If you have never read French Laundry at Home treat yourself. It is an exemplary foodie blog. This post is enough to hook the casual reader . . . Conversing with those who practice verbal diarrhea is a waste of time. I know better . . . Happiness is the smell of chili is wafting through the house . . . Strange things I remember: It’s Ricky Barab’s birthday. I haven’t seen this guy in more than 20 years, but I remember his birthday. Go figure . . . Congratulations to the Boston Celtics. It’s been a long time since they had a championship. I have fond memories of the old Boston Garden. Of course, the best moment at the Garden was in ‘82 . . . Wordle is fun . . . Thomas Sowell is a smart man. He writes well too. Usually I agree with him . . . A somewhat stream f conscious piece, but my mother pointed me to a Slate article (When’s the last time I visited there? I suspect when Kinsley first went to work for them, but he has moved multiple times since.) about catch phrases. I really thought It is what it is was a phrase made famous on the first season of Top Chef . . . One of the better Deviant Art animations I have seen . . . Wish lists work. I received a book (But Didn’t We Have Fun?) for my birthday because I had it listed on my wish list. Feel free to pick off a few treasures from it, if you are so inclined . . .
The AP is running an article that it is difficult to find a bookstore in Newark, NJ. That got me thinking . . . with the closing of the Booksmith at the mall, I do not believe Vineland, New Jersey’s largest city in area, has a bookstore. Please tell me I m wrong.
Neighboring Millville only has one, a primarily used bookstore at that (since sold and re-named). Gert buys her books at BJs. Yeah, slim pickings there. I use the public libraries. I am at a loss for actual stores that sell books in the area.
Don’t most folks purchase books online these days?
The other day they waited, the sky was dark and faded,
Solemnly they stated, “He has to die, you know he has to die.”
All the children learnin’, from books that they were burnin’,
Every leaf was turnin’, to watch him die, you know he had to die.
I am a traditionalist. It’s not that new and different things aren’t okay, it’s just that there is something about why something is a classic or a tradition.
I recall reading Moby Dick many years ago. It seemed like a book that many consider the great American novel should be something one reads. I made it through some very good schools without having been required to read it so I picked it up one summer and enjoyed the tale of the white beast despite already knowing the story.
As an elementary school teacher, I have found that I often explain that students need to know certain things just because they are members of our society. Earlier this year it became apparent that my students did not know the story of Hansel and Gretel. I did not have time at that point to read them the tale so I assigned it. A few weeks later we discussed the story. Americans should be familiar with this one.
There are others too. I read Rip Van Winkle for the same reason. Reading aloud to children models how good readers (assuming the teacher is a good reader) approach books. For me, the read aloud time each day is my favorite part of teaching. My students are very engaged during this time. We have read some wonderful books this year: Walk Two Moons, Dear Mr. Henshaw, Encyclopedia Brown, and The Whipping Boy.
As we were finishing The Whipping Boy, one of my students presented a book and asked if I would read this next. How could I say no?
Like many stories, I had heard of Old Yeller. Yeller was a dog and I knew he died. Yet, I never had read the book nor seen the movie. I am not a dog guy and such a story is not one that one that would really appeal to me so I always found something else to read. The night my student asked, I began reading the book so I was prepared for it. I have learned I do not handle tear jerkers well.
Chapter one, paragraph two tells the reader the dog will die and that Travis is the one to do it.
I remember like yesterday how he strayed in out of nowhere to our log cabin on Birdsong Creek. He made me so mad at first that I wanted to kill him. Then, later, when I had to kill him, it was like having to shoot some of my own folks. That’s how much I’d come to think of the big yeller dog.
What a great way to begin a book! This is an excellent book to use to teach foreshadowing. Throughout when events occur, we kept going back to that second paragraph. That helped provide focus to what was happening.
Along with each story in our anthology is a list of vocabulary words. It appears everyone of those words for Theme 5 in Harcourt Trophies is used in Old Yeller. Word after word, numb, mesquite, etc. was used. What a serendipitous story to reinforce what we learned.
We are at the end of the school year. This is when students should be able to use the skills taught to demonstrate their learning. My students shined. As we read this book over the last couple weeks, lightbulbs lighted above each student’s head as he made a connection that validated my work. When the buzzards circled overhead, my students told me that death was near. How awesome that these children can pick up on points like! Reading this book with this class was a moment of the warm fuzzies. Those do not occur frequently enough for classroom teachers.
Many books that are popular now are good stories, but there is a casualness to them. Characters are coarse. Language is blatant. There is something about a classic that lifts one from the current style of reading. Old Yeller is a refreshing read. The richness of the text is a reminder of what great literature is. And that is what Fred Gipson’s book is: great literature.
Classics are classics for a reason. The story of Travis and this mangy yeller dog is heartwarming. More so, it is well-written and captivating. We knew the ending from the get-go, but it didn’t make it any easier to read once it came. Yeller was a hero and he had to die.
Don’t cry now
Don’t you cry
Don’t you cry
anymore
lalalada
Sleep
in the stars
don’t you cry
dry your eyes
on the wind
lalalala
la……..
This past week my students and I read the book A Very Important Day that chronicles many New York City families’ trip downtown in a snow storm for their citizenship ceremony. We learned that to become a citizen of the United States that petitioners need to have lived here for five years (legally), speak English (so they don’t run us over on the road), take a test, and pledge an oath of loyalty.
We also spoke how most of us are what a supplemental book we read called Auto-Americans because we were born here or born to American citizens. As such, we do not need to jump through the hoops of learning about the United States. It is assumed we know these things. Perhaps that is an assumption we should not make.
For instance, if one wants to be President of the United States, shouldn’t he be able to pass the test that naturalized citizens are expected to pass? I think that is fair for a basic level litmus test. If the president cannot answer these questions, I think it is fair to say he is deficient in the requisite knowledge to lead the country.
Check out question #97. It states:
Why does the flag have 50 stars?
The answer is, of course, any of the following:
because there is one star for each state
because each star represents a state
because there are 50 states
Contrast those acceptable answers with the answer the presumptive Democrat candidate gave yesterday:
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, the US government loves the life Gert and I live. Having a mortgage with children reduces the tax load significantly! . . . My nephew passed his jury for Eagle Scout this evening. Way to go, Parker . . . Well, this is certainly not the kind of press an upstart magazine should want . . . I’ve must not be well-read. I believe there are but 13 books on this list that I have read. I have a few others on the bookshelf . . . Not that anyone needed any further proof, but President Clinton does not tell the truth . . . Obama wasn’t going to win Pennsylvania, but thanks to foot-in-mouth disease (aka elitism), he surely has no shot now . . . spring has finally sprung . . . We all make mistakes, but shouldn’t a school district’s language arts supervisor not send e-mail with typos? . . . The AP counts differently than I do. According to Tom Hester, “Corzine’s $33 billion budget proposal would cut spending by $2.7 billion.” Yet, this year’s NJ’s budget was $33,293,000 and the proposed budget for next year is $33,968,603. That’s a spending increase the way I teach my fourth graders. Budget numbers are fluid, but I’ve yet to see a set of figures which actually shows spending will be less next year . . . Yikes! I shudder to think what this college would have done to us for our radio shows 20+ years ago . . . I agree with Justice Alito. I even wrote about it back in 2001. Of course, I approached it from a citizen of New Jersey, not as an Italian-American . . .
