Literacy Now

Good books have always served as venues for lessons on life. Wilbur and Fern taught us about friendship, persistence, and trust in Charlotte’s Web. Anne of Green Gables taught us the value of a great imagination and the strength of friendship. Books can mirror our own lives or create windows into worlds we've never dreamed of before. This month’s theme for book reviews from the IRA Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group is friendship. The books selected range in age level and type of friendship, but the central theme of each is the power of friendship and the different forms friends often take.

AGES 2-7

Dyckman, A. (2012). Boy + Bot. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers.

A friendship boots up between a robot and a boy in this sweet story about finding friendship in unlikely places. The two play and have a great time until the robot suddenly stops responding (his switch has been turned to off). The boy takes him home and tries all sorts of things that would make a boy feel better, from feeding him applesauce to reading him a story. It’s not until his parents accidentally bump a door into the robot’s switch that the robot comes back on. Likewise, when the little boy goes to sleep the robot believes he has malfunctioned. Finally, the robot’s inventor helps to set things straight in this gentle story of friendship.

- Nancy Hulan, Western Kentucky University

Stead, P.C. (2010). A Sick Day for Amos McGee. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

A winner of the Caldecott Medal, this book beautifully tells the tale of a zookeeper who befriends the zoo animals where he works. Each day he does the same thing, playing chess with the elephant, running races with a tortoise that never loses, reading stories to the owl…until one day he wakes up with the sniffles. When Amos does not show up to the zoo, his friends decide to pay him a visit. This story and the wonderful illustrations portray the many things we do for dear friends and the ways friends help us when we are under the weather.

- Nancy Hulan, Western Kentucky University

Stephens, H. (2013). How to Hide a Lion. New York: Henry Holt Publishers.

Sometimes our parents just don’t see the good in our friends. Such is the case when a lion comes to town to purchase a new hat and is chased by grownups in true Frankenstein and villagers style. Iris finds him hiding in her playhouse and tries to hide and protect him from the grownups. Ultimately, the lion proves his worth and goodness and still hopes to purchase that hat.

- Nancy Hulan, Western Kentucky University

AGES 8-12

Applegate, K. (2012). The One and Only Ivan. New York: Harper Collins.

The One and Only Ivan is written in first person from the point of view of Ivan, an artistic silverback gorilla living in a shopping mall. When we meet Ivan, he seems sadly complacent with his lot in life and barely ever thinks of his past in the jungle. His companions at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall include Bob, a stray dog, Stella, a motherly elephant, and Ruby, a baby elephant who inspires Ivan to make some changes. Ivan wants to save Ruby from a lifetime of captivity like his own and uses his artistic expression to help keep her from living a life like his. Winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal, this story demonstrates the power that each individual has to make extraordinary change in the world. 

- Nancy Hulan, Western Kentucky University

House, S. & Vasmani, N. (2012). Same Sun Here. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Written in letter-form, this book spans a year in the lives of River and Meena. River, a coal miner’s son in the mountains of eastern Kentucky and Meena, an immigrant from India who lives in New York City become pen pals through a school project. They realize that they have found kindred spirits in one another and their unlikely friendship empowers the two pre-teens to find the strength to stand up for themselves and their ideals. They confront one another truthfully about issues of race, religion, culture, gender, creativity, and uncertain futures. With one another’s support, River stands up to coal companies and their use of Mountaintop Removal and Meena struggles to keep her family intact through uncertainty of immigration and shaky citizenship status. This book would be a great tool to foster discussion on issues of immigration, environmentalism (specifically MTR), cultural differences, and acceptance.

- Nancy Hulan, Western Kentucky University

AGES 10-14

Gantos, J. (2011). Dead End in Norvelt. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

Jack is grounded for life after accidentally firing his father’s Japanese rifle and mowing down his mom’s corn crop. On top of that, his nose spews blood at any little excitement. His summer looks dreary until a call from Miss Volker, an elderly neighbor whose hands are too arthritic to type her obituaries of the last remaining original Norvelters. She enlists Jack to type and drive and in doing so provides him with some salvation. Jack’s imagination and love of history help him through summertime boredom and the wild adventures that accompany each obituary he and Miss Volker write. Through wax hands, unusual bodily tactics to save a deer, arson in a utopian town, mysterious deaths of old ladies, and raids by Hells Angels, Jack and Miss Volker forge an unlikely and powerful friendship. Dead End in Norvelt won the 2012 Newbery Award. Gantos has recently published the sequel that continues the adventures of Jack and Miss Volker in From Nowhere to Norvelt (2013).

- Nancy Hulan, Western Kentucky University

These reviews are submitted by members of the International Reading Association's Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) and are published weekly on Reading Today Online. The International Reading Association partners with the National Council of Teachers of English and Verizon Thinkfinity to produce ReadWriteThink.org, a website devoted to providing literacy instruction and interactive resources for grades K–12.

When I was in eighth grade, I loved things. I loved my friends. I loved Bad English and Poison. I loved reading David Eddings’ fantasy series The Belgariad and The Mallorean. One of these things was not quite as socially acceptable as the others, but I didn’t really know that. Or if I did, I didn’t really get it. I was, and am, a passionate person. I love out loud. And so sometimes my thirteen year old self found herself in the awkward position of loving something that was not cool.

p: cdrummbks via photopin cc

Imagine, if you will, a typical late ’80s junior high classroom. Desks are in rows. The boys and the cool kids sit in the back. I’d ventured back into their territory one day because I’d discovered that one of the cool boys also read David Eddings. He hadn’t gone quite as far into the series as I, and I had a copy of the book he needed next.

It was such a thrill to be making this symbolic trek; I could barely contain my excitement. Here was someone who read what I read, how much more did we have in common? Certainly we’d become good friends. He was likely to fall madly in love with me and be my boyfriend! Wouldn’t all my friends be, like, so jealous? So, with the anticipated envy of the female population of eighth grade prominently displayed on my sleeve, I handed over KING OF THE MURGOS and stood back, awaiting his effusive thanks and a smoldering glance meant to convey his awakening desire.

It didn’t turn out quite like I’d imagined.

Cool boy was more in tune to the social world than I. He knew that reading wasn’t something to be flaunted. He knew that fantasy, in particular, was associated with awkward girls in unflattering haircuts and giant glasses that didn’t even look good on Kim Bassinger in BATMAN. Reading was associated with boys who didn’t play football. So instead of sweeping me off my feet and manfully striding into the sunset, he looked at the cover art featuring the primary female protagonist, and quipped to the delight of his entourage, “Who’s the chick with the rack?”

Twenty four years later I’m still embarrassed when I think about it.

Silly Mary. Don’t you get it? Reading isn’t cool. You have to hide such ridiculous passions. Some things are okay, and some are not. And never the two shall meet. You can’t be on the basketball team and audition for the school play. You can’t go around singing show tunes and expect to get a date for the prom. It was some time around eighth or ninth grade that I started paying attention to what was cool and what wasn’t, and I believed a lot of what I saw and heard. It took twenty years for me to stop believing it.

So why are you reading transcripts from my therapy sessions? What does this have to do with teaching reading? Everything. This has everything to do with teaching reading.

I have decided to take the coolness hierarchy that everyone implicitly agrees to, and I’m going to banish it from my classroom.

This summer I went to craft stores and bought scrapbooking paper. Each page represented something I think my students might love, and the pages became the backing for my bulletin boards. Football, hockey, dolphins, moustaches, cupcakes: those were easy. I forced myself to stretch. I made myself buy paper with math symbols and NASCAR on it. I swallowed my discomfort and bought paper with scriptures that proclaimed “God is love.” After all, these bulletin boards aren’t about endorsing any one ideal; they’re about acknowledging that we ALL have passions, and they are ALL worthwhile. And, more importantly, they are equal.

This year, when I introduced myself to my students, I called myself a “literary dork.” I pointed out the action figures of Shakespeare, Poe, Dickens, and Austen prominently displayed in my room. I let my guard down and gushed about my love of words and how the meaning of a story or a passage or a poem could hinge on one tiny little article. I recited my favorite lines from literature: HAMLET, JANE EYRE, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. William Carlos Williams, “So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow…” I felt my volume rise, my face warm. “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between.” I felt tears come to my eyes and I let them come. It was hard, it wasn’t comfortable, and it was a risk, but I stopped worrying about being pretty and composed and authoritative and cool, and I was just me.

In a good classroom, there are moments. I’m sure you’ve had them. The room is silent and all eyes are on you and you know that the kids are just soaking up everything and really feeling it. This was one of those moments.

Because although they may not have discovered exactly what it is they love, they know they want to love. They want to feel deeply and passionately about something important. Even at the young age of 14 they can recognize the bravery it takes to love out loud, and they admire it. They want to emulate it.

And that’s when I pulled out Wesley.

p: WilWheaton via photopin cc

Wil Wheaton is known for his portrayal of Wesley Crusher on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. This summer a video surfaced of a touching answer he gave to a woman’s request at ComicCon. She asked Wil to explain to her new baby girl why it’s awesome to be a nerd. His response, which you can watch in its entirety here, is probably best summed up around 1:40 when he says, “It’s not about what you love, it’s about HOW you love it.”

That is the atmosphere I want to create in my room. I want my students to love deeply, passionately, wildly for whatever it is that speaks to them. A handful will react to literature the way I do, and that’s great. But I don’t need all of my students to be mini-Marys. I want them to be artists and actors and jocks and musicians and skaters if that’s what they want to be. I want to open my classroom to all the potential they bring. But I can’t do it alone. In order for my room to be a judgment free place, I need the explicit help of everyone in there with me.

Instead of implicitly going along with the judgmental standard quo, I ask my students to actively choose to be accepting of others’ differences. Students have acknowledged, in writing, that their peers will like things they do not. They’ve also agreed not to give others a hard time. Students agreed not to act as if they are better than anyone else. If they do, they’ve acknowledged that they may be asked to apologize verbally and in writing. Because I can tell my students all day long that my room is a safe place, but if my students don’t back me up, my words mean nothing.

In the coming months, my students will engage in self-directed inquiry projects. They’ll be expected to choose a topic to research, required to develop an inquiry plan, and present a final project that will demonstrate learning in the four content areas. It’s a new idea my team is trying out, and I sometimes feel a little overwhelmed at how open ended and daunting it seems. But then I look at my bulletin boards, clad in sheet music and manuscripts and baseball bats, and I recommit to helping students explore and express what they love.

Mary Cotillo is an 8th grade ELA teacher at Horace Mann Middle School in Franklin, MA. Mother to two children, she enjoys engaging in light saber battles and hanging out on soccer fields. She earned her National Board Certification in 2009.

TWERP (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2013)
By Mark Goldblatt
Grades 4 through 7

Middle school boys have been waiting for Julian Twerski.

In the recent novel TWERP, author Mark Goldblatt turns the bully paradigm on its head, giving us a gruesomely honest account of the middle school power dynamic.

Many books have been written about the “mean girl” mentality and about bullying in general. Let's face it: teasing, ridicule, abuse, and the desire to belong are so rife in our tween years that practically no middle grade book would be complete without them.

More often than not, they center around the tragic figure—the female protagonist. We bear witness to the victim's story and over the course of the novel, we watch as she finds her own strength and the beauty that lies within. It's emotional. We end up crying. We identify with the ostracized teen and cheer her on when she finally tells everyone off. She romps past the final pages with renewed strength and self-esteem, headed for her own happily ever after.

This one is for the boys. The action makes you nauseous with internal conflict without smacking you in the face with it. It’s plot driven, not dramatic. This one isn't about the victim, or the bully. It's about the follower. And it's brilliant.

At times it was difficult turning the pages while my hands were blocking my eyes, shielding them from the horror I knew was to come. That was just the first chapter.

How often do we have the right words (and the guts) to stand up for something? I don't know about you, but when I was in school, I wasn't the one with her head held high, having the courage to believe in herself and function without caring what other people thought of me.

Nope.

Most of us were Julian, standing in a situation we didn't see coming, going along with something we never intended. How desperately we wanted to belong. How quickly we compromised our morals and rationalized horrific behavior. We made excuses for our friends and for ourselves. We stood by. We did nothing. We said a silent prayer of thanksgiving that we weren't the target.
If we have any hope of dealing with the bully crisis, we have to address the real problem. And it's not the bullies. It's the followers.

Any school adjustment counselor will tell you—bullies don't have power unless someone gives to them. The good news is, we can reach those kids and I think this book is a start. Through Julian, we recognize the moments where we would have made a different decision. We see Lonnie's power and witness the highly controlling group dynamic.

The book takes place in the late ’60s, which is hardly essential to the plot. It is merely a cool fact that is reflected in notebook entry dates, images of kids playing outside, and dirt cheap movie prices. Every scenario in this book is relatable and probably happened yesterday to some kid.

Here's the other cool thing: Julian. He is a man's man, but he has a conscience. He's competitive and brutally honest about his desire to win, but a win means nothing when he knows he could have done better. He's annoyed by his sister, except when he needs some cash or halfway-decent advice. He's an athlete, but he sort of loves to write. He likes a girl, but he doesn't really like her. He strikes a deal with his teacher to avoid reading JULIUS CAESAR, only to find out he kinda enjoys Shakespeare and reads it anyway.In Julian Twerski, Mark Goldblatt has succeeded in giving middle school boys both a voice and a role model.

The book is organized into chapters that are almost vignettes, each one a complete story unto itself, told through Julian's stream of consciousness narrative. Instructed by his English teacher to write a reflection about his week-long suspension from the sixth grade, Julian reluctantly picks up his pencil and begins to write. For a while, I actually thought the book would end without the reader finding out what transgression resulted in Julian's suspension. Don't worry.

The silent hero is Mr. Selkirk, the English teacher who sees in Julian something he can't see for himself; giving a young man the chance at salvation, a chance Julian never thought he had, or even knew he wanted.

If you're the follower, this story might give you the courage to pause. If you're the victim, it might give you the courage to forgive.

Cross-curricular Connections: English/Language Arts, History/Social Studies

Ideas for Classroom Use:

Boys Book Club

In my opinion, this is the kind of novel for which book clubs are made. Gather a group of boys and call it a tribe, clan, or team...something cooler than “club.” Lead a four-to-six week discussion group based on TWERP. Use the chance to place older boys in the role of facilitator. Talk to the school's adjustment counselor about trying some social experiments during Bully Prevention Month (October).

Storyboard It

Divide your class into groups—one per chapter. Have them storyboard the plot as the action takes place. What is the scenery? Time of day? Where would cameras focus? What do the characters look like? What is their body language? Students can then try their hands at directing a live scene and share the video.

Point of View

Select a chapter or a scene in the book to recreate from another character's point of view (i.e. Mr. Selkirk, Lonnie, Danley, Devlin) make a voice recording or two-minute video blog based on his experience.

Shakespearean Selfie

When Julian gets going on his Shakespeare kick, he is drawn to the scene in Hamlet where man "is but a quintessence of dust." Throughout the remainder of the novel, Julian looks at his life through this window. Find a Shakespeare quote that defines you. Using photo editing software, superimpose the quote on a personal image.

Get Your Write On

TWERP offers a lot of opportunities for writing prompts, including:

• Six-Word Memoirs: Using only six words, state the theme of one chapter, or even the book.
• Soundtrack: If the book was made into a movie, what songs would be on the soundtrack? Choose one song per chapter.
• Decisions, Decisions: What is the decision you A) are most proud of, B) regret deeply, or C) you would like to change if you could? Select one and write a blog to respond.
• Influential Teacher: Write a thank you note to a teacher who encouraged you.
• Stream of Consciousness: Try your hand at writing exactly what you think, see, and feel for fifteen minutes. Generate a bunch of topics (waking up this morning, the first day of school, a sports tryout) and let your students write like crazy.

Additional Activities

• Use news media search engines or online research tools to find a news item from each of Julian’s journal entry dates—after all, 1969 was quite the year (or so I've heard…)

• Have students generate a list of questions they would like to ask regarding the middle school experience.  Interview an adult about their memories of middle school.  What was their schedule like?  Did you have a best friend?  What did you do after school?  Who was your favorite teacher?  This could be further developed into a presentation where the experiences of interviewer and interviewee are compared to each other.

Speak to the school's adjustment counselor or administrators about organizing a social experience in which students’ treatment is based solely on something over which they have no control. Assign each student one of two colors and post the results. Then, assign each teacher in the school a bias—either pro-green or pro-purple. For one day, students are either treated with deference or discriminated against. At the end, have students examine how they felt—either in writing, video blogging, or even a class debate.

Additional Resources

Choose To Be Nice – Take the pledge!
Read about the CTBN movement.  This site features stories of random acts of kindess and encourages visitors to sign a pledge.  Your students can join others in making the promise to Choose To Be Nice! 

Rachel’s Challenge
Created in memory of the first victim of Columbine, Rachel’s Challenge is a program that inspires school-age children to be up-standers and start “a chain reaction” of kindness.  Students may take a 5-part pledge to make their school a better, more positive place.

Erin O’Leary (@allinoleary) received her B.S. in Elementary Education and English from Framingham State University and her M.S.Ed. in Language and Literacy from Simmons College.  She has the best job in the world, working as a Reading Specialist at Horace Mann Middle School in Franklin, Massachusetts.  She proudly represents half of the Crazy Reading Ladies team, where she and her literary soulmate (@mzcotillo) seek any opportunity to combine good books with crazy kids and lavish costumes. 

Just like many of you, I am also “playing” and experimenting with different technologies and web tools in my classroom. I have a vested interest in e-readers and how to use them effectively in the classroom to promote student reading, comprehension, and learning. In addition, I am searching for different iPad applications that will support my instruction and my students’ learning in the secondary grades. As I continue to use and research mobile learning in K-20 learning environments, the “pebbles in my shoe” are represented in the following two questions:

• How often do educators use mobile learning and for what purposes? 
• How can technology help bridge the divide between what is taught in the classroom and what happens in the “real world”?

In my journey to answer these questions, I have come across a plethora of iPad applications (apps) for teaching and learning across multiple grade levels and topics. In this blog post, I share four free iPad apps that show considerable promise for content area teachers in grades 6-12 and I pair each app with at least one example of how secondary students are using them to deepen their understanding of real world concepts.

• Molecules is an interactive application that allows students in science classes to see a three-dimensional image of molecules and manipulate them using their fingers.  Students might use this app to identify different elements of molecules, examine molecules from different perspectives, or compare molecules. 

• History: Maps of World includes interactive digitized maps from 1800s and 1900s students can use in history and English language arts classes. This app illustrates geopolitical and geographic shifts over time. In a middle school history class, students can use this app to examine a map about the spread of colonization from 1600s-1700s. In a high school language arts class, a map about colonial America can illuminate students’ understanding of the geopolitical influences on colonial and revolutionary literature.

• Graphing Calculator is a graphing and scientific calculator for math and science classes. This app is especially useful for graphic equations and data, and visualizing functions.

• Flipboard works very well for creating personal magazines about a topic of interest, person, or event and can be used across the content areas. At the moment, this app is my favorite because it allows students to use their creativity to select images and other information to build their own magazine. It also helps build their background knowledge about what they are studying in class and it gives them choices to represent and collect information on what they are learning.

As you explore these apps, I am sure you will think of other ways they can be used to enrich your own content area lessons. As always, it is important to remember that neither applications nor e-readers actually “teach”; teachers do. Teachers make instructional and curricular decisions about how to use technology and tools to promote, support, and extend student learning. There are many online resources and tools to enhance teaching and learning in ways that bridge the divide between classrooms and “the real world.” iPad applications will not replace textbooks or additional materials.  Instead, they offer interactive benefits that can promote student engagement with learning, build student background knowledge, and promote motivation to continue to learn. The four apps described above provide a snapshot of teaching and learning possibilities.

Vicky Zygouris-Coe is a Professor in Reading Education at the University of Central Florida, School of Teaching, Learning, and Leadership, Vassiliki.Zygouris-Coe@ucf.edu. 

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

Technology is everywhere in literacy. Sometimes, a child’s first exposure to reading is on an e-reader. It used to be we would learn how to write and form letters using pencils and paper first printing then cursive. Finally in high school, we would learn keyboarding skills.

But today, that path has shortened considerably. Don’t get me wrong; I value technology in the classroom. I’ve had some major breakthroughs with my students because they were able to express themselves more readily using a keyboard and computer screen rather than traditional pencil and paper. But, sometimes, it’s refreshing for us as teachers to take a step, or two, back to a time when all writing was done using a goldenrod colored stick labeled No. 2 and sheets of wide-ruled notebook paper.

Using a daily living journal in your classroom will take your students back to a similar time when kids wrote in a journal to document their day-to-day experiences. I also add one more layer to the overall experience by making your own journals. The steps are few, the materials are inexpensive, and the experience rich and rewarding.

The first time I used the daily living journals was with my fourth grade class for social studies. We were learning about the pioneers and their journey across the Badlands to the great West where they had hopes of a better life. We began by learning the basics of pioneer life: noting the similarities (of which there were few) and the differences (of which there were many).

Soon my students were ready to immerse themselves into pioneer life and document their daily routines, adventures, family life, and hardships along the way. Each student had their own journal to write in throughout the day. Because the students actively participated in making their journals, they valued them all the more and took pride in caring for them.

Some students wanted to share what they had written and of course I let them. However, one of my objectives with the lesson was to have a comfortable medium for students to write about their “pioneer life” and learning about our country’s history. I would “spot check” for participation throughout the lesson but I didn’t make it mandatory that they read their journals to the class or that I read them in their entirety.

At the end of our unit, I collected their journals to put in their portfolios for student-teacher conferences, at which time they would then take them home. The students enjoyed reading what they had written so many weeks before and reminiscing about what they had learned.

For me, I had a classroom of engaged students having fun while learning, a project to assess their writing skills and their understanding of the social studies unit as well as an art grade. And, if you are inclined to take it another step further, you can incorporate math into the lesson, such as when calculating the amount of fabric for each journal. Since this would make a great assignment for Old Farmer’s Day, traditionally observed on October 12, you could also expand the project to include science, such as plant and animal biology.

As some of you know from my previous Teaching Tips, social studies was never a fun subject for me as a kid. As a teacher I vowed to never have a dull lesson. This was the result of that desire. I hope you and your students will agree!

Daily Living Journal Supplies

Fake suede-like fabric. I found a polyester blend on the sale table at my local fabric store. Each individual journal uses a piece of fabric that is 12” x 9”so calculate your yardage based on the number of students you have. Most fabrics are 45” wide but you might get lucky and find one that is 54” or even 60” wide. Be sure to ask about a teacher discount at the fabric store. I was lucky to get 10% off!

With the extra fabric, cut narrow strips of fabric, approximately 24” long.

Glue sticks. Glue sticks are a better choice than the liquid glue but if all you have is the liquid kind that is fine. Just be sure to use a thin layer so the paper journals do not warp.

Journals. I have included a template for the journals. All you need to do is print two copies of the sheets with lines then put those in the copy machine and make double-sided sets—one set per student with 10 pages in each. Then print enough copies of the cover sheet for each student.

Add the cover sheet to each journal set. Then add one sheet of blank paper to the set and fold the entire journal in half. If you have a large stapler you can stable the journals along the spine. Or, you can punch holes and use string to “bind” the journals.

Assembly of Journals

Each student will get one rectangle of fabric and one assembled journal. Ask each student to glue the journal to the wrong side of the fabric.  

Using a hole punch, make a hole in the edge of the journal (front and back).

Take one of the strips of fabric and tie a knot through the hole in the front. Now, when you close the journal, the strip wraps around the journal. You can loop through the hole on the back side and loosely tie a knot.

Kathleen A. Hunter, MS is a literacy tutor and aspiring children's book author. You can visit her online at http://www.KathleenHunterWrites.com.