Hi everyone,
I just learned that my book with LYNNE KULICH and TIM RASINSKI is coming out sooner than I thought. The Fluency Development Lesson: Closing the Reading Gap, a Professional Development Book published by Benchmark Education, is set for a July 15 pub date. The cover is posted on Amazon.
Hi everyone,
I’m happy that our proposal to present at NCTE has been accepted. MARY JO FRESCH, TIM RASINSKI, and I submitted the proposal, with an abstract title of “Building Students’ Literacy and Language Strengths with Collaborative, Engaging, and Empowering Experiences.”
As much as I look forward to attending the conference and seeing old friends, Boston in late November? Really? Temperature highs may be in the 40s and lows in the 30s. Really?
Hi everyone,
I look forward to a good morning of work today. At 1:00 I’m scheduled for a forty-five minute Zoom Q/A session with an editor from Benchmark Education. This is for an upcoming blog post they’ll use to help promote the book I’m finishing with TIM RASINSKI and LYNNE KULICH. The book is called The Fluency Development Lesson, Closing the Reading Gap. It’s my first title with Benchmark, a large publisher with nearly 13,000 employees in the United States. I’m impressed by their careful, thorough approach to moving the book forward. We’re at the printers now in time for a fall release. I’ll show you a cover when I’m told I can.
Hi everyone,
I’m proud to host Poetry from Daily Life. Since starting the column in November 2023, a growing number of featured guests have added their wit and wisdom to a list of wonderfully talented people. Counting those who have already been featured and those coming up in coming weeks and months, the number currently stands at sixty, and they are located across America and beyond. I’m grateful to all of the gifted poets and proponents of poetry for making this such a unique column, and I’m grateful to all of you for reading what we have to offer. I hope you will share these columns with others who will enjoy them. This weekend it will be my privilege to post a new column of mine. It’s called “Roadside Inspirations” and includes a poem sparked from a highway billboard. I hope you enjoy my offering.
On other matters, today at 1:30 CST I’ll be interviewed via Zoom by a TV anchor/reporter in Kansas City and at 3:00 I’ll visit by phone with the executive director of Missouri Center for the Book. The rest of my time will be spent working on the book that TIM RASINSKI and I are putting together. It will be a good day.
Hi everyone,
TIM RASINSKI and I have received the news that our book with Shell Education in 2016, Rhymes of the Times, Literacy Strategies through Social Studies (Classroom Resources) is going out of print.
The project was written as three books, one each for grades 4, 5, and 6. At the last minute an editorial decision was made to combine all three into one large book. Internally, the book meant for 4th grade teachers was about states, the book for 5th grade teachers was about American history, and the book for 6th grade teachers was about ancient history. We wondered why a teacher in any one of those grades would be interested in paying for an expensive book, two-thirds of which was written for other grades. I value and respect this publisher. I’ve done other books with them and have newer titles in their line now. I wish there were a way to find a second life for these three books as separate books elsewhere. I’m sure that Tim and I will consider the options. Here are two examples of poems that were the source for classroom activities to strengthen reading skills.
Pioneers
No interstates,
no highways,
no roads, paved or graveled.
Only trails toward the westward sun,
deeply rutted by iron clad wheels
of wagons weighted by everything
a family might need along the way
and at the end of their journey.
Little room for passengers,
but for the weak and ill,
amid the stores of food,
dishes, clothing, furniture,
tools, and bedding.
Most rode horse or mule
or walked by their wagon,
inching ten miles a day,
month after weary month
for half a year through heat,
flooded rivers, hostile territory.
Yet they came
and still they came,
determined folks determined
to start anew in a new world.
Peopling the west,
ensuring the future
of a young America.
*
Imperial Rome, 2,100 years ago
Caesar himself,
so it was said,
hated the ruckus --
chariots rattling stony streets,
dogs yapping, screaming boys,
vendors shouting, crowded shops,
roaring hubbub, thrumming noise --
“Enough!”
Caesar might have said --
pounding hoof beats, beggars’ cries,
bleating animals, shrieks, squeals,
cracking whips, roaring crowds,
warlike groaning iron wheels --
“I cannot think!”
All was jangle, throb, and clamor,
Clatter, chatter, clang, and clop.
Caesar must have held his head
and longed to make the noises stop.
The biggest city on the earth,
a million people called it home.
“It’s noisy here,” said Caesar.
It was Rome!
(c) 2016 David L Harrison, all rights reserved
Children's Author David L. Harrison's Blog 