Lincoln’s Legacy

Lincoln refused to back down. “No human power can subdue this rebellion without using the Emancipation lever as I have done,

 ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand,’ 

They saw no action, but Lincoln later recalled his election as captain as the most gratifying honor of his life.

Lincoln, Abraham (12 February 1809–15 April 1865), sixteenth president of the United States, was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, the son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, farmers.

Seeing the biography of Winston Churchill left in my classroom, I opened the book to the spot where a dog-eared piece of paper was sticking out. "Dear Winston," said the writing scrawl, "You have helped me a lot in facing my goals. Now I can know that I don't have to give up no matter how hard it is." I smiled, knowing that Wi

Instead of the theme of leadership, teachers may want to emphasize biog raphies that deal with invention and creativity, space exploration and dis covery, business, or the fine arts

Children vicariously vent frustrations in healthy ways by subconsciously identifying with (fairy tale) heroes. They also are given a sense of hope about their ultimate abilities to succeed in the world. . .

"Do fairy tales teach children to retreat into a world of wish-fulfillment - 'fantasy' in the technical psychological sense of the wo

Fantasy is often criticized as inappropriate for class- room use. This list of resources provides ways to be in- formed about and responsive to censors

Immersion is the time for our students to fall in love with the genr

It would be a shame to overlook fantasy literature in the classroom simply because it retains that stigma of not being serious writing, when it is clear that works of fantasy have merit in all fields of critical lit- erary examination. Fantasy literature that has some- thing to offer the classroom has at least two traits in common with the lasting work of other genres: humor and humanness

Women authors began to break into what was probably one of the most male-dominated arenas of literature, and to flouri

the role of women in fantasy litera- ture is still evolving, just as is the role of women in societ

1. Students like it.

Myths are Narratives of a Sacred Nature, often connected with some Ritual. Myths are often foundational or key narratives associated with religions. These narratives are believed to be true from within the associated faith system (though sometimes that truth is understood to be metaphorical rather than literal). Within any given culture there may be sacred and secular myths coexisting.

Myths are Narratives Representative of a Particular Epistemology or  Way of Understanding Nature and Organizing Thought. For example, structuralism recognizes paired bundles of opposites (or dualities -- like light and dark) as central to myths.

2. Characters are often non-human – e.g. gods, goddesses, supernatural beings, first people. 

They are often highly valued or disputed stories that still intrigue us even though many of us do not recognize them as a living genre in our culture

Students self-assessed and were aware of areas for improve-ment. For example, several felt that with more time, they would be able to learn their lines by heart and the stories would have better flow.

Peer support probably contributed to overall success. Students were given the choice to work in pairs or small groups and to select their own roles. For example, confident readers read aloud to partners, skilled writers revised stories, and others created props and scenery

owever, adding to the problem of literature ’ s declining status in the elementary reading curriculum is the fact that the empirical work on com-prehending children ’ s literature has typically been restricted to traditional plot elements rather than layered interpretation (

is that schools must abandon literature in favor of informational texts. As writte

iterature teaches readers about the social world and how to navigate through difficult emotions and inevitable conflicts

invites us to consider frames for understanding and feeling about the world that are likely to be novel” (p. 3)

Universal Themes

Picture Books Across the CurriculumPage 13 of 27 klschoch@aol.comSites on Vocabulary:Just Read Now!Strategies for vocabulary development.http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/vocabulary.htm11. Picture Books make abstract concepts concrete

Picture books waste little time and space, and even fewer words. Individual sentences and paragraphs can be pulled from context in order to examine the author’s craft, without losing an overall sense of the text’s content

Picture books allow you to activate not only prior knowledgebut also attitudes, beliefs, and misconceptions.

some reluctant readers, the thought of slogging through a 200-page chapter book (with absolutely no pictures!) is daunting. Shorter, simpler picture books offer a pleasurabl

because if a picture book can advance even one educational objective, in a way that no other instructional tool can, then it has served its purpose well

e taught minilessons about different kinds of selected anthologies. (See List of Suggested Poetry Anthologies.) We ad dressed the facts that anthologies could be based on some theme (e.g., poems about cats), anthologies could co

"things around us," and the third, "images." We envisioned placing students' poems in the "shapes of paper" as the workshop progressed. The children referred to the bulletin board regularly when responding to or writing po etry. Images, feelings, and things around us were now configured into understandable and workable categories. These categories served as reference points for all of our varied poetry. We did not, however, anticipate the discrep ancy that arose among the children in regard to the categories. Any poem could be inter preted as a poem about "feelings" for some children, "things around us," for others, and "images" for a few students. The class had ani mated discussions about where a particular poem belonged on the bulletin board. The children taught us that poems belong in differ ent places for different people. Poetry books were positioned on tables located at the front of the classroom, adjacent to the classroom library. (See List of Sug gested Poetry Anthologies.) They were orga nized into four categories: thematic anthologies, anthologies by a single poet, general anthologies, and books with a single poem. We defined and illustrated these cate gories for the children. They delighted in the realization that the categories would make it easier to find a specific book. Daily minilessons about poetry: An overview Throughout the poetry unit we used read ing and writing minilessons to introduce chil dren to some aspect of poetry. We made sure that each child had a copy of the poems to re fer to durin

hese include re spect for the child's efforts, the provision for diversity of experience, the use of

istening to the sharing of ideas and consulting the charts are especially helpful to students who experience dif ficulty selecting a topic.

At college, I had practicum experiences at several grade levels, but I student taught in fourth grade.

e began to make a concerted effort to pick books that not only related to the students' lives and interests but also facilitated meaty discus sions (see Table

It helps us get to know each other and see what we have in common." Jennifer and I hoped these seedlings we planted w

here was a pervasive feeling of hostility between the students, and many of their everyday interactions seemed to be punctuated by verbal assaults such as "stupid" and "ugly," as if these words were to be rou tinely attached to the end of a sentence. T

t the only name anyone should be called is their given name. For the rest of the year, racial slurs disappeared as a major class- room issu

This story was adapted from my teaching journal and represents a turning point in my teaching car

community literacy, the wide existence and use of print in the real world, and how our assump- tions about diversity and social practices, language and literacy, shape us as teachers and lear