St. Patrick's Day

Nearly every year, I read Tomie dePaola's book, Fin M'coul and the Giant of Knockmany Hill to the kids. It's the best 15 minute Irish read-aloud I've ever found. It's funny and dramatic. Also, it's a trickster tale and we always love finding examples of trickster tales (what a universally satisfying genre!) AND the hero is a woman.

This year the book was lost in a classroom, and so instead I looked up Ireland in the library catalog and pulled a stack of books from the shelf. I decided to show the kids an example of all the different types of books we can find about a subject.

The students were excited to see a photograph of the Giant's Causeway in one of the nonfiction books—the same causeway Finn MacCoul is working on when that giant comes looking for him in dePaola's story. Using this same book, I did a quick lesson on the Table of Contents and index. And just to show what a handy thing an index is, I used it to look up St. Patrick's Day, which I then read to them.

Black Potatoes: the Story of the Great Irish Famine is too difficult for most of our students, but I used it now to talk about the famine in Ireland. I pointed out that many of us have families who immigrated here during that time. I showed them a copy of the picture book, Katie's Wish, about an Irish girl who blames herself for the famine. Both books tell about the same event. One tells about it through facts, and the other through fiction. Even though Katie's Wish is fiction, it tells us something that's true. Black Potatoes tells us the big story, but Katie's Wish tells us about the famine through a fictionalised account of one part of the story.

I want the kids to understand that there are different ways we can talk about the same thing.

I talked about the Irish being forbidden to speak their own language, and the importance of language and stories to every culture. I said that when people saw that the threat to Gallic combined with the Great Starvation to threaten the survival of Irish folktales, they began writing those stories down. Our library has a number of these Irish folktales, which I then displayed and encouraged the children to read.

I guess my Irish lesson is a meandering sort of thing. I want the kids to appreciate the different forms a story can take, to understand the importance of language and stories for the preservation of a culture. And, most important of all, I want to share some of my enthusiasm for the beautiful country called Ireland.

Kindergarten (Head Start, too) All Kinds of Stories

I like to point out to young children that there are all kinds of books and stories. Some stories are true and some are made up. Some are long, others are short. Stories can be funny or scary of sad. They can make us think of new things and they can make us feel different ways. Sometimes they can help us look at things we already know in a new way. 

The Sad State of School Libraries and How it Made me Violate my Contract

I reject the institutionalization of education. I reject discrimination based on lack of educational credentials—but we library assistants are not hired despite the fact that we might have no certification and simply because we are so adept at what we do. Assistants are hired because we can be hired at a third of the cost of an actual certified librarian. I think this hiring practice —hiring "assistants" and not librarians—reflects a growing disregard for libraries and books. A disregard that anyone who loves books should be aware of and struggle against. 

I am a building rep for my union. OSEA, an affiliate of AFT, and, as a building rep, I remind classified workers that they are not paid to develop lesson plans. I remind them that the school district pays them to assist and if the school district wants teachers, it needs to pay for teacher. But let's face facts. We work with kids and we want the best for them. We want to turn them on to the world of books. I've worked as a so-called library assistant for 13 years and in that time, before I clearly understood my contract and the big picture, I created many lesson plans. I decided to create this blog in case anyone else would like to use them. 

Earth Day for intermediates

Earth Day and what should I read to my 4th and 5th grade classes? Something about the forest, rivers, oceans, animals, fuels, extinction, Rachel Carson, the commons? Should we read about our carbon footprint?

I chose The King's Fountain, by Lloyd Alexander. I tell the kids that I think it's one of the most important books in our library. It's the story of a poor man who lives in a village controlled by a king. The king has decided to build a fountain for his pleasure, even though the fountain will divert all the water from the village. The man searches for someone to appeal to the king (the strongest man,  the scholar, the most eloquent man,) finally realizing that it's up to him to approach the king himself. The King's Fountain is about taking personal responsibility. It's about relying on ourselves, instead of experts. 

I like to point out that the book is a collaborative effort on the part of writer, Lloyd Alexander and the artist, Ezra Keats. I show the kids books by both writers. Picture books by Keat and fantasy novels by Alexander.  I read the the book's afterword, in which the men talk about their decision to write a book about personal responsibility. I talk about the fact that stories begin in different way - some begin with a character, some with a situation, some with ideas- and this one begins with an idea. It begins with a value. 

I talk to the kids about the fact that this story was inspired by both Jewish parables and Sufi stories. Sufism is a form of mystical Islam. Sufis believe that some things are best expressed indirectly, through stories. The stories of Nasruddin and the fables of Aesop are both said to have been inspired by Sufis. My students know Nasruddin through the wonderful book, The Hungry Coat, but that's another story. I show them one of our books of Aesop's fables. Some people think that Aesop's fables are stern preachy dull stories, but they aren't. They are witty and intelligent and full of humanity. We'll need each of these things to dig ourselves out of the ecological mess we're in.

a big, quiet living room

Lesson #1

What is a library?

A library is a place where books are kept. This is a school library. The books here are for all the kids to share. We borrow books from the library, which means we take them home and bring them back. People come to libraries to borrow books, to read books, and to study.

Can you buy books at a library?

Can you read in a library?

Can you borrow books from a library?

The person who takes care of the library is called a librarian. 

Why do people go to the library?

More than anything, I want the kids to like coming to the library. I want them to feel comfortable in libraries. I think of our school library as a big living room, if living rooms didn't have TV sets these days.

kindergarten (Head Start, too)

You can't assume anything. Do they know what a library is? Do they know how to hold a book? That the words on the page are read from left to right and top to bottom? That the symbols on the page are alphabetical letters that make words that make meaning? Do they know what your job is and what's expected of them in the library? Do they know that the world of books is a world that belongs to them, too?

Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving and Vincent Van Gogh

Dav Pilkey is one of the kids' favorite writers. For Thanksgiving, I read Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving. I start off by pointing out that they might think if they went to everybody section and looked for PIL, they'd find all of Pilkey's books. They would find Dogzilla, sure. And Catkong and When Cats Dream and, our favorite, Halloweiner. The kids love Pilkey and each title elicits moans of pleasure. But, I point out, if you only went to the Everybody section, you'd miss Pilkey's Captain Underpants series, in the Fiction section. The mention of Captain Underpants never fails to bring cheers. I don't get it, but hey. And what about El Capitan Calzoncillos, in the Spanish section? And the Dragon book, Dragon's Friend, Dragon's Christmas, etc. Those are in the earlier reader area. If you want to read all of Dav Pilkey's books, you need to look in the library catalog. 

I show them the cover of the Thanksgiving book and say that even though it's obviously fiction, it's in the nonfiction section. (!) Does anyone knows why?So Dav Pilkey has become a quick review of the organization of the library. And because the kids are crazy about him, they are with me the whole time. 

I point out that Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving is taken from an old poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas. 

I read the quote in the front of the book- a quote from Van Gogh, saying that whatever you do with love, you do well. And then I read the story. The story, in case you don't know, is about a class of children who visit a turkey farm and realizing, to their horror, that the turkeys are going to be eaten, tuck the birds under their shirts and sneak them away. 

I love to use Pilkey for my classes. He lives just down the road from our school, in Eugene—something they are astonished to hear.  He wasn't a very successful student, but he loved to draw. People were afraid he wouldn't amount to much if he didn't get serious about things.  In fact, some of the figures he uses in his books now were ones he created as a child. He follows his passion. Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving was rejected 23 times before it was published- he is persistent. 

And lastly, I show the students the night time sky in his Thanksgiving book: beautiful deep blue sky, swirling stars, and show them other examples of his night time skies, all very similar. And then I show them a book about Vincent Van Gogh and turn to the painting, Starry Night. We talk about the fact that writers and artists are inspired by many different things. Sometimes they are inspired by each other.

This little lesson has not only walked the kids through the way a library is organized, provided great lessons about character, and told them a great story, it has also, I hope, given them the message that culture belongs to them. The world of culture, the world of beautiful paintings and intelligence and philosphy (remember the Van Gogh quote at the beginning)  is their world. Wow. That's quite a lot from the same guy who brought us The Attack of the Talking Toilets.