I hope you were able to find the blog after that big gap of whitespace. Here is John's second blog, straight from the warzone of the Oklahoma City schools. His last paragraph is especially powerful and convincing -- whatever schools need to be in terms of education, they are also a reflection of the communities in which they function. In that sense, teachers are more like the canaries then the miners.

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John Thompson is a professional historian turned teacher in a very tough Oklahoma city school who contributes to the This Week in Education blog scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/john_thompson/index.html He saw me on TV talking about Race, I saw his post, and we got in touch. Here is the first of two powerful blogs from John -- which link together several of the themes that have come up here -- the graduation rate challenge, the disruptive boys issue, what NCLB means to schools like John's:

When my Oklahoma City neighborhood became the epicenter of crack and gangs in the 1980s, I became attached to the kids in the drug houses and became an inner city high school teacher. I would urge anyone who would like to join the civil rights movement o...Read More

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Did you read last week's post about print books? Well here is a very similar "take" from James Gleick in today's New York Times News of the Week in Review: www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/opinion/30gleick.html

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I Went to School in the Glory Years of "New Math" -- Venn Diagrams

So if we were to diagram nonfiction books for younger readers, what overlapping forces would we have to consider? Here's the first rub: the most obvious first consideration is curriculum -- will the the subject of this book fit with the scope and sequence for readers of that age? But for most trade publishers -- those who print books in hardcover, who do not sell series, who rely on reviews and bookstore sales not reps who visit schools -- the first consideration is retail visibility -- will the chains take the book, is it a topic or highly visual treatment, a relative might buy as a gift for a student? An ideal case, of course, is the crossing point of these two -- but that leads, as this year, to (so I have heard) some 7 Lincoln books all hoping for extra exposure in 2009 the two hundredth...Read More

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The Third Grade Story

Susan questions whether that third grade reading scores = where to build prisons story is true or one of those tales that flickers across the internet, gaining credability, or at least currency, merely because it exists. blog.iamnotashamed.net/2006/04/10/failing-reading-scores-prison-cells/ This discussion cites an official knowledgable about California as saying there is a link between fourth grade scores and plans for prisons. That changes the age by a year, but retains the same basic equation. Susan, can you point us to a counter case, this is an interesting thread to examine -- to use all of our research skills to examine. 

I see three possibilities: some version of the elementary scores = prisons stories is true. If that is so, t...Read More

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I'm Writing from NCTE, Where I Wander Through Halls Filled with Books

and so the question comes, what is the particular nature of a print book, as opposed to the same text and art on, say, a Kindle or any other soon-to-appear form of e-reader? I was prompted to think of this by looking at four books: there are three new Lincoln books that are extravaganzas of visual display: Martin Sandler's Lincoln Through the Lens search.barnesandnoble.com/Lincoln-through-the-Lens/Martin-W-Sandler/e/9780802796660 is the most conventional: an oversize book on clear white paper that shows off the many period photos and prints; Candace Fleming's A Scrapbook Look at the Lincolns, and Barry Denenberg's Lincoln Shot (discussed in this joint review ...Read More

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Alfred Tatum and "Textual Lineages"

One of the best parts of going to conventions can be the flights, because you are often seated near people with similar interests, but not necessarily the circle of familiar faces you plan to meat on panels and at parties. Flying out here to NCTE-ALAN, I met a woman who edits books on secondary school education aimed at teachers, and she told me about one of her new authors, Alfred Tatum www.alfredtatum.com/ Dr. Tatum is focused on kids who, like he was as a child, are poor, black, male -- and thus in great danger. The editor I met (Lisa was her first name, I must admit I don't recall her second name) told me she attended a conference where people who build prisons stated that they decide where new facilities should be built based on 3rd grade reading scores -- show poor literacy...Read More

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Today's Times Brings an Article That Links, and Comments On, My Last Two Posts

www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/us/20internet.html The article describes a study of how teenagers use the social networking of the internet: the horizontal now I described. But it also concludes that this activity is not as dangerous (in terms of predators) as parents might fear, and that teenagers also seek out, and respect, each other's knowledge. In other words, in their world of the continual digital present, they see individuals and communities who have gone from being pioneers to guides -- those who have researched, studied, learned, and mapped out some territory. You might call those individuals now plus -- they are part of the digital connected present, but their value to other teenagers is not just that they a...Read More

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Podcasts v Reviews

When I arrived at the SLJ Summit I had to rush off -- leading to the widespread rumor that my plane was trapped on the ground in Newark. In fact, I was in my hotel room, because I was doing a podcast interview with Heidi Estrin for the Book of Life, a Jewish-oriented podcast she hosts. Heidi has since told me about a contest jewishlibraries.org/podcast/ that may be of interest to anyone who reads this blog. Heidi conducts interviews for the Book of Life, but if you click "contest" at that site, you'll see that the Jewish Library pocast is open to talks, lectures, readings -- events that an author is already doing. So both the Book of Life and the new podcast are ways to speak to a larger audience than is physically present at a given event.

Full disclosure, that same...Read More

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Back From the Summit With a Vision of the Nonfiction Future

I hope some or all of you caught the blogs or twitters that came directly from the Summit over the weekend. I was there, listening to Anastasia Goodstein of Ypulse www.ypulse.com/about/, Scott Traylor of 360kid www.360kid.com/, and various publishers (Scholastic, Capstone, Rosen were especially in evidence, Nancy Fersten of National Geographic was on my panel about print and the digital age). And I was stuck by how we are at a moment that might be best described by elementary physics.
     Anastasia, in a typically high-speed talk spoken in the cadence of teen-talk (the rising question end of a sentence, the quick glance to the latest in terminology, fashion, up-to-the-second favorite (or disfavored) ...Read More

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Florida, if you are coming to the SLJ Summit -- here is information about it sljsummit.ning.com/ I had not heard of "ning" before Kevin Jarett pointed this out to me. It is is a social networking site created around an event. In this case the summit has very limited registration, but the site serves (I should think) as a way for anyone interested to learn more about (or from) those who will be there. In effect the site is a mini, online, version of the shmoozing that is half the reason for a conference. 

I am hosting a panel on how books, regular old trade (not textbooks) books fit or do not fit with the digital universe. On the panel with me will be Vicki Cobb, Nancy Feresten (publisher of children's books at National Geographic), and Kevin -- who will guide everyone to the two sites being built around my book ...Read More

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Over the Year We Heard From Several Authors Whose Work Was In Progress, But Not Published. Here is an Update from Mary Bowman-Kruhm. Other Authors Please Get In Touch.

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