In the Classroom: The Shared Book Experience

I love leading my students in a shared experience with one book.  By “shared book experience” I mean when the whole class studies/reads/discusses/delves into and otherwise spends time with a single book together.  While I understand that there are teachers who make this a misery I think there are others of us who do not.  Done well, the shared book experience can be joyful, enjoyable, and even transcendent.

While I agree with the importance of choice for much of children’s school reading experience I think it shouldn’t be all of it.  Connecting around a single book can be a magical and a special classroom experience too.  Done well,  such group literary experiences can be grand.  So far this year my fourth graders have had shared experiences with Charlotte’s Web (which they each read on their own), Cosmic (read to them), and When You Reach Me (ditto).  Very soon we will be starting a study of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and toward the end of the year they will all read and explore The Wizard of Oz.  None of these shared experiences keep them from their own reading.  What they do is provide my students with another sort of reading experience — one where a group becomes connected and engaged in a special shared time with a book.

Recently the New York Times Learning Network asked teachers, “What Are Your Favorite and Least Favorite Books to Teach?“    The responses are fascinating.  Here are a few excerpts:

Nothing is more frightening than 9th graders jeering “4 legs good, 2 legs bad” over and over again. — Ms. K

Every single year that I teach British Literature and start with Beowulf, someone points out that “it is not even in English, Mrs. H!” And then it starts….and they fall under the spell of the story that has everything to do with what the Western world understands as a hero: They never tire of it, and I never tire of it. — healigan

Beowulf was just terrible to slog through. — Tim Howard Magyar

The Iliad is another great story to teach. I’m convinced that if a teacher loves a book, then it will probably be a good experience for the whole class. — Mrs. Law

Every year The Odyssey seems to be the book kids love and remember the most. As most comments have thus far noted, the books that go over best are the ones loved by the teachers, and The Odyssey is always my favorite. — Marc-Paul

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie has consistently reached students who don’t love reading. One girl said, “That’s the first book I’ve ever finished reading on my own.” (She’s in 9th grade) They connect with Junior, a boy who is not perfect and facing tough choices. It’s also a book I really love to read aloud because Junior’s funny. But reading aloud is also something I believe is important, even at the high school level. Reading is not an activity that should be relegated to parents and children; reading should be an activity we all share with each other to make characters come alive and connect with each other in a world that’s different from our day-to-day world. — Jessica Mills

If I’ve learned anything in teaching so far, it’s to get out of the book’s way. Some of the toughest books became some of the greatest hits with the kids once I let the book do the teaching and made it my job to help them get through the unfamiliar language or style.  — Brian Tippy

In a larger sense, though, I’m convinced that it is not the texts, but rather the strange intersection of student, classmate, teacher, and text that make a course truly transformative for a student. There is no magical “right” text; rather, each teacher and each new class bring with them different possibilities for that intersection. Certainly, some texts are more flexible than others, but there are so many wonderful and important texts out there that I think it behooves the teacher to try to make that intersection happen. — Matt

Hunger Mountain Online

The latest issue of the VCFA’s journal of the arts is full of superb stuff including:

• A really lovely and insightful essay by Kathi Appelt.
• J. Patrick Lewis on the importance of children’s poetry.
• Deva Fagan on proactive princesses.

Check it out!

Learning about Africa: Tinga Tinga Tales

A new animated series for pre-schoolers set and made in Africa.  From the press release:

From the producer of the multi award-winning Charlie And Lola, Tiger Aspect’s Claudia Lloyd, this vibrant, new animated series (52 x 11-minute episodes), for children aged three to six years, brings to life the traditional art of storytelling with tall tales of how all your favourite animals came to be the way they are today.

Inspired by traditional African animal folktales and the art of Tanzania, Tinga Tinga Tales opens up a fantastical world of colour, characters and transformation.

Produced on location in Kenya by Tiger Aspect Productions in conjunction with Homeboyz Entertainment, the show draws upon the inspiring talent of local artists and musicians and is expertly computer-animated using beautiful, hand-painted imagery.

Here’s a recent BBC news article on the series.   And here’s the trailer:

Summer Lovin’

I first read and fell in love with Rita Williams-Garcia’s new middle grade novel, One Crazy Summer last summer and more recently reviewed it for the New York Times.  Being winter, it may be more snowy than summery, but now that the book is on the shelves I’m glad to see others feeling the love. Say, the Horn Book which is starring it in their next issue.  And Betsy Bird who just gave  it an enthusiastic review.  For a kid perspective, here’s a review from one of my 6th grade Book Bloggers.  I’m now reading it aloud to my class and, let me tell you, so far it is a great read aloud.

All Good Things Come to an End…

at least temporarily.  Say the terrific Heavy Medal blog which is going on hiatus until the fall when the 2011 Newbery season will start heating up.

In the meantime, may I suggest that you keep on eye on this space or here or here for news of the forthcoming 2010 SLJ Battle of the (Kids’) Books?  Jonathan “Sue Sylvester” Hunt will repeat his role as commentator, we’ve got a stellar set of competitors, and the judges are extraordinary — truly the creme de la creme of children’s literature.  I can’t wait to get started!

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure: Episode 10

In Megan McDonald’s “A Wolf at the Door” things are looking mighty grim for our intrepid twins.

The National Theatre’s Nation

Yesterday I saw my first HD satellite broadcast on a movie screen, the National Theatre’s production of Nation.  I thought it would be like some of the plays I’ve seen in years past on PBS, but it was much, much better.  I was impressed and would definitely go to something like this again.  In fact, watching it made me wish the NT would do another revival of His Dark Materials (I saw the original production) so they could broadcast it worldwide too.

That said, I should say this production is pretty loosely based on the Terry Pratchett novel.  I thought Gary Carr who played Mau was excellent, was very impressed with the water scenes, and quite enjoyed it while, at the same time, wished they’d not reduced the novel quite so drastically, minimizing certain themes and leaving some of the most profound ones out completely. For all that, I’m glad I went.

Here’s a taste of what I saw:

Thoughts on Newbery: Mashups

Dear Gatekeepers,

Where are the new genres?  If you feel compelled to place a book into one, why use the old ones?

On this Heavy Medal post, Cindy comments:

I’ve been sharing the medal winners and honor books with my students and have come across the same issue with When You Reach Me. According to the definition we use (takes place at least 30 years prior to date of publication), it does qualify as historical fiction. Since I was only a couple years younger than Miranda in 1979, it doesn’t feel “historical” to me. However, because of the time travel element, we probably wouldn’t offer it for either historical or realistic fiction assignments.

Or what about the Scott O’Dell winner, graphic novel The Storm in the Barn with its mix of fantasy and history?  J. L. Bell is dubious.

Not to mention other Newbery honorees, say the 2008 one.   Commenting on an earlier Heavy Medal post by Nina, Jonathan wrote:

I am leery of counting CARVER and GOOD MASTERS! as informational books. Yes, they both use poetry in service of history and the latter, in particular, is a hybrid of poetry, monologue, and nonfiction, but I worry that too many people like to list these as nonfiction because “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.” In other words, isn’t it lovely to have something to make those dry facts not so dry?

How about the loveliness of new genres?  Why, when everything else is merging and shifting and changing, are we still using categories that don’t work?  I just love the way Stead, Nelson, and Schlitz mixed and melded a whole bunch of genres into delicious new ones.  If it is so critical to tag them with particular genre names, rather than forcing them to be what they aren’t can’t we generate and advocate and come up with new ones?

Sincerely,

One of you (a gatekeeper too)

That New Apple Thing

Warning: not subtle.  No doubt this 2006 MadTV skit will be all over the place if it isn’t already.  (I got it from galleycat who got it from someone who got it from someone…)

The Exquisite Corpse: Episode Nine

Nancy sputtered, exasperated. As for Joe, he suddenly felt like Alice in Wonderland, unable to get straight answers out of anyone after she slid down that rabbit hole. (Okay, so he had swiped Nancy’s copy of the book and read it. But who could resist a story about a giant rabbit with a pocket watch?)

From Nikki Grimes’ contribution (arguably my favorite, for obvious reasons).