Maupin House's Blog

Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels Reviewed in Multi-Lingual Journal

2012-01-21T21:00:00.003-05:00

Tiffany A. Flowers calls Maupin House's Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels a "great resource" in a recent volume of Education Review/Resenas Educativas. Read the full review here.

Young Adult Graphic Novel Faces Another Censorship Challenge

2012-01-11T13:26:00.004-05:00

Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age, a collection of comics shorts edited by Ariel Schrag and featuring selections from top comics artists, has come under fire from folks wanting to remove it from public school libraries twice since 2009.

The first case resulted in the book's removal from shelves in districts in South Dakota, and, last month, a committee in Maine's RSU 10 serving schools in Dixfield, Mexico, and Buckfield responded to a parent request to remove the book from its secondary schools' library shelves by moving the book to its professional section and requiring parental permission for access.

Read more about these instances here.

In both these instances, students' rights to read have been compromised. While any text can become a victim of censorship at any time, comics and graphic novels may be especially prone to attacks because of their perceived novelty, concepts of literary merit, and other general misunderstandings regarding them.

Maupin House knows this and wants to help teachers teach from an informed professional stance and certainly wants to preserve students' rights to read. This is one reason why Maupin House published Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels, a collection of summaries, reviews, lesson ideas, thematic pairing ideas, and overt discussion of " hot button" issues in 108 different graphic novels.

Each rationale is written by a practicing k-12 teacher who has used comics in his or her classroom or by teacher educators who focus on comics and education.

Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels is available as a CD-ROM, as an E-book, and, in by-grade-level chunks via the new a la carte feature.

While Stuck in the Middle was not one of the 108 included in the project, and while this case regarded library use rather than classroom use, I can't help but imagine how useful a rationale might have been in either keeping the censors at bay or aiding in the fight to keep the text available for interested students.

Maupin House and Katie Monnin work with Round Table Companies to develop curriculum for comic book adaptation of The Constitution

2012-01-06T16:53:00.008-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Emily Gibbs
Allison+Partners
EmilyG@allisonpr.com

The U.S. Constitution brought to life in graphic novel adaptation from Round Table Companies

New comic book features 100 percent of the document’s original text along with additional narrative and detailed illustrations that further clarifies the founding fathers’ work

CHICAGO (Jan. 9, 2012) – Round Table Companies, a publishing and storytelling company that works with thought leaders to inform, educate and inspire, announces the release of The United States Constitution: A Round Table Comic, a graphic novel adaptation of the supreme law of the United States. The Constitution comic launches in bookstores nationwide, on Amazon.com, and all digital formats in March 2012 for $12.95 (print) and $6.99 (digital).

Scripted by adapter Nadja Baer and illustrated by Nathan Lueth, Round Table Companies created an original storyline to showcase the making of history and communicate concepts from one of the United States’ most important documents. Narratives and illustrations of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine and James Madison, among other historical figures, allow readers to understand and engage with the process and development of each article in The Constitution.

“Whether you are a student or just need a refresher, the illustrated format allows readers to better understand and retain the concepts in the Constitution,” said Baer. “The powerful illustrations coupled with effective narrative and the complete text from the original document helps capture and relive an important part of our country’s history.”

Dr. Katie Monnin, an assistant professor of literacy at the University of North Florida, and Maupin House, a publisher specializing in K-12 teacher resources, developed a tailored curriculum to supplement the comic book in classrooms. The curriculum will be readily available to teachers at no cost in March, when the book launches.

“While the comic book adaptation of The Constitution can be enjoyed at any age, we developed the free curriculum to work together with the comic book to help teachers get students more interested in the framework of our government,” said Dr. Monnin. “The comic itself is fun and easy to read, but students will be able to further comprehend the concepts with the supplemental material.”

Round Table Companies believes in the power of story to impact lives and brings others’ visions to life. For more information about the company, visit www.roundtablecompanies.com/.

###

About Round Table Companies

Round Table Companies (RTC) uses a filmmaker’s approach to storytelling to inform, educate, and inspire readers. Founded in 2006 as a writing company, RTC quickly evolved into a storytelling company that uses the talents of artists all over the country to deliver entertaining content that demands attention. RTC’s approach to creating high quality content eliminates the traditional publishing gatekeepers and allows thought leaders to engage in a fully collaborative team approach to distilling their ideas into either word based or illustrated formats. Author partnerships include WIRED magazine founder Chris Anderson, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, childhood cancer survivor Alesia Shute, and Latino author and humanitarian Robert Renteria.

Incorporating the Web Into Your Bell-Ringer Activities

2011-12-02T16:34:00.003-05:00

In Take 5! for Language Arts, Kaye Hagler provides web resources as bell-ringer lesson extensions to help teachers engage their students in today's connected world.

Check out some of the web sites she provides with these sample lessons:

"Keep It Green 1"- Show this "My Life as a Plastic Bottle" video before assigning students to come up with ideas for re-using and recycling plastic water bottles
"Tale of the Tweebles"- Follow up an alliterative writing assignment with a educational game of Figure of Speech hangman
"Movie Critic"- Show students the American Film Institute's list of 100 greatest movies ever made before they write a persuasive argument for their "most popular movie of all time"
"Tone it Up"- Assign magazine audiences to groups and ask each group to make an interactive poster that describes the audience using the web tool, Glogster

Supplemental Questions to the Graffiti Wall, A Resource in Jane Feber’s Student Engagement is FUNdamental

2011-11-30T09:48:00.013-05:00

The Latin root of graffiti means to write. Over time, the word has taken on the negative connotation of defacement of public or private property. Most students have probably seen examples of graffiti on train cars, highway overpasses, and buildings. In Jane Feber’s new book, Student Engagement is FUNdamental, Graffiti is used in a more productive manner to get students to share their thoughts and feelings in a positive, non-threatening way.

Essentially, this activity instructs the reader to place academic questions onto the bricks of the graffiti wall for students to respond to. All you need to create this graffiti wall is a large sheet of bulletin board or butcher-block paper that can be divided up into brick-like pieces, and a pen or pencil to write your academic questions with. Once you have written the questions and created the bricks, simply tape or glue each question to each brick and let the fun begin!

As you can see from the image, Jane’s book provides us with a list of stimulating graffiti-wall-questions such as “Favorite after school activity,” “Favorite Website,” and “Favorite teacher”. In addition to the 20+ graffiti wall questions already provided in the book, Jane has been nice enough to provide us with a supplementary list of questions that can be used on any student’s graffiti wall. These supplementary questions are for getting students to think critically about books, both fiction and nonfiction.

Fiction: Favorite character; Least favorite character; Favorite conflict; Favorite setting; Favorite thing a character did; Least favorite thing a character did; Favorite part of the story; Personal connection.

Nonfiction: One new thing you learned; One thing you already knew; One question you had; Illustrate something you read; Most important thing you read; Least important thing you read; Real world connection.

Enjoy these free supplementary questions and use them to enrich and stimulate your students’ minds!

An NCTE Conference Lesson: Have Fun with Students and Meet Common Core Standards Too! by Kaye Hagler

2011-11-28T13:19:00.024-05:00

Ever wonder what it takes to increase reading comprehension in the classroom?

Noted author Anthony Horowitz, who spoke recently at the NCTE conference in Chicago, says reading to your students for 20 minutes a day helps tremendously. Practice is the most efficient mode of transportation down the road to improvement, after all.

This premise also applies to improving your students’ writing ability. In Take Five! for Language Arts , putting students' writing skills to practice is easy with playful and thoughtful writing prompts that introduce and reinforce key language skills. These prompts help you make use of the first important minutes of class time while fulfilling the demands of Common Core Standards.

Recently, my students tackled a Take Five! continuation story prompt, “The Tale of the Tweebles”. They read the story of the tiny Tweebles who go through a series of conflicts that ultimately sends the hapless Tweeble family tumbling and tripping along a vast assortment of adventures, and then wrote alliterative stories of their own. Some students chose to grab a thesaurus from the book shelf as a resource aide.

This is one of those prompts that needs no extra prompting for students to share their handiwork; the hands went flying into the air when I asked them to read their stories. Though my students’ tales might have been silly, I noticed the first critical moments of the classroom set the learning environment for the rest of the period, and while the students were having fun, they also hit standards of plot development, particularly conflict resolution, and figurative language. How cool – and easy – is that?

Meeting new challenges with Common Core Standards was one of the key issues expressed by teachers at NCTE’s annual conference.

Despite this concern to meet standards and contend with preparing students for standardized testing, Gordon Korman, author of No More Dead Dogs, felt teachers still “need to lighten up,” an idea echoed by fellow panelist Jon Scieszka (The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, Robot Zot!). “Humor is the most vital way to get kids motivated,” he urged. This three-way panel session also included Alan Sitomer, California’s Teacher of the Year 2007 and author of The Downside of Being Up and Nerd Girls, who felt that “engagement is critical” and that “engagement leads the way to motivation.” All three panelists agreed that humor provides the engagement and motivation factor that will lead the way to successful achievement in the classroom.

Small Business Saturday savings...today and the rest of the month!

2011-11-24T00:00:00.004-05:00

As a small, independent publisher, we especially want to show our appreciation for our customers on Small Business Saturday. That's why we're offering 30% off and free shipping for our entire website (excluding e-books, CD books, and our already discounted Flip books) starting today and all weekend long! Just enter coupon code SATURDAY at checkout. Thank you and for showing your support for small businesses, and happy Thanksgiving!

Maupin House's publisher: "Three Things I'm Grateful For"

2011-11-23T10:00:00.001-05:00

Three things I'm grateful for this year:

No. 3: The challenging economy. Really, you say? Yes. The lesson learned this year: it’s a good thing to try new things when the old ones don’t seem to work well anymore.

No. 2: My supportive team at home and at work. Sometimes the blessings closest to us are the easiest to overlook.

And finally . . . (drum roll)

No. 1: The faith to listen to my heart. This helps me to keep on keeping on. When you take refuge in the beauty of the moment—whether it is seeing that “aha!” look on the face of an unreachable student, getting a quick hug, or listening to someone read for the first time. We all make a difference.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Julie Graddy
Publisher

Student Engagement is FUNdamental! A Guest Blog by Author Jane Feber

2011-11-22T15:42:00.009-05:00

No matter what lesson I had to teach in the classroom, I knew that I had to hook the students and engage them if learning was to take place. When students are engaged in the learning process, they take ownership of their learning. Being engaged allows students to work at the application level, thus allowing them to be able to transfer what they learn to other contexts.

Having retired from full time teaching three years ago, I am now able to work with students in my substitute capacity. I teach a Reading Competency class, and many of the teachers in my class ask me to substitute for them. Quite often many leave lesson plans that say things like, “Jane, we’re reading Canterbury Tales, do your thing.” One teacher left plans that said, “Jane, we’re reading page 142 in our book about the water cycle; do something to help them understand the water cycle.”

For Canterbury Tales, I introduced the struggling readers to the Give One/Get One Flip Book; they thoroughly enjoyed this activity and discussed how beneficial it was to be able to read a small chunk of text, take notes independently, share with others, and then read another chunk of text and continue the Give One/Get One process.

For the students learning about the water cycle, I made a learning wheel for each student. I read the text to them asking them to listen; I then read it a second time instructing the students to illustrate the front of their wheel with the steps in the water cycle. After that, I read the text one more time asking students to listen carefully to what happens in the water cycle. Students then described the steps of the water cycle in the text boxes on their learning wheel. Being actively engaged in illustrating and writing the steps of the water cycle, the students learned the material that the teacher had left me.

Student Engagement is FUNdamental not only includes activities to engage students academically, it also provides activities to help you establish rapport with your students. Teachers need to get to know their students, and students need to know their teachers. Once rapport is established in a classroom, there is less stress, increased motivation, and more student success.

No matter whether you are doing rapport building activities or academic activities, it’s important to collect data and use this data to drive your instruction. Student Engagment is FUNdamental also provides you with data collection charts that are easy to use and which provide a wealth of information about your students academically and as individuals.

Student Engagement IS fundamental!

Sample Projects from Student Engagement is FUNdamental

2011-11-18T13:55:00.005-05:00

Overlapping Subjects by Writing in Science

2011-11-17T10:08:00.007-05:00

You probably don’t think of writing and science as similar subjects. While you may be right, they are subjects that, when combined, complement and propel each other.

As recent changes in the Common Core State Standards will reaffirm, teaching writing in content-area classrooms, such as science, is a necessary task. But with the pressure of motivating students to absorb lots of material and pass state exams, teaching just a single subject can be difficult.

According to an article from the Southern California Public Radio website, California elementary school science classes are falling victim to these pressures and are underperforming.

A study conducted by several educational think tanks and researchers from UC Berkeley suggests that there is a severe lack of quality opportunities for students to engage in science.

“‘Unfortunately what we found is that at most 10 percent of the elementary classrooms in the state are really providing students with these high-quality learning opportunities,’” said lead researcher Patrick Shields.

Shields and other researches say that part of the blame lies in teachers’ inability to deal with the pressure of meeting the rigorous requirements of standardized exams for math, science, and English.

So what is the solution?

“Researcher Shields says improving science instruction in elementary schools can be as easy as overlapping lessons in multiple subjects.” One way in which teachers can do this is by integrating writing into the science classroom.

One teacher in particular has realized the need for this type of integration and has dedicated a book to helping teachers attempt this difficult task. In her new book, Strategies for Writing in the Science Classroom, veteran teacher and award-winning author Kathleen Kopp shares her many strategies for teaching literacy in the science classroom.

Her writing strategies support the Common Core State Standards, and the focus is on applying writing skills, not just teaching writing as an end in itself. With her creative approach to content-area literacy education, science teachers can easily incorporate these strategies in any unit of study.

While the pressures of meeting state standards and passing required exams may be prevalent, educational researchers and experienced teachers are lending a helping hand. By combining writing and science in the same classroom, teachers can ease the pressure of state standards and enrich the lives of their students all at once.

Friday giveaway: The Complete K-5 Writing Workshop

2011-11-11T01:00:00.001-05:00

There's no better way to start off the weekend than with a chance to win a free book, right? We couldn't agree more, so we're giving away a copy of Susan Koehler's e-book, The Complete K-5 Writing Workshop, to one lucky blog reader. To be considered for the giveaway, just leave a comment on this blog post offering your favorite writing workshop tip, strategy, or activity, and be sure to include your email address and name. We will choose the winner at random next Friday, November 18, and email the e-book to the lucky reader!

RULES:

You must include your email address with your entry in order to win. Contest is open to teachers only. Contest will run from November 11, 2011 through November 18, 2011.

*Winners are selected using Random.org.

CONGRATULATIONS TO GIVEAWAY WINNER, MICHELLE!

Worksheet Wednesday! An exclusive download from The Complete K-5 Writing Workshop

2011-11-09T09:01:00.007-05:00

It's never too late to make over your writing workshop, and we're offering a free tool exclusively through our blog that you can use today. Your K-5 students probably have several writing pieces ready for revision, so have them select one and use this Primary and Intermediate Revision Worksheet from Susan Koehler's The Complete K-5 Writing Workshop to improve their beginning techniques, transitions, strong verbs, descriptive skills, and ending techniques. Asking students to fill in the blanks with their own examples, rather than check off items on a pre-written list, ensures a much more in-depth re-reading and revision process. For more worksheets, tips, strategies, graphic organizers, activities, and everything else you need for your K-5 writing workshop TODAY (and at a discounted rate plus free shipping), download the e-book.

The Complete K-5 Writing Workshop: Desire and Mechanics

2011-11-08T15:24:00.008-05:00

“I don’t feel like writing.” Does this sound familiar? Many young children, especially K-5 students, don’t seem like they have a desire to write. With state standards to meet and future leaders in need of academic development, this can be a frustrating situation.

Susan Koehler, a writing consultant with over 20 years of teaching experience, once asked a class of her fourth graders why they claimed to dislike writing. “Overwhelmingly, my students told me that they never got to write what they wanted to write," writes Susan in her new book, The Complete K-5 Writing Workshop. "They were always given topics and prompts. They were told what to write and how to write it. They were given time limitations and paragraph requirements."

It was not that her students didn't enjoy writing—it is that they didn't like the restrictive fashion in which writing had traditionally been taught. “These students were creative beings,” Susan writes, “wanting to have some freedom and ownership over the writing process.”

“Children’s lives are filled with specific events and experiences," said Susan in a recent interview, "The vocabulary and the description and the wealth of knowledge they carry with them is built upon those experiences that they have had. If they are going to do their very best writing, they need to be able to choose from what is meaningful and important to them specifically."

Susan described a time when she saw one of her students staring out a window during a writing exercise. She asked the young boy what he was thinking about, and he answered: “I am thinking about what to write." Susan looked out the window and saw broken-down machinery and rusty trailers and felt an incredible sadness.

Later on, when Susan read what the little boy had written, she was astonished to find the following: “The world is full of laughter and beautiful people and the people at this school are beautiful people, especially the children.”

This was an emotional moment for Susan--one that proved to her that children are capable of producing incredible work when it comes from within and not from standardized prompts.

Knowing she was responsible for meeting state standards and preparing her students for district and state assessments, Susan learned from this magical experience and developed a way to creatively engage her students in the writing process.

She went to the local discount store and purchased inexpensive spiral notebooks for each of her students. She told her students that these notebooks were their “free-writing journals” and that, within certain guidelines, they were allowed to write on topics that interested them.

“What my students realized is that they had a lot to say,” writes Susan. “Those journals became sacred. Some children wrote poetry, and others wrote stories. Some wrote informational pieces, and a couple of students wrote plays. Several children kept a personal journal for recording experiences and exorcising negative emotions. Most importantly, they realized that they actually liked writing.”

Thus, the cornerstone of The Complete K-5 Writing Workshop, was formed: designing an environment that allows students to discover a passion for writing. After students realize that they can enjoy writing, they are more open to learning the mechanics of how to write.

In her new book, Susan gives creative instructions for how to teach the mechanics of writing while engaging the student on a personal level, from pre-writing and drafting, to revising, editing, and even publishing. The appendix also provides rubrics, checklists, planners, graphic organizers, practice sheets and activities.

The initial lessons in Susan’s Daily Writing Workshop consist of what could be described as a learning sandwich. First, she introduces new skills to her students. Then, she has them perform a writing exercise to apply their newly learned skills. Lastly, she reviews and discusses the writing exercises with them and reinforces the skills taught / used in that lesson.

“One student in particular who, after doing this for a little while, said to me, ‘I used to not like writing, but this is fun,’" said Susan.

She believes that students need to express themselves as individuals, and that uniformity isn’t necessary for success: “Writing is one of the disciplines that is open-ended," she said. "In math, convergence is necessary to reach the correct answer; in writing, divergence is not a bad thing--you can have a different answer from someone else and still be correct.”

Exploring Graphic Novels

2011-11-02T10:49:00.005-04:00

By now, everyone knows that graphic novels (GNs) and illustrated books engage even the most reluctant reader. But the big question still is: how can they be used well in the classroom?

The Fall 2011 issue of Scholastic Instructor lists ten new graphic novels picked by teachers. By the way, in my humble opinion, these genre-spanning books shouldn’t be called ”graphic novels,” but “graphic format” books. They literally range from fresh new fiction and re-imagined classics and haunting memoirs to science and social studies titles tied to core standards.

Anyhow, no matter what they are called, why not try one? Read one first, of course, if you haven’t already. When I read my first GNs a couple of years ago, I was simply blown away by the power of the print/graphic format (Maus, Persepolis, and The Book of Genesis).

If you’re new to the GN scene (or even if you aren’t), Katie Monnin’s blog can help you find a GN that will suit your teaching needs. And then, look online at our website to see why Katie Monnin’s books on teaching GNs have emerged as the gold standard for integrating this engaging format into your literacy instruction for K-2 and struggling readers in grades 6-12.

If you like the free samples at the website, why not take advantage of our 30% discount offer for our blog readers, good through December 31. You can order in print, e-book, or a la carte formats.

Happy exploring!

Julia Graddy

Fall savings from Maupin House

2011-11-01T14:44:00.002-04:00

With Halloween behind us and fall breezes (or snow!) ahead, we'd like to welcome you into fall with 30 PERCENT OFF everything on our website and FREE SHIPPING for the entire month of November. Just enter coupon code "Fallblog" at checkout to save today.

Student Engagement is FUNdamental

2011-10-19T10:12:00.013-04:00

As many teachers are discovering, most students prefer doing rather than observing.

But with new state requirements to meet, teachers are struggling to connect to their students and create a fun, engaging learning environment. Fulfilling the rigorous criteria of the Common Core State Standards while developing good rapport with your students can be difficult; attempts to do so have often left teachers frustrated and students disengaged.

Award winning, veteran teacher Jane Feber has just released a new book, Student Engagement is FUNdamental which appeals to students by building classroom rapport through the use of hands-on crafts. The student-teacher relationship is strengthened, and so is the learning environment.

“Building a classroom community of students who are engaged and ready to learn takes time and effort.," writes Feber. "So why not use hands-on activities to build academic skills—and student trust and rapport—at the same time?”

The physical act of engaging in an activity is much more personal than conceptualizing theories or remembering facts. When students and teachers engage in hands-on crafts, they develop a personal connection.

Research points to the value of a hands-on approach. According to an article in Educational Leadership, adolescents work harder for teachers who treat them as individuals and express interest in their personal lives: "When a teacher gets to know their students, the students are able to see that the teacher is truly concerned.”

In Feber’s experience, a strong student/teacher rapport comes with many benefits, including increased motivation, improved attendance, less stress in the classroom, more student engagement with learning, and greater overall student success with academics.

But engaging the student is two-fold. Not only do you have to work with students in a personal way—the work also has to be fun! And that is exactly what Jane Feber brings to the table: fun.

Although all of the activities in FUNdamental meet this requirement, one of my favorites is “To Tell the Truth.” In this activity, students pick a particular topic of study and write down five statements about that topic. Some of these statements are true, and some of them are false.

After the statements have been prepared, students are paired up and asked to decide if they think their partner’s statements are true or false. The game quickly becomes competitive and engaging as students try to create challenging statements about their topic of study. While having fun, students are forcing each other to recall facts and concepts about a unit of study.

By incorporating clever activities such as “To Tell the Truth," teachers are engaging their students on a very basic level, all while reinforcing the knowledge that those students might otherwise resist.

Teaching Literacy in the Science Classroom

2011-10-13T16:54:00.044-04:00

Historically, we have left the task of teaching reading and writing up to language teachers—but times are changing. Recent modifications in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are emphasizing the need for teachers of content areas such as science to share the responsibility of teaching literacy.

“We need their help to prepare students for the even more complex text they will encounter as adults, both as readers and writers," said Kathleen Kopp, award winning author and veteran educator.

The development of proper reading and writing skills are vital to the future of our children; however, many content-area teachers are discovering that teaching literacy can be a daunting task.

"I know I hear even in the primary grades that students struggle with science and social studies content," said Kopp. "We have numerous reading interventions in place to support students during reading instruction, but we tend to ignore these same strategies when students read for information."

Luckily, educators such as Kopp are coming up with creative ways in which content-area teachers can become teachers of literacy as well. In her new book, Strategies for Writing in the Science Classroom, Kopp offers simple and practical writing strategies that any science teacher can integrate into every phase of the learning process. With step-by-step directions, rubrics, student examples, templates, technology tips, and ideas for differentiation, Kopp goes beyond journals or reports to show how science teachers can use writing to develop critical-thinking skills, improve understanding of scientific concepts, and assess students’ progress.

Her writing strategies support the Common Core Standards and, because the focus is on applying writing skills—and not teaching writing as an end in itself—science teachers can easily incorporate these strategies in any unit of study.

For example, in the “Opinion Statements” strategy, a question about a seemingly technical question is posed in a way that creates a philosophical debate such as: "Should Pluto be re-introduced as a planet?" By turning their thoughts into words through making a list of pros and cons, this type of strategy requires students to pull from their personal knowledge and analyze their own opinions.

"[The "Opinion Statements" strategy] generates a lot of discussion and debate, and sets a platform for true learning to take place," said Kopp.

The "Opinion Statement" strategy is just one of many strategies that Kopp has implemented over the years, and she believes the results speak positively. She recalls teaching a third grade class about how light is reflected, refracted, and absorbed.

The students were instructed to keep personal reflections, take notes, and write responses to investigations. The incorporation of writing was very useful in this scientific study of light, Kathleen said, and the students' scores reflected their grasp of the material.

“I would expect if I were to ask any one of those students today what it means when light is reflected, refracted, or absorbed, they would be able to tell me."

Get Ready for the National Day on Writing on October 20!

2011-10-05T16:30:00.027-04:00

It is an action that allowed a small group of 18th century diplomats to take the beginning steps of forging a new nation and freeing it from tyranny.

It is an action that draws out the personality of a quiet middle-schooler in a way that nothing else can, because paper doesn’t judge.

It is an action that goes beyond borders to build a friendship between a school teacher in the U.S. and a shop-owner in China.

It is writing, an action that the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) will be celebrating on October 20 with the National Day of Writing. NCTE created the holiday in 2009 to develop an appreciation for writing among students of all grades levels and subjects. It highlights the importance of both producing and teaching a variety of compositions.

On the National Day of Writing webpage, NCTE encourages teachers to celebrate with their students by providing them with opportunities for expression through writing. Such opportunities, NCTE suggests, could take the form of writing marathons, poetry slams, and even unconventional activities like writing and producing a podcast.

If you’re on the look-out for ways to prepare for the holiday and get your students excited about writing, look at past celebration stories and check out the practical lesson plans that these Maupin House titles provide:

For multiple grades: With examples from literature, show your students how to incorporate concepts like personification and sentence variation into their writing.

For grades 3-8: Host a show-not-tell writing workshop using any of the seventy example-driven mini-lessons.

For grades 3-8: Use poem recommendations, samples, and writing tips to guide and inspire your students to write the poetry they didn’t know was inside them.

For grades 4-8: Show students how to “think funny” with prompts that encourage them to put their own creative spin on “real world” texts like letters, ads, and maps.

Turning Boredom into Passion

2011-09-27T14:56:00.010-04:00

The new school year is back in action, and as always, teachers are in search of new and effective ways to best appeal to their students and create an engaged learning environment. However, as you might imagine, this isn't always an easy task. Students, especially those in grades 6-12, often create a barrier between what interests them and what the teacher has on the syllabus.

But what exactly is it that young students are interested in? According to the article, “Are You Boring Your Students Into Misbehavior?” by veteran school teacher and educational counselor Michael Linsin, students remain interested in topics seemingly antithetical to classroom behavior and goals.

“Your students love video games," writes Linsin, "They love action movies and bawdy comedies. They love snowball fights, skateboards, birthday parties, and action sports. They want to score the winning goal, hang out with their crazy friends, and eat pizza seven nights a week. They spend their waking moments thinking about, pursuing, or engaging in their desires. And then they walk into your classroom."

So how can teachers mold their syllabus and instructional methods to compete with interests that seem so inherently opposite to what education has traditionally represented?

One such educator is pioneering daily activities that engage students with action, adventure, and humor while still building strong reading and writing skills. Kaye Hagler’s upcoming book, Take 5! For Language Arts: 180 Bell-ringers That Build Critical-thinking Skills, helps transform the first chaotic five minutes of class into an authentic opportunity to practice critical-thinking skills. As many secondary teachers are discovering, classrooms are most successful when students are having fun. While this is indeed a difficult task, it is not impossible. On the contrary, many bright minds are using strategies that combine entertainment and creativity without sacrificing the Common Core Standards.

Take Hagler’s prompt entitled “Choorubus” as an example:

“Excitement has been building for weeks at the San Diego Zoo. The number of curious onlookers gathered outside the Choorubus cage has grown larger with each passing day. The object of all the attention is the nest where a female Choorubus, a nearly extinct species, has been patiently sitting, waiting the day when her newborn hatches.

Finally, the day arrives when the first cracks begin to appear, then more, until finally, finally . . . a loud gasp bursts from the crowd. The Hatchling appears, but what emerges is beyond anyone’s imagination. Your task is to describe and draw the newest Choorubus. Ready? Take Five!”

On its surface, this activity may simply seem like a fun, silly way to get students' attention; in actuality, students are using precise words and phrases, creating relevant descriptive details, and using sensory language to convey experiences and events–all of which are Common Core Standards.

Additionally, each of Take Five!'s 180 prompts includes: supply lists, teacher tips, corresponding standards, language arts links, assessment options, rubrics, and digital connections that add more than 100 extension lessons.

In five-minute intervals, your students will be inventing secret codes, concocting potions, texting haikus, rewriting history, making conjunction paper chains, thinking like newspaper editors—all while reinforcing the skills and standards in your lesson plans.

With a little bit of fun and creativity, learning doesn't have to compete with the interests of students; it can embrace them.

Using A Student's Individuality to Combat Plagiarism

2011-09-23T14:36:00.008-04:00

What is plagiarism, really?

Teachers may look at this question and answer, "passing off another's work as one's own." However, students who consider themselves as parts of the collaborative cyberspace community are less sure about that answer. A student may think, "If this information is available to everyone including me, can it really be stolen?"

As the Internet continues to play an increasingly large part in the classroom of earlier and earlier grades, the definition of plagiarism has become a hot button issue.

A recent article by eSchool News exposed an increase in the usage of content-sharing and Q&A sites as sources of unattributed material for assignments. In the article, an employee of the popular plagiarism-checking site Turnitin, says that teachers should be the ones to define plagiarism for their students.

An article in USA Today highlights another possibility. In this article, academic integrity experts say that students grasp the concept of plagiarism but are trying to redefine it by using not only social media sites but also websites such as WriteCheck, a site that shows a student how to reword borrowed content–essentially making his or her work undetectable to services like Turnitin. Unintentional or not, websites like WriteCheck are promoting a student mindset of, “If it’s not word for word, it’s not plagiarism."

So what's the problem?

The pressure on students to get it right and the ease and availability of social media are keeping students from expressing their inner voices, says Steve Johnson, author of Digital Tools for Teaching.

Johnson believes that students have forgotten the importance of originality because of past reliance on grades, tests, and bubble sheets. "Kids have been told for quite a while now that there is one right answer to everything and one way to solve a problem,” says Johnson. “That of course, is far from the real world truth."

Thus, Johnson's definition for plagiarism is slightly different—it's when students "take the path of least resistance." So what can educators do to break the plagiarism cycle?

Johnson says in order to bulwark against plagiarism, teachers must give assignments that encourage students to seek answers that can only be found in one place: their brains. These are assignments that require independent, creative, and critical thinking. For example, he suggests an assignment that asks students to analyze two things together, such as a comparison between a past and present event.

Johnson believes teachers should communicate to their students that opinions and self-propelled growth matter more to them than "getting the right answer."

"If you get something from a student and you can't tell which student created it, then that is a problem," says Johnson. "It should scream their name!"

Learning to Read Early

2011-09-16T18:00:00.000-04:00

Today I noticed a posting online from the Oklahomian entitled "Learning to Read Early A Benefit Forever". Although, as the parent of a child that read at 3.5 years (with no direct instruction AT ALL), I can appreciate the benefits that Charlie has gained by being a reader for 18.5 years at age 22, I also want to caution that early reading is not normal for every child and to force them into this mold before they are cognitively, emotionally and academically ready is a mistake. I can honestly say that Charlie came to the reading table when he was ready, after having a rich experience with language and books on a daily basis.

One of my favorite people, Richard Allington, said, "There are many roads to reading" and I might add that there are also many starting points and entries at the reading able and they aren't all the same for every child. We are so into this "rush to reading" mentality in our world today, expecting every child to be reading three letter phonically correct words by holiday break of their kindergarten year, that we too often ignore the important readiness piece. We never want to hold them back but we want to be sure that children have the foundational "pre-literacy" skills that will make learning to read easier for them.

Those of you who are parents and teachers, how do you see this issue? What is your experience and how do you address the artificial pressures? Does RTI help or hurt each child's unique "prime time"? I welcome your comments.

Happy New School Year! And New Resources!

2011-08-18T00:19:00.000-04:00

Cathy Puett Miller, AKA The Literacy Ambassador here!

I'm pleased to announce that I have been chosen to be one of the initial group leaders on a new venture from trusted Educationworld.com, a great source of information, lesson plans, grant information and more for educators across the country.

Join me in the community at Educationworld.com and be a part of my Language Arts group (K-12 welcome). There are already six threads posted with ideas guaranteed to spark your thinking and give you a chance to share your professionism and thoughts as well. I'd love to have all my Maupin friends and those who are friends of Maupin and might be new to "The Literacy Ambassador" (that's me!). Once you've created your profile and gotten a taste, invite another educator to participate too!

You'll also find several other groups to choose from, videos, blogs, lesson plan downloads, book lists, you name it.

Come on over today!

Digital Tools for Teaching-- Giveaway

2011-07-06T16:36:00.000-04:00

Check out the July issue of Talking Story that focuses on Multiple Intelligences and Different Learning Styles. Joyce Hostetter and I are giving away a copy of Steve Johnson's book, Digital Tools for Teaching-- a must for every classroom. While you're there, we hope you will sign up to receive our free newsletter!

IRA and Reading Recovery conference grants

2011-06-26T15:44:00.003-04:00

Bruce Larkin, the published author of more than 800 early children's books, including the extremely popular Larkin's Little Readers Series, is pleased to announce IRA & RR Reading Conference Grants to help fund expenses for selected early literacy professionals (grades K-3) attending International Reading Association or Reading Recovery conferences. Larkin will award 500 grants each school year, up to a maximum of $200 each, to help offset expenses incurred attending these valuable conferences.