Black History Month

So many resources, so little time. The web provides audios from Rosa Parks on sites like History.com, and there are endless lesson plans on a variety of sites. But, since our specialty is books, I am going to take the time here to list a few of my favorites.

Making History Mine, Grades 5-9(http://www.alranbooks.com/Details.cfmProdID=8355&category=10). This book challenges students to take ownership of their history as an individual as well as a citizen of this country. This book is not specific to Black History, but could serve as a great launching pad to lead students to understand their past and embrace it.

Some of the books listed below can be found as part of Nancy Boyles Literacy Collection on our website, www.alranbooks.com, or can be ordered by mail or phone as our trade book collection is always changing.

This is the Dream, by Shore and Alexander is a book appropriate for younger grades addressing the civil rights movement. This book is now available in paperback !

Toni Morrison's book, Remember: The Story of School Integration, is a powerful book. The photos and words strongly compliment each other. This book could easily be used with secondary students even though the target audience is probably grades 2-6.

We Are The One: The Story of Bayrad Rustin.  Rustin hales from the quaker area of West Chester, PA, and this hardcover book is the story of one man and his lifelong pursuit of civil rights for all.

Doreen Rappaport has three books that can be used across the grade levels. No More! Stories and Songs of the Slave Resistance, Free At Last: Stories and Songs of Emancipation, and Nobody Gonna Turn Me Around: Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement.

My final choice is an old favorite of many, myself included. Jacqueline Woodson's The Other Side is a beautiful story of a developing friendship during the days of segregation.

I could go on with pages of books, but these are a few of my favorites. There are countless sources of music, poetry, letters, and speeches that can bring this month's curriculum alive for all students.

Happy New Year!

2009 was a very busy year. I hope to get a little better keeping up with the blog this fall between business travel and technical challenges I fell behind. There are many things I want to talk about this spring from the trade books that correspond with Nancy Boyle's new book to Graphic Novels. So, please stay tuned as I get my thoughts organized this first month in 2010.

Learning to Speak Poetry

Somehow it is just unfair to have such gorgeous weather, now that the school year has begun. I hope everybody had a good weekend, and your travels were safe.

I just stumbled across a book in the last week or two by local author, Alice B. Fogel, that I really enjoy. The book, Strange Terrain, is about reading poetry, not writing poetry. Understanding the voice, the choice of words, and the phrasing in a poem are a few of the topics that Fogel discusses with the reader. Fogel's book is organized in such a way that it can be used in an evening course, or a long term book group or semester class. The book is very approachable by a variety of ages from the secondary level on up. A district which has used Georgia Heard could easily add Fogel's work to their curriculum.

If you go to the author's home page, www.alicebfogel.com, you can see a long list of Fogel's awards and teaching positions. After speaking with Alice the other day, I think that she would complement very nicely a professional development day or conference that is looking to bring in local authors and speakers on the secondary level. You can find Alice’s book at http://www.alranbooks.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=8554&category=5.

Here's a question I have for those who read this blog on occasion. Is anybody using opposites when teaching poetry? I was looking at some of the work poet laureate Richard Wilbur has done with opposites, and can see much more room for fun with this type of poetry.

Units on Butterflies

The milkweed has not bloomed yet, and I haven't seen many Monarchs yet, but I have fielded a few questions about what books I would recommend for a unit on butterflies. So I will take today to pass on a few titles to hopefully save somone a little time. We carry all these books, even though they may not appear on our website; if you are looking for a copy, please give us a call. The first book is the obvious Eric Carle's The Hungry Caterpillar. For those unfamiliar with this book, it takes the reader through the stages from caterpillar to butterfly. Young and old love this book and it could be used as a template for students to create their own books about the changes an insect or amphibian goes through over time. The second book is Sam Swope's book Gotta Go, Gotta Go. This little paperback tells the story of a Monarch butterfly and its trip south to Mexico, and then the full circle of its life. The third book I would choose would be Melissa Stewart's A Place for Butterflies. This book is only printed in hardcover format at this time, but there are teacher resources available on the internet (go to Melissa's home page). It should also be noted that Melissa is local (Acton, Mass) and goes to schools to speak about her books. This book shows the habitats of many butterflies all over the U.S. as well as maps showing the ranges of the many butterflies. There are countless books on butterflies, but these three books seem to cover the aspects of life cycle and habitat that are needed for the units of study.

What Student Writing Teaches Us

There seems to be a lot going on with writing this summer and there are, of course, a few new books out on the subject. Currently, I am reading Mark Overmeyer's book, What Student Writing Teaches Us: Formative Assessment in the Writing Workshop. This book follows Mark's first book, When Writing Workshop Isn't Working (grades 2-5). Mark, like many teachers, is a person who loves teaching because he is always learning, and always figuring out a better way to teach. Currently, he is actively involved with Colorado's Writing Project, and worked in both an elementary and middle school doing the research for this book. Mark's overall message throughout the book seemed to be listen and look for what the students need to move ahead with their writing. This may seem obvious as a teacher, but with writing programs and prescribed rubrics, it is not always as easy... or obvious. Mark points out places where we may fail to listen in our effort to grade or assess certain aspects of students' work. I liked the student interviews about the grading process. I think this added to the book and at times made me think of Ralph Fletcher's Boy Writers. Mark's voice is conversational and easy to read, and I think this latest work of his could provide for some interesting discussion in a book group.

http://www.alranbooks.com/Books.cfm?keywords=when+writing+workshop

http://www.alranbooks.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=8517&category=4

With a little luck Nancy Boyles new book will be released in October

There are always little things that can slow down the release of a book, but it looks like the long anticipated release of Nancy Boyle's new book is coming closer. October remains the release month for the book, in plenty of time to put the 40 new lesson plans into use. I will try to answer some of the other questions I have been getting so districts and individuals can plan ahead. As far as budgeting, this book will cost more than Nancy's other books as it has more features than past books. If you plan for $40 per book you should be safe; if it's lower, all the better! The book addresses grade level 2-8, and ties in with both trade books and RTI. As with all of Nancy's books, it will have an easy to use format and be classroom tested. On Friday December 4th, 2009 ALRAN Books will host Nancy at Lombardo's conference center in Randolph, Mass for a one day conference where Nancy will talk predominantly about the information in this book. Let us know if you'd like to attend - we'd love to see you there!

The Sun has come out!

It is hard to believe the sun has come out today. Thirty days of rain, and only a few partial days of sun is too much. Consequently, I have done some reading this past month, during the breaks in my conference schedule when I would otherwise be outdoors.

There are some great new RTI books out. I think my current favorite is from Guilford, titled RTI in the Classroom, by Brown-Chidsey, Bronaugh and Mcgraw. This book is full sized, and its sprial-bound format makes it ideal for photo copying (50 reproducible forms!).  One of the elements I like about this book is that it covers: literacy, math and behavior. This book is easy to access. The book has ready-to-use forms to help in the monitoring and assessing process in the classroom that will hopefully make this process easier.  Remember, some of you are already doing this with a different form, or under a different name.  So, take a breath and look at some of this material to see how you can take what you are doing now and fit it into these new forms and strategies. The information contained in this book is clearcut, simple to understand, and will help you realize how much of RTI you already know and do, and help you understand and implement the parts that may be unfamiliar.  It's not hung up in a lot of jargon. It is practical. This book is meant for teachers, but will be useful to coaches and principals as well.

This book is for K-5 and thus covers the issue of Dibels, as Susan Hall did in her RTI book, Implementing RTI. It also provides "recipes," a term used to refer to the authors' strategies and forms for those without a standard assessment process in their school. This book has a heavy emphasis on documentation and offers many forms to monitor student progress... this is the big difference between this book and others on the market.

http://www.alranbooks.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=8450&category=2