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August 15 NCTE's LANGUAGE ARTS: The Journal of the Elementary Section of the Natl. Council of Teachers of English
Even though the title says "Elementary", this journal easily applies all the way up to middle school.
Here's a random selection of issues. Articles from LANGUAGE ARTS are available for viewing at the www.ncte.org , but you have to be a member to access the full article.
Some buzz words do tend to pop up more than others. "Literacy" is a popular guest at the buzz word tea party. "Inquiry" is a favorite guest as well. The Multis crash the party now and then: multimodal, multilingual, multicultural, multimedia. There's even poetry written by teachers! Sweet! (A word I'd like to see more often is "innovation".) Most of the articles follow a pattern of rhetoric that could use a bit of tightening up. Some of the writing is a bit long-winded, but the page design makes up for it. The page is a 3-column format with page numbers about 2 inches down the margin for easy reference. There's charts, drop quotes, italicized bits, bold-faced section titles, works cited and works referenced, as well as photos and indexes. I don't care for the advertising, but I guess they have to pay the bills. Ads are mostly for books and professional development opportunities. One of the best reasons to get this journal is that it has book reviews of children's/YA books and professional development books. So if you don't have time to read every single children's book that comes out, this journal covers, easily, a half dozen books at a time. You could read HORNBOOK, which is a magnificent publication in its scope, but with LANGUAGE ARTS, you get a lot of book reviews PLUS research, pedagogy, political issues, cultural issues... in a nutshell -- the inquiry and the insight. For members, the online issue has nice extras like blogs, book bargains, online seminars (These are fantastic! Try one!) The beginning of the magazine details future issues AND gives you the lowdown on how to submit articles. NCTE/LA is not just for reading other people's work, it's for you who aspire to get your work published!
OCTOBER 20, 2009
ONCE AND FUTURE CLASSICS: Reading between The Lines
August 13 THE THINKING FAN'S GUIDE TO THE WORLD CUP (2006) Matt Weiland & Sean Wilsey, eds.
IN my continuing series on soccer books that I am blogging to celebrate the countdown to South Africa 2010, I'm thrilled to present this compendium of the genre's sincerely passionate advocates of "the beautiful game". I first heard about this book on World Soccer Daily -- a podcast hosted by Steven Cohen and Kenny Hassan. They recommended it, and since I trust their judgement, there I go -- type, type, typing -- to impulsebuyer.com! I really liked the writing right away. This is how I want my students to write someday: passionately, thoughtfully, reflectively, analytically. It doesn't matter what the topic is. Love your topic and your readers will love your topic! There's a lot of buildup to the actual heart of the book. First of all, the book is a compilation of professional writers writing about a particular country, ostensibly one they are intimate with for whatever reason. If you follow this blog, you know that I'm not a fan of prefaces and introductions. They tend to be a bit windy, word-wise. But I genuinely enjoyed Matt Weiland's (not that Weiland; that's Scott.) Preface for a few earthy reasons. Firstly, he starts with a quote by Martin Amis, one of my fav writers. I love when a writer I like quotes another writer I like because they too like that writer. I was so captivated by MW's definition of "abroad" because I found myself living that definition when I came back from England the first time. It was so obnoxious! You would think I was the only person who had ever been there. So...yeah. Amis and the whole "abroad" thing. Then, as he went on to describe his indoctrination into the cult of soccer, again, it was like reading about myself -- where emotions were concerned. I didn't have an uncle to take me to a soccer shop and get me a kit. I had to do that myself. After France 98, I bought a Michael Owen Liverpool home game jersey. After Arsenal's undefeated season, I bought their blue away shirt. After Germany 06, I bought a Miroslav Klose national team jersey because he scored 5 goals -- the highest scorer of the tournament. Some of the funny bits were the anecdotes about writers they couldn't get! Here's an excerpt from the part about who got in and who didn't: We asked some of the writers, like (Eduardo) Galeano, to write about their own country. Others we assigned to countries based on an experience there, and some we sent to a country of their choosing. For a month, we made lists and contacted writers, and by the last stage of qualification, we had assigned each nation that looked likely to qualify. Then we sat back to watch and wait. What an awesome job these guys made for themselves! When all was said and done, Roddy Doyle was too depressed over Ireland's flame-out and didn't want to write about football. Rattawut Lapcharoensap didn't get in because Thailand didn't get in to Germany. Nick Hornby wrote about England. OF COURSE!!! Dave Eggers wrote about the US. Cheeky! (Eggers and Hornby both used to write for McSweeneys, btw.) Some of the authors from the book: (the ones I'm familiar with, anyhoo): Sean Wilsey wrote a wonderfully witty and clued-up Introduction. Again -- it's a bit long as introductions go and should have been titled something else, but it's a good read. He has a handle on the insider expressions such as Gli Azzurri (Italy; the sky blues), Les Bleus ("the blues"; the French national team), catenaccio (Italian for "make 1 goal then defend for the rest of the game yawnfest") and an adrenalized uppercase reproduction of GOOOOOOOO...well, you get the idea. I love Sean's description of rambling, rickety Roger Milla, the star of Cameroon in Italia '90. You will probably go straight to the countries you like, but take some time to read about the Ghanas, the Trinidad/Tobagos, the Angolas -- the obscure countries that won't make it out of the group stages but who provide the most gripping, exciting, heartbreaking underdog action you will ever see. Remember Croatia in France '98? South Korea in Korea/Japan 02? Cote d'Ivoire in Germany 06? Whew! Wait -- there's more! This book is great for "anoraking" (an "anorak" is someone who is fixated on stats). An anorak's almanac, if you will. Forgive me, Nick Hornby for that awkward almost-alliteration. Every article comes with demographics and FIFA stats. At the end of the book, there's a section called "The World Cup in Numbers" which serves up juicy dets like "Most Goals in A World Cup", "Most Appearances", and "Penalty Shootouts". After that there's a section called "The 32 Nations in Numbers" and Holee Abacus, Batman! does it ever dish dets on the price of living in each country: Median Age, Birth Rate, Annual GDP, Unemployment Rate, Exports, Tourism, Internet Users...Damn! Such an amalgamation of information on the state of the nation is not just there for filler. When you read about the haves and have-nots of soccer countries, you start to understand what's at stake for them if they succeed or if they don't. Wars have started and stopped because of soccer. If your a 10 year-old boy in Sierra Leone or Somalia or the Congo, would you rather be a half-starved soldier or a soccer player with a salary and a pair of shoes? That is a real career choice in those countries. I love how the demographics come from the CIA World Factbook. Not an atlas. Not Encyclopedia Britannica. Not the internet. The Freaking CIA World Factbook! This book is soaking in a brine of testosterone. It even has a good blurb at the back -- and you know how I am about blurbs. ________________________________________________________________________________ Other posts in this series: Irons in The Fire, Love & Blood FOX FOOTBALL FONE-IN [companion to World Soccer Daily podcast available on iTunes or live on Sirius Ch. 125(?)] Publisher: www.harperperennial.com http://www.harpercollins.com/members/authortracker/default.aspx The British site for this book (The link to the American publishers site didn't work for me. Maybe it's out of date or sumfin or nuffin...)
August 12 MY BOOK HOUSE Vol. 3: UP ONE PAIR OF STAIRS
The idea that you might need to compete for attention. That urge to walk alone without holding on to anyone's hand. Leaving the stroller behind. But most important of all -- learning the difference between fantasy and reality. That's the premise of this third volume of My Book House. Like the other two volumes, this has stories from all over the world: the Phillipines, Australia, Germany, Scandinavia, the Bible. As per usual, most of the stories come from European sources, but that's okay. It's the foundation of western literature, innit. This volume is particularly fun because so many of the stories have colorful language that begs to be read aloud with funny One of my favs is "Wee, wee mannie and the big, big coo". I can just picture Mike Myers -- in the movie I Married An Axe Murderer. The character of the father: "Oi, heed! Paper! Nooow!" Cracks me up every time! There's lovely illustrations by Kate Greenaway, poems by Emily Dickinson and Amy Lowell, a couple of Grimm fairy tales, even a bit of Chaucer and Wordsworth. It's shamelessly anglo-centric, but then again, that just happens to be the main source of material because of the generation in which this book set was originally produced. It's not a reason to turn your back on it or, as I've often seen, become a reverse snob and turn you nose up because it's not multi-cultural enough. It doesn't have to be. Besides, this is only one volume of twelve. Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and Polynesia all pop up eventually, just not in a way that would satisfy a radical multi-culturalist. A lot of the stories have to do with family life and living a pastoral existence -- which would make Neil from YOUNG ONES especially happy. The best author name EVER: BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON. I don't know how to do it here, but there should be umlauts on the first Os of the name. Major freaking cool! I feel like the Swedish chef from The Muppets when I try to pronounce it: byern-styern byern-sen. LOL!!! Are you dying? I'm dying! When I read this as a young'un, I remember being fascinated by the lawn growing on the roof of the shack. Everything in my world was so stultifyingly ordinary, this struck me as so fantastical! The book succeeded in introducing me to
RELATED BOOKS:
I bought my book set on eBay. Volume 1: IN THE NURSERY Volume 2: STORY TIME
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This is a good journal for exploring research in language and literacy. Every month has a theme that is developed through research, lesson cycles, book reviews, samples of student work, and professional development opportunities. It's $25.00 per year plus the price of the membership.
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