Reading in public

For every profession there are clichés. Librarians are no exception. What annoys librarians? Buns and shushing noises are laughable. What really gets under our skin is when people say “It must be nice to be able to read all day.” They usually say it in a tone of voice that lets us know that they are at once envious and looking down on our profession.

We laugh sardonically about how nice it would be to be able to get some of our required reading done during our working hours. (As a school librarian I have to wonder what working hours really means, but that is another story. One that my teacher friends can write as well as I can.) When do we get our reading done? At home, in the evening, on the weekend, during those summer “vacations”, waiting for the doctor, dentist, child’s soccer/baseball/football/dance/swim/etc. practice. On the bus/train/plane/etc. Listening to some of them via books on tape during our commutes. Waiting for the laundry. I’ve even been known to sneak a few pages in during a wait at the grocery story or department store. Especially during the long Christmas lines.

We do our reading by stealth, trying to impose on no one. Cramming as much work in while on location and then indulging our guilty pleasure in the dark recesses of privacy. Reading is our lurid secret.

And, did I mention that since I became a school librarian I’ve read only a handful of novels aimed at adults? I’m mostly in the middle grade trenches. I read these, even the types I dislike, so that I can find the perfect match for my students. Sometimes it is hard to plow through them.

And this was my pattern until a few weeks ago when I saw an article by Stephen Krashen. (see below if you would like more information.) I admire his work. In fact, I began using Sustained Silent Reading as a foundation for my classes after reading a number of his posts some years ago. This article jogged me. The one thing I wasn’t doing was reading during SSR. I was using SSR as the opportunity to take care of book check out. So I started sitting in the midst of my students, cheek-and-jowl and reading. It was refreshing. But to be honest, I felt like I was going to get in trouble for not doing my work. I felt like I was goofing off. Regardless, I do find that much more reading goes on when I am in the middle of the class.

The absolute kicker happened on Friday. It was my lunchtime. I don’t often eat lunch during this time, I use it to change gears and ready myself for the afternoon. Friday, however, I was dying to know how the chapter I had been reading ended. I thought I’d give myself a few minutes to find out. A student walked into the library, one of our youngest, an said in sheer innocence

“Oh, Ms. Shoup! You read too?”

I was shocked. I read books to this student all the time. I thought it was obvious.

She knew the difference. Adults read to children, but that doesn’t mean they read themselves.

Librarians need to come out of the dark places where we read and be caught in the act.  I need to stop worrying about whether someone thinks I’m taking it easy and start acting on the knowledge that being a visible reader is the most effective advertisement for reading.

Von Sprecken, D. and Krashen, S. 1998. Do students read during sustained silent reading? California Read 32(1): 11-13. http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles.php?cat=2

Setting: Creating a Sense of Place in Your Novel

The group of young novelists I have been working with this year have been working independently. It's been amazing to see their enthusiasm. Yet there is never enough time to give all the attention I would like to each novelist, so I decided to create a series of videos for them. Here is the first one - Setting. This is also my Show Me tutorial.

Consolidating

A couple of years ago I had a plan to separate my content into distinctly themed blogs. I had so many ideas and I dreamed big. It turned out, however, that at the same time I inherited some major projects and my change in responsibilities broadened my focus. At this time, posting all school library and kid lit posts to just one blog makes more sense. I will be closing down Picture Book Inspirations and keeping Purple Glasses Club. A few posts, like the one below, will be migrated to this blog. 

Origami Angel (originally posted March 19, 2013 to Picture Book Inspirations)

For years I have been doing origami as part of my story time routine. The kids love and so do I. When I switched schools at the beginning of the school year and met students who I hadn’t seen in years, the first sentence most of them said to me included the word origami.

I wrote an article, Origami as a Teaching Tool in the Elementary Library, a few years back that was published in Library Media Connection in May 2009. It detailed how I use origami in my library program.

With all the push for time on learning I constantly reevaluate what I am doing. For a while I practically cut origami out of my program. After a hiatus I put origami back in…it just made sense. Origami is a great motivator and everything is so much better when students have something to work towards. Still, I started wondering whether I should pre-fold the prizes. Then along came a couple of young boys who totally changed the way I saw the value of origami.

Last Tuesday I was a little discouraged. I needed a little inspiration. I went to pick up my first grade class and a boy handed me a trio of cat puppets.

“See I made these last night. I watched how you made them” he said.

I looked at them in amazement. They were folded almost the same way I folded mine. When I tried to return them, he said “No, those are for you. I have a lot more at home.”

I treasure them.

As if that wasn’t motivation enough for me, later that day I folded a pig puppet for second graders. At the circulation desk a boy told me that he was making pigs at home. His teacher is a great fan of pigs. Another student asked how he learned to do that.

“Oh, I watch Ms. Shoup to learn how. Then I go home and try changing it to make my own things” he said off handedly.

At the beginning of the next day I see his teacher holding an intricate pig mask with an elaborate headdress. The boy was standing beside her pointing up at the mask. There were smiles all around.

The kids are learning all about geometry. Not to worry, I find ways to integrate origami as part of the learning process. I usually make them “pay for” the folds with recalling facts from something we read.

What does this have to do with picture books? When I read a picture book, I try to find an origami that goes with the picture book. The origami is an enticement to sit still, to focus on the story and recall details. The child who wins the origami at the end of class will remember the story as long as they have the prize. This extends the fun far past the moment they leave the room.

It extends mine when I see them clutching their prizes as the leave the school building at the end of the day or hear tales of students who still have them years later. 

Why Do You Deserve to Win?

Over the past summer I enjoyed things I never had time for during the school year – sleeping in to 6:00 a.m., sitting in the park for hours and enjoying the breeze and reality t.v.

One show in particular has sparked my interest – Project Runway. I have a passion for fiber arts and this show expands my vision. While I watch the show with the purpose of exploring a passion, my librarian brain will kick in and one thing keeps nagging at me.

Imagine the scene: Three designers exhausted, yet exhilarated after their emotional runway shows during Olympus Fashion Week stand in the spotlight of The Runway. They stand before the judges who will tell them who will win an incredible, life changing career package. The judges deliver their impressions of the collections – both the good and the bad. Here is the moment that grabs me every time. One of the jusdges asks:

“Why do you deserve to win?”

A simple question. The question should be easy to answer for someone who believes in their passion. It should be easy for someone who has spent months putting together the collections. They have certainly had time to ponder the question as they sew. They have seen the work of the other competitors. They have worked with them closely and had opportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the other two on the runway. It should be a piece of cake to say a few sentences that sum up their strengths and merits.

But they can’t.

For the most part they fumble. I’ve heard their responses. They run along these lines:

“Because I’ve wanted it since I was five years old.”
“Because I’ve come this far.”

“Because I’ll crumple up and die if I don’t.”

“Because I need the money.”

“Because this is my only chance to put out my own line.”

“Because I want it so badly I can taste it.”

These answers do not address the question. One wonders whether it is the pressure, the lack of sleep, the intense emotional punch of the experience that throws them off course. I know I couldn’t survive their schedule. Still, could it be that they are not prepared to explain themselves?

As librarians and educators preparing our students for the 21^st century these answers make me feel a recommitment to teaching children skills to help them present themselves so that when they are asked “Why should you win?” the answer has more to do with assessing their achievements and little to do with desires and feelings. While feelings and desires drive us to learn, grow and develop ourselves, they are not a great persuasive argument for landing a job, an award or a prize.

Those designers who substituted their feelings for a carefully polished artist’s statement, lost the opportunity to sell themselves and make the judges see their vision.

Need ideas and resources for writing your artist statement? There are two resources I recommend. I’d rather be in the Studio!: The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self Promotion by Alyson B. Stanfield is chock full of insightful, practical information about artist promotion that can be put into motion. Stanfield is active on twitter at @abstanfield and runs workshops through her blog.

Another great resource is Writing the Artist Statement by Ariane Goodwin. This is a very different book. More introspective, almost meditative, the book is a set of writing exercises designed to help the artist to understand their work before writing the statement.

Both of these books have inspired my thinking. I hope you will find them helpful as well.

So you have done a great job doing whatever you do. Why do you deserve to win?

Heart of a Poet

 National Poetry Month has been a delightful surprise. The children have inspired me more than ever. We have talked about the “heart of a poet.” They fall in love with that concept. They also fall in love with the idea that words can be beautiful, can show emotion and that choosing the right word is the work of a “word artist.” These are entirely new thoughts to most of them and they grab onto them tenaciously. I am seeing poetry in the words we speak, write and carelessly bandy about. And they do too.

After rewriting Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Swing” with quite a few classes it became clear that there are many more ways to solve a poetic challenge than I thought possible. While many of the ideas/words/images the children came up with were the same, there were also many unique visions from each class. After brainstorming, each class chose a different focus to finishing their poem. I hadn’t expected this. I mean the view from the swing is simply the view from the swing, isn’t it? Absolutely not. How could I have been so naïve?

In most classes, I needed to really shepherd them the process. One class, however, took charge early. They delighted in beating out the rhythm, and finding words to fill the beats. They refused to be limited by our brainstorming. In the end the children grabbed scrap paper from my desk and feverishly jotted down their suggestions for amending our poem. I have a stack of entries and multiple submissions from most of the class. It is important to note that the scrap paper part of the lesson was entirely their creation.

Meanwhile, a class that had not yet done their three minute rhyme showed me something which tore at my heart. One child could think of just one word and started to weep. It’s not that this child is not used to challenges or cries when he doesn’t win. It was just that he was so inspired by the poetry. He was afraid that if he could not rhyme he could not be a poet. A wonderful thing happened. His classmates circled him, hugged him and affirmed him. They said things wise beyond their years and said them, dare I say it, poetically. His tears dried and he bravely joined us to find out how others did.

I gave my regular spiel, which starts by asking children to raise their hands if they have one or more rhyming word on their paper. Almost all children do. I congratulate them for being one step on the road to being a poet and compliment them on their poetic hearts. I then tell them that the children who were unable to rhyme may be the next stars in the world of non-rhyming poetry. This class actually cheered, jumped out of their seats and clutched their poetic hearts. They were so happy to be told that they already were something. Guess who smiled the broadest? You could not have stopped them from rhyming the rest of the class period. Nor could you have stopped them for looking for beautiful combinations of words.

What did I learn from this? Children love to be told that they are something. Aside from loving to get good grades or get praise, developing an identity is inspiring to them. Writing a sentence may be looked at as a chore. Being a poet seems like an honor. Writing is what poets do. Writing becomes a way of validating who they are. The assignment may be the same – write two sentences that rhyme. But the result is different. Way different. Even if the sentences are identical. When you inspire a vision, an identity and a passion, you inspire so much more.

I no longer think of myself as merely a teacher but more of a ringleader, mentor, inspirational coach. Yes I am a teacher, but I want to be even more. I hope I can do it poetically. 

Writing Poetry with Robert Louis Stevenson

It’s National Poetry Month and I’m all agog at the different ways to share poetry. You all know by now that I went wild in January writing a poem every day for Kat Apel’s Month of Poetry. It was such a good time I didn’t sign up for a poetry challenge this month. Instead I’m challenging myself to think of new ways to share the poetry of other people.

Last week I challenged students to a rhyming contest. I gave each student a piece of scrap paper, gave a word to rhyme with and set my timer for three minutes. They wrote down as many rhyming words as they could in the time given. The person with the most rhyming words was given the accolade “King or Queen (insert name here) of the Land of Rhyme” written on a paper crown. You could not imagine how they set themselves to the task. The winner was often a dark horse candidate. Naturally, we read some rhyming poetry afterward.

This week I am working with classes on rewriting a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson to reflect the realities of the scenery from our playground swing set. I shared the poem with students and asked them about the content. Not a single child knew what “cattle” are.

We talked about the beauty of the scene, but how it doesn’t reflect our experience. We then made a list of what we can see from the swing set of our small city school. Though not an inner city, we certainly cannot see a single farm animal from our environs.

We then carefully cut out the sections which didn’t reflect our reality. I had the children clap out the beat of the original poem so that we could replicate it’s cadence. We then adapted parts and added in the vocabulary we had listed on the board. The finished product is a wonderful mix of Stevenson and Students.

The Original Poem

The Swing

By Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside –

Till I look down on the garden green

Down on the roof so brown –

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

The Swing

Robert Louis Stevenson & Kindergarten Class

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so far,

Buildings and toys and sticks and sand

I feel I can jump on the car.

Till I look down on the school building

Down on the roof so brown –

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

(their  vocab list - cars, trees, sky, a person, grass, a fence, a bird, a building, the school, sand, a leaf, toys, sticks)

The Swing

By Robert Louis Stevenson and First Grade Class

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the fence,

Till I can see so far,

Children and playhouse and sand and slides

Everything till the cars.

Till I can see the sandy ground

Down on the roof so brown –

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

(their vocab list – the woods, the road, the fence, the school, trees that are knocked down, sand, slides a factory, the playground, cars, a building, trees, the windows, the wind blowing, children, playhouse, the driveway, the door.)

I’m quite delighted with the results. They liked the poem on first reading, but they owned it when we were through. 

Mock Caldecott for Students

As we were looking at so many great new books, I began to think it made sense to extend the project to our students. Naturally, they can read neither the number nor the range of books we are reading. They can, however, have a limited number read to them, discuss their relative merits and make a decision based on the criteria given to them.

So a couple weeks ago I started going through the selections I had read to pull out the titles I thought age appropriate. Ten books seemed like a reasonable number to have students be able to read and think about. So we are compromising between the many I’d like them to read and what I think optimal and going with 15 books.

Introducing the project to the kids was even more rewarding than I anticipated. They were very excited to have a chance to pretend in school and to have a chance to vote!

We reviewed what the medal is for, who awards it and who receives it, the shape and color of the medal, as well as the various elements of the design on the medal. Kindergarteners who had just learned about the medal last week proved to have impressive memories. First graders who had the lesson last year impressed me with their ability to recall the design elements.

Some people have questioned whether learning the elements on the medal is important. My response is a resounding YES! After students have learned about the Caldecott Medal they are very enthusiastic to find one in the library. In their excitement to find one, children will bring me copies of books with the Pura Belpre Medal, the Geisel Award, the Newbery Medal, Parent’s Choice Awards, The Golden Kite Award and even the spectacularly differently shaped Coretta Scott King Award. It seems as though as long as it glitters it is a Caldecott in their minds. I remind them to think about what is on the Caldecott Medal. Then they are instructed to compare what they are looking at with what they know to be elements of the Caldecott Medal.

I outlined some basic things we were looking for in the illustrations:

-       Do the illustrations match the story?

-       Did the illustrator use the kinds of colors that would make the story more understandable?

-       Did the shapes match the feeling of the story? (Sharp objects being scarier. Round objects being more comfy.)

-       Was the illustrator good at his/her job?

Students did a remarkable job of responding to these questions. They are challenged to evaluate whether they think a book will be happy or sad by looking at the cover. Then they are required to give an explanation.

The adult group found it very difficult to separate their feelings about the story and the illustrations. If the story was heartwarming they overlooked inconsistencies or lack of prowess with the artistic medium.  It took several weeks and plenty of coaching for the process to become more natural.

Interestingly enough children fall into two camps on this skill.

1.     Some students are completely unable to separate their thought about the book based on text, illustrations, theme, etc. One student thought the illustrator had done a very bad job on the book. When I asked why he stated that it was “because the book is sad.” This tendency is not likely to be a surprise as we are used to thinking of children as being less sophisticated than adults.

2.     Some students have little to no trouble separating the illustrations from the text. In fact, they treat them as two separate items. I would postulate that this is because they are used to experiencing books in this way. I am working with very young children who are in the process of learning to read. Some of them have very little ability to read a book on their own. These children primarily experience books by flipping through the pages and “reading” the pictures. Recently when I introduced the “5 finger rule” to a class I saw a student with his 5 fingers up “reading” the book making up his own story as he went. Not so amazingly, all five of his fingers were still up at the end of the book. This is how he envisions the reading experience.

Running the Mock-Caldecott, or the Fake-Caldecott as one student calls it, with students is well worth the effort. Students are really enjoying it and it' interesting to see the experience through a different lens.

The Web – A Maze of Letters and Numbers

I’m still reading I’d rather be in the Studio!: The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion by Alyson B. Stanfield and probably will be for some time. It is one of those books you read and re-read. After reading a passage you digest, try your hand at it and come back to refine your thinking post-experience.

Something Stanfield wrote has me doing a lot of thinking. She mentions, in passing, that everything you do online is “text-based.” As teachers/librarians/parents/members of society we talk about, often bemoaning, children’s lack of attention these days. Often times the reason for this is attributed to digital media and the access to video games, television programming which caters to the rapid fire of visual stimulation. The internet is often thought of as a vast warehouse of multimedia which is dominated by visual and auditory stimulus. In truth, the dominant paradigm is actually text. Everything is linked through the use of text. Everything must be searched for using text – alpha numerically. The common way of searching does not involve drawing a shape on the screen and having the computer search for everything which shares that shape. It involves typing in words which will be used as search terms. Think of how difficult it would be to narrow down searches if they were done by shape, color or sound. Perhaps using SMARTPHONE technology would allow you to take a picture and search for iterations of that picture. That might be more successful. Still, it seems to me the tagging we do is more efficient than pictorial searching ever could be.

The old adage “a pictures is worth a thousand words” is alright as long as you do not expect my 1,000 words to be the same as yours. A picture of any celebrity will inspire admiration in some, loathing in others and a perplexed look in someone who has no context for the individual. We interpret visual stimuli based on our own experiences, values and needs. Let’s face it, when a teenage girl and her parent go shopping one of them will look at a skirt and think it is too long. The other will think it is a wash cloth. Visual images are not static in interpretation. Truth be told, neither are words.

I’m willing to be educated about the possibilities of visual search engines. My search on the web didn’t show me anything which I thought looked close to giving the kind of results we now get with text based search engines. I’m sure Steve Jobs is working on it.

Ultimately what this means is – writing really matters in a digital world. Content is the base, the backbone, the jumping spot. Years ago I was talking to a family member who is very tech saavy. He told me that he had thought about starting a website and then realized that a good website has to have more than cool stuff. A meaningful website needs to have a purpose. It needs to have content. So do we in creating one. Content is the stuff which holds all the glitter together. Without it even beautiful images are adrift. Looking on Bing’s Visual Search I was struck by this. The photograph of Queen Elizabeth II without the text “world leaders” could possibly be link to biographical information about the Queen, the royal family or great hats. The text clues us into the values that the designer used when the page was formed. In creating content critical thinking is imperative. Text sure helps.

Our efforts toward strengthening ELA skills in students should not waver in the face of the digital paradigm. No. Our resolve to maintain high expectations for reading and writing throughout this time of technological growth must not be shaken. The format for many of the things we take for granted will change. The degree to which this comes to pass is really anyone’s guess. However, whether interacting with bound books, ebooks or web content, students need the skills of reading for comprehension (not just decoding), writing and creating content using their critical thinking skills to be successful players in the digital arena.

Success or Failure?

I have just started reading I’d rather be in the studio: The artist’s no-excuse guide to self-promotion by Alyson B. Stanfield. A quick flip through the pages gives me the feeling that it will be a book full of information to underline and apply. For now I am contemplating page 2. She asks “Are you more afraid of failure or success?”

What if I answered that question myself? What if I asked my students to answer that question? What if I could know how a student who challenges me might answer that question? What if I have a character in a story ask this question? Would the way I approach my work/my life/my writing, change?

It’s a variation on a theme I’ve heard before. Yet the way Stanfield embeds it in her message is powerful. For the writer, the artist, the teacher, the librarian, the family member that I am, this question can transform me. Will I let it?

I have to ask myself how the fear of success may play into how some of my students deal with learning. Peer pressure is intense. Last week, I watched a group of boys groan when they heard we were going to read Cinderella. Some of the same boys were nearly jumping out of their seats minutes later to have a chance to tell what happened next in the story. When I had them vote by a show of hands, more boys indicated they enjoyed the Cinderella variation we read than those who felt differently. Not only did they feel they weren’t supposed to enjoy the story or know the answers, they certainly weren’t supposed to want the pair of glass slippers cut from paper. And yet one boy, oblivious to the scolding of the rest of them, openly showed he liked the whole thing. Boys aren’t supposed to remember fairy tales and girls aren’t supposed to be good at putting things together. Or so I have been told by the under 6 crowd lately.

This leads me to wonder what other things my students may be pulling back from engaging in. What cultural pressures make them fear to achieve? What personal experiences have made them feel unable to succeed and therefore not a player?

Sometimes I have to pry the answers from some of my students. I meet with success only when we are at the check-out counter and the room is too noisy for them to be noticed by others. What if those students were not afraid of either success or failure? What chances would they take?

If you are intrigued by Stanfield’s book you can find out more at IdRatherBeintheStudio.com. I can’t wait to see what is in the rest of the book!

Sharp Scissors

I cut my hand last week. How, you may ask? Well, I was doing a librarian thing. I was telling a story. You see, I find that kids love those fold and cut stories. I devised, quite cleverly if I do say so myself a series of folds and cuts which would tell the story of Cinderella, show her dress in beautiful detail and then fold out to be a crown which could be worn on a child’s head. How clever I thought myself! The paper had to be folded multiple times. Well, just when I was about to unveil the beautiful dress I cut through the paper and into my hand. Having elected to use the “big girl scissors” the slice was clean and swift. I was able to finish off the item before my hand bled too much. Lucky for me, the school nurse is a gem. She showed no hesitation in bandaging me up multiple times that day. The cut was positioned in such a way as to make it near impossible to keep a bandage interested in staying put.

For the rest of the week I had to explain the large bandage or the rubber glove I wore over my liquid bandaid. It kept my wound safe from the inevitable germs which must be braved if you work with little ones who still put their hands in their mouths. So I turned my lesson to one of safety. Worried that the students be afraid of the glove or the wound, we discussed both and took the opportunity to discuss safety issues. I showed them the “big girl scissors” I had used on that fateful day alongside a pair of children’s safety scissors. We compared and contrasted their features. We discussed their safety features. And we voted. Guess which pair they wanted me to use?

Needless to say, I gave up the crown - at least for this week. I also gave up trying to be neat. Now I let the paper fall to the floor and pick it up later. Trying to hold, cut and catch simultaneously is what gave me this wound. So I dreamed up another fold and cut which requires me to cut through just the two layers of paper. As I wanted to read variations on the Cinderella theme, I chose to recreate the slippers. Students identified elements of the original story through prompts. The paper was then cut to produce a shape to represent each element. Finally I asked what Cinderella left behind to help the prince find her. They were delighted to see the paper cut into the glass slipper.

They were even more delighted to see me open the paper to unite the two slippers so that the prince could realize he had found the girl of his dreams. Watching the amazement on their faces was a joy. Even boys who had groaned when they heard we would be reading a variation on the Cinderella theme were jumping up to participate.

Ways to add value to your fold and cut story

1. Don’t worry if each cut doesn’t really graphically represent the story element. The kids don’t really care. If I want to cut a triangular shape I do think about ways I can reflect that in the story or visa versa. Still, students will be anxiously trying to guess what you are cutting. They will be too busy to critique your matching skills.

2. DO NOT try to hold the paper and catch it with one hand. That is how I got my wound. Let it fall to the floor and pick it up later. Better yet, don’t stop the child who is picking it up for you. You can also position a recycling container near your seat if it doesn’t get in the way of the visuals of your storytelling.

3. Tell the children that you will be folding the paper in half. Ask how many times you have to fold to do so. Ask how many sections you will have if you fold in half. Ask what will happen if you cut one side. Introduce/reinforce the word symmetrical. By doing this you will be working on geometry skills. Our kindergarten students know the word symmetrical. Yours can too.

4. Be creative. Sometimes I tell the story. Sometimes I ask questions and make a cut for each answer. In the case of Cinderella, I asked leading questions about the storyline. “Who was the person who helped Cinderella?” We then went on to read other variations on the Cinderella theme. Comparing and contrasting the versions made this more than a simple reading session, though that would have been just fine with me.

5. Use safety scissors. Really do try to avoid bleeding on the prize.

6. If you feel so compelled, you can double up the paper to make two prizes at once. I don’t recommend this for several reasons, but you can if you need to. If there are too many layers you are more likely to cut yourself. I stand as proof. Also, the paper tends to slip a bit and the figures don’t always come out the symmetrical works of art you are looking for. Also, there is magic in winning the prize which is unique and made just for you.

7. Vary your paper color for some fun.

8. Use books to get ideas, but once you have run through the ideas you CAN start to make your own patterns. Really. You can.

9. Do not think that you are wasting time. Children really enjoy these stories. I used them successfully one year. The next year I was so worried about covering other things that I let them go. Students who had them the year before were constantly asking for them. One day I decided to do one and I realized how much they got from them and how to make them value added. In addition when I started doing them after the hiatus, the adults clapped their hands and told me it was their favorite part of library. Anything which makes people really want to come see you adds value.

10. Make it enjoyable.



What was the magic for me? Spring fever has hit. Yet students were on their best behavior hoping to win that piece of paper. That’s the best thing I could ask from any fairy godmother.

Can’t turn that librarian brain off

The other day I had a medical appointment. The doctor suggested that I have some blood drawn. So as I put out my arm, I started chatting with the wonderful professional who was taking my blood. Before I knew it we were discussing Captain Underpants and Geronimo Stilton. In the short time we talked, I participated in reader’s advisory, online access instruction and an overall plug for using resources available through the local public library.

Believe it or not, my family thinks it’s funny that I cannot go out in the world without thinking and acting like a librarian.

Teaching Folktales

Part of the curriculum for our small charges includes teaching about folktales. Trying to teach about folktales is not the same thing as reading them. What exactly do we want 5 and 6 year olds to remember about folktales? Is the ability to tell particular tales the most important aspect? Is it the fact that they can identify different sorts of folktales – creationist, por quoi tales, trickster tales, tall tales etc.? Moreover, how to select which folktales will be used for these lessons?

The Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework defines folktales as:

Folktale: a short narrative handed down through oral tradition, with various tellers and groups modifying it, so that it acquired cumulative authorship. Most folktales eventually move from oral tradition to written form.

This week I tried something new to illustrate the idea of how folktales develop. I chose a student to be the storyteller. The student stood up next to me. Then I told a story, really a number of facts about a colorful aunt I had. The storyteller then had to retell the story to the class. We had three or four people try their hand at retelling it. The results were hilarious and sometimes heartwarming. Needless to say, the story took on a life of its own. Sometimes the changes were unintentional, but several of the students were natural embellishers. I took care to mention that these acts of omission or clear fabrication were part of the process a story had to go through to become folklore.

To me, hearing the story of my aunt who lived in a lemon grove, turn into a story about my father who lived in a lemon, was shear magic.