Supporting Academics Through Kidlit

I was walking by a Kindergarten classroom last week when the teacher, Marcia Douglas, invited me in to see her students’ artwork. The kids were sure I’d want to use some of it on my blog. They were right – their art is gorgeous! Our principal thought so too, and now their work is displayed in the front hallway of our school. Take a look:

Their work was not done in response to a story, but they know I normally post about books so they assumed I’d come up with one to match their artwork. I didn’t. However, we had a nice discussion about what kind of story they might want to create to accompany their work. And that led to another discussion about books they’d like to have in their classroom or at home - books that have not yet been written. 

That reminded me of an email I recently received from another SCBWI member. She was considering a topic for an upcoming event and thought of inviting me to speak as part of a panel, focusing on reading and speech development and how authors might support these skills through their work. I was flattered.  It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to make it but I think the topic is an important one.

I can use almost any story with my students, if it is appealing and captures their interest. For students working on articulation (or pronunciation), I love books with repeated phrases and sounds. Kids automatically chime in when there is repetition in a story and that gives them a lot of practice on their target speech sounds or phrases. For students with language delays, books that introduce new vocabulary and model appropriate grammar are invaluable.

If you look at the Common Core Standards, you’ll see how easily a good story can be an effective tool in school. In the language Arts area, kindergarteners are expected to:

           

“With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.” ELA-Literacy. RL.K.3

By first grade, following the same strand, they are expected to:

“Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.” ELA-Literacy. RL.1.3

And by Second grade:

“Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.” ELA-Literacy. RL.2.3

If you are unfamiliar with the standards, ELA means, English Language Arts and RL stands for Reading Literature. K= Kindergarten, 1= First grade, 2= Second grade. For more information on the Common Core Standards take a look here: http://www.corestandards.org/

To keep this post from becoming too academic, I interviewed a few of my students to find out what kind of stories they’d love to see.

Enrique would like a book about how to catch a dinosaur and another one on how to catch an alligator – nonfiction.

Liam is willing to give you his plot ideas. He’d like someone to write a book about him walking down the road, seeing a baby dolphin and taking it home to put in the bathtub.

Skyler wants a book about Goldilocks and the ten pigs.

Moises wants a nonfiction book about George Washington or Michael Jackson.  He also likes fiction and thinks someone should write a story about food coming to life and then going trick-or-treating. I didn’t think to ask him what sort of treats they might get.

Jose would like to see a Santa Series:

Santa on Halloween

Santa passing out Valentines

Santa on Jose’s Birthday

Santa and the Tooth Fairy helping Jose get braces

Raul wants a story about his foot – nonfiction.

So there you have it from the young kidlit advisers. I started asking teachers, and our school librarian, what authors might consider when writing for students but I’ll save those answers for another post. In the meantime, let me know if you have any stories that can accompany the artwork from Ms. Douglas’ Kindergarten class. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.

Tiger Tales

You can’t judge a book by its cover – right? Well, maybe, but kids often do just that. I did a little research this week and spread out six shiny new library books on the speech room table before a group of Kindergarten students came in. I asked them which story they’d like to hear and they all chose the same book. (That’s a dangerous way to operate but I did it in the name of science.) I tried the same experiment with two more groups and all but one child chose alike. Hailey picked a book with puppies on the cover – she absolutely loves dogs – but her second choice matched the others. The book the kids (almost) unanimously chose was, Oh, No! by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann.  The fierce looking tiger on the cover captured their attention as soon as they saw his bright orange and black stripes.

The story was fun to read aloud with the rhythmic repetitions.

            “Frog fell into a deep, deep hole.

                        Ribbit-oops!

                                    Ribbit-oops!

            Frog fell into a deep, deep hole.

                        Ribbit-oops!

            Frog fell into such a deep, deep hole,

            he couldn’t get out to save his soul.”

You would have enjoyed hearing all those frogs around my table. But the students were more excited about the tiger and that reminded me of a student who is no longer at our school. I related this story on my blog a little over a year ago but I think it is worth repeating.

Late one afternoon I gathered paper and fabric scraps for a collage project I’d planned for the following day. Slivers of paper fell to the floor and I scrambled to clean up my mess. The next morning, one of my speech students found two long scraps I’d missed – one sliver of orange felt and a slip of black construction paper. His eyes went wide. He held them close to my face and whispered, “Did you have a tiger in your room?” The other children looked confused for a moment then their faces lit up as they saw the tiger in their imagination, the one that had lost his stripes. Their thoughts took off faster than the animal they’d imagined tearing around the room leaving two stripes behind. They all spoke at once and started scouring the room for the jaguar’s spots, after-all something must have been chasing the tiger. Their story grew with their excitement and so did the opportunity for learning.

Many of the content standards for education can be taught through stories, both those read to children and those they create themselves. When they learn to write or dictate their tales, they’re learning correct sentence structures and grammatical forms. It was easy to remind the students that the tiger hadn’t “runned” through the room but he “ran”. And when students begin to create their own stories, they listen more closely to the structure of others and they begin to understand central ideas.

I didn’t throw out my lesson plans the day we found the tiger’s stripes but I was certainly able to expand on them. And the next time I find a couple slivers of paper on the floor, I doubt I’ll sweep them away without a thought. I hope I’ll think of the tiger that lost them.

I still have those two scraps of paper taped to the side of my file cabinet so I won’t forget the tiger or the child who brought him to life.

You really can’t judge a book by its cover any more than can you judge a child by his outward appearance – even when he appears unfocused and distracted. Who knows what treasures lay within? And that brings me back to Oh, No! by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann. Open that beautiful cover and you’ll find a treasure of words and pictures that can ignite the imagination of a roomful of children.