"These Things Hidden" by Gudenkauf

     I just finished Heather Gudenkauf's "These Things Hidden." Though it's not marketed as a YA book, it easily could be. Allison, bright, beautiful, falls in love with Christopher and becomes pregnant (What else?). The story moves seamlessly among the three families who are impacted, and then between the past (so critical in this tale) and present.

     Best of all for teens, "These Things Hidden" shows the huge complexity of teen pregnancies. I found the present tense used a bit unnatural at times, but it was the only tense that could be used (given the plot). But Gudenkauf's intimate portrayal of Allison and her sister, Brynn, are well worth the reading.

Say It's Not So -- Jane Austin for Infants and Toddlers?

     I almost missed the article in Publishers Weekly. As they write, "The first two titles in the new Baby Lit board book series from Gibbs Smith will introduce classic writers to the youngest readers -- newborns to three-year olds -- with the publication of Little Miss Austen: Pride & Prejudice and Master Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet.
     Think that's bad enough? I just read that advanced orders reached 12,000 copies. 12,000 copies. That's more than most children's books reach once they are in print. They are already planning their second printing.
     I don't understand. There are such fascinating books geared for these babies of ours -- books with plot lines the children can actually follow!
     Gibbs Smith and Suzanne Taylor hint at the reason why these books may be selling so well: "...great introduction for very small children and...parents who may not have read the classics before." Okay. I guess if you are going to spend so much time reading to your children, perhaps you should get something out of it, too.
     After all, how long will stories about baby duck and kitties hold most adults' attention?

New Testing for Pre-K

     As if it hasn't gotten silly enough, Education Week (July 9) posts that a good portion of Race To the Top funds for education will be spent on early childhood education -- hey, that part is good -- but, very importantly, pre-K testing. Now just how will they test pre-K? Pre-K students are usually placed in such classrooms because they do not seem ready for the academic life.
     To test a teacher's success with such children, we will test these kids on a child's ability to work independently at her desk. To not punch Mickey. To not cry when Mom leaves every day, to share toys, to find his own bookbag, to focus on the lesson at hand. These children are exposed to the alphabet letters and counting and math concepts and days of the week, but none of these concepts are expected to be mastered -- that's the domain of the kindergarten classroom -- and beyond.
    Sometimes this testing frenzy gets a bit, well, frenzied. It appears that this pre-K testing is one of the ways. There is a whole world of skills children learn in school that cannot be tested. Can't we see the difference?
  

Differentiated Learning

      At last.
     We all know the push in education is to "differentiate" teaching. That's a no brainer. With a classroom that includes gifted students, mainstream students, special education students (each with his/her own unique difficulties), hungry children, children who just recently arrived in the States, children coming from stressed homes, eager students, disinterested students -- how can the teacher NOT differentiate? But with one adult responsible for it all and 25 bodies out there, exactly how is this done?
     Lisa Nielson's article explains that it all can really work if we look at a different, yet connected, concept -- that of "differentiated learning."This flips the responsibility for learning the task onto the learner, where it already rests, anyway. How many of us adults become far more engaged in an activity when we added our our thoughts and direction into it? And how often do we passively go along when a task is handed to us and we are forced to take it in? (Think: inservice days.)
    Of course there are basics that any student needs to learn in a lesson. Where is the country? What are the multiples of 5? What sounds do /ch/ and /sh/ and /th/ make? But what if the students had input on how they wanted to learn the content? What if they then decide what else they wanted to learn on the topic? After all, the editors of a textbook decide that for the learner. What if they had a hand in the direction of their learning, too?
     John Dewey, an early pioneer educator whose work thrilled me when I first entered education classes, would be proud.
Note: A hearty thank you to
  

Showing Students What Real Writers Do

     Kate Messner, an award-winning writer of children's books and a classroom teacher, now offers a book that should help other teachers and their students. Real Revision gives both of them an inside look into what actual writers must do on a daily basis. And what is that, exactly? Revise, revise, revise -- and revise even more.
     As a former English teacher (middle and high school), I know this is the furthest from many students' interest. I also know that we have some excellent writers under the age of 18. I hope some of them take Messner's book to heart. I'd love to see their talent grow.

Book: "Who's Teaching Your Children?"

     It has taken me a month to read through Vivian Troen and Katherine Boles's well-researched Who's Teaching Your Children? No, it's not because it wasn't written well or didn't engage me -- quite the opposite. I kept pausing to breathe, to think, to vent.

     The authors blasted many of the problems of today's schools. With politicians around blaming the teachers, teachers, teachers for the poor performance of some schools, Troen and Boles take aim at the way public schools are viewed by society -- as a second-class profession. Education schools are notoriously easy to enter and graduate from, the pay is poor, and the profession itself is flat, giving little encouragement or opportunity for teachers to better their instruction in the schools, and those with advanced knowledge and skills perform the same tasks as the novice. No wonder charter schools, home schooling, and private schools are flourishing, they argue, and the immense drain those cause on public schools would diminish significantly if the public policy designed a route entering professionals would take to grow from student teacher to master teacher.

     I applaud the efforts by the authors. Perhaps someone out there will take notice. And someone needs to -- fast.

CADERS (Early Readers): Posting #14

Here's a silent e book:

    Nate and the Ape

Nate likes to swim.

The last time
Nate swam at Pine Lake,
he saw an ape.

The ape had a kite.
It was way, way up.

The ape walked up the kite line.
It sat on the kite.

So Nate walked up the kite line, too,
and sat on the kite.

The ape played a flute.
Nate told jokes.

The ape ate cake.
Nate ate cheese.

The ape and Nate
stayed up there all day.

I wish I could go to Pine Lake.