Monica Edinger's Blog, page 47

Children’s Literature New England’s Fall Symposium

Some of the most transformational learning experiences I have ever had occurred at the summer institutes held for years by CLNE (Children’s Literature New England). I started going in 1999 and didn’t miss a single one until they ended in 2006. I was blown away by them. First of all, the speakers! Not only were they some of the biggest names in the field, but their speeches were amazing. All of them. This was because the organizers saw to it that those speaking knew their audience and prepared...

Three New Picture Books

Chris Raschka’s The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra: The Sound of Joy is Enlightening. I’m a Raschka fan from way back. The range and variety of his work is astounding. Among my favorites are three featuring jazzmusicians:Charlie Parker Played Be Bop, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, and Mysterious Thelonious. Now along comes Raschka’s appreciation of Sun Ra and it is marvelous as the others. Sun Ra was one wild dude and Raschka captures his originality in words and images. Not just his life, but the se...

Learning about Africa: Ghosts of Amistad

I’m always on the look-out for new information and new takes on the Amistad story. One recent one is Marcus Rediker’s The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom in which the focus and viewpoint is on the captives. And nowthere is a film based on the bookcoming from filmmakerTony Buba. The followingdescription and preview has me very intrigued.

This film, made by Tony Buba, is based on Marcus Rediker’s book about the famous slave revolt of 1839, The Amistad Rebellion: An...

In the Classroom: Rush Limbaugh’s Rush Revere and Other Books About the Pilgrims

My 4th graders culminate a year of immigration studies with a close look at the story of the Mayflower passengers, aka the Pilgrims. I began teachingthe unit years ago and have enjoyed finding new material for the children every year. We have a great time reading primary sources like Mourt’s Relationand end with a visit to the wonderful recreation of both the ship and settlement, Plimoth Plantation. So I was curious when one of my students brought in Rush Limbaugh’s Rush Revere and the Brave...

Talking Diversity With Young Children

Betsy Bird has a fascinating post up, “We Need Diverse Books…But Are We Willing To Discuss Them With Our Kids.” Having recently readPo Branson and Ashley Merryman’sNurture Shock,Betsy considers in particular their chapter“Why White Parents Don’t Talk About Race: Does teaching children about race and skin color make them better of or worse?”and what books are available to help with this conversation for very young children.

First of all, my general feeling about introducing difficult topics wi...

On Dog

Lovely reverie on life with dog by singer Nat Johnson (via Brain Pickings).

The Machine to Be Another Project

I just was listening to the BBC this early, early morning and they caught my attentionby introducing a segment with a bit from one of the Freaky Friday movies. (For those who don’t know them, these are movies based on the Mary Roger’s book, Freaky Friday, where a girl and her mother swap bodies with somewhat predictable, but amusing results. The two movies reflect their time periods — might be interesting to do it again and see how it might look today. But I digress.)

The feature was about the...

Paying Attention to Diversity

There has been a lot of attention recently being paid to the issue of diversity in children’s and young adult books. Here are links to some of the manyposts and articlesresponding to this:

The We Need Diverse Books Campaign. Thistook place over three days last week, but it is still going strong. Check out the #weneeddiversebooks tweets andthe weneeddiversebookstumblrto see the incredible range of responses.
SLJ’s dedicated Diversity Issue. Articles include “Children’s Books. Still an All-White...

In the Classroom: Testing

It is testing time. In my private school and the public schools around us, children are taking annual tests. However, the nature, number, amount, and consequences of the tests are distinctly different. Our students are taking standardized tests, one a day; my fourth graders will take a total of three. They haven’t been spending weeks prepping for themand the tests are not interfering in any way with their regular learning. For example, I spent a couple ofperiods earlier this week going over s...

Blackout Poetry and the New York Times

I do love concrete, spine, and other sorts of shape poetry. And so, on this final day of National Poetry Month, I enjoyed coming acrosstheNew York Times Blackout Poetry Generator:

Popularized in recent years by writer and artistAustin Kleon, blackout poetry encourages readers to create poems by redacting words from ordinary texts. During the last week of National Poetry Month, we will feature snippets of Times articles you can use to create and share your own short poems.

You can see my effort...