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Our school celebrated by participating in the simultaneous reading of “The Gettysburg Address”.  Dubbed “The Four Score and Seven” project, this is a national attempt to establish a new Guinness Book of World Record for the most people reading aloud simultaneously.  Our second thru sixth graders all participated in the choral reading.  Hearing their voices at the end, “of the people, by the people, for the people” was moving. 

In addition to coordinating the event, today was story day for K-3.  How do you choose which of the many new Lincoln books to read aloud?  I didn’t.  I gave commercials for several of our recent purchases.   

To begin, the students and I discussed the word Bicentennial with the roots bi and cent.  I explained that because of the Lincoln Bicentennial publishers have recently released a number of wonderful new titles.  Rappaport’s “Abe’s Honest Words” is one I introduced to them, but did not read all aloud.  First grade and up know about quotation marks, so I related their knowledge to the fact that the “honest words” in the books were quotes or quotations from Lincoln.  (Information Literacy skill!) With second and third grade I read them the last quote in the book.  They quickly recognized the ending of “The Gettysburg Address”.  It was a special moment with each class for they all spontaneously joined me in the ending and I was able to again hear their voices.  “…government of the people, by the people, for the people…”. 

I allowed classes to indirectly chose which of the titles I would read aloud in its entirety by asking them to vote (with eyes closed) on whether they were in the mood for a happy story or a sad story.  The happy story was going to be Jim Aylesworth’s “Our Abe Lincoln”, but EVERY class surprised me and voted for sad.  They must like to see me cry when I read???  I sang them bits of “Our Abe Lincoln” anyway as a book commercial.  The subtitle is “an old song with new lyrics” and you indeed MUST sing (not read) it to the tune of “The old gray mare.”  

But the kids chose sad and “Abe Lincoln Comes Home” by Robert Burleigh fits the bill!  They kids all know about Lincoln’s assassination, therefore I actually begin introducing the book by telling them about Lincoln’s Farewell Address, his brief words to his friends and neighbors in Springfield as he left to assume the presidency on February 11, 1861.  Lincoln’s Farewell was final, for his only return was via his funeral train on May 2, 1865.  I showed my students the map at the back of the book and told them that what impressed me was the common man’s reaction.  Sure the big cities had the train stop for huge memorials, but it was the many who waited by remote tracks all along the route that touch my heart.  And this is the subject of Burleigh’s book.  I also took the opportunity to remind the students of a wonderful but dying custom of today; when passing a funeral procession on the highway it is courtesy to pay your respects by pulling over and stopping.  A few kids knew the custom, but I encouraged them to practice it and educate their parents if necessary.  This seemed to help them understand why folks in 1865 would drive miles and miles to simply stand by the tracks to watch a funeral train pass. 

On a lighter note, each student in my schools were given a penny pin today.  My aide and I made all 900 of them and pinned them through Lincoln Bicentennial cards I made from white cardstock.  The penny pin project was fraught with setbacks, but the genuine appreciation from students Kindergarten through 8^th grade made it worth all the trouble.

Today was the Lincoln Bicentennial.  My efforts today were “for the people” – for the young people whom I hope will remember today as a special time in their learning experience.  To quote Lincoln:  “Upon the subject of education, I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.”  Perhaps it is the fact that Mr. Lincoln (don’t call him Abe!) acquired the bulk of his education from reading books that serves to endear him to my librarian’s heart.  I celebrate his memory!

I followed the reading of One is a feast for a mouse:  A thanksgiving tale  (which only took about 6 minutes to read aloud) with a non-fiction title about turkeys.  I used a beginning reader with lovely photographs which allowed me to quickly share facts about turkeys. 

I did not read this title as much as I used it to talk with the students about turkeys.  There are more ways to “share” a book than reading it aloud!  Sometimes I shared facts;  I did my homework on turkey facts ahead of time.  Sometimes students contributed facts; kids love to be the experts on a topic and I am truly delighted (and make sure they know it) at what I can learn from them.  Sometimes I ask questions; pulling information from students by questioning promotes higher order thinking! 

We talked a lot about wild turkeys versus farm raised turkeys.  This allowed me to share MY true stories about four wild turkeys who, for a year or so, hung around the nearby village of Bonfield.  I supervise the school library there as well (grades 4-5) and the turkeys were often in the parking lot.    These four were infamous for attacking cars.  They would block the road and peck at your tires.  Scared of you if you got out, but not of your car, eventually there was only one turkey left.  Obviously taking on automobiles is not a healthy habit for turkeys. 

The lone turkey of Bonfield survived for another year.  One of the “turkey facts” is that they are social and hang with the flock and the Bonfield turkey seemed to consider the grade school his flock… he rarely left the parking lot/recess area.  He never got too close to people, but he hung around anyway.  I shared with the students that the principal was NOT fond of the messes the turkey left in the parking lot.  (Poop humor – always popular with K-3!) 

The Bonfield turkey is gone now.  Hopeful rumor has it that he joined another flock of wild turkeys.  But, as I shared with the students, he is immortalized via You Tube in a series of very teenage posts by my youngest daughter:

Bonfield Turkey Part 2 (Listen close you can hear him gobble!)

Bonfield Turkey – Part 3 (The attack) 

Not just in Bonfield! (Apparently turkeys, domestic and wild, outside of Bonfield also chase cars!)

Sharing “true stories” of my own and utilizing a non-fiction title for information helps my students connect the real world with books – an important concept in basic information literacy!   Drawing in a You Tube video reinforces the concept that information takes many forms and it is up to the consumer to connect them! 

You Tube is blocked at school so I didn’t actually share the video – I shared that it existed and how they could find it at home searching with the terms “Bonfield” and “turkey”. (I could have downloaded it for sharing, but I didn’t feel like setting up the equipment to show a one minute clip!) This brief discussion of You Tube also included some cautions about the tool; there are good things and bad things on it and we must ALL be careful and discerning!  I advised my students to always use You Tube WITH their parents!

Inserting ourselves into the student projects is what school library media specialists do.  Francis Jacobsen Harris, Uni High Media Specialist in Champaign/Urbana did a wonderful job contrasting the roles and expectations of public librarians and school librarians in a 2003 article for Reference & User Services Quarterly.*  Frances describes how she volunteered to help when her son’s class went to the public library to do research.  Harris says “while I floated from group to group, inserting myself into conversations and checking on progress, the reference librarians stayed at their desks and waited for students to approach them with questions.”

“Inserting myself” – That IS role of the school librarian during research projects!

It was interesting to note, also, that Harris thought the students welcomed her help and responded better to her while they remained timid with the reference librarian.  I don’t doubt it.  Kids don’t say what they want or need because they often do not know!  The art of being a teacher librarian is to ask a lot of leading questions and allow the students to discover answers for themselves.  But sometimes what you discover is that the student does not have enough background information to discover their answer without your direct intervention.  This was the case last week.

Eighth grade history classes have been in the library researching colonial topics.  The history teacher is a master at creating excellent group research projects – she’s the best I’ve ever seen.  She and I both circulate among the students.  Even when no one seems to need my help, I check in with each group and remind them that they can approach me for help at any time.  One young man finally told me he needed a book on religion.

The questioning began:

Me:  “Why do you need a book on religion?”

Student:  “I need to find out about religion in our colony.”

Me:  “You are less likely to find information about a specific colony in a religion book.  You are much more likely to find the information on religion in the book you have on the colony.  I’m sure it includes a discussion of religion.”

Student:  “No, it doesn’t.  I’ve been reading it.”

Me:  “What is your colony?”

Student:  “Pennsylvania”

What I wanted to say but DID NOT -  “Pennsylvania?  Pennsylvania?  Is there a more religion based colony than Pennsylvania?  How can you NOT have found that information?  Did you really read anything?”

But you do NOT say these things.  Ever.  And the longer you work with students, the more you reject this initial response in yourself.  This is where the teacher librarian must remember that all students are fragile.  If you ever want them to approach you for assistance again, you must tread carefully.

What I say is, “Let’s look at it together.”

We open the book together.  The first sentence says that “William Penn, a Quaker from….”

Me:  “Read the first sentence to me.”

He reads.  “What is that word,” I say, pointing to Quaker.

Student:  “I don’t know.”

Me:  “Quaker is a religion.”  (It is important to say this in just the right tone – not mocking nor with any hint of superiority.  This answer has to be about information sharing only.)

“Oh-h-h-h,” says my student.  It talks about Quaker all through the book.”  Light bulb.  Aha!

But my student is a little embarrassed.  I have to make him feel safe.

“There you go,” I say, like we discovered it together.

With young readers, what they don’t know hurts them!

This student was lacking critical background information and it hindered his information seeking.  He didn’t know the word Quaker and that impacted everything.  But that is why I am there…  and why I love my job!

* Harris, Frances Jacobson, Lori Arp, and Beth S. Woodard. “Information Literacy in School Libraries.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 42.3(2003): 215.

Ferdinand was a story that I wanted to read straight through; I only broke the narrative twice while reading aloud.  In an effort to expand the students’ horizons, stimulate their curiosity, and sneak in a few basics of Information Literacy we discussed cork trees and bullfighting before starting the story.

I showed the students a coaster made from cork, asking them if they could identify the material.  Most couldn’t identify cork until I brought out a bottle stopper cork.  (It is a cork and is made of cork.)  I set up a rationale for learning about cork by saying the illustrator had some humor in the book, but unless you were educated about cork you couldn’t appreciate it.  Then I began sharing facts about cork:

• comes from the bark of a Cork Oak tree
• Some grow in the US, but mostly in Spain & Portugal and other Mediterranean countries.
• Cannot harvest until tree is 20-25 years old
• Renewable resource – can harvest again in 8-10 years
• Cork Oak trees can live as much as 150 years
• Shared pictures printed from Internet of a tree, closeup of trunk, and stacks of harvested cork.  (Do a Google image search on Cork Oak Tree.)

I then shifted discussion to how I knew these facts.  I had a C volume encyclopedia in my hand and told each class how I love to look things up to learn more about something.  I shared how my family’s dinner discussions often meant we brought an encyclopedia to the table.  At this point we also discussed how Internet can be a good source of information, too, if you don’t have a print encyclopedia.  Through questioning, the students and I discussed how Internet information is not necessarily written by credible sources like a print encyclopedia.  I stressed the importance of good authority when using information on-line.  (K-3 students aren’t ready to learn about databases vs Google, but this is laying groundwork!)

Then we talked about bullfighting.  These K-3 students were not familiar with the term Matador, but the red cape and routine were very familiar from cartoons.  Facts shared:

• Bull fighting is very popular in Spain, Portugal, Mexico and some South American countries
• Many stadiums in those places just for bull fighting.  Largest is in Mexico City – 55,000 seats.
• The sport is illegal in some countries, including ours because it is seen as extreme cruelty to the animal.
• Bulls are bred to be big and fierce, and fight wildly.
• Discussion on cruelty to animals included my caution that they should never do something deliberately to hurt or upset an animal such as teasing a dog behind a fence. 
• While Bullfighting might not be a good thing, Ferdinand IS a good story anyway!

At this point I began reading the story.  (Hint:  whenever Ferdinand sits quietly and smells the flowers, pause and take a deep sniff as if you are breathing in a wonderful fragrance.  The students will soon be quietly doing it with you.)  I only broke the narrative at the page which illustrates the cork tree with corks hanging from it in bunches like grapes.  After reading that page I asked the students to take a close look and, now that they know the real facts about cork, could they see where the illustrator was being funny?  Without the preparation they would have been clueless, but the students loved being an insider on this humor.  “See what educating yourself can do for you?”

I only paused one more time, briefly, after the entrance of the Banderilleros (who stick the bull with pins to make him mad) and the Picadores (who stick the bull with spears to make him madder).  At this point I made a quick editorial comment, “See, I told you bullfighting wasn’t very nice to the bull.”

There are all sorts of pacifist possibilities with Ferdinand, but while I will preach about renewable resources and not teasing the neighbor’s dog (or any animal) I prefer not to get overly political with K-3.  With a few classes, however, I did say I thought there was a playground lesson in the book.  I turned to the page where Ferdinand wouldn’t fight and the Matador ended up crying.  The point I stressed with the students was that it took two to make a fight.  Sitting quietly might mean a problem will fizzle out and go away. 

As with all of these oldie-but-goodies titles I’ve been reading aloud recently, the students responded warmly to The Story of Ferdinand.  I still love the phrase, “he still liked to sit just quietly under the cork tree and smell the flowers.”  Be careful to read it as written.  The ‘just quietly’ is unique.  And as for smelling flowers, perhaps Mac Davis was inspired by Ferdinand!?

Link to Lesson Plans and Activities 

Before I started reading the book to the students, I used it to discuss endpapers, title pages, and copyright date:

• We looked at how endpages are heavier to attach the book to the cover and how they can often be decorative in themselves.
• With each group we examined the title page. Kindergarten students were able to read the title along with me. We discussed how Virginia Lee Burton was both author and illustrator. For the second and third graders I mentioned how important the title page will be when they begin reading for information and must cite where they obtained the information. And, yes, I used the word “cite” but I explained it in context.
• I then referred to the back of the title page and challenged the teachers (who all remain in the room while I read) whether they knew the official name for the back of the title page. None of them knew it was a Latin word, verso. I assured the students that verso is probably a library/publishing only word – but now they know it, too! With some groups I mentioned how verso and reverse are related words because of the Latin.
• The copyright date of The Little House is 1942. I always try to relate copyright years to the world for students: In 1942 World War II was just started, and my father was six year’s old. Not all students have a concept of time; one first grader followed my time-line explanations by asking me how old I was in 1942. Without any hint of criticism I guided him to think about how old I would have been if my father was six years old. “We’re only six,” another student pointed out, not unkindly. The light bulb went on.

As I open to the first page I ask the students to watch the Little House because she is definitely the main character in this book. I point out how Burton made the house seem alive with emotions as the book progresses. I find this one of the most appealing aspects of the book and the students agree!

Many books can (and should) be read straight through so pace and story aren’t interrupted, but The Little House invited stopping to examine a few things. Vocabulary words and concepts we paused for included phases of the moon taking approximately a month (as beautifully represented in Burton’s illustration) and older words such as horseless carriage and cellar. I usually don’t give definitions or explanations, but rather lead the students with questions so they can make the connections themselves. This is SO much more valuable and they are very proud of themselves when they figure it out or already know it. And it is not always the “best and brightest” who make the connections so it can be a real boost for any student. We also discussed how the nearby large town once had trolleys, how Chicago is famous for her elevated trains, and how a nearby apple orchard is blurry pink if you pay attention driving by right now. After this very long and snowy winter spring is coming!

Read more:

SLJ article on 60th Anniversary

Houghton Mifflin books by Virginia Lee Burton

Lesson plan for The Little House

Make Way for Ducklings was the 1942 winner of the Caldecott Medal. (A number of Caldecott winners are on my top ten list of childhood favorites, however I do not recall focusing on that award as a child.) With its charcoal line drawings this book was timely for our school. Mark Kistler had just presented a wonderful assembly on drawing so my students immediately recognized elements he taught them such as shading and shadow in McCloskey’s wonderful drawings. (Kistler refers to elements of drawing as Renaissance Words and I was impressed with how much the students retained.)

The reading of Ducklings was followed with a short PowerPoint created from personal vacation pictures and photos from the Internet. (Google Image search is quick and easy!) So much in the book is real: Boston’s Public Garden, the Swan Boats, the Charles River and the Longfellow Bridge, and the State House to name a few. The PowerPoint included a map of this part of Boston. With the help of animated arrows we traced the ducklings’ trip from the Charles River across highway 28 (with Michael’s assistance), down Mt. Vernon street, right on Charles Street, across Beacon Street (with the help sent by Clancy) and into the Public Garden gate. Since 1987 visitors to the Public Garden are greeted just inside the very same gate by a statue of Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings. McCloskey’s drawings are so accurate and richly detailed! The students and teachers both enjoyed comparing the pictures in the book with the real places. (Later I discovered a wonderful resource on Google Earth – Google Lit trips - that I wish I had used.)

By connecting the book with the real world of Boston I hope to subtly introduce Information Literacy skills – higher order thinking, map reading, verifying what is real and what is not through the use of additional resources, etc.Although the humans depicted in the book are wearing 40s clothing, the book is not otherwise dated and my students responded to the book with the same enjoyment I have felt for all these years. They may be ducks, but it is still a warm story about family that leaves the reader satisfied.

Resources:

Map activities

Google Lit Trip! using Google Earth

Radio Interview with McCloskey - Enjoy yourself, but don’t bore the kids with it!