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How to stop dominance behavior.

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"Why Am I Me?," written by Paige Britt and illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko, follows two children on their journeys home from school one day. The children don't know each other, but they share similar questions about themselves and the world around them. They wonder, as they ride a subway full of all kinds of people, why they are who they are. As the subway takes them through neighborhoods, they see people playing in parks, dancing at an outdoor concert or simply walking home from work. Their reflections on the world around them connect them to it, and to each other. The beautifully textured artwork by Qualls and Alko adroitly captures the mood and feel of a city in which diversity among people is such a natural occurrence, it doesn't need to be called out - it simply is.

In "Come With Me" by Holly M. McGhee ("Matylda, Bright and Tender"), with pictures by Pascal Lemaître ("Always"; "Who's Got Game?"), a little girl, saddened by the news on TV, asks her parents what she can do to make the world a better place. Her papa takes her on a walk through the city and greets everyone he sees with a kind smile and a tip of the hat. Her mother takes her to a market full of foods from around the world, and tells her to be unafraid "because one person doesn't represent a family or a race or the people of a land." The little girl is inspired by her parents' gentle regard for the world, and invites the boy next door to walk the dog with her. She comes to understand that the goodness of people, with their small acts of kindness and bravery, makes the world a better place. Lemaître's whimsical cartoons add some needed lightness to the earnest text. Together, the words and pictures work seamlessly to deliver a powerful message: What we do matters. Given that the epigraph of the book is a quote by Yvette Pierpaoli, the humanitarian who died while assisting refugees from Kosovo in 1999 (and who was Lemaître's mother-in-law), adults will understand that the most pressing context of the book is the need for tolerance toward displaced people around the world. That children won't get those larger implications is fine. All they need to hear is that they have a part to play, as "tiny" as it may be, in making the world a better place.

"No One Else Like You," written by Siska Goeminne and illustrated by Merel Eyckerman, doesn't follow a character, but approaches diversity from a distance. "In this world there are more than seven billion people," it begins, then explores the many things those people do. Some work, some drive around. Some have tattoos. Some people are happy and some people are sad. People believe all kinds of things and practice all forms of religion. Everyone is different. Those differences, however, are what ultimately unite us: We're all different, and that's what we all have in common. The illustrations do a nice job of conveying the great diversity of people in the world, but it might have been helpful to introduce a character or point of view to help bridge the distance between young readers and that large world around them. While readers might see a relatable character or two in one of the many beautiful representations of people around the globe, it's hard to inspire true empathy from a bird's-eye view. That said, one of my new all-time favorite literary quotes is from this picture book: "People are fragile. You shouldn't drop them, because they might fall to pieces."

There's a similar big-picture approach to diversity in "Most People," written by the first-time picture book author Michael Leannah and illustrated by Jennifer E. Morris ("May I Please Have a Cookie?"), but the art wisely introduces repeating characters that weave in and out to form a separate narrative that aligns beautifully with the text. "Most people," we are told, love to smile and laugh. Most people want to help other people. Most people love the sunshine. Most people are good. There are some people who aren't good, of course, but if you could line up all the good people and all the bad ones, the line of good people would be much, much longer. That simple reasoning is perfectly pitched for its young audience, who will enjoy piecing together the story-within-a-story of the two main characters as they illustrate the messages of the text within the context of their own lives. "Most People" works especially well because it doesn't just tell children to "be" good. It shows them how to "do" good.

"Lovely," a debut picture book written and illustrated by Jess Hong, is a lively ode to being different. "What is lovely?" the text asks. "Lovely is different." A girl with one blue eye and one brown eye looks directly at the viewer. Then comes a series of illustrative plays on words. The word "Black" is next to a white woman wearing black clothes. On the facing page, the word "white" accompanies a black woman with white hair. On other spreads, we see a tall woman walking a short dog ("tall") opposite a short man walking with a tall dog ("short"), and a red-haired girl with a "fluffy" cat opposite a straight-haired girl with a "sleek" snake. As with any successful picture book, the art in "Lovely" doesn't just illustrate the text, it expands it. This is why a spread like "Fancy. Sporty. Graceful. Stompy" works so well: Illustrated with four sets of legs - hairy legs wearing fancy red stilettos, prosthetic legs playing soccer, black legs in pink ballet slippers, and fishnet-stockinged legs in punk-rock platform boots - it shows the multifarious world in all its glory.

The common thread in all these picture books is difference - myriad ethnicities and differently abled people and all kinds of families living and working and playing side by side. For those of us who remember the 1960s and '70s, when "peace" and "harmony" were catchphrases, it's hard to imagine that children's books that show diversity are still so needed. And yet, here we are. As far as we've come, we still have a ways to go. Tolerance. Inclusion. Compassion. Kindness. Empathy. As the song says, teach your children well - or better yet, inspire them well.

Correction: August 28, 2017

Correction: August 28, 2017

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You Can't Teach Kids Empathy, but These Picture Books Inspire It

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"Why Am I Me?," written by Paige Britt and illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko, follows two children on their journeys home from school one day. The children don't know each other, but they share similar questions about themselves and the world around them.

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Podcast with Ralph. Listen to him describe Greenbelt writing and discuss it with your team.

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On today's podcast, putting the fun back into writing. Ralph Fletcher says nothing helps writers grow like practice, but not just any kind of practice will do, you've got to bring the joy! In his new book, , Ralph shares the whys and the how of giving students time and autonomy for the playful, low-stakes writing that leads to surprising, high-level growth. Ralph talks about how the element of fun has disappeared from classrooms, so we started our conversation with why that is.

Continue reading

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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On today's podcast, putting the fun back into writing. Ralph Fletcher says nothing helps writers grow like practice, but not just any kind of practice will do, you've got to bring the joy! In his new book, , Ralph shares the whys and the how of giving students time and autonomy for the playful, low-stakes writing that leads to surprising, high-level growth.

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Poem by Darren Victory

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Writing revival! Barry Lane Ralph Fletcher #wjfest17 #freeport #freechoicewriting

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Post by darren.vic.

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Opening scene from the movie, Inside Out.

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Apologies to Simon and Garfunkel.

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Senior Marlene Martinez remembers the "Wacky We-Search" poem Flapper Fondue she did in her American Studies course. If she had been given a standard quiz or typical report would she be so passionate. The idea is in the book 51 Wacky We-search Reports by Barry Lane.

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4th grade teacher Darren Victory wrote this oath for his students.

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Another way to explore identity. You can use the Shortstop poem in your packet as a mentor text that goes with the baseball glove in this photo.

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What's wrong with standardized approaches to writing?

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Barry Lane's best-selling After THE END helped teachers see revision in a whole new light and inspired a generation of students to not only embrace revision but to realize that writing is revision. Now, the long-awaited second edition keeps Barry's humorous and endearing tone while updating his ideas and lessons for teaching writing with heart. In today's post and video adapted from the book, Barry compares students' relationship with academic writing to that of Kirk and Spock, commanding officers of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

by Barry Lane

One of the great longstanding offenses of boring academic writing instruction is the insistence that good writing begin with a predictable central idea to prove, rather than a question to explore and expand upon. One glance at writing rubrics from any state or testing company will find the phrase controlling idea mentioned throughout. Terms like this are never used by writers, who spend more time chasing ideas than controlling them. Good nonfiction writing, according to most states and test companies, is viewed as a sort of mathematical equation: Controlling idea (thesis) + Supporting relevant evidence + Conclusion = Excellent essay.

I call this Spock writing, after the half-Vulcan, half-human character played by the late Leonard Nimoy on the famous TV series Star Trek. Like most Vulcans, Spock is supremely rational and calculates each situation with his overworked left hemisphere. Spock would simply be a robot if not for his half-human lineage and his close association with Captain James Tiberius Kirk, the dreamy, defiant, unorthodox, deeply flawed leader, who is just as likely to punch his way out of a situation as calmly negotiate. The problem with state standards and other rigid textbook approaches to writing is that they are all Spock and no Kirk. All reason and no bluster. The best nonfiction writing has an element of Captain Kirk in it. It is unpredictable, surprising, dreamy, inquiring. It contains, in Star Trek language, strange anomalies. Not all paragraphs begin with topic sentences. Not all details are held in place by a neat controlling idea. The inquiring writer takes the reader on a journey, and neither is totally certain where they will end up. The writing is organized around the passion of the author, a question trying to be answered, an idea unfolding, a thesis explored, not just proven.

Once, I was asked to write a short essay on the power of reading. I began writing with no idea where it would lead. When I started thinking about reading, I started by comparing my TV days of childhood when I didn't read with the days after I started reading. I remembered some key reading experiences. By the end of the essay, my writing led me to one very simple truth: reading is not a skill; it is a miracle. I found the main idea of my essay in the very last sentence. Imagine how the essay would have read differently if I had started with, "Reading is not a skill; it is a miracle. There are three main reasons why. First of all..." Encourage your students to take the journey to the thesis, or, to paraphrase the famous captain, to boldly go where no nonfiction writer has gone before.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Barry Lane has taught writing in grades K-12, and authored many professional books to help teachers teach writing with joy and passion. His other books include Reviser's Toolbox, But How Do You Teach Writing? and Force Field for Good (with Colleen Mestdagh).

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Barry Lane's best-selling After THE END helped teachers see revision in a whole new light and inspired a generation of students to not only embrace revision but to realize that writing is revision. Now, the long-awaited second edition keeps Barry's humorous and endearing tone while updating his ideas and lessons for teaching writing with heart.

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These questions can help you and your students write about your theme song.

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Students from Darren Victory's 4th grade class talk about their work.  Videos like this are the clearest way to see student ownership. Make some with your class.

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Great Wacky We-Search example.

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The Majestic Plastic Bag - A Mockumentary

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Essays on the power of reading to use as mentor texts. Both Ralph and Barry are in here.

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Emily Talmage's Blog.

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The following letter, written by Karen McClure-Richard of Lewiston, Maine, appeared in our local newspaper this morning. It was written in response to the superintendent's call for an improved state test, and it's awesome.

This is a response to Bill Webster's guest column about the MEA tests (June 18). I find his change in opinion on that test very interesting. As a parent, I have spent the past five years advocating that school leaders take a hard look at the over-testing of students. Much of what Webster discussed in his column could have come directly from the many emails I have sent the Lewiston School Committee through the years.

Sadly, while so much focus has been on the one state-mandated test, I have been seeing an increase in the amount of time being spent on numerous assessments that are used multiple times per year, starting with even the youngest students in kindergarten.

Parents do not have access to that information. Teachers continue to say that little, if any, of the data gleaned from those assessments helps guide their instruction, as there are far too many and much of the data they are consistently buried in is often contradictory. It also generates a huge loss in instruction time, causing frustration for students and teachers, which probably contributes to other classroom challenges.

By condemning the MEA, I hope that Webster is not promoting the all-too-frequent use of other embedded assessments, which seems to be the way of the proficiency-based model.

I will continue to opt my children out of all of them. My kids are doing fine and their teachers know what they can do ... without the assessments.

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The following letter, written by Karen McClure-Richard of Lewiston, Maine, appeared in our local newspaper this morning. It was written in response to the superintendent's call for an improved state test, and it's awesome. This is a response to Bill Webster's guest column about the MEA tests (June 18).

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Great podcast on writers talking about their process.

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Laurie Halse Anderson is a writer known to many of you, but she was unknown to me until I walked into a panel at the 2016 NCTE Annual Convention about censorship and instantly appreciated her frank and blunt manor.

She explained to me on the podcast that "life is short. I don't believe in hiding the truth." When I discovered that she is a New Englander at heart, It all made sense.

Laurie is a New York Times-bestselling author who writes for kids of all ages. Known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity, her work has earned numerous national and state awards, as well as international recognition.

Two of her books, and , were National Book Award finalists. Laurie was honored with the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award given by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of the American Library Association for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature."

In 2015, she won the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award.

We chatted about her writing process and the long walks she takes when brainstorming. You'll find interesting the role technology plays in these walks. I sure did.

She shares the story of her second-grade teacher's role in making her appreciate the power of words, and she lets us know the best book she has read in the last decade.

Even though she was fighting a cold for this interview, we had a great discussion about many different things.

I hope you enjoy the episode.

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Laurie Halse Anderson is a writer known to many of you, but she was unknown to me until I walked into a panel at the 2016 NCTE Annual Convention about censorship and instantly appreciated her frank and blunt manor. She explained to me on the podcast that "life is short.

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I write songs about kindness for children and songs about hope and justice for adults. I love Pete Seeger, and believe, as he did, that a single song can help change the world by uniting hearts and minds. We are the mixed fruit of one tree, Live in peace and unity.

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What Schools Can Do to Help Boys Succeed

Ralph Fletcher quoted in recent Time Magazine article Work With the Young Male Imagination

In his delightful Boy Writers: Reclaiming their Voices, celebrated author and writing instructor Ralph Fletcher advises teachers to consider their assignments from the point of view of boys. Too many writing teachers, he says, take the "confessional poet" as the classroom ideal. Personal narratives full of emotion and self-disclosure are prized; stories describing video games, skateboard competitions or a monster devouring a city are not.

Read more: Christina Hoff Sommers: 3 Things Schools Can Do to Help Boys Succeed | Read More

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What Schools Can Do to Help Boys Succeed Ralph Fletcher quoted in recent Time Magazine article Work With the Young Male Imagination In his delightful Boy Writers: Reclaiming their Voices, celebrated author and writing instructor Ralph Fletcher advises teachers to consider their assignments from the point of view of boys.

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The 4 Things that make you an immortal teacher

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The 4 Things that make you an immortal teacher

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Mark Wasicko's research.

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This video is about The 4 Things That Make Great Teachers

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3 minute Video that describes FFFG.

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Merging social emotional learning with academic learning helps create students who care about their place in the world. More information on assemblies and curriculum at www.forcefieldforgood.com

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Great lesson on authorship.

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You are the exclusive author of your story | Jovan Mays | TEDxMileHigh

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When was the last time you shook up your writing instruction? Shawna Coppola's new book is built on the premise that our students are ever-changing, and so is our global landscape. While there's nothing inherently wrong with relying on instructional strategies that have worked in the past, Shawna challenges writing teachers to rethink and revise their practice regularly-leading to the renewal of their professional lives.

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Here is the Karaoke singalong page for Barry's kindness songs.

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Know Your Higher Self
This song teaches about the Higher Self and how to practice using it.
Force Field for Good
What is a Force Field for Good and how to we create it.
The Big Bad Bully Bus
How do we learn to control our own inner bully? Five things we a can do in bully situations.
Ode to Other
You begin where I end and that's why I call you my friend.
The Gimme Blues
How do we cure the gimme blues? Learn to think of others.
Mean Girls
How do girls bully differently and what to do about it.
Magic Mirror
How do we see ourselves in others and others in ourselves?
Afraid of Love
Who is stronger, Hate or Love?
Words, Words, Words
Three things you can do to use words to create your force field.
Now is the New Day
Hope is way of thinking . This song is full of hope.

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Sing along songs from the Force Field for Good Know Your Higher Self This song teaches about the Higher Self and how to practice using it. Force Field for Good What is a Force Field for Good and how to we create it. The Big Bad Bully Bus How do we learn to control our own ...

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Brett wrote this song on day one. Think of all the
Brett's in your class. Schools are X-men academies not skill factories.

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Lesson from Poems are Teachers by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. Out this September from Heinemann

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A future star for sure.

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"brett raio" music solo singer songwriter amplifire entertainment pop rap christian "max bickford" "john raio" guardian

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Official YouTube account of singer/songwriter Brett Raio.

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Lesson from Poems are Teachers by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater (Heinemann)

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fred rogers: america's favorite neighbor

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Parts from the documentary, America's Favorite Neighbor, as requested. Including a mini-biography of Fred by Keaton.

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Barry's TED Talk

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Vigor not rigor-schools should be dream driven, not data driven | Barry Lane | TEDxCCSU

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This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Barry Lane questions the understanding of rigor in education reform. Barry Lane is a writer, filmmaker, songwriter and author. He has worked in schools in all 50 states and abroad teaching writing.

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What Do I Know? Words and Music by 4th grade teacher Ernie Gagne. Sung for the first time at the Literacy Cabaret in Lewiston, Maine on October 24th. www.literacycabaret.com

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Jennifer McClure-Groover - "Send In the Clones"

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Sung live on 10/24/16 at Barry Lane's Maine Premiere of his "Literacy Cabaret" in Lewiston, Maine

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After years of doing stand-up and parody songs as part of his academic presentations, Barry Lane has put together a genuine interactive, improvisational, night club act for teachers. You will sing, you will dance, watch poignant and funny original short videos and you will learn to laugh at yourself and the crazy world around you. You may also begin to realize once again that you have the most important job in the world.

Cabaret (an opening number)

Smooth Laminator (a show stopping number)

My Way for Teachers (a closer)

If I'd Never Had a Teacher (a song for Barry's 4th grade teacher)

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After years of doing stand-up and parody songs as part of his academic presentations, Barry Lane has put together a genuine interactive, improvisational, night club act for teachers. You will sing, you will dance, watch poignant and funny original short videos and you will learn to laugh at yourself and the crazy world around you.

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With children singing along.

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A song about standardized testing from the point of view of a child. Words by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Music by Barry Lane. Performed by Barry Lane. www.barrylane.com