year and am very much looking forward to my even more life-changing 2014! For more reflections, check out my favorite 2013 reads and my 2014 reading goals.

Helping our Students Achieve the Reading and Writing Flow

April 22, 2023December 19, 2013 by Ricki

Kelly Gallagher stresses balance in his book, Readicide. We, as teachers, try our best not to tear apart texts for students. We want to study author’s craft, but if we overanalyze and nitpick at every detail, it becomes terribly boring for students (and us!). So where is the balance? How do we help students come to appreciate the minute details of an author’s writing without committing this act of readicide? Gallagher also discusses the “reading flow.” It is important for teachers to understand when to stop students and when to allow them to find the flow—to get into the groove of reading. It makes sense, thinking of my own reading habits. If I was forced to stop at every page (or even every ten pages) to analyze an author’s writing, I would throw the book at the wall.

How do you help your students achieve reading flow?

As a teacher, what works best for me (and this may not work best for you), is to analyze the first few pages of a text. I have my students do a close reading, and we try to examine elements like voice, writing style, form, and manipulation of language, among others. Then, I let them explore. I try to assign them enough reading so they can hit the flow but not too much reading that they don’t do the assignment. For me, this is the most effective way to help students find this “reading flow” that Gallagher discusses. Once I have helped my students grapple with and (hopefully) appreciate the language of an author, I set them free from the nest. This approach doesn’t work well with every text. For example, much more complex texts may require more analysis and comprehension techniques before I can set my students free.

But how do we find the flow for writing? Recently, I read a section of Murray’s Write to Learn. He made me think more about how this “reading flow” concept might be applied to writing. From my experience, my students feel like stuttering cars when they begin to write. Often, they can’t even get their cars to start. Some of the techniques that Murray offers are interesting when I look at them through the lens of the writing flow.

We need our students to connect to their writing. One way to start is by having students write down their territories. Murray starts this in a brainstorming list, where students make a list of topics. He suggests connect elements on their lists to try to find ideas for writing. Murray also describes other methods that won’t be new to most teachers like freewriting about topics or brainstorming in the form of a map or tree. With the map, students can show the way their thoughts emerge from and digress to each other. With the tree, students can brainstorm about a more focused topic. Murray also suggests interviewing ourselves.

How do you help your students achieve writing flow?

One technique I have found to be useful to help students start writing short stories is by providing the first sentence for them. I write a series of evocative sentences like “He was a most peculiar boy.” Or, “As his name was called, he knew his life would drastically change.” Or, “She woke up barefoot, lost, and with something unusual beside her.” My students brainstorm the second sentence for a dozen or so of these sentence starters. Then, I set them free to expand one of the starters a bit further. We don’t look at grammar, and instead, we focus on just keeping the flow. I remind them that authors often discuss how their first draft is terrible, and this is okay. We are getting ideas onto paper and finding our flow. We’ll worry about the revision and editing later, right?

Let’s share!

How do we get our students to hit this reading and/or writing flow?

Do any activities work well for you?

Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby

August 2, 2015November 22, 2013 by Kellee

This week I am celebrating with my friend and author Ginny Rorby as she receives her award from the Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME) for winning the Sunshine State Young Readers Award (as voted by 6-8 grade students in Florida) for Lost in the River of Grass. To celebrate, I will be reviewing all of her books this week:

Hurt Go Happy
Author: Ginny Rorby
Published August 8th, 2006 by Starscape

Goodreads Summary: Thirteen-year-old Joey Willis is used to being left out of conversations. Though she’s been deaf since the age of six, Joey’s mother has never allowed her to learn sign language. She strains to read the lips of those around her, but often fails.

Everything changes when Joey meets Dr. Charles Mansell and his baby chimpanzee, Sukari. Her new friends use sign language to communicate, and Joey secretly begins to learn to sign. Spending time with Charlie and Sukari, Joey has never been happier. She even starts making friends at school for the first time. But as Joey’s world blooms with possibilities, Charlie’s and Sukari’s choices begin to narrow–until Sukari’s very survival is in doubt.

My Review and Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: This book is so important to me it is even hard to write this review. I have never written one because the book has become so personal to me that I didn’t know how to share my feelings. When I read Hurt Go Happy for the first time, I knew that it was the book that I wanted to share with every student I ever had. Hurt Go Happy shows the importance of empathy for animals, for children and for people with disabilities.

Hurt Go Happy has become the number one community builder in my classroom. After our state test and our Earth day activity with The Lorax we begin our read aloud of Hurt Go Happy. (One of the saddest things about not being in the classroom this year is that I will not be able to have this moment with students.) Not only does the book give me opportunities to work with setting, characterization, cause/effect, prediction, compare/contrast, sequence, and analogies, throughout the book my class participates in conversations about deafness, sign language, chimpanzees, abuse, research facilities, animal abuse, wild animals as pets, survival, parents, school, death, fear, and their future. The conversations are so deep and wonderful. But this is just the beginning. Following the reading of the novel, my students are lucky enough to be able to take part in an interview with the author of Hurt Go Happy, Ginny Rorby. The students generate the questions, vote on which ones to ask and even ask her the questions. Ginny even allows us to send her extra questions and answers them for my students.

The part that really makes students connect to the novel is the field trip that we go on. At the end of the book, the setting changes to a rehab facility called The Center for Great Apes (@CFGA) which, while in the book was in Miami, has moved to Wauchula, FL which is 90 minutes from my school. In the book, you even meet Noelle, a chimp who knows sign language, Kenya, another chimpanzee, and Christopher, an orangutan, who are actually at the center. It is an amazing experience to take the story and turn it into reality.

Hurt Go Happy is a book that I feel not only bring our class together but teaches my students some of the most important lessons for life: to care about every living thing.

Discussion Questions: I have many that would give spoilers, but here are my essential questions for the book: Do you think animal testing is necessary? Defend your answer.; How would being deaf affect your life? How does it affect Joey’s?

We Flagged: “Before she’d lost her hearing, she loved the whisper of wind through pines, and since she had no way of knowing how different it sounded in a redwood forest, the sight of branches swaying re-created the sound in her mind. Even after six and a half years of deafness, she sometimes awoke expecting her hearing to have returned, like her sight, with the dawn.” (p. 11)

Read This If You Loved: Endangered by Eliot Schrefer, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell, Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, El Deafo by Cece Bell, Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel, Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla by Katherine Applegate