Cross-Curricular

Digital Media Ideas– I Was a Kid with Author Karen Romano Young

By on June 26, 2024   /   Cross-Curricular, For Teachers  

Big News, STEAM fans!

First of all, welcome to the every-once-in-a-while regular I Was A Kid posting from me, Karen Romano Young.  You may know me from novels like The Beetle and Me: A Love Story, graphic novels like Doodlebug: A Novel in Doodles, and science books like the Try This! Series, Antarctica: The Melting Continent, and Whale Quest.   I Was A Kid is a new multimedia project dedicated to sharing the stories of STEAM students and professionals, such as…

Second piece of news: The National Science Teaching Association’s new president, Dr. Alicia S. Conerly, took office June 1.  Right on time is I Was A Kid with a STEAM profile of her.

Dr. Conerly grew up in rural Mississippi, and after a twisty path through potential science and medical careers and studies, became a science teacher dedicated to improving opportunities for kids like herself.  At a conference, a fire alarm placed her in the way of a woman who would become her mentor, helping her to find her way into the NSTA and the teacher-support grants that came with it… and onward to the presidency!

Visit Dr. Conerly’s profile on the I Was A Kid website at iwasakid.com/aliciaconerly. You’ll learn all about her, while getting a taste of what’s available through my project:  going on 50 profiles of folks from previously marginalized communities, including race, religion, socioeconomic background, gender, sexuality, physical and mental ability.

My project developed at an intersection of concern by the STEAM world about the need for new and diverse perspectives in their fields; from my wish to show today’s kids that they too can have exciting research and creative lives and adventures;  and from a long standing philosophy of representation in media for young people.

Here’s a third and key piece of news: all the materials at IWasAKid.com are available free, including downloads of comics and trading cards.  To stay up to date, follow @IwasakidSTEAM on Instagram — and watch for another I Was A Kid post in September.

Finally, how about some free I Was A Kid posters — all printed out and beautiful? Subscribe at iwasakid.com and you’ll be entered EACH MONTH to win a set of 12 posters.

 

Back to Top

5 Ways to Remember What You Read: And Do You Need to “Remember” At All?

By on April 22, 2024   /   Articles, books, Cross-Curricular, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, Homeschool Resource  

I wish I had a photographic memory. But I don’t. In order to remember something, I typically need to write about it. And as a children’s author, I want to remember the books that I read.

Through the years, I’ve tried several methods to chronicle the books I read. These techniques include the following:

A Reader Response Journal

This is where I note my immediate responses to a book. My writing is sloppy and comes out in a gush. In classrooms, teachers say they enjoy using this method as a way for students to learn how to become close readers. Readers organically engage with texts, and this feels very intimate. Additionally, you don’t have to write about an entire book, you can simply respond to particular passages or chapters.

For me, one of my flaws is that I tend to sometimes write  responses on my phone, sometimes in a journal and sometimes as a Word document and they are not collected in one place. But this is separate issue—more about my tendency to shirk from instituting routines/systems. How to organize everything could be its own separate post.

Craft Journal

This is very similar to a reader response journal in that you’re quickly responding to text, but the goals are different. In this sort of journal, I actively search the text for answers to a particular craft question. My reading itself becomes more strategic and less about pleasure. I might read for voice. Or to see how a particular author handles tertiary characters or how she folds in setting. The list goes on and on.

GoodReads

Sometimes I will post a quick review on GoodReads. Ha! I just fibbed. I’m not capable of writing something speedily that will be posted on a social media platform (even on X formerly known as Twitter). I’m not as active on GoodReads as I hoped to be. It seems like a smart way of chronicling books as well as boosting fellow authors. As an author, I really appreciate it when readers post their reviews on GoodReads as well as on retailer websites. However, I think that my ego gets in the way, and I want my review to be clever and it can stop me from posting here. I need to tame my ego!

Book Groups

In the past (pre-motherhood), I have been part of book groups. I love that these groups create community. I’m all in for circle time. As an author I have visited some book groups. I would like to get active in a book group again (but I also worry about time/commitment).

Reels/TikTok

Not me. At least yet. Now that TikTok will likely be banned, I suspect that the action will be on Reels.

How do you chronicle your reading? What works for you? And do you even need to chronicle the books you read? Is it enough to just enjoy them? Ponder them? Love them?

Hillary Homzie is the author of the Ellie May chapter book series (Charlesbridge, 2018), Apple Pie Promises (Sky Pony/Swirl, 2018), Pumpkin Spice Secrets (Sky Pony/Swirl, 2017), Queen of Likes (Simon & Schuster MIX 2016), The Hot List (Simon & Schuster MIX 2011) and Things Are Gonna Be Ugly (Simon & Schuster, 2009) as well as the Alien Clones From Outer Space (Simon & Schuster Aladdin 2002) chapter book series. She’s also a contributor to the Kate the Chemist middle grade series (Philomel Books/Penguin Random House). And her nonfiction picture book, If You Were a Princess: True Stories of Brave Leaders From Around the World is a look at historical and current princesses from many diverse lands who have made their mark (Simon & Schuster, August 2022). During the year, Hillary teaches at Sonoma State University. In the summer, she teaches in the graduate program in children’s literature, writing and illustration at Hollins University. She also is an instructor for the Children’s Book Academy.

She can be found at hillaryhomzie.com and on Instagram, her Facebook page as well as on Twitter

Back to Top

STEM Tuesday– Math– Writing Tips and Resources

By on March 21, 2023   /   Common Core & NGSS, Cross-Curricular, Curriculum Tie-in, For Teachers, Math, STEM, STEM Tuesday  

 

Paradigm Shift

Did you see it? The National Council of Teachers of English recently issued the “Position Statement on the Role of Nonfiction Literature (K–12).” I’ll be honest and say that when I was growing up, I never thought of nonfiction as literature. To me, nonfiction was an encyclopedia, a text book, or one of those really dry library books that you checked out when you had to do a report on a cheetah. Sure the cheetah was cool, but the book about it? I had to crawl my way through all of the dusty dry to find the fascinating facts.

Look how far we have come… This month we are looking at the literary craft of not just nonfiction, but math nonfiction! And that’s because the world of publishing has opened their arms to cool, crafty, creative presentations of information. And I for one am giddy over it. In fact, NCTE, this group of professional English teachers is proposing “a paradigm shift for teaching and learning with nonfiction literature in K–12 education.”

Drop the mic! Nonfiction is coming into its own!

So, how exactly do we spur on this paradigm shift? We can start by studying the craft of informational books. We can articulate new language to help us describe unique attributes of nonfiction. We can search out the devices used by nonfiction authors. We can compare/contrast, discuss/evaluate, and weigh the pros and cons. In other words, we can have informed opinions.

One Way to Start

Melissa Stewart (author of over 100 nonfiction books for children) and Dr. Marlene Correia (an educator of 30 years) have written a book entitled 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and writing Instruction with Children’s Books. Check out this article (https://www.melissa-stewart.com/img2018/pdfs/5_Kinds_of_Nonfiction_SLJ_May_2018.pdf) in the School Library Journal and Melissa’s blog post (http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2020/02/5-kinds-of-nonfiction-update.html).  They propose that much of today’s nonfiction can be categorized as one of the following:

  • Active – books that get kids doing something, i.e, Klutz Books for Kids
  • Browseable – open to any page and find chunks of facts, i.e., Nat Geo Weird But True World
  • Traditional – provide a broad survey of a topic, i.e. Rattlesnakes
  • Narrative – provide a narrative arc, i.e.  Radiant Child The Story of Young Artists Jean-Michel Basquiat
  • Expository Literature – non-narrative books that present a narrow topic in a creative or unique way, i.e. Summertime Sleepers: Animals that Estivate!

To become more comfortable with this idea, open a math book and check out a spread. Which category might each fit into? Try these:

 

The Kitchen Pantry Scientist Math for Kids: Fun Math Games and Activities Inspired by Awesome Mathematicians, Past and Present; with 20+ Illustrated, by Rebecca Rapoport and Allanna Chung.

 

 

 

Just a Second, by Steve Jenkins

 

 

 

 

 

Dollars & Sense: A Kid’s Guide to Using–Not Losing, written by Elaine Scott, illustrated by David Clark.

 

 

 

 

Sir Cumference and the First Round Table , written by Cindy Neuschwander, illustrated by Wayne Geehan (you’re right, this one is not nonfiction!)

 

 

 

Just as all novels books do not fit neatly into one genre, nonfiction books don’t all fit neatly into these categories, but I bet you know a reader who LOVES one of these categories. What if we recommended books to readers based on this? What if we encouraged all readers to sample books from all of these categories?

This is a powerful new way to understand and nudge forward this paradigm shift for teaching and learning nonfiction!

________________________________________________

Prepared by:

 

Heather L. Montgomery, author of 17 nonfiction books for kids.

www.HeatherLMontgomery.com

Back to Top