For Parents

Fun books to read when you’re sick (or distracting yourself from ongoing dental work)

By on September 6, 2013   /   Book Lists, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers  

So this blog post kind of snuck up on me. I had no idea what to write about, until… I went to the dentist. Weird, huh?  There’s just something about sitting with your mouth gaping open for over an hour, the screech of the drill in your ear, and the metallic smell of your tooth being ground down that makes you think of something – ANYTHING- to distract you.  (My apologies for those who may have just experienced their own dental chair flashback. I know that’s not fun).

Since it was highly unlikely that the dentist was going to pull out some Star Trek type instrument and instantly zap the crown on my tooth – painlessly of course. I decided I’d be better off trying to zap my brain elsewhere.  Where does an avid reader – and writer — send herself on a much needed mental trip? A book, of course.

 

The first thing that popped into my head was actually the movie The Princess Bride.  If you’re not familiar with this classic, a grandfather (played by actor Peter Falk) visits his grandson who is sick. He reads to him from The Princess Bride, a book by William Goldman.   But the book is awesome too.  Like the movie, it is  filled with pirates, sword fights, a giant and even true love. It is an AWESOME book to read when you want to escape the blahs (or the whirring of a drill)

 

But if pirates aren’t your thing, then there’s always wizards. And who wouldn’t want to go on a visit to one of the timeless Harry Potter books by the wonderful J.K. Rowling?  Wizards,  a 3-headed dog, secret magic, and an the ultimate in evil doers “He who must not be named”. What a FANTASTIC place to visit on your mental journey.  (And if you haven’t checked out the new covers for the books, they are AMAZING!)

             

 

Or perhaps you are looking for more light-hearted fun with a mystery twist. Then try out your patriotic flair for Kate Messner’s  book Capture the Flag.

 

Three kids get caught up in an adventure of historic proportions!
Anna, José, and Henry are complete strangers with more in common than they realize. Snowed in together at a chaotic Washington D.C. airport, they encounter a mysterious tattooed man, a flamboyant politician, and a rambunctious poodle named for an ancient king. Even stranger, news stations everywhere have announced that the famous flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner” has been stolen! Anna, certain that the culprits must be snowed in too, recruits Henry and José to help catch the thieves and bring them to justice.

But when accusations start flying, they soon realize there’s more than justice at stake. As the snow starts clearing, Anna, José, and Henry find themselves in a race against time (and the weather!) to prevent the loss of an American treasure.

 

 

 

 

Into sports? Take a swing at Gordan Korman’s Swindle

 

After a mean collector named Swindle cons him out of his most valuable baseball card, Griffin Bing must put together a band of misfits to break into Swindle’s compound and recapture the card. There are many things standing in their way — a menacing guard dog, a high-tech security system, a very secret hiding place, and their inability to drive — but Griffin and his team are going to get back what’s rightfully his . . . even if hijinks ensue.

This is Gordon Korman at his crowd-pleasing best, perfect for readers who like to hoot, howl, and heist.

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling spooky? Listen in on a ghost chat.  These books are  written entirely in the form of letters. And the real surprise is that one of the character’s  is a ghost writer. Literally. She is really dead and yet she’s an author. Cool, huh?

When I’m having a bad day, I always pull one of these books off the shelf. It’s sure to  perk me “write” back up!

 

           

 

And finally, if you feel the need to tickle your funny bone, take a look at some of Donna Gephart’s books. They always make me smile.

 

        

 

I know,  you’re dying to ask – did all of these books run through my head the hour I was sitting in the dentist chair? The answer is YES! Well, them, plus a few other things, like, did I forget to let the dog out before I left? Did I move the laundry to the dryer yet? And what do I need from the grocery store on the way home. (After all, I am a mom, too)

 

But the single overwhelming thought that kept running through my head  was  —  WHEN will this drilling ever end???

 

The lesson here is that next time you’re stuck somewhere you don’t want to be, send your brain on a mental holiday. Imagine yourself inside a book!

Any of these books above will do exactly that – make you feel like you get to visit a new world for a little while. One without runny noses, fevers, aches and yes, even dentist drills. ENJOY them all!!

Now, I want to know what book YOU like to read when you’re sick – or trying to distract yourself from a dental procedure. Put it in the comments below. Let’s see how many books we can come up with to escape the realities of our days.

 

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Jennifer Swanson is the author of a bunch of nonfiction books. When she is not writing, she is flossing and brushing her teeth REALLY well so that she does not have to have another crown put on!

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The Secret Language of Stories (SLOS) by Carolee Dean

By on September 4, 2013   /   For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers  

Hi everybody! Your long-time MUF member, Kimberley, here with today’s fantastic post!

carolee dean pics

Author Carolee Dean

I’m thrilled to introduce you to The Secret Language of Stories, created by my good friend and writing/critique partner, Carolee Dean. As you will see below she has oodles of experience doing this in the public school system as well as in classes and workshops around the country. She’s a brilliant writer, teacher and story analyst, with a terrific plan of fun writing activities to do with your students based on the 12-step Hero’s Journey. If you’re a home-school parent, substitute teacher, or writer yourself – jump right in – and enjoy! LOTS more details at the links below. Take it away, Carolee . . .

OVERVIEW

The Secret Language of Stories (SLOS) is a twelve-step story analysis I created based upon The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell as well as The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler. Though I love both of these texts, I was looking for symbols a little more concrete for the students I work with, and terms that brought images easily to mind for them.

I use this method both to create my own novels and to teach writing to kids of all ages as well as adults. As a speech-language pathologist in the public schools, I serve students elementary through high school of all ability levels. Understanding the structure of narratives gives kids a framework not just for understanding the stories they hear and read, but also for telling the stories of their lives.

Carolee Dean pic

Carolee with one of her students

SLOS is broken down into twelve basic parts. Stories don’t necessarily contain all of the components, and they don’t always occur in the order given here. In longer stories, many of the elements are repeated. Subplots may have their own story threads and novels may include endless repetitions of the Plan, Attempt, Response sequence found in the middle section of the story. The purpose of this analysis is not to micro analyze every element of a story, but rather to help students and other writers recognize what is going on in stories and to begin to think like authors.

I like to find magazine images depicting each of these story elements and then ask student to first talk about the pictures and then write sentences or paragraphs about them. Struggling writers may also be struggling speakers and thinkers. Since written language builds upon oral language, I always try to start with a conversation.

1)      Old World – Setting and characters are introduced.

luke skywalker

Our Hero!

2)      Call and Response – This may occur during or after the inciting incident. The Hero receives a call to adventure. Sometimes he eagerly undertakes this challenge, but more often there is a period of reluctance or even refusal as the dangers of the adventure are weighed against possible benefits.

3)      Mentors, Guides, and Gifts – A mentor appears to encourage the hero to accept the challenge of the call and gifts are often given to help him on his way.

4)      Crossing – The hero decides to act and crosses over into the New World.

5)      New World – The hero faces small challenges as she learns to function in the New World.

6)      Problems, Prizes, and Plans – A clear story goal is established and the hero makes plans for how it will be attained.

7)      Midpoint Challenge: Going for the Prize – An attempt is made to attain the Prize. A shift in the story occurs.

8)      Downtime – This section shows the hero’s response to what happened during the attempt. It may be a time of celebration, recovery, healing, regrouping or sulking, depending on what happened during the attempt to attain the Prize.

(Note: In longer stories or novels, endless cycles of the plan, attempt, response sequencing continue to build momentum.)

9)      Chase – A twist sends the hero off in a new direction. Something is being pursued. The hero may be pursuing the prize or the villain, or the villain may be pursuing the hero.

10)   Death and Transformation –

Hero's Journey and Character Arc

The Hero’s Journey PLUS Character ARC

This is the point in the story where it appears that the hero will lose whatever is of highest value. Often someone dies at this point in the narrative.

11)   Showdown: The Final Test – The hero must face one final challenge to demonstrate whether the changes that have occurred are lasting or only temporary; internal or merely external.

12)   Reward –  The hero gets what she has earned. If she has passed the final test, it may be a reward. If not, there may be other consequences. Often there is a celebration and the return of the hero to the group.

This is a very brief overview of the twelve steps. For more information visit my blog at http://caroleedeanbooks.blogspot.com/ and check out the tab entitled The Secret Language of Stories. If you have questions or if you are interested in writing workshops for your staff or students, please feel free to contact me at my email (caroleedean@yahoo.com)

I also have a monthly column called The Secret Language of Stories focusing specifically on story analysis at SPELLBINDERS BOOK NEWS. To read my analysis of Cassandra Clare’s City of  Bones go to my April post at http://spellbindersbooknews.blogspot.com/2013/04/city-of-bones-story-analysis-by-carolee.html.

CAROLEE DEAN BIO: Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/librarian conferences. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music therapy, a master’s degree in communicative disorder and has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist.

Her first novel, Comfort (Houghton Mifflin), received an IRA notable citation. Take Me There (Simon Pulse) is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. It follows the journey of a budding young poet who cannot read or write, but dreams of using words to escape a life of crime and deprivation. Forget Me Not (Simon Pulse) is a verse novel exploring suicide and the effects of cyber-bullying.

Follow her on Facebook at Carolee DeanM, Twitter @CaroleeJDean, www.caroleedean.com

Kimberley Griffiths Little is the author of three magical realism novels with Scholastic, THE HEALING SPELL, CIRCLE OF SECRETS, and WHEN THE BUTTERFLIES CAME (2013). Forthcoming: THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES (Scholastic, 2014) and her Young Adult debut of FORBIDDEN with Harpercollins (Fall 2014). When she’s not writing you can find her reading/daydreaming in her Victorian cottage and eating chocolate chip cookies with a hit of Dr. Pepper.

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Writing Well vs. Writing Correctly

By on August 19, 2013   /   For Parents, For Teachers  

A while back we got this excellent question in comments and I thought I’d tackle it today. To preface my remarks, I have a degree in education and have worked at both ends of the spectrum with gifted and with learning disabled students. I’ve tackled every grade from kindergarten through college at least once but most of my experience is in public schools with 4th to 6th grade students.  And here’s the comment.
I enjoyed reading your post, and was glad to hear of advantages of going through the revision process and learning from feedback. I think your question of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of students is a valid one. In fact, it is one I am struggling with this year. I teach English language learners who are motivated to learn, but get discouraged when issues with spelling and grammar get in the way. How do you suggest I handle this while encouraging them to keep writing?
When I was a child I hated to write. In part, I was just a highly active and curious kid who hated to sit still, and write about an adventure when I could be out there on my bike actually having one. But I also hated writing because I am a poor speller–not learning disabled, just poor at spelling. And because EVERY paper I ever got back in school was covered in spelling corrections sometimes with surprisingly bullying remarks from teachers about the stupidity of my errors.
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I simply assumed because I was a poor speller that I was a bad writer. It wasn’t until I was a junior in high school and had an English teacher, Mr. Skibinski, who was actually committed to the content of his student’s writing and not just the form, that I had any inkling that writing could be satisfying way to communicate ideas. Mr. Skibinski was the first teacher to ever give me a grade for content separate from conventions. Even more importantly, he spent more ink showing where my writing was working than where it wasn’t. I gained years worth of growth as a writer in the few months I spent in his class. And based both on that experience and the many things I’ve learned from being professionally edited over the years I’ve come up with a bunch of suggestions that I think may help your students hang in there long enough to become good writers.
 1. Let’s just admit up front, English is hard. It’s a large and rapidly growing language and because it tends to retain foreign spellings of words, it is not phonetically regular.
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2. Nobody gets all the conventional spellings and punctuation right in a first draft. Nobody. Some write more cleanly than others, but even the best writer makes mistakes. In my opinion an error free first draft is an unrealistic expectation for any student at any level. Yes, eventually a final draft should be correct but that takes time and more than one set of eyes on the project.

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3. It’s worth remembering too that conventions of spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage are not objectively correct. They are how they are because we’ve agreed on a common interpretation. But conventions of language are changing all the time, so at best we are looking to hit a moving and somewhat subjective target.
4. In the world of publishing, copy editing is different from developmental editing. My editor never dogs me about spelling or punctuation. I try to catch as much as I can on my own but he is only concerned with the shape of the story and not the correctness of it. When we are all done getting the content as perfect as we can make it, we send it to somebody else. In the case of Random House they send it to 3 copy editors. I have a little ode to my copy editors for Second Fiddle over here http://rosanneparry.com/the-death-of-copyediting/#comments
Obviously this isn’t practical in the classroom but I think it’s worth helping your students think of development and copyediting as separate tasks. Perhaps you could make the distinction with color. Green to show where writing needs to grow. (developmental editing) Purple to show where it can be made more correct. (copy editing)
5. Proficiency comes from volume of writing. Spelling Punctuation and Grammar are the enemy of productivity because your student gets so wrapped up in finding the right answer that they lose the flow of the idea. Better your students write 3 messy paragraphs that communicate what they intended to say than 3 perfect sentences that don’t mean anything. Keeping that in mind it might be worthwhile to encourage students to differentiate between private writing and public writing Private writing need only be readable by the writer. Public writing should be polished. The more private writing your students do the more polished their public writing will become.
Again this might not be practical, but what if your students had a daily journal in which the feedback was only positive? It could be a very powerful experience for them. Or what if you just committed to highlighting 3 strengths in every assignment you grade. Please don’t underestimate the power of this. My editor is at his most effective when he shows me my strongest plot elements and my clearest iteration of the character’s voice. This gives me something to build on and grow toward, which tends to lead to stronger and more confident writing on my part.
6. Spelling is arbitrary and it changes. Show your student’s how to use a dictionary efficiently. And

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 discourage them from relying on spell checking software. Consider the following sentence. If the t is missing in a key word I have not spelled anything wrong and yet the sentence is very, very very incorrect!

 

I chased the rabbit out of my garden with a big stick and a lot of yelling.
7. Many writers have a hard time seeing mistakes, but what is not visible may be audible. Give your students time and space to read their work out loud. I read every word of every draft aloud before I send it to my editor. It makes a huge difference in the quality of the prose. (This will be less true for students who are writing in their second language but it’s still a worth while practice for English language learners because it trains the ear in the new language.)
8. Be honest about your own mistakes. Encourage students to look for errors when you write on the board. Make a few on purpose so that they learn by your example how to handle that failure graciously. this will also help them gain an eye for proofreading.
It took me a very long time to think of myself as a writer because I mistook correct writing for good writing. I think with some sensitivity and some practical changes to how we manage writing assignments, we can have even struggling students thinking of themselves as proficient writers. Even better we can move them in the direction of being stronger writers more quickly.
So thanks for your excellent question, and please chime in readers. What have you done to help your students manage their discouragement with spelling, punctuation and grammar?
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