Comments for WOW Currents

Comment on Conveying Meaning through Visual Elements by jason

jason — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:21:46 +0000

I agree with Shirley. Often the world does appear black and white to me as well. It is nice to know that no matter what is going on in this crazy world, there is always one place that I can come back to and feel safe and at home… with my family!

Comment on Families Matter: Combining Literacy Reflections – Part IV by Carla Bluhm

Carla Bluhm — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:15:28 +0000

I have always liked cross cultural tooth shedding stories and enjoyed reading about them here. It is hard to appreciate the psychological importance of this universal childhood event without engaging in an array of ways different cultures help children cope with this challenging event.

Comment on Part 3 – Students’ Correspondence with Francisco Jimenez by Lance Christoff

Lance Christoff — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:18:52 +0000

Thank you for the family update.Condolence to Francisco.My pleasure to post here.Thank you for the information shared.God Bless

Comment on Part 1 – Discovering the words of Francisco Jiménez by cheri anderson

cheri anderson — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:52:29 +0000

“But sometimes, we happen across a book that has an unexpected effect for both our students and ourselves” Sandy makes such a critical point for today’s classrooms. With the current trend toward adequate progress meeting standards through a national curriculum are we not so focused on “adequate” learning that squeezes out the space for “profound” learning that may occur in a serendipitous turn in curricular choice.

Comment on Part 1 – Discovering the words of Francisco Jiménez by Dale Martin Davison

Dale Martin Davison — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:44:46 +0000

Mrs Kaser’s comments are enlightening and educational. She speaks on a level that even the less educated, such as I, can understand. Having just discovered the WOW site, I am Wowed by it.
Many times I find words totally lack the needed elements to accurately describe the feelings I have. When this happens; blundering, confusing, ideas and thoughts escape from my mind, into the minds of others, causing a conflict in their thoughts and feelings toward me. This defeats my primary purpose in communicating.
Mrs Kaser does not have this problem. Now I have three books to find and read. Thanks for WOWing me. Dale

Comment on Living Between Two Cultures: A Digital Literature Discussion of Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez, Part 2 by Ryan Teacher

Ryan Teacher — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:21:59 +0000

We teachers have a duty to prepare the students for the real world and that means knowing all types of reading not just the ones the district says is okay.

Comment on Windows to the World — A Quick Look at Haiti by Chris Shaver

Chris Shaver — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:14:05 +0000

As I was reading the book descriptions, the one about Tonight by Sea triggered a memory of a cab ride in Los Angeles with a cabby who had come from Haiti. He was a soft-spoken man, deeply Christian – and he recounted a tale of being terrorized by the military and escaping on a rickety boat much like this story. These are hard stories to hear – but the gratitude and appreciation this chap had for the United States was profound. I’d completely forgotten this until this moment.

Comment on Publishing Bilingual Books by Don - Need learn spanish info

Don - Need learn spanish info — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 21:44:44 +0000

I remember having great benefit from using a bilingual Spanish/English book when I started to learn Spanish a while back. But I find it quite difficult to find more books.
Anyone have ideas where to find a good book selection for personal use?

Comment on Fairy Tales: Zero Tolerance? by Rogue Spyware

Rogue Spyware — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:54:31 +0000

“Should we have zero tolerance for cultural inaccuracies in a book?”
No. The book is a work of fiction. The author may have tried to be as culturally congruent as she could, but does not owe it to her audience to be culturally accurate. She owes her audience an enjoyable read, and since it is based on a fairy tale she owes her readers an enjoyable escape too. If this were non-fiction I’d have a different view. When you market your book as non-fiction it most definitely should be accurate in all ways.

This does not mean that the reader should take the author’s version of the story as truth. If the reader wants to know how culturally accurate the story is then they can do research to find out, but it is not the author’s responsibility to educate in a fiction book.

Take Hollywood for example. Michael Moore’s “documentaries”, and more recently found out Al Gore’s global warming movie, are known to have fiction in them yet they are marketed as documentaries. This is wrong, and detrimental to any watching as they would take it as fact BECAUSE it is a documentary. Conversely, let’s hope no one believes our military acts as James Cameron portrayed it in Avatar. The difference is one is marketed as fiction and the other is not. If you want to know about a culture don’t rely on a fantasy book or movie to enlighten you.

Comment on Families Matter: Reaching Out to Reluctant Parents –- Part III by Mallory Ference

Mallory Ference — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:25:58 +0000

Coming from a home environment that was closely tied to my school environment, I make the mistake of assuming that all families are automatically able to be engaged in their child’s education, through journals or other means. However, as this article points out, certain environmental or personal reasons can prohibit families from fully contributing.

Early in this article Dr. Endrizzi highlights that we do in fact need to celebrate “parental risks.” Educators may not realize the courage parents show by simply responding in a journal. While this may not seem like a huge feat to an outsider, one needs to look at the individual to determine the value of the action. Educators must think of the father as someone who may not have had the best experiences at school and is ashamed of his poor writing instead of simply a father who refuses to participate. Just as teachers need to learn about each child to truly understand his/her actions, teachers must learn about families in the same manner.