Dear Students,
If I have taught you one thing in this Social Studies class, I hope that I have taught you that literacy, the ability to read and to research and to write, is the most important thing that you could have learned from this course. I hear you saying "didn't you want us to learn all those dates, and important historical figures and great world-changing events....isn't that the most important thing we could have learned?" Yes, those are important things, and yes I wanted you to learn them and I do hope that you remember most of that stuff for a long, long time....but the most important thing? No. I know something that you may not know yet, and that is that memory fades. You will be filling your memory banks with more and more information, more and more data, over the next few years and, indeed, for the rest of your life, and what we you learned in this Social Studies class will get pushed further and further back into the recesses of your memory. It may take some doing to recall it ten, twenty, thirty years down the road. However, so long as you know how to read and to research you will always know how to refresh that memory. You will know how to find it again! I always tell my students that knowing a bit of information is not the most important skill that you can develop. Rather, knowing how to find that bit of information when you need it is the most important skill that you can develop. You will never be able to remember every single thing that you learned in this course, and you won't be able to remember every single thing you read in that book you found on the seat next to yours on the plane ride home, but if you remember where you read it and remember how to access it again, it is yours forever! Don't think that all this information that you have been learning is lost and gone forever, because another benefit of the reading habit is that it keeps the information that you learn fresh in your mind. It brings it up closer to the top of the memory bank so that it is more readily accessed. If you keep reading and you read broadly and you read critically, what you learned in this course and in the science class down the hall and in the math class next door will remain as fresh and as vibrant as the day you first saw it in this school building every day of the rest of your life.
I have been the beneficiary of a great deal of education, much more than most. I have been blessed to learn from many great teachers in some of the finest institutions of higher learning in the land. But I tell you honestly and with the utmost sincerity, the great bulk of what I have learned in my life I learned through my own course of reading. Sitting in a comfortable chair, a good floor lamp shining down over my right shoulder, a cup of tea on the table beside me, and a book open in my lap. And I would learn from that book and it would prompt me to read another book on the same subject and I would learn more from that book and that would prompt me to get up and go to the library and get more books and soon, I am the undefeated Trivial Pursuit champion in my family. But it is more than that. It isn't trivial. It is that I know what the commentator on the news channel is talking about when he says that some politician has met his Waterloo. I know what the pundit means when he says that the candidate has been hoisted on his own petard. I know what the reporter means when he says that the latest political scandal is this administration's Watergate. I know what my boss means when he says that we have crossed the Rubicon. If you read often and you read broadly and you read critically you will continue your education even after you have left these hallowed halls. Keep reading, please, and you will learning something new on the last day of your life.
One more thing; don't just read, read critically. Ask yourself, "Why does the author say this?" "What is he trying to tell me?" "Who is this person?" "Who does he represent?" "Why is he trying so desperately to convince me of the correctness of his position?" "Is there another side to this story?". You must always read critically. You need to develop this skill so that you can make up your own mind about things. You need to be able to detect bias and prejudice in anything that you read, and to be strong enough not to be swayed until you have heard both sides of the story. You need to read newspaper articles, magazine articles, blogs, websites, text books and even novels with a critical eye. You especially need to read editorials and opinion pieces critically. And campaign literature? In order to be a well-informed, thoughful, fully participating citizen of the community and the world, you must be informed. To be informed you must read broadly and critically.
So, my dear students. Read, read, read. Read books, read poems, read fiction, read nonfiction, read magazines, read brochures, read billboards and road signs, read the labels on soup cans and the back of cereal boxes, but read. I never go anywhere without a book in my pocket. When I am waiting for my wife to come out of the store, I have something to read. When I am sitting in my doctor's office, I have something to read. When my flight is delayed for two hours, I have something to read. And with every page I turn, I learn more and more and more.
One day, twenty years hence, when we meet on the street, I want you to pull out your library card, hold it up to me and say, "You were so right, Don....this is the most important card that I have in my wallet."
Saturday, June 23, 2012
My Top Ten Strategies (9 and 10)
9. Bookmarks
I will print up bunches of bookmarks on brightly colored card stock. There will be piles of these by the door to the classroom. On one side, there will be space for the student's name, the chapter of the textbook, and many spaces for the student to write down questions that come-up as they read the chapter. On the reverse side, there will be many spaces for the students to write down important information that they come across in their reading, with spaces for the page numbers where they can find that information again. I will probably have some that have spaces for vocabulary, key terms, main characters, main events, main dates, bold face bullets in the text, etc., if those are more useful for a particular lesson or a particular student.. I will require every student to take one for every reading assignment, even though the students will know that I will never collect them or grade them. I don't want students to feel inhibited or stressed about using this valuable reading and study guide creatively by the anxiety of them being graded. They will also know, however, that even though I won't collect or grade them, if I find that student is not filling them out and I feel that student would benefit from using bookmarks, I will strongly encourage that student to use bookmarks, and will check to see that they are doing it. Periodically, maybe everyday if necessary, I will open-up the classroom discussion for students to call out any questions that they noted on their bookmarks, and resolve those questions right then and there, so that the whole class gets the benefit of the answers. However, every student will know that they can bring their bookmark to me so that we can discuss their questions privately if they are more comfortable with that. I will tell the students to hold onto their book marks and to use them as a study guide or prompt at the end of the unit.
Bookmarks will benefit the struggling readers who have trouble remembering what they read or comprehending what they read. I think that bookmarks will also help my ELL readers. Bookmarks will help all students remember what they read and where to find key information they want to go back over. All students will find them useful as study guides. Bookmarks will also be a good assessment tool both for students and for me, the teacher. They will help me assess whether the student is "getting it", and will help me assess whether I am "teaching it". If the same questions pop-up on a lot of bookmarks, it will cue me to go back over that material and to pay closer attention to what the students missed the first time.
10. Trips to the library
I will make arrangements to take each of my classes to the main branch of the public library before our first big research project. I will have made arrangements in advance with the director of the library, so that the librarians will be prepared to give the students a thorough and complete tour of the library. The tour will be to show the students what materials are available, where the books are, where the periodicals are, where the computers are, where the special collections are, as well as where the bathrooms, water fountains and information desks are located. I will ask the librarians to show the students how to access and use the various materials and tools available in the library, and how to get help when they need it. I will also have prepared my students to bring with them the information they need to get their very own library card, and will make sure that every student has applied for a library card before we leave the library. I will arrange a similar tour of our school library as well. I want all of my students to know where the public library and the school library are, what materials and tools are available to them in the libraries, how to access and use those materials and tools, and how to get help when they need it. I want my students to feel comfortable and confident in their public and school libraries, and to be able to use them to the fullest extent with ease and confidence. I also want my students to know that the library card is one of the most important cards they will ever put in their wallet.
This strategy will benefit every student in the classroom, struggling readers, dependent readers, ELL students and gifted students alike.
I will print up bunches of bookmarks on brightly colored card stock. There will be piles of these by the door to the classroom. On one side, there will be space for the student's name, the chapter of the textbook, and many spaces for the student to write down questions that come-up as they read the chapter. On the reverse side, there will be many spaces for the students to write down important information that they come across in their reading, with spaces for the page numbers where they can find that information again. I will probably have some that have spaces for vocabulary, key terms, main characters, main events, main dates, bold face bullets in the text, etc., if those are more useful for a particular lesson or a particular student.. I will require every student to take one for every reading assignment, even though the students will know that I will never collect them or grade them. I don't want students to feel inhibited or stressed about using this valuable reading and study guide creatively by the anxiety of them being graded. They will also know, however, that even though I won't collect or grade them, if I find that student is not filling them out and I feel that student would benefit from using bookmarks, I will strongly encourage that student to use bookmarks, and will check to see that they are doing it. Periodically, maybe everyday if necessary, I will open-up the classroom discussion for students to call out any questions that they noted on their bookmarks, and resolve those questions right then and there, so that the whole class gets the benefit of the answers. However, every student will know that they can bring their bookmark to me so that we can discuss their questions privately if they are more comfortable with that. I will tell the students to hold onto their book marks and to use them as a study guide or prompt at the end of the unit.
Bookmarks will benefit the struggling readers who have trouble remembering what they read or comprehending what they read. I think that bookmarks will also help my ELL readers. Bookmarks will help all students remember what they read and where to find key information they want to go back over. All students will find them useful as study guides. Bookmarks will also be a good assessment tool both for students and for me, the teacher. They will help me assess whether the student is "getting it", and will help me assess whether I am "teaching it". If the same questions pop-up on a lot of bookmarks, it will cue me to go back over that material and to pay closer attention to what the students missed the first time.
10. Trips to the library
I will make arrangements to take each of my classes to the main branch of the public library before our first big research project. I will have made arrangements in advance with the director of the library, so that the librarians will be prepared to give the students a thorough and complete tour of the library. The tour will be to show the students what materials are available, where the books are, where the periodicals are, where the computers are, where the special collections are, as well as where the bathrooms, water fountains and information desks are located. I will ask the librarians to show the students how to access and use the various materials and tools available in the library, and how to get help when they need it. I will also have prepared my students to bring with them the information they need to get their very own library card, and will make sure that every student has applied for a library card before we leave the library. I will arrange a similar tour of our school library as well. I want all of my students to know where the public library and the school library are, what materials and tools are available to them in the libraries, how to access and use those materials and tools, and how to get help when they need it. I want my students to feel comfortable and confident in their public and school libraries, and to be able to use them to the fullest extent with ease and confidence. I also want my students to know that the library card is one of the most important cards they will ever put in their wallet.
This strategy will benefit every student in the classroom, struggling readers, dependent readers, ELL students and gifted students alike.
My Top Ten Texts (8, 9, and 10)
8. Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition: Everything You Need to Know About American History But Never Learned. Harper Paperbacks. Anniversary Edition. (2012)
This has been one of my favorite history books for a long time. People don't really hate American history, they just hate the dull versions of American history that they slept through in school. They won't sleep through this history book. Kenneth Davis covers most of the big picture history of the America, from the beginning right through the present, but he does it by "busting myths and setting the record straight." His writing style is witty, even humorous, but always engaging and interesting. His pace is fast. Quick and too the point, history in easily accessible, easily digestible chunks. He covers the big picture of American history, but he also gives the reader the real deal; like who really discovered America, what was " the shot heard round the world", Washington's bawdy sense of humor, Lincoln's real views on race relations, and Henry Ford's shocking bigotry and animosity. He also exposes and attacks the cynicism and exploitative behavior of our nation's "robber barons", like Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller and even Joe Kennedy. He also gives sincere and thoughtful treatment to the many African Americans who made great contributions to America's history, like Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois. It is good history and critical literacy at it's best.
I will keep this book in the classroom and recommend it often to my class. I plan to use it as an adjunct text to the textbook. Because of its quick, too-the-point style, it will engage the students who have a hard time slogging through page after page of dry history textbooks. It will also be a good guide to get them on point and facilitate and encourage more in-depth research and study. It will also provide a wealth of interesting research topics for students who are having trouble coming up with a topic on their own. I will also offer it as an appropriate activity for students who may finish a project ahead of their classmates and need something to keep them appropriately occupied.
9. Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson in Dying, Vintage Books. (1993).
This novel is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young back man, has been caught up, unwittingly, in a robbery and shoot-out where three people, including a white businessman are killed. His quick conviction is a foregone conclusion, he is black, the victim is white, he was seen there, he is guilty, case closed. Based on his white court appointed lawyer's defense of "why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this," he is given the death penalty. Grant Wiggins is another young black man from the community who was fortunate enough to go away to university and obtain his teaching certificate, and he has returned to his hometown to teach while he mulls over plans to leave this backwater with its racism, bigotry and provincialism for the big city. Grant's aunt and Jefferson's godmother, shocked at the dehumanizing trail and conviction that Jefferson endured, particularly by the characterization of a black man as being something less than a hog, prevail upon Grant to work with Jefferson in his jail cell to teach him some rudiments of reading and writing, so that he won't die illiterate, but also to teach Jefferson to die like a man; not like a hog. The story is of the difficult journey the two men make together, and the growth each of them experiences as they both learn and understand "the simple heroism of resisting-and defying-the expected.
I will use this novel to introduce my students to the shocking and dehumanizing state of racism and bigotry that African Americans endured in the South, and just how African Americans were excluded from the basic civil and human rights that all people are entitled to by natural and Constitutional right. It will suggest it to students as a good catalyst for deeper research and exposition of the African American's mistreatment by the American criminal justice system, right up to the present. Also, being a critically acclaimed book about African Americans written by a critically acclaimed African American author with several even more famous books to his credit, this book will be something that I recommend to my African American students as something and somebody from their own race of which they can be very, very proud, and to my students from other ethnic backgrounds as an example of how worthy and important the contributions of people from all ethnic backgrounds are to our society.
10. The American Vision; Spanish Reading Essentials and Study Guide with Workbook. (Spanish Edition). Glencoe/McGaw-Hill. (2006)
This is a reading and study guide on American history and civics, written in Spanish. I plan to use this book for my students who speak mostly Spanish and are having problems reading and comprehending texts written in English. When I detect that students are having difficulty understanding the English texts that we use in our lessons, I will suggest that they pick-up this book, find the same topic therein, and read and study about it in Spanish. Hopefully, this will help them come back to the English text with greater understanding and comprehension. I will also offer this book to my Spanish speaking students as a resource for research projects. I will recommend that Spanish speaking students read and study in this book as an appropriate classroom activity while I am working with other students. I will also recommend it to my English speaking students as an appropriate classroom activity in hopes of increasing their understanding and appreciation of the Spanish language and their Spanish speaking classmates. I will use this text not only as a teaching aid for ELL students, but as an aid in building and encouraging respect for other diverse cultures in our school and in our community.
This has been one of my favorite history books for a long time. People don't really hate American history, they just hate the dull versions of American history that they slept through in school. They won't sleep through this history book. Kenneth Davis covers most of the big picture history of the America, from the beginning right through the present, but he does it by "busting myths and setting the record straight." His writing style is witty, even humorous, but always engaging and interesting. His pace is fast. Quick and too the point, history in easily accessible, easily digestible chunks. He covers the big picture of American history, but he also gives the reader the real deal; like who really discovered America, what was " the shot heard round the world", Washington's bawdy sense of humor, Lincoln's real views on race relations, and Henry Ford's shocking bigotry and animosity. He also exposes and attacks the cynicism and exploitative behavior of our nation's "robber barons", like Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller and even Joe Kennedy. He also gives sincere and thoughtful treatment to the many African Americans who made great contributions to America's history, like Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois. It is good history and critical literacy at it's best.
I will keep this book in the classroom and recommend it often to my class. I plan to use it as an adjunct text to the textbook. Because of its quick, too-the-point style, it will engage the students who have a hard time slogging through page after page of dry history textbooks. It will also be a good guide to get them on point and facilitate and encourage more in-depth research and study. It will also provide a wealth of interesting research topics for students who are having trouble coming up with a topic on their own. I will also offer it as an appropriate activity for students who may finish a project ahead of their classmates and need something to keep them appropriately occupied.
9. Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson in Dying, Vintage Books. (1993).
This novel is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young back man, has been caught up, unwittingly, in a robbery and shoot-out where three people, including a white businessman are killed. His quick conviction is a foregone conclusion, he is black, the victim is white, he was seen there, he is guilty, case closed. Based on his white court appointed lawyer's defense of "why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this," he is given the death penalty. Grant Wiggins is another young black man from the community who was fortunate enough to go away to university and obtain his teaching certificate, and he has returned to his hometown to teach while he mulls over plans to leave this backwater with its racism, bigotry and provincialism for the big city. Grant's aunt and Jefferson's godmother, shocked at the dehumanizing trail and conviction that Jefferson endured, particularly by the characterization of a black man as being something less than a hog, prevail upon Grant to work with Jefferson in his jail cell to teach him some rudiments of reading and writing, so that he won't die illiterate, but also to teach Jefferson to die like a man; not like a hog. The story is of the difficult journey the two men make together, and the growth each of them experiences as they both learn and understand "the simple heroism of resisting-and defying-the expected.
I will use this novel to introduce my students to the shocking and dehumanizing state of racism and bigotry that African Americans endured in the South, and just how African Americans were excluded from the basic civil and human rights that all people are entitled to by natural and Constitutional right. It will suggest it to students as a good catalyst for deeper research and exposition of the African American's mistreatment by the American criminal justice system, right up to the present. Also, being a critically acclaimed book about African Americans written by a critically acclaimed African American author with several even more famous books to his credit, this book will be something that I recommend to my African American students as something and somebody from their own race of which they can be very, very proud, and to my students from other ethnic backgrounds as an example of how worthy and important the contributions of people from all ethnic backgrounds are to our society.
10. The American Vision; Spanish Reading Essentials and Study Guide with Workbook. (Spanish Edition). Glencoe/McGaw-Hill. (2006)
This is a reading and study guide on American history and civics, written in Spanish. I plan to use this book for my students who speak mostly Spanish and are having problems reading and comprehending texts written in English. When I detect that students are having difficulty understanding the English texts that we use in our lessons, I will suggest that they pick-up this book, find the same topic therein, and read and study about it in Spanish. Hopefully, this will help them come back to the English text with greater understanding and comprehension. I will also offer this book to my Spanish speaking students as a resource for research projects. I will recommend that Spanish speaking students read and study in this book as an appropriate classroom activity while I am working with other students. I will also recommend it to my English speaking students as an appropriate classroom activity in hopes of increasing their understanding and appreciation of the Spanish language and their Spanish speaking classmates. I will use this text not only as a teaching aid for ELL students, but as an aid in building and encouraging respect for other diverse cultures in our school and in our community.
Monday, June 18, 2012
My Top Ten Strategies (6, 7, and 8)
6. The Anticipation Guide
An Anticipation guide is a list of generalized statements based on the theme of the subject matter text. After I have read the subject matter text and gotten familiar with it myself, I will write the Anticipation Guide. I will list several items for consideration by the students in the Anticipation Guide. These items will be based on the major themes of the text, and will be designed to encourage lively discussion and debate about the topic. There will be a place on the guide for students to "Agree" or "Disagree" with the statement before they have read the text. I will model this strategy by putting the Anticipation Guide up on the overhead and going through it with the class. After the students have filled out their own copy of the before side of the Anticipation Guide, I will open a class discussion using the students agree/disagree statements as the catalyst for the discussion. The use of the Anticipation Guide as a pre-reading strategy will activate the student's prior knowledge about the subject matter, get them personally engaged in the reading, help them make a personal connection to the reading and cause them to become an active participant in the reading of the text before any reading has begun. After the students have actually read the text, I will ask them to go back to the Anticipation Guide and answer the same questions on the after side of the Guide. We will then engage in a class discussion of their responses, focusing on any change in opinion they experienced and why. This then makes this a post-reading strategy as well.
This strategy will help struggling readers, students who have problems with comprehension, and ELL students.
7. QAR: Questioning the Author
As the students read the subject matter text, they will develop questions that they would like to ask the author about the author's intent and what the author was trying to say. I will model the strategy for them, and encourage them to develop questions like: "Why are you telling me this?" "What is your point?" I will also encourage them to ask questions like: "Does the author make his point clearly?" "How could he have said it to make himself more clear on this point?" The students will write down their questions as they read the subject matter text. This strategy will help them read with more depth and comprehension. It will force them to pay attention, to reread, and to analyze. After all the students have finished the reading and done their questions during their reading, we will open a class discussion using their own questions to drive the discussion.
This strategy will help struggling readers who haven't fully developed their own strategies for reading with depth and comprehension. It should also help ELL readers by guiding them to formulate questions about what they are reading so that their questions can be discussed, orally, in the classroom.
8. Retelling
Retelling is having the student give an oral summary of the text they have read, based on the key elements of the text, such as setting, main characters, major events and major conflicts within the text. I will model the strategy by using a short passage or short story, reading it before hand, and then retelling it in front of a small group or the whole class. I will model it as many times and as often as is necessary for all of my students to master this technique. I will also model a bad retelling so that the student's know what that sounds like. The student's retelling will be between the individual student and the teacher. I will not embarrass any student by having them retell the reading in front of some or all of the class unless they have demonstrated mastery of the retelling strategy and want to do it in front of a small group or even the whole class. I will have developed a rubric that outlines exactly what I want to see in a good retelling. I will put the rubric up on the overhead and discuss it with the class. I will give them the rubric to refer to during their reading and during their retelling; I don't want the students to have to guess what I am looking for. I will also chart each students progress against the rubric, over time, to see if the student is getting better of if there are areas where the student needs more assistance and practice.
This strategy will be of great assistance to the struggling reader in helping them to read closely, to reread when necessary and to mine the text for important points. It will help students who have difficulty expressing themselves in writing. I think it will also help the ELL student by being able to orally retell what they have read.
An Anticipation guide is a list of generalized statements based on the theme of the subject matter text. After I have read the subject matter text and gotten familiar with it myself, I will write the Anticipation Guide. I will list several items for consideration by the students in the Anticipation Guide. These items will be based on the major themes of the text, and will be designed to encourage lively discussion and debate about the topic. There will be a place on the guide for students to "Agree" or "Disagree" with the statement before they have read the text. I will model this strategy by putting the Anticipation Guide up on the overhead and going through it with the class. After the students have filled out their own copy of the before side of the Anticipation Guide, I will open a class discussion using the students agree/disagree statements as the catalyst for the discussion. The use of the Anticipation Guide as a pre-reading strategy will activate the student's prior knowledge about the subject matter, get them personally engaged in the reading, help them make a personal connection to the reading and cause them to become an active participant in the reading of the text before any reading has begun. After the students have actually read the text, I will ask them to go back to the Anticipation Guide and answer the same questions on the after side of the Guide. We will then engage in a class discussion of their responses, focusing on any change in opinion they experienced and why. This then makes this a post-reading strategy as well.
This strategy will help struggling readers, students who have problems with comprehension, and ELL students.
7. QAR: Questioning the Author
As the students read the subject matter text, they will develop questions that they would like to ask the author about the author's intent and what the author was trying to say. I will model the strategy for them, and encourage them to develop questions like: "Why are you telling me this?" "What is your point?" I will also encourage them to ask questions like: "Does the author make his point clearly?" "How could he have said it to make himself more clear on this point?" The students will write down their questions as they read the subject matter text. This strategy will help them read with more depth and comprehension. It will force them to pay attention, to reread, and to analyze. After all the students have finished the reading and done their questions during their reading, we will open a class discussion using their own questions to drive the discussion.
This strategy will help struggling readers who haven't fully developed their own strategies for reading with depth and comprehension. It should also help ELL readers by guiding them to formulate questions about what they are reading so that their questions can be discussed, orally, in the classroom.
8. Retelling
Retelling is having the student give an oral summary of the text they have read, based on the key elements of the text, such as setting, main characters, major events and major conflicts within the text. I will model the strategy by using a short passage or short story, reading it before hand, and then retelling it in front of a small group or the whole class. I will model it as many times and as often as is necessary for all of my students to master this technique. I will also model a bad retelling so that the student's know what that sounds like. The student's retelling will be between the individual student and the teacher. I will not embarrass any student by having them retell the reading in front of some or all of the class unless they have demonstrated mastery of the retelling strategy and want to do it in front of a small group or even the whole class. I will have developed a rubric that outlines exactly what I want to see in a good retelling. I will put the rubric up on the overhead and discuss it with the class. I will give them the rubric to refer to during their reading and during their retelling; I don't want the students to have to guess what I am looking for. I will also chart each students progress against the rubric, over time, to see if the student is getting better of if there are areas where the student needs more assistance and practice.
This strategy will be of great assistance to the struggling reader in helping them to read closely, to reread when necessary and to mine the text for important points. It will help students who have difficulty expressing themselves in writing. I think it will also help the ELL student by being able to orally retell what they have read.
My Top Ten Texts (6 and 7)
6. Frank, Anne. Otto Frank (Editor), Mirjam Pressler (Editor), Otto M. Frank (Editor), Susan Massotty (Translation). The Diary of A Young Girl: The Definitive Edition. (1997) Rankin House Publishing Group.
The Diary of A Young Girl is the diary of a young Anne Frank, kept during the two years that she and her family were in hiding during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. Anne Frank and her family were Jewish. When the Nazis invaded and occupied The Netherlands and began rounding up Jews for deportation to concentration camps, Anne and her family, along with some other Jewish friends, went into hiding in sealed off attic rooms in the annex to her father's office building. Loyal friends of her father kept them supplied with food and necessities during the two years and one month that they successfully hid from the Nazis. Someone told the Gestapo about the hiding place, it was raided, and the whole family was deported to concentration camps. Anne died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen two weeks before the camp was liberated by the British. Only her father, Otto, survived the concentration camps, and he was given the diary by a family friend who found it in the attic and preserved it until after the war. The diary is a thoughtful, moving and authentic account of the plight of a young girl and her Jewish family in the face of the Nazi threat. It is, at times, the musing and dreams of a typical 13 year-old girl coming of age, but it is also a fascinating and detailed account of how the family survived in hiding and the terrible specter that loomed over their day-to-day existence. I will use this text to open the study and discussion of The Holocaust that the Nazis perpetrated against an entire ethnic population. I feel that this text will engage the students more than the dry recitation of facts in a history text. I feel that this text will present that historical era from a different viewpoint, one that students roughly the same age as Anne Frank can more readily identify with, and will open-up more meaningful in-depth study and discussion of these historical events. I especially like this text for that purpose because it will engage the girls in my class even more. This text will also be a catalyst for discussion of and teaching ethnic diversity.
7. The Diary of Anne Frank, a film, Directed by George Stevens, released by Twentieth Century Fox in 1959.
This film is based upon the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name, and won several Academy Awards itself. The film is a tasteful and respectful film based upon the actual diary of Anne Frank and is faithful and accurate in historical detail. I would not use it if it wasn't faithful to the diary and accurate in historical detail. I will take the unusual step of showing the film to the class before they read the book, but after we have done some pre-reading strategies about the book. I feel that using the film this way will be a good pre-reading tool for my students, and that it will be especially helpful to students who have difficulty processing written text. It will also be beneficial to the understanding of my ELL students. I will make the film available for any student who wants to review it during the learning cycle, and will encourage students to give it a second viewing after they have read the book as a post-reading comprehension exercise. I realize that I will have to develop assessment tools that assure me that the students have read the book, and are not relying simply on viewing the film.
The Diary of A Young Girl is the diary of a young Anne Frank, kept during the two years that she and her family were in hiding during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. Anne Frank and her family were Jewish. When the Nazis invaded and occupied The Netherlands and began rounding up Jews for deportation to concentration camps, Anne and her family, along with some other Jewish friends, went into hiding in sealed off attic rooms in the annex to her father's office building. Loyal friends of her father kept them supplied with food and necessities during the two years and one month that they successfully hid from the Nazis. Someone told the Gestapo about the hiding place, it was raided, and the whole family was deported to concentration camps. Anne died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen two weeks before the camp was liberated by the British. Only her father, Otto, survived the concentration camps, and he was given the diary by a family friend who found it in the attic and preserved it until after the war. The diary is a thoughtful, moving and authentic account of the plight of a young girl and her Jewish family in the face of the Nazi threat. It is, at times, the musing and dreams of a typical 13 year-old girl coming of age, but it is also a fascinating and detailed account of how the family survived in hiding and the terrible specter that loomed over their day-to-day existence. I will use this text to open the study and discussion of The Holocaust that the Nazis perpetrated against an entire ethnic population. I feel that this text will engage the students more than the dry recitation of facts in a history text. I feel that this text will present that historical era from a different viewpoint, one that students roughly the same age as Anne Frank can more readily identify with, and will open-up more meaningful in-depth study and discussion of these historical events. I especially like this text for that purpose because it will engage the girls in my class even more. This text will also be a catalyst for discussion of and teaching ethnic diversity.
7. The Diary of Anne Frank, a film, Directed by George Stevens, released by Twentieth Century Fox in 1959.
This film is based upon the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name, and won several Academy Awards itself. The film is a tasteful and respectful film based upon the actual diary of Anne Frank and is faithful and accurate in historical detail. I would not use it if it wasn't faithful to the diary and accurate in historical detail. I will take the unusual step of showing the film to the class before they read the book, but after we have done some pre-reading strategies about the book. I feel that using the film this way will be a good pre-reading tool for my students, and that it will be especially helpful to students who have difficulty processing written text. It will also be beneficial to the understanding of my ELL students. I will make the film available for any student who wants to review it during the learning cycle, and will encourage students to give it a second viewing after they have read the book as a post-reading comprehension exercise. I realize that I will have to develop assessment tools that assure me that the students have read the book, and are not relying simply on viewing the film.
Monday, June 11, 2012
My Top Ten Strategies (4 and 5)
4. Questioning
Questioning is a strategy that teaches students to ask themselves questions before, during and after reading a passage or section of text. The process of asking questions such as 'what did I just read?', 'what were the main points of what I just read?', 'what are some key facts that I need to remember from what I just read?', 'what are some vocabulary words that I need to learn and remember?', will insure that the student is reading with more attention, depth and comprehension. It will also insure that the student is more likely to process what he reads into long-term memory.
I, as the teacher, will model the strategy for the class by reading a passage aloud, stopping to ask myself questions like those above about the reading, aloud, before, during and after the reading. The students will thus see how the process works and what types of questions to ask themselves. Next, I will have a student that I know is a good reader read a short passage and again demonstrate the technique. I will explain to the class that good readers always engage in this type of questioning when they read something new, and, while most questioning is silent, in the mind of the reader, all good readers, including myself, write down some really important questions that they want to remember or further research.
Students will then be put into groups to read a passage together and to write down questions that come to any of them as they read. The groups will be instructed to discuss the passage and the questions and to try to crystallize all of their questions into several of the most common or most frequently asked questions. The class will be brought together and some of these questions will be read aloud and discussed by the class with me acting as moderator. The written questions will all be posted somewhere in the classroom where all the students can refer to them and use them as study guides.
This strategy will help struggling readers and students with comprehension and recall problems.
5. Drawing and Illustration.
This strategy involves students making quick, off-the-cuff drawings, sketches and diagrams to illustrate ideas, events and facts from the subject matter that they are reading. The illustrations would include words in the form of labels, lists, vocabulary, equations, etc. I would stress to the students that this is not an exercise to see what great works of art they can produce, but quick, off-hand illustrations, even stick figures and line drawings, designed to get the idea down on paper in a way that will help them recall it. I will stress that these are not projects that will be graded on form or technique, or even graded at all, but a tool to help them think about what they have read, to comprehend and remember it, and to communicate it to others. I would model the strategy for the students, and post good examples from other classes so that they can visualize the technique. I will tell the students that, while I won't be grading the drawings and illustrations for form and technique, I will be looking at what they are doing to assure myself and them that they have a grasp of the technique and are using it effectively. I will tell them that I will ask permission to photocopy and post good examples of the use of this technique so that other students may learn from the examples.
This strategy will help struggling readers and students who have problems processing, comprehending or recalling written materials. It will be an especially useful technique for students who are very visually oriented. I think that it will also be especially helpful to ELL students, probably with a bit more modeling and scaffolding. It will help all students solidify the information into their long-term memory.
Questioning is a strategy that teaches students to ask themselves questions before, during and after reading a passage or section of text. The process of asking questions such as 'what did I just read?', 'what were the main points of what I just read?', 'what are some key facts that I need to remember from what I just read?', 'what are some vocabulary words that I need to learn and remember?', will insure that the student is reading with more attention, depth and comprehension. It will also insure that the student is more likely to process what he reads into long-term memory.
I, as the teacher, will model the strategy for the class by reading a passage aloud, stopping to ask myself questions like those above about the reading, aloud, before, during and after the reading. The students will thus see how the process works and what types of questions to ask themselves. Next, I will have a student that I know is a good reader read a short passage and again demonstrate the technique. I will explain to the class that good readers always engage in this type of questioning when they read something new, and, while most questioning is silent, in the mind of the reader, all good readers, including myself, write down some really important questions that they want to remember or further research.
Students will then be put into groups to read a passage together and to write down questions that come to any of them as they read. The groups will be instructed to discuss the passage and the questions and to try to crystallize all of their questions into several of the most common or most frequently asked questions. The class will be brought together and some of these questions will be read aloud and discussed by the class with me acting as moderator. The written questions will all be posted somewhere in the classroom where all the students can refer to them and use them as study guides.
This strategy will help struggling readers and students with comprehension and recall problems.
5. Drawing and Illustration.
This strategy involves students making quick, off-the-cuff drawings, sketches and diagrams to illustrate ideas, events and facts from the subject matter that they are reading. The illustrations would include words in the form of labels, lists, vocabulary, equations, etc. I would stress to the students that this is not an exercise to see what great works of art they can produce, but quick, off-hand illustrations, even stick figures and line drawings, designed to get the idea down on paper in a way that will help them recall it. I will stress that these are not projects that will be graded on form or technique, or even graded at all, but a tool to help them think about what they have read, to comprehend and remember it, and to communicate it to others. I would model the strategy for the students, and post good examples from other classes so that they can visualize the technique. I will tell the students that, while I won't be grading the drawings and illustrations for form and technique, I will be looking at what they are doing to assure myself and them that they have a grasp of the technique and are using it effectively. I will tell them that I will ask permission to photocopy and post good examples of the use of this technique so that other students may learn from the examples.
This strategy will help struggling readers and students who have problems processing, comprehending or recalling written materials. It will be an especially useful technique for students who are very visually oriented. I think that it will also be especially helpful to ELL students, probably with a bit more modeling and scaffolding. It will help all students solidify the information into their long-term memory.
My Top Ten Textas (3, 4, and 5)
3. Forbes, Esther Hopkins. Johnny Tremain. Houghton Miflin Harcourt. (2011).
This novel is set in Boston, Massachusetts in 1773. Johnny Tremain is a 14 year-old boy who has been apprenticed to a silversmith in Boston. When Johnny's hand is badly burned in an accident at the silversmith, he becomes a dispatch rider for the Committee of Public Safety. In this capacity, he meets and interacts with James Otis, John Hancock, John and Samuel Adams, and other Boston patriots. Johnny is an eyewitness and privy observer to the events that lead up to the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington.
Since this book is written from the viewpoint and the perspective of a 14 year-old boy, roughly the age of the students I will be teaching, this text will make the events leading up to our country's Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War more relevant and interesting to my students. This text will make important events in this important and dramatic part of our country's history more accessible and more meaningful to my students. Seeing these historical events through the eyes of a narrator roughly their own age should make this subject matter more interesting than a dry recitation of boring facts about stuffy old men. I will also point out to my students that this book is written by a woman, and emphasize that women can and do make important contributions to our study of history.
4. Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow (Boston: William D. Ticknor & Company, 1847).
This is one of Longfellow's most famous epic poems. This poem has had a lasting cultural impact, especially in Nova Scotia and Louisiana, where most of the poem is set. The poem tells the tale of an Acadian couple separated on their wedding day by the British expulsion of the French-speaking inhabitants of Nova Scotia in 1755, and the bride-to-be's search across the country for her fiancee. The French-speaking Acadians were expelled from their homes and farms in Nova Scotia because they would not join the British forces and take up arms against the French in the French and Indian War. The Acadians were dispersed all over the new world, but many ended up in Louisiana where they formed the basis of the Cajun culture.
I will assign this epic poem as an overnight reading for my students. Then, I will have them break up into groups to re-read and study the poem, directing each group to put together a brief summary of the French and Indian War and a much more in-depth summary of the Acadian diaspora and migration to Louisiana. I will suggest that they translate sections of the poem into more modern English than Longfellow used or even into dialect, and that they use pictures, maps and other graphic media to illustrate their summary. I will then have each group make a presentation of their summary to the entire class, with opportunities for brief questions and discussions after each presentation. I will wrap-up with a more general question, answer and discussion session involving the whole class, with me acting as moderator.
The poem will expose my students to an important historical event from the perspective of the vanquished rather than the victor. Since the heroine of the poem, Evangeline, is a female, it will cause my students to address events from another gender perspective. In studying and reporting about the culture that the Acadians established in Louisiana, the Cajun culture, the students will be exposed to history from several cultural perspectives, as well as learning something about those diverse cultures.
I will use the this epic poem by Longfellow in direct conjunction with my next Top Ten Text, a particular YouTube video of the song, Acadian Driftwood, by The Band.
5. Acadian Driftwood, by The Band, a YouTube video.
Acadian Driftwood was recorded by The Band in 1975, and appears as the fourth track on the album "Northern Lights-Southern Cross". The lyrics of the song are based on Longfellow's poem, Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, and is about the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia during the French and Indian War.
I chose this particular YouTube video of the song because it is graphically illustrated with pictures and maps related to the Acadian expulsion from Nova Scotia and their eventual settlement in Louisiana. The video will be shown to the class in conjunction with their initial introduction to the Longfellow poem. The use of the song and accompanying video will be a useful learning aid to struggling readers, students with problems processing and comprehending subject matter and ELL students. Since Robbie Robertson took some poetic license in writing the song, it will also be a useful teaching tool in the concept of "poetic license" and in the necessity of closely scrutinizing material for historical accuracy.
This novel is set in Boston, Massachusetts in 1773. Johnny Tremain is a 14 year-old boy who has been apprenticed to a silversmith in Boston. When Johnny's hand is badly burned in an accident at the silversmith, he becomes a dispatch rider for the Committee of Public Safety. In this capacity, he meets and interacts with James Otis, John Hancock, John and Samuel Adams, and other Boston patriots. Johnny is an eyewitness and privy observer to the events that lead up to the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington.
Since this book is written from the viewpoint and the perspective of a 14 year-old boy, roughly the age of the students I will be teaching, this text will make the events leading up to our country's Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War more relevant and interesting to my students. This text will make important events in this important and dramatic part of our country's history more accessible and more meaningful to my students. Seeing these historical events through the eyes of a narrator roughly their own age should make this subject matter more interesting than a dry recitation of boring facts about stuffy old men. I will also point out to my students that this book is written by a woman, and emphasize that women can and do make important contributions to our study of history.
4. Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow (Boston: William D. Ticknor & Company, 1847).
This is one of Longfellow's most famous epic poems. This poem has had a lasting cultural impact, especially in Nova Scotia and Louisiana, where most of the poem is set. The poem tells the tale of an Acadian couple separated on their wedding day by the British expulsion of the French-speaking inhabitants of Nova Scotia in 1755, and the bride-to-be's search across the country for her fiancee. The French-speaking Acadians were expelled from their homes and farms in Nova Scotia because they would not join the British forces and take up arms against the French in the French and Indian War. The Acadians were dispersed all over the new world, but many ended up in Louisiana where they formed the basis of the Cajun culture.
I will assign this epic poem as an overnight reading for my students. Then, I will have them break up into groups to re-read and study the poem, directing each group to put together a brief summary of the French and Indian War and a much more in-depth summary of the Acadian diaspora and migration to Louisiana. I will suggest that they translate sections of the poem into more modern English than Longfellow used or even into dialect, and that they use pictures, maps and other graphic media to illustrate their summary. I will then have each group make a presentation of their summary to the entire class, with opportunities for brief questions and discussions after each presentation. I will wrap-up with a more general question, answer and discussion session involving the whole class, with me acting as moderator.
The poem will expose my students to an important historical event from the perspective of the vanquished rather than the victor. Since the heroine of the poem, Evangeline, is a female, it will cause my students to address events from another gender perspective. In studying and reporting about the culture that the Acadians established in Louisiana, the Cajun culture, the students will be exposed to history from several cultural perspectives, as well as learning something about those diverse cultures.
I will use the this epic poem by Longfellow in direct conjunction with my next Top Ten Text, a particular YouTube video of the song, Acadian Driftwood, by The Band.
5. Acadian Driftwood, by The Band, a YouTube video.
Acadian Driftwood was recorded by The Band in 1975, and appears as the fourth track on the album "Northern Lights-Southern Cross". The lyrics of the song are based on Longfellow's poem, Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, and is about the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia during the French and Indian War.
I chose this particular YouTube video of the song because it is graphically illustrated with pictures and maps related to the Acadian expulsion from Nova Scotia and their eventual settlement in Louisiana. The video will be shown to the class in conjunction with their initial introduction to the Longfellow poem. The use of the song and accompanying video will be a useful learning aid to struggling readers, students with problems processing and comprehending subject matter and ELL students. Since Robbie Robertson took some poetic license in writing the song, it will also be a useful teaching tool in the concept of "poetic license" and in the necessity of closely scrutinizing material for historical accuracy.
Monday, June 4, 2012
My Top Ten Strategies (1, 2, and 3)
1. The Writing Break
The writing break strategy involves stopping what ever is going on in the classroom to allow the students a minute or two to quickly and spontaneously reflect upon and write about what has been presented in the classroom up to that point. This is an an important strategy because it allows the student and the teacher a moment to pause, to catch their breath and to reflect upon what has gone on in the classroom up to that point. Research has shown that none of us, high school students especially, remember more than 10% to 30% of what we see, hear or read. Research has also shown that none of us, high school students especially, can pay close attention to anything for longer than 20 minute or so. Therefore, stopping every 10 to 20 minutes in a class to allow the students a minute to reflect upon and to write about what has happened will not only reinforce what the student has seen, heard or read, but will allow the students to pause, take a break, and gather themselves to pay attention for another 20 minutes or so. Studies have shown that the Writing Break strategy can increase retention and comprehension from 10% to 30% to 70% to 90%. That is a significant enough increase in the important areas of retention and comprehension for me to put this strategy in my Top Ten Strategies.
In my classroom, whether I am lecturing, the class is reading silently, reading aloud or we are watching a video, I will stop what ever is going on every 10 or 20 minutes for a writing break. I will give the class a prompt, like "what about what we have read, seen, or heard today stands out for you and why?", or "what about what we have read, seen or heard in the last 20 minutes is unclear to you?". Then I will tell the class that they have a minute or two to reflect and write their responses. After everyone has had a moment to write, I will call upon several students at random to read what they have written, and make a few comments about what they have raised in their writings, and then go back into the class activity. These writing breaks will be a good assessment tool for me as a teacher to see if the students are getting what I want them to get out of the class activity, and to highlight areas that I might need to clarify or review.
2. The Exit Slip
The Exit Slip strategy involves using the last one to five minutes of class time for the students to jot down their response to the day's lesson on an index card and to hand that card to the teacher as the student "exits" the classroom. The teacher then reviews the exit slips before the next class.
In my class, I will explain the Exit Slip procedure to my class at the beginning of the term. I will provide them with 3x5 index cards for them to use as exit slips. I will stop class early enough to allow the students one to five minutes to write their exit slips. I will put up several prompts on the overhead that the students can use if they want, like 'what did you learn in today's lesson', 'what was the most important thing you learned today, 'what questions do you have about today's lesson, 'is there anything that you would like me to review the next time we get together'? I will then have the students write their exit slips and I will collect them as they exit the classroom. I will review the exit slips before the next class. The exit slips will be a valuable tool for me to assess what the students are learning and what they are missing and for me to identify areas that I need to review or clarify in the next class. The next time the class gets together, I will read and discuss some of the most representative exit slips, and use that opportunity to review the last session, to clarify or review any points that a lot of the class seemed to have missed and to answer any lingering questions that the students have. I will devote as much time to this part of the exercise as is necessary, but the hope is that it will take only a few minute at the beginning of every class.
3. The Admit Slip
The Admit Slip strategy involves asking the students to bring in a short piece of writing about the assignment they have done to the next meeting of the class.
I will explain the Admit Slip procedure to my class at the beginning of the term. I will provide them with 3x5 index cards as needed upon which to write their admit slips. I will tell the class that, after they have done the homework assignment for the next class, I want them to write down a brief, spontaneous response to the assignment. I will give them some written guidelines and prompts at the beginning of the term that they can keep in their notebooks and refer to when filling out an admit slip. Prompts such as 'what did you get out of this assignment', 'what are the three most important things that you learned', 'what questions do you have about the assignment'? I will collect the admit slips as the students enter the classroom for the next session, and quickly review them as the students settle in. After we have dealt with the exit slips from the previous class session, I will read and discuss a few of the most representative and salient admit slips and respond accordingly. Like the exit slip, the admit slip will be a valuable assessment tool for me to see if the students are getting the material and to point out areas that need answer, clarification and explanation before we move forward. Better to find and deal with problem areas during the term than at the end.
The writing break strategy involves stopping what ever is going on in the classroom to allow the students a minute or two to quickly and spontaneously reflect upon and write about what has been presented in the classroom up to that point. This is an an important strategy because it allows the student and the teacher a moment to pause, to catch their breath and to reflect upon what has gone on in the classroom up to that point. Research has shown that none of us, high school students especially, remember more than 10% to 30% of what we see, hear or read. Research has also shown that none of us, high school students especially, can pay close attention to anything for longer than 20 minute or so. Therefore, stopping every 10 to 20 minutes in a class to allow the students a minute to reflect upon and to write about what has happened will not only reinforce what the student has seen, heard or read, but will allow the students to pause, take a break, and gather themselves to pay attention for another 20 minutes or so. Studies have shown that the Writing Break strategy can increase retention and comprehension from 10% to 30% to 70% to 90%. That is a significant enough increase in the important areas of retention and comprehension for me to put this strategy in my Top Ten Strategies.
In my classroom, whether I am lecturing, the class is reading silently, reading aloud or we are watching a video, I will stop what ever is going on every 10 or 20 minutes for a writing break. I will give the class a prompt, like "what about what we have read, seen, or heard today stands out for you and why?", or "what about what we have read, seen or heard in the last 20 minutes is unclear to you?". Then I will tell the class that they have a minute or two to reflect and write their responses. After everyone has had a moment to write, I will call upon several students at random to read what they have written, and make a few comments about what they have raised in their writings, and then go back into the class activity. These writing breaks will be a good assessment tool for me as a teacher to see if the students are getting what I want them to get out of the class activity, and to highlight areas that I might need to clarify or review.
2. The Exit Slip
The Exit Slip strategy involves using the last one to five minutes of class time for the students to jot down their response to the day's lesson on an index card and to hand that card to the teacher as the student "exits" the classroom. The teacher then reviews the exit slips before the next class.
In my class, I will explain the Exit Slip procedure to my class at the beginning of the term. I will provide them with 3x5 index cards for them to use as exit slips. I will stop class early enough to allow the students one to five minutes to write their exit slips. I will put up several prompts on the overhead that the students can use if they want, like 'what did you learn in today's lesson', 'what was the most important thing you learned today, 'what questions do you have about today's lesson, 'is there anything that you would like me to review the next time we get together'? I will then have the students write their exit slips and I will collect them as they exit the classroom. I will review the exit slips before the next class. The exit slips will be a valuable tool for me to assess what the students are learning and what they are missing and for me to identify areas that I need to review or clarify in the next class. The next time the class gets together, I will read and discuss some of the most representative exit slips, and use that opportunity to review the last session, to clarify or review any points that a lot of the class seemed to have missed and to answer any lingering questions that the students have. I will devote as much time to this part of the exercise as is necessary, but the hope is that it will take only a few minute at the beginning of every class.
3. The Admit Slip
The Admit Slip strategy involves asking the students to bring in a short piece of writing about the assignment they have done to the next meeting of the class.
I will explain the Admit Slip procedure to my class at the beginning of the term. I will provide them with 3x5 index cards as needed upon which to write their admit slips. I will tell the class that, after they have done the homework assignment for the next class, I want them to write down a brief, spontaneous response to the assignment. I will give them some written guidelines and prompts at the beginning of the term that they can keep in their notebooks and refer to when filling out an admit slip. Prompts such as 'what did you get out of this assignment', 'what are the three most important things that you learned', 'what questions do you have about the assignment'? I will collect the admit slips as the students enter the classroom for the next session, and quickly review them as the students settle in. After we have dealt with the exit slips from the previous class session, I will read and discuss a few of the most representative and salient admit slips and respond accordingly. Like the exit slip, the admit slip will be a valuable assessment tool for me to see if the students are getting the material and to point out areas that need answer, clarification and explanation before we move forward. Better to find and deal with problem areas during the term than at the end.
My Top Ten Texts (1 and 2)
1. Whitney, David C. and Robin Vaughan Whitney. The American Presidents: Biographies of the Chief Executives from George Washington to Barack Obama. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. by permission of Direct Brands, Inc. (2009). Revised and updated 11th edition.
This is a scrupulously researched collection of brief but extremely well-written biographies of all of the Presidents of the United States from George Washington to Barack Obama. The book is compelling to me because each biography is, in terms of length, relatively brief so that each can be read and digested in a single sitting of thirty minutes or so. While short in length, however, these pieces are long on fact and detail. Each biography covers the life of that President from childhood, through every step of his professional and political career, through his presidency, and closes with a review of what the president did after his term was over. A wonderful feature of the book is that each biography opens with an at-a-glance table and timeline that highlights the key facts and events in each president's life and presidency. The essays are accompanied by many portraits, photographs and reproductions of important documents as well.
I will use this book in my Social Studies classes as a quick, ready reference for students to access a brief biography of each president that we study in class. The compact and brief nature of each biography will give my students a framework upon which they can build and expand with further research and writing if need be. The at-a-glance style tables and timelines at the beginning of each biography can be easily reproduced in the student's own notes to be used as an outline for an essay or research paper and as a study guide. I envision keeping a copy of this book (and later editions as it is updated) in the classroom for easy access to the students as a research and study tool. I will allow any student who needs it to check the book out for an evening or a weekend for research and study.
2. Lindsay, Rae. America's First Ladies: Power Players from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. Gilmour House/R & R Writers/Agents, Inc. (2009).
I have not read this book, but Rae Lindsey has written and published an impressive array of scholarly works of history and politics that have received highly favorable reviews. This book received similarly favorable reviews, being described as "scholarly", "well researched" and "well written". The book is a collection of biographical sketches of all of the First ladies from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama, and gives rich historical facts about the lives and times of each First Lady. The book is not limited to simple biographical or anecdotal information. The author spends considerable time describing the tasks and duties of the First Lady, with an emphasis on how each First Lady used that unofficial office as a major role player in American history and politics, often as a pioneer, or a stand-in or spokeswoman for the President.
I will keep a copy of this book in my classroom alongside my first Top Ten text, The American Presidents, discussed above. I envision this book about First Ladies being used in the same way as the book on the Presidents, as a handy research and study guide, only this research and study guide will be from the perspective of the female gender. I anticipate it being a nice balance to the book on the Presidents, and that it will expose my students to a perspective on history that they may not have considered.
This is a scrupulously researched collection of brief but extremely well-written biographies of all of the Presidents of the United States from George Washington to Barack Obama. The book is compelling to me because each biography is, in terms of length, relatively brief so that each can be read and digested in a single sitting of thirty minutes or so. While short in length, however, these pieces are long on fact and detail. Each biography covers the life of that President from childhood, through every step of his professional and political career, through his presidency, and closes with a review of what the president did after his term was over. A wonderful feature of the book is that each biography opens with an at-a-glance table and timeline that highlights the key facts and events in each president's life and presidency. The essays are accompanied by many portraits, photographs and reproductions of important documents as well.
I will use this book in my Social Studies classes as a quick, ready reference for students to access a brief biography of each president that we study in class. The compact and brief nature of each biography will give my students a framework upon which they can build and expand with further research and writing if need be. The at-a-glance style tables and timelines at the beginning of each biography can be easily reproduced in the student's own notes to be used as an outline for an essay or research paper and as a study guide. I envision keeping a copy of this book (and later editions as it is updated) in the classroom for easy access to the students as a research and study tool. I will allow any student who needs it to check the book out for an evening or a weekend for research and study.
2. Lindsay, Rae. America's First Ladies: Power Players from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. Gilmour House/R & R Writers/Agents, Inc. (2009).
I have not read this book, but Rae Lindsey has written and published an impressive array of scholarly works of history and politics that have received highly favorable reviews. This book received similarly favorable reviews, being described as "scholarly", "well researched" and "well written". The book is a collection of biographical sketches of all of the First ladies from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama, and gives rich historical facts about the lives and times of each First Lady. The book is not limited to simple biographical or anecdotal information. The author spends considerable time describing the tasks and duties of the First Lady, with an emphasis on how each First Lady used that unofficial office as a major role player in American history and politics, often as a pioneer, or a stand-in or spokeswoman for the President.
I will keep a copy of this book in my classroom alongside my first Top Ten text, The American Presidents, discussed above. I envision this book about First Ladies being used in the same way as the book on the Presidents, as a handy research and study guide, only this research and study guide will be from the perspective of the female gender. I anticipate it being a nice balance to the book on the Presidents, and that it will expose my students to a perspective on history that they may not have considered.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Occasional Paper-The bias of the producer
I recently watched a documentary about the Titanic produced by James Cameron, who directed the feature film, Titanic. Actually, I think the show was a documentary about making a documentary, which is all the better for purposes of this occasional paper. Flush with cash from his successful movie career, Cameron wanted to finally and definitively answer all the lingering questions about the sinking of the Titanic. He assembled an impressive array of experts to assist him in his quest for answers. There were several engineers from different specialties, naval historians, representatives from the company that built the Titanic, underwater salvage experts, experts in determining the cause of ship sinking, experts in force and stress, and myriad other experts with experience and training in ship engineering, ship building and ship wrecks. Cameron also had the most advanced technologies available to these experts. They had two mini-submarines equipped with lights and cameras in which they crawled all over the wreck of the Titanic and the floor of the sea around the wreck, recording in great detail the wreck and the debris that surrounded it. Then, Cameron gathered all of these experts in a big room with a huge screen upon with they could show film, pictures and diagrams, and they all set out to analyze the evidence and to answer once and for all how and why the Titanic sank.
What quickly became apparent, however, was that James Cameron had his own hypotheses about how and why the Titanic sank, and exactly what happened that fateful night and why it happened. It was soon apparent that Cameron was not so much interested in determining exactly what happened and why as he was in proving his own preconceived notions about what happened and why. He would actually shout down any expert who tried to disagree with him. After a few futile attempts to advance their own theories, based on their training and expertise, these experts, in the face of Cameron's steamrolling, would shrug their shoulders and give up. I don't suggest that Cameron set out to change history or to cover anything up. I don't even think he was aware of what he was doing. What I do mean to suggest is that Cameron is a man of significant ego, with a very high opinion of his own intellect and powers of deduction, and he was funding the entire enterprise, including paying the experts. Therefore, this documentary, in the end, would be a statement of James Cameron's theories of how the Titanic tragedy occurred and why. This got me worrying that people would watch this documentary and think that they were learning historical fact, when in fact they would be learning James Cameron's version of history.
I have long been troubled by Hollywood's version of history. Not so much troubled by the fact that Hollywood chooses to make entertaining films about historical events and historical characters, as troubled by the fact that the history depicted in these films is so often bad and often just wrong. It has always concerned me that the only exposure to history that many people get is through films and television, and that they will come to think what they saw on the screen is historical fact.
The concern of producer bias doesn't stop at film and television. One must consider the bias of the writer of historical works of non-fiction and even history textbooks. It is the equivalent, if you will, of James Cameron writing a book about the sinking of the Titanic with the same inherent bias that went into his production of the documentary film.
I think it is incumbent on all social studies teachers to warn their students to always consider the potential bias of the producer of any historical document, including their own text books, and to seek out as many other source materials as they can to compare one to another. It would be incumbent upon every social studies teacher to make those other source materials available to their students. As a social studies teacher, I will also warn my students to be careful of the history that they see on movie and television screens, and to thoroughly research those historical depictions in other source materials before they form their own opinions.
.
What quickly became apparent, however, was that James Cameron had his own hypotheses about how and why the Titanic sank, and exactly what happened that fateful night and why it happened. It was soon apparent that Cameron was not so much interested in determining exactly what happened and why as he was in proving his own preconceived notions about what happened and why. He would actually shout down any expert who tried to disagree with him. After a few futile attempts to advance their own theories, based on their training and expertise, these experts, in the face of Cameron's steamrolling, would shrug their shoulders and give up. I don't suggest that Cameron set out to change history or to cover anything up. I don't even think he was aware of what he was doing. What I do mean to suggest is that Cameron is a man of significant ego, with a very high opinion of his own intellect and powers of deduction, and he was funding the entire enterprise, including paying the experts. Therefore, this documentary, in the end, would be a statement of James Cameron's theories of how the Titanic tragedy occurred and why. This got me worrying that people would watch this documentary and think that they were learning historical fact, when in fact they would be learning James Cameron's version of history.
I have long been troubled by Hollywood's version of history. Not so much troubled by the fact that Hollywood chooses to make entertaining films about historical events and historical characters, as troubled by the fact that the history depicted in these films is so often bad and often just wrong. It has always concerned me that the only exposure to history that many people get is through films and television, and that they will come to think what they saw on the screen is historical fact.
The concern of producer bias doesn't stop at film and television. One must consider the bias of the writer of historical works of non-fiction and even history textbooks. It is the equivalent, if you will, of James Cameron writing a book about the sinking of the Titanic with the same inherent bias that went into his production of the documentary film.
I think it is incumbent on all social studies teachers to warn their students to always consider the potential bias of the producer of any historical document, including their own text books, and to seek out as many other source materials as they can to compare one to another. It would be incumbent upon every social studies teacher to make those other source materials available to their students. As a social studies teacher, I will also warn my students to be careful of the history that they see on movie and television screens, and to thoroughly research those historical depictions in other source materials before they form their own opinions.
.
Monday, May 28, 2012
En Espanol, por favor.
The mother of two of my grandchildren is from Mexico. One of them, Little Suzy, is pictured in my profile picture. Their mother is adamant that these children grow up to be fully acclimated, English speaking Americans. She insisted that they have English names, Susan and Andrew. It isn't that she is ashamed of her Mexican heritage, it is just that she very much wants her children to succeed in this country. She is in fact, proud of her Mexican heritage, so my son and she are raising the children to be bilingual. The children are learning to speak Spanish and English with equal fluency.
To that end, my wife and I were overjoyed to find that we could find a Spanish language version of nearly every classic story book that you typically find in English. Often the books are exactly the same, same cover, same illustrations, the only difference is that the text of one will be in English, the other in Spanish. Every time that we buy a story book for those grandchildren, we buy both the Spanish and the English version. So, for instance we have Goodnight, Bunny and Buenas Noches, Conejito. We have The Three Little Pigs and The Big, Bad Wolf, and we have Los Tres Cerditos y El Lobo. We have great fun reading first one version and then the other. We think it helps the kids learn to speak and to read both languages with equal facility. I love it when Little Suzy points to a picture and proudly proclaims "Bunny!" and then, a second later, almost whispers "conejito" (self-talking?). I often wonder what it means that Suzy always selects the English version for us to read to her first.
There are a lot of students in the school system for whom English is their second language. I think that it is important that teachers recognize their cultural and language differences and strive to take that into account in the classroom. I am not teaching yet, but I would have no problem if a student could find content readings in their native language and use them to help learn the lesson, so long as the student can read and write the answers in English. I think that my grandchildren are going to be thoroughly bilingual speakers and readers, and I think that is great. If it helps the student to learn the lesson by using study aides in their native language, I think that teachers should respect that and facilitate it.
To that end, my wife and I were overjoyed to find that we could find a Spanish language version of nearly every classic story book that you typically find in English. Often the books are exactly the same, same cover, same illustrations, the only difference is that the text of one will be in English, the other in Spanish. Every time that we buy a story book for those grandchildren, we buy both the Spanish and the English version. So, for instance we have Goodnight, Bunny and Buenas Noches, Conejito. We have The Three Little Pigs and The Big, Bad Wolf, and we have Los Tres Cerditos y El Lobo. We have great fun reading first one version and then the other. We think it helps the kids learn to speak and to read both languages with equal facility. I love it when Little Suzy points to a picture and proudly proclaims "Bunny!" and then, a second later, almost whispers "conejito" (self-talking?). I often wonder what it means that Suzy always selects the English version for us to read to her first.
There are a lot of students in the school system for whom English is their second language. I think that it is important that teachers recognize their cultural and language differences and strive to take that into account in the classroom. I am not teaching yet, but I would have no problem if a student could find content readings in their native language and use them to help learn the lesson, so long as the student can read and write the answers in English. I think that my grandchildren are going to be thoroughly bilingual speakers and readers, and I think that is great. If it helps the student to learn the lesson by using study aides in their native language, I think that teachers should respect that and facilitate it.
Journaling
I have been keeping journals since I was in college. Some are simple. The one I carry with me each day often consists of just quick, short hand notes about what happened that day and reminders. It may not look like much, but if my wife wants to know what day we put the car in the shop, I can look back through that journal and tell her. Another journal consists of long stream of consciousness rambles that run into many pages. That is the journal where I record my feelings and work through things that are going on in my life. One journal, kept in the bookcase, contains, simply, an entry for each book that I finish; title, author, date I finished it, and that's all. It also happens to be my favorite journal. I will sometimes just sit and read through it, smiling as I remember the truly great books that I read and when I read them. I never go back and read the journal were I pour out my soul on page after page. Once that is down on paper, I never go back to it. Sometimes I will keep a journal when I am going through some long stage of my life that has a beginning and usually an end. Like when I was dealing with kidney cancer. That journal was more in the nature of a diary, and it was for that specific time in my life. When that chapter in my life closed, that journal closed.
Journals have been an invaluable asset in my life. And, occasionally, an excellent tool.
A teacher should encourage their students to keep a journal for the duration of the class. I think that a journal would be a useful tool for students to record what they learned that day and their impressions of what they learned that day. It could also help them realize that they have questions that need to be answered, and act as a reminder to bring up that question in the next class. It could be an excellent adjunct study guide for the final exam. Mainly, it would be a tool to reinforce the learning and give the student ownership of what they learn.
Click here for Journaling Podcast
Journals have been an invaluable asset in my life. And, occasionally, an excellent tool.
A teacher should encourage their students to keep a journal for the duration of the class. I think that a journal would be a useful tool for students to record what they learned that day and their impressions of what they learned that day. It could also help them realize that they have questions that need to be answered, and act as a reminder to bring up that question in the next class. It could be an excellent adjunct study guide for the final exam. Mainly, it would be a tool to reinforce the learning and give the student ownership of what they learn.
Click here for Journaling Podcast
Alfred, Lord Tennyson and The Band Perry
Reading this blog, people must think that I was an odd child, reading Kipling and Poe and Steinbeck and Hemingway from the age of twelve. Maybe I was an odd child with all of that reading, but I did normal things too. We played daylong baseball games in the pasture next to the calf lot. We played vicious games of tackle football, without pads in the same pasture. I rode my bike into town and bought comic books and bubble gum. I built camps in the woods and tree houses in the trees and forts out of bales of hay in the loft. However, like as not, I would be holed up in my tree house or hay bale fort with a good book.
At around 12 or 13 I was reading a lot of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poetry. I was a bit carried away by the Arthurian legends and bold cavalry charges. In fact, my favorite of his poems was The Charge of the Light Brigade. "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the valley off Death, rode the six hundred....." Oh, the majesty of that gallant but doomed Light Brigade! In fact, I memorized the poem and had to go around and recite it to all the sixth grade classes. They had no clue what I was talking about.
Imagine my surprise when, over forty years later, my 20 year old daughter comes to me and asks if I have a book of Tennyson's poems! Of course, I do, and as I pull it down from the shelf, I ask her why she is interested in Tennyson. Turns out that she has seen a music video by The Band Perry for their song 'If I Die Young'. In the video, the beautiful blond singer for the group lies down in a boat with a book of Tennyson's poems on her breast, singing about what to do if she dies young. At the end of the video, the pages of the book flutter open to the poem The Lady of Shallot, wherein the beautiful but cursed blond heroine floats in a boat down to Camelot but, tragically, dies before she reaches Sir Lancelot. Off Emily goes to read The lady of Shallot and off I go to watch the video by The Band Perry.
What a wonderful link from new to old! The modern media of a YouTube video sent my daughter in search of a very old poem.
Teachers should always be on the look out for new media, especially music, that can tie into the literary content of the subject matter that we teach. If teachers can make the subject matter more relevant to what is going on in their students' lives, the students will surely be more receptive to learning the material. There are lots of movies of Shakespeare's stories set in modern times, with modern characters and modern settings, but with the original story line. Teachers should always be on the lookout for more modern media, videos, movies, blogs, music, that can bring the subject content alive for their students, and, hopefully, cause them to seek out original source material.
At around 12 or 13 I was reading a lot of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poetry. I was a bit carried away by the Arthurian legends and bold cavalry charges. In fact, my favorite of his poems was The Charge of the Light Brigade. "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the valley off Death, rode the six hundred....." Oh, the majesty of that gallant but doomed Light Brigade! In fact, I memorized the poem and had to go around and recite it to all the sixth grade classes. They had no clue what I was talking about.
Imagine my surprise when, over forty years later, my 20 year old daughter comes to me and asks if I have a book of Tennyson's poems! Of course, I do, and as I pull it down from the shelf, I ask her why she is interested in Tennyson. Turns out that she has seen a music video by The Band Perry for their song 'If I Die Young'. In the video, the beautiful blond singer for the group lies down in a boat with a book of Tennyson's poems on her breast, singing about what to do if she dies young. At the end of the video, the pages of the book flutter open to the poem The Lady of Shallot, wherein the beautiful but cursed blond heroine floats in a boat down to Camelot but, tragically, dies before she reaches Sir Lancelot. Off Emily goes to read The lady of Shallot and off I go to watch the video by The Band Perry.
What a wonderful link from new to old! The modern media of a YouTube video sent my daughter in search of a very old poem.
Teachers should always be on the look out for new media, especially music, that can tie into the literary content of the subject matter that we teach. If teachers can make the subject matter more relevant to what is going on in their students' lives, the students will surely be more receptive to learning the material. There are lots of movies of Shakespeare's stories set in modern times, with modern characters and modern settings, but with the original story line. Teachers should always be on the lookout for more modern media, videos, movies, blogs, music, that can bring the subject content alive for their students, and, hopefully, cause them to seek out original source material.
Thanks, Dad
More than anyone else, my father shaped my reading history. My father did graduate high school, but he didn't go to college. He should have, but boys who grew up on tobacco farms in rural Guilford County in the 1940's didn't usually graduate high school, much less go to college. Plus, he and my mother started a family and got married, in precisely that order, right out of high school. Lucky for me, unlucky for Dad. Dad didn't go to college, but he read all the time, right up to the day he died. Kipling, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Poe. He didn't borrow these books from the library, he bought them and kept them in a bookshelf by his bed. No paperbacks for him either; only hardbacks with the brightly illustrated dust jackets. And I saw him read. I saw him, often, in an easy chair, under a bright light, his reading glasses sliding down his nose, completely absorbed in a book.
Dad would call me over to that easy chair, with a book in his hand, and say " I think you are ready to read this, I want you to give it a try and tell me what you think". It started with Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Not a Walt Disney picture book, but the actual book. Then the Just So Stories, Riki-Tiki-Tavi, and then, Kipling's poems. Then it was on to Edgar Allen Poe's poems, then Poe's short stories, and then, when I was twelve years old, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
I remember starting that book in my room one Saturday morning and the next thing I knew it was dark nighttime. I had read the entire day through, not stopping for meals or to go outside or anything, but being completely unaware of the passage of time at all. That was probably the first time a book had had that effect on me. I remember feeling stunned, disoriented even, by the power of that family's story. And in the process, I learned a lot about the Great Depression, The Dust Bowl, exploitation of migrant workers, labor unions and strikes.
It seems to me as teachers we must find and recommend literature that will make the subject matter come alive for students. I can think of no text better to teach the Great Depression than The Grapes of Wrath. I think that we all hope, as teachers, that what we are doing is opening a door to learning that the students will push open wide when they leave our classrooms. The best way for them to push open that door and to continue their education beyond the classroom is through reading. I feel that it is the duty of teachers everywhere to assign books and readings that are both accessible and inspiring so that our students will continue to read in the content area we teach. Perhaps one of the most valuable tools with which we can equip our students is a comprehensive reading list of great books in our content area to take with them and to read from for the rest of their lives.
When Dad died, I inherited all of his books. I can think of no other legacy that could have meant as much to me. I re-read them often, and I think of him reading those same books and I am grateful. Thanks, dad.
Dad would call me over to that easy chair, with a book in his hand, and say " I think you are ready to read this, I want you to give it a try and tell me what you think". It started with Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Not a Walt Disney picture book, but the actual book. Then the Just So Stories, Riki-Tiki-Tavi, and then, Kipling's poems. Then it was on to Edgar Allen Poe's poems, then Poe's short stories, and then, when I was twelve years old, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
I remember starting that book in my room one Saturday morning and the next thing I knew it was dark nighttime. I had read the entire day through, not stopping for meals or to go outside or anything, but being completely unaware of the passage of time at all. That was probably the first time a book had had that effect on me. I remember feeling stunned, disoriented even, by the power of that family's story. And in the process, I learned a lot about the Great Depression, The Dust Bowl, exploitation of migrant workers, labor unions and strikes.
It seems to me as teachers we must find and recommend literature that will make the subject matter come alive for students. I can think of no text better to teach the Great Depression than The Grapes of Wrath. I think that we all hope, as teachers, that what we are doing is opening a door to learning that the students will push open wide when they leave our classrooms. The best way for them to push open that door and to continue their education beyond the classroom is through reading. I feel that it is the duty of teachers everywhere to assign books and readings that are both accessible and inspiring so that our students will continue to read in the content area we teach. Perhaps one of the most valuable tools with which we can equip our students is a comprehensive reading list of great books in our content area to take with them and to read from for the rest of their lives.
Dick and Jane didn't thrill me, but Dan Frontier saved me.
This is going to sound strange, but I do not remember learning to read. However, I also do not remember not knowing how to read. What I do know is that I came from a family that read constantly. My parents weren't teachers. There were no teachers in my family. My father was a lumber salesman. My mother stayed home and raised five children. My paternal grandfather was a maintenance man. My paternal grandmother was a secretary. My maternal grandfather was a machinist. My maternal grandmother sold ladies clothing in a department store. None of them, not my parents, not my grandparents, went to college. Yet, they all read, all the time.
My Dad had a tidy library of classic literature, whose covers dazzled me. I can still see him reading those books, sitting in an easy chair under a bright light. My Mom tended more to magazines and popular novels. I can remember that she told me that she felt my love of history and the Civil War was because she read Andersonville, by MacKinlay Kantor and Confessions of Nat Turner, by William Styron when she was pregnant with me, her first child. My paternal grandfather had the first and only recliner that I ever saw as a child with a pocket on the side. In that pocket were always his reading glasses and a book, usually a religious book by Billy Graham or something by Norman Vincent Peale. My maternal grandmother subscribed to the Saturday Evening Post, and I loved to go to her house to thumb through those magazines.
My mother and my maternal grandmother read to us children constantly. Little Golden books, mostly, but a lot of Mother Goose and Hans Christian Anderson as well. And books that we saw on Captain Kangaroo and went to library to check out, like Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Caps for Sale and Stone Soup. I well remember my brothers and sisters and I and usually a cousin or two all piling into one bed to listen to my grandmother read a story to us, hanging breathlessly on every word.
So, I don't remember being taught how to read, but I know that I arrived in the first grade already able to read.
And what did they give us? Dick and Jane. I was horrified. I was disgusted. This was drivel! This was the silliest pap that I had ever clapped eyes onto. The babies at home were being read silly stuff like this. I was up to Mowgli and The Jungle Book! To make matters worse, when my teacher realized that I could read, she called on me, often, in reading groups to read this silly stuff out loud. I was not happy.
However, because I could read, the teacher didn't have to work with me at all, so, while she worked with the other kids, she would send me to the back of the room for "independent reading". It wouldn't take me long to read the assigned Dick and Jane stuff, so I was soon looking for something else to read. And there, in the back of the classroom, on a shelf low to the ground, was a whole row of Dan Frontier books! I had never heard of Dan Frontier, but someone had written a whole lot of books about him, a whole series. He was a fictional Daniel Boone-type character who went on some great adventure in every book. Hunting bears, cutting trails through the mountains, building cabins, fighting Indians. It was still pretty simple stuff, but it beat the heck out of Dick and Jane. I would say Dan frontier was more on a third grade level. So, all through the first grade, while everyone else struggled through Dick and Jane, I sat in the back of the room and devoured a whole series of Dan Frontier books.
Dick and Jane didn't thrill me, but Dan frontier saved me.
My Dad had a tidy library of classic literature, whose covers dazzled me. I can still see him reading those books, sitting in an easy chair under a bright light. My Mom tended more to magazines and popular novels. I can remember that she told me that she felt my love of history and the Civil War was because she read Andersonville, by MacKinlay Kantor and Confessions of Nat Turner, by William Styron when she was pregnant with me, her first child. My paternal grandfather had the first and only recliner that I ever saw as a child with a pocket on the side. In that pocket were always his reading glasses and a book, usually a religious book by Billy Graham or something by Norman Vincent Peale. My maternal grandmother subscribed to the Saturday Evening Post, and I loved to go to her house to thumb through those magazines.
My mother and my maternal grandmother read to us children constantly. Little Golden books, mostly, but a lot of Mother Goose and Hans Christian Anderson as well. And books that we saw on Captain Kangaroo and went to library to check out, like Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Caps for Sale and Stone Soup. I well remember my brothers and sisters and I and usually a cousin or two all piling into one bed to listen to my grandmother read a story to us, hanging breathlessly on every word.
So, I don't remember being taught how to read, but I know that I arrived in the first grade already able to read.
And what did they give us? Dick and Jane. I was horrified. I was disgusted. This was drivel! This was the silliest pap that I had ever clapped eyes onto. The babies at home were being read silly stuff like this. I was up to Mowgli and The Jungle Book! To make matters worse, when my teacher realized that I could read, she called on me, often, in reading groups to read this silly stuff out loud. I was not happy.
However, because I could read, the teacher didn't have to work with me at all, so, while she worked with the other kids, she would send me to the back of the room for "independent reading". It wouldn't take me long to read the assigned Dick and Jane stuff, so I was soon looking for something else to read. And there, in the back of the classroom, on a shelf low to the ground, was a whole row of Dan Frontier books! I had never heard of Dan Frontier, but someone had written a whole lot of books about him, a whole series. He was a fictional Daniel Boone-type character who went on some great adventure in every book. Hunting bears, cutting trails through the mountains, building cabins, fighting Indians. It was still pretty simple stuff, but it beat the heck out of Dick and Jane. I would say Dan frontier was more on a third grade level. So, all through the first grade, while everyone else struggled through Dick and Jane, I sat in the back of the room and devoured a whole series of Dan Frontier books.
Dick and Jane didn't thrill me, but Dan frontier saved me.
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