By Prisca Martens, Ph.D., Towson University
EXPLORE in Storying Studio is a time when children play with ideas and concepts by getting inside of those ideas. They experiment with making meaning as authors and/or artists do, using drawing or concepts discussed in minilessons.
By Prisca Martens, Ph.D., Towson University
When children read in Storying Studio, they learn that readers not only read written text, they read art. They consider how/why artists make particular decisions about color, shape, etc., similar to how/why authors make particular decisions about word choice, sentence structure, etc., when writing written text. We create text sets around particular themes, topics, or art concepts on which the teachers want to focus in the minilessons.
By Prisca Martens, PhD, Towson University
Picturebooks convey stories in both written text and pictorial text (art), with both texts being essential to telling the story (Kiefer, 1995; Sipe, 1998). The art has meanings or perspectives not offered in the written text just as the written text has meanings/perspectives not available in the art. When no written text is present, the story is told only through the art. Typically these books are referred to as wordless books. My co-researcher Ray Martens, an artist and art educator, however, calls them pictorial books to emphasize the importance of the art in telling the story rather than identify these books as lacking words. Continue reading
By T. Gail Pritchard, Ph.D., University of Arizona
What do you wish for — Love? Health? Happiness? Friendship? Sometimes the wishes are for yourself, your family, a specific person, or even the world. This week’s blog takes a look at wishes made and how those wishes go awry, from wanting a friend to make the basketball team to wanting to be liked. In each case, when the wishes go awry, the wisher is left wondering how to undo those wishes. In the process, we learn about each of the wishers — who they are, aspects of their character, and what they most value. Are they foolish? Are they greedy? Or do they just want to help better themselves and their family?
Book of the Month, June 2016
The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
The interweaving of four teen’s lives in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1970 will both inspire and break readers’ hearts. How we touch one another and give each other hope –often unknowingly–are the wondrous and magical aspects of this remarkable and well-written story. -Recommended by Holly Johnson
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By T. Gail Pritchard, Ph.D., University of Arizona
Most of us have thought about what we would do if granted wishes and like Tanya in One Wish (Harrison, 2016). We are wish savvy — we know we must be careful about what we wish. However, not everyone makes their wishes carefully…
By T. Gail Pritchard, Ph.D., University of Arizona
I bet most of us have considered “do overs,” what we would re-do in our life if given a chance. Maybe we would change a conversation, an action (or lack thereof), or a decision. In The Wish List by Eoin Colfer, Lowrie McCall’s list consists of four things he wished he had done in his life. Furthermore, the fate of Meg Finn’s soul depends on her success in helping him complete his wish list. School Library Journal describes their journey as “both humorous and poignant, as Lowrie confronts his regrets and Meg strives to attain salvation.”
By T. Gail Pritchard, Ph.D., University of Arizona
Think back to some of your earliest memories of wishing, perhaps when blowing out birthday candles, wishing upon a star — particularly a shooting star or the first star of the night, throwing a penny in a wishing well or fountain, getting the long end of the wishbone, blowing on a dandelion puff, or maybe writing a wish on a piece of paper and tying it to a tree or hiding it under a rock. Continue reading
Book of the Month, May 2016
Salt to the Sea by Ryta Sepetys
Four teens tell of their journey during World War II as the Russian Army pushed Germans troops and refugees away from Baltic countries to the shores of the Baltic Sea where they were herded aboard ships to take them to Germany. When Russian subs sunk their ships, 25,000 of those people were killed. The characters are courageous and become dear as we discover their stories and the result of their ordeal. -Recommended by Marilyn Carpenter Continue reading
by Carmen M. Martinez-Roldan and Katherine Lorena del Carmen Keim-Riveros
Port-au-Prince
In our last blog of the month we focus on how the authors’ incorporation of non-English words in Afro-Latino and Afro-Caribbean literature can contribute to a better understanding and appreciation of the richness and complexities of Latino culture and the bilingualism of their communities. The books discussed through this month were all English-based texts, in which the authors purposefully incorporated the linguistic repertoire Continue reading
