When I prepare to teach a class, I always like to create a document, which is labeled, Semester-At-A-Glance. Hopefully, this lets the students see where we are going and what we plan to do. As I am working on my next book, Power Up Literacy through Storytelling in Libraries, I decided to create something similar: Book-At-A-Glance. I have been told that I should be able to tell anyone about my next book in one sentence. Ok, the purpose of this book is to link libraries and literacies through the power of storytelling. This book is written for librarians, teachers, and families who love literacy.

However, I have been working on this book for about 8 months now, and I want to share more than just a sentence, or even a paragraph. I am writing this as I want my friends, family, and colleagues to know what I am working on, as if you are not in the house watching me every day, it might look like I’m not doing anything. Such is a life of a writer. It takes a long time to birth a book.

How Was This Book Birthed?

About a year ago, I unexpectedly received an email from a colleague, whom I had met several years ago; she is now an editor for a publishing house, Libraries Unlimited. She said:

“I was just reading your blog post, which reminded me so much of my first teaching experience in rural Kansas with the farm kids who were in the eighth grade and still couldn’t read and didn’t want to read the basal. Suddenly, the thought hit me that you might be interested in writing something about the power of reading and writing–both very important in school libraries.”

“Yes,” I responded, and thus the book was born. Much of what I know about teaching and learning, I learned from The Benson Kids in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  When I think of these students, I am reminded of Paulo Freire’s comment: “Education is radically about love” (Wink, 2011, p. 2). The blog post, which caught her eye can be seen at,

The Benson Kids

Now, I am at the point in the manuscript, where I can promise readers that this book is not filled with data in the form of pie-charts, graphs, nor vertical or horizontal line charts–and not a single scatter plot to be found anywhere. Rather the truth of the research will be grounded in authentic stories, which reflect, not only the interpretation of these data, but also the transformative nature of teachers, librarians, literacies, and libraries.

My career has been highly influenced by many, but no one more so that Steve Krashen. This text is not a re-telling of his The Power of Reading; however, it is Krashen’s research filtered through my eyes and re-told with stories. This text is not a re-telling of Kendall Haven’s Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story and Story Smart: Using the Science of Story to Persuade, Influence, Inspire, and Teach. Rather, I am a teacher, who values the use of storytelling to make abstract constructs accessible for all.

My Perspective

Let me remove all mystery and share my perspectives, which will flow throughout the chapters. First, librarians are teachers, too–the entire school or the public library is their classroom. Therefore, throughout much of this book, I will use these three words interchangeably: teacher, school librarian, and librarian.

A second perspective relates to languages, literacies, and language acquisition, which have been central in my career. I started as a terrified and overwhelmed Spanish teacher with five different preparations daily (1966), but somewhere along the road, I morphed (1970s) into a “nice Spanish teacher.” Eventually, I started to notice that it wasn’t just about some neutral use of words, which I was fascinated by, and I began to notice that language had power, and I found myself at home in the world of bilingual education, ESL, and dual language immersion programs (1980s). I came to recognize that language was not only culturally grounded, but it was also historically, socially, and politically grounded (1990s), and I began to thrive in critical pedagogy. It was about this time, that I noticed people no longer referred to me as a “nice Spanish teacher.”

Later in my career (2000s), a teacher stopped me in my tracks and said, “Joan, you know what you are? You are a storyteller.” I was shocked, but since that time I have focused on honing my skills with storytelling, and I consistently find that, not only do stories break down barriers among people, they also help people access meaning, which is reflected in stories. Literacy is all about making meaning.

All of these experiences have influenced by perspectives.

The-Book-At-A-Glance

Chapter One will focus on literacy, and readers will have the opportunity to create their own Spiral of Literacy at the end of the chapter.

Chapter Two will highlight storytelling in libraries, and the chapter concludes with activities using the Language Experience Approach and the Reflective Cycle.

Chapter Three will deviate a bit from the regular literacy path and brings to life the use of children’s storytelling with animals. The use of Writers’ Workshop concludes the chapter.

Chapter Four will use stories to rethink standards: Why on earth do we think we need to standardize kids? Pokémon, Captain Underpants, and Harry Potter will all make an appearance, and more Writers’ Workshop activities will close the chapter.

Chapter Five will use the stories of immigrants to bring their world into a clearer vision. Bring your imagination to this chapter. TPRS (Teaching Proficiency in Reading through Storytelling) is presented at the end of the chapter.

Chapter Six takes us into the cloud for digital literacy and ends with ZooBurst, storytelling digitally.

Chapter Seven takes on the future with Patience and Fortitude, the two concrete lions, which grace the entrance of the New York City library and tells a story about how money can be used to undermine the value of literacies and libraries.

Thanks for reading. Now, back to work.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Let me introduce you to Baby Monet, 5 months old.

Obviously, in the following photo, she is reading. Note her “pointing finger.”

In the following photo, you can see that Baby Monet really eats up her reading time.

Please note the words “secret garden” on this page.  Remember?

Books beget Books.

Thank you to Baby Monet’s mommie (a grad student in one of my classes) for spontaneously sharing with us.  She knew we would love these photos.

December 16, 2015

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

If you follow this blog, you are aware that I love going to Atall School (a one-room country school) to read to the 13 students.

In WinkWorld News, you  will find a previous Atall School posts. Click here to read WW News.

Recently, I’ve been excited about Tomie dePaola’s new edition of his classic, Strega Nona, and I learned that the Atall students did not know the stories. Here is his new book.

Of course, I immediately began to plot and plan to read all of the stories to them in the spring.  On the day I was to read the first story, I was not able to get to the school, which is about 50 miles from the ranch where I live.

What to do?  Of course, videotape the story and send to the kids, which I did. Below here are the kids watching and listening to the first Strega Nona.  

While it is clear to me that I have much to learn about video-taping a story for the kids, they were very forgiving of my lack of experience with this process.   They were simply captured by the magic of Strega Nona, as I am.

Incidentally, after the video-taping, I learned that I needed permission of the publisher to do that. Sorry, Scholastic and Tomie dePaola. It has been deleted.

Click right here to hear Tomie  DePaola read his story.

The students drew some pictures. Here is that famous pasta pot boiling the past everywhere.

Here is a picture of his Christmas book, which I gave to the students.

They surprised me with glorious homemade Christmas cards.

I even received a coupon for hugs.

Finally, here is the teacher, opening a gift.  Oh, how I love visiting this school.  There is a bit of magic in these stories and also in this school.

If you are on FaceBook, Tomie dePaola’s pages are some of the best. He generously shares his art often for all of us to enjoy.

Janet Towell: You are the one who introduced me to Strega Nona.  Every time I read these stories, I think of you.  Happy memories of CSU Stanislaus.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

You may remember a couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog about 2 boys from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who entered school in WY for the first time. Their earlier childhood years had been chaotic and tragic.  You had lots of comments and questions, and I wanted to give you an update on their progress.

See previous blog: Two New Students from the Congo, 10.23.2015

In what follows, Kim Dike a teacher who works with the boys, provides a glimpse of their first 2 weeks in their new school.

Kim is a first-year teacher in Gillette, WY, and prior to this, she was an ESL paraprofessional for 4 years.  She is the k-6 ESL teacher at an elementary school.  In this role, she supports 115 students, who speak 6 different languages.  She works collaboratively with 21 classroom teachers. Her primary professional responsibility is to support the needs of students who are in the process of acquiring English.  Kim is also in the Black Hills State University (BHSU) English as a New Language (ENL) endorsement program.

Kim used an image of the reflective cycle to tell her story of David and Steve, not their real names.

Thank you, Kim, for sharing with us.

Meet David during his first 2 weeks in his new school.

David Reflective Cycle

Meet Steve during his first 2 weeks in his new school.

Steve Reflective Cycle

Grab a reflective cycle here for your own purposes.

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

As some of you know, Deb Harrison of Moorcroft WY teaches English to high school juniors and seniors. In addition, she is working on her English as  New Language (ENL) endorsement and her second masters’ degree.  In my class this semester, she has focused on the work of Steve Krashen, and I have previously shared some of her work.

In the following 6-minute video, she summarizes some of Steve’s more recent work with literacy and language acquisition.

We hope you enjoy.  Thanks, Deb.

And, for those of you who have asked about the two boys from the Congo, who recently started school in WY, we will soon have an update.

Harrison, D. (2015, Oct 8). Stephen Krashen Compilation Video. Retrieved from Youtube.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vUFzb6v3n4

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Recently, Deb Harrison, a high school English teacher in WY and a graduate student in my class at Black Hills State University, turned in a rough draft of a story about the power of “The Power of Reading” by Steve Krashen.  The same day on Facebook, we noticed that a teacher in Huntsville TX had written about this book and posted on Steve’s page.

Read the TX short article on “The Power of Reading” right here.

Deb followed up with a part of her story which follows.  We hope you enjoy.

The Power of Reading is the home run book in my professional world, and The Box Car Children was my home run reading book of my youth.

I have always been a voracious reader. I can remember being in second grade and going to the school library in our small town in North Dakota, to check out The Box Car Children books by Gertrude Chandler Warner. How I loved reading those books.

Even though, I have loved reading my entire life, and I love teaching English to Juniors and Seniors in high school in WY, and I already had one masters degree, the truth is that I struggled when I entered the English as a New Language (ENL) Black Hills State University, SD as part of the reading masters.

During the first semester, I seriously considered dropping out from the program. I just did not understand, and I had no idea what I was going to do for a final project. I felt overwhelmed.

“Try this,” Joan Wink, the professor said to me, as she handed me her copy of The Power of Reading (2004) by Stephen Krashen, and then she left me alone. As I read, I began to understand how important reading was to the success of language learners as well as students in any setting. I began to make sense of how reading affects language learning; I began to understand how getting kids reading could help them acquire language!

To me, the term home run reading is a book that made us fall in love with reading. I now have two: The Box Car Children and The Power of Reading. I think about its message and its impact on learning daily. I talk about the impact of reading to students and co-workers alike. More and more, where I teach, we are not talking about assigned reading; rather, we are talking about Krashen’s description of Free Voluntary Reading: No tests, no book reports, no evaluations, just reading for the love of reading.

The Power of Reading changed my life. I am working independently on a major project on Steve Krashen, which will soon by shared on www.WinkWorld.com, a blog written by my professor.

 Deb Harrison:  We thank you!

October 30, 2015

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

You may remember that recently, I asked the question: Why stories? I used the story of Violet, age 5, who was having a terrible time with her numbers to 100, until she could place them in a story.

Click here to read the story of Violet.

As I wrote about Violet’s struggles with numbers, I was reminded of my statistic class when I worked on my Ph. D. Our prof, who was close to retirement age, was a legend at TX A&M. He was the consummate gentleman, who wore a white shirt and bow tie to every class. One of my colleagues, who did her Ph. D. in math education, knew him well and told me to keep a very close eye on him all semester, as it would be worth every minute. So, I did. I sat front and center of the class. My most lasting memory is all of the 35 to 40-year-olds, who had never been away from an annual math class or two their entire lives. Some even fell asleep in the back row; they always seemed bored and blasé. I was afraid to blink for fear that I would miss something, as there had been very little math in my years of teaching Spanish and raising a family, and certainly, there had been no statistics.

In those days, we didn’t have devices in class; calculators existed, but we were not allowed to use them. Each problem had to be completely worked on yellow legal pad–reams and reams of legal pad. The prof checked each step of the calculation for each student. If an error was found, he showed it to us, and we had to do it again.

On an old-fashioned chalkboard, he meticulously worked out each problem for us. Chalk flew in all directions. I often wondered about how much chalk he actually used in a semester. Stat was a mystery for me; however, I apparently got so I could do the problems, as I know that I got good grades. One problem: I never, ever knew what I was doing. Not a clue.

I now understand that I simply needed to put all of that stat into a story to understand, like 5-year-old Violet had done. But, I digress: Remember, I was front and center of the class, watching like a hawk to see what he would do, as my friend had promised.

Sure enough, one day when the rest of the class seemed particularly bored or sleepy, and I was ever-vigilant. The prof was madly writing numbers on the chalkboard. In an instant, he passed his hand with a brand-new large piece of chalk in front of his face and magically popped the new piece of chalk into his mouth. He chewed the whole thing without ever acknowledging that anything might be unusual about that. He just continued to explain the specific problem. I looked around on both sides and behind me, as I wanted to enjoy this moment with someone. Not another soul noticed. I was in awe of the prof, and I think I noted a slight twinkle in his eye.

Finally, I had my story, and from that moment on, I knew that if I were ever going to make stat meaningful for teachers, I would have to find a story in the numbers and charts. When I went on to teach at the university, I loved research and still do, but it is always about making it meaningful with a story.

Now, back to Violet, whose mother, Ruthie, is now struggling with regression in her statistics class for her Ph. D. Turns out, that it is not just Violet and I, who need a story to understand.

Ruthie writes:

I am convinced that narratives are the most important and underutilized pedagogical tool in our arsenal. Not only did I recently experience this power of the narrative with Violet, but also in my own attempt to understand regression in my statistics class–albeit, at very different ends of the educational spectrum.

Last semester, I was taking a course in quantitative methods. The professor divided the course into three units. The final unit of the course was comprehensive test on the content of an entire graduate-level statistics text. He didn’t have us buy and read the text for his class, but I happen to stumble upon the text that he had used to write his lectures, as I was trying to learn the information on my own. All of the examples, topics, and course materials were taken directly from the text that I found.

Anyway, when listening to the lectures and doing the work in class, I was so lost that whenever he would ask if we understood, I would say “yes” because I wanted him to stop talking. Everything that he said confused and frustrated me even more. Even after doing the course readings and looking for additional information, I was still lost. I did not understand how to read the tables. I could never remember which pieces of information were necessary and which were superfluous. Moreover, I couldn’t accurately and confidently construct a meaningful whole out of the different tables and statistical information I was given.

Two days before the final exam, I was in a panic. I found another Ph. D. student, who is very strong in statistics. Her background is in finance. I explained my problem and how every time I looked at my notes and tried to study, I just wanted to cry.

“You have to look for the story,” she said to me, as I quickly printed out a sample regression table. She showed me the story on the chart. She showed me which aspect of the chart to look at to find the beginning of the story; what questions to ask to find the next elements of the story; where to find the answers: and how to interpret the data given.

After that short session, I knew how to interpret a regression. I understood what kind of data I needed to run a regression, and I was able to explain any regression analysis that my Google search could find.

Moreover, I was able to apply the principle of looking for the story in the data to other types of statistical analysis. I got a 99 on my final exam.  The missing piece was learning how to construct the narrative from the data tables.

“But, did she eat the chalk?” I wanted to ask.

Dear WinkWorld Readers, I need  your help.

Last night I received a question from a teacher in Wyoming, who had just learned that she will have 2 new students from the Congo; the boys have only been in the US about a week.  I do not know the grade, nor the age of the students…yet.  I suspect that we may learn that she teaches 4th, 5th, or 6th.  She has access to some ESL materials, but basically there are very few students who speak other languages in the school.

Where in the world is the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

Where in the world is the Republic of the Congo?

What are the languages used in the Republic and the Democratic Republic?

French and about 200 others. Apparently, the 2 boys speak one of the other languages.

Her question: What materials can I buy to help the students learn English?

Here is what I told her:

Today is Friday.  Study the Congo with the class.  Learn the languages spoken in that country.  Talk about refugees and immigrants with the class today.  Draw a big map as a welcome to the boys when they come on Monday.  How does one get from the Congo to Wyoming? Find out the names of the boys and practice the names with the class today.  Plan a class welcome: music? art? games?

Apparently, the boys have not had much schooling. In addition, it is doubtful that anyone in the community will speak their language.  I am not sure if the school has an ESL support teacher.  However, I do know the community, and the teachers tend to love working there, and the district tends to always try to do its very best. It is a great community.

Monday: When the boys arrive, have desks ready for them; close to each other; close to the teacher; and surrounded by caring kids.  Create a one-on-one buddy system; this could be rotated weekly, so that the boys soon know all of the kids in class.

On their desks daily, be sure to have:

a) a colorful book with lots of pictures–change this book daily.  By the end of the week, the boys should know where the classroom library is and when/how to choose their own book.

b) one blank sheet of paper for doodling–at the end of the day, the teacher dates the paper and sticks it in a file.  Soon, some type of information about the boys will emerge.

c) a blank writing journal

d) 6-10 blank index cards daily, where the boys can capture new words while the class is learning them.  When the boys are able, copy these words into their journals. A student can model/demonstrate how to do this.

e) a couple of pencils; a couple of pens; colored pencils

f) Responsibility of the student buddy: Help with lunch lines; be with the 2 boys during lunch; bathroom privileges; lining up for bus; being a friend on the playground, etc.

I know the teacher well enough to know that she is the best thing in the world for these boys. Our task, WinkWorld Readers, is to simply support the teacher this week.  I am confident that the district will soon be providing support for her and the boys.

We look forward to your responses. Thank you.

Dear WinkWorld Readership,

Yesterday I drove to a local school, Atall, about 50 miles away to read a story, and I was stopped in my tracks by these critters.

See Atall School here.

I waited until the cattle got by me, and soon I arrived where Missy, the teacher, has 13 students in 7 grades. In this age of Common Core, teaching the mandated curriculum for 7 different grades seems overwhelming to me. She describes it as “triage.”

I read Sweet Pea & Friends: The SheepOver. All of the kids particularly liked the play-on-words of “sheepover,” and I was even able to slip in the use of double entendre.

Next Missy read The Keeping Quilt, while all of the kids sat on the quilt from Missy’s great-grandmother.

If you look carefully, you can see the quilt where the kids are seated.

Hear Patricia Polacco reading the story on YouTube.

See the quilt and hear the author/illustrator.

After hearing the story, we talked about quilts in our families.

See Everett and Bailey, the great, great-grandsons of the woman who made the quilt for Missy.

The kids remembered The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak, which I had read to them last year. Of course, they wanted to hear that one again.

Here is the author, B.J. Novak, as he reads his story.

Before I left, Missy and the kids gave me a book, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds, and they showed me their dots, which they have created.  My assignment is to make my own dot.  Gotta get to work on that one.

See The Dot here.

Hear the story here on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5mGeR4AQdM

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

In what follow, I will focus on 4 questions: What are stories?, What are your favorite stories?, Why do we use stories in class?, and How do we develop storytellers?

If you would like to use these questions for your own purposes, the Four Corners activity works quite well.

See Four Corners Activity right here.

First, What Are Stories?

Stories are narratives, which help us make sense of our world. Compelling stories are the ones we remember, as they entertain, educate, inspire, and stretch us. Stories also glue us together with one group while simultaneously breaking down our pre-conceived barriers with new groups. Stories act like a mirror and reflect our lives, our experiences, and our thinking. They capture our history, and they paint a picture of our future.

Show Me, Don’t Tell Me.

In schools, we often remind ourselves: Don’t tell me, just show me. We, teachers, like to model new learning. Then why in the world did I write a paragraph defining the word, story? Wouldn’t it be better, if I simply told you a story. . . about a story?

Stories help us make connections; they power up our learning, imagination, and literacy. Even our financial literacy, as in the case of 5-year-old Violet. Like her, I often can get lost in facts, but if you can tell me a story about those facts, I will learn it and often remember it.

The Story of Violet

Violet, simply could not understand numbers from 1 to 100 until she connected the numbers with a story.

Violet is in kindergarten and comes from a very enriched family with food, books, laughter, languages, and love. We can safely guess that she will do well in school. All of this was true until she met the number 100 and a bunch of 10s. Violet could not count to 100 by 1’s, nor by 10’s. It was just incomprehensible for her in her own stage of development in spite of base ten blocks, a super teacher, and a very supportive family.

Her mom and dad, Ruthie and Rusty, started to count authentic items in Violet’s life: They collected and counted shells from the beach; they grouped and counted toys at home; they played jump rope and counted; they counted cars when they drove; they picked up stones and counted them. Still, from December until May of kindergarten, those numbers simply made no sense to Violet.

Frustrated, Violet’s mom, went to the school librarian, who gave her

a book “Let’s Count to 100” by Masayuki Sebe.

See the book here.

When the book arrived, Violet and her mom sat down and previewed the pages of the new book.

“Which is your favorite page, Violet?” her mom asked.

“I hate this book and never want to see it again,” Violet responded, as she held back tears.   Wisely, her mom set the book on the coffee table and moved on to other stories, which Violet wanted to hear.

However, Violet’s little sister, Zoe, found the book and started looking at the pictures and telling stories about the animals in the book. After a few days, Violet’s curiosity was peaked, and she started looking at the book, also.

Violet Finds A Compelling Story in the Book about Numbers

Suddenly, Violet found a page with a family of piranha fish, who were busily planning an attack on an elephant’s truck. Violet was compelled to know more about the piranhas and the elephant. The story grabbed Violet’s imagination; it powered-up her learning and her literacy.

“Read to me, Mom, about this elephant with the hurt trunk,” she excitedly told her mom. Violet’s active engagement with the story (and, thus numbers) shot through the roof as she began to talk about the other elephants in the story.   Her mom continued to read and to listen.

“Look at all of the elephants–let’s count them, Mom,” she squealed. “Oh, and look at those piranha, let’s count them, too.” Violet and her mom counted aloud by ones, and then her mom showed Violet how she could count super fast by tens, grouping the piranha into their different families.

“I can do that,” Violet said. And she did. That night, she showed her dad how she could count by ones and by tens.

The story of the piranhas and elephants grabbed her interest, and instead of simply trying to memorize abstract groups of numbers, she was grouping the animals of her story.

Now, Ruthie and Rusty are reading the story about piranhas and elephants over and over again, and Violet is counting to 100 by 1’s and by 10’s. Violet has moved on to other stories about other animals, not just piranhas and elephants.

Violet now understands and can manipulate those numbers because of a story.

“The narrative grabbed her interest; it was a compelling story for her. It boosted her confidence, and it provided a conceptual framework in which she could place the details of the different number families. Instead of trying to memorize the words ten, twenty, thirty, etc., in order, she could think about different fish families and their different functions.  The number words just came naturally because they just fit into the narrative,” Ruthie told me. “She now brings the book to me over and over again. That repetition which is so important for young learners is fueled by her desire and interest.

We went to the library and found another book in the series “100 Hungry Monkeys.” This one has a larger narrative in which each page of 100 builds on the story. Knowing the power of narratives and her increased self-confidence with and interest in counting, I am confident that she’ll do it well.

See 100 Hungry Monkeys here.

And, that is what a story is.

Second, What Are Your Favorite Stories?

My favorite stories capture the memories of my family. They capture a moment in time, which elicits laughter or tears. Emotions have primacy in my favorite stories. The language used in the story is like code-speak in our family, as the stories have been re-told so many times, yet each time we hear it or tell it again, we love it just as much. Our family stories are like the glue, which hold us together. Our stories capture a mutual and treasured experience.

Show Me, Don’t Tell Me

For example, just say “Jack and The Beanstalk” to Dawn and Bo, our two adult children, and they are immediately taken back to their childhood, when they, and half dozen other family/friends’ kids were cleaned up, in their jammies, lined up on the couch, and breathlessly awaiting the family/friend storyteller, Frank, who could do more with Jack and a beanstalk than anyone I know. Each child was suddenly a protagonist in the story; each child was a hero in some part of the story; each child could barely contain the joy of listening and loving. Jack and that bean linked those kids together for life.

It seems we never tire of our favorite stories. You put us with specific groups of people, and we immediately begin to tell stories. The other day, during an unsuccessful hunting experience, I heard my husband say to my now adult son, Bo, “At least you’ve got a good story.”

Third, Why Do We Use Stories in Class?

Stories are yet another tool which we can use to engage learners and enrich their learning, language, and literacy. However, as good as that is, stories do more: they link us through love. I am reminded of another story–actually, two different stories about the same student, José.

Show Me, Don’t Tell Me.

I met José when he was a 7^th grader in my class. He was a balanced bilingual, equally at home in both English and Spanish. However, he was not achieving…yet. I encouraged him to read. Read anything he wanted.

“Anything?” he queried.

“Yes, anything, as long as it did not demean or belittle any group…including women,” I responded. He understood. He grabbed the huge Tucson phone book and started to read, as a challenge.

“Read, read, read,” I told him when I saw him with that boring tome.  Soon he, too, became bored with the phone book (and the challenge to me) and moved on to reading about the world. Now, as an adult, he has since visited many of those countries.

Later, when José was a senior, and in another class I was teaching, the students had been studying various languages and countries. They wanted to know how to say “I love you” in different languages. In those days, we didn’t have multiple devices, so off we went to the library to research how to say “I love you” in various languages.   During their spring comprehensive test, on a whim, I inserted the following into the cognitively demanding test.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

The task for the students was to translate this into 10 different languages. I could tell when each senior came to that question; a smile crept across their faces as they remembered our time together.

When I received the test from José, he had written in Spanish:

Yo sé.

Yo sé.

Yo sé.

Yo sé.

Yo sé.

Yo sé.

Yo sé.

Yo sé.

Yo sé.

Yo sé.

In Spanish, Yo sé means: I know. And, now you know, too.  One of my happy memories is the day José graduated from high school with a gold and a white honor cord hanging down the front of his gown: one from the National Honor Society and the other from the Spanish National Honor Society.  The huge Tucson phone book and the two honor societies are forever wedded in my mind.

“Education is radically about love.”

~Paulo Freire

Fourth, How Do We Develop Storytellers in Class?

Time and choice. That is the secret. Teachers/librarians need to value storytelling enough to create time for it to happen and to assure that students have choice. In this age of top-down, mandated curriculum, and non-ending punitive testing,  I am only too aware that I am asking a lot of you, but we never told you that teaching would be easy.

Roadblocks? Go around them.

Don’t make me send you my t-shirts, which say in bold letters: We Can Do This.

 Show Me, Don’t Tell Me.

Recently, a teacher attended a professional development day, which focused on how to administer the state and nationally mandated test. As I have heard from several, it was grueling, but at one point, the teacher-of-teachers stopped long enough to deviate from the mandated script to share one story.

A grade-school child in the district began to feel pain in his arms. As it turned out, he had a rare condition in which the bones were dying. He had to take a medicine with the hope that it would promote re-growth and healing of the bones. During this time, the child could not attend school, because if he were to be bumped or jostled slightly in the hallway, it could damage the healing. However, in spite of this, the student was still required to come and take the test. In addition, he was not even allowed a scribe to write his answers. He had to type in his answers, without assistance, for the test.

How do we develop storytellers? Time and choice.

Stories are inherently a part of being human. When teachers/librarians allow time and choice, the stories will flow. You cannot stop them.

*the quote by Paulo Freire:

As cited on p. 2 of this book (2011).