Preparing food for other people makes me nervous. I worry about everything, from taste to presentation. Will they eat it? Will they like it? Will I be bringing home an empty dish licked clean or a platter that has hardly been touched? (Believe me, I've been on both sides of that one.)
I had a similar feeling recently when the ADK chapter I belong to was looking for program ideas. I knew of this new "recipe" for promoting engagement with books that I really wanted to try out. Only, I wasn't sure how it would go over with the crowd. Will they eat it? my worry began. Will they like it?
They put me on the calendar though, and this week, I tried out that new recipe with my colleagues. I hosted my first-ever Book Tasting. My colleagues ate it all up, and I brought home a very full heart (and a cupcake topped with Brown Bear, Brown Bear, too).
Book Tasting is not an original idea. I have heard others' accounts and seen pictures of Book Tasting events done with students and adults in many other settings. The short what of a Book Tasting is that participants have the opportunity to sample several books in the course of the event, giving them just enough to taste to decide if they want more. Beyond that, there seem to be a great variety of ways a Book Tasting could be tailored to the audience and their needs or your purpose.
For me, choosing the books was the hardest part.I knew the guests at my Book Tasting encompassed a wide range of positions in education. I would be entertaining six teachers (PreK through grade 6), a librarian, two literacy coaches, four elementary principals, and the curriculum coordinator. My goal was for every guest to taste a smattering of books that would expand their repertoire, books they might find useful in their work with students or that they would be able to recommend to others with whom they work. I wanted the featured books to represent fiction and nonfiction, picture books through middle grade. For this reason, selecting the books for my tasting was tough. I had to accept that I wouldn't be able to include every book I've loved and want everyone to know about. I helped narrow my selection for this tasting by deciding to showcase new releases, only books published in 2017. I could have picked all picture books, or all nonfiction, or all professional texts. These were all ideas I considered but put aside.
I also thought about having several small tables of four and seating my guests according to who they worked with (primary students, intermediate students, teachers). I considered serving each table their own platter. I ruled this out for this particular tasting because I wanted the coaches and administrators to see a range of books rather than be limited to one group. This lead me to seat everyone at one big table. I created a spreadsheet with each guest and seat number and laid out the rotation of books so I could "see" which five books each guest would taste. Ultimately, this set up and book passing showed the potential of the same book across different audiences.
The placemat at each place setting was my own creation. I peeked at several other educators' ideas on the internet before making my own. There are lots of resources to be found, many that prompt students to record information about the title/author/genre of the books they taste. Because my audience were colleagues in assorted roles, I wanted the 11x17 placemat to serve as a sheet for note-taking about what books they saw, their ideas and impressions of the book, and who they might tell about the books they tasted. I also knew that my guests would only taste five of the fifteen circulating titles, and that others would talk about titles they did not see, so I included a sixth box for recording other titles mentioned that piqued curiosity. When I created my placemat, I made my prompts specific to my guests and my purpose for hosting the event. I am happy to share a version of my placemat, but this is a really simple way to tailor your Book Tasting to your needs or purpose. Consider rewriting the prompts so that guests are thinking about your teaching point, using language that you use with your readers or learners.
Aside from the books, the most talked about element of the Book Tasting was the environment. I knew I would be hosting the event at school, but I also know it would be evening time and everyone would have already worked a full day and likely been to a staff meeting, too. My classroom library was the perfect place to host, but I wanted it to feel different: warm, homey, special. So, in addition to rearranging the physical space, I brought in lamps to change the lighting and purchased inexpensive red and white checked tablecloths. My colleagues helped with refreshments, including a to-die-for coffee punch and sweet cupcakes adorned with even-sweeter fondant classic book covers.
On the evening of the Book Tasting, my guests prepared their snack plates and found their seats at the table. They were treated to five "courses," and had three minutes with a book during each course. Then the book was passed to the guest on their right. When all five rounds had been served, I asked my guests to share if any of the books they tasted really stood out to to them, or anything in general they thought all of the guests needed to know about the books they sampled. Many books were widely recommended, like Matt Tavares' Red & Lulu. Others were debated. The two most talked about books were Two Truths and a Lie: It's Alive!(for it's appeal to a wide a range of readers) and After the Fall (because, well, have you read it?). In fact, the need to talk about After the Fall lead to an impromptu read aloud because we didn't want to spoil it for anyone.
This book nerd was the giddy-type of happy to listen in on other readers' initial discoveries of books I know and love to recommend. While I hated to be the bearer of bad news as the timer signaled it was time to pass the book on, I loved listening to the audible, involuntary responses as my guests turned pages, peeked under jackets, admired art, and stole nuggets of did-you-know from the acknowledgements and back-matter of the books they sampled. Their temptation to begin talking about their books to the guests around them about the books they held was all the assurance I need that they were enjoying their time."This makes me wish I still had a classroom," said one guest. Another, "All I want to do is keep reading." Guests went home with titles to share with their teachers, colleagues, and even a few titles for Christmas gifts. Before the night was done, my principal--who was one of the guests--told me she'd like us to do a Book Tasting as a whole-staff in the spring. Obviously, I agreed.
If you are thinking about hosting a Book Tasting, here are some questions that might help to guide your planning:
Who is your audience?
What books do you want to introduce them to?
What do you want to help them learn or notice about books?
How will you structure the time spent with each book? Note-taking? Reflection/sharing?
How will you design the space for your Book Tasting? How will your guests be seated?
How will you reflect on the success of your event?
My first Book Tasting was a big hit, and it was eaten right up. I'd encourage you to try it. As with any recipe, you can borrow mine, but you'll want to season yours to taste. I'd love to hear how it goes.
In January, my STEM partner and I posted a Donors Choose project for a class set of The Seventh Wish. We had adopted the book as part of our Healthy Choices unit in fifth grade last year and knew that learning could be more easily facilitated with multiple copies of the book to provide more equity and access for the students throughout the unit. The project was funded in under two days thanks to the generosity of many donors.
If you've ever posted a Donors Choose project before, you might remember that one of the requirements of completing the project is to write a project impact letter. I did. And I'm choosing to post that impact letter here, too. Besides, this forum allows me to include a couple additional notes (below).
Here's the letter:
Dear donors, Thank you for the generous spirit in which you donated toward our project to fund a class set of the book The Seventh Wish. In this note, Donors Choose wants me to describe for you what reading looks like in my classroom and what kinds of skills or lessons were introduced with these books. And I can do that. We read the The Seventh Wish as a class read aloud, and the class set allowed students to hold their own copy and follow along while I read. For the most part, we shared this book apart from our regular reading workshop routine with explicit lessons and lots of choice reading. In my Humanities classroom, we read a lot, write a lot, and talk about reading and writing a lot. The Seventh Wish invited many conversations about character development as we looked closely and shared the actions, emotions, and conflicts of Charlie and her family. We shared many conversations rooted in students' inferences and interpretations. While reading The Seventh Wish there were ample opportunities to model what deeper comprehension looks like with the Notice and Note signposts (Beers and Probst, 2012) and share responsibility for noticing places that made us think. Having a class set of the book available for students to read along, mark passages that prompted thinking, and return to the book for evidence to support their claims made instruction easier and more equitable. What Donors Choose doesn't know to ask me is what the impact of your gift was beyond the predictable and generalizable methods and strategies for teaching reading. Beyond teaching reading skills and comprehension, I aim to teach students about themselves and others and this complex world we share. The impact of having a class set of The Seventh Wish to use in the classroom is eyes opened, minds challenged, and hearts touched. Inside the pages of The Seventh Wish, our fifth graders met a character a lot like themselves, and through this book-friendship, the students witnessed the struggle and strain of life impacted by drug use/abuse and addiction. Some of my students' lives have been personally impacted by addiction already. "Sometimes it's hard for me to like read aloud right now because three people in my family have died from addiction," one student confided quietly as we closed our books for the day. Another student shared vulnerably, "I know that addiction can mess up families, that's what my biological parents did." Other students have perhaps been shielded and are more naive in their realizations, showing their developing understanding with assertions that they will "never try beer." Sharing Charlie's story in The Seventh Wish anchored all of us on common ground, with one story to share and talk about that - whether familiar or new - was distant enough for students to be both curious and anonymous. The DARE program has been part of the fifth grade students' experience for a long time, and while DARE educates students about the health effects of drug use and supports students with skills to resist and make positive decisions, DARE alone is not enough. Including The Seventh Wish in our Healthy Choices unit has brought the rippling impact and effects of risky choices to life as students imagined themselves in the place of Kate Messner's characters, the Brennan family. The story of addiction in The Seventh Wish is an important compliment to the sterile facts students receive from DARE.
There's no doubt for me that each students' takeaway was personal and individual. Yet, if I were to try to summarize the most significant shifts in their thinking, I would choose two repeated messages. First, students came away with a strong understanding that addiction is not undone and that recovering addicts work hard every day to make better choices. Through Abby's story, kids could see that there is no going back to "before drugs." And second, it resonated with students that one person's risky choices impact entire families and circles of friends. Whether it was their resentment of the change of plans that caused Charlie to miss the Montreal feis or their heartbreak in hearing Charlie's mom meltdown or the worry they shared with Mrs. McNeill, the students' empathetic muscles - their heads and hearts - responded. I had the opportunity to see and hear the impact of reading The Seventh Wish with students every day. I saw the impact as students' conceptual understanding of addiction changed. I heard students revise their thinking about who uses drugs and why. I heard them grapple with the same sense-making as many of us about how addiction can be so strong that it causes people to lose control of their choices. It's difficult to say with certainty what the impact of this project will be in five years, or eight, or fifteen...but I believe that as these students grow, their memories of Charlie and Abby and broken promises and tried relationships might inspire them to act with compassion, remind them they are not alone, and influence care about their own choices.
Your gift made it possible to educate students in a most meaningful way. Thank you.
With gratitude, Ms. Guerrette
Here's a smattering of the responses students shared on Padlet:
You can hear some of the students sharing thoughts in their own words about The Seventh Wish on our classroom FlipGrid. (Warning: There are *lots* of spoilers in their videos!)
The impact of The Seventh Wish has trickled outward from our classrooms, too. My Donors Choose project impact letter wasn't the place to mention the impact of The Seventh Wish on others in our greater school community. The morning after the project was posted, one of our new teachers let me know she had seen our project and did I have a copy she could please borrow, she has a family member who is dealing with addiction. I listened while she shared what was on her heart. And soon another colleague was saying the same. One morning soon after, a parent of a former student who works at a near by quick-stop store mentioned seeing the project and voiced her support for talking about big topics with kids. And still later in the project, another new colleague stopped by with a question and spotted the twenty-six donated copies on students' tabletops, waiting for their return. "What's this book?" she asked with casual and innocent curiosity. I started to book talk. "Seriously?" she interrupted. "Can I take one? Is there one I could borrow? This sounds like it is so my story." Yes. Yes, she left with my partner teacher's own copy.
When we made the decision to give The Seventh Wish to our students as a shared experience, we did not foresee the way incorporating the book into the fifth grade experience would also help provide so many others a place to see themselves, too, and make it ok to acknowledge a part of their lives they otherwise kept to themselves. Reading The Seventh Wish with our students has sent the message to students - and staff, alike - that it's ok to talk about this topic here.
I knew from past experience that The Seventh Wish is a catalyst to important conversations and learning. I'm grateful that we'll continue to share this book with our fifth graders, and these multiple copies definitely help.
After our 2017 OES Reads season kicked-off with a wild surprise (read this post to catch-up on the kick-off), we certainly didn't expect to wrap up our five weeks with still more surprises.
Our OES Reads season was scheduled to be five weeks long, with reading chunks of Fenway and Hattie, our whole-school-community book split over that time frame. We expected to conclude the OES Reads program with a Closing Assembly on the last day of the fifth week, and we had made plans to Skype with author Victoria Coe the following Monday. It was a pretty well-planned schedule.
Only, when you live in Maine, even the best laid plans are subject to disruptive weather.
Weather postponed our Closing Assembly to the following Friday, the day before vacation week.
Weather postponed our Skype calls with Victoria Coe to Friday, the day before vacation week.
And we went to school on Valentine's Day and didn't return until...you guessed it: Friday, the day before vacation week.
You might imagine how frustrating the last two weeks have been, out of the classroom more than we have been in.
Thankfully, after days of stormy weather and dark skies, Friday morning came without a 5:00 a.m. phone call to cancel school, and plans to celebrate the end of OES Reads would be underway. I emailed Victoria to confirm that we *would* be at school and able to Skype today. As I climbed into the car, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
It was Victoria.
She got my email.
She had "big secret news."
Could I sneak her into the building at 10:30?
Victoria Coe, who had already generously scheduled (and rescheduled) two Skypes with our students, had decided to hop in the car and make the three-hour trip to surprise our students in person on this final day of OES Reads.
I do love a good book-ish surprise.
When the K-2 students and teachers reported to the gym for their "Skype," they were surprised to find Victoria Coe there waiting for them. (It was fun to watch the realization spread among the teachers, too!) Kids who had prepared questions for Victoria took their turns asking, and some teachers asked questions, too. And when Victoria read a bit of Fenway and Hattie and the Evil Bunny Gang aloud, even the youngest readers were still and attentive.
In the afternoon it was the grade 3-6 students who were in for a surprise when Victoria greeted them at the door for their "Skype." Victoria answered more student questions, ranging from wonders about author decisions while writing Fenway and Hattie to curiosities about the writing life of an author. Then, some sixth grade students who had drafted short writing pieces from a dog's point of view bravely stood before their peers and our guest and read their writing, leaving Victoria and the audience to guess where or what they were exploring. There were successful guesses all around.
Immediately following the older students' "Skype," the K-2 classes returned to the gym so that the whole school was gathered together once again. It was time for our Closing Assembly.
Our Closing Assembly has become a much-loved celebration because it has traditionally been a sharing of student work. The Kick-off Assembly is comprised of staff presentations, skits, performances. By contrast, at the Closing Assembly we feature students who have something to share related to our OES Reads book. Personally, I was happy that Victoria's surprise visit would allow her to see how her work, Fenway and Hattie, had inspired some of our kids.
The Closing Assembly featured a first grader who wrote her own book called Fenway and the Wicked Floor. Poised as could be, she introduced her book and read her story aloud to the audience. Another first grader had made a video of himself reading Fenway and Hattie to his family pet, and fourth grade students who had done perspective writing. There may also have been a silly flashmob by many good-sport staff members, too. We thanked Victoria again, publicly, and sent her home with a small gift of appreciation. Victoria shared with our OES Read-ers that her very favorite part of being an author is getting to spend time with the readers who have read Fenway and Hattie.
Having Victoria join us for our last chapter of OES Reads 2017 was an enormous gift to our students and our school community. Her generosity and interest in our students and whole-school reading community will not be forgotten!
OES Reads is what we call our whole-school family and community reading initiative. Our program is modeled after the One School, One Book movement. Planning and executing our own program has allowed for dreaming and creativity to be part of the journey towards making bookish memories for our students and their families, and today was no exception.
Today was the day we revealed our book for 2017.
Students started to buzz with interest as soon as they saw the hallway bulletin board change before winter break. When they returned to school in the new year, students listened intently for the daily clues revealed to them about this year's OES Reads author. They started digging in their repertoire of familiar authors and trying to find a match for the clues. Random objects also started to appear on the walls and doors of the school: hydrants, baseballs, squirrels, paws, and dog treats.
Some students made guesses about the author. Could it be Elly Swartz? She lives in Massachusetts! It's a dog book. I think it's Maxi's Secrets.
Other students applied heavy pressure to the teachers and other school staff. They really thought they might get someone to slip them a secret.
It was a good thing we didn't have to wait any longer to let the word out. Today we gathered all 450ish students together in the gym with their teachers and some family members and special guests and participated in our kick-off assembly. We finally got to tell the students that this year, we are reading
Fenway and Hattie, by Victoria Coe!
The assembly included some OES Reads traditions the students have come to expect, like our OES Reads cheer, a skit (that's always good for some giggles) by teacher-actors, and the revealing of the larger-than-life book cover.
This year, we also had some special surprises in store.
One of the teachers four-legged friends strapped on a GoPro camera and toured the school and playground to help us make an introduction video for the book that helped introduce Fenway's point of view, his family, and hinted at a conflict he has in Fenway and Hattie. Nala was a great sport! The students were quick to recognize the Buddy Bench and the fire truck bouncer from the playground. It was entirely worth the work to hear first graders nudge each other and say, "Hey, that's our classroom!" with magic in their voices.
Victoria Coe, the author of Fenway and Hattie, was especially excited and wished she could be there for the assembly. To help introduce herself to OES Read-ers, she sent a video to say hello and book-talk her book. Kids cheered, and Kipper got his own adoring "awwws."
The biggest surprise of all came at the very end of the assembly. Since the paperback copies of Fenway and Hattie just published last week (January 3, 2017), we knew we had to have everything fall into place to have 450 copies ready for today's kick-off. On Friday, we had only received 140 and learned the other books would not arrive on time. To say this snafu was a damper on our energy is an understatement, however we knew that with so many students and families and guests planning for the kick-off this afternoon, the show would have to go on. The script had been written to accommodate for this possibility, even making light of it by having a constructed UPS truck deliver the books to the assembly at the last minute.
The assembly agenda flowed smoothly. We approached the conclusion of the assembly, the assistant principal "drove" the van into the gymnasium heralding "Special Delivery!" in her megaphone, and we all laughed and cheered. But then, I caught a shine in the eye of the secretary who was walking toward me. We stalled on the distribution of books a little, trying to buy a bit of time, because in the hallway, she was helping someone to get a utility cart. And there, through the doorway came another person dressed in brown: the *real* UPS delivery man was carting in the rest of our OES Reads books, right off his truck!
It wasn't our most organized book distribution, but it will easily go down in OES Reads history as the most memorable distribution.
Things settled and quieted in the gym as teachers handed brand-new copies of Fenway and Hattie to the students. Students flipped through pages, pointed out the sketches of Fenway, read the blurb on the back of the book to each other. When we were confident no child had been skipped, our principal began to read Chapter 1 to everyone aloud. Older kids scooted close to younger students, parents pulled kids onto their laps on the floor, and little voices from the first grade class asked, "Did you already turn the page??"
It would have been easy to get swept up in all of it and miss out on noticing the beauty. There were many, many smiling faces, and that perfect sigh of disappointment when the first chapter was over. A good sign that they are happy with their new books.
Over the next five weeks, Fenway and Hattie will have a presence in our school community. With plans for daily trivia, family involvement events, a family literacy night, and Skypes with Victoria Coe, there's a lot more to come. Stay tuned!
Parma, Michigan is not a short trip from my little town in western Maine. But it's a distance I'm willing to travel to spend time in a place where the energy for all-things-literacy runs high, a place where I can refill my cup and pocket seeds of inspiration alongside other nerdy folks from all over the country. nErDcampMI is a professional development opportunity that I am celebrating.
1. Connections.
Some of the truest relationships I have built are with others who share the love of all things nerdy, and yet, in most cases, these important people are people I see only a few times a year--if that often. For my Voxer group, nErDcampMI is a gathering space for us to return to, to celebrate and to enjoy each other's company. And, true of my Voxer group and other nerdy friends, too, it is easy to pick right up where we last left off. I don't think any of this is an accident. It comes down to friendships that are seeded in deep-rooted passions...passions that are alive and thriving at nErDcampMI, passions that are so central to our identity. It is so important to know we are not alone. Not just to "know," but to feel we are not alone, and nErDcampMI provides a gathering space where we can feel our commonality pulsating. And while we're returning home this week feeding on the nErDcampMI energy, connections built here will be sustained all year long.
2. Story.
For the second year, I was honored to present a session on Day One of nErDcampMI. In a session called Writing Mentorship, Beyond Mentor Texts, I showcased my students' learning and growth as writers that resulted from experienced writers (both published authors and *ahem* me) sharing our writing lives transparently. I am so lucky to be able to tell the stories of my students and my classroom and of my own learning in hope of inspiring others. (Not-so-)Secret: It makes me wildly nervous to prepare and present, but I will always swallow my fear for the opportunity to share the Story my students and I are writing.
But sharing stories isn't limited to organized sessions, and the informal, spontaneous conversations that I had with other teachers and writers have left me as hopeful as the opportunity to speak on this topic did. I hope my story and my example of transparency with my writing life can be even a small nudge that helps someone else discover the value of writing and sharing their writing life with their students. I sincerely hope I can cheer other teachers on as they begin to build a their writing lives bravely. I'd love to hear their stories, too.
I can't wait to tell new students about meeting Nora Raleigh Baskin & to share nine, tenwith them.
3. Learning. And learners.
There are organized sessions and Nerd Talks preplanned for Day One, often by prominent names and podcasting to empowering student readers to strategies for teaching perspective in writing and beyond. (Find the notes from all of the Day Two sessions on the nErDcampMI Idea Board.) But the people. The people who come to nErDcampMI open and curious and with a mindset of growth and self-improvement. And that makes nErDcampMI a positive and refreshing climate of professional learning that leaves you inspired to try something new or different that what you knew (or thought you knew) before.
personalities we love and admire. There are always too many interesting and appealing options of pop-up sessions on Day Two to choose from. The opportunities for learning at nErDcampMI are abundant and diverse, ranging from
4. Gratitude.
Something special about nErDcampMI is the make-up of the crowd. Sure, 1,200 people is A LOT of people. But in and among the hundreds of teachers, librarians, and other educators is a great number of authors and illustrators (and their editors, too!) who generously make the trip to connect with all of us, also. To have authors and illustrators accessible to lend expertise to panels and discussions, to field questions and compliments about their books, and to take endless photos with us that undoubtedly boost our star-status with students IS special. I am glad for the opportunity to express gratitude to these creators who make the books our students love, books that grow them as young people.
5. Magic.
Jenni Holm conferences a young writer's four-panel comic.
Possibly my very favorite part of living the nerdy life is making connections between readers/writers and the authors they love and admire, so having a chance to volunteer at nErDcamp Jr. is the perfect conclusion to filling my own cup at nErDcampMI. Overseeing a small group of young readers and writers as they rotate between author sessions and dinner is a fantastic "pit stop" in the middle of summer to talk to kids and to witness the magic of talking to and learning from published authors and illustrators. This year my group had mini-writing sessions with Jenni Holm, Ruth McNally Barshaw, and Louise Borden. The students were respectful, thoughtful, and engaged. I love thinking about my return to my own students and sharing with them that I could connect with new kid-friends in Michigan over a shared appreciation of the same books.
nErDcampMI organizers (Colby & Alaina Sharp, Suzanne Gibbs, and team) have a lot to be proud of with another successful year in the books. Congratulations...and thank you.
You can take part in reflecting and celebrating each week, too! Ruth Ayres hosts Celebrate This Week - the Celebrate Link-Up on her blog every Saturday. Take time to celebrate.
I'm that teacher.
I'm the teacher in Maine who read Kate Messner's newest novel, The Seventh Wish, to all my students. Twenty-three 5th graders and twenty-two 6th graders.
I'm the teacher who said to my colleagues: You need to read this now, and we need to think about how to use it with our students this year, even though it isn't published yet.
Now all of our fifth and sixth graders have read The Seventh Wish.
And our students are all the better for it.
I read The Seventh Wish in October. October 14, the very day the advanced reader's copy (ARC) arrived from Bloomsbury as part of Kate Messner's kid-blurb project. I knew I had lots of Kate Messner fans in my two classes who would be lining up to read her much anticipated "next book." (Me too, if we're honest.) So I cleared my agenda for the night and hunkered down.
I was entranced by the natural beauty painted in the opening descriptions of the magical ice flowers on the lake and I was wrapped up in the adoration that Charlie had for her older sister, Abby. I enjoyed getting to know Charlie and her middle school world. I liked her. She reminded me of kids I know. Kids like mine who sit at my tables each day. Kids who want more than they have--be it understanding, attention, courage, or a solo dress for Irish dancing. Kids whose relationships with their real life heroes--older brothers and sisters, parents, babysitters--are everything to them.
I was enlightened, too. Aware that the book would also address the topic of addiction, I saw the signs as they played out, and then I learned. I learned about a life experience different than my own. Charlie's experience with her sister's addiction let me see the challenges and complications of addiction on a user's loved ones through her eyes. Deception. Brokenness. Sacrifices and loss. And that was when I knew there was a discussion to be had with my colleagues about plans for our Healthy Choices unit. On that first read, I had texted my colleagues, "We need to use this book," before I had even finished reading.
The next morning, our conversations started about how we would incorporate The Seventh Wish into the unit, which also included nutrition, digital citizenship, peer pressure, and the D.A.R.E. program. I passed my ARC along to my colleagues. Soon we were discussing this addition to our curriculum with the D.A.R.E. Officer himself. We put The Seventh Wish ARC in his hands. We asked him to please read it, too. We knew there would be lots of conversation, and we anticipated questions. Almost certainly questions we didn't know the answer to or for which there isn't an answer. But we were ok with that. We would do our best to respond to students, to consult resources (like Officer Jack) to investigate further, or we would grapple with those questions without an answer together.
We consulted with our administrator, to whom I also loaned a copy of The Seventh Wish. We revised the traditional notification letter that parents have received at the beginning of D.A.R.E. lessons for as many years as the program has been part of our school. And, we acknowledged that students would be talking about big topics and supplemented the letter with sites and ideas for families to have conversations with children about drug use and addiction.
D.A.R.E. lessons happened weekly in the students' STEM classrooms. In Humanities, we read The Seventh Wish daily for read aloud. Here's what happened:
We researched ice flowers.
We watched Riverdance videos (and amateur feis videos, too).
We weighed out our own winners of the "thinking of a word" game.
We laughed together over Charlie's haphazard wishing and Bobby's hopeless crush and Drew's Lake Monster routine.
We decided we'd like to try eating insects to know what that's like. (And we did.)
We pondered Mrs. McNeill's words of the wiser on each trip onto the ice.
We talked about friendship, and our wishes for others, and secret-keeping.
We connected the information we learned in D.A.R.E. to the actions and effects of Abby and her heroin use.
We asked questions--thoughtful ones--and considered the human aspect of drug use as a choice and addiction as a disease.
We built empathy and understanding for individuals and families facing the obstacles of a loved one's substance use.
We internalized the power we have to make our own choices, to know and understand more fully what the consequences of our choices on ourselves and others.
See, when I read The Seventh Wish in October, I saw an opportunity. The Seventh Wish is as much an example as any other that we are classifying as "windows and mirrors." The life of the Brennan Family is the life of many families today, even though we wish it weren't so. Some of my students live inside The Seventh Wish. Probably most don't. But this brave and honest book let us all be at times inside and outside of the story, providing us a safe distance and enlightened perspective to have important conversations about lots of big themes for kids, one of those being addiction. In reading The Seventh Wish together, we had the opportunity to open the door to unheard conversations, to say to our students, "It's ok to talk about This Big Thing here. It's ok to ask questions. We'll talk about this with you."
I don't think my students understand the adult perspective that the subject of heroin (or other substance) use is "too heavy" for them. They would disagree openly. They would argue that they want to know about "the hard stuff."
I know they would.
They did.
Yesterday.
When one classmate shared with the others that Kate Messner's school visit to a Vermont school was cancelled because the book was "too heavy" for the 4th and 5th graders there, my students were vocal.
Kate Messner is a familiar and much-loved author to my students with a reputation she's earned by publishing many books that they have read and loved and grown from. The students trust Kate as a middle-grade writer who will invite them into the story and lend them characters to befriend, take them through trials and troubles, and will bring them out the story's end knowing something a little deeper or having learned something about themselves they hadn't thought about before. The same is true for The Seventh Wish. She writes the truth about characters (like our students) and a world that includes harrowing truths (like ours). She sizes up her research and knowledge of the subject and writes it to be perfectly fitting for her middle-grade audience. The Seventh Wish is gentle in building readers' investment in the story and conflict, but the serious nature of the topic of addiction is not dulled or downplayed, speaking solidly to Kate's respect for her readers.
What was the impact of reading The Seventh Wish with our students?
Traditionally D.A.R.E. program has students complete a formulaic five-paragraph essay as a requirement for graduation. With Officer Jack's support, our 5th grade team revamped the culminating reflection and asked students to write a letter to their 18-year old selves beginning with "Dear Future Me." This year's end-of-unit writing was some of the most personal and convincing evidence that students internalized their learning. Tracings of The Seventh Wish appeared in almost every student's letter. As a teaching team, we isolated one-line excerpts from each students' letter, filmed these lines, and compiled their reflections into one collaborative letter that we set to music.
Our whole-school/community reading initiative, OES Reads, is in it's fourth year, and with each year, we think the program grows better and better. Aside from selecting the books that will connect us and planning the big launch, Family Night is the part of our program that requires the most planning.
Family Night is deserving of so much attention and effort. We gather families of all students, grades PreK-6 and offer a smattering of activities related to our common book experiences that families can engage in together. This year, 58 families came to school on a Tuesday evening to meet our OES Reads author, Cynthia Lord, and participate in Family Night fun!
Family Night stations were situated across the cafeteria, gymnasium, music room, and lobby area of our school building. Most activities were related to our two OES Reads books, Rules and Shelter Pet Squad: Jelly Bean, but we snuck in some connections to Ms. Lord's other books, too. Look and see!
We were incredibly fortunate to have Cynthia Lord join us for a Meet & Greet at our Family Night event! A steady line streamed through the cafeteria for the chance to meet Ms. Lord and have their books signed.
Our committee felt strongly that we wanted to incorporate a component of community service into OES Reads this year, having selected two books that inspired giving back. We invited representatives from Responsible Pet Care to join us with an information station about our local animal shelter. We also advertised a Shelter Drive and collected goods to donate to Responsible Pet Care. And, families also visited a craft table with an assortment of ideas for making simple pet toys. All of the toys families made were also donated to the shelter.
Additionally, we were joined by a parent of an OES alum who set up a table for raising awareness and understanding about autism. Nearby, families could find more information about the Light it Up Blue initiative for Autism Awareness Month in April and could design a symbolic blue candle that we will use to help celebrate in solidarity next month.
Our Phys. Ed. teacher was on hand with a physical challenge for students to complete using a wheelchair and other assistive devices. Families posted their reflections about the experience. Families also faced a communication card challenge activity at another station.
Our district librarian helped to create a display of Schneider Family Book Awardwinning titles that could be recommended to students and families for future reading.
Down the hall, laughter was heard while families picked out props and had their picture taken in our Cynthia Lord photo booth. There were generic "book nerd" props, but most props were related to other Cynthia Lord books. There was a camera/paddle/lifejacket set from Half a Chance, Fourth of July gear from Touch Blue, an enormous blueberry/pageant sash/crown from A Handful of Stars, and a helmet, goggles, and student-sized race car from Hot Rod Hamster. The pictures on the photo booth camera speak for themselves.
Meanwhile, the cafeteria was buzzing with excitement, too. Two tables hosted a craft activity where families could stitch up their own Whiskers craft and make a friend to keep in their pocket just like Suzannah does in Shelter Pet Squad.
On the opposite side of the room, folks were busy at work in the "junkyard" of collected recycled materials where families engaged in a Hot Rod Design Challenge, racing their constructed cars down a ramp to win prizes.
And, since no gathering is without snacks, volunteer staff helped to serve Hamster Snacks of crunchy veggies and tasty blueberry smoothies to families, too.
Because we are a Title I school, and we use some of our parent involvement money to purchase some of the OES Reads books for families, we are required to conduct parent education during the event, though we try to be creative about how. We find that a brief parent session where staff and parents can swap ideas for supporting literacy at home does the trick, and it permits students to hear a read aloud--this year our library tech shared more Hot Rod Hamster books--in the adjoining room, too. We offer these sessions on a rotation so that families are only apart from the action for a short time.
OES Reads Family Night was an exciting night all-around. It was wonderful to introduce families to Cynthia Lord in person. We had an awesome turn out of staff to help support the event and interact with families, and our kids had a really great time. One student bounced into breakfast on Wednesday morning announcing, "Last night was the best night ever!"
We're so glad that connecting over books can be so fun.
Most--but not all--the staff who supported OES Reads Family Night having photo booth fun with Ms. Lord.
This week, we'll wrap up OES Reads for another year, but not before we host Cynthia Lord on Thursday for a whole-school author visit and our Closing Celebration!
