Inviting Readers to Slow Their Pace in a Digital World

May 15, 2023May 14, 2023 ~ wordancerblog ~ 1 Comment

I’ve read many educational books throughout my forty plus years as a teacher. I have learned so much from other teachers, writers, and researchers. I’ve taken what I’ve read and applied it to my classroom practice and my work mentoring other teachers. Sometimes, I come across a book that literally takes the top of my head off! The ideas are so innovative and complex that I am totally stunned and need to slow down my pace and deeply consider what the author is communicating. Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf is this kind of book. Wolf’s previous book was Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, which tackled the history of written language and how this human invention has changed throughout the years and how this related to how best to support children with dyslexia. Wolf is currently director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at UCLA.

Each chapter in Reader, Come Home is written as a letter to readers describing various aspects of how our reading brains are evolving in the face of technology. Wolf expresses complex information in a personal way. She begins with a brief history of how reading has changed, explains the neuroscience behind the reading process in an easy to understand and visual way, and she gives much thought to how adults can raise competent readers in a frenzied digital reading world. Wolf explores the nature of reading in light of increasing human dependence on digital technologies and artificial intelligence. She expresses the need for children to develop critical thinking skills, background knowledge, and empathy for cultural differences (becoming the other). These skills require reflection or what Wolf calls “cognitive patience.” What emerges from this type of close reading comes more questioning and wondering, which generates new perspectives and creative thought. It is slow but not stagnant. It is an intensively active reflection that leads to great insight. It is imperative that readers’ focus and attention need to be honed first in order for them to successfully navigate the frenetic, digital landscape.

I love how Wolf makes seamless connections between technology, neuroscience, physics, history, literature and philosophy. At times, I had to pause and reread, just as Wolf invites us to do in order to cultivate a bilateral reading brain that can tackle both slow-paced, old school paper texts and fast-paced digital texts. Wolf’s hope is for a world of readers who are curious, contemplative, and compassionate. That is my hope too. This is an important book that deserves a slow and careful read.

Object Connections: Janet Wong’s Poetry

March 6, 2023March 5, 2023 ~ wordancerblog ~ 5 Comments

Last week, I had an opportunity to attend a poetry workshop presented by Janet Wong and sponsored by Rutgers University Center for Literacy Development, which is directed by Dr. Lesley Morrow. Janet won the NCTE excellence in children’s Poetry Award in 2021. It is a lifetime achievement award, and one of the highest honors a children’s poet can receive. Before becoming a poet, Janet was a lawyer. Currently, she serves on the Yale Law School executive committee. However, decades ago she decided to change the direction of her life to become a children’s book author. She has published over forty books for children and teens on diverse subjects. This workshop was special to me because, as a member of the advisory board of RUCLD, I had been asked to help Janet throughout the day. I have always admired Janet, and now I got to spend the day with her.

Janet brought two large suitcase of props: flip-flops, popcorn, marshmallows, nori seaweed snacks, gummy worms, a rubber duck, a bunch of bananas, a bag of just-ripe avocados, a can of peas, an apple, an orange, an onion, a clove of garlic, and much more. As she read poems and told the stories behind the poems, Janet would give away objects as gifts to the audience members. This is where my job began. I put on my best “Vanna White” imitation – holding objects up in the air, smiling, and then racing around the conference space delivering the precious objects to participants.

One poem that Janet acted out for us and had participants act out in turn was “Noodle Soup.” It is a short, happy rhyming poem. From the repetition, alliteration, and whimsical rhyme, one would think it was just a funny kid poem. However, Janet told us the story behind this poem. When she was a child, she invited her best friend over for breakfast. Her mother made a steaming pot of wonton soup, Janet’s favorite. When her friend arrived late, she looked at the soup and said, “Don’t you eat ‘normal’ food for breakfast?” This hurt Janet immensely, but she never told her friend.

Another of Janet’s poems, “Waiting at the Railroad Café,” recounts a tense scene when Janet and her family were on vacation and went to restaurant to eat. When the family entered, it was like they were invisible. They weren’t greeted or taken to a seat. They weren’t given menus. They were completely ignored because they were Asian. That experience made a profound impact on Janet.

These two poems come from Good Luck Gold, which was the first book Janet published in 1994. Good Luck Gold & More was published in 2021 and took Janet’s original forty-two poem collection and added fifty more pages of prose explaining the backstory of each poem. I loved that Janet took everyday objects and connected them to times in her life. Out of that connection a poem was born. Many times we read poems but do not know the backstory. The backstory creates context and gives us a deeper understanding of the poem.

After her large group presentation, participants were able to attend a small group session with Janet. That session was designed to give participants a chance to write. Janet and I stacked copies of her various poems and spread a majority of the contents of her two large suitcases onto four long tables. As a warm-up, Janet asked us to match her poems with the objects that were displayed around the room. Then, Janet asked us to choose an object and write a poem about it. As we shared our poems, Janet gave away more objects to the poet-participants. It was clear that Janet has a generous spirit: she gave her time and knowledge freely. She enjoyed gifting people with the objects she had lugged from Seattle, Washington to Piscataway, New Jersey.

Below is the poem I wrote for my object – a small yellow rubber duck. The poem came to me as I remembered my friend, Arman, telling me how his son, Caram, did not like water and bath time at all. He would cry and cry. So I re-imagined how Caram could become in love with bath time.

As we packed up what was left of her belongings into now one suitcase, Janet encouraged me to keep writing and to join her summer initiative, Think Poetry, which will provide opportunities for teachers and librarians to publish their poems. As we departed, Janet stacked cookies, popcorn, and Nori seaweed snacks in my arms.

“Put them in your faculty room,” she said with a smile. “I couldn’t have had a more helpful partner today. We are a good team.”

I smiled, thanked her, and walked to my car juggling my teacher treats. Janet not only connected people to objects and experiences, she connected people to each other, and that is the true power of poetry.

Some Books by Janet Wong

Picture Books

Poetry Books

Anthologies Created with Sylvia Vardell

A Gift for Story

February 27, 2023February 27, 2023 ~ wordancerblog ~ 5 Comments

John Schu has a gift for story, and he wants to share it with EVERYONE he meets. This past week, I attended one of John’s professional development workshops sponsored by Rutgers University Center for Literacy Development directed by Dr. Lesley Morrow, my former professor and mentor at the Graduate School of Education. Throughout the hour, John drew us in and told us his story through the books he’s read. His mission is to connect readers to stories that will affect and change their lives.

John believes that stories save lives, and he proved it by telling us his life story, weaving events in his childhood to the books that helped him heal and grow. He was a shy boy, a boy who loved musical theater, a boy who loved to play school complete with his own grade and roll book, chalk, and red pens. With his imaginary class he could exert control and have some power over his world.

As he recounted his story, he gave vivid book talks about both current books and old favorites. His generosity is amazing, and he graciously gifted many books to his audience. John has developed what he coins as “the smell test,” because he loves the smell of books. He rates books using “the smell test,” and makes us laugh. Books that get high ratings on “the smell test,” have the capacity to touch one’s heart. Tiger Rising was that kind of book for John, and it led to a strong friendship with its author, Kate DiCamillo. John describes Kate as someone with a “capacious” heart, a term Kate used in her novel, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventure to describe a person who is open-hearted, a person who can connect, empathize and heal. Periodically throughout the workshop, John had us chant Kate’s name. What a wonderful homage to a devoted friend. Good friends like good books are invaluable.

As we got to know John, he opened up more and more about why he became a teacher, a school librarian, then a school library ambassador, and then an author. He was funny and energetic and made us laugh; he was poignant and vulnerable and made us cry. What John conveyed in his workshop is what a book does every time a reader opens the cover and turns a page. Story is indeed important.

John had two teachers who served as reading role models. One was Dr. Mary Margaret Reed, who was his 5^th grade teacher. She was exuberant and eccentric and a reader. She knew how to entice children to read, especially a shy boy who needed some friends and some healing. John writes about Dr. Reed in The Creativity Project, which was edited by Colby Sharp. In the book, John wrote a letter to Dr. Reed expressing his admiration and confessing that he stole her copy of Matilda by Roald Dahl because he so greatly needed that book. He still has that copy of Matilda. Another reading role model came to John when he was in college. Her name was Dr. Penny Britton Kolloff. John was eager to become a teacher, and he worked so hard to do his best – maybe too hard. Dr. Kolloff recognized this, and she told John that to be a teacher one must learn self-care as she put a copy of A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech in his hands. John keeps a copy of the book displayed wherever he’s worked to remind him to keep in the forefront of his mind personal well-being.

At one point, John asked us our definition of story. I wrote: Story is like breathing in and out. I could not live without story. And when children tell me they hate reading, I remind them that they LOVE stories – and they agree. I remember when I was tutoring dyslexic children, and they would get discouraged because reading was so hard for them. It was such long, hard, and tedious work. They would tire and feel disappointed with themselves. I found ways to encourage them. I would empathize with them that reading was indeed difficult, but I would also remind them that they LOVED stories. They would nod their head and agree. Then, I would read aloud to them to help them energize and enter a story. After I read for a while, we would stop and share our thoughts and have deep conversations about characters, events, and make predictions about what might happen next. It was that anticipation that kept them going. They needed to know what was going to happen next.

John told us a great story about the anticipatory joy that reading brings. He recounted a time when he got a book in the mail and be became so absorbed in it that he spent the day taking the book with him to his living room chair, over to the refrigerator, back to the chair, then into the bathroom, then back to the chair and round and round again and again until he had only five pages left. That’s when a monumental decision loomed: finish the book or make it last a little longer. As avid readers we do not want the story to end. So John decided to go to sleep with the five pages unread. Of course, he tossed and turned in bed. He needed to know the ending of this now beloved story. He got up, went downstairs, sat in his comfy chair, and read the ending, tears flowing down his face. The story was complete. The book? The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. The story had changed him like all good stories do. John spent a lot of time telling everyone he could about The One and Only Ivan. It was a treasure he wanted to share. He even got a chance to meet Ivan and have Ivan autograph his copy of the book, by signing with his thumbprint in green.

This day with John was well spent. I now have a longer list of books to read, I have a box full of books from Amazon on their way, I have a renewed love of story, and I have found a kindred spirit and book whisperer extraordinaire.

Books by Mr. Schu

Connect with Mr. Schu

Some of the Books that Pass Mr. Schu’s Smell Test

A More Beautiful Question Revisited

February 5, 2023 ~ wordancerblog ~ Leave a comment

Almost a decade after reading Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, I decided to re-read it, since it is such a thought-provoking book. I’m reading it in little pieces now, savoring each idea! One nugget I read this week was about the amount of questions children ask. Young children begin asking “WHY?” and they don’t stop! Why is the sky blue? Why can you see the moon during the day? Why do rabbits’ teeth keep growing? The world is a large place, and little children want to know all about it. That’s why I became an early childhood teacher 42 years ago. That’s what I love about visiting the early childhood and elementary classrooms: children keep asking questions, more and more questions.! Of course, that can be exhausting, and you may run out of patience, but that process of asking questions is what separates us from all other species on Earth! And you know what happens as children get older? Yes – you are right – they stop asking questions!

Berger noted that questioning “falls off a cliff” as kids become older. A Gallup Poll revealed that as students’ progress through the grades, their questioning plummets (76% in elementary school to 44% in high school). Instead of wondering, older students are busy gathering information and spitting it back in a rote manner. This leads to massive disengagement from learning. I was not very surprised by this information, but it did lead me to think and question the classroom practices I observe each week:

How do we use student questions to spark interest in a topic?
Can the “parking lot” technique be used to display student questions and be a springboard for discussion?
Can we have students generate questions from our essential questions?
Do adults feel like they need to know the answers to all student questions?
What do teachers do when they don’t know the answer?
How comfortable are we as adults to ask questions?

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

By honoring students’ questions, teachers facilitate learning, which is relevant and motivates students to question further and seek out possibilities pertaining to any subject. To be curious and to question is intrinsic to learning. Berger quotes research scientist, John Seely Brown who explains that “…if you’re comfortable questioning, experimenting, connecting things – then change is something that becomes an adventure. And if you can see it as an adventure, then you’re off and running.”

This adventurous spirit reminds me of a time when one of my young three-year-old students was outside playing. He suddenly looked up at the sky and was enthralled by the presence of the moon. He could not take his eyes off the moon and wondered why it was out in the daytime. In his experience, the moon only came out at night, and now all that he had come to know was in question. That was an important moment for him as a learner, and it was an important moment for me as a young teacher. I could have patted his head, given him a cursory answer, and brought his attention back to something tangible like the sandbox. Instead, I listened and encouraged his questions and helped him to better understand the workings of the universe. Indeed, this young boy’s curiosity sparked weeks of learning about the nature of the sky for all his classmates. We read countless books about the moon, created a moon surface, made a mural of the phases of the moon, and even built our own lunar explorer.

Teaching is at its most effective when it promotes risk-taking and relentless experimentation, which is the true heart of constructivist teaching. When teachers and students start asking open-ended questions such as: What do we want to learn? Why do we want to learn it? How will we go about learning it? How will we show what we’ve learned? – They are constructing curiosity, which will become a lifelong process. This approach affords multiple avenues for learning, giving teachers and students freedom to learn in a personal, creative, and active way.

Did I piqued your curiosity? Do you ave more questions? You might want to read and investigate a little further.

Books by Warren Berger

A More Beautiful Question

Beautiful Questions in the Classroom

The Book of Beautiful Questions

Visit Warren’s Blog:

Want to inspire more curiosity and inquiry in kids?

Celebration in the Wonder Studio: Lunar New Year

January 29, 2023 ~ wordancerblog ~ 4 Comments

A dozen girls gather at recess time to work in the Wonder Studio. They are in the midst of painting, decorating, and constructing projects of their choice. This week, I added a box in the shape of a dragon’s head to celebrate Lunar New year. I quickly cut the box to look like a dragon with a wide pointed-tooth grin. The girls collected some found objects to make the dragon’s eyes, nostrils, and teeth. Then we all took turns collaging bright colored tissue paper all over the head in layers upon layers. Once completed, the dragon would be hung right outside their classrooms to celebrate Lunar New Year.

I have done this dragon project with countless students over several decades. I love this tradition because it always sparks children’s imaginations and makes the classroom atmosphere festive. I think the best way for young children to learn about other cultures is through celebrations (food, storytelling, and art). These are powerful ways in which to hold memories. When I was a classroom teacher, this art project would be the anchor for deep research into the holiday and the Asian culture. We read widely and began to understand these cultures and traditions more organically.

These days, I’ve noticed that with more and more emphasis on curricular initiatives there seems to be less and less time to celebrate, less and less time for conversations, and less time for connection. The classrooms are a rush of activity, one lesson after the next – go, go, go. Don’t stop. Don’t think. Don’t feel the struggle and joy in learning.

I’m glad I can eke out some time for kids to converse and create; some time to experiment and play; some time to celebrate the small things. They need to know the joy of taking a risk – of taking a cardboard box and transforming into something whimsical. There is magic held within that simple box, and I want children to experience that creative power.

As they worked, they began asking questions about Lunar New Year. They began talking to each other naturally. Some of them knew quite a bit about the holiday and supplied lots of information with facts and personal experiences. Questions grew and so did the students’ understanding. They wanted to know more. They wanted to become part of the celebration.

Books About Lunar New Year

Stirring the Senses – Part 2

January 17, 2023 ~ wordancerblog ~ 4 Comments

Last week, I planned a winter sensory poetry lesson for out 2^nd graders. I decided to start with a slideshow of winter photographs and then brainstorm words that they might use in their poems. My goal was to quickly set them off to write so they’d have plenty of time to compose their poems and share them.

This week, I executed my plan. As I presented the slideshow, the girls looked intently at the photographs, which were a mix of nature scenes and people and animals in the snow. After watching silently, they shared their ideas as I wrote them down. We were collecting sensory words from what we had seen in the photos. The words would act as a jumping off point to create images for their poems.

Before they began to write, they asked some questions. One girl asked if she could use rhymes and I nodded my head. She sparked an idea in my head because I don’t normally compose rhyming poems. Since I always write when the children write, I decided to challenge myself and write a rhyming sensory poem. I think it is an important part of the writing process for children to see adults writing alongside children. I made sure the girls were all actively thinking and writing, and then I sat down with my own ideas. One student came over to see what I was writing, but I quickly redirected her to her own writing and told her that I would share at the end of class.

As the children wrote, I circled the room looking at their poetry and making observations that I thought would nudge their writing further.

That’s an interesting idea! You’re making an acrostic.
Wow! You are using such strong verbs.
Oh, you are including lots of sound words.

Like each child, like each snowflake, each poem was different, exquisite in its creation. They took their experiences of snow and thought about how it looked, smelled, sounded, tasted, and felt. They thought hard, they experimented with words, and they formed meaning to share with others. This time to play is necessary and important for writers. It connected what they have been reading, to what they have experienced, to what they have learned about composing a poem.

Inspiration and Handiwork

December 6, 2022 ~ wordancerblog ~ 7 Comments

Over the years, bloggers have blessed me with new ideas, book suggestions, encouragement, beautiful artwork and photographs, and myriad moments of inspiration. I have learned so much from strangers, and I am so grateful for their knowledge and generosity.

My latest spark of inspiration comes from Adam Zucker who blogs at Artfully Learning. Last week, Adam wrote about Black Mountain College in North Carolina and its founders, teachers, and alumni. He wrote about the life and art of Ruth Asawa. I had never heard of her, but I had read and studied the work of her teacher, Josef Albers. As I looked at the work of Ruth Asawa, I had a tingling “Aha” moment. I had such a strong visceral reaction to her sculptures. They were curved and intricate biomorphic shapes. Her organic wire sculptures reminded me of some macramé sculpture I created in graduate school as part of my Master’s thesis in Creative Arts Education forty-three years ago. I carried those sculptures around for years and gave a few away to friends. I had forgotten about them until I saw Ruth’s sculptures. I said aloud to myself, “Oh! I wish I had known about Ruth Asawa forty-three years ago. Her work would have greatly influenced my art and pushed me forward.” I never thought of weaving with wire and stayed with more common materials such as paper, fabric, yarn, jute, and hemp.

I made twelve sculptures with accompanying poems. Two sculptures I remember very well. My work was centered around the women who influenced my life. The first sculpture was a rectangular wall hanging in a natural jute tied onto wooden branches on the top and bottom. The knots were predominantly Josephine knots in honor of my maternal grandmother, Josephine, who I never met. She died at the age of forty-six from a cerebral hemorrhage. Family members always told me that I looked like her. I never believed them until I came across a photo of her at the age of sixteen. My heart skipped a beat when I looked at her eyes and smile. Yes, indeed, I look a lot like my grandmother. I wanted to create a sculpture that would reflect my connection to her.

Another sculpture was a replica of a head of long chestnut hair. My childhood friend, Roxanne, had the most gorgeous long, straight, thick hair. My hair was short, fine, dark brown, and curly. I coveted Roxanne’s hair. I craved long thick tresses that I could toss, braid, and put in in an elegant bun. I found a wire-framed oval, and I tied long strands of wool year in multi-shades of brown. Then I created different kinds of intricate braids down the length of the sculpture. To add interest, I woven in some gold engraved barrel beads. This is the hair I would have wanted. This is the hair of my amazing dear friend. After the exhibition, I packed Roxanne’s hair in a box and sent it to her in Boston with a note expressing how much her friendship meant to me.

As years went by, I turned to watercolor and collage for artistic expression. And my time was spent more and more teaching children. In my teaching, I always shared the connection of art to literature, and exposed my young students to various artists, genres, and materials. I knew it was important for children to explore the world of art and use their imaginations to create their own work. This free expression is crucial for building identity, self-esteem, and for nurturing creative minds.

With a little research, I found a picture book – A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa by Andrea D’Aquino. She recounts Ruth’s childhood on a California farm, her interest in nature, and her studies in art. She was influenced by choreographer, Merce Cunningham, the visionary designer, Buckminster Fuller, and the abstract artist, Josef Albers. As Ruth developed as an artist, a trip to Mexico introduced her to write weaving. When she returned home to San Francisco, she began to tach art and create beautiful nature-inspired wire sculptures.

I cannot wait to try my hand at wire sculptures. After all, I have been waiting for forty-three years! Maybe I can combine wire and fiber. I am looking forward to playing and creating with this new-found idea.

Crafting Kindness

November 7, 2022 ~ wordancerblog ~ 1 Comment

Kindness Deficit

I have been working with children for over four decades. During that time, I have witnessed a slow erosion of kindness and amicability. With the onset of COVID, political division, and lack of public safety, these last few years have produced an atmosphere of intolerance. Everyone is in a rush to get to the finish line, but we are not stopping to see that our friend, neighbor or peer may need our help. An air of distrust permeates our society. As a result, children are greatly affected by what they see, hear, and feel, even if they cannot yet completely understand it. Instead of fostering a sense of calm collaboration, children are being raised in an era of tension, intolerance, and uncertainty. As schools keep focused on academic excellence, we are losing sight of general civility. Teachers often say that they don’t have time for the social-emotional side of learning. However, if we don’t put in the time, if we don’t slow down and focus on how we communicate and treat each other, then all learning suffers. Children need a strong, clear foundation of kindness and consideration, so they can appreciate other points of view and become fully functional, productive citizens. Slowing down, listening to students’ needs and concerns, and building in time for communication can make classrooms a model for a civil society.

Kindness Connection

In the rush to teach more and more content, to cover all the necessary skills, teachers sometimes have difficulty connecting with their students. They forget to ask, “Who are this unique learners in front of me?” and “What does they need to grow?” A perceptive teacher not only asks, “What content should I teach them?,” but also, “What do they need for their social-emotional development?” When teachers show interest in students’ family lives, activities and hobbies, and their unique personalities, a bond is made which helps teachers foster their students’ growth, especially when the student faces an obstacle or setback. Teacher-student connection is the key to a child’s social-emotional well-being, and in the end, it is this important connection that keeps the child motivated and engaged. If a student knows her teacher cares, then she will want to do her best and try just a little harder. She is not afraid to take risks, and she sees her teacher as a partner in her success. They have developed a transactional relationship, and she has become invested in her own learning.

Kindling Kindness

There are many ways to kindle kindness, to make students feel safe and honored. The techniques used in the Responsive Classroom method are proven and give students the confidence they require to fully participate as active classroom citizens. Instead of rushing into the day, Responsive Classroom teachers, begin the day with connection. They emphasize both teacher-to-student and student-to-student relationships. From the start, this type of community building, fostered each and every day, affords students a stable base in which to exchange ideas in an open and accepting setting. From this foundation, children can grow confidently and flourish. They learn to build strong and trusting friendships. They develop the tools with which to be independent and compassionate community members. This circle of friendship is recursive; it becomes stronger and stronger with each cycle. Trust replaces skepticism, cooperation replaces competition, and altruism replaces selfishness.

Friendship Circle Poem & Craft

As often happens, my classroom reflections become an impetus for poetry. I recently crafted this poem and art project and hope to share them with some of my young learners.

Books about Kindness and Friendship

Websites for Teachers:

Books for Teachers:

Picture Books:

Chapter Books:

Early Chapter Books (ages 6-9):

Chapter Books (ages 9-12)

Halloween Magical Read Alouds

October 29, 2022 ~ wordancerblog ~ 1 Comment

This is one of my favorite times of year. The leaves burst into flaming colors, and the air has just a hint of chill in it. It is time for sweaters, warm drinks, apples, pumpkins, and Halloween. I love preparing for Halloween: selecting pumpkins – round and fat, tall and thin, white, green, and all shades of orange. I love the goopy-wonderfulness of carving pumpkins, especially to the sound of the squeals of children as wee scoop out piles and piles of pulp and seeds. We separate the seeds, wash them thoroughly, salt them and pop them in the oven until they are roasted perfection. We bake all kinds of pumpkin recipes: breads, puddings, cakes, and cookies. Everything smells like cinnamon and sugar.

Learning along-side children gives me the opportunity to celebrate this season in style. I can decorate to my heart’s content, and if anyone gives me a side-ways glance, I quickly explain, “I’m a teacher.” They smile and nod their heads. But the real reason I celebrate is to experience holidays through the eyes of the children. They still believe in magic, and by being with them, I can capture some of that magic for my own. We hang orange and black chains across the classroom, we make tons and tons of paper pumpkins, we sing Halloween songs, recite Halloween poems, and get into the spirit of Halloween.

One of my favorite books to read aloud is The Witch’s Child by Arthur Yorkins and illustrated by Jos. A. Smith. It is such the right amount of scary with a satisfying ending. The author begins, “Once there lived a witch in the woods… a mean, horrible witch. She was wicked and cruel, and absolutely heartless and her name was Rosina.” As I read aloud, I asked the students to listen closely. In front of them was a sheet with questions which I would ask them to respond to as I read. Periodically I would stop reading and ask them to jot down their answers. Having a place to respond helped the children focus their attention and added to their engagement. After the story was over, the children were brim-full of ideas that they wanted to share. This story certainly grabbed their attention and many of them asked if they could borrow it to read it again, which is just what my teacher ears wanted to hear.

The Witch’s Child Questions to consider:

I made my questions short and to the point and wanted them to flow with the pacing of the story. This was just the right amount of questioning to keep the children engaged without taking away from the action of the story.

1. What are 3 of Rosina’s powers?

3. What did Lina doe when she met Rosalie? What would you have done?

2. What was Rosina’s child made from?

4. What do you think will happen next?

After this story, I taught the children a game I learned when I was a young teacher. It is still fun thirty plus years later! However, it is harder to be the running witch, so I quickly have students take over the role, which they adore.

Old Mother Witch Game

“Old Mother Witch fell in a ditch. Picked up a penny and thought she was rich.” (Sung to the tune of Peas Porridge Hot)

Players get in a long line, holding onto each other shoulders or waists.
Old Mother Witch is the first in line.
Players sing the song over and over again until…
Old Mother Witch turns around and all children must stop. Old Mother Witch points a finger to one player after another asking, “Are you my child?’.
The players can say no. But when a player says yes, Old Mother Witch runs after the one who said yes or any other child she can catch.
When Old Mother Witch catches a child, she puts her in a cooking pot (a chalk outlined circle).
The children line up again and sing the song until the witch asks her question again.
Old Mother Witch keeps collecting children, but children who have not been caught can free children from the cooking pot.
When Old Mother Witch has caught all the children or when she gets too tired, another witch can take her place.

13 Magical Halloween Read Alouds:

1. Arthur’s Halloween Costume by Lillian Hoban

2. Boris and Bella by Carolyn Crimi

3. Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds

4. Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex

5. Ghost’s Hour, Spooks Hour by Eve Bunting

6. Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jean Tihterington

7. Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper

8. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

9. The Fox went out on a Chilly Night by Peter Spirer

10. The Little Old Lady Who was not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

11. The Pumpkinville Mystery by Bruce Cole

12. The Roll Away Pumpkin by Junia Wonders

13. Very Brave Witch by Alison McGhee

Reading in Wildness

August 9, 2022 ~ wordancerblog ~ 5 Comments

I took this photo while on vacation in Maine. I was walking by a favorite lily pond and happened upon this mother-daughter reading team lounging in a nearby meadow. The mother was reading with much gusto, taking on the voices of each character. I don’t know what book it was that she was reading, but her young daughter was totally entranced by the story. “Surely,” I thought to myself, “this child will grow up to be a fearless, wild reader.” They brought a smile to my face and joy to my old teacher heart.

As a child, reading was difficult for me. I painstakingly sounded out each letter and then tried my hardest to blend the sounds into a word. Sometimes it worked, but sometimes it didn’t, and the whole process left me exhausted. However, I loved stories. I listened to epic poems that my father would recite and fantasy classics that my mother would read to me. I found stories to be mesmerizing. It took me a long time to say that I loved reading. Reading was slow work, and I was a fast kid. I did not like to sit still. I wanted the words to come fast and furious, but my mind kept me at a slow and steady pace. I was labeled a “slow reader.” I wasn’t dyslexic, just slow. One of the reasons for this, I think as I look back, is that I was in love with words, so I would dawdle over passages and wonder how the author constructed such a scene. If the author left some things to the readers’ imagination, then I would float off creating whole other scenarios in my head. Slowly, I would land back to the book and continue where I had left off. This certainly was not efficient, purposeful reading, but it did afford me the ability to read like a writer. I was not a spectator as I read, I was a participant. I took in all the words to use them again in a different way in a story of my own. Eventually, I learned to savor the slow and to know that the kind of reading I was doing was helping me become a better writer.

Recently, I found Hudson Talbott’s A Walk in Words. Talbott was also a slow reader and in this book he explains his reading journey. It is through drawing that Talbott came to love reading and writing. He found that his love of drawing lead him into stories, and he began to think of reading as “word painting.” As he grew, Talbott’s curiosity won, and he was able to read at his own pace. At the end of the book, he created a Slow Reader Hall of Fame including: William Shakespeare, Joan of Arc, Babe Ruth, Sojourner Truth, Alexander Graham Bell, to name a few. Thankfully, Talbott became a picture book writer. He said that he mined books for words to use in his stories and that the ability to lose himself in books helped to spark his imagination.

When I think of it, many of the book I adored as a child were based in the wild. The book that taught me that I loved reading was the classic, Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry and after that was Jean Craighead George’s masterpiece, My Side of the Mountain. Those books helped me see past myself and to envision the kind of reader who takes chances and doesn’t give up. I slowly picked my way through the words and in the process found lifelong friends and exciting adventures.

Reading in Wildness Suggestions:

Reading in the Wild: The Book Whisperer’s Keys to Cultivating Lifelong Reading Habits by Donalyn Miller

Picture Books:

A Walk in Forest by Maria Dek

Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner

Slow Down: 50 Mindful Moments in Nature by Rachel Williams

The Hike by Alison Farrell

Tiny, Perfect Things by M.H. Clark

Wild by Emily Hughes

Chapter Books:

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk