Great YA Reads…

 

Suzanne Collins, author of the Gregor the Overlander series, has just released the second book in her futuristic trilogy she began in The Hunger Games.

“The Hunger Games” and its sequel “Catching Fire”  are definitely for older students. The book has been described as a “Survivor” reality-television series meets “Lord of the Flies,” and if you are like me, that may make you want to give the books a pass. But after literally dozens of my teacher friends told me I had to read the first book, I did – and I could not put it down. I am nearly finished with the second, and Collins has surpassed my high expectations set from the first book.

Collins creates believable characters who must make life-or-death decisions as part of their daily existence. I am always curious about how writers like Collins take on such risky topics and still manage to tell a great story. Some investigations on the web revealed her inspiration: as a writer, she is concerned about the impact  constant war has on the moral well-being of children. Her research on this topic has helped her to create characters that resonate with us even though she sets her tales in the future.

Though I fully admit these books are not for everyone, I am impressed with Collins both as a writer and as person who is trying to help us understand the horrible consequences of war. 

I always advise teachers to  read books with heavy topics first before recommending them to students, but I have talked with quite a few middle school students since school began who could not wait for “Chasing Fire” to be released. 

I am intentionally avoiding a plot description for these books. Trust me when I say the plot may cause you to avoid these titles – but that would be a mistake. Suzanne Collins has created an amazing story, unlike any I have ever read.

Writing idea to start the year…

Many of us have begun our school years, and many are enjoying the last few days or weeks of summer.

I must first give a big shout out to all of my friends who work in year round schools here in Denver. We started back on July 7! 

This idea my not be new to many of you, but it is one that has worked for me in the past, and I also witnessed its success recently with a team of fourth graders.

On the first day of school, ask students to bring three to five objects in a lunch bag to share with the class. The objects should hold some type of meaning, or represent a student’s hobby or interest. (A quick warning: the first year I tried this with a group of 3rd graders, one of my students brought his grandmother’s diamond ring! So now, I tell students to make sure the object has meaning, but also to make sure it is okay to bring the object from home. A drawing of the object will suffice if it is very valuable).

The purpose of this exercise is typically to ask students to share their objects in order to build community. This is what the fourth graders did at Eastridge Elementary – but, then, the teachers decided the students could write about each object. They chose different reasons for the students to write, and before long, each student had two to three pages of writing they could not wait to share with peers and family members.

Some options:

1.) Ask students to pick an object to describe.

2.) Ask students to pick an object to tell a story about.

3.) Ask students to pick an object and then explain why this object represents something important in their lives

4.) Ask students to pick an object to write a poem about.

etc.

As the teacher, you should bring in objects as well, and then you can model your own thinking and writing for different purposes as you consider the best way to write about your objects.

This exercise worked with all students, and was especially effective with our English Language Learners at Eastridge – the concrete nature of the object made it much easier for students to develop the background knowledge and the language for writing.

So, whether you have started, are about to start, or still have some time, I hope this idea is helpful!

New Non-fiction Resource:

 I am always searching for new titles about nonfiction resources. 

But, I am often disappointed by these resources because they do not always help me create ideas for how to use nonfiction texts during writing time, not just reading time.

Well, look no further than Nonfiction Mentor Texts by Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli if you have the same issue. They provide practical, classroom tested ideas for literally hundreds of well-written, impeccably researched texts. And I thought I knew about all the great nonfiction texts out there! Trust me – you will find some new jewels in this book –  and some amazing ideas for writing.

I will share two titles with you here – one I knew about, and one that is new to me:

Surprising Sharks by Nicola Davies is not a new title for me, but I had not thought enough about how it might be used as a writing mentor text until Dorfman and Cappelli renewed my passion for Nicola’s books. Surprising Sharks is certainly not a “report” – and aren’t we glad! I can see students getting excited to write about animals in very creative, authentic ways the minute you share this book. Pick this one up if you are not familiar with Nicola Davies! I think it is her best title.

A new book (for me) Dorfman and Cappelli discuss is Throw Your Tooth Off the Roof. If you are studying various cultural traditions with your students, this book will be a perfect mentor text. It is highly engaging, full of information, and could spawn some personal narrative writing as well as writing about cultural traditions…

Thank you, Lynne and Rose, for your inspiring book. If only I had it when I first began teaching… all of those “reports” would have been so much more interesting for students to write and for me to read. I think a subtitle of your book could be “No More Reports!”

Port Townsend Writing Conference

I was fortunate enough to spend a wonderful week in Port Townsend, Washington at Centrum, an artist’s retreat that sponsors writing workshops every summer. 

I studied with Mark Doty, the poet and memoirist, for one week. I learned so much about my own writing and about how to facilitate a workshop. Mark led 14 of us in a workshop, and his masterful facilitation skills convinced me that if we frame discussions about each other’s writing, we can all learn to become stronger writers. Even when we discussed poetry written by other people in the class that did not resemble my own, I learned because Mark kept saying things like: “If you write a poem like this, a few things to keep in mind might be…”

I plan to take this language to my own work with students: “If you want to write a story like this, a few things to keep in mind might be…”

Go to the Centrum website to learn more about this amazing place:

www.centrum.org

And, if you do not know Mark Doty’s work, I highly recommend these two titles:

His memoir Dog Years, and his award winning poetry collection My Alexandria.

Whatever you do, take the opportunity to learn from someone this summer…

Paired Summer Readings

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! 

In the summer, I like to balance my professional reading with reading for pleasure. I think it is important to take care of ourselves as teachers, and as writers who love to read. Today, I want to suggest two titles, one book for teachers and one book for writers, on a similar theme. Because they are so well written, I do think they will also remind you how joyful the reading experience can be as well…

Katie Wood Ray’s classic Wondrous Words provides practical advice for all teachers who want to  embed inquiry-based writing instruction into their work with students. Her book is full of ideas on how to help even our youngest students notice craft techniques used by authors. When students then try their hand at these crafts, they understand what it means to “read like a writer”. When I first saw Katie present these ideas years ago in a district-sponsored workshop, I changed my instruction the next day and never looked back.

 

 

If you are at all like me during staff development workshops, there comes a time when you ask yourself: Is this what it is really like  in the real world? Do writers really do this thing we call “reading like a writer”? Yes, in fact, they do! I have read dozens of books by professional writers who provide tips to those of us just getting started. A universal tip in all of these books?

Read.

Read all the time.

Read books like the ones you want to write. 

In future posts, I will suggest titles from professional writers you may want to check out. We are lucky to have so many guides in our midst! But today, I want to feature a book by Francine Prose:

Yes, it is true: professional adult writers read like writers too. Francine Prose’s book Reading Like a Writer is not written for teachers, but for writers. You will find many similar ideas in Katie Wood Ray’s book, but here, it is just for you. If you want to become a stronger writer, Francine Prose recommends you look no further than the books you love and the writers you admire. They can become your teachers. She not only provides very practical advice, but she had me running to my library and local bookstore to read (or re-read) classics and books by new authors I had never heard of. If you like to learn about how great writers make their ideas “work”, then this book is definitely a must-read. And you don’t have to set your sights on writing the great American novel to appreciate all that Francine has to teach us. She is the literature and writing teacher we all wish we could have had in college. 

 

Enjoy! Some book tips for pleasure reading mentioned in these two books is coming soon!

Of Michael, Lauren, and Billie Jean

So much has been written already about Michael Jackson’s death, so I will be very brief.

At the height of Jackson’s popularity, right after the release of Thriller, I was working in a preschool classroom. Lauren, one of the students, could not speak, walk, or feed herself. But she could move to a beat. Her favorite song was Billie Jean. So, during my six month tenure at the school, I heard Billie Jean at least three times a day. I never tired of it because of the joy it brought to Lauren. Memories of the amazing children I worked with during this time in my life have been flooding back to me lately because Michael’s music is suddenly everywhere again.

New book and blog tour

You can get a sneak preview of my new book, What Student Writing Teaches Us: Formative Assessment in the Writing Workshop, during an exclusive blog tour going on now! Visit the following blogs and dates to preview the book online and ask questions!

June 23: http://creativeliteracy.blogspot.com
June 25: http://thereadingzone.wordpress.com
June 29: http://teachingthatsticks.blogspot.com
July 1: http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com

You can preview the book on the Stenhouse Publishers website.