Check It Out

All the participants were given a book to read at the conference last week. We were expected to read their book through the lens of the thinking strategy they were studying. Ten titles, nonfiction and fiction, were booked talked, then participants at each table had to come to consensus about which book they would select.  Participants were invited to choose a genre that would challenge their reading and thinking.

Hmmm, what I discovered about my reading was that being in the library media field, I read a lot and am familiar with most styles of writing.  I selected Ultimate Challenge by Alan Gottlieb, a dark, grisly book about how one man copes when forced to keep a secret when his best friend dies unexpectedly while both were in the Peace Corps.  Okay, so my thinking strategy was “synthesizing”.   Throughout the week, the conversation always returned to “is synthesizing  really a thinking strategy or is it the umbrella for which all others strategies come under”? 

So how did I synthesize my reading of Ultimate Excursion?  What did I think about as I read it?  Armed with post-its and pens (because even though we could write in the book, I could not bring myself to do so), I began reading.  I was brought back to a place twenty years ago when I led adult literature circles for class credit.  I was brought back in my mind to my visit to Columbia University, a workshop with Lucy Caulkins and Shelly Harwayne as we explore “what lens do you read through”.   I read through the lens of a reader, not a librarian trying to get through books in order to make selection choices.  There is a difference.  Sometimes I felt annoyed because I impose a “must think about this” on every page and that slows your reading down.  Yet, there was joy in slowing down, savoring the words.   Eventually, I set aside the post-its and just read.  I had to enforce lights out in Denver or I would have stay up all night.  It was an “ultimate excursion” to read this book.  It might make for a good read at high school level.  I am wonmdering if I could talk my book club into reading the book.  They typically do not go for dark reads. Do you know how much we synthesize without realizing it.

Fifth grade boys are crazy about the Guardians of Ga’hoole series by Kathryn Lasky.  I blogged about this two weeks ago.  I discovered Kathryn Lasky’s website and how to contact her and passed it onto the boys.  Today, Ben came down to tell me he had emailed her and she responded.  To see the joy on that boy’s face. Thank you to all the authors out there who take the time to respond to students.

What is on your nightstand?  Happy Reading.

MsMac

What do these three things have in common?
1. The 2009 Newbery Award: The Graveyard Bookby Neil Gaiman.
2. Email chatter about the Newbery Award winner.
3. “A Dirty Little Secret: Self-Censorship” by Debra Lau Whelan, School Library Journal, February.

They intersect one another. Gaiman’s book, a Newbery winner, once again could be self-censored from elementary school libraries. Why? Because of the opening scene. A scene in which the reader discovers the main character has escaped being murder while he rest of his family does not. A scene that includes a knife.
Shortly after the ALA announcement that The Graveyard Book won the award, emails started flying. Many of which stated, the book would not be purchased for their school. I had not read the book but immediately got my hands on it and devoured it cover to cover.

It seems that many recent Newbery Awards are for middle or high school. But this year, the committee was brave in selecting a book that not only has kid appeal but is masterfully written. Have you read Gaiman’s book? If not, it must go on your “to-read” list.
The timing of the SLJ article could not have been more perfect. Do we as school librarians self-censor? Do I self-censor? I think it is food for thought. My library does not have And Tango Makes Three or Uncle Bobby’s Wedding. Interestingly, I check our district, seven schools (four elementary) have And Tango Makes Three and there are no copies of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding in our district. This requires further examination on my part. ( I am in the process of putting an order together).
Last year, I had a parent visit me about Harry Potter. I explain she could censor her children’s reading but not others. I gave her all the paper work to file a challenge but it never happened.
What is the criteria for selecting The Graveyard Bookfor my school library? I am good at considering the reviews and the suggested ages for a book. Many reviews say ten years old or fifth grade for this title. I am always on the lookout for those “edgy” fifth grade reads. Having read the book, I think it is an excellent choice for elementary. Gaiman’s book fills a void in the scary/horror genre of the school library. It is a difficult genre at elementary beyond the Goosebumps series. (which the cover is often more scary than the text). And paired with the classic Jungle Book, wow, let the discussions begin.
This past week at the conference, we talked a lot about providing mentor text for students. The Graveyard Book will make such a great mentor text for those students trying to write a scary story. The reader can be scared and yet, most of the scary parts are nuanced. The reader is not reading about gore beyond the words “bloody knife” and that will send the imagination off, won’t it?
I have to agree with Pat Scales, a former librarian and First Amendment advocate, who says, “Children will put down what they can’t handle or what they aren’t ready for.” I know this will be true for Gaiman’s book and I also know it probably will not stay on the shelves much. By the way, yesterdy it was announced that The Graveyard Book also won the CYBILS for best book in the “Middle Grade Sci-fi/Fantasy” division. Congrats on that.

Happy Reading.

MsMac

I am in Denver, CO attending the PEBC’s conference (Public Education Business Consortium, been around for 25 years).  The conference provides people from all the parts of education to look closely at thinking strategies that promote comprehension and a deeper level of understanding. This work is based on the work of Ellin Keene (Mosaic of Thought, To Understand), Debbie Miller (Reading for Meaning), Stephanie Harvey ( Nonfiction Matters, Strategies that Work)  among others.

The conference has been a blend of participation, reading, writing, and observation.  A first task was to choose a thinking strategy to study:
schema
asking questions
determining importance
monitoring
inferring
synthesizing: “You know this info, so what?”
creating mental/sensory images

I selected “synthesizing” because I know it is something I do it but how to convey it to students?  How do you get them to synthesize?  Is synthesizing a strategy unto itself? In addition to working in a group of like people interested in this strategy, we read a variety of articles through the lens of our chosen strategy.  Challenging!  Need I say that our conversations around synthesizing have been rich?  The first day I found myself accidentally volunteering to to the think aloud our an Eudora “Welty text (with turned out a missing piece).  Talking out loud about my thinking about synthesizing the text was uncomfortable but I realized that I need to do this more in my classes.

We were also invited to choose a text to read from a wide range of fiction and nonfiction books.  Our task was to record our thinking process while reading the book.  I am reading Ultimate Excursionby Allan Gottleib which is a very dark story.  I used to record my thoughts while reading but have moved away from it.   The first night I kind of got mad that my reading had slowed down and I just wanted to finish the book (And I had to decide book down and sleep or stay up all night.  I slept).

We have visited a school for the past two mornings observing the workshop model in process. Our third grade class is in the midst of understanding the “test taking” genre which I found a valuable idea to bring back to school and to work with my third graders on.

I am still thinking about these kids building schema about the upcoming tests.  Their conversations centered around the thinking strategies vocabulary.  To watch the whole workshop process in this room was to watch a master painter.  How she talk the vocabulary as well, set them up to to do the task, pulled them in when some redirecting was needed was seamless.  My mind was racing with questions:

How can I implement this next week?
Where do I start?
What are the books we need in the professional library and can we have study groups?
How do you approach staff that may not be comfortable in making changes?
What would our school look like if we all began using the same thinking strategies vocabulary?
How does this all fit into the structure of teaching in the library?

I feel so fortunate that there are four others from my staff here.  Seven staff members attended last year so our capacity for this model is increasing.  Those traveling with me are as excited and chomping at the bit to talk about how to proceed.

Hmm, so have I just written a post which synthesizes my experience?  My brain is a bit muddled from all this thinking.

Happy reading.

MsMac