(This is an art installation, not a real assignment)
Discourse on creativity, reality, and interpersonal responsibility, in a paper comparing and contrasting Eleanor Estes' The Hundred Dresses and Joseph Mitchell's Joe Gould's Secret.
Touch also on the following questions:
1. Is Joe Gould a charlatan?
2. Is Wanda a charlatan?
3. What can we do to help students through writer's block?
For extra credit, include the following quotation from Rav Freifeld: "Everyone wants to be a rosh yeshiva, but no one wants to take two shvache bachurim and learn with them." Suppose Joe Gould and Wanda were chevrusos. Discuss.
Online Learning Programs
If you search online for virtual ed programs, the results are overwhelming: there are a huge number of programs out there.
Here's a place to start.
All virtual ed programs have their frustrations, but these are the ones that people I know (or correspond with) have used and either still use or recommend to others as strong candidates for consideration.
Programs I heard about from school administrators:
Connections Academy
FLVS (Florida Virtual) - merged with Connections
Edgenuity (I proctored students using this one -- let me know if you want details)
ALEKS (a math program)
Fuel
Someone told me she wants to try Bonim b'Yachad; at this writing I don't know of anyone who has used it.
The following three are the programs that come recommended by parents homeschooling their kids on sailboats:
Laurel Springs
Calvert Academy
Oak Meadow
There are a couple of other programs out there that people I know have tried and cautioned me against using. They aren't mentioned in this post.
Here's a place to start.
All virtual ed programs have their frustrations, but these are the ones that people I know (or correspond with) have used and either still use or recommend to others as strong candidates for consideration.
Programs I heard about from school administrators:
Connections Academy
FLVS (Florida Virtual) - merged with Connections
Edgenuity (I proctored students using this one -- let me know if you want details)
ALEKS (a math program)
Fuel
Someone told me she wants to try Bonim b'Yachad; at this writing I don't know of anyone who has used it.
The following three are the programs that come recommended by parents homeschooling their kids on sailboats:
Laurel Springs
Calvert Academy
Oak Meadow
There are a couple of other programs out there that people I know have tried and cautioned me against using. They aren't mentioned in this post.
Craft activities for short occasions
I've been running craft workshops recently.
All of these are easy crafts for youngish (7-year-old and up) children, can be completed within an hour (or dragged out into more elaborate projects as necessary), and don't require a lot of advance training for the facilitator.
I like these crafts because although they are good activities to do with kids when you have an odd 40 minutes to fill, they teach craft skills that are more sophisticated than the average glue-something-to-something-else craft project.
All of these are Google-able for instructions and examples.
1.) Yarn dolls
2.) Polymer clay -- millefiori techniques
3.) Paper quilling
4.) Make candles (roll or dip; I've never tried using molds)
5.) Build forts in the woods, or fairy houses. Or, bring a bunch of twigs into the house and hot-glue them together to make fairy furniture.
6.) Needle felting
7.) Sew tiny bags, turn them right side out, stuff them with rice, and then sew buttons on them: several basic sewing skills in an hour.
8.) Paper marbling/suminagashi
9.) Basket weaving
9b.) also pine needle basket weaving, but you have to have time to boil the pine needles before you use them
10.) Daisy chains
11.) Weaving potholders
12 & 13.) Macrame/kumihomo, and origami. I separate these from the rest of the list because they demand a little more precision, so some kids have trouble with them.
14.) Pysanky. I separate this from the rest of the list because, while it is a kid-friendly craft that is a great way to fill an hour, it involves fire and specialty equipment, and you have to prepare lots of eggs ahead of time.
I haven't tried making temari balls. It really looks like too complicated a craft to be on this list, but it is such a little-known one that I think it deserves mention.
15.) Lemon crabs. This one isn't a craft, just something fun to do while babysitting: twist each corner of a paper towel a little, put a lemon under the towel, and roll the "lemon crab" gently across the floor. The crab-like way it scuttles across the floor is peculiarly charming.
All of these are easy crafts for youngish (7-year-old and up) children, can be completed within an hour (or dragged out into more elaborate projects as necessary), and don't require a lot of advance training for the facilitator.
I like these crafts because although they are good activities to do with kids when you have an odd 40 minutes to fill, they teach craft skills that are more sophisticated than the average glue-something-to-something-else craft project.
All of these are Google-able for instructions and examples.
1.) Yarn dolls
2.) Polymer clay -- millefiori techniques
3.) Paper quilling
4.) Make candles (roll or dip; I've never tried using molds)
5.) Build forts in the woods, or fairy houses. Or, bring a bunch of twigs into the house and hot-glue them together to make fairy furniture.
6.) Needle felting
7.) Sew tiny bags, turn them right side out, stuff them with rice, and then sew buttons on them: several basic sewing skills in an hour.
8.) Paper marbling/suminagashi
9.) Basket weaving
9b.) also pine needle basket weaving, but you have to have time to boil the pine needles before you use them
10.) Daisy chains
11.) Weaving potholders
12 & 13.) Macrame/kumihomo, and origami. I separate these from the rest of the list because they demand a little more precision, so some kids have trouble with them.
14.) Pysanky. I separate this from the rest of the list because, while it is a kid-friendly craft that is a great way to fill an hour, it involves fire and specialty equipment, and you have to prepare lots of eggs ahead of time.
I haven't tried making temari balls. It really looks like too complicated a craft to be on this list, but it is such a little-known one that I think it deserves mention.
15.) Lemon crabs. This one isn't a craft, just something fun to do while babysitting: twist each corner of a paper towel a little, put a lemon under the towel, and roll the "lemon crab" gently across the floor. The crab-like way it scuttles across the floor is peculiarly charming.
Finding Books for Boys: a Growing List
One of my challenges as an English teacher is finding books that meet the school standards for appropriate content and that appeal to adolescent boys.
I went to the public library and said, "My students want to read about war and sports; what can you recommend?" and not ONE book that the librarian recommended met our school standards -- including Endurance and Hatchet.
I did find a great adventure memoir called In the Land of White Death, by Valerian Albanov, about a failed 1912 expedition in the Arctic.
The collection in the school book closet includes
Tom Sawyer
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Around the World in 80 Days
Animal Farm
Profiles in Courage
Johnny Tremain
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
The Phantom Tollbooth
To these I would add The Twenty-One Balloons, The Golden Goblet, and My Side of the Mountain.
Lord of the Flies is an ugly, violent story about the triumph of evil; but there is no romance in it. (The afterword published in the edition I see everywhere is not up to school standards.)
The Invisible Man is another ugly, violent one with no romance or profanity in it.
I have one student who has been very happy with Moby Dick but I haven't been through it recently to check for content.
A lot of kids are enjoying Sherlock Holmes -- same caveat.
Short stories:
There are a lot of good short stories (and very short stories) by Kafka. I gave the class My Neighbor and we got interested in whether the narrator is paranoid or reasonable -- that was fun.
I also gave out a few chapters of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Much of the book is not appropriate; but each chapter can stand alone. These are slightly dystopian prose poems about imaginary cities: very boy-friendly.
Nabokov's Pnin consists of several chapters, each of which can stand alone as a piece of literature; some of these are appropriate.
There are a few appropriate short stories by Hemingway -- e.g., The Old Man at the Bridge, The Good Lion, A Day's Wait; I have one or two more here but I have to find them.
I went to the public library and said, "My students want to read about war and sports; what can you recommend?" and not ONE book that the librarian recommended met our school standards -- including Endurance and Hatchet.
I did find a great adventure memoir called In the Land of White Death, by Valerian Albanov, about a failed 1912 expedition in the Arctic.
The collection in the school book closet includes
Tom Sawyer
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Around the World in 80 Days
Animal Farm
Profiles in Courage
Johnny Tremain
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
The Phantom Tollbooth
To these I would add The Twenty-One Balloons, The Golden Goblet, and My Side of the Mountain.
Lord of the Flies is an ugly, violent story about the triumph of evil; but there is no romance in it. (The afterword published in the edition I see everywhere is not up to school standards.)
The Invisible Man is another ugly, violent one with no romance or profanity in it.
I have one student who has been very happy with Moby Dick but I haven't been through it recently to check for content.
A lot of kids are enjoying Sherlock Holmes -- same caveat.
Short stories:
There are a lot of good short stories (and very short stories) by Kafka. I gave the class My Neighbor and we got interested in whether the narrator is paranoid or reasonable -- that was fun.
I also gave out a few chapters of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Much of the book is not appropriate; but each chapter can stand alone. These are slightly dystopian prose poems about imaginary cities: very boy-friendly.
Nabokov's Pnin consists of several chapters, each of which can stand alone as a piece of literature; some of these are appropriate.
There are a few appropriate short stories by Hemingway -- e.g., The Old Man at the Bridge, The Good Lion, A Day's Wait; I have one or two more here but I have to find them.
Memos from the We Would Never Have Guessed Dept.
Whoa!
Rabbi Oppenheimer (the rav who kicked off Portland's transformation into a model of a thriving Torah community) wrote this week here:
I have heard Rabbi Yissochor Frand שליט"א say on several occasions that when he was growing up in Seattle, they considered the Jewish community in Portland, Oregon to be a virtual עיר הנדחת. The community seemed so irredeemably lost to Torah-true Judaism that there was no hope that anything positive would come from it. Surely that was meant hyperbolically; it has been proven quite wrong...
Portland is now a community that other communities look to to find out how to grow a Torah community.
...
The other item in this vein is that I recently caught up with a middle school classmate who was able to fill me in on what the rest of our class is doing.
Pretty much every one of us is doing something that could not have been predicted from who we were in middle school.
The boy who slouched in the back of the room with his hair in his eyes is a rising star in the fashion industry.
The girl who never went anywhere without two spare pairs of high-fashion shoes is in rural South America organizing a farming commune.
The list goes on and on like that. Almost none of us seem to have proceeded in a straight line from who we were in middle school.
I look now at the class of middle schoolers I taught this year and realize that everything I think I know about them could be wrong completely.
Rabbi Oppenheimer (the rav who kicked off Portland's transformation into a model of a thriving Torah community) wrote this week here:
I have heard Rabbi Yissochor Frand שליט"א say on several occasions that when he was growing up in Seattle, they considered the Jewish community in Portland, Oregon to be a virtual עיר הנדחת. The community seemed so irredeemably lost to Torah-true Judaism that there was no hope that anything positive would come from it. Surely that was meant hyperbolically; it has been proven quite wrong...
Portland is now a community that other communities look to to find out how to grow a Torah community.
...
The other item in this vein is that I recently caught up with a middle school classmate who was able to fill me in on what the rest of our class is doing.
Pretty much every one of us is doing something that could not have been predicted from who we were in middle school.
The boy who slouched in the back of the room with his hair in his eyes is a rising star in the fashion industry.
The girl who never went anywhere without two spare pairs of high-fashion shoes is in rural South America organizing a farming commune.
The list goes on and on like that. Almost none of us seem to have proceeded in a straight line from who we were in middle school.
I look now at the class of middle schoolers I taught this year and realize that everything I think I know about them could be wrong completely.
Book Review: Never Work Harder than Your Students
I spotted Never Work Harder than Your Students, by Robyn Jackson, on a friend's bookshelf, but didn't have time to read much of it; took it out of the library; didn't have time to read much of it; and finally ordered a copy, which I am now quickly skating through.
First impressions.
The form of the book is self-helpy. It starts with a quiz; it has its own website; it occasionally breaks out with a term like "Master Teacher" that you sense the author is just waiting to trademark.
But:
The content of the book is great. Some of it is obvious but all of it is getting good ideas crackling.
So, so far, I recommend it.
(The title is misleading -- it's not a book about keeping teachers from working too hard; it's a grab bag of pedagogical insights.)
First impressions.
The form of the book is self-helpy. It starts with a quiz; it has its own website; it occasionally breaks out with a term like "Master Teacher" that you sense the author is just waiting to trademark.
But:
The content of the book is great. Some of it is obvious but all of it is getting good ideas crackling.
So, so far, I recommend it.
(The title is misleading -- it's not a book about keeping teachers from working too hard; it's a grab bag of pedagogical insights.)
Demographics
Someone recently quoted to me an insightful comment by a teenage girl. She had been asked to describe her transition from attending a cozy small-town high school to attending a much larger high school in a larger community.
She summarized,
"I lost my mentors, and in their place I gained role models."
...
It doesn't sound to me like a value judgment in favor of one or the other. Others may read it differently.
The Sewing Books to Take to a Desert Island
I've been wanting to list a couple of how-to-sew books which, between them, cover everything any home dressmaker could possibly want to know: sewing; drafting patterns and draping without patterns; troubleshooting machinery.
It's tricky to make such a list, though: there are a lot of great beginners' "how-to-sew" books out there but most are not comprehensive.
Cal Patch's Design-It-Yourself Clothes, for instance, has beautiful sunlit illustrations, but teaches only how to sew knits. If you want to know how to use anything other than stretchy fabric, this is not your book.
Chinelo Bally's Freehand Fashion is also a friendly introduction to sewing; but she assumes that you want darts in all your clothing. Darts are a modern invention; I want to know how to create a fitted garment without them; ergo, this book also has its limitations for me.
A surprising number of books omit sleeves entirely.
At the end of the day, there are three sewing books in my library. These are the ones that work for me.
1.) I received the Singer Complete Photo Guide to Sewing book as a present. This is the one that explains, in its section on sewing machines and sergers, how to check and correct machine tension; it explains the construction of several types of seams; it's a good all-around reference. There is an extensive section on home decor, as well as instructions for using commercial patterns effectively.
2.) I added to it Elizabeth Stewart Clark's Dressmaking Guide. Yes, this book is self-published and written for Civil War reenactors; yes, it walks you through the creation of a number of garments the average 21st century civilian has no interest in wearing. BUT -- I still recommend it as an exceptional how-to-sew book, because it encompasses basic hand-sewing technique, the number one best way ever to sew on a button (a level of detail most books do not include), and touches on how to drape. The sewing projects in this book, 19th century or no, teach you how to construct fitted garments without ever drafting a pattern, which is unique in sewing books for beginners. This is the book I consult most often.
3.) I did, however, want to learn how to draft garments with darts and other modern details, so I added Dorothy Moore's Pattern Making and Dressmaking to the collection. There is a comprehensive review of it here. This explains how to draft pretty much anything, including menswear.
The three together do a fine job of covering sewing by hand or machine, draping, and drafting.
I have other books on the shelf - Claire Shaeffer's Couture Sewing Techniques (which will teach you something like the twelve best ways ever to sew on a button instead of the one - did you know Yves Saint Laurent braids its button shanks?), and The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking, which is good for oddments like perfectly ruffled sleeves - but the three that are coming with me to a desert island are the three listed above.
It's tricky to make such a list, though: there are a lot of great beginners' "how-to-sew" books out there but most are not comprehensive.
Cal Patch's Design-It-Yourself Clothes, for instance, has beautiful sunlit illustrations, but teaches only how to sew knits. If you want to know how to use anything other than stretchy fabric, this is not your book.
Chinelo Bally's Freehand Fashion is also a friendly introduction to sewing; but she assumes that you want darts in all your clothing. Darts are a modern invention; I want to know how to create a fitted garment without them; ergo, this book also has its limitations for me.
A surprising number of books omit sleeves entirely.
At the end of the day, there are three sewing books in my library. These are the ones that work for me.
1.) I received the Singer Complete Photo Guide to Sewing book as a present. This is the one that explains, in its section on sewing machines and sergers, how to check and correct machine tension; it explains the construction of several types of seams; it's a good all-around reference. There is an extensive section on home decor, as well as instructions for using commercial patterns effectively.
2.) I added to it Elizabeth Stewart Clark's Dressmaking Guide. Yes, this book is self-published and written for Civil War reenactors; yes, it walks you through the creation of a number of garments the average 21st century civilian has no interest in wearing. BUT -- I still recommend it as an exceptional how-to-sew book, because it encompasses basic hand-sewing technique, the number one best way ever to sew on a button (a level of detail most books do not include), and touches on how to drape. The sewing projects in this book, 19th century or no, teach you how to construct fitted garments without ever drafting a pattern, which is unique in sewing books for beginners. This is the book I consult most often.
3.) I did, however, want to learn how to draft garments with darts and other modern details, so I added Dorothy Moore's Pattern Making and Dressmaking to the collection. There is a comprehensive review of it here. This explains how to draft pretty much anything, including menswear.
The three together do a fine job of covering sewing by hand or machine, draping, and drafting.
I have other books on the shelf - Claire Shaeffer's Couture Sewing Techniques (which will teach you something like the twelve best ways ever to sew on a button instead of the one - did you know Yves Saint Laurent braids its button shanks?), and The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking, which is good for oddments like perfectly ruffled sleeves - but the three that are coming with me to a desert island are the three listed above.
Ugly Ducklings in the Schoolyard
There are two common weeds which grew in our elementary school yard for which, as a child, I never had any use. They were not good for mashing between rocks, like grass; they were not good for making into brooms, like the more feathery grasses; they did not have attractive flowers; they were not edible; and no one ever told me their names or anything interesting about them.
I'm writing this post so you can teach your students so they won't be so benighted; because it turns out that these two uninteresting plants that were always in the way when we wanted to make dandelion chains are actually some of the more interesting weeds in this region.
1.
Common Plantain (Plantago major)
You can see pictures of this plant and read a little about it here: White Man's Little Foot.
Apparently, chewed up (preferably by the afflicted party) and held for some time on the afflicted area, it is immensely useful for mosquito bites, bee stings, and closing wounds. Do not take my word for it - do not ever take my word for plant use; I don't want that liability - visit the link above to read more about this and other plantains.
I heard about it from AyoLane Halusky.
2.
Pineapple Weed (Matricaria matricarioides)
Pineapple Weed <-- read about it here.
The flowers look a little like pineapples; if you pinch them they smell a little like pineapple; and the flowers, which are apparently edible (according to the site above - please visit it to read about look-alikes and allergy warnings), taste "like a plant," said my daughter, shrugging; but, I would say, like a plant inspired by pineapple.
It was embarrassing to learn that this plant that I disdained through my entire childhood smells like pineapple. Who knew?
I'm writing this post so you can teach your students so they won't be so benighted; because it turns out that these two uninteresting plants that were always in the way when we wanted to make dandelion chains are actually some of the more interesting weeds in this region.
1.
Common Plantain (Plantago major)
You can see pictures of this plant and read a little about it here: White Man's Little Foot.
Apparently, chewed up (preferably by the afflicted party) and held for some time on the afflicted area, it is immensely useful for mosquito bites, bee stings, and closing wounds. Do not take my word for it - do not ever take my word for plant use; I don't want that liability - visit the link above to read more about this and other plantains.
I heard about it from AyoLane Halusky.
2.
Pineapple Weed (Matricaria matricarioides)
Pineapple Weed <-- read about it here.
The flowers look a little like pineapples; if you pinch them they smell a little like pineapple; and the flowers, which are apparently edible (according to the site above - please visit it to read about look-alikes and allergy warnings), taste "like a plant," said my daughter, shrugging; but, I would say, like a plant inspired by pineapple.
It was embarrassing to learn that this plant that I disdained through my entire childhood smells like pineapple. Who knew?
The Power of Knowing that You Know Something
One of the lessons I learned in my first year of teaching - fortunately before the end of the year - was that it's not enough for students to learn; they have to see clearly that they are learning; and for this purpose, it is not enough to give them ways to apply the new knowledge & skills; you have to really spell out for them here is what you have learned.
This morning, I saw an interesting illustration of the power of feeling that you do know something, in Oliver Sacks' account of one of my favorite stories of scientific discovery.
Dmitri Mendeleev had been playing with arranging and rearranging cards representing the various known elements, trying to discern the underlying pattern; one night he fell asleep and dreamed the Periodic Table, more or less as we know it.
Here is Sacks' footnote to the story:
This, at least, is the accepted myth, and one that was later promulgated by Mendeleev himself, somewhat as Kekule was to describe his own discovery of the benzene ring years later, as the result of a dream of snakes biting their own tails. But if one looks at the actual table that Mendeleev sketched, one can see that it is full of transpositions, crossings-out, and calculations in the margins. It shows, in the most graphic way, the creative struggle for understanding which was going on in his mind. Mendeleev did not wake from his dream with all the answers in place but, more interestingly, perhaps, woke with a sense of revelation, so that within hours he was able to solve many of the questions that had occupied him for years.
(Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten. New York: Random House, Inc, 2001. p. 198)
This morning, I saw an interesting illustration of the power of feeling that you do know something, in Oliver Sacks' account of one of my favorite stories of scientific discovery.
Dmitri Mendeleev had been playing with arranging and rearranging cards representing the various known elements, trying to discern the underlying pattern; one night he fell asleep and dreamed the Periodic Table, more or less as we know it.
Here is Sacks' footnote to the story:
This, at least, is the accepted myth, and one that was later promulgated by Mendeleev himself, somewhat as Kekule was to describe his own discovery of the benzene ring years later, as the result of a dream of snakes biting their own tails. But if one looks at the actual table that Mendeleev sketched, one can see that it is full of transpositions, crossings-out, and calculations in the margins. It shows, in the most graphic way, the creative struggle for understanding which was going on in his mind. Mendeleev did not wake from his dream with all the answers in place but, more interestingly, perhaps, woke with a sense of revelation, so that within hours he was able to solve many of the questions that had occupied him for years.
(Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten. New York: Random House, Inc, 2001. p. 198)
"Where is the next Torah frontier?"
From an article by Rabbi Feigenbaum of Toronto; the full article is here.
A student once exclaimed to me, “I wish I would have been alive during the Holocaust – I could have been a hero and someone would have written a book about me. Now I am just another good girl who does chesed.” Everyone wants to move up a step, improve on the past, and feel they have conquered new heights and done something for the greater good. But what is left today? Taliesim will never slip again, no one is forced to work on Shabbos, everything is kosher, and chesed is institutionalized. Where is the next Torah frontier to conquer?
The easiest way to get that feeling of growth is to focus on the external – anything you can do I can do stricter, and the school with the most rules wins. Why? Because internal growth is hard to measure and, for societal reasons, frum people are not comfortable talking about “connections to Hashem” and “spiritual growth.”
A student once exclaimed to me, “I wish I would have been alive during the Holocaust – I could have been a hero and someone would have written a book about me. Now I am just another good girl who does chesed.” Everyone wants to move up a step, improve on the past, and feel they have conquered new heights and done something for the greater good. But what is left today? Taliesim will never slip again, no one is forced to work on Shabbos, everything is kosher, and chesed is institutionalized. Where is the next Torah frontier to conquer?
The easiest way to get that feeling of growth is to focus on the external – anything you can do I can do stricter, and the school with the most rules wins. Why? Because internal growth is hard to measure and, for societal reasons, frum people are not comfortable talking about “connections to Hashem” and “spiritual growth.”
Book review: Good to Great
I like looking outside education-directed sources for insights that may be useful in the classroom; and I've met some nice people recently who are CEOs of things and I was curious about what they do all day (it sounds like fun); so I spent some time this year in the business aisle at the library.
Until this year, I think the only book I'd read on business was Rav Dessler's Kuntres haChesed; and I still think if you're going to read one book on business that should be the one.
Anyway, I found two books that have good practical information -- Your Idea, Inc, which explains how to start a business; and the Nonprofit Kit for Dummies, which explains how to start a nonprofit - and the other interesting item was Good to Great, which is a study of what makes a corporation sustainable.
Most of the other books I found on business say, "Set your goal and pursue it aggressively!" but the Good to Great study found, it says, that the corporations that achieved lasting financial success are the ones that took a couple of years of experimentation to allow their ideas to gel; and then focused closely on what they found they could do well; and I think that rings truer.
Other factors mentioned are personal humility, and starting with having the right people rather than the right business plan ("get the right people on the bus, and then decide where you're going to drive it").
Something to think about.
Until this year, I think the only book I'd read on business was Rav Dessler's Kuntres haChesed; and I still think if you're going to read one book on business that should be the one.
Anyway, I found two books that have good practical information -- Your Idea, Inc, which explains how to start a business; and the Nonprofit Kit for Dummies, which explains how to start a nonprofit - and the other interesting item was Good to Great, which is a study of what makes a corporation sustainable.
Most of the other books I found on business say, "Set your goal and pursue it aggressively!" but the Good to Great study found, it says, that the corporations that achieved lasting financial success are the ones that took a couple of years of experimentation to allow their ideas to gel; and then focused closely on what they found they could do well; and I think that rings truer.
Other factors mentioned are personal humility, and starting with having the right people rather than the right business plan ("get the right people on the bus, and then decide where you're going to drive it").
Something to think about.
Toward a Qualitative Reading Incentive
I had this discussion with my high school students recently.
Every reading incentive we've seen is based on the idea that children should be encouraged to read - a lot. -- e.g., the local elementary school awards prizes based on number of pages, and per book completed; and the local library does something similar.
We haven't seen any incentive programs that seek to direct children toward reading good books, only toward reading lots of books.
In fact, when I look at the lists of what the kids are reading, the worst possible writing seems to predominate.
We agreed that there is a difference between books and good books; and that it's worth encouraging children to choose the latter.
"What do you think?" I asked. "Is it possible to make an incentive program for children to read good books, or is the definition of a good book too subjective?"
Hm.
They suggested that you could give students a list of books to choose from.
Keep thinking about it.
Every reading incentive we've seen is based on the idea that children should be encouraged to read - a lot. -- e.g., the local elementary school awards prizes based on number of pages, and per book completed; and the local library does something similar.
We haven't seen any incentive programs that seek to direct children toward reading good books, only toward reading lots of books.
In fact, when I look at the lists of what the kids are reading, the worst possible writing seems to predominate.
We agreed that there is a difference between books and good books; and that it's worth encouraging children to choose the latter.
"What do you think?" I asked. "Is it possible to make an incentive program for children to read good books, or is the definition of a good book too subjective?"
Hm.
They suggested that you could give students a list of books to choose from.
Keep thinking about it.
Libi baMizrach in Chinook Wawa
This really has nothing to do with education (except perhaps to illustrate the idea that one of the best ways to learn a foreign language is to mess around with it) but someone just surprised me by asking for a copy of it, so I'm putting it where people can find it.
I translated R' Yehuda haLevi's lament "My heart is in the East..." into a language of the uttermost West, Chinook Wawa: the trade jargon of the peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast region.
Thanks to Wawa enthusiast Craig Delf for smoothing out some wrinkles in the translation.
I translated R' Yehuda haLevi's lament "My heart is in the East..." into a language of the uttermost West, Chinook Wawa: the trade jargon of the peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast region.
Thanks to Wawa enthusiast Craig Delf for smoothing out some wrinkles in the translation.
Nika mitlite tumtum siah
kopa sun-get-up illahee, pe nika mitlite siah-siah kopa klip-sun-illahee.
Howkwutl nika mukmuk, pe howkwutl mukmuk chaco tsee?
Howkwutl nika mamook huihui nawitka, pe
Tsiyon kow Pil lope, pe nika kow Alap lope?
Klah mahsh konaway kloshe Spanyolillahee, kahkwa
Hyas ticky nanitch polallie kokshut Hyas-Tyee-wawa-Home.
Howkwutl nika mukmuk, pe howkwutl mukmuk chaco tsee?
Howkwutl nika mamook huihui nawitka, pe
Tsiyon kow Pil lope, pe nika kow Alap lope?
Klah mahsh konaway kloshe Spanyolillahee, kahkwa
Hyas ticky nanitch polallie kokshut Hyas-Tyee-wawa-Home.
Anatomy of a Learning Initiative: What Worked, What Didn't
I'm always interested to hear about people's special learning or middos initiatives for kids - particularly those that sustain momentum. I'm deeply interested in what makes an initiative last.
This is the story of one special learning initiative for kids. I thought it might last a couple of weeks. It's been going on now for, gee, almost five months.
Here are some factors that seem to contribute to the success of the program:
1. The task is simple, small, and specific: read a perek of Navi in English and tell me what happened in it.
2. The prizes are varied, cute, and very low-key -- on the order of magnitude of M&Ms, but not edible. The girls pick out one prize per perek. They not infrequently spend several minutes deliberating over which one they want to choose; but - this is my criterion for prizes - although some girls are drawn in by the prizes, I think they take more pleasure in the mastery of the material.
3. The initiative is public. The narrations take place in the shul social hall after davening on Shabbos, so when a girl comes up to tell me about a perek, her friends see and are reminded about the program. As long as someone is doing it, the other someones are interested.
Also, I put the prizes in a translucent bag, so they're in everyone's face. A number of girls have gotten involved because they came over to ask what those are, and can they have one?
Here are a couple of things that surprised me:
1. The e-mail I sent to parents explaining the initiative (with the graphic above) never went further than the parents. The only way communicate with the girls is to speak with them directly.
2. The fact that the initiative is l'ilui nishmas someone significant in our lives, while it is a nice thing and I'm glad we're doing it, seems to make no difference in anyone's motivation.
3. I need to remember not to underestimate the attractiveness of bite-sized anything. I now have several girls who've started learning Pirkei Avos instead of or in addition to Navi. It isn't any easier -- but the bites are smaller.
4. We've had tremendous surges in participation from all ages around Purim and Shavuos, because Megillas Esther and Megillas Rus are particularly user-friendly Navi.
5. We also have higher-than-average participation rates on Shabbosos or yamim tovim when the girls come to shul more than once, e.g. on two-day yontifs.
6. The age range surprised me. Girls who can't read yet are now participating because they get their sisters to tell them the stories in Navi. There is a sharp cut-off in participation at age 11: no one older will condescend to play with us (although several have said they want the prizes). I thought we might have one playful adult or even teen from this whole community, but no: it's turned out to be strictly a kid thing, ages 4-11.
So.
To sum up, I attribute the fact that what I thought might be a three-week program is still running five months later to
(a) nissim v'niflaos
(b) the fact that it's so low-key. It's an easy task and the prizes are tiny and consistent. There's absolutely nothing splashy about it... except that
(c) the content is real. The accomplishment is real. The girls really appreciate that they are learning something.
The one outcome I am still hoping to see that I haven't seen is whether the girls' interest will spill over to others in the community. We are starting an outreach kollel here in Elul but it would be pretty cool, if equally unlikely, if a group of 4-to-11-year-old girls can get the whole kehilla talking in learning before that.
Now that a lot of the girls are learning Pirkei Avos, when they come to tell me a Mishnah I suspect they don't really understand, I tell them they have to find an explanation for it. So they are engaging their parents, which is great.
Artist: Stephanie Law
I heard of Stephanie Law because she has a following in sci-fi/fantasy circles; but I like her botanical work best, for its brilliant details.
You can see more of her work here.
You can see more of her work here.
Bhutanese fashion
My mother sent me, as something that particularly moved her, this film about a man who seeks to promote pride in traditional Bhutanese dress in Bhutan by taking pictures of people wearing it (which is what they just do in Bhutan) and putting them online. Bhutan Street Fashion
And my question is - what are the applications of the idea for day schools?
The fact that someone comes up to you and takes an interest in some aspect of your life that you take for granted is, I think, the useful point here -- not all the tangents we could go on about what tsnius means.
And my question is - what are the applications of the idea for day schools?
The fact that someone comes up to you and takes an interest in some aspect of your life that you take for granted is, I think, the useful point here -- not all the tangents we could go on about what tsnius means.
Oregon's Early Rural Schools Web Exhibit
Oregon's Early Rural Schools Web Exhibit - courtesy of the Oregon Blue Book.
That is, lots of photos of tiny little hand-built school buildings in gigantic sweeping landscapes.
Makes you think about what a school is and what a school might be and what a school ought to be.
That is, lots of photos of tiny little hand-built school buildings in gigantic sweeping landscapes.
Makes you think about what a school is and what a school might be and what a school ought to be.
Irlen Syndrome: my investigation
Someone sent me an article about a girl who ordinarily found reading difficult and fatiguing; but when she tried laying transparent colored plastic over the page or screen, she was able to read normally.
Well, that sounded intriguing; so I started looking up more about Irlen Syndrome...
...and what I read made me suspicious.
If this is a real syndrome, why does it have its own diagnosticians? And what is behind the claim that a high percentage of the population (and the vast majority of the prison population) has a reading problem that I never heard of?
There are a lot of articles online, like this one, quoting parents and teachers who say they've seen colored overlays make a big difference.
And there are a lot of articles written from a scientific perspective, like this one or this one, claiming that Irlen Syndrome doesn't exist and the overlays don't work.
So, I asked around: Who has some insight into this?
The responses that I got from people I know paralleled what I found in the articles: I heard from parents and teachers, telling me about students who found the overlays effective ("when she started wearing glasses with yellow lenses, she suddenly went from a D to an A+ average"); or about some who maybe sort of did but they weren't sure; or about a rare light-sensitive student who actually did among many with reading disabilities who didn't; and I heard from an optometrist who said she thinks it's all a very expensive placebo effect; and my friend the nurse sent me another article....
...and then the reading specialist, who happens to know everything about everything, gave a brief answer that explains everything, including the discrepancy between the scientific findings and the anecdotes.
He wrote:
For reading difficulties: if it works, and in most cases it doesn't, it fixes a symptom, not the source of the problem. Multi sensory reading is the answer.
For light sensitivity or vision loss, it can help.
So, that's my answer.
Here are links about multi-sensory reading:
Multi-Sensory Kriah - he didn't send me this link; I am promoting him; and
Multisensory Structured Language Teaching Fact Sheet
As a side note, one thing all the Irlen pro and con studies seem to agree on is that children enjoy experimenting with reading through colored cellophane.
Well, a novel kriyah activity is also something...
Well, that sounded intriguing; so I started looking up more about Irlen Syndrome...
...and what I read made me suspicious.
If this is a real syndrome, why does it have its own diagnosticians? And what is behind the claim that a high percentage of the population (and the vast majority of the prison population) has a reading problem that I never heard of?
There are a lot of articles online, like this one, quoting parents and teachers who say they've seen colored overlays make a big difference.
And there are a lot of articles written from a scientific perspective, like this one or this one, claiming that Irlen Syndrome doesn't exist and the overlays don't work.
So, I asked around: Who has some insight into this?
The responses that I got from people I know paralleled what I found in the articles: I heard from parents and teachers, telling me about students who found the overlays effective ("when she started wearing glasses with yellow lenses, she suddenly went from a D to an A+ average"); or about some who maybe sort of did but they weren't sure; or about a rare light-sensitive student who actually did among many with reading disabilities who didn't; and I heard from an optometrist who said she thinks it's all a very expensive placebo effect; and my friend the nurse sent me another article....
...and then the reading specialist, who happens to know everything about everything, gave a brief answer that explains everything, including the discrepancy between the scientific findings and the anecdotes.
He wrote:
For reading difficulties: if it works, and in most cases it doesn't, it fixes a symptom, not the source of the problem. Multi sensory reading is the answer.
For light sensitivity or vision loss, it can help.
So, that's my answer.
Here are links about multi-sensory reading:
Multi-Sensory Kriah - he didn't send me this link; I am promoting him; and
Multisensory Structured Language Teaching Fact Sheet
As a side note, one thing all the Irlen pro and con studies seem to agree on is that children enjoy experimenting with reading through colored cellophane.
Well, a novel kriyah activity is also something...
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