Someone came into my office last week and asked if I had a single die she could borrow for a game she would be playing. Silly question.
I gestured to my shelves of math. “I have regular six-sided dice in three sizes—regular, medium, and large. I also have four-sided, eight, ten, and twelve sided dice. My ten sided dice come in two sizes, regular and large. I have a few twenty sided die as well as dice-in-dice and three-dice-in-a-cube. “ Her wide-eyed response was not about the dice but about the pigs. “Are those pigs?” “Oh, yes. Pig counters. Do you need counters? I have foam counters, plastic counters, buttons, shells, fruit, jungle animals, and, of course, pigs.” She chose her die—large, foam, six-sided—and walked away just a little overwhelmed with my shelves of math and I didn’t even show her my measurement tubs. I make no apologies for having the variety of math manipulatives on my shelves. I must be ready with the right manipulative for the right moment and the right kid (or teacher). Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp’s new book Game Changer! Book Access for All Kids includes a chapter titled “Knowing Children’s and Young Adult Literature: The Key to Matching Readers with Books.” The chapter is an admonition to read books and to know books. They give permission to accept our inability to read everything. We cannot read everything and our students collectively will always be able to read a wider collection of books than we can. It’s okay. However, we do not have permission not to know about books. If we are going to be mentors of reading for students, we need know the books that have their attention and their eyes. We need to have a working knowledge of styles of books and kinds of stories to give recommendations. We need to build our classroom libraries annually to reflect the changes in our students’ reading interests. In so many ways, our classroom libraries must be like my shelves of math—a die for every situation built one die at a time. In my office library, I have historical fiction in at least three sizes—the Great Depression, World War II and Civil Rights. Within my choices for Great Depression, you could roll a New York perspective, a Midwest perspective, or even a south Florida perspective. My World War II rolls include both European and American perspectives. I have author choices for one kind of diversity—Richard Paul Curtis, Jacqueline Woodson, Kwame Alexander, and Ibi Zoboi—and also author choices of a different kind of diversity—Matt de la Pena, Linda Sue Park, and Laura Amy Schlitz. Or maybe you want illustrators of diversity—Kim Xiong, Ekua Holmes, or Duncan Tonatiuh? On my shelves are fantasy books I love--Scythe, Six of Crows, and The Call. There are my books filled with teen angst--The Serpent King, Piecing Me Together and A List of Cages. Books that make me laugh--One Crazy Summer, Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, and Full of Beans. Books that make me cry--Wonder and All the Light We Cannot See. Books that make me sad and then happy and then sad and then happy again--House of Purple Cedar, Undefeated, and Echo. I haven’t even started talking about professional books! Professional books with their combinations of pedagogy, instructional practice, and challenge are like dice-in-dice or three-dice-in-a cube. They are just as important for me as my other books. They have their own use. A die for every situation. In varying sizes. A book for every kid. In varying sizes. And pig counters too.
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Jennifer Serravallo came to Auburn last week. You know her, right? She wrote The Reading Strategies Book and The Writing Strategies Book. When new instructional coaches are hired in Auburn, these two books are included in the stack of canon resources I provide to the new coach. She has written others books as well, but these two are, well, canon for teachers. She's spoken at the Alabama Literacy Association Conference in the last few years, but this was her first trip to speak in Auburn.
Through sheer luck, I was invited to have dinner with her and other educators the night before her presentation in Auburn. Do you know the phrase fangirl? Do you also know it can be used as a verb? Now replace the word girl with the word boy and you will have the perfect verb for how I was feeling and, unfortunately, initially acting when I met her. My first words were in fact, "I am a huge fan of your work!" And I gushed those words. Gushed. Yes, I fanboyed all over Jennifer Serravallo and, yes, I am a dork. To her credit, she smiled politely, and asked me to call her Jen. She has a three letter name like me. The cosmos meant for us to meet. Jen and Wes. Wes and Jen. Okay, Jen and Wes. There was no luck involved in the seating arrangement. It was Lord of the Flies seating. I knocked a reading specialist from Baldwin county out of the way. It only took a single look to the Morgan County administrator to get her to back off and go around the table. My years of teaching teenagers paid off with the Look. And that Look along with a shoulder push and a hip jostle earned me a seat next to Jen (of Jen and Wes fame). For my Auburn Human Resources friends, no actual harm was done to any other educator and I did offer the last appetizers to those educators. When Jennifer Serravallo, or Jen to her closest friends, is sitting next to you, what do you talk about? What do you say? By that time, I had composed myself. No more gushing. No more dork. No more bruising women half my weight. Time to be mature and professional. Time to get into the mind of Jennifer Serravallo, or Jen to her closest friends. So my first question was a common first question I ask of teachers in my own district. What are you reading? She had an answer. An easy answer. I watched her shoulders relax as she talked to me about that book, the group with whom she is reading it, and the way the book is changing her. Most of the rest of the dinner was spent with the table listening to Jen talk about her current work. There wasn't as much dialogue as teaching from a Jedi to her Paduans. She said many great things in that brief dinner. My take away, though, and my reflection is on her response to my initial question. What are you reading? That one question is a window into the soul of a person. Instantly, you can see in their eyes if they are a real reader or a poser. Is there panic or comfort? It is such an important question for educators to model with each other for the students we teach. No matter what our content is, we should all be asking kids what they are reading. And we should all be asking each other what we are reading. In Jen's case, she talked about how the book is changing her. Do I talk that way about the books I read? Should I talk that way about the books I read? Do I believe every book I read changes me? Jen was so casual yet emphatic about it. I know even she would say every book does not incite change, but what an incredible mindset to approach books as if it will! I am currently reading Clarity for Learning by John Almarode and Kara Vandas. It is changing how I think about teacher clarity and success criteria for learning. The book I last completed was The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. It didn't change me, but I sure enjoyed reading it. If I ask you, "What are you reading?" be prepared for a possible follow up question. How is it changing you? We all need an ideal, a goal, a model. As silly as it sounds, what Jen Serravallo modeled for me was inviting books to be a change agent. She and I really are a great team. Thanks Jen. (Some aspects of the post above were embellished while others were embarrassingly truthful.) |
Wes Gordon
Wes Gordon is a Past President of the Plains Literacy Council, the current Vice President of the Alabama Literacy Association, and a curriculum leader for Auburn City Schools. He reads. He writes. His greatest professional fear is lack of relevance and his greatest triumphs are his two children, about which most of the credit actually goes to his wife. |