The World According to Humphry

I recently read the book The World According to Humphrey which has a reading level of 4.2 (4th grade, 2nd month) and an interest level for grades 2-5. I ordered this book from the latest Scholastic Book Catalog.  I noticed my daughter has an interest in this series and her teacher was reading this book aloud to her students, so I thought I would read it myself as well!

So, Humphry is a class hamster in room 26. He loved his time spent with his long-term substitute teacher, Mrs. Mac, but since she’s left, he is heartbroken. When the classroom teacher, Mrs. Brisbane, returns, she does not want Humphrey, does not take him home each night like Mrs. Mac, leaving Humphrey alone and sad.

Humphrey ends up taking turns spending the weekend with first the principal (he wreaks havoc in his home!) and then various classmates. As he spends his time with classmates, we uncover new information about each child’s life (and eventually Mrs. Brisbane's life) that impacts his/her time at school.

What I loved about this book is how Humphrey is able to help each person solve problems. My favorite example of this from the story is the girl who doesn’t participate in class. Mrs. Brisbane pushes and pushes her to participate, even threatening to send a letter home to her parents. From his stay with her, Humphrey realized that English is not spoken in her home and her family has a minimal grasp on the English language. Because the child insists that everyone must speak English around Humphrey for that weekend, the mother makes the decision to enroll in English courses to help her learn the language.

This, to me, stresses the importance of cultural awareness and understanding cultural norms. Not all students see the world from a white, middle-class, and female perspective (i.e. the viewpoint of most elementary teachers).  Teachers must be considerate and understanding of this.

From a teacher’s viewpoint, this novel teaches children that each individual, each family, has its own story. Students could then write, create, draw, etc. THEIR story to share with the class---supporting cultural identities.

Looking forward to re-reading this book with my daughter. I’m also excited to share that I have a copy of Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan which was recommended to me by my friend and 5th-grade teacher.   Can’t wait to get started on that book today! 

Till next week,

Dr. Kingsley

Read it Like a Writer & Notice how Writer's Research

Read Like a Writer Post

Wow, The Thing about Jellyfish has been a great read! I have been reading this entire book “like a writer” and admiring everything about Ali Benjamin’s writing craft. Specifically, I LOVE how she ties in animal research into her plot. The main character connects with science. She finds comfort in the predictability of science and we see a relationship build throughout the chapters with her science teacher.   As Suzy, the main character, becomes more and more focused (obsessed really) with her theory that a jellyfish is what caused her best friend’s death (rather than from drowning), she begins to share commonalities and differences between a jellyfish and a human. She weaves metaphors of herself as the jellyfish, and the world as humans—and using this info to share the magnificent wonders of the universe.

If I were using this text as a read aloud with upper elementary students (5th/6th grades), I would pull in the impact of research and fact in narrative writing. 

To provide a bit of background about this specific passage I’m about to share…. The main character shares many flashbacks of her friendship with Franny (the girl who drowned). Once inseparable, their friendship falls distant as Franny shifts to becoming friends with the “popular girls” and changes her behavior, her core that Franny knows inside and out, to fit in with the crowd. She can’t stop Franny, and Suzzy becomes victim to bullying and middle school harassment.

So here’s the passage I would use:

Another thing you should know: Jellyfish are stronger than we are. Consider this: A jellyfish sting is one of the fastest reactions in the animal kingdom. Their stingers are coiled like harpoons, millions of invisible weapons just waiting. When jellyfish tentacles brush a surface, even faintly, they spring into action. In just 700 billionths of a second—a tiny fraction of the time it would take a person to understand, to think, to react—the jellyfish releases those harpoons, all their position, with the pressure of a bullet.

Jellies can sting long past their own death, long after a tentacle is detached from the rest of the body. Jellyfish are stinging machines, and their stings are as violent as anything on Earth.

But they don’t have to think about that, about who they sting or why. Jellyfish don’t get bogged down by drama, love, friendship, or sorrow. They don’t get stuck in any of the stuff that gets people in trouble.

So, in this example, she is envying the jellyfish – because she is personally dealing with the drama, love, friendship, and sorry and all the hardships that accompany early adolescents. Perhaps in this passage, Franny is the jellyfish---stinging her long after her death.

Most students have a favorite animal—or animal they know a great deal about. There are so many of those amazing animal type picture books as well. For this mini-lesson I would pull this example, and possible others from this book, and talk about how she weaves her highly interesting facts about this animal and connects it to the tension of the story.

I then may do a quick write with a familiar animal (dog/cat) and have students compare/contrast how this animal is alike/different to humans. I then would model or write interactively with my students on how these comparisons can be embedded into a story before encouraging students to do the same. I would pull many of those amazing fact nonfiction books as mentor texts and opportunities for students to research. I think this lesson would be highly challenging, but motivating for this age group. Again, I have been fascinated by how this author weaves her extensive research on jellyfish seamlessly into the plot of this story.

Have a great week,

Dr. K.

Orbiting Jupiter

This week I finished The Year I Got Polio, and have been reading Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt. After starting this book and researching this author, I realized that he was the author of Wednesday Wars, a 2008 Newbery Honor book (which I read and many of my students read when I was a 5th-grade teacher).

So, this is a book that I yearn to read nightly. I’m filled with curiosity and riveted with the author’s writing style. The main character in this text, Jack, is working to find his way with Joseph, a troubled boy who has been taken in by Jack’s family. I want to share one excerpt from this text that I have gone back to and reflected on many times since reading it earlier this week.

In this scene, Joseph walks out on frozen ice, dark ice on a nearby river. Jack is concerned as he knows this river, and its dangers well.

If you don’t know the river, it’s easy to miss where the bank ends and the river begins… it doesn’t wear safe ice until the winter has hung around for a while. And it gets deeper quicker than any river has a right to. I didn’t think Joseph knew the river. 

Joseph ventures out. The tension builds. Joseph steps farther and farther towards the black ice. Jack reminisces back to when he was six and saw a dog drown in the river (Spoiler alert! This is quite sad!).

The yellow dog was farther out on the ice than Joseph, but not much, it had fallen through and its eyes were huge and it was grabbing on with its front paws, scratching, looking for something to hold on to. It wasn’t making a sound. I told my mother we had to go get it, but she held my arm so I wouldn’t go down the river. Her other hand she held over her mouth. Once the dog almost got out, but the ice broke under it again and it was scratching like anything—until suddenly it stopped, put its head down on the ice, slid into the water, and it was gone. Gone. I live on a farm. I see animals die all the time. Never like that.

Even typing this passage from the text is heart wrenching—(its eyes were huge, scratching like anything). Jack goes on to tell about his trauma from this experience. I’ve personally always thought drowning is probably the worst way to die. Viewing this experience through Jack’s eyes was hard for me as a dog lover and a mother.   I see this experience from Jack’s point of view, but also from his mother’s—how do you protect a child from that experience? And, in this moment, Jack is faced fighting to convince Joseph to come back to safety.

I won’t tell you what happens next, you’ll have to read the book yourself! I fully expect to finish this book and hopefully more over fall break. I’ve also downloaded The Boy of on the Porch by one of my favorite authors, Sharon Creech, as an audio book from the Overdrive app. I’m about 1/3 of the way through this book.

Happy reading,

Dr. K.

Who's Afraid of a Ghost?

Ghosts

Raina Telgemeier, if you don’t know her name, you should, and you will once you have a classroom of your own.  She is a New York Times bestselling author of Smile, and Sisters, and Drama.  She has also rewritten four of the famous Babysitter’s Club books into graphic novels, which are icons of my childhood. My daughter has read them all and anxiously awaits her next graphic novel. 

In this book, Ghosts, we are reminded of breath and the breath of life. Cat and Maya are Multiracial, Hispanic girls who moved to a new town in California- on the ocean- for Maya’s health.  Maya has cystic fibrosis and breathing is a daily struggle. The plot builds up the importance of Dia de Los Muertos, The Day of the Dead, and how the spirits are honored in this well-known California ghost town. 

The girls befriend their neighbor, Carlos, who is known as the “ghost guy” – giving ghost tours and who himself is friends with many spirits who are centuries old. 

So back to the theme of breath. . . Maya of course struggles to breath due to her illness.  Cat is anxious and often must be reminded to stop and breath to relax and calm her nerves. Ghosts, have no breath and gather in this windy town on the ocean to take in the wind gusts.  So when the first meet Maya, they innocently take her breath—causing her to become quite sick and hospitalized. 

This book is a positive reminder about life, death, and the afterlife.  It provides some comfort in knowing that those who pass are remembered, and Maya, whose life expectancy is unknown, bravely accepts her fate despite her sister’s fears. 

This is a quick read.  I read it in just about an hour.  I always appreciate children’s literature that exposes children to new cultures, traditions, and ways of thinking.  This book shared an interracial marriage, a mom who regrets her teenage years when lost family traditions from her broken relationship with her mother, and their deceased grandmother, whose spirit is present and intertwined throughout the book. 

And, it made me consider making a move to California.  Seriously, who wouldn't want to wake up to this view every day :)

Dr. Kingsley

The Crossover

“Basketball Rule #1

In this game of life 

your family is the court 

and the ball is your heart. 

No matter how good you are, 

no matter how down you get, 

always leave 

your heart 

on the court.” 

― Kwame Alexander, The Crossover

As a literacy guru, I love to examine titles of books and ponder about why the author selected the given title.  

What is a crossover?  

The dictionary defines this as:"a point or place of crossing from one side to the other"

However, in basketball, a crossover is a dribble where the player  "fakes to one side and gets the defender to follow him/her before abruptly bouncing the ball back over to your other hand when the defender is turned. "(source).  Like these best crossovers in basketball history:

Like Heartbeat, the story is told in a collection of poems, from Josh Bell's point of view--a son of a basketball star and a brother to his twin, Jordan.

Now back to the title, I found many crossover themes within this book:
  

• A crossover to an under-told story.  A story of a minority family and parents who value education, discipline, and self-respect.  

• A crossover on the court, as the twins, basketball stars themselves, are working towards the end point of a championship.  

• A crossover, in brotherhood, as brothers work through growing up together when life tests their friendship.  

• And of course, a big game changing crossover for this lovable family (in which you must read to  "crossover" this information yourself).  

Although I found the plot somewhat predictable. I feel this book has a great deal of power. Power to crossover to hands of young and adolescent boys.  Boys who look down on poetry, boys who love the excitement and passion of basketball, and most importantly boys who do not see themselves represented in literature as boys who need to see life through a different lens.  

The poems read like hip-hop--full of energy and speed

. . . A bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .
The court is SIZZLING
My sweat is DRIZZLING
Stop all that quivering
Cuz tonight I’m delivering.

I'm not surprised this book earned both the 2015 Newbery Medal Winner, and the2015 Coretta Scott King Honor Award Winner.  

It's a must for all classroom libraries and a book you might recommend to help a student crossover into a new genre of literature.

-Dr. K.

The Box

When I left teaching 5th grade five years ago, Alice was 3 and Audrey just 1.  I packed up some of my favorite chapter books and nonfiction texts in a box--which moved with us to our Noblesville home.  I remember debating whether or not I should box them up ,and if I'd really remember to tap into this box (quite large) in five or seven years when my toddler would be reading chapter books.

Last week, I brought up the box from the cellar--Slightly dusty.  Alice, my now 8 year old was thrilled.  We opened it up like Christmas morning and looked at the collection of books- many worn from my former students who enjoyed them as much as me.   I pulled out Heartbeat, by Sharon Creech - one of my favorite read alouds and we began reading it together.

I found myself feeling a bit possessive of the book-- wanting only me to read it aloud to her, the way I read it aloud to my 5th graders.  But of course she wanted to keep reading it at night, so I caved.

This book is a collection of short poems which tell the story of 12-year old Annie, who loves to run.  Run free, outside, barefoot, and without limitations:

I can go at my own pace
and let my head go free
and let the apples turn and roll 
in my mind.

As with all poetry, this book has a rhythm.  When she runs, it's "thump, thump,"a steady rhythm that keeps here life in sync when the world around her is changing.

In this book, one of my favorite poems is when the track coach wants Annie to join the track team when she hears she's "quite a good runner."  Annie, who has NO interest, thinks to herself

No one gets to run her heart out
no one runs barefoot
no one smiles

No one can let her hair go free

And some always the winner looks proud
and the loser looks forlorn

and I can't understand why they 
would spoil
such a good thing
as running.  

What's I love about this conversation is the power struggle Annie recognizes between and adult and child.  As the coach continues to pressure her, and Annie tries her best to say no, Annie recognizes that this is a no win conversation between her and the track coach.

but I know the coach will not leave me alone
until I say something that lets her win 
and so I say
"Okay, maybe I'll come watch.

But I don't mean it.  

I bolded the above because I find it so thought provoking.  A child recognizing that adults must win,  adults have the final say, and adults always know best.  The voice of the child becomes silenced, and Annie fully recognizes this.

Annie's art teacher hands out an apple to each of her students and asks them to draw an apple a day, for 100 days.  As Annie draws, the world around her changes, her relationship changes, and her perspective on life changes as she begins to come to grasp with these changes and the importance of perspective.  Yes, perspective-- she realizes that she does not need the apple to draw it.  She know the apple and shares,

I can draw the apple
that's in my mind

So she begins to draw her apple in her mind with one bit out of it, diminishing more each day until the 100th apple is just the core.

So much symbolism exists in this book that would allow for HOTS discussion with students.  So much is left to interpretation and the conversation with students can lead to important discussions on life, happiness, and change.

At the International Literacy Association Conference this summer, I had the pleasure of hearing Kwame Alexander speak and share selections of his 2015 award winning novel, The Crossover.  Which is also a collection of short poems to tell a story-- a story about a boy and his love for basketball.  Alexandar shares how his writing influences struggling readers, struggling male readers, to get hooked on reading and view poetry in a new light.  He shares how Creech's work in Heartbeat, and Love that Dog, influenced him as an author.  You can watch his keynote speech here-- It's great!

This will be my post for next week as my daughter and I are about 1/2 way through the book!

~Dr. K.