BULLETIN: Happy Birthday, Robin! I love you. Dad
BULLETIN: This in from our friend Nile Stanley: his poetry calendar for May. Thanks for sharing it, Nile.
The May Reading Calendar is a wonderful resource that is “just a click away” for teachers, librarians, parents, and children. Creator Nile Stanley has compiled a set of multimedia activities, hyperlinks to online lessons, games and videos that help children learn to read, to enjoy reading and to engage with the new literacies. Every day of each month contains an activity that children can do on their own, with siblings, or with guidance from a teacher or parent.
The May, 2011 calendar and previous months are available for free as a PDF file at http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/show.php?i=1270824&cat=1 To view a document click on its name in black.
If the sound is not on when you open the PDF, click the sound control in upper left hand corner and be sure your speaker volume is on.
Hi everyone,
Day in and day out the most popular post I’ve done is the one I’m re-posting here today. It seems that most people like the idea of poems that feature more than one voice. The book I did with Tim Rasinski and Gay Fawcett (both of whom you’ve met as Featured Guests on my blog) continues to do well and I frequently read my poems from it when I visit schools.
At the International Reading Association conference in Orlando this Sunday, May 8. I’ll be part of an all-day institute. My topic is, “Poems for Multiple Voices — Writing and Performing.” On Monday, Tim Rasinski and I will co-present a demonstration of reading partner poems from our book. Anyway, here’s the repeat post. By the way, I chose a different poem this time.
Our new book
You may have heard Tim Rasinski speak if you’ve attended conferences where reading fluency was discussed. He’s a professor at Kent State University and is one of our leading authorities on the subject. I have a new book out with Tim and another expert on reading fluency, Gay Fawcett, of Kent State and other universities.
The book, published by Scholastic Teaching Strategies, is called PARTNER POEMS FOR BUILDING FLUENCY, GRADES 4-6. I co-wrote the introduction and created 40 original multiple-voice poems. Let me correct that. My friend Terry Bond, teacher and former high school curriculum coordinator, co-wrote one, and two others were inspired by my one-upmanship conversations with my young friend Ryan Brinkerhoff, who was ten or twelve at the time. The other 37 were all mine! The idea is that children improve reading skills, including fluency, by sharing aloud poems for two or more voices.
If you have an interest in such a book, it’s now on the market. Confusingly, Scholastic has another book with an almost identical name with poems by Bobbi Katz. I don’t mind if you get her book too!
Here’s an example from our book. If you haven’t tried writing a poem for two voices, give it a whirl. It’s a great way to talk to yourself!
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
2 voices
(child)
What’s that green thing?
(parent)
Brussels sprouts.
(child)
I don’t want no Brussels sprouts.
(parent)
Any.
Come on, try some Brussels sprouts.
(child)
I don’t want no Brussels sprouts!
(parent)
Any.
These are special Brussels sprouts.
(child)
I don’t want no Brussels sprouts!
(parent)
Any.
Just one taste of Brussels sprouts.
(child)
If I taste these Brussels sprouts,
then can I have something else?
(parent)
Sure!
(child)
Ugh!
I hate these Brussels sprouts!
(parent)
Here’s some yummy cottage cheese, pickled beets, cauliflower,
lima beans, and chicken liver.
(child)
Please pass the Brussels sprouts.
I don’t want no chicken liver.
(parent)
Any.
