Hello Book Bums families!
It's still hot outside, but at Book Bums we are starting to think back-to-school thoughts. This week in the newsletter Dr. Christy reflects on running and perseverance. We also share several new book recommendations and our poem of the month.
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Word of the Week
reiterate (ree-it-ur-ate) verb/ action word - to say something again, usually to emphasize it
Since it was important, Luke reiterated his main point.
Literary Calendar
• July 28 is the birthday of Beatrix Potter.
• She is best known as an author and illustrator and the creator of Peter Rabbit. You can explore the world of Peter Rabbit and find kid-friendly activities at this fun website: Peter Rabbit
• Beatrix Potter was also a naturalist and conservationist.
"There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you."
-Beatrix Potter
From our Bookshelves
Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts is a great back-to-school read. It’s about a boy, Jeremy, who yearns for a pair of the “cool” shoes everyone is wearing. Unfortunately, they’re too expensive. He and his grandma find a pair at the Rerun Thrift Shop. The problem is they’re too small. Jeremy buys them with his own money anyway, and he wills his feet to grow smaller or the shoes to stretch. Neither happens. Jeremy struggles with a longing to fit in and the reality of not being able to have what he wants. In the end, Jeremy learns that the joy of giving can feel even better than the joy of having.
Some kids are smarter than you.
Some kids have cooler clothes than you.
Some kids are better at sports than you.
It doesn’t matter.
You have your thing, too.
Be the kid who can get along.
Be the kid who is generous.
Be the kid who is happy for other people.
Be the kid who does the right thing.
Be the nice kid.
Tips for Families
As I’ve mentioned, we at Book Bums together with The Faith Alliance host a summer literacy program serving about 60 kids in the Lakota School District. These kids have been identified as having reading difficulties and their families are experiencing some financial hardship. As we near the end of our programming, we’ve lost quite a few kids. We stive to make the learning fun, but it IS hard work. With trying to equip kids to decode words at grade-level expectations in eight weeks, meeting twice a week for two hours, we’re definitely pushing our students. It’s a constant see-sawing between push and patience. We just don’t have the luxury of time. Yes, we play games. Yes, we have lots of treats and trinkets to help kids remember the lessons we’re teaching, but it is work. And many of these kids have friends who are at home playing or sleeping or something else that sounds a little more fun than meeting in a school building on beautiful summer mornings.
Some kids just stop showing up. I reach out to parents to say that we’re missing their kids, and I don’t hear back from them. It’s got me thinking about how to motivate students to want to learn to read and spell well. Many days, I leave the experience thinking How can I help him/her to see that I’m not just offering reading help, I’m offering a ticket to a better life—an easier life. The fact is, sometimes educators want more for students than the student is willing to work for. I believe this is a big part of what’s become known as teacher burnout. Of course, we’re seeing tremendous gains in the students who are showing up and doing the work for our program. For that we’re grateful, but we cannot shake the feelings of failure for the ones we’ve lost.
Parents, the best advice I can give to you is to begin early. We can prevent reading difficulties and we must. We need to equip kids before they begin to believe that they can’t or that it’s too hard and they just don’t want to. Of course, we want our kids to want to learn to read. And we must deliver instruction in such a way that equips kids to expertly navigate our code-based language while also promoting a love for all things books—but we must also teach kids how to do the things they don’t want to do. That’s tough.
The statistics for struggling readers are downright depressing. Those in our nation’s prison systems read, on average, at about the fourth-grade level.
I shared with our students that I was a struggling reader. I shared that I lived in a nearby apartment complex with my mom and my baby sister and that I, like them, attended a Lakota elementary school. I also shared that now I have earned my doctorate and I long to use my expertise to help them move from struggling to soaring—that I am just the person to help, because I know what it’s like. For some kids, that message just hasn’t been enough.
Quite a few of years ago, I read Angela Duckworth’s book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, which I highly recommend. I had also been reading about the impact of aerobic exercise on kids’ attention. So, I emailed my principal and my students’ parents to inform them that our class would be wearing running clothes to school two days a week and that we’d be spending some time running laps around the school bus turnaround. (Remember how I wrote about action research last week? I was serious about that.)
Picture this: 28 students and one 50-something-year-old teacher schlepping around the bus turnaround. The first day, we ran for three minutes. That’s it. I had a stopwatch, and the goal was to train ourselves to do what we didn’t want to do. The goal was to keep going, even when we wanted to stop. We could slow down so much so that even walking would be faster, but we would promise ourselves not to stop. The next run day, we added one minute. The next run day we added another minute. I probably did not to promote a love for running. But I did teach kids to persevere when they wanted to quit.
It was really something special, because when a student was struggling and wanted to stop and walk, other kids would come alongside and say, “You can do this. Don’t stop. You’ve got this. I’m right here with you. I’m tired, too, but we’re not going to stop. Just a little longer. Hang on. I’m with you. Who’s in charge of when we stop? We are!” Oh, yeah. We had some whining and even crying, but we pressed on. And when the timer finally went off, we rejoiced together because we’d accomplished something great. We’d challenged ourselves do something hard, and we’d made it. Best, we could see that we were improving with every run.
One year, the valedictorians from both Lakota East and West High Schools had both been in my third-grade class. Of course, the common denominator was their third-grade teacher, so, I’m just sayin’. No, I’m just teasing. BUT those kids who ran laps with me, even when they didn’t want to . . . I just have to believe that they are going to do some great things.
Parents, join me in equipping kids to do what they don’t want to do so that someday they can do what they want to do.
Tips for Readers and Writers
Teaching kids to persevere when things get tough is challenging. Many parents and teachers talk about embracing a growth mindset (believing we can improve), but we need to do more than talk. We need to engage our kids in challenging tasks, acknowledge gains made, and reflect on those wins when the going gets tough in other situations.
We can even read books about people who persevered when it would have been easier to quit. (e.g. Stone Fox, Rowan of Rin, My Side of the Mountain, Charlotte’s Web, Top Secret, The Courage of Sarah Noble, The Doll People, etc.)
When it comes to teaching readers, we must acknowledge that, yes, it will require some hard work, but it is a worthy endeavor to learn to read and spell well.
Pause for Poetry
Dreams
by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Practical Grammar
Many of us must think for a moment when writing the words accept and except. They sound nearly identical, but there is a difference.
The word accept means to receive something as in, “I cannot accept this gift. It’s too generous.”
The word except means not including as in, “I can eat all nuts except peanuts—which aren’t actually nuts. They’re legumes.”
One way to remember the difference is that except means to exclude.
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