Early Intervention Works

Spread the word: early intervention works!

Be sure to check out www.a2ri.com to stay informed about the current status of Reading Intervention and the AAPS Budget Crisis.

Please sign to indicate your support for this valuable, effective program.

BUDGET FORUM TUESDAY, May 7th from 7:00 pm -8:30pm at Pioneer High School Cafeteria. The forum will start with an informational session and then have time for small group input that will shared to the whole group at the closing.

Also, a General Meeting for the school board is scheduled for Wednesday, May 8th at 7:00 at the Ann Arbor District Library (downtown branch) on the 4th floor.

Make sure your voice is heard.

Cutting Reading Intervention?

I think I need one of those "Keep Calm" signs.

Or maybe it's not really the time to be calm anymore.

Reading Intervention, the only early intervention provided to K-2 readers in my district, is on the chopping block. In the next few days, I will be talking and more and more about the enormous implications of this possible decision.

Early intervention works. Prevention is cheaper than remediation. Kids matter.

And now- I am an unintended advocate and activist. Please join me!

Reading Mentor #2: Grandma Verry and Francis

My next two reading mentors are teachers of a good skill: knowing what to read next.  Francis (pictured below as a baby and avid reader of the Maisy books) and my Grandma Mary Verry, both reminded me to be a reader who hooks into a series.

Two of my favorite readers: Grandma Verry and Francis, October 2004.

My favorite story about my Grandma as a reader was when she found a new book series, "The Cat Who" series by Lilian Jackson Braun. She found this book series when she was struggling with Myasthenia Gravis, and I love that she was so excited about finding it and also that she chose to use some of her very finite energy for reading. I hope I continue to find things to read that bring me joy throughout my life like my Grandma.

Francis must be following in Grandma Verry's footsteps.  He has relied on series books to guide him as a reader this past year: Henry and Mudge, Horrible Harry, A to Z Mysteries, Secrets of Droon, Star Wars Graphic Novels, Dragon Slayer's Academy, Captain Underpants, Captain Fact, Encyclopedia Brown... Fran reads about 10 books into a series and then moves onto something new. As someone who finishes a series- this is crazy to me.  But also, another lesson from a reader: move on when you've had enough.

Who would have thought looking at them when they met that they would remind me that I can hook into a series so I always have a book on deck.

And now, I wait for this next book to become available to be my book on deck!

March is Writing Month? or Bird-by-Bird: Advice for Writing and Life

Fran was really excited about studying biographies at school. He picked Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot, (over LeBron James) for his project. The first thing I did was grab him some books from the library. He did what any respectable biographer would do, he read them, and then he talked about them.

So a few days later, he brings home his biography from school... It was really accurate, it had solid mechanics, and it was very...well, concise. Since more than one session had been allowed for writing and he had more to say about the topic, I thought perhaps it needed to be a little longer. Like many 3rd graders, it seemed like he just needed some help figuring out how to use structure to tell it long.

A lot of 3rd graders tell the whole thing in a paragraph. Or write a really long, well-crafted beginning and then get tired and rush the rest. But each part needs to be developed, and this is where structure comes in.

So I did it. I told Francis the old "bird-by-bird strategy" from the famous grown-up writer Anne LaMott. Basically, it goes like this: her brother left a huge project on birds until the day before it was due. Her father, also a writer, remained calm. He got her brother some bird books from the library, sat at the kitchen table with him, and told her brother to relax-- just take it bird-by-bird. (Anne tells it better.)

Just take it bird-by-bird.

Such simple advice. I've found that most tasks, both in writing and in life, seem so much more manageable if taken bird-by-bird. So that's what we did: Fran set up a timeline and figured out his sections. We labeled his draft with each "part on a page" and he worked bird-by-bird in a few short work sessions to finish it.

Now he had used this "timeline and each part gets a page draft" strategy before with both his personal narrative story and his fiction story this year, but sometimes you just need someone to remind you to just take it bird-by-bird.

Yesterday we were driving in the van, chit-chatting about how his piece had changed. I hoped I was hearing his words, not the words he thinks I want him to say about his process. Every writing teacher worries (sometimes) that a teaching point was too heavy-handed, that the teacher, not the student owns the strategy or craft applied, or that students just say what they think we want to hear so we'll leave them alone.

But Francis reminded me that this work was now his own by closing our conversation by saying, "Well, Mom. Now I know I can write long if I just do what that famous writer's brother did... just take it bird-by-bird."

My Pappap (Reading Mentor #1)

It might surprise you to hear that my Pappap was a reading mentor to me. My Pap was brilliant-- a flexible problem- solver-- but he did not have an opportunity for formal schooling after middle school. He worked in the coal mines, and also became skilled as a naturalist and an electrician. He was the busiest retired guy I ever met.

But the thing I will always remember is how much Pap loved a good mystery- he read everything from Ellery Queen to Encyclopedia Brown! He loved reading trivia. He also read the morning and afternoon paper- he did word puzzles, logic puzzles, number puzzles. He loved the comics.

When I was little, the Field Guides Pap often read seemed boring to me. But his love of nature helped him find a study topic that interested him. He wanted to know more about the animals in the woods, so he read about them. He knew about animals, trees, and how to find delicious berries- because he read about them and then he experienced them.

People who knew my Pap might think of tools and machines when they think of him, and I do, too. (I also remember drilling a hole in his workshop floor while he helped me with my Girl Scout Woodworker badge!)  I will always remember his humor, his generosity, and especially his reading. Pappap taught me that readers find books about what they want to know about it the world- and then read them! I used to think that being a reader was just reading high-brow canons, but Pap taught me that readers alone choose the reading that is important to them.

My Pappap