Category: writing

Balderdash: Gamify Vocabulary

We all know that selective word-choice can enrich writing (Academy, 2021). It will lend clarity to a story, deepen emotional attachment to a character, and broaden the understanding of a topic. Contrastingly, misused vocabulary can harm the message of a text. And, weak words will water down its substance. Therefore, building a thorough understanding of a wide array of words will prepare students for increasingly effective communication. As it turns out, I have a game that will make your learners crave vocabulary-building. 

Would you like your students to beg you to learn new robust vocabulary? Try Balderdash.

I call the game “Balderdash.” (There is a board game version, but I’ve never used it. From the description, it seems to contain the gist of what I present here.) The name is unique enough to spark interest and be memorable. It also lends itself to the core of the game; Playing with unknown words. 

I’ve used Balderdash to introduce vocabulary, deepen background knowledge, and explore literature concepts for years.

This is how I introduce the game to my students. I start off by explaining that this is a game of definitions. 

“How many times have you been reading an entertaining story, and really enjoying yourself; Then you come across a word that trips you up? All of a sudden, you don’t know what is happening. Why are the characters acting so weird? What did you miss? They aren’t always big words, but misinterpreting the meaning of a word can turn a heretofore simple tale on its head (irony in italics;). 

“In this game, you will be presented with a word that you probably don’t know. That is okay. You aren’t supposed to know what the word means. If you DO know what it means, or if you think you know what it means, that is okay, too. But, don’t tell anyone. You can earn points by writing down a definition that is really close to accurate.”

Here’s how it works

Sometimes, the game originates organically. In the middle of conversation with my students, I might use a word that they don’t know. Rather than simply telling the Polite Pirates what it means, we break out Balderdash to have fun learning its definition.
  1. Have a list of your students handy.
  2. Hand out index cards or sticky notes. Tell students to keep the papers UNFOLDED. Also, do not write on the cards until instructed. (They must look the same.)
  3. Have your students write their names on the top. Everyone should use pencil, and don’t do anything to your card to make it appear unique. (You will understand why in a minute.)
  4. Next, come up with a word that students will not know. You could begin with “balderdash.” This would make the game that much more memorable! You could use a vocabulary word from a list of words you want the class to learn. You could even flip through the dictionary, looking for tough words.
  5. Write the word on the board, so that everyone spells it correctly. You may want to write down some phonetic tips. I will sometimes explain what part of speech it is; perhaps even a hint. (i.e. This is a noun; and although this game might be named “Balderdash,” that isn’t what it means.)
  6. Tell the students to make up a definition for the word. Explain to them that their peers are going to vote on which definition sounds most likely to be true or accurate. 
  7. While the students are writing their definitions, you look up the true definition of the word. (I don’t recommend relying on your own interpretation. Even if you do understand the word, it is best to deliver the scholarly definition first.) You will need to put the definition into kid-friendly language. Your definition will need to match the ones that students hand in.
  8. Walk around and collect everyone’s index card. I recommend using a bucket or top hat for this. 
  9. Read through the definitions to yourself, making sure that you understand what they say and are able to read them fluidly. You don’t want to supply any “tells” that one is NOT the accurate definition. If there are any that are similar to the actual definition, provide that student a point and remove the definition from the pile. (Reading 2 of the same definitions would let them know they are the true definition.)
  10. Next, place them back into the hat or bucket. Pull one at a time and read it. Do this once through without any voting. 
  11. Then, repeat the process, but after each reading, have students raise their hands if they think it is the correct definition. You can only vote once, and you can’t vote for your own definition. 
  12. Give the pupil who produced the phony definition a point for each vote. Whoever votes for the true definition also gets a point. 
  13. After each round, share who earned the most points and the real definition.

In the same way a serious athlete might take creatine supplements to boost muscle-building ability in the body during intense exercise (Creatine, 2021), using games to increase enthusiasm for definition development can motivate kids to grow their vocabularies. Rather than get fatigued when faced with unknown words in texts, your students will view these as opportunities for growth. 

An athlete takes creatine supplements to prepare their body for doing a little bit extra in each exercise, making the workout that much more beneficial. Balderdash is a reason for collecting large, complex, unfamiliar words, and tucking their meanings into memory banks for future use. Plus, it’s a lot of fun! game

Sources

Academy, E. (2021, November 12). Word Choice in Academic Writing: Tips to Avoid Common Problems. Enago Academy. https://www.enago.com/academy/word-choice-in-academic-writing-tips-to-avoid-common-problems/ 

Balderdash Board Game – the Game Of Twisting Truths. (n.d.). Mattel Shop. https://shop.mattel.com/products/balderdash-cfx43 

Creatine. (2021, February 9). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-creatine/art-20347591 

This 4th grader got to wear the “Balderdash hat” for our photo as prize for collecting the most tally marks.

Nemesis Brings Balance: A Story

In preparation for teaching my 4th and 5th graders about conflict in literature, I did some research that uncovered something novel. I had always thought that someone’s nemesis was the antagonist of the story, the enemy, the ultra-bad guy, the anti-hero. This isn’t exactly the case. Before I share what I learned, I have a story for you.

Photo by Steshka Willems on Pexels.com

There once was a baseball player born with a natural affinity for the game. It was more than that. He had a gift. His parents knew he would be great, and they gave him everything he would need to fulfill his destiny. 

Everyone who saw this boy play commented on his skills. When he threw the ball it seemed to know where it was supposed to go. His glove was a magnet. No toss escaped it. The bat in his hands may as well be Thor’s hammer, Mjolner. It punished pitchers year in and year out. 

A funny thing happened early in the boy’s career. He was still in school when a coach who understood the greatness before him told the ballplayer’s parents, this one will go far as long as he never assumes his talents, but continues to practice and better himself. This coach had glimpsed raw talent before, and knew that without tuning, the song of the marvelous instrument turns into a grating noise. 

The young baseball player had no problem making it to the big leagues. The people who played ball with him were graced to know his genius for the game. Even his opponents felt privileged to have been able to rival him. 

Numerous articles were written about the rising star. Every journalist craved an interview with the boy, but he eluded them all. One journalist in particular resolved to take photographs of the athlete in action. If she wasn’t granted the privilege of speaking with the ball player, she would communicate his greatness to the world through picture. 

The journalist, not new to baseball, had never seen the human body move the way this star player moved. Her photographs captured the power of the throw like none other. Looking at the glove that never missed a toss portrayed in portrait amazed every viewer. 

Even though no one secured an audience with the baseball player, this photographer wished to put words to her photos and sought an interview. Rejection after rejection caused the journalist to turn to other means of query. She would write letters to the baseball player. She tried to get his manager to intervene. The journalist befriended other players in hopes that they would put in a good word for her. Eventually, the journalist even bought presents to give to the baseball player. Perhaps she could bribe him to give her some sound bites, at least. 

Other journalists saw this photographer pining for the privilege to interview the star as pathetic at first. They feared the photographer would fall apart, focusing so much attention on one person. They warned her. It was too late. And then, she was gone. 

Photo by Tim Eiden on Pexels.com

The owner of the magazine that the photographer worked for heard the speeches of brother and sister journalists at the photographer’s funeral and decided to do something about this tragedy. Why wouldn’t the baseball player just talk to his employee?

The magazine owner compiled a book of the best photographs and had it delivered to the baseball player. There were no words. Not even a title was printed on the cover! Everyone knew who was featured in the photos. It didn’t take much research to find out who had captured the pics. 

What no one foresaw, though, was the way in which the photos would imprison the baseball star. He had never bothered to read the newspaper articles written about him. He hadn’t ever seen the famous photos. When he viewed the pictures of his playing, he was mesmerized. Is that how he looked to others? 

Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

He removed photos from the book. Framed his favorites. They were placed all over his house. He found it difficult to pass one without stopping to look. Eventually, the baseball player couldn’t leave his home without missing the photos. After a while, he stopped leaving all together. 

The once great star didn’t eat. He didn’t drink. He wasted away to nothing. When his friends went to check in on him, they didn’t find a former baseball player. All that was left was a flower; A daffodil. 

Did you recognize my modern myth for what it was, a retelling of Narcissus? I wrote this version for my students. I wanted to emphasize the idea of undeserved good fortune, a theme I had overlooked in the past. 

More than rivaling a hero, Nemesis is a “balancer of the scales.” I’ve thought that Nemesis was synonymous with antagonist, but she isn’t. I didn’t remember her role in the Narcissus myth, but she was the one who led Narcissus to the pool where he first beheld his reflection. She heard the prayers of the nymph-friends of Echo, who died of unrequited love. 

I always focused on Narcissus getting what he deserved, but there is much more to the original story. First of all, his parents had been warned that Narcissus would live long if he never knew himself. I wove that into my tale by having the baseball star’s coach warn against relying too much on good luck and gifts. Talents need to be honed, stretched, developed. 

Next, I never recognized the role of Nemesis in the story! She deliberately brings Narcissus to the pool where his downfall takes place. She knows the prophecy. She understands the importance of Narcissus remaining ignorant of his beauty.

It isn’t pay-back, though, that drives her to initiate Narcissus’s learning about his looks. It is a need for balance. Nature was too kind to Narcissus, just as my baseball player was too talented. In my tale, the magazine editor brought balance by making the athlete see the photos that the gifted photographer captured. I hope you recognized the photos for what they were; “Echoes” of the action.

Lock Up the Scary Self-Criticism Creature

Have you ever wanted to do a project, but there was something preventing you from getting started? Maybe you desired to create something crafty, like a birdhouse. Perhaps you were interested in starting a remodeling project on your own home!

Of course lack of funds or ignorance in the area of woodworking could hold you back, but how many times is it really our own inner dialogue that keeps us captive? As I prepare to start my gifted students down the road of writing a novel, I had the idea to clear their paths of mental blocks right out of the gate. Instead of witnessing my students being tortured by inner demons telling them they’re not good enough, “You’re too young,” “You don’t have any good ideas,” and the like, I decided to preempt these messages with a little mini lesson about fear. 

The first thing I did was I had my 5th grade gifted students brainstorm things that frightened them. We discussed ideas like dying and scary people breaking into their homes. Clowns and aliens (the outer space kind) were mentioned. 

Whenever a student presented something that they were scared of, I had them dig deeper. “What is scary about death? Everyone and everything experiences it.” These ideas gave them pause. We talked about the idea of not wanting to feel pain. Also, there is the whole unknown-ness of it! One student professed that if only he could go wherever you go after death and then come back, he would feel better about it. Wouldn’t we all! 

That idea reminds me of a fun Kurt Vonnegut book; one of his last. In “Timequake” (1997) Vonnegut has his favorite character, Kilgore Trout, repeat a large portion of his life after there is a “timequake” which brings all of existence back in time from 2001 to 1991. Kilgore dies in 2001, and he knows it. Because of this he is afraid of nothing. He knows that there isn’t anything that can hurt him. It’s a mind-bending book exploring free will and determinism. I highly recommend it (too grownups). 

Without mentioning Vonnegut by name, I discussed some of these ideas with my 5th grade gifted students. We also talked about “why” someone breaking into your home was so scary. “Your home is the most secure place in your entire life,” I suggested. “The intrusion of a person intent on causing harm introduces more than just fear of losing valuable possessions. It would be a violation of privacy, the destruction of the mental constructs of security one builds up around your place of residency. If your home is not safe, what is???” 

Clowns. Why are clowns so scary? They have that painted on smile, but we all know that no person can be happy all of the time. Also, it is so hyperbolic that it appears grotesque. The idea that someone could be feeling something completely different under such an absurdly happy look is disconcerting; creepy!

Perhaps the laughing clown is a metaphor for being “laughed at.” To be mocked or ridiculed is frightening. 

After our mini discussion about things that scare us, I instructed my students to make a work of art that displayed something that scared them. I was sure to inform them, “This is not meant to be beautiful. It isn’t for display, and no one is ever going to see it.” I wanted them to let go of their imaginations. Capture their fear on paper. They worked uninterrupted for several minutes. 

Then, I got everyone’s attention and explained the project further. “What you are making is a monster.” I paused, so that students could reimagine what they had been working on.

I tacked my talk. “Right after winter break I had planned on us beginning to write our novels,” I informed my 5th grade gifted students. “As I was looking through lesson plans that Mrs. Dweck (my predecessor) had used in the past, I found a Google document that was 116 pages long that she had shared with novel-writers. Mrs. Dweck would share this doc through the Google classroom, so each student would get his or her own copy of it. They had to read it, and add information to it. Mentors would comb through the document, finding and commenting on your work.

“One hundred and sixteen pages.

“I was afraid this was too much, too long, too independent… I was scared.” The looks on my students’ faces were fearful. What is about to happen? They were wondering. Teachers aren’t supposed to be scared! 

“You might be scared, also. Maybe you are afraid this project will be too much work for you. You could very well worry that you won’t have anything good to write. It is common to feel insecure about the quality of your writing. And then, there is this dungeon; a pit of despair; that writers fall into called Writer’s Block… That can be a looming fear, even when you aren’t trapped by it.” 

I took a breath and waited for the fears to quiet down. “What we are going to do is take these fears; these monsters of doubt, hesitation, worry, insecurity; and, we are going to lock them away. I am going to give you a few more minutes to add to your artwork, and then I’m going to collect them. I’m going to put them into a locked cabinet. This cabinet is locked with a key. I am going to take the key and file it down, so that the points are no longer available for unlocking. Your monsters of fear will be trapped in there forever!”

The students enjoyed drawing, coloring; some even added paint to their creations. A student who hadn’t drawn anything talked about simply stabbing the middle of his paper with a pencil. I spoke over the din of the room and explained, “These monsters are symbols. An empty piece of paper is actually ingenious because it symbolizes not having anything to say!” 

I had been working on my own artwork, while the students created. I had them guess what my fear was. I had taken a piece of every color of construction paper from a box of scrap papers and bunched them into balls. Then I taped them all together to make a sphere. Next, I tore a hole in the middle of the same kind of paper that my students were using. I folded the triangles of the hole in. I used yellow paint to make lines that traveled from the opening in the center to the outer perimeter of my paper. Without waiting for the yellow to dry, I used black to fill in the space between each yellow line. I used black construction paper to hold my colorful construction paper ball in place, at the center of my hole. The black construction paper was stapled to the painted paper, and my creation was complete. 

I asked my students what they thought it was. Not only did they understand that it was a black hole, but they knew that the colorful construction paper was matter being sucked into it. I explained to them that adults have so many different responsibilities that suck our attention and time away. “I am afraid I won’t have what I need to be able to write. I am continually protecting my writing time and wrestling mental thought away from the pull of the black hole of life,” I told them. “I frequently find good ideas escaping me.” I pointed to one of the colors in the center of my artwork. “That right there was a great story idea. I thought of it this morning, while I was on crosswalk duty. Now, it’s gone! It got sucked into the black hole of the bell ringing, my reentering the school, coming up here, getting out the supplies for this lesson… All gone!” I made a grown, illustrating the pain of loss of that great idea that will never be remembered. So dramatic:) 

“It’s time. Bring your scary creations over here. Mine is joining yours.” I led them over to a filing cabinet that I had recently cleaned out. We placed our artwork into the bottom drawer. They were really into discussing how it would be locked and what would happen to the key. 

Now that our fears have been locked up, we can be free to create. When a student tells me that he doesn’t know what to write, I can tell him that he is listening to the monster that we locked up. “Don’t. It isn’t true. You have tons of things to say. They might not all be just right or work with your story, and that is okay. Just get something into text. Don’t worry about what it sounds like, how much sense it makes, or whether it even fits. You may or may not keep and use it. You will probably need to fill in some details to make it work. That’s okay. What isn’t okay is entertaining that fear. Don’t give your monster audience. Ignore it and write; Write about being afraid of not having anything to write! But, write.” 

The Power of Contrast

You take a photo. They never capture what you see! You want others to identify something in the photo, so you try to edit it. The subject in the photo is dark, so you lighten the image. This makes the whole thing brighter. It is still difficult to make out the significant features that separate your subject from others. 

Contrast 

“Contrast in photography is the visual ratio of different tones in an image. This difference is what creates the textures, highlights, shadows, colors and clarity in a photograph” (Shramenko, 2017). Contrast is what sharpens the features. When you increase the contrast, you make lines darker and lighten the spaces around them. They stand out more. 

Contrast “means more than just a play of light and shadows. It’s the difference between the tones, colors, and textures of a photo. This technique can convey interesting and deep stories in the frame in the best way” (Shramenko, 2017).

Contrast is found in literature, as well. It’s what gives stories their life. It’s the spark that animates Doctor Frankenstein’s assembly of dead flesh, and turns it into a monster. Contrast energizes narrative. The dryness of Oklahoma, contrasted with the imagined juicy grapes of California, spurs the Joads to sell nearly everything and hit the road. Contrast shows action. It identifies what to pay attention to. There are many things happening in any given text, but the friction between two opposites will heat-up a story. The conflict between light and dark, colorful and colorless, strong and weak, dull and exciting, good and evil, rich and poor commands attention! (Literary Devices, 2013)

I’ve been reading a smart and funny book with my fifth grade gifted students; “The Strange Case of Origami Yoda” (Angleberger, 2010). In it, a seemingly half-witted 6th grade boy provides what usually turns out to be incredibly wise advice, albeit through a weird, hand-made finger puppet and silly voice. The boy’s name is Dwight. His finger puppet is Origami Yoda.

5th Graders apply their origami skills to napkin-folding.

In addition to learning some of our own origami, I had my students research the history of the ancient art form. I didn’t know this before, but the art of paper folding used to be limited to the wealthy, due to the high price of washi (origami) paper (Georgia Tech, n.d.). It was used in religious rituals and formal ceremonies. Eventually, as paper became more affordable, origami became an increasingly available activity. Still, people needed the time, intellect, and patience to learn the art. 

This got me thinking about Dwight and his origami finger puppet. At the beginning of the story, it is explained that Dwight made up his Yoda origami on his own. He took one of the most common materials from the school setting and turned it into something extraordinary. No one else in the text produces any artwork, let alone origami! And, Dwight doesn’t stop with a paper figure; He places it on his finger and gives it life. 

Dwight is the opposite of popular, but through Origami Yoda he is extremely influential, and therefore powerful. Many students who wouldn’t give Dwight the time of day want to talk to Origami Yoda. They present questions and respect Yoda’s answers. The same characters look down on Dwight as king dweeb. 

Toward the end of the book, an adversarial character (Harvey) makes his own Origami Yoda. In contrast to Dwight’s, Harvey’s is well-made. That is because Harvey, unlike Dwight, looked up professional directions online. Supposedly, Harvey’s imitation of Yoda’s voice, from the Starwars movies, is a better imitation, too. But, Dwight’s Yoda is truer to the spirit of Yoda. Dwight’s Yoda uses the force… the force of creativity and originality. Harvey’s is more closely related to the clone-like, clean, black and white storm troopers from the movie series than the swampy, wrinkly, green, old creature of the planet Dagobah! 

In addition to this obvious contrast between two characters and their crafts, there lies several more subtle contrasts. Harvey constantly pushes his opinions onto everyone else, whereas Dwight has people approach him, imploring his. Dwight does not seem to try to get others to believe in his Yoda. Harvey needs to kill everyone’s belief in the finger puppet. While Harvey narcissistically uses his Yoda to hurt Dwight, the true Origami Yoda is primarily concerned with helping people. Harvey freely admits to giving his origami voice, but Dwight pretends that it isn’t him talking; Origami Yoda is a separate entity from the person whose finger he rests. The differences go on and on! 

As I reflected on all of the subtle and overt contrasts within the story, the idea of origami being a pastime of the wealthy contrasting with Dwight’s social poverty hit me. I thought about contrasting elements of everyday life. Why are holidays special? They are “holy days,” set apart from others. They are only as special as we make them. For some, all we do is acknowledge that it is a special day; Flag Day. Others demand time off, arts and crafts, and even parades! A meal is made special when we cook food we normally wouldn’t, or too much food, or invite special guests to share it with us. Do you use unique dinnerware to serve the food? (As I write this, Thanksgiving is right around the corner!) 

When I was in college, I worked at a fine-dining restaurant. Among other things, we folded white cloth napkins into fans for every place setting. When patrons left the table, we would replace napkins with folded, clean cloths. It was that kind of establishment. 

I was remembering this art of napkin folding while researching origami. I brought some cloth napkins into the classroom to show students how to fold them into fans, so that they could dress up their next holiday meal. 

As I folded the napkins to display on a cheap, plastic table for my students, it brought to mind a picnic lunch in a park. What makes that kind of activity so romantic? It is the contrast between eating a well-prepared meal, complete with plates, silverware, folded napkins, and drinks on the ground with nothing but a blanket shielding you from dirt, insects, and nature. The meal is out of place. You are bringing two otherwise foreign entities together. That is romantic. The greater the contrast between the elements, the more romantic. 

Explanation

When you are attempting to bond two surfaces together, it is often recommended that you rough up one of or both surfaces before applying adhesive. Why? This is because when you “unsmooth” a surface, you provide more surface space for the adhesive to attach. You may not be able to see them, but tiny ridges are produced all over the surface; microscopic mountains and valleys that almost double how much area there is for the bonding agent to grab onto. 

This is a metaphor for what happens when authors create contrast between their characters, settings, conflicts, eras, etc. By roughing up the character with differing, even exaggerated traits, appearance, name, hobbies/interests, the author helps the character stick in the reader’s mind. It deepens the essence of the character. The more contrast, the more powerful this bond becomes. 

Warning

Of course, you must make sure that there are enough common elements for a reader to cognitively grab onto. If you rough up a surface to the point that the thing you are gluing has been sanded away, there won’t be any point in gluing. Likewise, if you make your character or setting so different that no one can even imagine it; as in it does not have enough things in common with what readers are familiar with; they can’t mentally grab hold of the idea. It will slip through their cognitive fingers and be lost. Provide enough connections to real life; experienced life; but cut deep lines where the character looks different from everyone else in one or two features, walks with a limp, smells like formaldehyde, snaps his fingers constantly, greets every single person with a high five, wears flip flops even in the snow, has an affinity for bugs, and so on. 

The napkin folding that I brought to the classroom was connected to origami in that it was folding, and it produced a work of art. The folded napkin is unnecessary. And, you are more likely to see it in a fancy place. It was different from origami in that the napkins do not hold their shape the way paper does. But, because of this you can easily fold and refold the napkin without a crease affecting it. Paper is plentiful, but a cloth napkin is more rare. There is a balance between contrast and familiarity.

Students ought to remember the napkin-folding experience (it will stick) because it was similar to creating origami, and it will be extra memorable (the bond will be stronger) because folding napkins during school was a weird activity. 

Dear Students,

And now, having read this lengthy explanation for why I brought cloth napkins to school and taught you how to fold them into fancy fans for food decor, I hope I have provided the adhesive that will make this activity not only stick in your mind, but become useful as a tool for teaching the power of contrast. Good luck creating just the right amount of it in your writing.   

Sources

Angleberger, T. (2010). The strange case of Origami Yoda . Amulet Books.

Georgia Tech. (n.d.). Kinetic Joy: Basic Principles of Paper Engineering. Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking. https://paper.gatech.edu/kinetic-joy/history-origami  

Literary Devices. (2013). Contrast. Retrieved November 16, 2023, from https://literarydevices.net/contrast/ 

Shramenko, S. (2017, May 29). Understanding Contrast in Photography. Skylum. https://skylum.com/blog/understanding-contrast-in-photography

To Teach, or To Entertain? What is the Purpose of the Text?

I have been laboring at building the text of my daughter Scarlet’s book, “Scarlet’s Superpower.” This past week I shared the first couple of pages of text with Scarlet… with mixed reviews. 

First of all, she balked at the idea of including details that did not actually happen. I reminded her that this was fiction, albeit realistic. I don’t think she liked the idea of napping in the “infant room” of the daycare. We can change that to suit her feelings and maintain the message of the book.

She also gave me a hard time for making up a name for the director of the daycare. I confessed that I did not remember the exact name, and I explained that it was common to replace actual names with surrogates. 

A criticism that I took more seriously came when Scarlet did not understand part of the text that I had written. There is a part of the story where I (Dad) show up to get Scarlet. It’s the end of the day, and Scarlet is playing outside with her friends. First, I use a vocabulary word from my 3rd grade curriculum to describe the audio of the scene: din. And then, I use some heavy figurative language when I share the experience of calling her to me. Scarlet hated it. 

I was driving when Scarlet was reading the text from my phone. I had written it into a Google doc that morning. As she complained and fumbled with this portion of the story, I was tempted to pull over to explain the meaning. Then I thought to myself, if I need to put on the brakes and pull apart the clauses of this sentence to explain it to the actual main character of the book, it is probably not a good idea to include it. 

I really liked the ideas from this sentence, though. I thought that there was a lot of teaching potential. If I were presenting this to my Polite Pirates (3rd grade students), I would go to town! We would draw pictures showing the figurative language. The students would be required to make up their own mirror sentences. It would turn into a week-long lesson of metaphor, mixed with alliteration and hyperbole!

“No, Dad,” was the vibe I was getting in my truck on the way home. Scarlet did not have to make a case for omitting the text. Her confusion and the disdain in her voice told me that this was not a battle to be fought and won. The teacher in me, trying to forge educational material, must bow to the author writing an entertaining children’s book. The text will still teach plenty of lessons. The theme alone packs a powerful punch. Why weaken the message by causing readers to stumble over fancy figurative language? 

Another idea/word to omit is “deduce.” What 11 year old would say of their dad, “He deduced…”? What world am I living in? Bring it down, Matt!

And, now I come to the purpose of this blog! Rather than include cumbersome text in “Scarlet’s Superpower,” I can write about what I won’t write, why I wanted to include it, and why it didn’t work. This will save the script from being weighed down with all that superfluous verbiage. 

Okay, so here is the sentence that Scarlet hated: 

His call is a siren telling me safety has arrived, and I better get over to him quickly.

Even if I explained to Scarlet what a “siren” was, it would take additional explanation to communicate the metaphor. By the end of all that cognitive wrestling, the text would be all turned around and the storyline would be lost. A teacher would spend so much time showing students the pretty flowers and important plants in a field that the trail was completely out of sight. “Where is Scarlet, again?” the teacher would have to prompt. “And, what time of day is it?” The teacher would have to field all kinds of wrong answers before honing back in on what is happening in the story! Is that what I want? 

An independent reader might completely gloss over this tricky sentence. But, someone else could think that Dad is a merman, sending supernatural signals to his daughter. Why send readers down a rabbit hole of researching “sirens,” risking losing them from finishing the text at all? This whole idea is similar to what actually happens when I pick up Scarlet. Rather than get her quickly from the playground to my truck to go home, she has to show me things in the daycare, tell me stories, talk with friends, and find lost toys! We NEVER quickly get out and get going! 

What if I could change the experience of picking up my daughter from daycare? What if I could portal us from the play area directly into my truck, with all of her belongings neatly packed in the back seat… including both gloves, and completed homework? Miracle upon miracle, we could not only get home faster, but avoid frustrations of fruitless searching. Better to omit the cumbersome, albeit creative, sentence.   

Even within this blog, I wanted to share too much. As I composed the text, I was tempted to begin writing figuratively about different stories compared to types of journeys; While one book might be a stroll through a park, another is supposed to be a grueling workout. The writer of a mystery sends readers through dense forests with hints around every corner. A thriller might have haunting colors, texture, and sounds seeping out of crevices. The experience of reading will be constructed by a good author, so that a person is different after having read an excellent text. 

“Where the Crawdads Sing” comes to mind. By the end of reading that book, I felt like I had met someone; a person I wished to befriend, but I understood that she didn’t actually want to be my friend. Not in a rude sense. Delia Owens protects her character Kya by having Kya avoid people throughout the text. I have to respect Kya’s privacy. After closing the cover of that book, I felt like my pants were stained up to the knees with marsh mud from trudging through Kya’s world. It was a stain that could not be washed out. Her experience was tattooed onto my mind. 

I would like the roots of “Scarlet’s Superpower” to borrow deep into readers’ minds. I want them to think deeply about the themes of the book. To help facilitate this, I need to ensure the text is unencumbered with mental obstacles that might cause young readers to have to perform comprehension gymnastics. While I don’t want it to be simplistic, the old adage applies; “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” By keeping the prose pointed, the message will be more powerful. 

Wrestling With the Beginning

When preparing to bring the original “Scarlet’s Superpower” from 13 pages to 26, I was thinking of ways to beef-up the story. While I liked the simple story line, the text needed a little more meat to it. Should I develop characters more? Could we include additional ways that her superpower was utilized? My favorite idea was to show ways in which Scarlet’s ability to shut out noise by removing her coils could benefit her. 

One morning, several years ago, I was driving Scarlet to her before school daycare when an idea hit me: What if Scarlet used her superpower to avoid hearing bullies belittling her? We could begin the book with her wanting to take a nap. She could query about sleeping on a mat in the infant room of her daycare, at the end of the first day of school. Older kids; kids Scarlet’s age; could see and hear this, and they would tease, “Look at Scarlet. What a baby.” 

Scarlet would NOT hear this teasing, though. She would have already removed her coils. She can’t hear anything–nothing–when she takes her coils off of her head. So, exhausted Scarlet lies down, innocent and thankful for peace and quiet. 

The teacher, on the other hand, hears these older kids teasing Scarlet. Because the facility has a “Zero Tolerance” (no teasing) policy, the teacher reports the miscreants to the person in charge of the daycare. They get in trouble. 

I’m not sure if Scarlet finds out about the bullying behavior or not, but by the end of the book she helps these kids, using her superpower. They admire both her ability to forgive and the power to NOT hear. 

Here are a couple of the problems with this beginning.

Scarlet’s mom and I looked at tons of daycare facilities to determine which would be best for our only child. In addition to staffing, cleanliness, and the usual concerns, we had to consider how noisy the place was. Luckily, our area had many to choose from.

While I like using more than one setting for the story, having Scarlet attend a daycare could paint her as privileged; Her family is wealthy enough to send her there. 

I could explain that Mommy and Daddy make just barely enough money to have her attend, and need her to, so that they can work the jobs that pay for her attendance, basically breaking even. This circumstance would explain away the idea of private child care being a symbol of wealth; It is a shackle (Fetters, 2020). A surprising 57% of the working population of America pay more than $10,000 a year for child care (30+ Essential US Child Care Statistics [2022]: Availability, Costs, and Trends – Zippia, n.d.). 

Additionally, Scarlet attending a daycare categorizes her as lucky. According to 30+ Essential US Child Care Statistics [2022]: Availability, Costs, and Trends – Zippia, “51% of Americans live in communities classified as child care deserts“ (n.d.). I do not want someone to come across “Scarlet’s Superpower,” and think to themselves, what an entitled, lucky, rich brat. 

Obviously, I am totally overthinking the situation. Some kids go to daycare. Some don’t. The kids who don’t go to daycare know about others who do. Is the situation relatable? That is the question. Can readers visualize kids making fun of Scarlet for wanting to take a nap? I think so.

Sources:

30+ Essential US Child Care Statistics [2022]: Availability, Costs, And Trends – Zippia. (n.d.). 30+ Essential US Child Care Statistics [2022]: Availability, Costs, and Trends – Zippia. Retrieved January 10, 2023, from https://www.zippia.com/advice/us-child-care-availability-statistics/

Fetters, A. (2020, January 18). The Working-to-Afford-Child-Care Conundrum. Working to Afford Child Care so You Can Work – the Atlantic. Retrieved January 10, 2023, from https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/01/working-afford-child-care-so-you-can-work/605206/

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2021). Early Childhood Program Participation: 2019 (NCES 2020-075REV), Table 1.

The Farmer and the Bee

Long ago there was a farmer who got nervous around bees.  He had been stung a few times, and it hurt.  He did his best to avoid the yellow and black menaces, until one day…

Photo by Matt Weimann , July 5, 2022

The farmer noticed a bee struggling in a  shallow birdbath.  The birdbath was not deep, and yet the bee would drown if it did not right itself and get to the rim.  Overlooking his nervousness, the farmer placed his finger in the bath near the bee.  The floundering bee found the farmer’s finger and grabbed it.  This surprised the farmer, but he patiently and peacefully held his hand still.  The bee might think his finger was a stick.  It would be silly to sting a stick, thought the farmer.

After pulling itself out of the water and shaking itself off, the bee rested on the farmer’s finger.  It was exhausted.  The farmer remained motionless, as still as a statue.  

This story is inspired by a real event.

The bee was surprisingly tired.  It just sat there for what seemed to the standing statue like a very long time.  Finally, the bee did one last shake and began to walk around on the farmer’s finger.  If this made the farmer uneasy, what happened next really shocked him.  

The bee said, “Thank you very much Mr. Farmer.  You saved my life.  Now, I am going to help you.”

The farmer’s tongue seemed to have swollen inside his mouth.  He could not utter one word.  

“Your crops have been struggling to grow the way I was struggling in that water.  Some years they do okay, but others they seem to drown in the dirt, never producing a fruit.”

The farmer, getting over the initial shock of a bee talking, thought about the bee’s words:  He was right.  There hadn’t been a truly successful yield for a very long time.  

“Here is what I will do for you,” the bee continued.  “I have a large family.  I am going to have my brothers and sisters help you out in repayment for your saving my life.  You may not know this, but your vegetable plants need to pollinate.”  

The farmer looked lost.

“This is when pollen from a flower’s anther is transferred to the stigma.”

The farmer looked at the bee in wonder.  

“Pollination happens many different ways: The wind can blow pollen from the anther of a flower to the stigma.  A falling leaf could rub against the anther and then brush a stigma.  But, the main source of pollination is bugs!”  

This sent shivers up the farmer’s spine.  Bees made him nervous, but the word bugs creeped him out.  How could they pollinate?

“My brothers and sisters can easily fly over your entire field, resting on each and every flower briefly.  We would knock the pollen about and cause it to stick to the stigma, thereby pollinating your whole crop.”

At last, the farmer found his tongue: “You would do that for me?”

“Before you think us completely selfless, you should know that my brothers and sisters would like to collect some of the leftover pollen that is not used to pollinate.”

Without even thinking, “Of course, of course, take as much as you like.  If what you say is true, there ought to be much more than necessary!”

The bee didn’t skip a beat.  “There is, there is!  Nature makes way more pollen than necessary to help flowers pollinate, however, like I said and you have witnessed, without bugs flowers are dependent on the wind or a falling leaf.”

We gave our rescued bee some watermelon.

The farmer thought aloud:  “It can be breezy, but the really windy times of the year are before flowers bloom and after harvest.  Also, with no trees near my crops, there would be no falling leaves or anything else for that matter.  I can see that I definitely do need your help!”

“And my family will be happy to oblige.  We use the pollen in our hive.”

“Excellent!” chimed the happy farmer.  He rescued not only a bee this day, but his entire crop.

That spring the farmer witnessed countless bees, butterflies, and other insects flying, fluttering, and hopping from flower to flower in his field.  There were even times when it seemed like one bee or another would come over to his shoulder and look him in the eyes.  Never did one talk to him again, however.  

That fall the farmer had more vegetables than he knew what to do with.  The other farmers were astounded.  “Where did you get all of this fruit?” each would ask over and over.  

“A little bee helped me,” is all the farmer would reply. 

In the month of November the farmer awoke one morning to find something peculiar on a plate near the window.  It was gray with holes.  There was a gooey substance all over it, glistening in the early morning sunlight.  When the farmer touched it with his finger he found it very sticky.  The taste was extraordinarily sweet.  He had to tell his wife:  “Honey, come take a look at this!”  

I’ve rescued many insects. Here is a cicada. August 4, 2022

 Comprehension Questions:

  1. How were the Bee and Farmer alike?
  2. How were their actions different?
  3. How much did Farmer work to save the Bee?
  4. How much does Bee work to help the Farmer’s field of vegetables?
  5. Is it a fair trade?
  6. Why do you think the farmer does not tell his neighbors all about the whole story?

Background of Story

This story was inspired by the old fable of “The Mouse and the Lion.”  Mouse helps Lion, and in turn is not only saved, but helped by Lion in the future.

What the farmer did at the beginning of the story, I did last summer.  I was walking in the shallow end of my swimming pool, skimming debris off the water’s surface, when I found a great big bumble bee drowning.  I had mixed emotions.  Because I had recently taught my elementary students that bees will only sting if threatened, I knew that the bee probably would not hurt me.  But, the bee could hurt me.  

I put my hand underneath the bee, scooping it out of the water.  When the water filtered through my fingers, the bee came to life.  Slowly at first, the giant bumble bee stirred, then shook.  I watched in amazement as the bee cleaned the excess water from its legs.  It did not talk to me or show any sign of gratitude, but just being able to witness this beautiful babe of nature return from the dead because of my help was reward enough.  

I have lots of flowers all over my property, and bees are everywhere all of the time.  They are always busy, and never bother me or my family.  This was a day when I had to put it to the test.  My curiosity was rewarded and hypothesis proved true.  

Finally, I wanted to share a story of the helpfulness of bees because the honey bee is threatened by farming.  Pesticides harmful to bees are used on crops.  I wanted to introduce the fact that bees are actually helpful, regardless of their potential sting.  

License to Poetry

 

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William Blake’s Ah! Sun-Flower: Poem Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://schoolworkhelper.net/william-blakes-ah-sun-flower-poem-analysis/

In my youth poetry was as elusive to me as calculus. It seemed unnecessarily complex and celebrated by the elite of literature. I wasn’t fond of reading in general back then. I definitely wasn’t going to champion wrestling over the hidden meaning of a poem.

 

And, really, if you want us to know that the sunflower symbolizes the afterlife, William Blake, just say so! Are poets trying to be annoying? In the same way no one imagines ever actually using calculus, poetry seemed worthless to me.

Songs_of_Innocence_and_of_Experience,_copy_AA,_1826_(The_Fitzwilliam_Museum)_object_43_My_Pretty_Rose_Tree_(cropped).jpgThen I became an elementary teacher. Poems are everywhere! Teachers begin the day with them. They are read on the morning announcements. Magazines end with them. Children’s literature is littered with them. Come to find out, some of my favorite authors celebrate poetry throughout their texts. Roald Dahl’s novels are packed with poetry. How did I never see this?

 

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Searching my Google drive revealed this poem I wrote in 2013!

Beyond the fact that I wouldn’t be escaping poetry, two things happened. I realized that this was a weakness. If I were a musician, I was playing rock and roll, ignoring the tendon of blues music that connected the muscle of contemporary privilege culture to the soul of bone-crushing hardship. Disregarding poetry would leave my students malnourished in the area of literary arts. The second realization I discovered was how interesting poetry can be. Come to find out it was fun to read and surprisingly easy to write!

 

I will say that before delving into this topic, I had to let go of the idea that only smart people can understand or read poetry. The fact that I might not “get it,” and would therefore feel dumb was holding me back from reading poetry. The concept that if I couldn’t write great poetry it would reveal a deficient intellect had to be released. Had I been defensively shielding myself from feelings of inferiority by purposefully ignoring this artful literature? Coming to grips with this possibility was the key for unlocking a love of poetry. 

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The librarian pulled a ton of poetry books for kids to hunt the styles after learning about them.

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These screenshots show comments between the librarian and I in 2014.

The first thing I did was prepare to teach the subject that I knew precious little about. I find that teaching helps me learn. I shared this idea with my school librarian, and the two of us planned to collaborate on a fun project of teaching several styles of poetry to my class. I convinced the librarian to use Google slides to make a slideshow that we could both add information to simultaneously and from any device. She hadn’t used this tool before. Sharing the same love of learning, my librarian jumped right in to figuring out this great collaboration tool.

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Link to Styles of Poetry slideshow for anyone interested to use, copy, and share

I learned poetry. The librarian learned Google slides. And, together we developed an exciting and fun interactive lesson that I still use to this day! Students are given a graphic organizer that has the names of the styles of poetry that they are about to learn on one side, five empty stars next to the name, and lines for writing. As they learn about the styles, they rate how they like them. In addition to coloring in stars, students are to write down a reason as to why they like or dislike  a style. I guide them through this activity, sharing some of my own opinions. We explore examples of the poetry, and even try writing some of our own. 

 

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Blog post “Poetry is Classy” has a poem (“Spelling Story”) about the homonym spell. It teaches the importance of spelling while demonstrating poetry’s liberty for misspelling. 

I by no means consider myself an expert on poetry. I have not read very much of it. The main change is that I am not afraid of it anymore. I’ve even tried writing some.

It helps that my audience is eight and nine-year-olds! By penning my own poetry and sharing it with my class, I am modeling giving it a try, even if you’re not good at it.

 

 

Not only that, but it is truly fun. One of the things that I like about poetry is the ability to break the rules. Like many things, it is important to know the rules, before breaking them. And then you don’t destroy grammar as much as bend it. My third graders are still a little young to truly understand “poetic license,” but they get the idea of bending rules. That’s for sure!

 

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I devised this “Grammar City” two week lesson in 2015, making metaphors of constructing buildings to symbolize the structure inherent in writing.

How do you share poetry? Why do you teach it? Why do you think poetry is important?

 

 

A Holy Kind of Classiness: Helping Others

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I felt like yelling this into comments to my students.

Today I assigned a writing assignment for the Polite Pirates (my 3rd grade students) to complete during their sequestered online-learning  experience during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The prompt was simple: “Tell of a time you helped someone.” In the instructions I told that this ought to take them a few days. I gave them a planning paper, loads of directions for using the writing process, and clear expectations.

As is always inevitably the case, several students submitted their work on the first day. On first glance, it looks like more time and renewed encouragement would be in order. It dawned on me that rather than say, “You must have at least five sentences,” an example text could be more useful. I sat down to put together something to share with them, and the following story, seemed to seep from my skin. 

This is probably the classiest thing I have ever done, and it is so simple. What is the classiest thing that you have ever done?

When I was a kid, my dad and I raked leaves a lot. We would clean up the leaves in the fall, of course, but we would also rake the yard in the spring. Because my yard had many large, mature trees, there seemed to be endless leaves to collect. Needless to say, I had a lot of practice raking.

There were two houses whose backyards butted up against mine. One had a fence around it. The other belonged to an elderly gentleman, whom I’d only seen a couple of times. He lived alone in a small, one story ranch. The yard was small, too, and it sloped downward, toward mine. 

One day I was just messing around in my backyard, when I noticed my elderly neighbor attempting to rake leaves in his backyard. He had a hunched back, which is to say, he could not stand up straight. Even though there were only a few, it looked like he was really struggling to pick up the leaves to put them into a yard barrel. He moved so slow! I knew I could clean up his yard in a fraction of the time it would take him. I went and got my rake out of my garage. Without ever saying a word, I began to help the gentleman rake and pick up his leaves. It was a breeze for me, being a spry 9 or 10!

I never said one word. I just joined my neighbor in his task. He never thanked me. I wasn’t given anything for this sacrifice of playtime. It felt pretty good to use the skills and experience I’d acquired over the years to help someone who really needed it. 

This story would be over, but for a unique experience I had when I went inside my house to get a drink. I’d just finished helping the old man with his leaves, and put my rake away. As I entered my house, I found my mom in the kitchen, looking out a back window with tears in her eyes. Although I hadn’t known she was looking at the time, I now realized that my mom had seen what I’d done when I helped our neighbor. When she looked at me, I could tell that her tears were trophies of pride. She didn’t say anything to me. She didn’t hug me or get me a drink. Now that I am a parent, I understand that she was so swollen with happiness that she would have popped if she had moved. 

I never shared this with anyone… ever. My mom and I never talked about it. 

The moral of this story is that it is classy to share the skills that you have learned and develop to help others, regardless of whether you get anything in return. Don’t do it, thinking that someone could be watching. Do it in order to grow into the best person you can be. 

I didn’t share what I witnessed in my mom’s demeanor in order to boast. In fact, now that I think about it, I imagine that deep down inside I knew that this was something too special to speak of flippantly. It was the kind of goodness that is too holy to talk about. It is the good that radiates from the marrow of a classy person’s bones. 

I stumbled upon it that day. Make no mistake: This was an accidental good deed. The lesson cut deep, though. I’ll never forget it. 

Inspired Writing With Kidblog

What’s the best writing activity you’ve ever done with your class? Have you ever tricked your students into wanting to write a ton? How’d you do it? What do you use to inspire creative writing?

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I’ve never witnessed more passionate writing before or since.

The most entertaining writing I ever witnessed my students perform came as a spur of the moment activity. Completely unplanned, an explosion of blogging happened in my class, thanks to Kidblog and creativity. 

There are so many reasons that I love teaching third grade! One is that this is oftentimes the last year that personification is more than just a literary element. Leprechauns actually hide gold. There is a Tooth-fairy; “How else do you explain the money under my pillow–and, my tooth was gone!” I can get away with using puppets. Santa totally has a list, and he sends elves to check on things immediately after Thanksgiving.

Screen Shot 2020-04-04 at 7.18.40 PM.pngHolly is my classroom’s Elf on the Shelf. She appears every year on the first day of school after Thanksgiving. Most students know the rules already. Many have their own elf at home. Each year’s students behaves differently. One year the Polite Pirates (my students) absolutely fell in love with Holly! 

Throughout the day, while I was trying to teach, students were writing notes to Holly. They knew they couldn’t touch her, so they snuck the notes as close as they dared. There was an impressive pile at the end of the day.

What did I do with all of these notes? The tiny papers were full of love, teeming with curiosity, and fueled by Christmas magic. I brought them home, and Holly began a Kidblog profile within our classroom account. 

At 5AM Tuesday morning she began to type. She shared good tidings from Santa, whom she had visited during the night, as she does every evening between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then she jumped right into thanking the Polite Pirates for all of their enthusiastic writing to her and began answering their questions.

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By making blogs “Public” parents and others without accounts can access Kidblog writing.

I don’t know how she did it, because you have to have a teacher profile to make your blogs in Kidblog “public”. Holly must have used some Christmas magic in order to foster faster reading of her blog. The students didn’t even have to log into their accounts before reading Holly’s message. 

The class had already been using Kidblog, so they were actively checking to see if friends had left comments when they found Holly’s new blog. Before morning announcements began the room was already a buzz with imaginative play. 

All in all, Holly wrote only nine blogs, but she replied to hundreds of comments! The variety of student writing was interesting. Some students wrote lengthy diary-style entries from home. Others had to jump right into their kidblog accounts right then and there to ask Holly, “How’d you do it? Are you real?” among other pertinent questions. Holly tended to reward students’ writing by mirroring their compositions with a similar amount of text, thought, and imagination. She was classy, creative, communicative, and caring. 

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Holly modeled friendship, as she became the students’ friend.

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Holly taught the students how to be friends.

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At times impromptu grammar lessons were shared.

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Holly took on the role of listening ear for some journaling writers.

In addition to her writing, Holly enjoyed taking pictures of her hiding spots. She’d leave clues in the header of her blogs as to where she was camped out for the day. 

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Viewing the classroom from an alternative perspective, Holly taught the Polite Pirates empathy.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) sub-standard 3.A reads, “Create experiences for learners to make positive, socially responsible contributions and exhibit empathetic behavior online that build relationships and community.” This falls under the category of Citizen. Not only did the Polite Pirates welcome Holly into the classroom as a legit member of the crew, but Holly helped eight and nine-year-olds see life from a different angle… It was new every day, in fact, whether she blogged or not! Also, Holly’s positive relationships with the shelf-elves of the students, modeled through her commenting on Polite Pirate inquiries, were lessons in themselves. 

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A passion for writing comes from passionate writing.

When Christmas vacation took Holly from us, the joy of winter break was bitter sweet. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed more passionate writing before or since. What have you used to inspire imaginative writing?

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This was a really fun and exciting teaching experience.