Kirby Larson's Blog, page 14

From the Office of the Future of Reading

Please join me in welcoming today's guest blogger, Karen Jameson. Karen is a third grade teacher at Peachland Elementary School in Newhall, California and children's author with a passion for children's literature. She has an MA in Education with a specialty in Language and Literacy. As an active member of the Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators (SCBWI), Karen enjoys attending writing classes and events with fellow authors. Writing for children, baking, and exploring quaint bookstores are some of her favorite past times. She's a lifelong resident of California, where she lives with her husband and family. Recently, she’s been published in AppleSeeds magazine. She was chosen as an honored educator in the 2014 Horace Mann Teach it Forward program. 

Karen Jameson

Under the verdant canopy of a great oak, my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Story (yes, that was her real name), drew us into the imaginative world of James and the Giant Peach. Her daily readings breathed life into James, Aunt Sponge, Aunt Spiker, and a bevy of charming and quirky insects. It was nothing short of spellbinding.

Of course, I couldn't get to the bookmobile fast enough to check out James and the Giant Peach! Next came the Little House books, Henry Huggins, Charlotte's Web, Homer Price, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Mrs. Story had given me a bad case of book fever and I never wanted to recover. I still haven't!

Now, as a third grade teacher, I have the privilege and joy of continuing Mrs. Story's legacy. I'm the lucky one who gets to sit in the teacher chair and choose the daily read- alouds. I get to select the books that will take my students on amazing journeys, make them giggle or sigh, touch their hearts, and lure them into the library hungry for more. I get to be a book whisperer and I absolutely love it!

I believe that now, more than ever, teachers need to preserve the time honored tradition of read-alouds. They need to devote time, each and every day, to reading literature for the pure and simple enjoyment of it. Not for the purpose of meeting state standards or fulfilling curricular requirements. But rather, time to discover, connect with stories, and be caught up in their wonder. Reading time without the pressure of a quiz, or having to write a report, or analyze a theme. Reading for fun.

Along with read-alouds, I provide students with book boxes to keep their self-selected silent reading books at the ready. Allowing students to choose their own reading materials (and honoring those choices) is vital to creating lifelong readers. Weekly trips to the school library, informal book chats, and having a literature rich classroom all add up to seeing reading as a joy, not a chore.

For some children, school experiences will serve as their only exposure to books. So, I open that window of opportunity wide every afternoon and fill it with unforgettable characters, amazing authors, tantalizing plots, and glorious books. They sit spellbound on the rug and soak it all in, then beg for “just one more chapter.” I stop for now, with the promise of more tomorrow. Day by day they fall in love with books. With any luck, it will be a lifelong case of book fever. And I hope they never find a cure.
Karen and her class were featured in the April 2014 issue of AppleSeeds magazine.Thank you Karen for sharing about your passion and your successes!

From the Office of the Future of Reading

Please help me welcome today's guest blogger, Kristin Becker. Kristin just finished her 20th year in her school district. Over the 20 years, she has taught multiple subjects for middle school, taught 4th and 5th grade, been a teacher on special assignment, and an elementary principal. She currently mentors beginning K-12 teachers (1st and 2nd year teachers) throughout her school district. Kristin is an avid reader and audiobook listener. She has a 4 year old daughter, Madeline, who is developing into a passionate reader through nightly read alouds as well as picture books with audio tapes. 

Kristin Becker
Early on in my career, I had the benefit of teaching with a partner who understood the importance of audiobooks in the classroom. It took me several years to appreciate the impact that audiobooks have on student fluency, comprehension, and more importantly, a student’s love of reading. At the time, I just remember being appreciative of the fact that someone was taking me under their wing and sharing a resource with me.

My teaching partner and I compiled class sets of books with the accompanying audio tape (no, CDs or MP3 players at that time). Together, we had an arsenal of books that covered a variety genres and interest levels. The daily routine for reading included the required reading program, my read aloud, and the whole class book with audio. Every student was given his or her own copy of the book to follow along in.

I followed my partner’s lead and it was through her that my students and I were first introduced to Grandma Dowdel from Richard Peck’s A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder. My students and I bonded over both of these books as we followed along with the audio about the crazy shenanigans of Grandma Dowdel. As we read and listened to more class sets together, I witnessed first hand the playing field being leveled, so to speak. Students who were struggling readers were able to follow along with the same books their peers were reading. We developed a reading community as all students were able to laugh, cry, and talk about books together. My second language learners and struggling readers were the students who specifically thrived, as the flow of language was more accessible to them.
 
Now, I listen to audiobooks during the long drives I have driving from school to school where I mentor. I have added on no less than two books per month to my reading based solely on audiobooks. Audiobooks have also allowed me to enjoy genres that I would not typically read and also enables me to keep up with the large number of student recommendations I receive. I recently finished listening to Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief and then had an animated discussion with a male student about it. I know the book has been out for years but it is not a middle grade genre I tend to read – I LOVED it!

As a beginning teacher mentor, I share the vast library of books and audio that my teaching partner and I developed. I do suggest the whole class read; however, I also suggest building class libraries that include choices for students to listen and read along. Technology has advanced so we have a variety of MP3 device options, in addition to CDs, for listening libraries. I also continue to encourage teachers to listen to audiobooks on their own – it is the best way I have found to keep up on what students are reading.

Thank you Kristin for sharing with us your successes with audio books and thank you for helping kids find a passion for reading. 

Friend Friday

I am very excited to introduce you to the guest blogger for today, Stacy A Nyikos. Stacy is a wonderful lady and a talented author and I am so pleased to have her with us. 

Stacy A Nyikos
How does a landlocked writer, scared silly to put so much as her baby toe in the ocean, end up writing books about sea animals?

I’ve been trying to answer that question most my adult life.  

I think it’s because anything – ANYTHING – could be happening beneath the ocean’s surface. That’s awesome for playing make believe, but terrifying for the toes.



Of all of my sea animal books, Toby was the slowest to take shape. It was weird, too, because sea turtles aren’t scary at all. Plus, after my shark and dolphin books – Shelby and Dizzy - the number one question kids asked me was: “Will you write a story about a sea turtle?”
Man, I wanted to. I love turtles. They are so curious but fearless. They swim vast tracts of ocean all by themselves! There was an idea in there, but I couldn’t find it.

After five years, I was beginning to think I might never find it. I had underestimated the power of wishing.

That July, I did an aquarium visit. It wasn’t the first that summer, but it was very different. Every time a child asked: “Will you write a story about a sea turtle?” the idea seemed less and less impossible.

Maybe if a wish like that is said enough times, it takes on a life of its own. This one did. As I was packing up to leave, the story suddenly popped into my head, crocodile and all. I raced to my car where I had some spare paper and pen and started writing.

When I finally stopped, this curious but determined sea turtle hopped off the page and into my life. Toby is a little of all of the children I’ve had the great honor of meeting. He is curious yet fearless, determined yet kind. He isn’t afraid to follow his heartsong, no matter where it takes him.

I can happily report since writing Toby, I have swum in ocean water deeper than my waist. I cannot wait to see what readers will inspire me to write next and where it will take me. I’m up for anything. Just…maybe not ginormous tracts of ocean quite yet…please?  

Wednesday Wisdom

Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.
Jonas Salk

From the Office of the Future of Reading

Please join me in welcoming today's guest blogger, Melissa Biehl. Melissa is a lover of reading and discussing books. She just finished her fifth year as librarian at Bellerive Elementary in St. Louis, Missouri. She was a 1st, 3rd and 4th grade teacher at Bellerive prior to finding her home in the library. When she isn’t reading or talking about books she is usually running. 

Summer Reading and Book ClubsWe just finished our school year today and there was so much running through my mind, but the most important thing about summer is there is so much more time to READ!  In one way I am very different from most of my friends who are teachers is that I prefer to read children’s books all summer long. I will sprinkle in an adult book here and there, but summer is when I can really try and catch up on the books that everyone has been tweeting about. The only thing missing with summer is the community of students. I love to discuss books with my students so much that ten years ago I started a summer book club. At the time I was a 3rd grade teacher moving to 4th grade and five of my students were able to go with me. One day they came to me and said they were going to miss talking to me about books and I mentioned the idea to meet over the summer. Summer book club was born from this and is still going strong ten years later. I actually received a text on Mother’s Day from one of these founding members wishing me a happy Mother’s Day and asking if we could meet this summer for a book club. These students and I met for book clubs over the summer all through high school and now they just finished their first year of college. It makes my heart happy that these kids still value reading for pleasure and discussing their readings. Founding book club members After teaching 4th grade for five years and running the book club, I became the librarian at our school. I sometimes think my love for sparking the conversation about books is what led me to my dream job. Every summer I choose three Mark Twain award nominee books. This is an award here in Missouri where twelve books for 4th-6th graders are chosen by librarians. We have a large number of students each year who strive to read all twelve of these books and at the end of each year we have a big party to celebrate the accomplishment. The summer book club helps them to get a head start to reach this goal for the upcoming year and allows them to share their thoughts with other book lovers. We meet once a month at the county library for an hour to share our thoughts about the book. When we meet, not only do we talk about the chosen book, but we discuss any other good books we have read since our last meeting. Students who are not able to join us in person can use Edmodo online to discuss their thoughts. Last summer book club meeting Building a community of readers is an important job and summer is not a break for reading or talking about books for us! I cannot wait for our first meeting in just a few weeks!Thank you Melissa for your passion for reading and for sharing it with your students!

Friend Friday

In the summer of 1995, I attended the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) annual conference in Los Angeles. It wasn’t my first rodeo, but I was still new at this whole kids’ book thing. Sometime during the conference, there was a keynote speech that exploded my writing life. Karen Cushman, author of one of that year’s Newbery Honor books, Catherine Called Birdy, stood behind the podium and, in her eloquent and inimitable manner, told me to follow my passion for writing historical fiction even though the trend was to write about wizards and vampires and the end of the world. I say “told me” because it seemed as if she was speaking directly to me, despite the fact that I was sitting with at least a thousand writing colleagues. At any rate, when Karen Cushman talks, I listen.
I had read Birdy, of course, prior to the conference; a book that not only opened the door to a new way of thinking about historical fiction, it broke the hinges clean off. Historical fiction was – to my mind – staid, third person, a bit aloof. Not Birdy! She was saucy, immediate and swept me into her medieval village life with an ease and a confidence that was irresistible. To paraphrase my friend Julie Larios, I didn’t wonder so much about whether Catherine could do what she did; I wondered that Karen could do so! It seemed she was breaking all the rules and, of course, that is exactly what makes CCB a classic.
But get this: that astonishing book almost did not get written! Trust me, the literary world owes a huge debt of gratitude to Phillip Cushman. Why is that so? Well, listen to Karen explain in her own words:

Special thanks to my son, Tyler Larson, for helping me produce this video. And huge thanks to Karen who was so kind and generous to me when I asked if she might blurb my first historical novel, Hattie Big Sky. There is nothing sweeter than the email I received the morning after I gave her an ARC: she cursed me out for keeping her up until 1 in the morning, reading Hattie’s story. That is a compliment I will treasure always.
Brava, Karen! Brava, Birdy! Congratulations on this 20th anniversary, and thank you from your appreciative readers and inspired fellow writers.
I couldn’t squeeze all the comments about Catherine Called Birdy into my Nerdy Book Club post (May 19). Here are a few more! And, I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that if you haven’t read Birdy yet, you need to drop what you’re doing and do so!
Alyson Beecher (educator): Most of the time, the reality of the Middle Ages is watered down for children.  As I read Catherine Called Birdy, however, I felt as if I could see, and feel, and even smell the time period. Cushman's writing brings the characters and setting to life for readers.  And Catherine is a wonderful protagonist, full of spirit and definitely with a mind of her own.
Ann Rhodes (teen librarian): In library school, I decided to take a class about services to "young adults." I hadn't read much teen lit and was somewhat negative about the prospects, but got some recommendations and plunged in. One of the books suggested was Catherine, Called Birdy. This, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, totally changed my view of YA literature. I had previously dismissed YA books, incorrectly assuming that most of them would be overly dramatic and filled with angsty, unrealistic characters. But, the humor and wit that I found in Birdy helped completely change my view of this genre. Her character was amusing and interesting without being too precocious. I loved reading about her exploits and realized that I was learning about her time period at the same time. 
I still recommend Catherine, Called Birdy whenever I get a chance and haven't had a dissatisfied customer yet. Karen Cushman showed us how to make history and historical fiction enjoyable and that is a true art.
Angela Ellis Roberts (educator): It was a girl-power rush, a YA novel game-changer for me. As one of the first books I read in my graduate program (working on children's literature), it opened up a new world for me: the kind of book that turns traditional stories on their heads.
Patsy Svavari (Humboldt County Author Festival): Catherine definitely made the list of “SCARFs” (Strong, Courageous, And Resourceful Females) that our local AAUW developed for a project for our local school libraries.

From the Office of the Future of Reading

Please join me in welcoming today's guest blogger, Madeline Schnurr. Madeline is a fifth grade teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School in Dallas, TX. You can find her on Twitter. When she’s not reading or ordering books for her classroom library, Madeline is giving unsolicited book recommendations to her fifteen nieces and nephews.



Thanks, Twitter
I know Twitter has been around since 2006, however, had I known it would transform my literature class like it has this year, I would have been on board long ago.

Thanks to Twitter, I learned about International Dot Day. My students loved The Dot by Peter Reynolds, and celebrated by creating an amazing Animoto video. (It was a huge hit with parents.) More importantly, it gave my students an opportunity to think about what they can do to make a difference in the world.

Thanks to Twitter, I learned about the Global Read Aloud project. Every time we had to stop reading Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, and move on to another subject, they were devastated. They couldn’t get enough of it! More importantly, it gave them a chance to learn about compassion toward people with disabilities.

Thanks to Twitter, I learned about World Read Aloud Day.


My class was able to meet authors, Terry Lynn Johnson, and Nikki Loftin through Skype. Terry Lynn read an excerpt from her novel, Ice Dogs, and Nikki read an excerpt from her novel, The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy. What a fun experience for my students! More importantly, it gave them an opportunity to connect with others around the world. 

Terry Lynn Johnson



Nikki Loftin

Thanks to Twitter, I stumbled across a fun activity at @TeachingChannel, that we incorporated into our poetry unit. Each Thursday at the end of the day, our classroom had “Open Mic Night”. Students were able to share original poems or poems they found in a book. Students were reading poems written by Langston Hughes, Carl Sandburg, Jack Prelutsky, just to name a few. They also surprised me with meaningful and creative original poems. It was fun to see my students each week preparing for “Open Mic Night”, motivated to find the perfect poem to share. More importantly, it gave my students an opportunity to practice speaking in front of an audience, and share writing that meant something to them.
Open Mic


I would encourage any educator out there who is not on Twitter to join immediately, and start connecting with others. I can honestly say my students have benefitted from my decision to utilize this type of social media, and I bet if you asked them, they would say the same thing.

Thank you Madeline for sharing how you have used Twitter to expand the horizons of both you and your students. 

Wednesday Wisdom

I love living. I have some problems with my life, but living is the best thing they've come up with so far.
Neil Simon

From the Office of the Future of Reading

Please join me in welcoming today's guest blogger, Jan Hamilton. Jan teaches eighth grade language arts in the Middle Years Programme of an International Baccalaureate School in Hot Springs, a small city in Central Arkansas. Jan came to teaching after raising three children, entered the profession as a reading teacher, and earned National Board Certification five years ago in English/Language Arts. Her passion is connecting young adults with the literature they need to make a reading connection that will lead to a lifetime of reading and wonder. Her students are the best – smart, funny, and inquisitive. Jan's district is committed to preparing my students for the world in which they will work and has invested in their futures with the purchase of 1:1 technology K-8. She loves her students, her work, the people with whom she teaches, technology, and books.

Today in a classroom of eighteen students, one girl reads on her phone, two use tablets, and a handful of others have ChromeBooks open to e-books. Where did this come from and when did it arrive? How did we move from the expansive classroom library to the limitless electronic library? How did I get here as their teacher? I’m 59 years old, for heaven’s sake. But you know what? We came here together, my students and I. And the journey began twelve years ago.

In the beginning we had not even a classroom library. We couldn’t have reading workshop without books, so we built, gathered, and shopped until bookshelves were filled. The most amazing thing happened when thirteen and fourteen year olds were connected to young adult fiction – they read! Student choice became the norm in our room, and later in our school. We were reading. Joy! 

Soon I realized that was not enough. My students needed to do something with their reading – talk about it, write about it, share it. Coinciding with my Eureka! moment was the arrival of a computer lab in our hallway. I signed up for a PowerPoint workshop, dissected a book project that I had dubbed a Book Hang-Up, and merged the two into a Digital Book Report. I was officially a techie and my students were hooked on the computer. We moved quickly to Glogs on www.glogster.com . I explored, made what we now call an exemplar, and the students started to Glog. We gathered images for characters and setting, uploaded music and inserted links to associated web sites, and the students shared their books on Glogster. Some students were so excited that they arrived at school the next day with two finished Glogs. 

Then we began blogging about books. We have built several blogs over the years, but our best luck with www.kidblog.org. Students shared their book recommendations and their excitement about what they were reading, asked each other questions, and teased each other with juicy tidbits of books. And we have evolved. Our 8th graders now are 1:1 with ChromeBooks, our 7th graders with I-Pads. When we built a class website using Weebly at www.education.weebly.com , the students quickly added a book review page and a blog. We moved from PowerPoint to Photo Story to WeVideo. 

Our progress continues. Using trial and error, we have learned from our mistakes. Our best work comes from failure and the willingness to try. My students amazed me, and honestly, I kind of amazed myself. The early lessons we learned about connecting students to good books were supplemented by the evidence that kids love technology. Putting the two together brought a reading revolution to our middle school. Students still read traditionally bound books, but now some sort of electronic device is usually nearby. Book talking is online, we upload and download, and we view projects on a Promethean board or in a gallery walk of ChromeBooks. What an exciting time to be a teacher!

Thank you Jan for showing us how sharing books has evolved!

Friend Friday

I have yet to meet Mary Cronk Farrell in person, but we are both convinced we'll be fast friends when we do. She shares my passion for things historical -- what better basis could there be for a friendship? And I am in complete admiration of her for tackling, with grit and grace, a little-written about and powerful slice of American history. Please welcome Mary today!
Mary Cronk Farrell
"The temporary nature of safety and the permanence of pain are underlined in this compelling book."

One of the first reviewers to write about Pure Grit wrote that sentence above. Every time I read it, my eyes fill with tears. The first few words zing deep in my psyche. They touch what is most tender, and yet most strong. They apply to the ups and down of book reviews, sales numbers, revision and all the rest of the writing life.
Many different ideas are underlined, so to speak, in Pure Grit: historical facts of the surrender of Bataan and Corregidor, personal stories of the nurses, acts of courage, endurance of the human spirit, failure to recognize women’s contributions….
Yet, this reviewer picked this particular aspect, which though not stated explicitly in the book, does ask an underlying question. How do we respond to life given its temporary safety and permanent pain?
I set out with my own version of that question when researching the book. How did they survive?
In December 1941, life was pretty good for these army and navy women. One planned her Valentine’s Day wedding, others shopped for Christmas presents, one was fitted for riding boots, several gathered to play Chinese checkers.
Hospital beds on Bataan; photo: US Government
Bombs dropped from the sky. Wounded and dying men overflowed hospital beds onto the floor and the stairs outside the surgery. Within three weeks, the women were endlessly giving shots of painkiller, by flashlight, to patients on cots in the jungle, while bombs blasted close, fighter planes buzzed overhead and bullets rattled through nearby trees.
A few short months later, the nurses stood at attention in an underground hospital and waited for their Japanese captors to arrive. One said, “I wondered if I would die and how I would die. I hoped to be quiet and brave.”
POW Margaret Nash at Santo Tomas Prison Camp; Photo: US Government
The women endured three years as POWs. They faced humiliation, sickness and slow starvation. All the while, they worked in the camp hospital treating other prisoners. So weak from hunger, one nurse said she feared when she bent over a patient, she wouldn’t have the strength to rise again.
   Nurses in truck are leaving Santo Tomas after liberation; photo: US Government
All 67 nurses came home alive. How did they survive?  When war ripped their world apart, plunged them into terror, physical deprivation and loss of liberty, how did they find the strength to go on?
I wanted the answer to that question. Not because I expect to find myself in a war zone or captured prisoner, but because on a smaller scale, every day, I face the same truth. Safety is temporary and pain is as much a part of life as joy.
Here’s what I discovered as I grew to know these nurses through their personal accounts and interviews with people who knew them. They had a purpose beyond their own survival. They had a vocation: both in battle and prison, their role was to care for others. They had an identity. They were U.S. military women. No guard or fence could take that away. And they had each other. The bonds of friendship provided immeasurable support and strength.
I find these three: purpose, identity and friendship great tools for responding to life’s uncertainty and sorrow. They help me survive anything this crazy writing life throws at me.


Mary Cronk Farrell is an award-winning author of four books for young people and former journalist with a passion for stories about people facing great adversity with courage. Her latest book Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific, is in the running for longest title of the year. 

Her novel Fire in the Hole!­ won the SPUR Award for Best Juvenile Fiction about the American west, and is a Notable Social Studies Book for Young People, Bank Street College Best Book, and a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens. Her journalistic work received numerous awards for excellence from the Society of Professional Journalists and two Emmy nominations.