"I am so far from one!"

One of the joys of being around young kids is getting a glimpse of the world through their eyes.  Here are two priceless stories.

I was lucky enough to take courses from one of the leading Gesell Institute researchers, Norm Heimgartner, during my Master's study. The Gesell developmental assessment is based on observing young learners to document their development on a continuum of growth.

During one of Norm's many research stories, he recounted watching a young boy saw on a board for over 20 minutes. Norm finally strolled over and asked him what he was making.

"Sawdust."

Such a perfect kid answer to a predictable adult question.  We're product oriented. There should always be an end in sight. Making sawdust comes from an entirely different way of experiencing the world!

Here's another story. 

I was helping a kindergarten teacher colleague assess her students. One of the tasks was to count to 100. After I gave him the instructions, Darrin launched into his counting. He got through the 30s, then the 40s. He was on track to make it--amazing for a kindergartner!

"91, 92, 93, 94 ..." He stopped and looked at me, amazed, eyes wide. "I am so far from one!"

Not only could he count to 100,  he had well-developed number sense for a kindergartener.

I still remember that scene over 20 years later because it's stories like this that remind me to listen ever so carefully to little ones.The early childhood folks have known this for a long time--among them Maria Montessori, Jean Piaget, Reggio Emilia, and Vivian Paley. Kids have the right "to grow and learn at their own pace and in their own way" (Arnold Gesell).

Today more and more of our assessments are taking place in front of a computer screen. Assessments are impersonal, devoid of the stories of children's lives. Are kids able to show what they really know? Maybe just as important, what are teachers getting a chance to learn?

Are we there yet? How kids make sense of the world

The concept of "developmentally appropriate" is a backdrop for every learning experience we orchestrate as educators.  You know when something isn't DA because kids don't "get it," or simply because the lesson flops. Kids spout off guesses, call out in confusion, or put their heads down. It's happened to all of us.

Here's one of my favorite "developmentally inappropriate" stories.

I was driving from Illinois to Indiana with a 7 year old. You'll recognize the routine: Every five minutes she asked, "Are we almost there? When are we gonna get there?"

I explained that our trip would take about the same amount of time as the beginning of school until lunchtime. I explained we were driving from the state where she lived--Illinois--to the state right next to it. Maybe I talked about Indiana and Illinois as being two of our 50 United States. I pointed out the sign, "Welcome to Indiana."

The conversation was fraught with abstract concepts that a 7 year old doesn't yet comprehend: states, crossing from one state to another, and the United States. I knew all this after 20 years of teaching kids her age, and knew that my explanation was a stretch for a 7 year old, but I thought I did a decent job of it. 

A few minutes later she called home. Her dad asked where she was, and I still laugh to remember her answer: "We're still in America, Dad, but we're on a different road!"

More on supporting Kate as a reader

If you're a new reader of this blog, you'll want to scroll down to read my post about Kate, as well as her mom's thoughts.

I'm so thankful for Denise's candid comments. They help me remember that all of us--kids, families, teachers--bring different perspectives to any learning situation. I'll use this post to respond to what Denise found most important about our work together,

First of all you and Kate have clicked. You've taken the time to listen to her and get a sense of where she's at and what will help her. 

Denise put her finger on the most important part of the student--teacher relationship: Teachers pay close attention to the learner, what they do successfully and what can move them along. This might seem easy, and teachers do get better at it with time, but it is not a simple matter. It takes knowledge of the learner herself, knowledge of how literacy learning develops, in this case, and a deep understanding of child development. Kidwatching is a strength I've developed over years of teaching.

You've also given us books that we both enjoy and that she can read--books that are more interesting and fun than the simple leveled books ...  

Kate is also very focused on the "level" she reads, and she can tell you where every single kid in the class is reading ... "so and so is a C" or a D, or a J. Reading other books beside the little level readers has helped her see that she's a better reader ...

The next key--engaging books! This can be such a challenge for early readers. Kate benefits from some reading of the simple leveled books, but no classroom collection of these books can provide enough variety to keep kids' interest over time.  Kate had not yet read the "E" level assessment text at 96% accuracy, so most of her Independent Reading books came out of the "D" tub of books. 

The primary team of teachers did dedicate some of their book budget to sets of higher quality leveled books (longer length, better stories, and pricier) to use with small instructional groups and I pulled from those during the time I read with Kate. But it was so important to find other books that she and mom could enjoy. 

I've written previously about the importance of providing different kinds of reading experiences for young readers. Denise reads aloud to Kate regularly, which is one of the most important contributions a family can make. Then some Independent Reading with the leveled books. Kate could read some E, F, and G books despite not being able to "pass" the pesky E assessment text.

Two readers enjoying Elephant & Piggie

But what really engaged Kate, and re-engaged her interest in reading, was Shared Reading. I carefully chose the books--Elephant & Piggie, Fly Guy, and Fox--and encouraged Denise to read the book aloud to Kate first, and then for the two of them to read the book together. Elephant & Piggie books, with character speech bubbles, just cry out for two readers. The dialogue is full of the kinds of "sight words" that too many kids are practicing on lists or flashcards, and the illustrations draw kids in to look more closely. They read for meaning, rather than practice. Fly Guy is clever. Fox is a crazy dude. When kids read these books, with just a little support from us, they forget they're reading. Exactly what Kate needed. Soon Kate was reading them on her own. Elephant & Piggie (level G+), Fly Guy (levels H-I), Fox (level I-J). 

Here's another point that is key. These books might be challenging, but because they are also longer and well-written, readers will gain more information about the story as they read. That helps them problem-solve on their own with very little support from us. Stay tuned for the next post which will includes videos of kids doing just that!

Kate can also be quiet. She kind of goes with the flow, and sometimes that means she can get lost in the shuffle. Her time with you really turned that around.

Kate is quiet and it took me time to get to know her within a group of 4-5 other kids who were more energetic and demanding of my attention. She was much like Maris, whose reading I describe in the kinds of reading post. Imagine the demands on teachers with 25, 29, maybe 30 kids. Kids like Kate are often overshadowed in the everyday hustle and bustle of a classroom. 

Kate did begin to bloom in our small group, but we experienced the most success when Kate and I read together while Denise watched, then followed my lead at home. Not only could Denise give her the kind of support she needed, Kate's sense of self-efficacy--her sense that "I can do this" and "I am a reader"--grew day by day. All of us contributed to Kate's success.

You made it more fun, quite frankly, and you were so accurate when you said that readers will lose the flow of the story if you focus so much on individual words. You let me know that ... it was okay for me to read along with her in some parts. I learned to lighten up a little.

Exactly. When reading becomes a burden, or a challenge, it's time to mix it up. My first suggestion to parents or tutors is to read the full book to the child first. (I liken this to asking someone to play a piece a music without ever having heard it first. Imagine. So read the book aloud first.)  If the book is in the ballpark of the reader's skill, that one reading will launch them into reading it with little support. If it's still tough and the reader wants to read it, subtly share the reading. Try to read in phrases, rather to supply single  words you predict are too difficult. Or find a better book!

Our short time together last spring and this summer--maybe 4-5 hours in total--helped all of us. Kate is learning she's a skilled reader. Denise is learning to trust her instincts and is expanding her repertoire of ways to help Kate. And I'm refining my kidwatching, for no two learners are ever the same. It's why I love this work.

Thoughts from Kate's Mom

When I think about Kate's reading, I start with thinking about how much I have always loved reading myself. One of my earliest memories is going to kindergarten and imagining that I was going to learn how to read, but in those days they didn't start teaching reading until first grade.

When Kate was born, I started reading to her right away. I wondered if I was jumping the gun on this, but when she was six months old we started reading a couple of books a night. I always thought that because I loved reading, Kate would be the same. Then again, I met my stepdaughters when they were 4 and 6 and I was a little surprised that they were reluctant readers. I wondered why they just didn't jump into reading like I had. When they grew to be teenagers, I talked to them about it and they told me that by third or fourth grade, things just clicked into place and they wouldn't put books down.

In kindergarten, Kate and I read the little (leveled) readers at home that they read in school and then in first grade the same.  Kate was progressing, although slowly.  I found out that she had been reading with you and her teacher suggested I talk with you, and that's when our relationship began. I can't thank you enough. I've been thinking about what has helped Kate move ahead and here are a few of my thoughts.

First of all you and Kate have clicked. You've taken the time to listen to her and get a sense of where she's at and what will help her. You've also given us books that we both enjoy and that she can read--books that are more interesting and fun than the simple leveled books. Kate can also be quiet. She kind of goes with the flow, and sometimes that means she can get lost in the shuffle. Her time with you really turned that around.

Kate is also very focused on the "level" she reads, and she can tell you where every single kid in the class is reading ... "so and so is a C" or a D, or a J. Reading other books beside the little level D readers has helped her see that she's a better reader than she might have thought.

Watching you read with Kate was huge! Before Kate was born, I was going to school to be Montessori teacher for kids 2 1/2 to 5 years old. We were taught to follow the child. When Kate started to read, I would just listen and maybe do a little correcting but basically I was letting Kate work it out and struggle with the difficult words.

You made it more fun quite frankly, and you were so accurate when you said that readers will lose the flow of the story if you focus so much on individual words. You let me know that I could make it more fun and not so hard, and that it was okay for me to read along with her in some parts. I learned to lighten up a little. 

I really do believe Kate will be an excellent reader. We care about her and her success and it feels like she's following the path of her big sisters.

I'm so glad you can see how summer gets so crazy. She didn't always read on her own as much as we'd planned, but I never give up on reading to her because it's such a nice way to end the day. She just hunkers right down beside me and snuggles up. It's good to know it's the reading that's important, no matter who is reading to whom.  This all makes her feel really special. I just love this kid!

Thanks so much, Kathy, for taking time with Kate.  You are the best!

"This is Kate. She's a D!"

One of my daily joys as a librarian (and foremost a literacy educator) is to work with a small group of first grade readers. The teachers and I were able to dedicate a 25 minute block during their independent reading time to make it happen. Although our school's official RTI (Response to Intervention) efforts are focused on math, an RTI process prioritizes that the most skilled educators work with the students who need the most expert support.  I appreciated the teachers' confidence in my experience.

My small group varied across the year, with one child experiencing a growth spurt and another needing support after several months away from school. And then one day Kate came along with her classmates. "This is Kate," one of them announced. "She's a D!"

I've written in other posts about the Fountas & Pinnell guided reading levels that currently organize part of reading instruction. One downside of this "leveling" work is that teachers and kids, sometimes even parents, take up the drumbeat and kids begin to label themselves with these levels. (D level texts are what might be expected from beginning first graders.) These kids knew that D was not "adequate" reading in the spring of first grade, and that many of their classmates were reading H, I, J or even P level books. Yes, sigh.

Kate's teacher and I had only moments to talk before she left for a planned leave after spring break. I told the guest teacher that I'd love to talk with Kate's mom if she met her, and just days later Denise came to visit. I'll let her tell the story in her own words, and then fill in the educator side of the story following. In the meantime, here's Kate. She's clearly an A+!

Is that foxglove?

A few moments ago I walked by a patch of flowers and the foxglove memory came back. Here's how it went.

Years ago, one of my colleagues created me a series of spring break till the end-of-the-school-year "advent" calendars. Each year she came up with a different scheme, and one particular year it was a series of flower pots with numbers on them. Day by day my students and I flipped up a numbered pot to find another pot with a wildflower picture pasted above, the flower name in calligraphy on the pot. The flower illustrations had originally been hand-painted by James Audubon. An intact set of pictures in book form was included for my first graders to browse and learn more. I decided to match each child with a wild flower and as that flower was revealed, the kids took on the role of helper for the day.

Trillium, primrose, goldenrod, forget-me-nots, phlox, anemone. Each day another flower, each day another new name to playfully roll off the kids' tongues and to match with a flower. Who knew how engaged urban first graders could be with wild flowers!

In mid-May I scheduled a field trip to Snake Lake, a local nature reserve. Our elderly docent handed out nature name tags (Canada goose, fir tree, wood duck ...) to the kids and we set out on our walk. We paused at each natural feature along the trail for her descriptions, and she would then invite the kids to "take 5 bunny hops" or to "tip toe behind Canada goose" to the next stop on the tour. (Ah ... I should have known she was a retired kindergarten teacher!)

"Does anyone know this plant?" she queried at one stop. Brandon stepped from behind another student to look more closely. "Is that foxglove?"

Imagine her amazement! And imagine my own. Then again, she asked rather than telling the name. That alone is significant. And we had been studying wildflowers by chance!

Even though I know how smart even the youngest kids are, I continue to be amazed by what catches their attention and sticks with them. This recognition has helped me reconsider the "what" of curriculum. Seven-year old Leslie wanted to learn more about famine. A 9 year old student of a colleague decided to study how property taxes are assessed, an interest that was precipitated by his father's irritation that their taxes had increased. Another first grader shared that the last small gas station in Redmond was closing. When a classmate responded, "So what--there are lots of gas stations," he clarified that this was a family-owned gas station! Without fail, I now always focus part of my time with kids on learning more about their keenest interests.

Language researcher, Gordon Wells, reminds us that all of us learn language from the company they keep. If you want someone to sound like a lawyer, invite them hang out with lawyers. Kids learn "vocabulary" as they use it to talk about new concepts, and to a much lesser degree, through memorizing words and their definitions. (If you would like to read more about any of this, let me know and I'll share resources.)

Is that foxglove? Indeed.

98% of five year olds test creative

Fifteen years ago I heard a research report that measured creativity in young kids and then again at a later age. The results were alarming. A huge percentage of kids were judged creative at age 5, and then the number dropped precipitously after several years in school. I have kicked myself ever since for not noting the citation.

And then recently, out of the blue, children's author Derek Munson shared the same stats during a presentation. I talked to him afterward and got enough of the details to track down the description of the research. Suffice it to say, Derek is one of the most creative people I've met. His "alien baseball players" Web site launches this week, if his work on friendship and creativity doesn't hook you.

Here's the research description:

Are We More or Less Creative as We Age?

In Creativity and Innovation 

A 1968 study by George Land, a general systems scientist interested in the development of creative performance, revealed that we are naturally creative as children. However, as he shared in Grow or Die: the Unifying Principle of Transformation, as we grow up we learn to be increasingly uncreative.
How did George Land prove this?
Over a 15 year period he distributed among 1,600 5-year-olds a test designed to measure creativity. This test was used by NASA to select innovative engineers and scientists. George Land used the test to re-test the same children at 10 years of age, and again at 15 years of age. Here are his results with regards to their creativity:
5 year olds: 98%
10 year olds: 30%
15 year olds: 12%
The same test was also given to 280,000 adults with a 2% score for their creativity.
Why are adults not as creative as children?
For most, creativity has been buried by the structures we build that involve rules and regulations. Our educational system was designed during the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago, to train us to be good workers and follow instructions.
Creativity is a skill that can be developed. Learning to be creative, like most things in life, requires practice to develop the right muscles, and a supportive environment in which to flourish.

Accessed on 5/21/09 from
http://blog.entrepreneurthearts.com/2009/03/04/are-we-more-or-less-creative-as-we-age/

Readers who struggle

Most young kids come to school eager to read and write and learn. If all goes well, teachers tap into the knowledge that kids have developed during their first years of life and provide the experiences that launch these fledgling learners into the world of schooling.

But we all know kids that haven't connected easily with school, and the reasons vary. Do you recognize stories like these? This site is dedicated to transforming them!

1. Scott was a kid who struggled with the simplistic reading books used in his first grade classroom, yet loved planes and would sketch jets and browse books about them by the hour. He came to my multi-age primary classroom as a second grader, and a beginning reader who had few literacy skills. He lacked confidence as a learner in school.

2. Tyler was reading when he started kindergarten, and there was a clear mismatch between the curriculum that focused on learning letters and sounds and his literacy skills. His teacher viewed kindergarten as a place to teach beginning readers and said she wasn't able to teach him within that context. A year later, he entered a 1st-3rd grade multi-age classroom as one of the youngest students, as a very experienced reader, yet disengaged from school.

3. Anne was the mother of a quiet and deliberative six-year old daughter. Anne volunteered in the classroom twice a week, and was unsure if her daughter was on target as a first grader. What could help her know?

4. Phil was a business owner who reported that he struggled to read the materials that could help him advance his work. His perceptions of himself as a reader were shaped in his first years of school, and were further defined by being the only sibling in his family without a college degree. His view of his reading skills was a mismatch with the thoughtful adult I spoke with who reads the New Yorker for enjoyment.

5. Nick was entering the fourth grade reading like a beginning reader. Based on the school's recommendation he had attended two years of remedial tutoring and summer school. Although he was bright in many ways, his literacy skills had not developed despite the suggested help. It was getting harder and harder for his mother to get him up for school.

In some small or large way I have been helpful to each of these readers, and I share details of how with the hope that the information can be used to help others. This blog is dedicated to ending the frustration that people feel when there's a mismatch between a kid's learning and the experience of school. There's nothing I love to do more than think through the issues and problem solve together.

But first, a little more on why readers struggle.

Learners "struggle" for a reason. The reason usually becomes clear when we spend time with them and pay close attention. The problem is rarely that there is something wrong with a reader. Usually, they become confused about reading as a result of their experiences in learning to read. This confusion might happen at home, or at school, and is rarely intentional. Clearing up their confusions is the first step toward successful learning.

One final point: I haven't found it helpful to label children. Referring to learners as lazy or learning disabled or at-risk (the latter two relate to funding categories) hasn't been helpful to me in teaching children to read. What we can do instead is listen to children and learn from them. I am committed to helping you do the same, whether you are the parent, grandparent, teacher, or foster parent of a kid whose learning is not yet on track.

Do you have a story of a struggling reader? Please share it!

We are having so much fun!

Imagine the scene.

It's a warm, Midwest afternoon. My 5-year old companion complains of hunger, so I pull over to the Esquire, a burger joint in downtown Champaign. We settle at a table, the only outdoor customers.

While we wait for our burger, she starts in on the complimentary bowl of peanuts. It's breezy and quiet as I watch her small fingers try to break open a peanut. She's squeezing her fingers together on its rounded sides, so I offer a few tips. The shell isn't giving, and she continues her squeeze.

Finally she looks up. "We are having so much fun!"

It was the last thing I could have predicted she would say, but how perfect it was! The slow pace of the day, the lovely weather, the empty patio, her determination. I was enjoying watching her, and we were having so much fun.

I share this story as spring break approaches. Maybe you have a few days off, and if you're lucky, a young child to enjoy. I hope you too can find the time, and the place, and the quiet, to be surprised.

The Real Learning of "Sight" Words & Punctuation

Last spring a reader asked my thoughts about the value of worksheets and flashcards. I shared my own teaching priorities and promised to track down research on how well kids read words in context compared to reading them on lists or cards.

It took almost a year! No luck on Google searches, or searching through my files. No luck writing several literacy researchers who I guessed might have done this work. In the end, the answer came in an email outlining a lifetime of research by Ken Goodman, my educational "grandfather"!

When Goodman began his miscue research in the 60's, one of his research studies involved 1st grade and 3rd grade students reading passages, and then reading a subset of the words in those passages on a list. The results might surprise you.

First graders could read 66% more of the words within a passage (what reading people sometimes call "connected text") than they could read on a list. Third graders could read 80% more of the words within a passage. Further, this research was conducted in a diverse, low-income community--the kind of kids that research shows get more traditional literacy instruction (worksheets, round robin reading, low-level comprehension activities), while their more advantaged peers are honing their reading skills in book clubs and discussion groups.

(The photo above shows 3rd graders reading sight word cards in the hallway. The kids could read them all, and yet the stated goal of learning the words was to spell them accurately in their writing. I encouraged the teacher and principal to shift the focus to just that. The time in the hall, and with flashcards, didn't match their goal.)

A decade later, Lucy Calkins conducted similar research, but this time about punctuation. One class of third graders studied punctuation, and a second class learned about punctuation in the context of writing and talking about their writing with their teacher and peers. At the end of the year, the first group could identify and define, on average, 3 punctuation marks, while the kids who wrote as a means of learning could identify and explain the use of 8 or more, including editing marks.

Talking about ... or doing? Practicing words on lists or cards, or reading more of those same words within books? Naming punctuation marks, or using them to achieve one's purpose as a writer?

Therein lies the difference between what some call workshop curriculum, and the teaching of the past. M.A.K. Halliday observed, also in the 1960's, that kids learn language, learn about how language works, and use language simultaneously. They do it in their early years, and can do it in schools, too. Moreover, our job as teachers is that much easier when the direct teaching of strategies is based on what we see in the kids' work and can be immediately applied.

I'd love to hear from readers who find a way to test this out in their own work!

World Read Aloud Day

Today, March 3rd, is World Read Aloud Day. This is a celebration I can get behind!
No one describes the power of read aloud better than author extraordinaire, Mem Fox.

Reading aloud is not a cure-all. Not quite. But it is such a wonderful antidote for turning on turned-off readers and brightening up dull writing that I feel it's worthwhile to plead again for its regular occurrence in every classroom, not only those classrooms at the younger end of the school. Even in my forties I have benefited as a writer directly from hearing writing read aloud. The music, the word choice, the feelings, the flow of the structure, the new ideas, the fresh thoughts -- all these and more are banked in my writing checking account whenever I am fortunate enough to be read to.

Mem Fox, Radical Reflections

Mem's bold book, Radical Reflections, is organized around 16 lessons that teachers can learn from parents, because long before kids come to school, they've successfully learned many complex behaviors, the least of which is their home language. In many homes, that language learning is undeniably influenced by being read to.
The findings of a recently reported study in the UK show that daily reading aloud at home boosted children's success at school, including knowledge and understanding of the world, literacy and math. These children also outscored classmates in assessments of their social, emotional, physical and creative development.
Teaching kids the alphabet and to count, in contrast, was not shown to be significant.
So all you parents out there, thanks for inspiring lesson #16, "reading aloud, once again, with feeling"! And today while you're reading, take satisfaction that empirical evidence supports the importance of what you've known all along.

Here are a just a few of many favorite read aloud titles:

For young ones, look for titles by Mem Fox. "More, More, More," Said the Baby! (Vera Williams) is another favorite, and comes as a board book. Buz (Egielski) is also a winner, if you can find it!

For 4-7 year olds, nothing beats Martin Waddell's Pig in the Pond or The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything (Williams & Lloyd).

For slightly older kids, Roald Dahl always hits a home run, and my absolute favorite title of his to read aloud is The Enormous Crocodile. It makes a great readers theater if you can find multiple copies and highlight the different voices.

Afternoon of the Elves (Lisle) offers girls a lot to talk about, and it was one of few "girl books" that my 3rd grade boys also enjoyed.

Finally, if you're the parent of a disengaged guy reader, check out Jon Scieszka's site, Guys Read. It's never too late to reengage!

Spelling for Writers of All Ages

Recently I signed up on Twitter. I've been thinking about what might be interesting to tweet, and finally decided to share the spelling miscues I run across.

Spelling miscues, rather than mistakes per se, represent a writer's understanding or prediction of how to spell a particular word. The first miscue I shared, Mrs. Sippy, is the favorite I've seen from a kid. The student's prediction is obvious on this one, and so creative! The miscue to the right, artickels, is spelled how it sounds, combining several sound/letter combinations (ck, el), that while not conventional in the English spelling of the word article, are phonetically correct. But looking a bit deeper I learned that artikel is the conventional spelling in German, Dutch, Indonesian and Swedish, so the spelling on this sign appears to be a combination of English spelling (ck) with that of another language. That's not a surprise outside the tasting room door of Monteillet Fromagerie!

Say, how about taking a spelling test before you read on?

Spelling miscues produced by children are wonderful windows into their thinking and much more than the *mistakes* seen at first glance. More on this to come, but you might challenge yourself to look closer to consider what the writer might have been thinking.

Last spring I worked with a 4th grade teacher colleague to look more closely at the spelling skill of her students. The current, best resource for my learning has been The Violent E and Other Tricky Sounds: Learning to Spell from Kindergarten to Grade Six. In short, the authors' research helps one understand that in any given class of learners, we can expect students to span a range of 3-4 phases of spelling development. Those in each phase benefit from different spelling instruction, as well as ample reading and writing. Extensive reading and writing are the foundation of spelling development.

If meaningful spelling instruction isn't your interest, below is some information that might be helpful. If you're like me and want to take on the study of spelling, here is one story of a school that did just that: Spelling Inquiry: How One School Caught the Mnemonic Plague.

What do writers actually do when they’re stuck?

Spelling researcher, Sandra Wilde, found that writers use five spelling strategies as they write. From less sophisticated to more sophisticated, these are:

1. Use a placeholder: “I just wrote it that way.”
2. Ask someone else: “How do you spell rhythm?”
3. Consult a textual resource: “I need a dictionary.”
4. Generate alternatives, monitor and revise: "Is arrogant spelled with one /r/ or two?” Then write out alternatives and see which one looks right.
5. Take ownership: “I know how to spell aquarium!” or “I know where I can find out how to spell it!”

The 4 spelling rules most worth learning

Only a handful of spelling rules are worth teaching, as very few of them are consistent enough to be helpful to children. Sandra Wilde suggests these (Routman, 2000).
• Put i before e (as well as the ei pattern)
• Drop e before adding a suffix
• Change y to i before adding a suffix
• Double final consonants before adding a suffix

Inviting Kids "to the Table"

I work in schools, and a recent highlight has been helping out with the kindergarten classes during lunch. I'm surprised I didn't predict this, given how much I love hanging out with kids!

It took a few weeks to learn the routines--washing hands, moving quickly through the long lunch lines, turning in their lunch cards--but soon they had them down. In the meantime, I had also learned their names. One day I mentioned to darling Catherine that my name was also Kathryn, and thus began the spontaneous choruses of, "Kathryn, sit here!" "No, sit here!" "Hi, Kathryn!"

I also come with a healthy tolerance for spilled milk--opening those cartoons is a bear--and reminders to try the overcooked main courses and naked vegetables slices. Sadly, their diverse palates--as diverse as their names--frequently turn away the cafeteria fare, even with its healthier whole wheat breads and daily veggies and fruit servings. My sadness at watching the waste is palpable, and I also worry about kids getting through a day of learning on a few crackers and half a carton of milk.

So I started bringing in apples. I'd bought a case of a beautiful heirloom variety--Tsugaru--after it was voted the favorite at a local farmers market tasting. Every day I top off my lunch bag with 4-5 apples, drag along a cutting board and knife, and the kids inhale them! If they ask, I cut up the little lunch apples, too. The kids' fruit quotient soon doubled, and soars if I sit down to eat with them! I watched Jefferson eat fruit for the first time--a kid who one day drank a few sips of milk and ate the contents of a ketsup packet. With his forefinger.

To be fair, they always eat the bananas, even when they're green.

Today I brought a head of romaine. One by one I pulled the beautiful leaves from a ziplock bag, dipped them into a little cup of ranch dressing, and commented that I like my lettuce leaves whole. And one by one they followed my lead into their own little dressing cups. This time I watched Jefferson eat a vegetable for the first time, tearing his leaves into little dip-size pieces. The entire head of lettuce was gone in 5 minutes.

All the while, the kids were playing their new game of switching seats. "I'm the new Ralph!" "I'm the new Eduardo!" "I'm the new Jessica!" "I'm the new Mussie!" "Kathryn, sit here!" I shagged them back to their seats, chuckling at their ingenuity.

I think I've figured it out: Good food, good company, a few surprises.

Food Literacy

I was shocked! Kids who confuse a tomato with a potato, who think an eggplant is a pear, who think a beet is celery. If you haven't seen Jamie Oliver's TED talk and his wish to teach every child about food, take the time!

On the heels of that surprise, this week the following data came across my screen: The number of corporate logos the average America can identify: more than 1000. The average number of native plants or animals that the average American can identify: fewer than 10.

I can't imagine anyone who would think this is good news. The sadder news is that the average adults among us are doing little better than the kids.

Enter a new kind of literacy to our lexicon: food literacy. Philip and June, from Readers to Eaters, offer a simple definition: Food literacy is knowing what we eat and where it comes from. And as their tag line reads: Food literacy from the ground up!

And here is another: Food literacy is the ability to organize one’s everyday nutrition in a self-determined, responsible and enjoyable way.

But learning to identify plants, say just edible plants, is not so challenging! I've spent time with 5th graders at the beautiful environmental learning camp on Bainbridge Island, Islandwood. In just minutes the kids learned to identify and how to pick and break down the leaves of stinging nettles so that the stinging hairs were rendered harmless. Most of them tasted small pieces, and a few picked and ate leaves on every forest walk.

Next came a horticultural walk--some edible plants and some not. Our instructor, Derek, set off on a trail 2 minutes before I released the kids one by one. Each received a laminated card with information about a nearby plant--salal, evergreen huckleberry, licorice fern, salmonberry, big leaf maple, Douglas fir. The first student learned three facts about his plant, and taught it to each successive child who moved on along the path to find his/her card and do the same. After this 30 minute experience, the kids recognized their own plants and some of the others. 30 minutes, on one afternoon.

Time for us all to think more carefully about what we eat and where it comes from!

What IS this?

Help for readers, writers, or eaters?

Today I walked into lunch just as the kids peeled back the plastic on their lunch entrees. "What is this? What is this?"

As they ate, I asked a couple of kids what they thought it was.

"I'm not thinking, I'm eating."

I tried again. "What does it taste like?"

"Bread."

Actually, it's a chicken patty. 18 grams protein, 36 grams carbohydrates, 15.5 grams total fat, 3 grams saturated fat. Most of the kids covered it with ketchup, stuck it in the whole wheat bun, and gave it a shot. Chicken product, with breading, in a bun.

I passed out carrots from the farmers market and recalled Slow Food's philosophy ... that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health ...
I find comfort knowing that there are school-based nutritionists, like Oakland's Renegade Lunch Lady, Ann Cooper, and talented chefs like Britain's Jamie Oliver, dedicated to putting healthier foods on the lunchroom table. And I'm a renegade soldier in their troops!
Before I left, I pulled out a little book from a nearby tub, Salad Vegetables. It read, A carrot. A tomato. A cucumber. A radish. A lettuce.

What? What is this? A lettuce?Looks like we've got some work to do on the literacy front, as well!

Reading, Writing & Food!

Those of you who know me personally know that my second passion, apart from literacy, is food. My time away from writing on this blog coincides with several months of making connections in the food community, and much of that through social media. What a journey! Here are some highlights:

This week ...
Over the weekend I ran into Orren Fox through Twitter. Rob Smart of Vermont wondered aloud if this 12 year old who raises chickens and honeybees north of Boston might be the next Michael Pollan. Visit Orren's blog or follow him @happychickens or @happyhoneybees to decide for yourself. Find Rob @jambutter.

I love Orren's definition of ProFood: "To be ProFood means you are FOR food. That sounds funny, but what I mean is that you think about food, you care about food and you will make an effort for good food." Read more here at a guest blog posting.

Orren's commitment to 21st century issues + 21st century literacy tools = a great example for all of us!

October
This month I renewed my membership with Slow Food, and soon after got to hear U.S. Executive Director, Erika Lesser, speak to its mission of good, clean, and fair food. Slow Food has evolved since a group of us founded Prairieland Slow Food in East Central Illinois in 2001, and now includes a stronger focus on food justice:

... that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

No doubt I'll find ways to connect with the Seattle Slow Food convivia down the line. @SlowFoodSeattle

September
On 9/2 I sped home from work to grab an apron and a pie plate, then hurried across town for a date with Kate McDermott of The Art of the Pie. Her pie class was a treat to myself and an early birthday present for daughters-in-law Lisa and Annie.

There is so much to share about this incredible experience. First, Kate's passion for pie is contagious. After five years perfecting a recipe for the quintessential American apple pie, she and right hand partner, Jon Rowley, have single-handedly revived the art of pie making in our community. Class graduates now scour the farmers markets for heritage apples and compete for limited supplies of rendered leaf lard and Irish butter, a testimony to her inspiration!

Second, Kate teaches students to trust their senses: Use your hands to work the cold butter and lard into cold flour, aiming for a pieces that vary from sand to small nuts. Rub kosher salt in your palms before adding it to the flour. Slowly add the ice water, tablespoon by tablespoon, until a squeeze of the dough brings it together.

Even the baking time demands attention. Ear to the crust, listen for the sizzle of the fats in the crust and the deep bubbling of the fruit juices. If you don't hear that distinctive bubbling, the pie goes back in the oven!

Lisa arrived as an experienced pie baker, and left with new skills. Annie is still amazed at the ease of making her first pie. And I finally made a real crust and promise never again to buy a frozen one! Here we are with our pies! Would you believe that each of these 10" pies weighed between 8 1/4 and 9 lbs (including the pie plate)!

Three weeks later, Lisa and I put our baking skills on the line and entered the Queen Anne Farmer's Market pie contest. Blue ribbon fantasies evaporated when I set my humble "backyard plum pie" down alongside some real beauties. My pie is decorated with the leafy branch, and included a grape-sized plum variety combined with Italian prune plums harvested down the street. Lisa's plum/pluot pie was a beauty, but in the end, neither of them stood up to the winners (shown at the link above). Thanks to QAFM event organizer, Jenise @licorous!

Last, Kate's skill as a teacher helps me think more deeply about my work as a literacy coach. She demonstrated the crust making, and coached us individually as needed, but the work was our own from beginning to end. Three of us began with distinctly different baking experiences and each left with a prized pie and the inspiration to keep baking.

Kate's recipe here! Follow Kate @katemcdermott and Jon @oysterwine.

August
In that way that only Twitter can connect you with like-minded souls around the country and the world, in late summer I met Michelle Stern who describes herself as an "animal loving eco-mom." She owns a green company in the San Francisco area that teaches kids to cook healthy, seasonal foods for their families and for community members in need. I wrote directly to Michelle when she wondered about the viability of non-profit status, one avenue to qualify her company for grant monies, thus enabling her to invite more kids into her classes. I'm hoping to meet her in person when she presents her work next spring at the IACP conference in Portland. See more here. Follow Michelle @whatscooking.

The event highlight of the month was the Northwest Sustainability Discovery Tour. I joined 80 other people interested in food sustainability practices at what turned out to be an amazing 3-day event in nearby Portland, sponsored by Truitt Brothers, a family-owned food processing and canning company. Here you can access our full itinerary, as well as photos and key points made by the speakers.

Fabulous new acquaintances include Joan Ottinger, director of the state of Oregon's farm-to-school program, social media mentor Paul Barron @paulbarron, and Angela Shen, of Savor Seattle Food Tours. Angela and I talked on the drive back to Seattle about how she can make her business practices more sustainable. How do you responsibly provide battery-powered headsets for 7,000+ tour-goers a year. Or water?

July
Milwaukee-based Will Allen, dubbed the Urban Farmer, graced the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine the same week I was leaving Wisconsin. My trip to his Growing Power Farm (tours daily, Mon-Sat. at 1:00 pm) will have to wait for the next visit. In the meantime, I found a video mini-tour here.

Allen's goals are simple: to grow food, to grow minds, and to grow community. His extensive operation (vegetables, worms, fish, and honeybees), and training opportunities (from bio-phyto remediation and soil health, to aquaculture closed-loop systems, to youth and participatory leadership development) in multiple cities shows the power of the community Allen has grown over 15 years. His work is an inspiration in my exploration of working with kids and food!

I returned to Seattle just in time to go on the self-guided City Chicken Coop Tour (Patrick spelled out his response: N-O), to attend chef Tamara Murphy's ever-popular Burning Beast 2009 (see pix), to host a spontaneous artisan beef tasting led by "beef geek" Carrie Oliver @OliverRanch, and finally to join 350 other food-minded participants at Foodportunity, a networking event arranged by Seattle relative newcomer, Keren Brown. Foodportunity #2 will be held on 11/2.

And the rest is history ...
It is amazing to me that I knew few of these people 4 short months ago (and this list isn't even exhaustive)! Many of the connections can be traced back to one fateful afternoon in March '09 when I ran into Traca Savadogo, aka Seattle Tall Poppy, while visiting a friend in the hospital. Traca's love of connecting people with like passions has led friends to call her 2-degrees-of-separation Traca. Traca + Twitter. The rest, as they say, is history. And these are just food connections! @seattletallpopp

You might also be interested in the work of @FarmerRoger, from South 47 Farm in the Sammamish Valley, and Readers to Eaters, food literacy from the ground up, the latest venture of Philip Lee, founding partner and editor-in-chief of Lee & Low Books, and his wife, food industry consultant, June Jo Lee, who recently moved to the Puget Sound area. @readerstoeaters

Are you serious?

This s-word keeps resurfacing in my life with kids, and I'm curious about why. I have one hypothesis and would love to hear from you what you think! Here are the three s-word stories.

Serious story #1
"Our teacher is serious," Vanna whispers to the teaching assistant who's waiting to take them to lunch. Vanna is learning English so I'm not sure exactly what she thinks I mean when I gather the first graders on the rug to review their responsibilities during our reading/writing workshop period. Our student teacher had ended her time with us the Friday before, and I was seriously recalibrating our daily 100-minute work period.

(There's a deep structure and predictability to workshop teaching that might escape recognition for those more accustomed to teacher-directed curriculum. The student teacher was able to depend on the deep structure I had created with the kids in the fall, which is different that creating it oneself, and it had gone a little off track.)

Serious story #2
"Kathy, is that the Serious Tower? Can we take the elevator?" Imagine my laugh! At 108 stories and taller than the World Trade Center, the Sears Tower is serious enough! Eight-year-old T and I are in Chicago for the day and the Sears Tower is one of our destinations. Of course an 8 year old wouldn't connect Sears with a tall building, even if she did recognize it as a store in her community. (Official name change to Willis Tower as of 7.16.09.)

Serious story #3
"Hey, are you serious?" three-year-old Morgan yells to the landscape gardeners working next door. This got a chuckle out of all of us, and several of the guys look up to our deck. "Yeah, we're serious." And you know three year olds: "What are you doing?" "How come?" And again, "But are you serious?" It wasn't long before they stayed focused on their work and seriously ignored him!

Why "serious"?
I've spent time with many kids over many years, and their use of serious has singularly caught my attention. For my part, I'm loving how the sound of the word slides out of my mouth, and kids could love that, too. And I'm guessing that most of us slow down and slightly exaggerate our enunciation of it when we use it with kids, and it seriously sticks with them! What do you think?

Translating Book Levels to Grade Levels

In the last post, I offered readily available book titles in "leveled" lists that represent increasing text difficulty, grades Pre K to 3rd. If you are not an educator, you might wonder how these calculations are made, how they translate into grade levels, and where your child's reading ability falls along this continuum.

If your child is in 1st-3rd grade, his or her reading has likely been assessed through the use of running records or reading miscue inventory (RMI). The Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) is one commonly-used commercial product that includes such an analysis, in addition to fluency and comprehension components. Your child's report card may include a "DRA level" that is calculated from this assessment. Each DRA level and book level represents an increasingly more complex set of text features and these correspond to the approximate grade levels shown below.

Book Level A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
Grade Level K K K/1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1/2 2 2 2/3 3 3 3/4
DRA 1 2/3 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 24 28 30 34 38

"Just Right" Book Titles, Grades Pre K-3

Matching books and readers is magical! Last week Danny ran down the hall and breathlessly asked me, "Do you know why I'm a better reader? Mouse Tales!"

This was and was not a surprise. I had chosen several books like Mouse Tales (Frog & Toad, Mouse Soup, Fox in Love) because I knew he would enjoy reading them with me, and this was the title he had enjoyed the most.

What I hadn't anticipated was that he was thinking meta-cognitively about his own learning! The book was a win-win choice, for sure. But Mouse Tales wasn't what educators would call a "just-right" book. Rather, I had launched Danny into reading it by sharing the reading--in this instance we took turns as the narrator and Mouse--and only after many readings can he now read it on his own.

In contrast, "just right" books, also called leveled books, are books we intend that kids will read independently. (Younger readers often benefit from a first or second reading by a more experienced reader, but they then can take off on their own. I often compare the importance of this first reading with hearing a piece of music before you can play it yourself--both to know how it sounds, as well as to serve as inspiration. This also means the 5-finger rule--put up one finger for each word you don't know in a book, and when you come to 5, you know it's too difficult--is not always helpful before kids have heard a book. But I digress.)

Most primary classrooms have tubs of "just right" books, coded alphabetically (usually guided reading levels, as determined by Fountas & Pinnell), that kids read during independent reading time. Ideally, each tub has many books, both fiction and nonfiction, so kids have lots of choice. The intent is not that all kids will read all of the books.

The challenge for families is that these sets of books are more readily available through educational publishers. Most are not found in book stores.

To help out, I promised several posts ago to provide the titles of books and their levels that you can find in your library or bookstore. These are available in my local library system, and hopefully yours. If you track some of them down, you can get a sense of how they are progressively more challenging. Below you will find levels A-P, or roughly what we would expect preschoolers through third graders to read. (If you would like the lists as PDFs and in bookmark form, contact me via email.)

So here are the lists! And here is a picture of 9-year old Nick, reading independently. The 20
minutes a day he spent on these books launched him as a reader, albeit several years after his peers.

Level A (Kindergarten)

Count & See / Hoban
Do You Want to Be My Friend / Carle
Good Morning, Good Night / Grejniec
Growing Colors / McMillan
One Hunter / Hutchins
Sunshine / Ormerod

Level B (Kindergarten)

Have you Seen My Cat / Carle
Have You Seen My Duckling / Tafuri
I Like Stars / Brown
Let’s Go Visiting / Williams

Level C (K-1st)

Baby Says / Steptoe
Big Pig & Little Pig / McPhail
Brown Bear Brown Bear / Martin
I Went Walking / Williams
Mice Squeak, We Speak / Shapiro
Now We Can Go / Jonas
Jump Frog, Jump / Kalan
Blue Sea / Kalan
A Rainbow of My Own / Freeman
Spots, Feathers, and Curly Tails / Tafuri
Yo! Yes? / Raschka

Level D (1st)

Alphabet Under Construction / Fleming
Bears, Bears, Everywhere / Milios
Berenstain Bears Ride the Thunderbolt
Big Brown Bear / McPhail
Chick & the Duckling / Ginsburg
Click Clack Quackity-Quack / Cronin
Feathers for Lunch / Ehlert
Fire Truck / Sis
Hide & Snake / Baker
How Many Bugs in a Box / Carter
I Like Books / Browne
I’m Not Scared / Wilhelm
Little Bear / Namm
Max’s Birthday / Wells
Mole in a Hole / Gilman
Quack & Count / Baker
Sam’s Cookie / Lindgren
School Bus / Crews
Tomorrow’s Alphabet / Shannon

Level E (1st)

Clifford’s Christmas / Bridwell
Clifford’s Puppy Days / Bridwell
Hats, Hats, Hats / Morris
Herman the Helper / Kraus
More or Less Fish Story / Wylie
Oh, A Hunting We Will Go / Langstaff
Quick as a Cricket / Wood
Spring is Here / Gomi
This Old Man / Adams

Level F (1st)

Bread, Bread, Bread / Morris
Clifford's Thanksgiving Visit / Bridwell
Curious George / Rey
Curious George and the Pizza / Rey
Growing Vegetable Soup / Ehlert
Harry Takes a Bath / Ziefert
Just Like Daddy / Asch
Lady with the Alligator Purse / Westcott
Mother, Mother I Want Another / Polushkin
Nobody Asked Me If I Wanted a Baby Brother / Alexander
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish / Seuss
Pumpkin, Pumpkin / Titherington
Shortcut / Crews
Soccer Game / Maccarone
The Teeny Tiny Woman / O'Connor
Who Will Be My Friends? / Hoff

Level G (1st)

Buzz Said the Bee / Lewison
Curious George at the Beach / Rey
Feathers for Lunch / Ehlert
I Like Me / Carlson
Jason's Bus Ride / Ziefert
Jump, Frog, Jump / Kalan
Just for You / Mayer
One Monday Morning / Shulevitz
Peanut Butter and Jelly / Westcott
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See / Martin
Sheep in a Jeep / Shaw
Spot's First Walk / Hill
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed / Adams
Titch / Hutchins
When You Were a Baby / Jonas

Level H (1st)

Building a House / Barton
Gilberto and the Wind / Ets, Marie Hall
Goodnight Moon / Brown
Jafta / Lewin
Just Me and My Dad / Mayer
Just Me and My Puppy / Mayer
Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry... / Wood
Oliver / Hoff
Picture for Harold's Room / Johnson
Sammy the Seal / Hoff
Sleepy Book / Zolotow
We Are Best Friends / Aliki
Where Are You Going, Little Mouse? / Kraus
You'll Soon Grow into Them Titch / Hutchins

Level I (1st)

Barney's Horse / Hoff
Big Dog & Little Dog / Pilkey
Fix-It / McPhail
Fly Guy / Arnold
Goodnight, Owl! / Hutchins
Happy Birthday, Sam / Hutchins
Hattie and the Fox / Fox
Henny Penny / Galdone
Jim's Dog Muffins / Cohen
Leo the Late Bloomer / Kraus
Liar, Liar Pants on Fire / Cohen
Little Toot / Gramatky
Mama, Do You Love Me? / Joosse
Messy Bessey / Rookie Readers
Messy Bessey's Garden / Rookie Readers
Mirror, Mirror / Fowler
Never Spit on Your Shoes / Cazet
No Good in Art / Cohen
The Quilt / Jonas
Small Pig / Lobel
Spot's Birthday Party / Hill
This is the Bear / Hayes
Three Billy Goats Gruff / Brown
Tidy Titch / Hutchins
The Trek / Jonas
Trucks / Gibbons
Trucks / Rockwell
The Very Busy Spider / Carle
We're Going on a Bear Hunt / Rosen
We're in Big Trouble, Blackboard Bear / Alexander
When Will I Read? / Cohen

Level J (1st)

A Color of his Own / Lionni
Angel Child, Dragon Child / Surat
Arthur Babysits / Brown
Ask Mr. Bear / Flack
Bear Shadow / Asch
Moonbear's Bargain / Asch
B-e-s-t Friends / Giff
Feed Me / Hooks
Fox All Week / Marshall
Fox on the Job / Marshall
Funnybones / Ahlberg
Good Morning Chick / Ginsburg
The Good-Bye Book / Viorst
Great Day for Up / Seuss
Green Eggs and Ham / Seuss
Harry and the Lady Next Door / Zion
Henry and Mudge / Rylant
Hop on Pop / Seuss
The Horse in Harry's Room / Hoff
How Kittens Grow / Selsam
I Can Read with My Eyes Shut / Seuss
I Was So Mad / Mayer
Jennie's Hat / Keats
Jimmy Lee Did It / Cummings
Knots on a Counting Rope / Martin
Let's Be Enemies / Udry
Little Bear / Minarik
Little Bear's Friend / Minarik
Little Bear's Visit / Minarik
Little Blue and Little Yellow / Lionni
Little Gorilla / Bornstein
The Little Red Hen / Galdone
Max / Isadora
Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia / Parish
Milk and Cookies / Asch
The Missing Tooth / Cole
Morris Goes to School / Wiseman
Mouse Soup / Lobel
Mouse Tales / Lobel
Mr. Putter and Tabby series / Rylant
Otto the Cat / Herman
Owl at Home / Lobel
Peace at Last / Murphy
Peter's Chair / Keats
The Popcorn Shop / Low
SkyFire / Asch
Starring First Grade / Cohen
There's a Wocket in My Pocket / Seuss
There's An Alligator Under My Bed / Mayer
There's Something in My Attic / Mayer, Mercer
Too Many Rabbits / Parish
Too Much Noise / McGovern
Uncle Elephant / Lobel
The Very Hungry Caterpillar / Carle
Where the Wild Things Are / Sendak

Level K (2nd)

A Letter to Amy / Keats
Bear Goes to Town / Browne
Bear's Toothache / McPhail
Bedtime for Frances / Hoban
Best Friends for Frances / Hoban
Bony-Legs / Cole
The Bremen Town Musicians / Gross & Kent
Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express / Coerr
Caps for Sale / Slobodkina
The Case of the Double Cross / Bonsally
Chester / Hoff
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom / Martin
Clara and the Bookwagon, Levinson
Clifford, the Big Red Dog / Bridwell
Clifford, the Small Red Puppy / Bridwell
Curious George / Rey
Ducks Don't Get Wet / Goldin
Earrings / Viorst
Farmer Duck / Waddell
Flash, Crash, Rumble / Branley
Frog and Toad All Year / Lobel
Frog and Toad Are Friends / Lobel
Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper / Leedy
Geraldine's Blanket / Keller
The Growing-up Feet / Cleary
Harold and the Purple Crayon / Johnson
Is Your Mama a Llama / Guarino
The Island of the Skog / Kellogg
It's Halloween / Prelutsky
Jafta--The Town / Lewin
Jamaica's Find / Havill
Just Us Women / Caines
Keep the Lights Burning / Roop
Madeline / Bemelmans
Madeline's Rescue / Bemelmans
May I Bring a Friend? / DeRegniers
Messy Bessey's Closet / Rookie Readers
More Tales of Oliver Pig / Van Leeuwen
Nate the Great series / Sharmat
No Fighting, No Biting! / Minarik
The Old Woman and Her Pig / Kimmel
On Mother's Lap / Scott
A Pocket for Corduroy / Freeman
Sam Who Never Forgets / Rice
Sand Cake / Asch
Sheila Rae, the Brave / Henkes
Stone Soup / Brown
The Surprise Party / Hutchins
Three Bears / Galdone
Three Up a Tree / Marshall

Level L (2nd)

Amazing Snakes / Eyewitness
Animal Tracks / Dorros
Annie and the Old One / Miles
Arthur Meets the President / Brown
Beans on the Roof / Byars
Big Al / Clements
Chang's Paper Pony / Coerr
Dolphins! / Bokoske
George and Martha / Marshall
The Gingerbread Boy / Galdone
Good Work, Amelia Bedelia / Parish
Grasshopper on the Road / Lobel
Great White Man-Eating Shark / Many
Gregory, the Terrible Eater / Sharmat
The Grouchy Ladybug / Carle
Happy Birthday, Moon / Asch
Happy Hippopotami / Martin
Harry Goes to Day Camp / Ziefert
Hill of Fire / Lewis
I Am Eyes--Ni Macho / Ward
I Know a Lady / Zolotow
Jack and the Beanstalk / Galdone
Katy and the Big Snow / Burton
A Long Way to a New Land / Sandin
Madeline's Christmas / Bemelmans
Make Way for Ducklings / McCloskey
Miss Nelson is Missing / Allard
Mitchell is Moving / Sharmat
The Mitten / Tresselt
Mop Top / Freeman
Mr. Gumpy's Outing / Burningham
The Mud Pony / Cohen
Mystery of the Tooth Gremlin / Graves
No Jumping on the Bed! / Arnold
One Fine Day / Hogrogian
Over the Green Hills / Isadora
Owl and the Pussycat / Lear
Perfect the Pig / Jeschke
Picking Apples and Pumpkins / Hutchings
Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia / Parish
The Post Office Book / Gibbons
The Quilt Story, Johnston & DePaola
Seven Blind Mice / Young
Surprises / Hopkins
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble / Steig
The Tale of Peter Rabbit / Potter
Three Little Pigs / Galdone
Three Names / MacLachlan

Level M (2nd/3rd)

Afternoon on the Amazon / Osborne
The Art Lesson / De Paola
Aunt Flossie's Hats / Howard
Baseball Pals / Christopher
Bathwater Gang / Spinelli
Blueberries for Sal / McCloskey
Chicken Sunday / Polacco
Chinese Mirror / Ginsburg
Dirt Bike Racer / Christopher
Dr. De Soto / Steig
Fables / Lobel
Fossils Tell of Long Ago / Aliki
The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night / Spier
Harold's Circus / Johnson
Hattie Rabbit / Gackenbach
Heckedy Peg / Wood
The Hit-Away Kid / Christopher
The Hundred Penny Box / Mathis
If the Dinosaurs Came Back / Most
Ira Sleeps Over / Waber
Island Baby / Keller
Jenny Archer, Author / Conford
The Knight at Dawn, Osborne
Lions at Lunchtime / Osborne
The Little Engine That Could / Piper
The Little House / Burton
The Littles series / Peterson
Magic Tree House series / Osborne
Man Out at First / Christopher
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel / Burton
The Mitten / Brett
My Father's Dragon / Gannett
Night Tree / Bunting
The Patchwork Quilt / Flournoy
A Promise is a Promise / Munsch
Sleeping Ugly / Yolen
The Story of Ferdinand / Leaf
The Sun, Wind, and the Rain / Peters
Tallyho, Pinkerton! / Kellogg
There's No Such Thing as a Dragon / Kent
The Valentine Star / Giff
The Village of Round and Square Houses / Grifalconi
The Wednesday Surprise / Bunting, Eve
When I Was Young in the Mountains / Rylant
William's Doll / Zolotow
Wise Woman and Her Secret / Merriam
Write Up a Storm with the Polk Street School / Giff

Level N (3rd)

A-Z Mystery series / Roy
Be a perfect person in just three days! / Manes
Buffalo woman / Goble
Catwings series / LeGuin
Chicken Sunday / Polacco
Drive-by / Ewing
Gung hay fat choy = Happy New Year / Behrens
Library Lil / Williams
26 Fairmont Avenue / DePaola
On my way / De Paola
Pompeii: Buried alive / Kunhardt
Silver / Whelan
Smiffy Blue: Ace Crime Detective / Myers
Story of the Three Kingdoms / Myers
Why did the Underwear Cross the Road / Korman

Level O (3rd)

Boxcar Children series / Warner
Bill Gates: Helping people use computers / Simon
Bunnicula series / Howe
Fantastic Mr. Fox / Dahl
George’s Marvelous Medicine / Dahl
Rain Forest Secrets / Dorros
Stone fox / Gardiner
The Black Snowman / Mendez

Level P (3rd/4th)

Magic School Bus series / various authors
Felita / Mohr
Yang the Youngest & his Terrible Ear / Namioka
Captain Underpants series / Pilkey
Tar Beach / Ringgold
Wayside school series / Sachar
Time Warp Trio series / Scieszka
Brainstorm! 20 stories of 20 American kid inventors / Tucker
Battle for the Castle / Winthrop
Dragon prince: A Chinese Beauty & the Beast tale / Yep

Never Say Never

I love it when lessons come at unexpected times.

Monday night I slammed the car door on my cellphone, nestled inside my jacket pocket. The impact shattered the screen, and of course, rendered the cellphone useless. Oh, and had I downloaded the program that would have backed up my 400+ contacts, and would have easily let me load them onto a new phone? You know the answer to that question! More crazy-making than that was that the phone still received incoming calls--I just couldn't answer them. I contacted the insurance company and my new phone arrived Wednesday night.

I then called the local carrier store on the off-chance that the contact info could be rescued. The first "associate" said it wasn't possible, then asked another who said it might be. I took the chance and drove 12 miles to the store. There I was met by another smiling associate who assured me, in 30 seconds, that nothing could be retrieved from my phone because the screen couldn't be accessed. I recounted the earlier call, to no avail. I appealed with the rush hour drive, and finally, she reluctantly went to ask another associate. I watched #2's response, and clearly it might be possible. I made my way to the back of the store to show #2 my phone.

Kaylee--her name--looked maybe 22 years old, and could easily have been one of my former first grade students. Watching her problem-solve was an art in and of itself! When the usual route of beaming the info from the damaged phone to a data device didn't work, she repeated it three times, just to be sure. Then she used my second phone to access the same process to make sure (since she couldn't see the screen) that she had pushed the right buttons. And then, to leave no stone unturned, she tried one last process: beaming from the damaged phone (she counted how many clicks to move the cursor, using the new phone as a guide) to the new phone. Voila! It worked. In one second, my contacts jumped from one phone to another. On top of it, she skipped the lecture on why I hadn't backed up the contacts ... And on top of that, there was no charge.

The story doesn't end there. While Kaylee worked, and a third associate watched while she was doing her own task, a fourth associate approached. "Are you busy? Could either of you help with a billing problem? I need someone good." They let him know when they could help and he returned to the customer.

"That was a compliment," I offered, and they both laughed.

"Yeah, maybe a back-handed compliment!" I subtly asked about their laughter.

Seems the young women are "good" at billing (and the simpler repair issues), and the young men are "good" at sales. Salaries, of course, are based on sales commissions. How can you get good at something that you don't often do. On and on it goes.

There is so much to learn from this brief 15 minute encounter. My greeter, for instance, was overly interested in being right, rather than problem-solving. My insistence made the difference. Kaylee might be "going places" with her incredible perseverance, or maybe not! And gender issues might be more subtle, but are ever present.

For my part, I'm reconsidering times I've been overly invested in being right myself. A great lesson for a Friday afternoon.