IN WHICH I TRY TO EXPLAIN TEACHING IN THE INNER CITY

We start third grade reading CSAP today. It's bitter cold and yesterday about a fourth of our kids didn't even come to school. I'm in charge of the test, so my partner and I were at school last night until after 6 counting and sorting tests. And yeah, I looked over the test as I was counting. It's long. It's hard. I can't even begin to explain the huge sadness in my soul this morning.

Maybe I'll just share an experience from yesterday.

I am teaching writing in fourth grade. We have about two more weeks until fourth grade CSAP, so we are in test prep mode, full bore. Yesterday, I asked the kids to write about a time they have been kind. D misses the mini-lesson and comes in just as we are starting independent writing. He's an amazing little writer, despite the fact that a severe case of asthma causes him to miss many weeks of school each year. I touch base with him and he goes to his seat to write. Soon his pencil is moving frantically.

I am busy conferring. When I get to D's table, he tells me he wants to share his writing with me. I sit down next to him and he begins to read. His story is about how his mom woke him up during the night. She was in labor and needed his help getting to the couch and contacting a cousin to pick her up to take her to the hospital so she could have her baby. That was a time when he was kind.

D finishes reading and looks up at me. It takes me a minute to gather my thoughts. At first I ask stupid questions. Did this really happen? Yes. Does anyone else live at your house? No. Just me and my mom. I have a five year old brother but he lives with his dad. When did this happen? Last night. In the middle of the night.

I'm even more surprised. Last night? This happened last night? And you are at school today? Is the baby here yet? Yeah. It's a girl. Have you seen her yet? No. But I know her name. It's Kiana.

OK. Just wondering. How is this piece going to score on the CSAP?

ONCE UPON A COOL MOTORCYCLE DUDE- Kevin O'Malley, illustrations by O'Malley, Carol Heyer and Scott Goto

Summer is just around the corner. The boys want to go to at least three football camps each. There will be combines. They will need new cleats and gloves and ankle braces. Everything costs lots of money. So I tried to exercise restraint at CCIRA. But I had to pick up at least a couple of new books to bring back to my kids.

ONCE UPON A COOL MOTORCYCLE DUDE is a classic, collage style, fractured fairy tale. Three kids- two boys and a girl- are supposed to retell a favorite fairy tale. They can't decide what story to tell, so they make up their own. Their story begins with the beautiful Princess Tenderheart. When the story begins, Princess Tenderheart has eight ponies. Each night, despite all of her best efforts, someone comes and steals one of the ponies, until finally, she is left with only her favorite, a pony named Buttercup. Then a cool motorcycle dude steps in to save the day…

The illustrations,done by three different illustrators with three really different styles, are the funnest part of this book. Kevin O'Malley, the author/illustrator, tells his story with the three main characters, talking in comic-like conversation bubbles. Carol Heyer tells the story of Princess Tenderheart, with classic fairy tale illustrations similar to those of KING BIDGOOD'S IN THE BATHTUB. When the Cool Motorcycle Dude roars onto the scene, then Scott Goto takes over.

I'm thinking about teaching a collage class in the spring. This will be a fun book to add to my collection for that class…

CCIRA, Part one

Spring, 1980. I am a junior at the University of Colorado and take a reading methods class from Dr. Donald Carline. Carline is a past president of CCIRA (Colorado Chapter of the International Reading Association) and insists that all of us attend that association's annual conference. I don't remember attending any sessions that year, mostly I think I just wandered the exhibit hall and begged free samples from anyone who would give them.

Now, almost thirty years later, I've attended CCIRA in some capacity (presenter, conference committee, Executive Board, Conference Chair) almost every year. It's always the first weekend in February, right before our state tests, a time when I am really tired and usually more than a little discouraged. The conference revives, reinvigorates, and just gives me the juice to keep going for the last three months. I love the speakers and authors, but probably most of all, I love the time chatting with colleagues and friends I rarely see

Some highlights of this year's conference:

• Linda Hoyt- Linda did an hour-long session on interactive literacy. As a presenter, I was fascinated by the way she used/didn't use powerpoint. Linda's entire presentation was done almost entirely in photographs and images and video clips. Powerful stuff. She shared brain research about how kids can't listen for more than seven minutes without DOING something, but she didn't just share the research, she crafted her whole presentation so that we, the session participants, didn't have to listen for more than seven minutes at a time. Such a great example for teachers and presenters. Linda's research spoke especially loudly to me, not only as a professional, but also as a mom. I've been struck recently by emails I've recieved from teachers about my sons' alleged issues in their classes. So many of these seem to really speak to teaching deficiencies, e.g. when a teacher says to me, "Your son just can't sit still and take notes for 45 minutes," it takes everything I have to not just snap back, "No, my son can't sit for 45 minutes. And even those kids that can, shouldn't have to."

• Patrick Allen- Patrick's a brilliant Colorado teacher and I've followed his work with the PEBC for years. Most recently, I've enjoyed reading his blog, All-en-a day's-work.blogspot.com (His recent entry, "Is it a problem?" about buying books had me laughing so hard I was crying!) . He presented a session on conferring, using material from his newest book, CONFERRING: THE KEYSTONE OF READER'S WORKSHOP. Patrick is a master at talking and listening to kids and I loved learning from him. Especially enjoyed his five "ashlars" (an ashlar, as I understand it, is the stuff that holds a stone masons' work together). Patrick's five ashlars are 1) defining the trust, respect, and tone of the workshop 2) strengthening readers' strength and endurance, 3) discussing purposes and audiences 4) focusing on gradual release and responsibility and 5) focusing on the structure of the reading workshop. I also loved Patrick's format for conferring and can't wait to get to school tomorrow to mess around with it a little bit.

• Ralph Fletcher- Ralph shared information from his newest professional book book, PYROTECHNICS ON THE PAGE: PLAYFUL CRAFT THAT SPARKS WRITING. The book, which will be published in April, focuses on teaching children to delight and play with language. Ralph made one comment that really stuck with me. He said something like, "When we talk about words with kids, we are always so serious. We use phrases like word work and word study. We very rarely talk about teaching children to delight and enjoy and play with language." Fletcher went on to share some great examples, e.g. poetry from J. Patrick Lewis. I've been thinking, ever since, even this week, on the eve of CSAP, about how I can build more playfulness into my work with kids' writing.

Lots, lots, lots more highlights, but this post is getting long and I have to go do laundry so we have clean underwear for this week. More later…

JUST THINKIN: WHEN A TEN YEAR OLD REVISES YOUR RECENT AND MAYBE BRILLIANT THINKING

Friday. Poetry Friday. The fifth grade teachers want me to continue thinking with the kids about the purposes for poetry. They want me to talk about poems that tell a story or poems that teach a life lesson. I plan to use BASEBALL, SNAKES, AND SUMMER SQUASH, Don Graves' oldie but goodie. I can't find my copy so I head to our school library. I don't find that book, but I find BIRMINGHAM, 1963, Carole Boston Weatherford's beautiful photo essay/poem about the Birmingham church bombing.

The kids are Friday afternoon restless when I walk in, and a little apathetic as I remind them of the model we started discussing the week before, but quickly settle into the book. They become quieter and quieter as I read. When I am done, they have lots of questions. That really happened? Did they catch the guys who did it? Why would someone do that? Why would they do that in a church? Could that happen now? The conversation is rich and thoughtful and goes much longer than I had intended. I think of Louise Rosenblatt's notion that people need to respond to a text at the emotional/feeling/message level before they can critique the author's craft, and let them go.

When the conversation wanes, I return to the topic of poet's purpose. I ask the fifth graders where they think this poem fits into the model. Many of the children think the poem tells a story and/or teaches a life lesson but Gregory has a different idea. He points to an empty box on the chart I have created. "I think you need a new category, Ms. W. I think you need to put "Reflecting on a historical event" here in this box." I am surprised, a little, I think, that this ten-year-old is ready to revise my most recent maybe brilliant thinking. A ten-year-old is making suggestions to the model of a fifty-year-old, veteran educator. I have a Ph.D., for pete's sake! As I think about it, though, I am more than a little pleased. If we truly are a community learners, and I really do want us to be, then every member of the community has the right to contribute and build and help other members revise their thinking.

Consider it done, Gregory. Consider it done.

JUST THINKIN': SOME MONDAY MUSINGS ABOUT POETRY

I've been doing "Poetry Friday" with the fifth graders at school all year long. Most Friday afternoons, I go into the fifth grades classes for an hour, and we read poetry and share poetry and write poetry. Sometimes we have a theme, e.g. poems about friendship, or poems about Christmas. Sometimes we read poems by a particular author. Sometimes we look for poems where the poet has used a certain poet's tool, e.g. repetition. And sometimes we just read and share poems.

I love connecting with kids in this way. I love watching the fifth graders fall in love with poetry. I love watching them read poetry and perform it. I love when C, a tough gangbanger wanna be, shyly stands at my shoulder to show me an alliterative poem he describes as "kind of a tongue twister. " I love when J, a tiny nine year old who lost his mom last year, stops by my office, writers' notebook in hand, to share a memory poem he has written.

For years, I have talked to kids about how readers prepare themselves to open a book- how they think about whether the book is fiction or nonfiction, and what they know about the author or topic. Recently, I have worked with kids a lot on nonfiction text structure. We talk about how the author "built" the text-- whether it is a house (all about one thing), a duplex or triplex (comparing several different things) or an apartment (a little bit of information about a whole bunch of different but related topics (e.g. all about bears, with one page devoted to grizzlies, and one page devoted to polar bears, and one page devoted to brown bears). All of this prereading work has seemed to really support kids and help them become more active readers.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been messing around with a kind of framework to help the kids think about poetry. I've been calling it "Poet's Purpose," mostly for lack of a better term. I want kids, before they ever start to read, to consider why the poet might be writing.

1. Entertain or make us laugh- I started with this one, because these are the poems that kids love first. Humorous poets like Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, and Kenn Nesbitt are a doorway for children to enter into the world of poetry.
2. Play with language- Language play is another category my kids love. They love concrete poems in books like SPLISH SPLASH by Joan Bransfield Graham. They love Betsy Franco's MATHEMATICKLES. They also love the language play- made up words and rhyming twists- in Doug Florian's dinosaur poems.
   
3. Story poems- Poems that tell a story are another category that kids seem to find really accessible, both for reading and writing. Don Graves' "BASEBALL, SNAKES, AND SUMMER SQUASH" is a book I revisit again and again.
   
4. Capture a feeling- Sometimes I share a feeling poem or two. Poems about being lonely, or sad, or lost seem to really resonate with the kids. Often, the poems they bring to share with me are feeling poems.
   
5. Capture visual or sensory images- We talk a lot about how poets create images in our heads, or help us smell or taste or feel things. These seem harder and less interesting to the kids, but I keep trying.
   
6. Compare two things- Poets often compare two things that I would never, in a million years, think of comparing. Jean Little's poem, "Clothes," where she talks about the difference between new and old clothes, or new and old friends, has been a terrific for this. Last week, the kids loved "December Leaves," where poet Kay Starbird compares the leaves on her lawn to cornflakes in a bowl. Valerie Worth is another poet who does this all the time.
   
7. Teach a life lesson- Poetry often teaches important life lessons. Some, e.g. those of Shel Silverstein, are easy to pick out, other are much more difficult. I usually just kind of let the discussion go where it may, and the kids often have huge insights. Sometimes, at the end, I'll say, "Some people think…" and show the kids support from the text for this thinking. The fifth graders listen respectfully to my ideas, but don't see these as any more valid or legitimate than their own thinking, which is exactly what I want them to do.
   

This framework is not intended to be all inclusive (poets probably have a million or more reasons why they write), and a single poem could definitely have more than one purpose. Shel Silverstein's "Jimmy Jet and His TV Set" for example, is a story poem, but it also has a life lesson. I also don't want the framework to become so all encompassing that it turns the reading of poetry into one of those gosh-awful poetry dissection exercises that most of us remember from high school or college lit classes, where one person, the teacher, knows what the poet means, and everyone else takes turns guessing what the might be in the poet and/or teacher's head. I just wanted to create something that kids might use, if they found it helpful.

I'd love to hear what people think…

POETRY FRIDAY

My oldest son turned 16 this week. And I am watch in amazement as this sweet guy turns the corner toward manhood. I am so blessed to be his mom…

"To a daughter leaving home"

When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park…

Linda Pastan

Read the rest of the poem here.

Poetry Friday is at Liz in Ink. In case you didn't know, Liz's book, ALL THE WORLD, which was illustrated by Marla Frazee, won a Caldecott Honor Medal this week. Congratulations Liz and Marla!

ARE WE REALLY AS FAR ALONG AS WE THINK WE ARE?

WARNING: This post may be offensive to some people. It doesn't represent the views of anyone but me.

It's the eve of MLK Day. I know we are supposed to celebrate the accomplishments of this great man, but I think it's also a time we should take stock. I'm not quite sure we are quite as far down the road as we think we are. Here are three quick stories:

Every Sunday, our newspaper, has a feature they call "Student Athletes." The paper recognizes two kids, one boy and one girl, who are outstanding athletes, and also have outstanding grades. I read this feature every week and I think it's great that the paper honors kids in this way. However, 95% or more, of the kids that they honor are Anglo kids. I can't help but believe that there are other kids-- African American, Hispanic, Asian, etc., who also meet the qualifications. I wonder why they aren't honored. Then there's the Constitutional Law team at the boys' very diverse high school. Although well over half of the student body is non-Anglo, the Con Law team is 95% white. And I wonder, are we really as far along as we think we are?

My sons attend a high school that has open campus at lunch. This means that every day, at 11:30, approximately two thousand starving teenagers leave the school grounds and descend on a two block strip of restaurants, convenience stores, etc. On Friday, my son, an athletic, handsome (ok, I'm biased, but he really is cute) African American teen and his best friend, who is Hispanic, were stopped by a man with a video camera, who asked if he could interview the boys. His questions, or at least the ones my sons could remember, were all about teen fathers*. He asked the boys how they would feel if they found out that they were going to be dads. My son said he would be surprised and that he knew he would be in big trouble with his mom.

I gotta tell you that these questions offend and concern me more than a little. First, although my preferred method of birth control is definitely abstinence until marriage, I'm not so naive as to believe that my boys feel the same way. We do talk about safe sex and pregnancy prevention on a regular basis. My boys also know that in the event that they got a girl pregnant, they would be responsible for providing for the child emotionally and financially for the next 21 years. Mostly, I want to know why this man, whoever he was, picked my kid out of all the kids at East. Did he talk to kids of all different races, or did he assume that because my son was black, he was sexually active and also irresponsible? And where is that film going to show up? I'm not excited about having my son's face smeared across You Tube as the face of teen fatherhood. And I wonder, are we really as far along as we think we are?

One more story. This weekend I got some really disturbing news. On Friday, January 8, a family that we know, lost their house and all of their possessions in a fire. We are not super close to this family, but my boys have played football with them, their dad is a terrific coach and athletic trainer (my younger son says, "All Coach E has to do is touch whatever is hurt and it feels better) and we've spent countless hours together at practice fields and games. Their middle son is a nationally titled Junior Olympic boxer. I found out about the fire yesterday, and only then because another coach posted a request for clothes and shoes on his Facebook page. To the best of my knowledge, this fire has not been on any news channel, or in the newspaper. We see human interest stories like this all the time, and I wonder why this family's story has not shown up. Is it because the family is not Anglo? Is it because they live in a lower working class neighborhood? And I wonder, are we really as far along as we think we are?

Maybe tomorrow, a day when we stop to honor an important American, we all need to stop and think about whether we are really as far along as we think we are.