writing

I pretty much haven’t met a holiday that I didn’t like, but Thanksgiving is kind of special. It’s relatively low-key, and the notion of taking some time to really appreciate what we have – and to give thanks for it – is a winning notion. Each day most of us relentlessly multitask in order to wring the most benefit out of every possible millisecond. Some of us juggle work that needs to be reviewed and graded, attend to student needs, coach sports teams, and oversee a host of other activities. Many of us live from deadline to deadline (and paycheck to paycheck) and generally run on all cylinders from dawn to late night. It’s hard – modern life is hardly the days of leisure predicted by 19th century futurists.

You are sitting at a meeting with other teachers at your school talking about topics you want to cover this year. A couple of biology teachers are trying to figure out a creative way to teach carbon dating. The chemistry teacher is asking around to see if anyone knows of a good method for teaching chromatography. An English teacher is trying to think up an assignment in persuasive writing. The conversation could go on, but the principal steps to the front of the room to start the meeting. Discussions of field trips, state standards, and test score improvement are going on all around you, but your mind is still on the earlier chat. Is there a way to tie all these topics together to make a more meaningful educational experience for our students?

Two summers ago, our local school department offered a one-week forensic science summer camp for older elementary students. Most of the kids were not there by choice, having been enrolled by their parents who thought that the course sounded “fun.” The teacher, having taught this course a few times before, was used to the student foot-dragging and wistful stares out the window at their unencumbered brethren playing outside, blissfully free from the tyranny of overly ambitious parents. The course focused on the investigation of an environmental crisis where local fish were killed by toxins in the water.

A few weeks ago, my third grader stopped in her tracks, flung her arms far apart, and breathed deeply. Nonplussed, I stopped and asked her what she was doing.

“Remembering the way summer smells,” she said.

I sniffed the air tentatively, but all I could really smell was car exhaust. We were in the middle of a plaza parking lot, after all.

I had forgotten this little scenario until this morning, when we awakened to temperatures in the 40s. As we waited for the school bus, my daughter raised her chin into the wind and announced that it now smelled like fall. “But I still remember how summer smells,” she said.

Once upon a time, there was a fabulous storyteller – which, alas, is not me. My grandmother, however, was a superb storyteller; her ability to keep scores of cousins engrossed in her tales was legendary. Her gift of timing, as well as her ability to use different accents and intonations kept us all enthralled. The oral tradition of storytelling is ancient; Homer’s numerous repetitions of the “wine-dark sea” in The Iliad and The Odyssey, for example, illustrate how the stories were memorized and passed down over the years until they were finally transcribed into print. Storytelling in the oral tradition is both a craft and an art, and something that deserves a resurgence in popularity.

We cooked our green eggs and ham and walked around school in red and white striped hats, all in the name of the love of reading. Our students were able to hear different adults reading some of their favorite stories aloud. NEA’s Read Across America was a success, but let’s not let our focus on literacy, a core 21st century skill, waver just because Dr. Seuss’s birthday celebration is over. A firm grasp on reading and writing is essential for our students success in many other important 21st century skills.

I decided to expand on last week’s Read Across America column by featuring a few more resources from Reading Rockets. The Reading Rockets project is an educational initiative of WETA, the flagship PBS television and radio station in Washington, DC. The project is comprised of PBS television programs, available on videotape and DVD; online services, including the Websites ReadingRockets.org and ColorinColorado.org; and professional development opportunities.

Elkonin Boxes
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-02-24.5270491171
Subjects: Reading, Spelling
Grade: K-3

A new year ushers in a sense of anticipation, with new expectations and new goals to strive for. This week’s picks focus on these elements in one way or another.

The Importance of Setting Goals
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2008-12-19.6728780760
Subjects: Economics
Grade: 9-12