21st Century Learning

Dear E and C,

I was not looking forward to teaching this course in a directed study, but in these days it is to be expected. Like it or not, we are in a new culture of learning. Today we have the resources to teach and take this class without seeing much of each other.

I'm sure you are happy that you are still able to get the class into your schedule, for I know you are in an accelerated program. You are busy with responsibilities at home and work, and still going to school year-round and what any university would consider full-time. I commend you for that!

Because we have this course to practice some new skills, I would like to invite you to join me in this 21st century adventure.

I am offering two options for you as you take this course through directed study. I'll call them traditional and 21st century.

Traditional Learning

Actually, traditional is a bit of a misnomer; the traditional class will still be online and use technology. The course will be delivered and managed through the university's learning management system, ANGEL. Assignments will be emailed to the instructor. Discussions will happen on the online discussion board. The audience for your assignments will be me, and sometimes each other. But mostly, me.

21st Century Learning

The second option is a more 21st century approach to learning. According to Steve Hargadon,  "Learning has shifted from information to conversation." In this option, we will join the conversation, while we learn and talk about children's literature. I'll still use ANGEL to share some resources, but the assignments you do and the conversations you have will potentially have a much larger audience. We'll read and write on this blog, posting assignments (when you want to) and commenting here. We'll write our reading response logs on a social media site for readers called GoodReads. We can communicate through email, but also in other ways, including Twitter and maybe Skype.

Teachers worldwide have joined this conversation, and I would love to carry it to this course as well. If you haven't already started, I would love to walk with you and help you get comfortable here in this conversational learning environment.

I am convinced that you will be more of a learner (and later more of an educator) when you realize that the classroom walls have flattened. Education is a conversation.

Join us!

Denise

Quote by Angela Maiers. Image by mrsdkrebs

An Open Letter to My Children's Lit Students

I am excited to devour children's literature with you over the next eight weeks. It is a subject that we will never be able to fully explore. The list of books written for children is staggering. Not only are there the classics, but new titles are printed every single day. (We'll talk later about how to get these into the hands of children!)

Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisperer, builds up her "book muscle" by reading at least one book each day during the summer. (In this post she shares some great strategies for helping you remain current about great children's books.)

If we were to join Donalyn and the Book a Day Challenge community, we would read about 56 books during our eight weeks together.

However, I'm only assigning 40 children's books! What a breeze, huh?

Of course, I hope you will choose to read even more than 40 books, for only when you dig in and read voluminously will you yourself become a more

Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, and Critical Reader

as Nancie Atwell persuades in The Reading Zone.

I am sorry that we will not be together face-to-face more often, but we will have a chance to practice our 21st century learning skills. We can communicate as often as you wish -- Skyping, GoodReads, ANGEL, Twitter, email or here on this blog.

Children's literature is central to the development of children's literacy. I don't believe there is a more important subject to study. I can't wait to get started!

Denise

Image by mrsdkrebs

Bless This Mouse Book Review

By Julie Swenson, Children's Literature Blogger
 

Bless This Mouse,
written by Lois Lowry…

…redirects your thoughts and feelings about those pesky little critters you find in your home from time to time; critters that can make humans stand on chairs, make you screech at the top of their lungs and make you devise traps for captivity.

In this story, these critters (a.k.a. mice) do not live in homes; rather they live in the Church of Saint Bartholemew. There is one particular mouse, named Hildegarde who is the leader of the St. Bartholemew mice and her job is to keep the mouse family safe and out of the sight of church members. Unfortunately, parishioners have spotted some of the mice, thinking there are only a few, not realizing there are more; yet a few mice is all it takes to call upon the “Great X”.

In order for Hildegard to keep the mice of Saint Bartholemew safe, she must devise a plan, round up everyone and lead them outdoors to safety. The only problem is the outdoors can also be a grave place of danger for mice, especially when the church is about to hold a “Blessing of the Animals” ceremony, involving cats! Will Hildegarde and the family of church mice be held captive and possibly face death by the Great X? Will the mice encounter the presence of dangerous, feline creatures, or will someone be brave enough to ask for a divine favor?

Do you have any must read books to share?

Top Three Most Viewed Blog Posts Linky Party

By Denise Krebs, Children's Literature Moderator

I started this Children's Literature blog during the summer of 2011, inspired by my Children's Literature college students. It is a blog where anyone is invited to submit posts about children's literature. We've had twelve submissions so far coming from Canada, United States, New Zealand, and Australia, written by college students, librarians, junior high and elementary teachers, and a writer-principal.  One of my seventh grade students is working on a post now.

Now, as part of the Top Three Most Viewed Blog Posts Linky Party by Fern Smith, the three Children's Literature posts that were most viewed in 2011...

The first post on our blog, and the most viewed post, came from Nancy Carroll, a fourth grade teacher from Massachusetts. She wrote about the Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer. Read her post here.

The next post was on August 10, 2011. This was Picture Book 10 for 10, a wonderful serendipitous children's literature community event on August 10.  Teachers, students, parents chose their best ten children's books and wrote about them. I wrote this post with my children's literature students. We each chose two books that were must haves for our children's literature library. Read our choices here.

The third most popular post was written by Julie Swenson, college student extraordinaire. She wrote a wonderful review of the book Escape from Slavery: Five Journeys to Freedom. Read it here. 

Thanks to Fern for planning this Linky Party, and for you for reading this post.  If you are interested in children's literature too, I hope you will read the Writer's Guidelines and consider joining us.

Latte and Literature

By Lyn Howlin, Children's Literature Blogger

 

This year I have been privileged to be invited to a series of Latte and Literature afternoons.

These very social gatherings are held about every 6 weeks in a coffee shop.

Natalie with some of her many books.

Natalie, an ex-teacher, who now works in a book store, brings along the latest selection of children’s books. She has always researched them well and is able to give us a story outline and draw our attention to particular features in layout design, written or visual text.

The group who attends this very social gathering are a mixture of teachers, teacher-librarians and student teachers.

The books seem to provide a springboard for a great exchange of ideas and views. There are always wonderful discussions about other books by this author or illustrator and suggestions as to how this book may be used in the classroom to enhance teaching. Sometimes we just enjoy the book.

One of our student teachers, Kate Booth, keeps track of the books we discuss and adds further information about them on her Captain Flint blog. We also enjoy the latte (or milkshake in my case) and the getting together with like-minded people.

It really is a fun way to spend time sharing and learning more about the amazing range of children’s books now available.

Image taken by OzLyn and used with permission.

Children's Literature and Essential Questions

By Denise Krebs, Children's Literature Blogger

One Saturday afternoon I was trying to organize for my coming week at school--plan lessons, print needed handouts, grade papers. You know...the never-ending tasks of teacherhood.

As I often do, though, I became lost in my Google Reader. (I'm finding my RSS reader bewitches me; hours can go by while I catch up on the blogs I follow, seeing what others are learning and reflecting upon.) On the afternoon in question, I enjoyed most-of-all Tracy Watanabe's post about essential questions.

In the comments on Tracy's post, I mentioned I was not a faithful user of essential questions. I've known about them since Understanding by Design and the Intel Teach to the Future program I was involved in more than ten years ago. However, I have not always remembered to use them in my teaching. Tracy's post reminded me of their importance. Then, again in the comments section, she responded back to me with an example of how she used an essential question with the book Ramona Quimby, Age 8.

Tracy wrote:

"I remember the first time I used an essential question, it was when I was a 3rd grade teacher, and we were starting Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (I love Beverly Cleary books!) My EQ was something like, "What does a 'sticking-together' family look like?" -- There was one discussion about cause-effect based on something Ramona Q did in the book, and the kids decided that she had a choice in how she responded... and her response would affect the whole family... so when things came up in their own lives, they shouldn't take it out on their own family... This conversation was 10 years ago, but I remember it so well because I was amazed at what those little 8 year olds were realizing about being proactive in their choices, all from a literature discussion. Furthermore, I don't think our conversation would have gone that direction without that EQ."

So the next day, as we discussed our book Among the Hidden, my students were asked an essential question I found here.  How much control should government have? We had such a fascinating conversation with that question that I had them write our essential question inside the front cover of their book copy.

As the book continued to progress we saw more signs of the unbridled control of government in this futuristic totalitarian society. The people were required to only have two children. They weren't allowed to grow food hydroponically, even though there was a purported food shortage. We continue to ask questions about why "they" (the government) could do those things and how they could get away with it.

I asked my students to help me write this blog post by sharing some of their thinking to the essential question of Among the Hidden. Here are some of their responses.

The government should have some control of our lives, but no more than two kids is really too much that they are asking for.

The government shouldn't tell us what we can and can't buy, unless it's illegal drugs. The government shouldn't tell us how many kids that we can have. The government shouldn't shut down food companies because it is unhealthy. They should have a little control. If they do things we don't like we can protest.

Government should protect us from harming ourselves and others. The government shouldn't tap our phones and barge in and take control.

I think that the government should watch us, but not control our everyday lives.

Absent Anna chatted from grandma's.

The purpose of government is to make safe rules, but if they go over and beyond that fact, then we have a right to protest for what we believe is right. The government should not make pathetic rules like they did in this book.

We need to trust our government. Otherwise, we could do whatever we wanted and there would be a lot of killers in the world.

We should be able to do anything that isn't harmful or dangerous. The government should just try to keep things fair and safe.

I don't think the government should have as much power as they do now.

The purpose of government is so nobody gets out of control.

If the government gets too powerful we can protest, strike, boycott, and vote people out of office.

We are not quite finished with the book, but before we finish, my students will see that the government asserts ultimate evil authority when it kills some young protestors.

With this one piece of children's literature, we have been invited into engaging and important conversations. We are discussing world issues like the differences between elected and non-elected governments, our Bill of Rights, liberal vs. conservative governing, protests in Libya, Egypt and Syria, as well as important personal liberty issues.

Had Tracy not challenged me when she shared her use of an essential question with Ramona Quimby, I don't believe we would have had so many great discussions focusing on the theme of Among the Hidden. So, will you join Tracy and me in this conversation?

What is an essential question you've used with a children's book?
Will you share it on this Google spreadsheet? 

Or on a comment below. 

Thank you! 

Growing Lifelong Readers

By Kathryn Trask, Children's Literature Blogger

I have always loved reading. When I was growing up in a small town in New Zealand, in the 1950’s there weren’t that many books available. I was always on the prowl for a book I hadn’t read. At that point in time, we only had a small family lending library that you could only get to by car. Occasionally the family down the road gave me a ride there.

Now, as a teacher, there are endless possibilities for reading material for my students. As a lover of reading, it has always been my mission to connect my students with all the exciting books available for them. One common thread running through my classroom in my thirty-five years of teaching plus, is the desire to have my students love books and reading. Although in saying that, the local Resource Teacher of Literacy, when she heard I was taking a 10-week paid sabbatical in 2012 commented, “Well there’s no need to ask! You will be doing something with ICT.” And she is right; I am going to be exploring digital literacy. I see it as an extension to my love of reading.

Ever since I taught my first class back in the early 1970’s, I have read to my class daily. Occasionally some of the books had to be abandoned, but most were relished by the class. At the beginning of this year I chose to read to them Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea.

My first decision with this book was whether to get it on my Kindle or buy the hardback. Finally, the hardback won, because I know that if a book is successful, many children in the class are going to want to read it for themselves after I have read it to them. With this book, that was certainly the case, and at present is passing from hand to hand.

Because of Mr. Terupt is a book about a classroom of children who have a very wonderful teacher who helps them negotiate the challenges in life. Then one day because of something one of the students does, the whole world swings on its axis for them. The book is told from a number of different viewpoints. The reader gains insight into seven of the students and sees often the same event through their eyes. Along with the students in the book, the reader waits to see what the outcome of the key turning point in the story will be.

My class loved this book; there were always groans when I finished each day. It is rather cleverly written, so that at the end of a chapter, the reader wants to get to the next. I assured my class this was not my fault! Rob Buyea was the man responsible.

At the end of the book, I decided to track down Rob Buyea. He lives on the east coast of America. Through a number of emails, we eventually arranged a time and date and set up a Skype session with him. He graciously agreed to Skype us in what was his mid-evening and was our midday, of the following day! We spent one wonderful hour discussing the book. We were delighted to hear that in 2012 there is a sequel to this book. He read us the first page. Definitely one I will put on pre-order!

When reading to my class I provide them with a variety of books. We have some excellent New Zealand authors, so I generally alternate between our own and overseas authors. This term we are listening to an audio production of Lion Boy by Zizou Corder.

This is the first in a trilogy. I hope that after listening to this one, they will want to read the next two for themselves. The three books are already sitting on the class library shelves.

I have always encouraged the students to read for pleasure and to read books of their own choice. I have been fortunate over the last few years to have avid boy readers. These boys have encouraged others to read by their recommendations. Some of these boys have been hooked into reading in this way.

One such set of books are The Five Ancestors series by Jeff Stone. Other series that are very popular are the Percy Jackson books and The 39 Clues series both by Rick Riordan.

Just recently I have started to use the Daily 5 way of structuring my literacy block. Those who have heard of this will know it comes from The Two Sisters, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. This is a way of structuring the Literacy block so that it frees up the teacher to work with groups and individuals while the students engage in writing, vocabulary work, reading to self, reading to someone and listening. At present, a number of boys are choosing to listen to The Hobbit as part of this. It came as a request from them. As I always want to foster a love of books and reading, I made this happen for them.