Rufus Reads: reading our way around the world!

https://flic.kr/p/85Joc7

The Geography Bee is a big deal at our school. One of our students made it to the national level for the state of Washington, and another represented our school at the state finals! Reading is also a huge passion of among our students. 

Inspired by London writer Ann Morgan's blog "A year of reading the world," I'm setting a challenge for our students and staff. Those who choose to participate will:

• Read a book set on each continent or by an author from each continent (Antarctica is optional)
• Track their progress on the maps hanging up in the Library Learning Commons (we'll draw a line from place to place so you can see where your journey takes you!)
• Let the LLC staff know which books they read, so we can update our ongoing list

Other guidelines:

• Fiction and nonfiction are fine
• Everyone will choose a book that's "just right" for their reading level
• Listening to audiobooks definitely counts!

Between all of us, let's see how many different countries we can visit! Feel free to comment here with your favorite books from around the world.

Happy reading and armchair traveling!

Food literacy month + haikus = mouth-watering fun!

Governor Jay Inslee proclaimed September Food Literacy Month here in Washington state. The objectives are to "promote food education, inspire food choices that are good for people and good for the planet, encourage parental involvement, and motivate communitywide support." 

We honored this proclamation by using books to spark conversation in Kindergarten through 3rd grade about the impact of food choices, awareness of where our food comes from, appreciation for those who help bring food to our tables, and the importance of being open to trying new foods.

An especially inspirational and informative book was Jacqueline Briggs Martin's Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table from local publisher and food literacy advocates, Readers to Eaters. It tells the true story of a professional basketball player who saw a need in the community and worked tirelessly, using his expertise and drawing people together, to make tremendous things happen. This story connected well with our own school garden and composting initiative.


In 2nd and 3rd grades we used the lively and colorful Yum! MmMm! Qué Rico! Americas' Sproutings by Pat Mora to create our own food haiku, accompanied by Tagxedo word clouds. Here are a few for you to enjoy!

Party in your mouth

A burst of herbs on my tongue

It says, “Eat me now!”

- Audrey

Sweet burst in your mouth

Happy passion, bumpy seeds

Red and white makes pink.

- Kyson

Yummy cheesy bits

Shredded bits of parmesan

Bubbling cheese bread

- Nathan

Improving Wikipedia, one article at a time

After dabbling a bit with OneNote, I decided to give it a try with our second Simple English Wikipedia project which challenges fifth grade students to counteract the pervasive geographical and gender bias in this popular resource. 

I chose Simple English Wikipedia (SEW) because it serves young readers and English language learners so the expectations for the complexity of the work was more realistic for a group of 10- and 11-year-olds.

Working in their table groups, students compared the treatment of a single topic in regular and SEW and recorded their comments in a Venn diagram:

Next, they brainstormed the likely audiences for each version so they would have their readers in mind as they wrote. Working in pairs or individually, students selected topics that would help rectify the imbalances they had learned about.

Another aspect of this project was improving their research skills by requiring them to use the wonderful databases from the public library to gather information:

The final step was writing their articles in OneNote. Here is what part of one team's work looked like:  

It was an interesting experience moving this unit to the OneNote environment! This change made it a lot easier for the students to collaborate in a meaningful and efficient way. I'm sure I can find ways to take this even further next year. 

Want to see what they produced? Keep in mind that due to the nature of a wiki, what you read now has likely been edited by other users (which builds in another information literacy lesson for the students!) but I am delighted that this site that is accessed by millions worldwide is now broader and more inclusive.

• James "Duke" Aiona
• James Armistead
• Claudette Colvin
• Misty Copeland
• Evelyn Boyd Granville
• Madhur Jaffrey
• Daniel James, Jr.
• Sybil Ludington
• Wilma Mankiller
• Marissa Mayer
• I.M. Pei
• Molly Pitcher
• Raj Reddy
• Sonia Sotomayor
• Maria Tallchief
• Vivienne Tam
• Ahmed Zewail

The joys of storytelling!

Storytelling is experiencing a revival these days, from exposure on podcasts such as The Moth to the thousands of attendees at the National Storytelling Festival to local guilds and events, such as our own PowellsWood Storytelling Festival every July.

 

I bring one or two storytellers to campus every year to expose students to this wonderful art, and also engage students as active tellers through games and activities.

The National Storytelling Network's position paper on the importance of storytelling in education, says that "Storytelling helps students be active not only in presenting but also in focused listening and reacting, enhancing the vital skills of communication. Storytelling is an ancient art that strengthens and enhances skills that children need to acquire to function in today’s world." Of course, it is also a great deal of fun!

Fourth graders spent a couple of weeks playing storytelling games in pairs and circles. Finally they each learned and performed - in one class session - a Russian folktale from one of Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss' books. First they practiced telling the story to the wall, then to a partner (see above). Next, some volunteers shared their versions with the whole class. Check out these wonderful examples:

The Biggest Lie, version 1 

The Biggest Lie, version 2

The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake.. and the OWS kids who were hot on its trail!

The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake by Robin Newman is a new beginning chapter book that introduces a pair of intrepid mouse detectives hot on the trail of a dastardly cake thief! In Kindergarten and First Grade we spent several fun weeks on this story which is full of clever puns and word play. Readers also have to pay close attention to the clues to figure out who might be guilty...

First we discussed the mystery genre and some specialized vocabulary words. To test students' skills as witnesses, I asked them what Ms. Bishop, our LLC Assistant, was wearing as they'd walked past her just a few minutes before. Here is a typical set of answers and a shot of what Ms. Bishop was actually wearing that day:

Next, we started reading the book, taking notes about the various suspects in our detective notebooks:

We discussed our suspicions with classmates and wrote down our conclusions before reading the final chapter and discovering whodunit... (You'll have to read the book yourself to see if this guess is correct!)

The real icing on the cake was our video chat with the author! Students were full of great questions and Robin gave us an interesting glimpse behind the scenes.

Here they react with stunned surprise upon discovering that the process of writing and publishing the book took 8 years! (Not the "couple of months" they had guessed!)

Not only did we have a lot of fun with The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake, but students learned the importance of paying close attention to information in texts and making predictions, as well as a better understanding of all the hard work that goes into being an author!

Hands-on fun: Roald Dahl meets the makerspace!

It seems like no coincidence that even as advances in technology make many aspects of life more intangible, deeply satisfying traditional pursuits such as oral storytelling and handicrafts are gaining tremendous popularity and respect. Very often this results in an intriguing fusion of old and new: listening to personal stories not around a campfire or on a neighbor's porch, but via a podcast that brings you voices of people you'd never otherwise cross paths with. Similarly, makerspaces meld remarkable new materials with time-honored skills.

In 3rd grade we combined literature appreciation (my personal favorite Roald Dahl novel, Danny the Champion of the World) with Design Thinking and a big dose of makerspace fun.

I don't want to spoil the end of the book for anyone who is unlucky enough not to have read it, but the challenge we took on was designing a better mouse pheasant trap!

Step one: researching and taking notes about pheasants. Danny's father is a poacher, which means he has a deep understanding of the animals he hunts and the environment they inhabit.

Step two: collaborate with your partner to design a trap that will foil greedy Mr. Hazell's plans but not do excess damage to the pheasants or their habitat.

Step three: receive constructive criticism from another team. Offer the same in return. Does your trap show creative use of limited resources? Does it exhibit knowledge of pheasant biology? Respect for the earth? Is it likely to work? Consider the feedback and make improvements!

Step four: build, test, tweak, repeat!

Some of our young makers will be exhibiting their traps at the NWAIS Makerfest next month. Several teams are already hard at work creating extensions to their projects--programming simulations, using 3D printers, and more!

Brendan Buckley's Book Club & Everything in It

Multiracial people represented the fastest growing group in the 2010 census, showing how far we've come since Loving v. Virginia, which in 1967 made interracial marriages legal everywhere in the US! My own parents' interracial marriage took place two years before this date - and Sundee Frazier's parents' one year after it. Her writing is rooted in a deep understanding of identity and shifting social values.

I was excited to bring Sundee to one of our faculty meetings a few years ago, to discuss how we can create the most welcoming and supportive environment for our multiracial students. And it was a thrill to bring her back to meet some of our kids!

Our second 3rd/4th grade book club focused on her book Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It, a funny and moving middle grade novel that is all about curiosity and discovery.

Imagining a different personal history - one in which her interracial family had a less harmonious relationship - Sundee wrote about Brendan, a biracial boy growing up in Tacoma. His passion for rocks and minerals forges a bond with the grandfather he'd never met and in the process helps to heal old family wounds.

This book sparked some thought-provoking discussions among the students on prejudice, learning from mistakes, blame and forgiveness. We also had the thrill of welcoming Sundee to our final meeting. She showed up with a rock and mineral collection and was even wearing a necklace made from the famous Ellensburg blue agate! Sundee described her path to fulfilling her dream of becoming an author, and shared some of her early work from childhood and grad school. The conversation was lively!

During an earlier book club meeting, students were inspired by Brendan's own "Book of Big Questions about Life, the Universe and Everything in It" (in which he wrote down all the questions he was musing about). Here are some of the ones they came up with for their own books:

• How long have people been reading books?
• What is the area of the earth?
• How do people make hot chocolate powder mix?
• How many languages are there in the world?
• Why do people act differently to please others?
• Why do people do mean things?
• Why do some people hate math?
• Why isn't there school on Saturday?

Brendan's story is a reminder to all of us to remain curious and open-hearted as we go through life.