Post from the Past Galimoto!!!

I initially wrote this blog about seven years ago! What?

I'm a big fan of ten step its. I believe everything under the sun can be accomplished in ten steps or less. Everything from baking bread, to planning a funeral, and maybe even plotting a picture book. While attending my residency at Seton Hill University, I thought I would put it to a test. Not on anything I'm aspiring to write. I tested it on Karen L. Williams' picture books, Painted Dreams, Tap-Tap, and Galimoto. 

THE TEN STEPS

1. Introduce Character
2. Frame Setting
3. State Problem
4. Tries to solve but fails
5. Tries to solve but fails.
6. Tries to solve but fails.
7. Tries to solve but fails.
8. Tries to solve but fails.
9. Tries to solve but fails.
10. Solve and succeed. Resolve conflict.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Kind of comical to see it written out. Give or take a few of the 'tries to solve but fails' element this is the basic structure for many picture books.

In Galimoto, Kondi is introduced right away. Next some details about his setting are revealed then his problem. He wants to make a galimoto, but he does not have enough wire. He asks his friend Gift to trade wires for a knife. Kondi still needs more. Throughout the rest of this fabulous picture book he tries to solve his wire shortage problem but fails. Finally, he collects enough wire to solve and succeed to create a fine galimoto. You'll have to read the book to find out what a galimoto is, I know!

I've become particularly interested in the first three steps- person, place, and thing or problem. Williams covers these three elements within the first two pages each time. I dream to write this tightly!

Painted Dreams' eight year old Ti Marie dreams to paint but doesn't have the resources in rural Haiti. In Tap-Tap, Sasifi travels to the market and wants to ride the Tap-Tap. All of this information can be found on page one! Amazing! 

Since June, I've read SEVERAL picture books (I have a six year old) and each time I'm relieved that the plotting is constructed in ten steps or less!

Cover Reveal for Dirt!

What do you think? Love

Writing YA by Chris von Halle

I’ve always found writing for young people, including the high school age range, a lot of fun, which is why I’ve been doing so for many years now. There’s something awesome—for me, anyway—about reconnecting with a part of my past, with how I used to feel about certain things in life, and with what I used to think about back in those Prehistoric days (OK, it wasn’t that long ago). And I explore some of that in my first published novel, a young adult dystopian called The Fourth Generation, in which a plague that kills everybody when they turn seventeen has been ravaging the Earth for about one hundred years.

What I find fun about my book’s premise is that legacy becomes very important for kids in a world like this. These days, kids in high school are really just starting to think about their legacy. Or, at the very least, they’re considering and thinking about what they want to do with the rest of their lives, and what college they want to go to in order to prepare for that. So it’s interesting to imagine a world where you need to, in essence, live your legacy by the time you’ve turned seventeen. You’d have to have started to think about your legacy at a very early age in order to have it be fulfilled by the time your seventeenth birthday comes around. Even though high schoolers don’t need to do that, I think they can at least connect with the idea of leading a legacy, of looking forward to the type they want to have.

It’s those types of high school-related themes and subject matter that are fun to explore in a YA novel. Another one that crops up in The Fourth Generation is romance. High schoolers are just beginning to explore or have already been exploring the dating scene for a while. With my book, I thought it would be fun to imagine a post-apocalyptic world in which romance is totally forbidden, and how that would impact the teenagers existing in it (bear with me here; romance does exist in the story). In The Fourth Generation, the sexes are forbidden by the rulers to intermix. The rulers’ reasoning is that everybody needs to be constantly spending their time working hard to not only keep society going, but to find a way to rediscover electricity and invent a cure to plague. In fact, the teenagers aren’t even allowed to meet who they’re assigned to produce babies with (as they obviously need to reproduce in order to sustain the human race). But, of course, some kids are not going to buy into everything their leaders say. Some are going to find a way to have themselves a little romance, or at least discover a way to explore that aspect of life. That’s why my main character, Gorin, purposefully attempts to find out who the mother of his kids will be, and the two of them immediately hit it off. I think teenagers can relate to that sort of thing—curiosity about the opposite sex and putting themselves out there to satisfy—or at least test the waters—of that aspect of life. And, of course, some of them can relate to making a genuine connection with a member of the opposite sex.

In fact, curiosity in general is a major theme of The Fourth Generation, and is something I think high schoolers can relate to, too. High schoolers are naturally inquisitive about, well, everything—romance, their potential future careers, how the world works, etc. It’s a great age of exploration, and that’s mirrored in Gorin—as well as his romantic interest Stausha—in many ways in The Fourth Generation.

And I think that’s not just what YA books, but all books, are about, too: exploration. Reading a good book brings us to a different time, a different place, and sheds light on an important element (or elements) of the human existence. Which is why I think it’s important for not just kids, but everybody, to read. Reading isn’t just about escaping from the real world to relax and be entertained, though that’s certainly a nice side effect. It’s also about growing more aware of the world around us through the story. Sometimes it’s so easy to get carried away within the real world that it’s tough to step back and really think about it, to really analyze what makes it tick, and that’s exactly what a good book helps us do.

Anyway, moving back to writing YA specifically, when it comes to writing within that age category, I always include the subject matter and themes that are relevant to that age group. Which I do for when I write any age group, really. Among other things, high schoolers specifically are just starting to experience, think about, and explore things like romance, their careers, and the world at large. It’s a very exploratory, and therefore very exciting time! And that’s what makes YA (and, my book, of course, if I don’t say so myself) so much fun. And I hope those who “explore” The Fourth Generation find it fun, as well.

Social Media Links:

Website: chrisvonhalle.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.v.halle?fref=browse_search

Blog: http://chrisvonhalle.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @ChrisvonHalle

Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble Smashwords

 
You can purchase The Fourth Generation on Amazon.

Guest Contributor -- Author Chris von Halle
Chris von Halle has had many different lives in many different worlds—the near and distant future Earth, other planets, and even other dimensions—and his books recreate his childhood memories of such outlandish locations.  In this world and life, he lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and enjoys such extraordinary activities as playing videogames, tennis, and basketball, and writing the occasional comic strip.

Self - Care to prep for BTS

I hope this summer you all - teachers and parents and parents that are teachers and teachers that are parents... I hope you all are taking good care of yourselves.

And when back to school (BTS) begins again, I hope you continue.

Educators should practice extreme self – care to foster the long term resiliency needed for the school year. Self-care in all of life’s areas (physical, financial, spiritual, mental, and emotional) should preempt burn-out in any profession of continuous purpose filled service.

How one responds in an educational environment depends largely on how clear one can become. I believe clarity stems from creating systems that facilitate self-love. Often the way a teacher copes with a particular situation can stem more from whether or not they are receiving adequate rest, rather than responding to 'random acts of crazy' that often occur in our classrooms.

I suggest devoting at least twenty five percent of an educator’s break time (lunch or conference) to an action of self-care.

Need suggestions?

Take a walk.

Call a friend.

Pay a bill.

Experience a moment in prayer (meditation, silence, gratitude, etc.).

Read a book.

I keep a yoga mat rolled in the corner.

Love

Language Safety

“When our language is direct and authentic, when we say what we mean and mean what we say, children learn that they can trust us. They learn that we won’t use language to trick, manipulate , or confuse them. This feeling of safety must be in place if children are to take the risks that are necessary to learning – try out fledgling skills, to explore their own and others’ thoughts, and to take on challenges.” –Paula Denton, EdD

Show & Tell

If your child does not show or tell about their school day a strong possibility exists that engagement is waning in their educational world. Lack of positive or negative reports from a student generally indicate that the learner has lost interest in their classroom environment. Some showing / telling translates from body action, some from actual product.

To what one gives their conversation and attention is that which that holds his priority.

How to address the engagement collapse?  Request show and tell.

• Show me your grades.

• Show me your homework. 

• Tell me what you are learning in first period.

• Tell me about your science teacher, I’ve heard she is difficult.

• Tell me what are on your walls in your classroom.

Creating a space for safe conversations that target show and tell responses may recharge the learning / attention process. If children come to expect a certain level of accountability for these type of conversations, more than likely they will be encouraged to respond.

Learning is Freedom! Happy Independence!

Love

MANY GENRES, ONE CRAFT: BOOKS BY SETON HILL WRITERS

MANY GENRES, ONE CRAFT: BOOKS BY SETON HILL WRITERS

free s e c r e t

Wreck this p i c t u r e l e s s book!

Consider using the I CAN Alphabets as a journal for your classroom.

I is for Invigorated

dynamic characters.

Dynamic characters change and grow throughout our stories. They go from this to that. After completing each story, flip through the pages of Invigorated. Did any of the characters shift from being one word to another? Why? If they didn’t change they were static characters.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a ‘g’. He travels from green to grace. We can write his name on the ‘g’ page of Invigorated. Scrooge was primarily concerned with his riches (green). By the end of Dickens’s  A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is full of grace.

Words you are not familiar with, find the definition and record them right on their page.

C is for Character

literary terms.

Record the definitions of writing / literary terms on pages of your pictureless papers above each word. Below the pictureless word, draw or document examples from the assigned text.

A is for Apple

your pictureless pages.

For your reading notes for this class. Paper clip the first page of A is for Apple for easy access. On pages of Apple, take your class notes, make your own notes, ask your questions, scribble on the page, color, record, collage. You may even tear out a page or two and give to a friend.  There is a message from me to you on each page. l o v e

N is for Never Night

your Alphabet Book.

From one of our literary selections or all, write your own alphabet book at the bottom of each Night page. Words you love. New words. Words from a few different reads. One or many! Can’t wait to see what you come up with! Share with us on facebook!

fabulous

free inspiration

h o w d y lovelies,

do you need w o r d s to brighten your w a y?
have a free book, and play!
it's f r e e until Tuesday!!!
y a y!

http://www.amazon.com/Inspiration-ebook/dp/B003D7KB1A

we will be sharing words at EPCC's 5th Annual Literary Feista this saturday from 11:30-5:30. p l e a s e leave review l o v e

Cotton Tools Around the Home

When considering a Scholastic Parent and Child Magazine question, I asked my children now eighteen and thirteen what items did they love having at home when they were wee. 

Here's what they reported:

Cotton Digging Tools

Perfect for planting, shaping new worlds, or discovering old ones, kids will spend hours digging in terrain.

Cotton Building blocks and PVC

Kids connect these items to their imagination’s limits.

Cotton Tents

Private and magical arenas can begin with a pop-up shelter inside or outside of the home.

Cotton Noise Makers

Encourage your kid to compose and arrange melodies by having a variety of musical instruments and noise makers on hand.

Cotton Costumes

A wardrobe of dress-up inspires kids to become what they desire.

Cotton Maps / Globes

A strong display of ‘all the places one can go’ grants your kid’s mind to experience wanderlust.

Cotton Magazines

Keep a collection of recycled magazines for projects, collages and picture themed journals.

Cotton Magnets 

Magnets of all shapes and sizes make for sticky scientific discover, and endless hours of refrigerator play.

Cotton Art Supplies

With a grand assortment of writing utensils, palettes, and canvases, a kid can create their own galleries for your home and others.

Cotton Tape

Kids desire to express with new varieties of adhesives that promote endless sticky possibilities.

Cotton pictureless books

Allow your kid to imagine stories, settings and characters penned in pages of pictureless ebooks, audio books, and print versions.

See what other readers and parents keep around their inspiring worlds.

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/parent-child/10-art-supply-essentials-kids

love

A Lesson Plan W.A.L.T.Z. - ZING!

An educator with whom I discussed this piece entered my office and asked, “What’s the fifth step, the ‘Z’?”

“You know? The Zing!” I responded. 

She instantly knew.

The ‘Z’ stands for the Zing, the non-tangible component, of this acronym that will allow you to let the zing ring. The zing is whirling engagement. The zing is when the pupils of pupils light. The zing is when the learners take responsibility, pride, and ownership for their learning. It seems that in order for students to become vested in their work and take responsibility of their learning, they must be included in the planning piece.

The moments of true content mastery look different in every classroom, but it should be seen. Results should show in assessments. Quality models of student success should be displayed on the walls of the classroom.

One school year I allocated a separate same-sized bulletin board to each period. After grading each assignment I displayed quality work from the class. I marked an asterisk next to a student’s name when their fabulous work went on the board, to ensure that each person had an opportunity. The work executed became so quality the decisions became brutal. Students began to note mentions at the end of their turned-in work telling me that their work was board-worthy. Administration often toured my room with guests to display the boards. The boards allowed the student additional input into the lesson planning even after we completed the task. The boards worked one year, a blog in another. Of course, the students decided where and how to display their work.

We can endlessly dance around the issue of accountability, rigor and best practices. One thing is certain we can’t be successful teachers without successful students. Without their presence, buy in, and input, we stand in classrooms alone. We must WALTZ.

love,

Mrs. Hanson (formally known as)

A Lesson Plan W.A.L.T.Z.- t e a c h

Each week we have added another component to this lesson plan W.A.L.T.Z. I love acronyms! We are finally here... at application!

In step four, teach. The classroom can be seen as a reciprocal environment. My rule:

I will teach you, if you will learn. 

I’m responsible for the first, and you the later.

Prior to starting class, post the daily objective in the same place each day. Students can often refer to this note to stay on track, and to prepare for the learning that they helped create and are responsible for receiving.

Design a schedule that allows for your many findings to at least be done within the week, if not daily. Having a time associated plan helps with this process, as do procedures. Students can also be included in this creation. One student is assigned to keep me on time because the schedule is posted on the board. The student holds up a finger that means it’s time for the next item on the agenda. I have found the more that students share in the classroom responsibilities, the easier it is to manage the plan.

Zzzz - next week!

love,

Mrs. Hanson (formally known as)

A Lesson Plan W.A.L.T.Z- l i s t e n!

Thanks for following along. Let's listen. Together let's be very silent...

Listening to their answers is the third step. Many companies claim to abide by the mantra, “The customer is always right.” We can make an assumption that businesses that use this philosophy listen to their customers. Our customers are our students, and they are right.

What have you learned from the Waltz’s W and A? Often we build many types of feedback into our design, but don’t use the feedback. Listen with grace.

In the listen step, add student input into the plan. Lesson plans can include the following:

* Curriculum’s Essential Skill

* Student Expectation

* Materials or Resources used

* Bell Work / Warm up Exercise

* Bloom’s Target

* Learning Style

* Sensory Impact

* Explicit Instructions / Active Student Participation

* Assessment

* Modification / Adaptation

From the watching and the asking, one needs to compile data and plug it in to the plan immediately. I have found that short answer data is more accurate in that definite student-thought went into the answering, but all data will do.

Remember this type of planning doesn’t take much longer than the already extensive process. If target plans are already outlined the new information can be implemented easily. It should feel like a piecing together a puzzle. This goes here, and that there.

Teach 'em next week!

love,

Mrs. Hanson (formally known as)

A Lesson Plan W.A.L.T.Z. - Ask 'em

“Why don’t you let them decide?” Much like I asked the young mother, I ask you. “Why don’t you let them decide?” Step two: Ask the students.

The state designs the curriculum of what is to be covered in a school year, but you and your students can design the implementation. Focus on what needs to be learned. When looking at the essential knowledge and skills required, break up elements into smaller parts that contain all of the required components of the lesson. This can be done with all categories. Allow the students to decide either in whole group by vote or by individual choice which direction to go.

Each grading period, after studying biography snippets of authors, I requested that students pick from one of five American authors in the year that familiarity with American authors was required.

My own children love when a teacher gives them choice. My son reports that one of his teachers offers him and his classmates the choice to either take notes or to devise games with the same information. According to him they don’t always choose games.

My daughter’s teacher allows them the discretion to record notes in their own way. She likes to color-coded Cornell. Note taking is now her favorite activity.

If one cannot deviate from assignments taught, possibly ask the students--with options available--sort of extension activities could accompany a particular subject matter. Make sure to allow for technology utilization and creative artistic suggestions. As long as extension tools allow for the student to express skills being learned or already learned the tool is valid.

Begin each semester with a personal inventory. The questionnaire can include thoughtful questions to summarize student likes and dislikes. It can also retrieve

information pertaining to home life and history. Students should affix this page near the front of their journals or notebooks and receive a perfect participation grade. When sitting down to plan, study their answers to assist with semester lesson planning.

A more orthodox version of asking is to pre-test students. They subtly show you what to include in your planning, by releasing what they know or what they don’t know. Begin school years, semesters, or even units with a good old fashion pre-test. People don’t know what they don’t know. Pre-tests or pre-assessments can take a myriad of forms. KWL graphic organizers or variations work just as well. What do you know? What do you want to know? What have you learned? Include students in your planning--even the ones with a small voice.

L - next week!

love,

Mrs. Hanson (formally known as)

Hackschooling Makes Me Happy: Logan LaPlante at TEDxUniversityofNevada

f r e e food

What in the world do we do with q u i n o a or k a l e?

Find out for freeeeeeeeeeeeee!

food words to b r i g h t e n your day- from now until Sunday!

http://www.amazon.com/Walnut-ebook/dp/B0050PJJR0

love

See you this Saturday at #authorday Midland Downtown Farmers' Market!

A Lesson Plan W.A.L.T.Z. - Watch

An angel glides through the halls of our predominately at-risk environment. The school pays her to provide pregnancy related services (PRS) to enrolled young mothers. The school does not pay her to dedicate a portion of her inheritance to give these students books for their babies, which she does, as well. She procures books, and creates an elegant classroom display of first snatches of literature for the wee.

Yesterday, I walked a new mother into this ‘Books for Babies’ classroom. The plethora of options overwhelmed her. She gazed at one book then another. She carefully considered which picture book would best fit her month-old son. I loved watching this new mother contemplate everything with such thoughtfulness. The mere energy that now all of her decisions bore grand weight tickled me with delight.

Then I made the suggestion, "Why don't you let him decide?"

She wrinkled her face in a customary Ms. White is crazy grimace. She humored me. While viewing the cover of the third book, the boy smiled. He had chosen.

Now, we, the educated, know that an assortment of events could have taken place at that exact moment the parent displayed the book as an option for her child. The color scheme of the third book might have been more appealing than the previous two, or an instance of flatulence might have sparked the grin. We will never know, but we do know that he chose. As he will have many choices in his hopefully happy foundational life until he enters the doors of academia where the pickings are slim and plans aligned.

Or are they? Can we include students in the lesson planning process? I could suggest a modest proposal. All novice teachers should first print out their state's curriculum the first week of school. Then assign portions to students, K-12, haphazardly in a lottery (because we love lotteries in education) fashion. Allow these students to determine the execution of the lessons, and see how we fair during the accountability, appraisal and rating stages. In such a scenario we merely become moderators of a discipline, and not its teachers.

Obviously, we can’t eliminate our own profession.

However, a precise, rhythmic promenade between students and teachers will ensure that the customers of education are heard, and that the curriculum be taught.

Welcome to a WALTZ in lesson planning.

* Watch your students.
* Ask your students.
* Listen to your students.
* Teach with your students.
* Zing!

Watch

Learners dispense enormous amounts of input through their actions. One can watch students in many ways. There is the typical observation with the eyes or of the eyes--when the lights come on. Then there is what’s behind their eyes.
Step one: Observe students. Turn around. What do you they like? Judge their mannerisms, their attire, even their gadgets. Are you in touch enough with the age group you are monitoring to tell? If you can’t see your students you can’t lead them.

It took me a long time to look up from the plan to the pumpkins. Months passed before I noticed a pertinent item of importance. More than fifty percent of my class had ear buds dangling from their collars. Adding music during bell work affirmed them. When the music commenced, so did the work. Ringers had never been so peaceful.

Beneath the exteriors that we may get right only some of the time, behind the eyes--people process information differently. Add dominant learning styles into your lessons. Insert active and reflective, sensing and intuitive, visual and verbal, sequential and global exercises into your planning. This is a quick start to student inclusion. Create a diverse learning style environment to recognize student differences.

After viewing the curriculum information, brainstorm and research ways for: group work and independent work, real world applications and big-picture analysis, visual presentations and spoken explanations, and passage reading and passage skimming activities to take place.

When I first entered the classroom I recalled learning about sensory impact. I knew that if I were going to reach my students I needed to show representation of the main three: Tactile, Visual, and Auditory. But how, time wouldn’t permit?

A wise pedagogue instructed me to survey each class while the morning announcements ran. She asked me to ask the question: Were most of my students fidgeting with something in their hands, looking at the box from which the stream of information came, or leaning with their head cocked ear toward the speaker?

In this way teachers can summarize at a glance the dominant learning style of a class. By marking these findings in the grade book (T, V, A), you can easily direct any lesson toward the class’ dominate sensory impact.

A. in next installment! 

love,

Mrs. Hanson (formally known as)