Reading Workshop

Although Voices in the Park (2000) is one of the most well known picturebooks by Anthony Browne, many educators are unaware that it is a second version (not exactly a sequel, but more like a retelling in a different format) of A Walk in the Park (1977) which has recently been re-released. In the original version, we learn the names of the parents - Mrs. Smythe and Mr. Smith - who go nameless in Voices in the Park . The variations among SES and class distinctions are equally pronounced in both versions, though A Walk in the Park is not told in four separate voices. Both versions are highly recommended.

           Particular patterns of interaction between teachers and students have dominated traditional classroom instruction. One pattern of interaction that involves traditional roles for teachers and students, and particular ways of talking and responding, has been referred to as the Initiate – Respond – Evaluate (IRE) or Recitation Script (Cazden, 2001; Gutierrez, 1994) . In this interaction pattern, the teacher initiates discussion, generally by posing a question, students respond to the teacher’s prompt, and the teacher closes the interaction by evaluating what the student has offered.             The IRE or Recitation Script generally involves the use of “pseudo” or display questions, in other words questions with predetermined answers used to ensure students can recall a specific bit of information from a text. Through numerous studies, display questions have been demonstrated to dominate liter...

After spending the weekend talking with David Wiesner at the Kutztown Children's Literature Conference, I developed a deeper appreciation for his new book Mr. Wuffles . This picturebook has a different illustration pallet that many of his other books. The colors are bolder and brighter. The story revolves around a curmudgeonly cat that finds a toy to play with only it is actually a spaceship full of aliens. The aliens hide in the walls of the house, only to realize that mice have been drawing on the walls inside the walls like the art in the Caves of Lasceaux. Wiesner uses four different types of speech bubbles to alert the reader to whom is talking. I will have to revisit this one for sure to see what I missed in my first few readings.

I have become a big fan of Barbara Lehman's wordless picturebooks. Her simple, yet detailed drawings  render her visual narratives in colorfully unexpected ways. The Red Book is about a book that is found by a boy and the adventures it takes him on.

The night that Max wore his wolf-suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his Mother called him “WILD THING!” and Max said “I’LL EAT YOU UP!” so he was sent to bed without eating anything. From the opening lines of the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are , the author, Maurice Sendak invites us to travel along with Max, to understand his vision of the world and the limitations associated with childhood. Through the use of carefully chosen text and surrealistic pastel illustrations, Sendak invites us to accompany Max on a journey into his imagination. Max is escaping the reality of his life and his bedroom, by creating a world that allows him to push through the limitations imposed upon him by his mother and the realities of his childhood. As the story progresses, a forest grows in Max’s room, and of course in his imagination as well. He is soon transported by private boat to an island where he tames the Wild Things and is feared and respected. He quickly becomes the...

Today's Picturebook of the Day review features picturebooks with multiple narrators. Each of these stories are rendered with more than one point of view. I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat ; George vs. George ; and Come Away from the Water, Shirley all feature two narrators juxtaposed over a particular situation and provide the reader with a set of opposing viewpoints. The well known Voices in the Park extends this concept to feature four different voices each telling their version of a trip to the park. These books are great for introducing the concept of perspective and help students understand there is more than one way to look at things. More of these books can be found on a booklist on my website at: http://www.frankserafini.com/book-lists/multinarrator.pdf

This series of humorous picturebooks are excellent texts for introducing math concepts through children's literature. They are also delightful texts just to be read and pondered. A list of picturebooks for teaching math concepts can be found on my website at:  http://www.frankserafini.com/book-lists/mathpicbooks.pdf