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Weekend Pick November 25, 2022

11/25/2022

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Weekend Pick for November 25, 2022

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The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis: What’s Important and Why?

 This Weekend Pick is brought to you by Basil Conway IV. 
Basil Conway IV is an associate professor of mathematics education at Columbus State University. 
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He and his family attend Trinity Presbyterian Church in Opelika, AL; a Calvinist and reformed Presbyterian Church of America. His children are currently 12 and 9, and he has been married to one wife for nearly 20 years. He began his professional career in education in 2005 after graduating from Auburn University. Since that time, he has went on to earn a Masters of Science in Statistics from Colorado State University and a Masters of Education and Doctorate of Philosophy in mathematics education from Auburn University. His research foci have been in statistics education, de-tracking, teaching for social justice, equity, access, and empowerment.
When I began my career as a middle school teacher in 2005, I was passionate about mathematics and mathematics education. My first position was teaching the same mathematics class for 6 different periods with one reading course. I had very little pedagogical training in reading education or literature. Little did I know that this would be one of the most impactful classes for me as a professional educator and a parent. 
Perhaps in conjunction with or opposed to research in this area, we read two books together out loud each semester. I learned who was able to read well orally and those who struggled more in this area. Though there were differences in pace, I still required students to read out loud and follow along. I provided time for each student to grow in this area. Throughout the year, I would see improved reading skills. 
Providentially, the second book I required for students to read was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, because it aligned perfectly with the motion picture release in 2005, my first year teaching. Little did I know how much this book and its sisters would impact me pedagogically, philosophically, and personally through the next 17 years. 
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Pedagogically
Developing as a reading teacher in my first seven years of teaching, I began to include projects in my classes. This was largely attributed to my pedagogical training in mathematics education; however, my reading course provided me a pathway to integrating students’ lives into the classroom. Though my earlier years of teaching were largely focused only on mathematical standards, I grew to want students to have opportunities to connect their mathematics and their reading to their own lives, cultures, experiences, and faith. This began to be more and more incorporated during my teaching and has been a major artifact of the recent two books Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Injustice I have co-authored. 
Allowing students to reflect on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe and its themes, characters, mythologies, plot, and individual stories were very impactful for everyone involved in the reading of the literature. Some students would bring out the different types of creatures like the fauns, centaurs, unicorns, dwarfs, dryads, minotaurs, and elves and their relationship to Greek mythology. Some students would focus on different parts of the story that connected with their religious faith such as Aslan's willing sacrifice to purchase Edmund from the White Witch after he betrayed his family and friends. Even those of non-religious backgrounds were able to make connections to bravery, persistence, and other character traits exemplified from the plot lines and characters of the story. 
Early in my career, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe provided me an opportunity to provide students with the joyful experience of open tasks. Open tasks in mathematics education are tasks that purposefully have multiple solutions or multiple solution pathways. These tasks provide opportunities to value student assets, experiences, and cultures in the classroom much like literature. Literature teachers and teachers incorporating open tasks and literature can anticipate potential conversions in the classroom by purposefully selecting texts that relate to students. They can go further by having discussions in their classrooms in small groups, monitoring their relationships to the literature. Teachers may then purposefully select conversations in the classroom and sequence these conversations to make larger connections to the plots and themes of the class text. Literature that integrates students' culture, experiences, and faith provides a pathway for students to connect to each other and share their stories. 
Philosophically
Aristotle was attributed with saying, “it is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Similarly, he was purported to write, “educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” These two statements lay at the center of my educational philosophy. Literature and open tasks begin to put us in this space. Stories can be related to by experiences and truth can be tested by reason. Claims can be tested by logic and beliefs rooted in worldviews. Discussion of these ideas in the logic and rhetoric stage of student development is essential to developing a well rounded student. 
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Unfortunately, much culturally responsive pedagogy is focused at surface and shallow levels of culture. Chula Chansa highlights an illustration by Hammond (2014) in the 
Culture Tree that depicts different levels of culture. Similar to Chansa, I believe we need to encourage deeper reflection and cultural responsiveness in our literature and task selections. In addition to purposefully choosing these tasks, we need to monitor, select, sequence, and connect students to deeper cultural connections that relate to their own beliefs, values, religion, and experiences. These class discussions should inform decision making and promote concepts of self that integrate students spirituality and interaction with the world. 
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Multicultural education often focuses on holidays, food parties, art, stories, clothes, and music. Though there is nothing wrong with these foci, they are largely only informative. 
 These experiences are often deepened when they are connected with how these cultures interact with each other through relationships, eye contact, family practices, and character traits, the limbs of the pictorial representation. Students blessed enough to experience literature that express these ideas or even experience them first hand have a deeper understanding of the culture that makes up a society. However, many students are rarely offered opportunities to discuss and think through the intersections of their own concepts of self, spirituality, worldviews, or notions of fairness with those of other cultures that may be present in different stories or mathematical tasks that incorporate real world phenomena. Students are even more rarely challenged to develop a critical consciousness and analyze notions of fairness or their own sinful natures. Teachers need to provide safe spaces and opportunities for students to discuss their own decision making process that utilizes their own worldviews that come from their homes and beliefs. Opportunities like this promote diversity, respect, tolerance, and acceptance. 
Personally
Through my own experiences, I have come to realize the huge impact literature has on myself and others. In my family's home, we purposefully use literature that depicts a historical Christian worldview and encourage our children to test truths with reasoning and scripture. We come from a culture and worldview that holds the five solas of the protestant reformation in utmost regard. We believe that scripture alone informs us of spiritual truths and should be used to guide our notions of spirituality, morality and God. Our stories and discussions focus on the total depravity or sinful nature of the human condition to purposefully elicit discussion around our worldview. These ideas permeate the stories that fill the Chronicles of Narnia series. We utilize stories that incorporate solutions to these issues that offer opportunities to connect with the God of the universe, who calls all people to himself and offers himself as a propitiation and righteousness for the elect. We see a wonderful parallel of the night before the death of Jesus and Aslan in John 17 of the Bible and Chapter 13 and 14 of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:

"Peace, Beaver," said Aslan. "All names will soon be restored to their proper owners. In the meantime we will not dispute about them. Tell your mistress, Son of Earth, that I grant her safe conduct on condition that she leaves her wand behind her at that great oak."

I’ve unfortunately come to realize that a connection to deep culture just isn’t happening in public education. Opportunities for students to express their spirituality, worldviews, and morality are often not seen as assets or diminished to focus on moral relativism without spirituality. Thus, I have purposefully chosen literature for my children over the last twelve years to read together as a family that teach them about our deep culture. My wife and I began with stories like The Tallest of Smalls (my son recorded me reading this on YouTube in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73icfnoFxC8) and The Oak Inside the Acorn both by Max Lucado. We later read together book series like The Prince Warriors by Priscilla Shirer with Gena Detwiler and the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. As they have become older, we have purposefully read through the Bible together and completed readings as a family that dive into our Christian beliefs by integrating the Westminster Shorter Catechism with Bible readings, Training Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Shorter Catechism. 

Conclusion
The books we choose for our classes and families do matter. How we connect these books with students’ community and family assets does matter. We can decide to stay at surface and shallow levels of culture, or we can encourage deeper cultural connections by the assignments and discussions we allow and encourage to happen in class. My family hopes for the literature and truths we read together as a family to provide a solid foundation for discussions during class that dive deep into their own culture. My wife and I hope to prepare our two boys to face a world that may believe differently than them and give them a foundation for justifying themselves with reasoning and truth when the opportunity does arise for them to share their beliefs and culture.  I encourage those picking literature to include opportunities for students to go deep with culture. Develop your philosophical and pedagogical framework to encourage students to be validated and find solace in your classroom. Let this deepness develop into strong limbs and eventually produce fruit in the cultural tree you have been called to cultivate.

Note: For educators who may be fearful of encouraging deep root conversations in public k12 schools, Chrisitan Educators provides a number of free resources to encourage legal and ethical inclusion of religion and spirituality in schools: Resource Center - Christian Educators. 

References:
Chansa, C. (2020). The culture tree. Retrieved from https://www.africanawoman.com/post/the-culture-tree. 
Hammond, Z. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin Press.
Lewis, C. S. (2001). The Chronicles of Narnia. Harper Collins.
Lucado, M. (2003). The tallest of smalls. Thomas Nelson Inc.
Lucado, M. (2011). The oak inside the acorn. Thomas Nelson Inc.
Meade, S. (2000). Training hearts, teaching minds: Family devotions based on the shorter catechism. P&R Publishing
​Shirer, P. (2016). The prince warriors. B&H Publishing Group.  ​
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Weekend Pick for November 18, 2022

11/18/2022

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Weekend Pick for November 18, 2022

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The Saturday Boy by David Fleming

PictureWeekend Pick Contributor's Bio: Erinn Bentley is a professor of English education at Columbus State University and the proud mom of two human-boys and one puppy-girl.

​I first encountered The Saturday Boy by David Fleming when my son joined his elementary school’s reading bowl team. To help him prepare for the competition, I read all of the novels on his list. This novel stood out to me then and still does now, years later. Funny, sad, poignant, and realistic - The Saturday Boy features Derek, an 11-year-old being raised by his mother and aunt while his father serves as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. 

Even though our family’s situation is very different from Derek’s, my son found the novel very relatable. Fleming depicts situations most tweens experience, such as trying to “fit in” at school, struggling with changing friendships, confronting bullies, and awkwardly transitioning from childhood to adolescence. Derek’s reactions to these situations are often impulsive, sometimes explosive, and sometimes humorous - typical for his age and, most likely, for YA readers.

For me, the most poignant aspect of this novel is Derek’s relationship with his father, which is relayed through a series of letters they exchange. In a coming-of-age moment, Derek reflects:

                         "I thought about…all of Dad’s letters - and how, in one way or another, they’ve
                            always said exactly what I needed them to. I knew which ones would make
                           me feel good about myself and which ones would make me feel like I could
                           conquer the world…our letters kept us connected."


Fleming reminds us that sometimes a simple letter, toy, or photo can become a precious keepsake when it comes to those we love. As a parent, I can definitely relate: My boys are now 17 and 19 years old; I treasure the cards they made when they were younger and all of our selfies and snapshots taken over the years.

If you’re in the mood to laugh, cry, smile, and sigh - The Saturday Boy is your perfect weekend pick!

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Weekend Pick for November 11, 2022

11/11/2022

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Weekend Pick for November 11, 2022

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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

PictureWeekend Pick Contributor's Bio: Erinn Bentley is a professor of English education at Columbus State University and the proud mom of two human-boys and one puppy-girl.
​One of my favorite books from childhood is Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Even now, the Time Quintet is my go-to read whenever I need an escape from the stresses of every-day life. I get wildly excited when I stumble upon other novels that conjure the same sense of wonder about one’s place in the universe so richly created by L’Engle’s storytelling. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is a magical gem.

This novel features Miranda, a 12-year-old girl living in Manhattan in the late 1970s. A fan of A Wrinkle in Time, Miranda daydreams about this fantasy world while facing her real world filled with complicated friendships, quirky neighbors, and a crazy man on the corner. Miranda’s life is pretty normal until she witnesses her best friend, Sal, get punched by a strange boy; Sal then stops spending time with her. Soon afterward, the spare apartment key that her mom keeps hidden goes missing. Then, a mysterious note arrives. The writer tells Miranda I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own and you must write me a letter. Confused and frightened by this elusive message, she tries to ignore it; however, the notes keep appearing. They seem to predict the future, prompting Miranda to unravel this mystery.
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As I was rereading this novel, I was again struck at Stead’s masterful ability to foreshadow subtly. It is not until the final few chapters when readers finally see how seemingly unrelated events are connected. It is almost as if the reader is inside Miranda’s mind as the meaning of the notes slowly dawns on her. Unlike other mysteries, though, this one does not wrap-up neatly. It leaves Miranda and the reader wondering - but in the best possible way.

Stead is also subtle in her character development. I love how she provides clues about the characters’ personalities. For example, Miranda’s mom refuses to buy grapes because of how the pickers are treated in California, yet she is also weirdly obsessed with The $20,000 Pyramid game show. Her mom’s boyfriend, Richard, is nicknamed “Mr. Perfect.” Every time she or Miranda calls him this, he pats his knee to remind them that his right leg is shorter than his left one. Even the minor characters are portrayed with care: the crazy, homeless man is endearingly called “laughing man” and the school secretary (who zooms through the office in her chair) is called “Wheelie.” Each character is endearing and Miranda’s life feels real. 
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I highly recommend When You Reach Me for anyone wishing to “tesser” into a fictional world of science fiction, mystery, and poignant storytelling - a world you won’t want to leave.

Rebecca Stead, author of When You Reach Me

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Weekend Pick for November 4, 2022

11/4/2022

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Weekend Pick for November 4, 2022
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The House of One Thousand Eyes By Michelle Barker
PictureRoy Edward Jackson
I’m always on the lookout for a historical fiction novel on some of the events that may not get enough page space or discussion in textbooks and classrooms. Events that may be difficult for kids to have a full understanding of without more exposure. Michelle Barker’s The House of One Thousand Eyes is such a novel. But it is more than just a historical fiction novel depicting what the Cold War was like from behind the iron curtain. It’s a fantastically suspenseful and thrilling read. A truly wonderful example of the unreliable narrator for literature classes to explore. It’s craft in setting is superb. And it gives us a novel to showcase what tyranny really is. 

​The House of One Thousand Eyes is the story of teenage Lenah Altmann living in East Berlin in the 1980s before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her parents were killed in a factory explosion. After a stay in a psychiatric hospital to recover from the trauma she resides with her Aunt who is fully vested in the political propaganda fed to her on the TV and newspapers from the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Lenah works overnight cleaning the office buildings of the State Security Service (Stasi). Her only solace is her Uncle Erich, a writer with political dissent, and an enemy of the state. When he goes missing, he is erased. True erasure and cancel culture under a tyrannical regime. He is not just shunned publicly and banned from publishing. His existence is fully erased. A new tenant is at his apartment and acts as if he’s always lived there. When Lenah even mentions Erich’s name, she is told he never existed, that she is crazy. Even by his own sister whom she resides with. His books are no longer to be found in stores or libraries and clerks act as if he, and his books, never existed. 

Lenah risks her life by using her access to the Stasi comrades offices she cleans overnight to search for information. Eventually, she plans to escape East Berlin with the help of a West Berlin publisher of her uncles books and a local theater actor who she is unsure she can trust. This all comes with dire consequences as she is caught, sexually assaulted, and threatened with re-institutionalization by one of the commanders of the Stasi whose office she cleans when he finds her going through his files.

Our current rhetoric in American news and politics casually throw the word tyranny around. It’s misused. This book is a great tool to teach what living under tyranny is like. The GDR was an oppressive government that truly terrorized those that lived behind that iron curtain. Barker has created a novel of well researched authenticity that captivates readers and immerses them in what life was like. Not just the food lines and lack of opportunities, but the true police state oppression that was uniquely Berlin. It gives students as readers the lens to see just how the division of Germany, and a city within the East side of the iron curtain, were carefully monitored. A place where strict enforced policing kept citizens silent, or worse, turning on each other. It also shows the power of state run media propaganda through Lenah’s aunt who fully is in support of the Stassi and German (and Soviet) socialist republic at the expense of her own freedom. 

In addition to this richly historical fiction setting that is so authentic, the novel is also a great tool to examine the craft of writing. The setting stands out from the beginning. Barker clearly has done a great deal of research to include all those little details from what food, theater, work, and daily life was like in that time for those in East Berlin and the GDR. The Stassi headquarters in particular, with an aura of paranoia for the overnight cleaners, is rich with setting details. More interestingly for this reader is the narration. Lenah begins the novel by disclosing her stay at a psychiatric hospital after her parents’ death. Sadly, she ends up back at that unit at the end. With that, though, comes the clever device of the unreliable narrator. Can readers truly believe that her uncle existed or was he a figment of her imagination? Did she really work at the Stassi and plan to escape to the west or was she institutionalized the entire time? While the specific answers don’t necessarily matter to these questions because as a reader we are fully vested her story. But when read alongside some of the most famous unreliable narrator stories like, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, it poses some interesting ways of interpretation. It also poses some rich discussions about why unreliable female narrators are often placed in psychiatric hospital settings and why this is so? The lens to view this novel from, a feminist one, is truly a great place to start. 
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In my search for historical fiction of the lesser-known events that kids may not know about, I am so glad to have spent time in Michelle Barker’s The House of One Thousand Eyes. It brought forth a number of classroom uses that connected it to a plethora of possible conversations and activities.  

This weekend pick was provided by Roy Edward Jackson.

​Roy Edward Jackson has published prose, essays, and scholarly articles in a variety of literary, academic, and popular publications. He holds degrees in English, Education, and Library Information Science from Western Michigan University, Aquinas College, University of Georgia, and Youngstown State University. Roy has been an educator for over 20 years in elementary and higher education roles.
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    Curators for the Weekend Picks

    Leilya Pitre
    Leilya taught English as a foreign language in the Ukraine and ELA/English in public schools in the US. Her research interests include teacher preparation, clinical experiences, secondary school teaching, and teaching and research of Young Adult and multicultural literature. Together with her friend and colleague, Mike Cook, she co-authored a two-volume edition of Teaching Universal Themes Through Young Adult Novels (2021). ​
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    Cammie Jo Lawton
    Cammie is a current doctoral student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and serves the Center for Children and Young Adult Literature as a graduate research assistant. She is especially interested in how YA can affect readers, create empathy and possibly shift thinking. 
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    Nikki Bylina-Streets
    Nikki is a elementary librarian who just keeps reading YA literature. She is a constant advocate for reading at every level. You can also follow her through her ​Instagram account dedicated to my school library work. @thislibraryrocks
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