ISI 2006

Jay, your presentation helped me understand how I read and why I sometimes was an "elective non-reader' in school.
What worked best was your slide show of the pages from the book with highlighting - I'm a recent fan of books on PowerPoint...hghlighting everything about a character is powerful.
I would have let us talk to each other when we first got in our groups by secondary characters...well, I mean you could have legitimized the chat by saying something from the front of the room, clever, like, "why don't you talk to your neighbor about the character you chose."
My big aha was that I can design some writing prompts to go with reading texts that will mirror some of your ideas for the kind of product you want after kids creatively read a book.
And, as I told you, I'm fascinated by trying to observe my own changes, growth (?) as a teacher.
P.S. I have your power cord. Will deliver soon.
 

Jay
Very engaging presentation. It would certainly change the way I teach literature and it would be a very natural way to help kids arrive at theme or character description in order to write a response to literature essay. Your graphic organizers were particularly well thought out and effective. I also liked the way you mixed us up according to the characters to which we had the strongest connection. That is always going to lead to a strong discussion as well as more authentic writing.
As far as what could have been done differently, doing some pair share could avoid the shy kids getting left out of the discussion. This would also help people who disagreed with the group to speak up. I thought the mother was a strong, positive character and I felt the class trivialized her as overly protective. Although I am far from shy, I couldn't find a way in to share that perspective.
I found your perspective as a father compelling because as parents we all want what's best for our kids and this includes the parents of our students but sometimes we make mistakes on the way. Palmer's parents had the same motivation and problem. It's good for our students to acknowledge that in the safe arena of literature.
9:30 PM
 

Hi Jay,

Thanks for a great presentation. I like how you've put a little twist on the traditional method of reading books in class. I dislike how reading a novel in class seems to take the fun out of it for some students, despite the fact that is intended to make the reading richer and more enjoyable. I remember having to read Grapes of Wrath in high school. I started out keeping to my teacher's reading schedule (very structured, short segments each night). I quickly lost interest n the novel and just quit reading. Finally, I realized that I was too far behind and had to catch up. I remember spending that Saturday at the beach. I brought the book along to do some catch up reading between swimming and paddle ball. After reading several consecutive chapters, however, I was hooked and spent more time on my towel reading than playing or going in the water. I finished the book well before the teacher's designated date. So, I like how having the students read the book on their own time can be a big advantage. It is more natural than reading a certain number of pages a night.

Of course, that doesn't always work in a classroom, but I'm considering which book to teach that would fit your Wringer model. It seems that the kids would get engaged and involved, like you say they do.

As far as your presentation, the visuals were excellent and helpful. It may have helped if you had given us time to talk in small groups or with our neighbors. Maybe you could have assigned each group (or pair) one of the passages, and we could have shared back during whole group discussion.

Thanks again, and I hope you and your family enjoy the rest of your summer!
 

Jay
Your controlling insight into reading and teaching a novel (that "everything matters") is quite unusual and compelling. Perhaps a novel is like a hologram, in that if you examine any one small part you will find, over and over, a replica of the whole. Therefore, if you examine the character of Henry, you will understand Wringer. If you look at Beans, you will also understand Wringer. Wringer asks the question "who are you, anyway?" and it asks it in every particle and character and also as a larger pattern of narrative.
If students are able to grasp the "hologrammatic" nature of good works of fiction, it might ground them in a kind of critical theory that could serve them well. (Not as if they need that just yet), but it'll be there nonetheless for later when they may be asked for a literary analysis paper, at which time they might perform an interperetation of secondary characters as doorways of meaning.
I'm going to reread some other works of fiction to see whether the secondary characters are as "unified" as the ones in Wringer. I hypothesize that this quality of "everything matters" is what defines good fiction and separates it from that which is not so good.
I really enjoyed your presentation and when I do get to teaching in the real world, your insights will be uppermost in my mind.
 

Jay, I missed the Horton Hears a Who presentation. I'd love to have any electronic, non-copyrighted materials you'd like to send your way. Coincidentally, I had decided to use that as one of my community building books at the opening of third grade this year before I learned that you presented it in the How to Read series.