Time

Moon and Light (Maine, 2012)

A few months ago, my husband was reading aloud to me a description of time from John McPhee's Annals of a Former Time.  It is a marvelous book (actually five books in one) that McPhee wrote from 1978 to 1998 about his travels across the United States with geologists. In this epic text, he explains the natural history of the land we now call United States beginning 4.5 billion years ago. What interested me was the dual depictions of time: geologic and human.

Consider this section Rob read aloud to me:

When a volcano lets fly or an earthquake brings down a mountainside, people look upon the event with surprise and report it to each other as news. People, in their whole history, have seen comparatively few such events; and only in the past couple of hundred years have they begun to sense the patterns the events represent. Human time, regarded in the perspective of geologic time, is much too thin to be discerned— the mark invisible at the end of a ruler. If geologic time could somehow be seen in the perspective of human time, on the other hand, sea level would be rising and falling hundreds of feet, ice would come pouring over continents and as quickly go away. Yucatans and Floridas would be under the sun one moment and underwater the next, oceans would swing open like doors, mountains would grow like clouds and come down like melting sherbet, continents would crawl like amoebae, rivers would arrive and disappear like rainstreaks down an umbrella, lakes would go away like puddles after rain, and volcanoes would light the earth as if it were a garden full of fireflies. At the end of the program, man shows up— his ticket in his hand. Almost at once, he conceives of private property, dimension stone, and life insurance. When a Mt. St. Helens assaults his sensibilities with an ash cloud eleven miles high, he writes a letter to the New York Times recommending that the mountain be bombed. (p. 171).

Reading John McPhee helps me to better understand how so many human concerns, dramas, and perspectives appear shallow, less substantial when they are resettled alongside the long sweep of geological events. This way of seeing gives me pause--a necessary one and helps me to reconsider those perspectives I cultivate in which my concerns, largely manufactured dramas and needs are given centrality. Yet beneath the drama, some truths remain.

The Necessity of Wonder: Rethinking Argument

I. A Problem

Martin Nystrand and Nelson Graff authored a critically important piece of research, Report in Argument's Clothing: An Ecological Perspective on Writing Instruction (CELA Research Report 13007) that we need to pay attention to. Nystrand and Graff conducted a 9-week observation (nearly 5000 hours) of a middle school English-social studies blocked class in order to examine how the intellectual environment of a classroom (in)forms the teaching of argument. They explain that their research

examines the puzzling situation of an excellent teacher of writing who encountered unanticipated difficulties in helping her seventh-grade students produce effective arguments in their written work. In spite of the best efforts of this skilled and dedicated teacher, it was a challenging and not altogether successful effort, and the fact that her students still weren't writing argument despite her up-to-date professionalism became our research problem (pp. 1-2).

Wonder (M.A. Reilly, 2011)

So what was at issue?   They explain:

We came to view the students' problems as indicative of something systemic about cutting edge practice. We learned that it's not possible to understand the problem by focusing only on writing instruction. Rather, it is essential to examine the general culture, or ecology, of the classroom (p. 2). 

Here is a description of the teacher and the class:

Sally Martin's multiracial classroom of 31 seventh-grade students was a veritable cornucopia of the best pedagogical innovations in writing instruction from the last thirty years. As a well prepared, professional, and highly regarded English and language arts teacher, Martin believes that writing is best learned through practice and feedback, and she practiced what she preached: Her students continuously wrote and rewrote; she often responded to drafts, not just final copies, and revision was an expected part of every major assignment. Martin also conducted writing conferences with her students as needed, with additional support for students who either voluntarily sought extra help or whom Martin designated. And small group work was part of a rich menu of activities. 

Nonetheless, the students' argument writing did not mature past the report stage even though that was the expressed outcome the teacher sought.  How come? How is it that students in a classroom  taught by an experienced teacher who employs many of the 'best practices' espoused by writing workshop advocates and experts failed to better develop writing products? What went wrong?

Nystrand and Graff report:

In the 9 weeks we observed (in blocks of two 55-minute classes back to back), not 1 of
the total 4,950 minutes was given over to discussion in any extended form (we define discussion as the free exchange of information among students and/or between at least 3 students and the teacher that lasted at least a half minute). Martin's talk was peppered with the word, okay (sometimes with rising question intonation). These okays never functioned as questions requiring responses: Martin never paused for students to answer or even nod; she went on with her speech as if they had (p. 19). 

Instead of engendering a classroom where one wonders, Martin created a classroom where she told students how to write the argument by emphasizing form. Consider this exchange between Martin and a student and ask yourself, who did the thinking?  What did the student learn?

Martin: Have you ever had an argument with your parents about how late you
can stay up? Have you argued about how late or what time you have to
be home? Have you ever had an argument about that?
Jafari: (Yeah)
Martin: Okay. And when you have an argument with your parents, do you give
them reasons why you think you should stay up late?
. . .
Jafari: Uh 'cause I'm older
Martin: Okay 'cause you're older. What are some other reasons?
. . .
Jafari: Not sleepy
Martin: What do you mean—not, Oh, you're not sleepy: "I'm not tired, I should
be able to stay up when I'm not tired." What's another reason you
should be able to stay up?
Jafari: Um.
Student: Homework?
Martin: All right, someone's saying homework, so maybe you could say, "I
have homework to do—there's a reason for me to stay up." So right
there you have three reasons why you think you should stay up 'til 11.
Now, can you take each of your three reasons and back 'em up with
more concrete evidence? So when you say, "Mom, I'm not tired," can
you give some reasons? Can you say some other things other than "I'm
not tired"? Can you support your evidence, or your claims, or your
assertions with reasons? This is what you're gonna have to do in
writing. Okay? [2/16/98 ] (from p. 12).

In the rush to teach a specific format, the thinking necessary to conjure an argument and locate a defense is usurped by telling the student what to write. I think of this as I know that somewhere a well intentioned teacher is dusting off Stephen Toumlin's argument model (1958) and readying it for children to mimic.

II. Mimicry

Mimicry can never be the apt substitute for wonder. The challenge isn't employing models as much as it is developing thinking environments in which models might be composed and/or placed.  Nystrand and Graff conclude:

A few changes in writing instruction, while important, may not have the desired results if the dominant epistemology of the classroom derails the instructional goals for writing (p. 20)...The pedagogical character of the classroom ecosystem is sustained, moreover, by the fact that participant roles in classrooms are also epistemological: The questions teachers ask, the tests they give, and the responses they make to student answers, writing, etc., all function to establish what counts as knowledge in their classrooms (Nystrand, 1997) (p.21).

Along with the demand of the CCSS to ensure children and teens are composing arguments as readers and writers will come the myriad of professional books that sport spiffy lessons and units of study that are tidy, neat, well intentioned, and nonetheless deeply flawed as they attend to the topic of teaching argument as if it could exist apart from the ecological expression of the classroom. In communities where mimicry is the mode, knowledge is predetermined and dispensed by the teacher, and correctness as measured by a rubric is the sought outcome--the learning that is done will need to be unlearned.

Nystrand and Graff close their research by saying:

effectively teaching writing as process and writing as argument requires teachers to
radically and comprehensively develop sophisticated ideas about the nature and sources of
knowledge and the role of language generally, not just implement a series of cutting-edge lessons on writing. Classroom discourse has the seminal power to shape and maintain classroom epistemology. Conflicting demands on teachers' time, energy, and limited resources can also readily work against the use of the most innovative and creative teaching strategies considered on their own. It is through an ecological analysis of Martin's class related to these themes that we begin to understand how even skillful teaching that does not incorporate such changes in philosophy can yield superficial results (pp. 21-22).

III. Wondering

It is 4 a.m. as I write this and outside the window next to where I am seated is a full moon, hazy with cloud cover.

It is a moon to wonder
beneath.

It is this space of wondering that we most need to conjure inside classrooms--creating a luxury of time where the agenda is open to the learner, not predetermined by teacher, principal or a director of curriculum.  Argument requires thinking.

We need to make room for learners to wander, to get lost, to get the lessons we teach, wrong. To fail in ways that most help us to learn.

Not all failure results in important learning, for failure without agency results in repeated failure. Our learners come to make the same errors over and over and over again.

To predetermine knowledge is to limit the discourse and to situate knowing as a finite unit that can be passed from one to the next, much like coins in a pocket.

Here's Toumlin's model.  Six steps.  Plug in your answers and check them off as you complete each task.

To begin a unit of study about argument requires us to understand that wondering trumps correct form.  It is better to have a messy product that involves thinking that is wonderfully incorrect than to have a pristine form that is largely empty of actual thought. The increased pressure of living within a testing culture we create inside classrooms where measurement outcomes are mistaken as signs of divinity obscures the necessity for talk especially when learners have nothing to say (think John Cage).

"Here are the answers," we say.  "This is what you put in paragraph 1, 2, 3, and so on."

We need to stop and clear a space where we have nothing to say.  It is in such spaces that wonder rises most acutely.

So tonight
beneath this very full moon, I am wishing you
                   false starts.
I am hoping
                            you will chuck the pre-made lessons,
                                                     the commercial units of study,
                                                     the pristine and pressed professional books
                                                     shrink-wrapped and delivered to your door.

As Annie Dillard nicely wrote, I am hoping the tracks have grown over; that the birds ate the crumbs and that you and your learners need to forge new ways of walking, new paths of meaning.

Let's clear spaces to wonder and wander.

 

A Year of Wonder - A New Project and Book

A fifth grader conducting some research.

I am super excited to announce that I am beginning an in-school project with fourth and fifth graders, their ESL teacher, Jazleen Othman, and their principal, Sylvia Esteves from Park Elementary School in Newark, NJ that will result in a book proposal and hopefully a completed book (tentative title: A Year of Wonder: Composing Disciplinary Knowledge through Engagements with Text). The project aims to increase and complicate children's disciplinary knowledge through engagements (think multimodal) with read aloud and independent texts that are consumed and produced.  For some time I have been designing collections of read aloud texts that are coupled together based on important theories, such as evolution.  I am wondering what might happen if the read aloud selections and engagements across a school year were strategically determined and negotiated based on a desire to develop and complicate disciplinary knowledge by dwelling in wonder.

For the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of learning with Ms. Othman and her fabulous fourth and fifth grade children who are so very bright and curious. The children, Ms. Othman and Ms. Esteves have expressed interest in the project and so we are underway and have begun to document what we are doing, learning and unlearning.  During the next few months it is my intention to report via this blog on what we are learning/unlearning as we make our way.  I plan to include multi-voiced and multiple narrative accounts authored by Ms. Othman, Ms. Esteves, the children, myself and perhaps others who at this time I have not identified (yet).

I'll keep you posted.

A student with Ms. Othman.

P.S.


I was thrilled to learn that Ms. Othman and her children have dedicated the one window in the classroom as a window of wonder where learners can peer out, taking time to wonder, observe, question, see and so on...without an imposed agenda.  A small and important start.

Teaching Argumentative Writing

These are slides for a presentation I will be doing tomorrow with middle school teachers in Newark, NJ focusing on teaching argumentative reading and writing.

Teaching Argumentative Writing from Mary Ann Reilly / Blueprints for Learning, Inc.

50 Professional Texts that Influence My Thinking: An Eclectic Set

Dreaming of Kurt Schwitters (M.A. Reilly, 2011)

An eclectic set of professional texts  that I have read that influence my thinking. Curious as to which books you would include in a list. 

1. Albers, Joseph. (2006). Interaction of Color. New haven, CT: Yale University Press.
2. Alexander, Christopher; Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein. (1977). A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction.  London: Oxford University Press.
3. Arnheim, Rudolf. (2004). Visual Thinking: Thirty-fifth Anniversary. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 
4. Bachelard, Gaston. (1958/1994). The Poetics of Space. Maria Jolas, translator. Boston: Beacon Press.
5. Bakhtin, M.M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Michael Holquist, editor. Vadim Liapunov, translator. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
6. Bakhtin, M.M. (1986). Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Caryl Emerson & Michael Holquist, editors. Vern W. McGee, translator. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
7. Bang, Molly. (2000). Picture This: How Pictures Work. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.
8. Barthes, Roland. (2010). Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang.
9. Bateson, Mary Catherine. (1995). Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way. New York: HarperCollins.
10. Benjamin, Walter. (1969).  Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. Schocken.
11. Berger, John. (1995). Another Way of Telling. New York: Vintage.
12. Berger, Ron. (2003). The Ethics of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
13. Bhabha, Homi K. (2004). The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.
14. Brookfield, Stephen & Steven Presskill. (2005). Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms, 2nd Ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
15. Bruner, Jerome. (1986). Actual Minds: Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
16. Butler, Judith. (2005). Giving an Account of Oneself. New York: Fordham University Press.
17. Deleuze, Gilles & Felox Guattari. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
18. Deleuze, Gilles & Claire Parnet. (2002).  Dialogues, Second Ed. New York: Columbia University Press.
19. Dewey, John. (2005). Art as Experience. New York: Perigee Trade.
20. Eisner, Elliott. (2004). The Arts and the Creation of Mind. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
21. Elbow, Peter. (1973/1998). Writing without Teachers: 25th Anniversary Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
22. Freire, Paulo. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th Anniversary Edition. Myra Bergman Ramos, translator. New York: Continuum.
23. Gee, James. (2011). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourse. London: Routledge.
24. Gonzalez, Norma, Luis Moll, and Cathy Amanti (Eds).(2005).  Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households and Classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
25. Greene, Maxine. (2000). Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
26. Greene, Maxine. (1988). The Dialectic of Freedom. New York: Teachers College Press.
27. Grumet, Madeleine. (1988). Bitter Milk: Women and Teaching. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press.
28. Hayles, N. Catherine, (2012). How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 
29. Heath, Shirley Brice. (1983). Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
30. Henry Jenkins, Henry, Ravi Purushotma, Margaret Weigel, Katie Clinton, Alice J. Robison (2009). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning).  Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
31. hooks, bell. (2003). Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. London: Routledge.
32. Huizinga, Johan. (1971). Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Boston, MA Beacon Press.
33. Iser, W. (1974). The implied reader: Patterns of communication in prose fiction from Bunyan to Beckett. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
34. Ito, Mizuko, Heather A. Horst, Megan Finn, Arthur Law, Annie Manion, Sarai Mitnick, David Schlossberg and Sarita Yardi. (2009). Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 
35. Latour, Bruno. (2007). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Netwok-Theory. Oxford.
36. Lefebvre, Henri. (19920. The Production of Space. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
37. Newkirk, Thomas, (2011). The Art of Slow Reading: Six Time Honored Practices for Engagement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
38. Pinar, William. (2011). What is Curriculum Theory? 2nd Edition. London: Routledge.
39. Rogoff, Barbara. (1991). Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context. London: Oxford University Press.
40. Rosenblatt, Louise.  (1978/1994). The Reader, The Text, and the Poem: Transactional Theory of the Literary Work. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
41. Soja, Edward. (1997/2011). Postmodern geographies: The reassertion of space in critical social theory. New York: Verso.
42. Sumara, Dennis. (1996). Private Readings in Public: Schooling the Literary Imagination. New York: Peter Lang.
43. Sutton-Smith, Brian. (2001). The Ambiguity of Play. Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.
44. Tharp, Roland & Rolland Gallimore. (1988). Rousing Minds to Life: Teaching, Learning & Schooling in Social Context. Cambridge University Press
45. Thomas, Doug  & John Seely Brown. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the imagination for a World of Constant Change. CreateSpace.
46. Vinz, Ruth. (1996). Composing a Teaching Life. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
47. Vygotsky, Lev. (1986). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
48. Weinberger, David. (2012). Too Big To Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts are Everywhere, and The Smartest Person in the Room is the Room. New York: Basic Books.
49. Weschler, Lawrence. (2009). Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees. University of California Press.
50. Wheatley, Margaret J. (2002). Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Kohler.
51. 
    

You, Returning

And We Danced (M.A. Reilly 2008)

I.  Echo

Mary Catherine Bateson (2004) tells us:

The true exorcism of ghosts occurs when they are gradually absorbed into the lives of the living (p. 13).

She is writing about the role we assigned to those who have come before us--who are gone from the earth and yet, whose words continue to inform our ways and words as well. She says:

They remain in that place of memory from which all of the honored dead speak to enrich our thought, so that even when we speak, we echo many voices (p.16).

Islands (M.A. Reilly, 2012)

II. Photograph

Theories of Time and Space 

 - By Natasha Trethewey ( 2010) 

You can get there from here, though
there's no going home. 

Everywhere you go will be somewhere
you've never been. Try this: 

head south on Mississippi 49, one-
by-one mile markers ticking off 

another minute of your life. Follow this
to its natural conclusion--dead end 

at the coast, the pier at Gulfport where
riggings of shrimp boats are loose stitches 

in a sky threatening rain, cross over
the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand 

dumped on the mangrove swamp--buried
terrain of the past. Bring only 

what you must carry--tome of memory,
its random blank pages. 

On the dock where you board the boat
for Ship Island someone will take your picture. 

The photograph--who you were--
will be waiting when you return.

Fences (M.A. Reilly, 2012)

III. Returning

Preparation for life is preparation for a long meander through uncertainty, for working with partial clues and rough approximations, for skillful guessing and zestful improvisation. Even those facts that seem clear and unambiguous unfold into unexpected implications--and are sometimes contradicted by new findings (MCB, pp. 339-340).

Works Cited
Bateson, M.C. (2004). Willing to learn: Passages to personal discovery. Hanover, NH: Steerforth Press.
Trethewey, Natasha. (2010). Beyond Katrina: A meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

The Thanksgivings

Appalled at Everyone Else: On Language and Grammar

from Maira Kalman' illustrated version of The Elements of Style.

I love what David Wallace Foster has to say about writing, language and usage in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays:

In ways that certain of us are uncomfortable about, SNOOTs’ attitudes about contemporary usage resemble religious/political conservatives’ attitudes about contemporary culture. We combine a missionary zeal and a near-neural faith in our beliefs’ importance with a curmudgeonly hell-in-a-handbasket despair at the way English is routinely manhandled and corrupted by supposedly educated people. The Evil is all around us: boners and clunkers and solecistic howlers and bursts of voguish linguistic methane that make any SNOOT’s cheek twitch and forehead darken. A fellow SNOOT I know likes to say that listening to most people’s English feels like watching somebody use a Stradivarius to pound nails: We are the Few, the Proud, the Appalled at Everyone Else.

So with that said, surely we can now move beyond being appalled at everyone else and consider what resources might there be that can help us to discern the critical from the interesting--the important from the SNOOT.  Constance Weaver's 12 principles "for teaching grammar to enrich and enhance writing" succinctly outline key Dos/Don'ts of teaching grammar (from Grammar to Enrich and Enhance Writing Weaver, 2012).

1. Teaching grammar divorced from writing doesn't strengthen writing and therefore wastes time.


2. Few grammatical terms are actually needed to discuss writing.


3. Sophisticated grammar is fostered in literacy-rich and language-rich environments.


4. Grammar instruction for writing should build upon students' developmental readiness.


5. Grammar options are best expanded through reading and in conjunction with writing.


6. Grammar conventions taught in isolation seldom transfer to writing.


7. Marking "corrections" on students' papers does little good.


8. Grammar conventions are applied most readily when taught in conjunction with editing. 


9. Instruction in conventional editing is important for all students but must honor their home language or dialect.  


10. Progress may involve new kinds of errors as students try to apply new writing skills.


11. Grammar instruction should be included during various phases of writing.


12. More research is needed on effective ways of teaching grammar to strengthen writing.

Here are a few resources you may find enlightening.

Profesional Resources: 

1. Teaching Books

Anderson, J. (2007). Everyday editing. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Anderson, J. (2005). Mechanically inclined: Building grammar, usage and style into the writing workshop. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Delpit, L. (ed.). (2008). The skin that we speak: Language and culture in the classroom. New York: The New Press. 

Feigelson, D. (2008). Practical punctuation: Lessons on rule making and rule breaking in elementary writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Graves, D. (1994). A fresh look at writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Johnston, P. (2004). Choice words: How our language affects children's learning. York, ME: Stenhouse.

Lane, B. (1993). After the end: teaching and earning creative revision. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

Miller, S. (1993). Textual carnivals: The politics of composition. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. 

Noden, H. (2011). Image grammer, Second ed. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

Shaughnessy, M. (1979). Errors and expectations: A guide for the teacher of basic writing. New York: Oxford University Press.

Weaver, C.  &  J. Bush. (2008). Grammar to enrich and enhance writing. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

Weaver, C. (2006).  The grammar plan book. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

2. Professional Journals

• "Beyond Grammar: The Richness of English Language," English Journal, March 2011
• "Revitalizing Grammar," English Journal, January 2003
• “Contextualizing Grammar,” Voices from the Middle, March 2001

3. Popular Texts

Bradbury, R. (1989). Zen in the art of writing: Essays on creativity. Joshua Odell Editions.

Bryson, B. (1984). Bryson's dictionary of troublesome words: A writer's guide to getting it write. New York: Broadway.

Casagrande J. (2006). Grammar snobs are great big meanies: A guide to language for fun and spite. New York: Penguin.

Cook, C.K. (1985). Line by line: How to edit your own writing. Boston, Harcourt.

Fish, S. (2011). How to write a sentence and how to read one. New York: HarperCollins.

Fogarty, M. (2011). Grammar girl presents the ultimate writing guide for students. New York: St. Martin's.

Hale, C. (2001). Sin and syntax: How to craft wickedly effective prose. New York: Three Rivers Press.

King, S. (2000). On writing. New York: Scribner.

Lamott, A. (1994). Bird by bird: Some instruction on writing and life. New York: Anchor.

O'Conner, P.T. (2011). Woe is I The grammarphobes guide to better English in plain English. (3rd ed). New York: Riverhead.

Orwell, G. (2005). Why I write. New York: Penguin

Pulver, R. (2003). Punctuation takes a vacation. New York: Holiday House (Note: Robin Pulver has produced many picture books on the topic of grammar for children.)

Strunk, W., E.b. White & M. Kalman. (2007). The elements of style: Illustrated. New York: Penguin.

Strunk, W. (2011). The elements of style. New York: The Elements of Style Press.

Truss, L. (2003). Eat, shoots & leaves: The zero tolerance approach to punctuation. New York: Gotham.

Truss, L. (2006). Eat, shoots & leaves: Why, commas really do make a difference! New York: Putnam Juvenile.

Walsh, B.  (2001). Lapsing into comma: A curmudgeon's guide to the many things that can go wrong in print--and how to avoid them. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Zinsser, W. (2012). On writing well: 30th anniversary edition. New York: Harper.

4. Resources to Use with Students:

Killgallon D. & J. Killgallon. (2008). Story grammar for elementary school: A sentence composing approach -- a student worktext.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 

Killgallon D. & J. Killgallon. (2006). Grammar for middle school: A sentence composing approach -- a student worktext. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 

Killgallon D. & J. Killgallon. (2007). Grammar for high school: A sentence composing approach -- a student worktext. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 

Killgallon, D. & J. Killgallon. (2000). Sentence composing for elementary school: A worktext to build better sentences.Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

Killgallon, D. & J. Killgallon. (1997). Sentence composing for middle school: A worktext on sentence variety and maturity. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

Killgallon, D. & J. Killgallon. (1998). Sentence composing for high school: A worktext on sentence variety and maturity. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

Read Aloud Books About Wondering: K-3

Fishing (M.A. Reilly, 2012)

Wonder is a word to wonder about. It contains a mixture of messages: Something marvelous and miraculous, surprising, raising unanswerable questions about itself, making the observer wonder, even raising questions like, "I wonder about that." Miraculous and marvelous are clues; both words come from an ancient Indo-European root meaning simply to smile or to laugh. Anything wonderful is something to smile in the presence of in admiration (which, by the way comes from the same root, along with, of all telling words, "mirror") (Lewis Thomas, pp. 55-56).

A. Noticing, Hearing, & Observing

Anderson, Stephen. (2001). I Know the Moon. Illustrated by Greg Couch. New York: Philomel.

Baylor, Byrd. (1997). The Other Way to Listen. Illustrated by Peter Parnall. New York: Aladdin.

Brown, Margaret Wise. (1990). The Important Book. Illustrated by Leonard Weisgard. New York: HarperCollins.

Bruchac, Joseph. 2004. Rachel Carson: Preserving a Sense of Wonder. Illustrated by Thomas Locker. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing. 

Fleming, Candace. (2001). Gabriella's Song. Illustrated by Giselle Potter. New York: Atheneum.

Frost, Helen. (2012). Step Gently Out. Illustrated by Rick Lieder. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. 

Lach, William. (2006). Can You Hear It? New York: Harry N. Abrams.

Showers, Paul. (1993). The Listening Walk. Illustrated by Aliki. New York: HarperCollins. 

Standbridge, Joanne. (2012). The Extraordinary Music of Mr. Ives: The True Story of a Famous American Composer. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 

Zhang, Song Nan. (1998). The Children of China: An Artist’s Journey. Toronto, ON: Tundra Books. 

from Outside Your Window

B. Exploring the World

Brandt, Deanna. (1998). Bird Log Kids: A Kid's Journal to Record Their Birding Experiences.Cambridge, MA: Adventure Publications.

Davies, Nicola. (2012). Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature. Illustrated by Mark Hearld. Cambridge, MA Candlewick Press.

Engle, Margarita. (2010). Summer Birds: the Butterflies of Maria Merian. Illustrated by Julie Paschkis. New York: Henry Holt.

McCloskey, Robert (1989). Time of Wonder. New York: Puffin. 

McLerran, Alice. (2004). Roxaboxen. Illustrated by Barbara Cooney. New York: HarperCollins.

Silver, Donald. (1993). One Small Square: Backyard. Illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne. New York: Learning Triangle Press. 

Silver, Donald. (1998). One Small Square: The Night Sky. Illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne. New York: Learning Triangle Press. New York: McGraw Hill. 

Slodovnick, Avi. (2010). The Tooth. Illustrated by Manon Gauthier. La Jolla, CA: Kane-Miller.

C. Playing & Imagining

Brideges, Shirin. (2008). The Umbrella Queen. Illustrated by Taeeun Yoo. New York: Greenwillow. 

Browne, Anthony. (2003). The Shape Game. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 

Catchpool, Michael. (2012). The Cloud Spinner. Illustrated by Alison Jay. New York: Knopf Books. 

Christian, Peggy. (2008). If You Find a Rock. Illustrated by Barbara Hirsch Lember. San Anselmo, CA: Sandpiper Press. 

Dematons, Charlotte. (2001). Let's Go. Rotterdam: Lemniscaat.

Manning, Maurie J. (2008). Kitchen Dance. New York: Clarion. 

Hutchins, Hazel & Gail Herbert. (2008). Mattland. Illustrated by Dusabn Petricic. Vancouver, BC: Annick Press. 

Johnson, Angela. (2004). Violet’s Music. Illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith. New York: Dial Books. 
Lee, Suzy. (2010). Shadow. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

Lee, Suzy. (2007). The Zoo. La Jolla, CA: Kane-Miller.

Pinkney, Brian. (1997). Max Found Two Sticks. New York: Simon & Schuster. 

Prats, Joan. (2005). Sebastian's Roller Skates. Illustrated by Francesc Rovira. La Jolla, CA: Kane-Miller.

Stein, Mathilde. (2012). Dear Daisy Dunnington. Illustrated by Chuck Groenink. New York: Lemniscaat.

van der Heife, Iris. (2006). The Red Chalk. Illustrated by Marije Tolman. New York: Lemniscaat.

Young, Cybele. (2011). A Few Blocks. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books.

from On My Block

D. Coming to Know Other Creative People

Christensen, Bonnie. (2011). Fabulous: A Portrait of Andy Warhol. New York: Henry Holt. 

Goldberg, Dana (Ed.) (2012). On My Block: Stories and Paintings by Fifteen Artists. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.

Golio, Gary. (2012). Spirit Seeker: Coltrane’s Musical Journey. Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez. New York: Clarion. 

Hill, Larry Carrick. (2010). Dave the Potter, Artist, Poet, Slave. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. New York: Little, Brown. 

Medina, Tony (2009). I and I: Bob Marley. Illustrated by Joshua Watson New York: Lee & Low.

From: When The Moon Forgot

E. Pondering & Problem Solving

Fitzpatrick, Mary Louise. (2009). There. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

Forest, Heather. (2006). Wonder Tales from Around the World. Little Rock, AK: August House. 

Jeffers, Oliver. (2011). Stuck. New York: Philomel.

Kamkwamba, William and Bryan Mealer. (2012). The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition. Illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon. New York: Dial. 

King, Martin Luther, Jr. (2012). I Have a Dream. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. New York: Schwartz and Wade. 

Liao, Jimmy. (2009). When the Moon Forgot. New York: Little Brown. 

Meinderts, Kos & Annette Fienieg. (2012). The Man in the Clouds. New York: Lemniscaat.

Pennypacker, Sara. (2009). Sparrow Girl. Illustrated by Yoko Tanaka.New York: Hyperion.

Saltzberg, Barney. (2010).  Beautiful Oops! New York: Workman Publishing Company. 

Stoop Naoko. (2012). Red Knit Cap Girl. New York: Little, Brown. 

Veldkamp, Tjibbe. (2011).  Tom the Tamer. Illustrated by Philip Hopman. New York: Lemniscaat.

Young, Cybele. (2011). Ten Birds. Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press.

from The Conductor

F. Looking Closely (Wordless Books)

Dematons, Charlotte. (2006). The Yellow Balloon. Rotterdam: Lemniscaat.

Devernay, Laetitia. (2011). The Conductor. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

Schubert, Dieter. (2011). The Umbrella. New York: Lemniscaat. 

Seeger, Laura Vaccaro. (2012). Green. New York: Roaring Brook Press. 

Sheen Dong Il. (2002). Yellow Umbrella. Illustrated by Jae-Soo-Liu.  La Jolla, CA: Kane-Miller. (Please note this is a wordless book and comes with a music CD. Plenty to notice via the illustrations and to hear via the CD). 

Tolman, Marije & Ronald Tolman. (2012). The Island. New York: Lemniscaat.

Tolman, Marije & Ronald Tolman. (2010). The Tree House. New York: Lemniscaat.

from Infinity and Me

G. Asking Questions

Bley, Anette. (2007). And What Comes After a Thousand? La Jolla, CA: Kane & Miller.

Hosford, Kate. (2012). Infinity and Me. Illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books.

Prap, Lisa. (2009). Why? La Jolla, CA: Kane-Miller.

Ray, Mary Lynn. (2011). Stars. Illustrated by Marla Frazee. New York: Beach Lane Books.  

Reibstein, Mark. (2008). Wabi Sabi. Illustrated by Ed Young New York: Little, Brown.

Van Camp, Richard. (2003). What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses? Illustrated by George Littlechild (Cree). San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press. 

Vaccaro, Laura Seeger. (2010). What If? New York: Roaring Brook Press. 

From: What's The Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses?