March is National Reading Month: What would you miss...

Litworld.org asked this question : What would you miss most if you could not read or write?

Videos are posted of diverse voices responding to this question. I posed this question to my RDG practicum students. There was a moment of pause before anyone answered. Their response was as diverse as those on the LitWorld site. What stands out for me is the word "most" which indicates that there is a comparison to something else. Most. I am reminded of the stories about the enslaved who understood the power of reading and writing to the point of risking their lives to master the skill. Hmmm, perhaps "power" is what I would miss most. Sure, there are some people who are functionally illiterate and many students have shared stories about parents and others who could not read nor write. The significance in these shared stories is the tellers were college students who had been charged to "do better" than that. A father who made his children read and discuss newspaper articles with him understood that power. This nonreader was an auditory learner and listened to the news. He expected them to do more than listen. Are expectations lower now? Do we need the power that literacy brings? Has technology minimized the need for that power?

Ask yourself...

"What would I miss most if I could not read or write?"

This month (and each month) read to a child or adult. Give someone a book and a reason to read it, you read too. Discuss the book beginning with the cover and make textual connections: Text to text, text to self and text to world. Talk about the images, ask open-ended questions that might lead to those Aha moments. Think power.

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Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

Memories...

Wordle from When Kambia Elaine Flew in From Neptune

American Library Association 2011 Book Awards

Thought I would share this information.

American Library Association 2011 Children’s Book Awards

2011 Newbery Medal Winner

The 2011 Newbery Medal winner is Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

2011 Honor Books

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm, published by Random House Children's Books, a div. of Random House, IncHeart of a Samurai by Margi Preus, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams.

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen, published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Caldecott 2011 Medal Winner

The 2011 Caldecott Medal winner is A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by Erin E. Stead, written by Philip C. Stead. A Neal Porter Book, published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing.

2011 Honor Books

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Laban Carrick Hill, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Interrupting Chicken, written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein, published by Candlewick Press.

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal

2011 Medal Winner

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Bird, written by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Nic Bishop, published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

2011 Honor Books

Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, written by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Brian Floca. A Neal Porter Book, published by Flash Point, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing

Lafayette and the American Revolution, written by Russell Freedman, published by Holiday House

(Mildred L.) Batchelder Award

2011 Award winner

A Time of Miracles, published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., written by Anne-Bondoux, translated by Y. Maudet.

2011 Honor Books

Departure Time, published by Namelos, written by Truus Matti, translated by Nancy Forest-Flier.

Nothing, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, written by Janne Teller, translated by Martin Aitken.

Pura Belpré Award

2011 Author Award Winner

The Dreamer, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan, illustrated by Perter Sís, published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

2011 Illustrator Award Winner

Grandma's Gift, illustrated and written by Eric Velasquez, published by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., a division of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.

2011 Author Honor Books

¡Ole! Flamenco, written by George Ancona, illustrated by George Ancona, published by Lee and Low Books Inc.

The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba, written by Margarita Engle, published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis, published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing

2011 Illustrator Honor Books

Fiesta Babies, illustrated Amy Cordova, written by Carmen Tafolla, published by Tricycle Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

Me, Frida, illustrated by David Diaz, written by Amy Novesky, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams

Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin, illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams

(Theodor Seuss) Geisel Award

2011 Medal winner

Bink and Gollie, written by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGee, illustrated by Tony Fucile, published by Candlewick Press

2011 Honor Books

Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!, written and illustrated by Grace Lin, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

We Are in a Book!, written and illustrated by Mo Willems, published by Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group

2011 Reading Request

2011. My request...please spend time reading aloud and talking to your child about what is being read. This is SO important. No longer a request...I am begging parents, siblings, caregivers, relatives, friends... Those who care about children, PLEASE, consider their academic and literacy needs. Read aloud, talk about the pictures, discuss the story or whatever text is being read. Keep writing material available for drawing pictures. Reading to and with children does not end when they learn to read, it is a life-long event that enhances literacy development and comprehension skills.

Related articles

• Tips to Help Youngsters Learn to Read and Succeed (eon.businesswire.com)
• Simple Ways to Increase Literacy (socyberty.com)
• Why it is important for Dads to read stories (dadventure.ca)
• Read Them The Way (momblognetwork.com)

African American Children's Literature Set in Harlem

Image via Wikipedia

Harlem, Then and Now

Harlem is the symbolic birthplace of words that have transcended time. The space that nurtured the creative voices of great authors still serves as a well from which contemporary writers draw to create visual and literary images with Harlem as a backdrop. I fell in love with Harlem in the late 1960s, when librarians introduced me to books written by noted authors of the Harlem Renaissance. The first was Richard Wright’s 1938, Uncle Tom’s Children, a compilation of short stories describing southern racist atrocities that ultimately grieved my spirit. Reading Big Boy Leaves Home fostered an aesthetic response that shaped my seventh grade conceptualization of what I now know as the epitome of “othering”. Years later, Walter Dean Myers’novels transported me into exciting young lives often intersecting at Lennox Ave and 145^th ST. Contemporary authors and illustrators continue to celebrate Harlem. Whether it is Bryan Collier’s realistic chocolate visual representation of a Harlem brownstone in Uptown, the poetic voice and vivid illustrations in Myers and Myers Harlem, or Eleanor Tate’s adolescence exploration in Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance, the geographical setting for great literature is still a special place. The literature presented in this column (Between the Covers, published in National Black Child Development Institute Child Health Talk) was chosen to convey that to readers, and whet their literary appetites with a cornucopia of contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction set in Harlem, NYC. Grab a book, take a seat and let’s go Uptown!

To obtain a copy of this column go to:

http://nbcdi.org/blog/2010/09/24/new-child-health-talk-fall-issue/

Image via WikipediaThis is the bittersweet time of the year. The semester is ending and there are papers/portfolio to read and grade. I've finished writing the final exams and will begin reading online postings... Is that bitter or sweet? When I think of all the learning that has taken place this semester, it is sweet. When I think of all the work I have to do that is bitter. Chocolate can make it sweeter!

Well, a short break and Winter Semester starts the cycle again.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN INTEREST CHILDREN’S/YA BOOKS 2011

AFRICAN-AMERICAN INTEREST CHILDREN’S/YA BOOKS 2011

Vivian Johnson

New Knowledge

This has been a knowledge filled evening! My content reading class was working on creating a webquest. We decided to view some samples and found the Lattice Math Webquest. Click! I had to search my mental filing cabinet, thanks Piaget, Mr. Schema theory himself, to conceptualize this term in this context. The coolest thing was to see the math major work this strategy, and to witness him make the textual connection. When he said, "Imagine what this will do for those students who just can't get it. I was one of those... math is my kryptonite. Before the end of class I was cooking with grease! I am sure there are some students who have been using this model since entering school, but I'm Leona the Late Math Bloomer.

It is a great tool!

Well, sleeping now. Basking in the conviviality experienced with some Korean parents. Next time.

Jggdgdwtd

Neighborhood Gentrification

"Gentrification" from the word "Gentrify"... according to my computer dictionary means...

gentrify |ˈjentrəˌfī|

verb ( -fies, -fied) [ trans. ]

renovate and improve (esp. a house or district) so that it conforms to middle-class taste.

• [usu. as adj. ] ( gentrified) make (someone or their way of life) more refined or dignified

My neighborhood in Detroit's North End, between Holbrook and Caniff, is being gentrified in an interesting way. Everything I have read about gentrification in other major urban areas has focused on increased property value, displacement of those unable to afford rising costs and most recently housing with "mixed" cost space. The upper and middle class with live together in harmony. Before the market went on its roller coaster ride, it seems every urban area considered a "blight" was being gentrified. I remember taking a group of middle school kids on a field trip to NYC and while in Harlem on 125th ST. there was a group protesting gentrification. I had to explain to the word to them and tried make a parallel description to some place in Detroit. Kind of hard to do until recently. Downtown post Super Bowl Detroit is experiencing gentrification in small pockets, largely young college age students. Not so in my neighborhood!

A month ago I walking out and saw an EA jogging down Delmar. It was strange because I'd never seen anyone jog south on Delmar unless he/she was running from one the many dogs that roam aimlessly in the area. The words were in my head "Well, there goes the neighborhood." Then I realized I was angry. I can't jog down my own street, but he can. It just felt right to him. I'm not a jogger, I'm just saying, if I wanted to jog to Holbrook and around the service drive, I would not be comfortable doing that. That was the first sighting. Then there were others. A young EA was walking with a young girl headed north on Delmar. The child was chattering away, with no engagement from he adult female. "Going to school at Loving" I thought to myself. Interesting. Then there were more such sitings. Several thin, scraggly looking men justa strolling up and down the sidewalk, all headed north on Delmar.

Our neighborhood church had several air conditioners stolen from the roof. These were not your typical itty bitty cool air blower! I was not pleased to resort to having to use the funeral home church fan when I was trying to get my praise on! The conditioners were replaced, only to have them stolen again! Well, the third time is a charm!

It was the wee hours of the morning, the bewitching hour, when one of the church sisters sitting on her upstairs porch noticed movement of the church's roof. It was someone trying to take the new air conditioner! She called the deacon who lived next door. He called another one who was able to arrive in enough time to try to apprehend the culprit, an EA man in OUR neighborhood stealing the air conditioners that our members donated their money to buy! Now, the burglary business is moving in. It was four years before we had our first home invasion, and now thieves were running rampant! It did not take long for other businesses to develop.

Just when I had reconciled myself to the reality that these were my neighbors or people who liked to walk their children in the neighbors, an EA female "propped" up shop on the corner! Each morning between 7:00 and 8:00, there she was on the street corner, next to the stop sign by the church advertising her goods. Who shops that early in the morning? One sister questioned her choice of places to sell her wares. It seems the only likely customers were the men on their way to work at the plant at the north end of Delmar.

The sitings have grown and with it more concerns. It is clear that these individuals are seeking "product" and the sadness comes when they literally drag small children with them. These new neighbors are not bring new ideas, or suggestions for a garden club, sharing neighborhood beautification plans or planning ways to improve the play areas for children. There are no discussions about turning the brown fields into green fields. They just blindly walk north on Delmar, unfocused eyes, deaf ears...with one agenda in mind...the same thing that has a choke hold on so many communities, families, children, lives, sense of dignity, humanity. The harder this desire squeezes, the more life drains out of the richness that once was.

This type of gentrification does not match what other communities are writing and talking about. I remain on Delmar trying to make sense of this phenomena and wonder, why our neighborhood? Maybe the definition needs to be expanded, trying to define what I see creates discontinuity for me. My middle class neighborhood was becoming "refined" or "dignified", but now I experience Tom Feelings "mutuality of consciousness". My spirit grieves when these shadows of change move against the backdrop of beautiful home, manicured lawns and happy child laughter. Welcome to the North End.

Henna Hair, Gray Hair and things the old folks would say...

It has been so hot these last few days, my locs are dry a "whit leather" ( a term of my youth). What is that anyway? The point is, I need to do something different with my hair and I've decide to use Henna to color it. I'm a researcher and I have googled the goog out of googled trying to find information about using henna. Wow! As soon as I started writing all this information popped up in content recommendations about henna-mostly tattoos though. (it just occurred to me that the word is "whet" leather! I'm not sure how that works, but I remember a whetstone which Uncle Frank used to sharpen his razor. Memories do come following sometimes making me seem scattered, but I do know where I'm going).

Ah! an article popped up "Can Henna Cover Grey Hairs?" That's my goal! Since I decided to stop these grays just embarked on their own journey. It is like the hair color was the parent and as soon as it "darken the door" gray became a misbehaving child; just all over the place, perhaps a mind of its own. If you used context clues you could surmise that "darken the door" means leave. I am starting this quest to color my hair with Henna! Follow along with me.

VJ

Why?

Tomorrow (later today) brings a new day to be me, and choose to be happy or sad. I chose happiness. If that the spiritual being that is me talking or am I just sleep deprived.

Nighttime is the right time for ... sleep.

Nighty night.

VJ

You Don't Even Know Me: Novel by Sharon G. Flake.mov

Semester Ending...

This is final exam week. I've just finished writing a final for Thursday's class, and must now read and grade all the final projects students submitted. When I began teaching 11 years ago, a seasoned professor told me something I often forget until this time of the semester..."The more work you give the students, the more work you have to grade." As I sit here now, it's all coming back to me...

I'll revise syllabi for Winter semester with that in mind... Sigh. I say that every semester, perhaps this time will be different.

Back to reading portfolios!

Bad Habit-Maxwell

http://www.shallownation.com/2009/12/04/maxwell-jay-leno-show-video-12-3-09/

This song has taken on such a profound meaning in my life. Each time I listen to it, or read the lyrics I see something different and reflect on my life and relationships. It has almost become my theme song. Perhaps, my imprinting for relationships is steeped in classic British literature like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Mine have not been that kind of party.

Has my perceptions of love been ruined by the words from a time when all was well, or were they merely writing empty words?

What Motivates African American males to attend college?

I am totally immersed in Alfred Tatum's book Reading for their Life (Re)Building the Textual Lineages of African American Adolescent Males. I read his first book Teaching Reading To Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap, but this new one is really on target with what I want to see happen with the AAA males I know and love.

Recently, I had a conversation with some former students, all females, all college students or graduates. The question was "Why don't the boys go to college?" As they discussed the young men who attended high school with them, the number of college attendees and/or grads was much lower than those who didn't go. Why is that? I know a young man who was in college, but decided he needed a job to buy a car. The job became a priority and he never returned to college. The car aka " a hooptie" is history. He's laid off now. We have not discussed it, but the rationale that others give relates to responsibilities.

I am wondering if the lure of money is keeping many young AA males from going to college. The messed up economy almost makes a college education invalid, since many college grads are unable to find jobs.

Perhaps fear is a factor. Do they feel unprepared? Is college a monster for AA males whose high school learning experiences was not a preparation site? Then there are those who start college, then stop out, drop out or flunk out. My question is always what are the alternatives? My friend a former HS instructors claims he can tell early which boys will end up in their "mama's basement watching cable" by how many are seen reading books. Interesting.

As I reflect on why I went to college, it was purely survival. I knew the outcome had I not gone to college. It wasn't until 12th grade that anyone ever mentioned going to college to me. I wasn't asked if I wanted to go, I was told "You're going to college."It was just Divine intervention that the right teacher asked the right questions, said the right words and change my life's direction.

Reading Tatum's book there is a sense of urgency. The challenging it seems is engaging these young men early, with an understanding that not going to college is not an option. I am always quoting from Walter Mosley's young adult novel 47. The main character kept telling the enslaved that their condition did not define them. I agree. No one has to live the life script that has been write for them. This is only the first draft. There is always a chance to revise. I hope some of the information in Tatum's book will provide some gum on my eraser as I begin to deconstruct some of the negative perceptions about literacy, that will be a foundation to re-write life scripts.

On Reading, Learning to Read, and Effective Reading Instruction: An Overview of What We Know and How We Know It

On Reading, Learning to Read, and Effective Reading Instruction: An Overview of What We Know and How We Know It

Just This Morning-Reflections on Rain

August 22, 2009

It's raining today. I've never really liked rain. It confines me and that is frustrating. I fully understand the need for rain. As a child I embraced it because it meant tin tubs would fill with rain water which meant I would not have to tote-yes I said "tote" water from Mr. Lovette's house. You try filling a foot tub with water and toting it back and forth to fill big tin tubs for washing clothes and bodies. Both of which could serve multiple cleaning purposes. The occasional hair washing, dish washing and of course, rinsing out the night bucket also know as "slop bucket". For those whose mental filing cabinet is void of information about "night bucket". it is akin to the night chamber of old. You've seen them in the old movies...the forerunner to the commode! Yes, it is a fact. I grew up in a house that did not have indoor plumbing. The very astute might have deduced that from the whole "toting water" bit. Needless to say, rain was multifunctional. I guess you need more 411 about the night bucket. This might stretch your creative mind a bit, but work with me here. I must build background knowledge. Hmmm, it might be challenging if you have never seen a lard can. I'm not sure they make them any more. Anyway, visual learners, image a gallon can filled with white, cold, lard ( fat from a big old slaughtered hog or not so big pig-check out that rhyme-melted to make cooking grease), recycled to become a toilet! The grease was used to create greasy meals and once emptied a perfect container. Some bright person thought it would be perfect for nightly functions. Who in their right might wanted to trot outdoors in pitch dark down the path to the out house??? Bring on the night pot. Except for a few flaws that are oft to appear in modifying products. There was always the risk of slicing a piece of butt meat when sitting! Of course, the can opener did not double as an edge smoother! Jagged tin edges had a tendency to a bite when flesh is pressed into the can's rim.


As I said, rain is multifunctional. There were those great evenings when I was lulled to sleep to the sound of raindrops hitting the tin roof covering the dilapidated two room house. The rush to put down pots to catch rain that found its way through the holes was always a "rush"-quite a play on words don't you think? And lastly, I am almost ashamed to say... I loved the smell of fresh rain and warm Florida sand. So much so that on occasion I have been known to sample a little taste. I'm attributing it to a vitamin deficiency of some sort.

The sun is poking its rays through my blinds and the patter of raindrops falling on my roof is gone. Warmth is sneaking in to remind me it's still summer. I respect that! I shall rise and enjoy the day. Thankful to be alive to hear the rain and feel the sunshine, remembering the days that shaped who I am today.