Brown Girl Dreaming

One of my Christmas gifts to myself was to read Brown Girl Dreaming from cover to cover. I read about a quarter of it when it first arrived in the library, but I wanted to wait until the winter break and after my Longwood classes were finished. I wanted a clear space in my head to fill with Woodson's poetry. I wanted to binge on everything I love about the South.

I am taking a break on page 191 to write this.

Page 191 opens with, "My grandmother's kitchen is the same/ big and yellow and smelling of the pound cake/ she's made to welcome us back."

Those three lines got me good, so I had to stop. And blow my nose. And pet my cat. And blow my nose again.

I miss my grandparents every day. Every single day. There's a special kind of longing when Christmas is around the corner. I bet you know just what I'm talking about. I know I'm not alone.

My grandmother's kitchen was the same throughout my memory. It was also yellow and often smelling of cake and full of welcome. It was the first room you came to as you stepped in from the porch. Desserts were often tailored to celebrate a holiday or family member. The happy yellow of that kitchen, the tall glasses filled with half-moons of ice waiting for the tea to pour, the perpetually operating oven, the bleach-clean white of the sink with the dish rag laid just so in between meals, the asparagus left forgotten in the microwave until the table was cleared, the breadbox with Mr. Goodbars inside. We all have those slivers of tiny images in our mind's eye that add up to something wonderful.

The magic of the kitchen. There's nothing like it. When their house was sold, the kitchen was still the same. It was a comfort and has become a place I often dream about, when I am not dreaming about their summer garden. I wish I had nicked a chip of the yellow wall, but I did my best to commit the small room to memory.

There's a strange satisfaction knowing that such a beloved place will become the backdrop for another family's memories. I loved driving past the house after it sold and imagining new folks eating in the kitchen, watching t.v. in the den and gazing at the traffic whizzing by just outside of the huge living room window.  Even if it wasn't the same, I could pretend that the kitchen hadn't changed.

The land where my grandparents' home stood.

When the house was demolished to build a Dollar General, I couldn't fantasize anymore. Even so, there's something comforting about being able to step back into their yard and choose an ice cream sandwich from the freezer. 

The Dollar General on Jefferson Ave.

But when I read those three lines tonight, I just wanted to pretend that tonight the dishes are all done. Tins of chocolate chip cookies, spiced pecans, divinity and other treats sit cooling on the porch. My grandparents are in the den watching the news. The light above the kitchen sink is glowing above the asphalt driveway. The Christmas tree in the living room is dressed and blinking. My grandparents are thinking about having a dish of ice cream, Breyer's vanilla in particular. And the sound of car tires cutting through water at 55 mph is on a continuous loop.


What a treat it is to have such lovely memories, to have a family that is so present and to have that nosey eye of a writer as a child. There are so many tiny details of everyday living that I have stored away. Now and then I polish a memory up a bit before sending it back to the archives.

Those "me too" moments are part of what keeps us reading, and I'm so thankful to Ms. Woodson for that bit of comfort tonight.

My grandparents' azalea is still thriving on the edge of the Dollar General parking lot.

Can all of your students find themselves in your library?

A middle school student is always hard at work, even when you can't tell from the outside.   If anything, they are spending a lot of their brain power considering who they are and who they aren't.   As I've mentioned before, this search for identity is aided by the books in your library.  

So, do you have what they need?   That's a big question, isn't it?   Let's make the question smaller in scope, so it's easier to manage.   You can then transfer the big ideas to the rest of your collection.

Let's imagine that a "teen" alien landed in the middle of your library and had only your fiction book collection to use to gather information on teenagers from the human race.   Would there be a good, healthy range of people and experiences?  

For this exercise, focus in on how African Americans are represented within your bookshelves.   Think about a pie chart and start slicing it into percentages of character types.   The Bluford Series of books I mentioned earlier are a hit with many students, and it does provide a bit of a variety of characters and plots, but it can't be the only representation of African American teen life in your library.

My all-time favorite author who produces a spectrum of people to populate the fictional landscape in our library is Jacqueline Woodson.   She writes books for children and teens, so investing some time in getting to know her work is worth the effort.   And she is amazing.   If you ever get the chance to hear her speak, go.   Most of her work appeals to girls more than boys.   I think that you should buy everything, but make sure you get the Maizon books, I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This, If You come Softly, Behind You and Show Way.   She may seem familiar to you because last year After Tupac and D Foster was a 2010-11 Virginia Readers' Choice (VRC) selection.

You probably already know Walter Dean Myers.   He writes mainly for young men, but does have some books that appeal to ladies.   Also, there's probably a piece in your literature book that he wrote, so if students show an interest in his style, you can point his books out to him on your next library visit.   I think that his masterpiece is Monster, but its style demands a sophisticated reader, so think about the text before you recommend it to a student.   Save this one for your above-average readers that love books that demand 100% focus from their audience.

Sharon M. Draper's Romiette and Julio is a big hit with teen girls.   It's also a sneaky way to prep them for 9th grade's Romeo and Juliet.   The story centers around an interracial relationship between a Hispanic and African American high school student.   Tears of a Tiger, Forged By Fire and Darkness Before Dawn are hits with both sexes.

Lori Aurelia Williams, Sharon Flake, Angela Johnson...the list of current amazing African American writers goes on and on.   The best way to get started is to follow books that made the list of American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Book Awards.   The awards include a category for illustrated books; you know I love that.   Try this link: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/emiert/cskbookawards/recipients.cfm

Right now, I'm looking forward to reading Kekla Magoon's The Rock and the River.   It made the cut for the 2011-12 Virginia Readers' Choice nominations.  

Before I go, let me close with this.   It's important for a middle school library to be able to hold up a mirror to all of the faces of its readers.   I also know that great writing appeals to everyone, and the overwhelming majority of teen readers do not reject a book because it's about someone from another background or race.   And I certainly don't make my book recommendations by matching an author's skin tone to the readers'.  Students own our schools' libraries; we merely tend it.   Let's make sure that everyone feels that ownership by honoring who they are and may become by stocking our shelves with every possibility.

The Library for Struggling Readers/ Pt. 1

This way to the Bedford Public Library.

Although my classroom was considered a total loss, our library rode out the storm with all of our collection in tact.   If I had ever to choose between the survival of the two, the library would win every time.  

If you have not yet created an alliance with your librarian, now is the time to rethink your relationship.   If you are a language arts teacher, your librarian can make your job a whole lot easier for you.   I know that sounds tantalizing.

The middle school has a big case of middle child syndrome.   And being in the middle means that some kids are really more "high school" or more "elementary school" when it comes to literacy, so the library has to be all-inclusive and downright spectacular.   There needs to be something in your library for every one of your students to read independently and successfully.

There's something called the ZPD in the educational world...the Zone of Proximal Development.   Stay with me; it's simple to grasp.   There's a range in which each reader can function independently and grow.   Additionally, there's a higher range in which each reader can function with support and grow.   In math terms, you would not hand a child who had conquered pre-algebra a math analysis text and expect mastery without providing support.  

It's also good to remember that your struggling readers are hungry for success, even if they don't show it.   How would you feel about getting on the school bus every day to go to a place that pushed you past your frustration level hour by hour, a place where you never felt like you knew anything, a place where it looked like no one was having the difficulties you were having and a place that gave yearly standardized tests that you consistently failed in spite of your best efforts?   That sure could eat away at my soul.

I'm not saying that schools should lower our standards, but as teachers, we need to meet struggling kids where they are when it comes to independent reading.   Leave whole-class instruction for stretching them...at least until they get their sea-legs.   Give them some pre-reading strategies to help them tackle the stories in the literature book.   Model the skills that a good reader possesses.   Eighth grade is year that we need to zoom below-level readers as close to being on-level readers a.s.a.p.   The high school literature book waits for no one.   You know that for sure!

By eighth grade, most teens have entered the developmental stage during which they want to start focusing on who they are and what they think about their world.   This is why the teen problem novels fly off of the shelves.   It doesn't matter that the problem is not the reader's current problem; they want to see realistic portrayals of teens negotiating the world independently.   You'll notice that young adult novels are often devoid of adult main characters.   This would be too easy.   In reality, most children do have some adult role models to turn to for help, but in literature, readers want to see characters solve problems on their own.

If you have limited library funds, I would start with the teen problem novel to beef up your collection for 8th graders.   You would also need to investigate high-interest/ low-level books.   Now, teen problem novels aren't always great literature, but sometimes they are.   So, don't turn your nose up at them too soon...at least, not in front of the students.   The Hi/Lo Bluford Series of books is well-loved by many students who are not quite ready for reading a longer novel on their own.   Girls love Sarah Dessen, Lurlene McDaniel, Beatrice Sparks and Jacqueline Woodson.   Boys love Gordon Korman, R.L. Stein, Neal Shusterman, Dav Pilkey and Todd Strasser.   And vampires...anything short with vampires, since Twilight is probably too big for them right now.   Besides, they already saw the movie.

If you are really low on library funds, then focus on Gordon Korman.   His writing covers a lot of ground, and girls will read his books.   If you are choosing a title for a novel study, No More Dead Dogs will appeal to a variety of readers.    Here's his official website: http://www.gordonkorman.com/

In closing, everyone loves to be able to decide how they would like to spend their days.   For the most part, school is not designed that way, nor would it be able to function successfully that way.   Creating a time for free-choice self-selected reading (within reason, of course) helps teens on their journey to self-discovery.   It gives them practice in decision-making and a voice in their course of study.   By meeting them where they are, we honor who they are today.  

Note: If your school is looking for an assessment to identify students' reading levels, I recommend the Gates-MacGinitie.   It gives you a vocabulary and comprehension level separately.   Ignore the composite score because it can muddy the issue.   It's a great tool to measure growth from year to year.  
Find more information here:  http://www.riversidepublishing.com/products/gmrt/index.html