Category: Litropolis

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Leonardo’s Big Idea

 

When Leonardo Da Vinci died he left the world more than 6,000 pages of ideas.

Think revolving bridge, winged glider, or self-propelled car, and you will begin thinking like Leonardo.

Now, think colossal horse, and you will most certainly be moving in the direction of the Renaissance man. Most of us have heard of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, but, Il Cavallo? Not so much. Read more here.

So this past week, we gathered to learn more of this marvelous dreamer, and to be inspired by his prolific idea making. And after reading Leonardo’s Horse by Jean Fritz (and ogling over the illustrations by Hudson Talbott), we got to work.

As I tried to imagine the complex engineering of the inner scaffolding, what Leonardo had to consider to create the clay model, let alone the bronze cast, I decided to focus our art making on the bones of sculpting. So from pipe cleaners, pom pons, yarn, and a lump of air drying clay we fashioned our horse.

Version 1.0.0

And what a horse. It’s not Leonardo. No. But it is certainly an inspired idea. And I imagine, this would make Leonardo smile. For he knew, better than most: “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

~Kimberly

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Be Adventurous: Read a Book

Stowaway Bundle

 

So here’s what Karen Hesse knew to be true:

Once upon a time, in the summer of 1768, Captain James Cook sailed from England on H.M.S Endeavour, beginning a three-year voyage around the world on a secret mission to discover an unknown continent at the bottom of the globe. What is less known is that a boy by the name of Nicholas Young was a real live stowaway on that ship. Yep, eleven year old Nicholas Young really did stow away on Captain Cook’s voyage around the world! And what did Captain Cook do when he discovered the stowaway? Well, he commissioned Nick into the Royal Navy, made him assistant to the ship’s surgeon aboard the Endeavour. And, as if this is not enough, Nick was the first person on Captain Cook’s ship to spot New Zealand and later explored Antarctica.

Karen Hesse took this little bundle of history and spun a fictional journal filled with hurricanes, warring natives, and disease, as Nick discovers new lands, incredible creatures, and lifelong friends.

Be adventurous: read Stowaway!

 

~Kimberly

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The Best Christmas Read-Aloud EVER!

What happens when the worst kids take over the Christmas pageant?

The Herdman kids lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear, and hit little kids. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant. Thanks to the Herdmans, the pageant is transformed into the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.

After reading the book, whip up some kettle corn and watch the film!

~Kimberly

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Stowaway with Nick

Stowaway Bundle

During the summer of 1768, Captain James Cook sailed from England on H.M.S Endeavor’s first voyage to explore the little known southern hemisphere. Eleven-year-old Nicholas Young was a stowaway on this voyage. True story.

Karen Hesse invites us to delve into this pocket of history alongside the stowaway and experience the astonishing adventure alongside Nick.

After reading, encourage your students to recreate the adventure in a meaningful and lasting way. Section 5 in our Literature and Writing Discovery Guide will present opportunities to move beyond mapping out the story details to identify the impact the story had on the heart.

My youngest son, Søren, spent significant time and effort researching the ship itself and committing his personal reflections to marks burned on wood. Creativity tied to a great story helps the reader retain and apply in ways where the essay falls short.

Captain Cook reminds us sky’s the limit, “Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.”

~Kimberly

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After Books, Tinker.

Every time you finish reading a book, think tinker.

The word “tinker” comes from the middle English referring to people who engaged in the work of patching worn tin kettles. When I was young, tinkering was a crude, quick fix of any object regardless of the medium, be it tin, wood, brick, or fabric. My great-grandpa Ted was a tinker. I loved exploring the bits and bobble in his shop, creating assemblages of junk while he merrily tinkered. Back then tinkering was not considered an art form, it was something more akin to the household junk drawer. When I was young, tinkering was pretty much DIY before the acronym came to be.

Fast forward, I LOVE how the growing maker movement has brought a deeper meaning to this wonderful word. Nowadays, “to tinker” is recognized (rightfully so) as a significant step in the process of making, in the process of bringing shape to ideas.

What better way to deeply integrate and apply knowledge gleaned from great stories than to thinker an idea to shape?

So how to begin?

Think shoebox. Think wire. Buttons. Tags. Cork. Think ric rac and ribbon. Paint Glue. Hooks and chain. Clothespins and pompoms.

Think junk drawer and you are moving in the right direction for a tinker project.

So the next time your child reads a book, when it’s time for Section 5, download a planning sheet and think tinker time!

 

-Kim

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Journal BIG Ideas Inspired by Books

Taking notes is a foundational skill that will accompany your student through their entire educational journey and beyond. Even though there is no right way of taking notes, it is important to learn how to extract relevant and pertinent information from a text in a neatly organized, concise manner. This takes practice. As students are encouraged to practice over time the art of capturing the most important details from their reading, they will begin to recognize how the intricacies of a story fit into a larger picture. This is precisely how a Habit of Being is established.

When readers take note of character development, trace a setting, and watch a plot thicken, they are learning more than just the skill of recording facts, they are actually beginning to realize the potential of storytelling. Teaching students to dig into a story, to do the work of reading for meaning, enables them to discover how language has the power to communicate significance. Learning to take notes helps to lay the foundation for rich, clear, and organized writing.

Some might argue, when faced with a classroom of 30 students, or even when faced with one student sitting at a kitchen table stubbornly refusing to write, that teaching from a textbook that tells the student what to learn is an easier method than pulling teeth trying to nurture the independent skill of note taking. We would argue that learning to extract information from a story trains students to do the hard work of, not only attending to the details of reading, but more importantly to develop the skill of integrating knowledge into life outside of the book.

As students discover the details and framework that make a story great, they will apply this new-found knowledge to broader academic pursuits in all subject areas.

~Kimberly

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How to Read a Great Character and Become One

Characters do things. They feel things. They hear things.
They say things. They think things. They go places. They can walk, run, leap,
and jump. They may sit and rock in a rocking chair. They may just lie in bed,
sleep, and dream. But the important thing is that characters act. And it is
precisely these actions that show us just what kind of imaginary people characters
are—friendly, sad, nosey, happy, confused, angry, or inventive. And we need to
know because something always happens in great stories. Character determines
the outcome.

Earlier this month, my son Søren sat on the couch chuckling
to himself, turning the pages of an old favorite. It’s Lewis Carroll
re-imagined. Christopher Myers keeps the text the same but re-imagines the
beast as a basketball-playing-Jabberwocky. And the protagonist? Well, he
becomes a small boy with basketball-shaped-stars in his eyes.

What fascinated me about the scene was what happened when
the book was closed. My son smiled, got off the couch to rummage around the art
cabinet for paper, scissors, and tape. Silently he concentrated, cutting shapes
and connecting them until the characters emerged. Then he swept up the scraps,
set his characters to hold the gesture, and walked away from the table without
a word.

I know what he was up to. This was literary analysis at its
best. Carroll’s Jabberwocky is a larger than life, but there is no doubt that the
storm of neologism and nonsense qualifies it as a very difficult read. To most,
Søren’s hive of post reading activity might be deemed at best a responsive
craft. But Søren was actually deep in thought. This post-reading activity was
uniquely contemplative, was Søren’s way of unpacking Lewis Carroll’s poem and
the consequent reimagining of Christopher Myer.

And I know where Søren’s pondering will lead. It will lead
to an idea. Sometimes we begin with a study of someone else’s idea to incubate
an original idea of our own. So it might not be this week, maybe not even next,
but I’m sure Lewis Carroll and Christopher Meyer offered fodder that has been
sufficiently tucked away in the mind of my son.

~Kimberly

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Read to Write » Write to Read

Reading and writing should be first and foremost a fun endeavor.

That’s right, fun.

But fun—the true kind—is not a byproduct of easy.

Fun is hard work.

Developing reading fluency takes years.
Developing writing proficiency takes years.
One can’t really be accomplished separate from the other.

Still, more often than not, we isolate the task of teaching the child to read from the task of teaching the child to write. Worse yet, we subdivide these tasks into smaller tasks—phonics, comprehension, grammar, capitalization, punctuation, syntax—until the disconnection is a grim mountain to climb.

The joy of learning to read a great story should not be overshadowed by the work of learning to glean its riches.

The joy of writing should not be overshadowed by the work of learning the mechanical process of setting words to the page.
Words on the page have the power to inspire, to inform, to exhort, to clarify, to persuade, but ultimately words on the page are a gift. When words on the page offer an expression worth expressing, the voice is authentic and the reader is engaged. Robert Frost himself reminds us, “No tears in the writer no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” Words on the page are worthy on the giving and receiving end.

Blackbird & Company titles represent a selection of authentic classic and contemporary literature that are near and dear to our hearts. We’ve painstakingly created our literature discovery guides with an integrated approach to reading and writing in mind. Our goal is simply to help students engage in the work of loving to read and write.

~Kimberly

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CORE ELA Integrated Literature + Writing

Blackbird & Company Literature and Writing Discovery guides are an integrated approach to mastering English Language Arts skills. Each guide is a reading and writing journey. Our titles span a wide range of genres and represent what we believe is the best of classic and contemporary literature on the market today.

These units will do just as the title suggests, guide your students through a close reading of a story, supporting them as they journal their thoughts and ideas. The reading of a single book is divided into four sections to help pace the reader. Each week, as students explore one section of a great story, they will not only discover the components that writers use to tell great stories, but will practice crafting words to bring shape to their own original idea sparked from the weekly reading.

We understand that it is easy for the study of a piece of literature to overshadow the story itself. With this in mind, our goal is to lead the reader through each piece of literature in a way that plumbs its depths while keeping its intrinsic value intact. We further understand that reading has the profound potential to pique the reader’s curiosity and to spark a new idea in the mind’s eye. For this reason we provide weekly occasion for the student to bring shape to a new idea through a directed writing activity. The ultimate goal is to create a routine, but not just any routine, a purposeful routine.

We believe that the right kind of practice over time develops a habit of being regardless of the subject being tackled. When it comes to ELA, habits, once established, will not only create an appetite for great stories but also the tenacity to pin down great original ideas.

Level 1 guides are recommended for a wide range of lower elementary students (grade 3) who have acquired the foundational skills necessary to independently read and respond to a simple piece of literature. Because there is a vast age range at this level, books have sophisticated content at an emergent reading level. Each guide is designed to be completed in five weeks, which allows students to work through four to six units in a typical school year.

Level 2 guides are recommended for middle elementary students (grades 3-5) who are in the process of acquiring the proficiency necessary to confidently read and to respond to a complex piece of literature. Because there is still a range of reading competency at this level, Level 2 books have sophisticated content at an advanced emergent reading level. Each guide is designed to be completed in five weeks, which allows students to work through four to six units in a typical school year.

Level 3 guides are recommended for confident upper elementary and entry-level middle school students (grades 5-8) who have acquired the proficient skills necessary to read and to respond to a complex piece of literature. Each guide is designed to be completed in five weeks, which allows students to work through four to six units in a typical school year.

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It was a dark and stormy night…

A Wrinkle in Time

And so begins Madeleine L’Engle’s most memorable classic tale, A Wrinkle In Time. A story about the life-changing journey of three children, their epic battle against darkness and the cosmic power of love.

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of Wrinkle. Interestingly, we might have never heard of Meg Murray or Charles Wallace as L’Engle’s manuscript was initially rejected by 26 publishers before editors at Farrar, Straus & Giroux read it and enthusiastically accepted it. It went on to win the John Newbery Medal as the best children’s book of 1963 and has so far sold eight million copies. It is now in its 69th printing. Now that’s a lesson in perseverance!

As the author of over sixty books, Madeleine L’Engle’s rich legacy includes poetry, plays, writings on faith and four additional stories about the Murray’s adventures. “Why does anybody tell a story?” she once asked, even though she knew the answer. “It does indeed have something to do with faith,” she said, “faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”

The thing about fantasy literature is that it has the ability to inspire our imaginations and our souls to believe in that which seems impossible. We all want to know that there is a bigger purpose to our lives. We want to see that those who are “regular” can overcome their ordinariness and achieve greatness, make a difference—even save the universe!

To explore more, visit: www.madeleinelengle.com

In addition to A Wrinkle In Time, the following fantasy guides are available from Blackbird & Company:
Level 1 – The Iron Giant & My Father’s Dragon
Level 2 – City of Ember, Half Magic, The Magician’s Nephew, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
Level 3 – The White Mountains & The Thief Lord