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Bone: A great resource for encouraging reading

September 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Two years ago our school librarian added to our collection Volume 1 of the nine-part Bone series by Jeff Smith. I was hooked, promptly getting the remainder of the series from the public library for my own reading pleasure. The more I read, the more I knew that this graphic novel was great material for those “reluctant readers” we’re trying to support.

I suggested, even begged, our librarian to add the whole series to school library. When I realized that he wasn’t about to give in to my pleas, I moved onto another person who has purchasing power in our school: the Modified Education Coordinator. Wonderful woman, she purchased two copies of Volumes 1-5.

(Incidentally, our librarian has since had another person with far better credentials than my own outline the value of Bone, and a full set is now on its way to our library.)

This year I have a Grade 9 / 10 Essential level class. When teaching split level classes, I sometimes give students different texts to use as the basis for similar learning activities. That’s how I started out this unit: Grade 9s were using Bone, and Grade 10s Tuck Everlasting.

Almost immediately the Gr. 10s were asking to read Bone as well. I used that to my advantage, explaining that if they finished their daily reading and exercise with their own text, then they could read Bone quietly for the remainder of the period. Initially they worked hard for that privilege.

However, halfway through reading Tuck Everlasting with the Gr. 10s, I had a revolt on my hands. They wanted to read Bone. Period. So I shelved Tuck and the whole class read and worked with Bone.

Students happily created plot summaries, maps that tracked character movements, news articles, and (my favourite) turned dialogue into scripts with stage directions.

And everyone was happy. Including me.
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Image courtesy of Scholastic Bone Freebies

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Reading Reflections: George W. Bush

September 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment

With elections underway on both sides of the border, I thought that I should say farewell to the 43rd President of the United States the only way I know how: by reading a few pleasing accounts of his time in office. So, over the last two weeks I enjoyed:

Obviously these three books are quite favourable toward the Bush administration, and they tend to agree that History will judge him on the outcome of Iraq. That may be true. But, given the recent events on Wall Street, one wonders if the economy and his federal spending won’t be the deciding factor when History announces a verdict? If Bush had kept his spending down, perhaps he would have unseated Ronald Reagan as the darling of the Republicans for generations to come? We’ll never know.

Regardless, History will surely be kinder to him than the press he currently receives. His popularity has nowhere to go, but up. And these authors may contribute to that rise.
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Image by soldiersmediacenter

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Reading Reflections: Fear and Trembling, by Søren Kierkegaard

June 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

With these ‘Reading Reflections’ blog-posts, I continue my tradition of a personal reading journal in order to look back at the end of the year on the books that I’ve had off the shelf.

When I look back on this particular reading experience, it will be the vivid depictions of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah — altered a little each time. Søren Kierkegaard has enriched that story for me with his balancing of faith and anxiety, and life.

… imperfection is the fundamental law of the external world, and here it happens again and again that he who does not work does get bread, and he who sleeps gets it even more abundantly than he who works. In the external world, everything belongs to the possessor. It is subject to the law of indifference… It is different in the world of the spirit. Here an eternal divine order prevails. Here it does not rain on both the just and the unjust; here sun does not shine on both good and evil. Here it holds true that only the one who works gets bread, that the only one who descends into the lower world rescues the beloved, that only the one who draws the knife gets Isaac. (27)

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Photo by vaticanus

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Lesson Debrief: Ender’s Game

June 3, 2008 By 4 Comments

At a Literacy Committee meeting last September we were discussing the OSSLT (what else would an Ontario literacy committee discuss?!). During our conversation our Vice Principal suggested that our Applied level Gr. 9 English students should work with a novel that appeals to boys, our stereotypical reluctant reader crowd. “Some fantasy or science-fiction novel,” she said. “That’s what these students read.”

I couldn’t agree more. After some discussion about options, our department ordered a class set of Ender’s Game. Thank goodness. It’s been a great classroom experience.

Over the last month we’ve drawn pictures of the Battle School (encouraging students to visualize what they’re reading), writing imaginary emails from character’s perspectives (helping students recognize perspective and appreciate author’s choices), writing news articles (enabling students to extract major plot events and re-order them), and writing an essay (yep — a five paragraph one, much as I shudder at the thought).

We’ve been busy, but the class was completely hooked. They were completely quiet while we read the novel together. For those of you who regularly teach Gr. 9 Applied students, you’ll know just how special this experience has been.

What Worked Well

  • Ender’s Game is an excellent book to read aloud. My wife and I read it to each other about eight years ago, and were up until the early hours of the morning doing so. It’s that kind of book.
  • Science fiction is appealing to Grade 9 boys, and this particular novel has strong female characters with whom girls can relate. It helps that the main characters are all children and adolescents.
  • Sharing personal visions of the setting – the Battle School and the Battle Room in particular – through discussions and drawings was fun for students, and it helped them to see both the differences and commonalities in their individual visions. This was a good launch point for discussing how reading involves “filling in gaps” and creating pictures based on the author’s word choice.

      • What Needs Work

      • This is yet another unit that I wish I would have done earlier on in the semester. A month-long unit that centres on a novel feels too big for this time of year. But the question is, what type of unit would work when the weather is beautiful enough to distract all of us from learning?
      • The Cyberbullying WebQuest was a bit advanced for this group.
      • The five paragraph essay. I ended a unit that students enjoyed with an activity that students hated. I feel like I tainted the whole experience for them. On the other hand, perhaps the fact that the novel was so enjoyable saved the essay experience from being complete torture for them.
          • Filed Under: Assessment, Books, Lessons Tagged With: , , ,

          Reading Reflections: Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada, by William Johnson

          May 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment

          I’ve read William Johnson’s column in The Globe and Mail before, but his real talent shines here in Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada, this account of Harper’s road through to the role of Leader of the Official Opposition. Can I expect Johnson to write another volume on Harper’s years as Prime Minister? I would eagerly anticipate it.

          Johnson describes Harper as an honest conservative — perhaps the first truly conservative Prime Minister that our country has ever seen. Harper is an intellectual, interested in conservative policy and ideals, and is a politician more comfortable in a library than networking a social function.

          I also like Johnson’s take on Parliament:

          In a vindication of Reform’s prophetic insistence on retrenchment, the Liberal budgets would actually cut $3 billion more than Reform had proposed. Reform had helped make the Liberal pirouette possible… The dynamics in the Commons, where the NDP and the Tories had collapsed while the Bloc’s economic policies were not credible, meant that the threat to Liberal dominance was on the right, not the left. So they could veer sharply to the right without being attacked for it by their chief opponents, the Reformers. The dynamic was the opposite of what it had been when Mulroney tried to cut spending and the Liberals howled. (261)

          By this logic, it is incredible that Harper has been able to govern as conservative as he has. Perhaps because of a lack of a credible opposition? He is smart. Possibly the smartest politician Canada has seen in a long time.
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          Image by Conservative.ca

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          Shakespeare Club #2: Hamlet

          May 14, 2008 By 1 Comment

          The plan to meet with colleagues once a month to discuss the Bard’s works has survived into a second meeting. In April, a few of us English teachers met at a coffee shop to discuss Romeo & Juliet– its language and characters.

          Now, in May, we met to chat about Shakespeare’s greatest play, our favourite: Hamlet. What follows is a glimpse of our discussion…

          What makes Hamlet the greatest play?

          • The depth of this play has provided us with rich discussion and debate year-round, in a way that no other play ever will — religion, existentialism and Freud hundreds of years too early.
          • The talk about theatre and acting throughout, analyzing the fiction and the reality of the performance.
          • As Richard Monette (former artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival) once said, “There is only one good reason for becoming an actor, and that is to aspire to play the role of Hamlet…”

          Is Hamlet mad?

          • Hamlet obviously has a lot going on in his life and he is struggling to hold things together, but his madness is primarily an act. Still, how trustworthy of a narrator is he?

          Did Hamlet and Ophelia truly love each other?

          • Ophelia ends the relationship under the direction of her father and her brother, not as an act of her own will.
          • Whether or not he lashes out at Ophelia because he is hurt, the evidence suggests that he did indeed love Ophelia.

          Is Hamlet a likeable character?

          • Ay, here’s the rub. One’s feelings for or against this title character will direct much interpretation of the entire play…
          • Hamlet is witty and funny.
          • Is he also a self-centered, self-serving, disloyal, remorseless, uncaring, dangerous woman-hater?

          Did Rosencrantz and Guildenstern get what they deserved?

          • These two ‘friends’ were summoned by the King and Queen — they had no choice but to do as directed.
          • Do they genuinely care for Hamlet’s well-being? Is it possible that ‘the king’s remembrances’, ‘rewards’, and ‘making love to their employment’ suggest payment for their trouble?
          • Regardless, their execution is too cruel.

          What is Shakespeare’s message about revenge?

          • Hamlet’s attempts at gaining revenge cause no end of trouble. Laertes too gets the worst of his own vengeance. Is the Bard suggesting that seeking revenge is folly?
          • Only Fortinbras succeeds in avenging his father’s death, by ascending to the Danish throne, though he acquiesced in his attempts at seeking it out.

          Some further points that struck us:

          • Horatio almost killed himself to show loyalty to Hamlet
          • Gertrude was unable to see the Ghost, though the soldiers saw it
          • Fortinbras did come victorious from Poland — so was he in Denmark for a fight?
          • Hamlet’s words to Laertes prior to the duel were in response to the Queen’s request
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          Reading Reflections: Harper's Team, by Tom Flanagan

          May 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment

          Since first learning from the Globe and Mail’s Books section that Flanagan had written this book“>this book, I have been intrigued. My understanding of him was that he was the guru behind this ‘new’ Conservative party’s ideology, the top of the hierarchy of this Calgary-School-of-Thought. Well, perhaps I was wrong to assume that; or, if that is true, then Flanagan is humble and gracious, as he points to Stephen Harper as being the primary man of ideas.

          Flanagan, Harper’s chief campaign organizer, does not focus on ideology in this book. Other than a few hints of tradition and conservative philosophy, the book concentrates on the political campaigns of Stephen Harper — his rise to party leadership and then to Prime Minister of Canada. While I would have liked to hear more about Edmund Burke, Friedrich Hayek, and the 1992 conversations between Harper and Flanagan about Prestonian populism, the details of the work involved in campaigning was quite interesting to me.

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          Reading Reflections: The Curious Incident …

          May 12, 2008 By Leave a Comment

          Assigned the task of instructing a split class of Grade 11 and 12 Workplace English (ENG 3E/4E), I wanted to take a different approach this semester to really focus on improving our reading skills. From quiet, independent reading, through a variety of reading together activities, we have spent a lot of time with our noses in books. The students are tired of it. Of course, with the temperature climbing beyond 18 degrees Celsius, and with the tulips, daffodils, and hyacinth in bloom, and with the orioles, purple martins, and yellow warblers returned to our local skies, the students are simply tired of being stuck in a dark classroom. Nevertheless, our latest reading activities revolved around Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. With this novel I demonstrated snags and the students worked with words, connections, investigating, storytelling, and questioning. For these activities, taken from my usual literature-circle roles, this novel worked very well. It is an intriguing story that offers numerous connections for the students to make with their own lives. It also offers the opportunity for interesting mystery-parallels. I will read it with a Workplace English class again in the future, but much earlier in the semester.

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          Reading Reflections: Ovid's Metamorphoses

          May 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

          Any teacher with any interest in Shakespeare has got to read this book.

          … With those words, this classic was placed in my hands by a colleague from the History department. It was probably high time that someone did just that; the fact that I’ve managed to get this far into life without reading any Ovid has indeed been a gap in my reading journey (much like my complete ignorance of A. Camus).

          After reading this Roman poet (translated by Rolfe Humphries), I expect enriched experiences when I approach the Bard: from his use of names (Ganymede, Theseus, Laertes…) and all that they imply, through some of his direct quotes (“…as ivy winds round great oaks”), to direct references such as Niobe weeping (who, interestingly enough, was weeping for her slaughtered children, and not for a dead husband as Hamlet implied — maybe the Prince of Denmark really was as selfish and egotistical as my colleagues try in vain to convince me). And of course, a quick comparison of Titus Andronicus with the story of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela is recommended for all with a taste for the macabre. Shakespeare’s dark side. Scratched deep enough, he’s a noble Roman.

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          Reading Reflections: God's Little Acre, by Erskine Caldwell

          April 30, 2008 By 3 Comments

          Studying The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz last month with my Grade 12 College level English students, demonstrated to me that 30 students digging around in a novel are sometimes able to unearth a lot more than I could on my own in the same timeframe. Especially with the literature circle role of the ‘Investigator’ — researching names of people and places, and cultural, geographical and historical references – a number of Mordecai Richler’s allusions were cleared up for me. Throughout the novel, Duddy, always with a smirk, asks other characters whether or not they’ve ever read God’s Little Acre. I’ve always assumed it was a fictitious reference to some smutty material… Little did I know that it is actually considered ‘a great American classic’, written by Erskine Caldwell. When that was pointed out to me, I immediately put in a request for it at our local public library, along with his more famous title, Tobacco Road. Neither book was available at any of the libraries in our Township, but they arrived nonetheless, from the not-too-far-away public library in Huntsville.

          So I read them. And I didn’t enjoy either of them. Caldwell’s writing didn’t grip me like Steinbeck’s has, or Hemingway’s. A slogan on the book bragged: ‘What Faulkner implies, Caldwell records.’ And yet, to me, great writers prove their strength when they are able to get away with implied material, and they do not need to spell it all out for us. (Which has been one of my complaints about John Irving’s writing; I’d like him to leave a little more unsaid, have a little more faith in us readers in deciphering the events.) Throughout God’s Little Acre, I found myself wishing that it had been written as a dramatic script, rather than as a novel; I think Caldwell would have made an amazing playwright.

          I read God’s Little Acre simply because a Richler-character repeatedly mentioned it. I know that I will return to The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz again and again, and now I’ll know why Duddy smirks when he mentions Caldwell’s title. And that alone may have made this read worthwhile to me.

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