Anancy Festival: Common Core Standards

My upcoming contributions to the Anancy Festival may be of special interest to educators. The two activities, A Poet’s Toolbox and Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories, meet the Common Core Standards for Literacy and Multicultural Literacy:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy (RL.3.1CCSS.ELA-Literacy; RL.3.2CCSS.ELA-Literacy; RL.3.3CCSS.ELA-Literacy; RL.3.4CCSS.ELA-Literacy; RL.3.5CCSS.ELA-Literacy; RL.3.6CCSS.ELA-Literacy; RL.3.7CCSS.ELA-Literacy; RL.3.9CCSS.ELA-Literacy; RL.3.10)

(CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3a ; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3b ;CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3c ; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3d ; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.4 ; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.5; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 ;CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.7 ; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.8 ; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.10 )

MulticulturalLiteracy (RL.9-10.6.;RI.9-10.7.;W.9-10.2.;W.9-10.4.;W.9-10.5.;W.9-10.6.;W.9-10.7.; W.9-10.8.;SL.9-10.4.;SL.9-10.5.;SL.9-10.6.;RH.9-10.6.;WHST.9-10.6.)

As a preview, Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories, which as a part of a bullying series on WAMC won  "Special Mention" from the Associated Press (http://www.wamc.org/post/wamc-wins-19th-annual-communicator-awards), is available for a free download until June 15, 2013.

Here’s the link for the free download of Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories: http://goo.gl/kjUHP

Hope to see you there!

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Career Day @ Linda Lentin K-8

I had a wonderful time with the students and teachers at Linda Lentin K-8’s Career Day on December 19, 2012. It was heartwarming to see how the children responded to Marcus and the Amazons, and they wanted to know how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ideas helped to shape the book. 

Of course, they also wanted to know how long it took to write the book, how many books I'd written, how did I find the time to write and teach, and if I wanted my stories to be made into movies.

I told them that I get up every morning at 5:00 and write for about an hour. I'm usually working on several projects at once, so once I finish one story, I move on to the next. And, yes, if one of my stories was made into a movie, I'd like that, but it wasn't the reason for writing.

I explained the deep pleasure I get from researching, writing, and the "aha" moment when the whole story comes together in my head. It's that pleasure that has sustained me for the twenty+ years that I've been writing and I ended with a paraphrase of Joseph Campbell's admonition: "Follow your bliss."

Following my presentation, I mingled with the other parents and guests from the community as we shared our knowledge and experiences with the children
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Thank you Ms. Powell, Ms. Bowers, Ms. Ritchie, Ms. Johnson, Ms. Wright, Mr. Montalvo, and Mr. Schechuk for inviting me into your classrooms. It was a pleasure to spend the day with you and I hope we can do this again in the near future.

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Grandpa Sydney's Anancy Stories @ Madie Ives Elementary

Over the next few days, I’ll be visiting Madie Ives Elementary to read from Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories. I hope the children will fall in love with Jimmy, Grandpa Sydney, and Anancy as much as I have.

The Language Arts/Reading/ESOL teachers have chosen The Trickster Tricked (Creek/MusocqeeTribe) retold by S.E. Schlosser; Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens, and Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy stories to meet the Common Core State Standards Initiative within Miami Dade County Public Schools:

RL.2.1 – Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why and how, to demonstrated understanding of key details in a text.
RL.2.2 – Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, or moral.
RL.2.3 – Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
RL.2.4 – Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
RL.2.5- Describe the overall structure of the story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
RL.2.6 – Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
RL.2.7 – Use information gained from the illustration and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
RL.2.10-By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories and poetry, in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

My presentation, Trickster Tales from the Caribbean, will cover literal, inferential, and analytical readings of Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories, and Question Answer Relationships (QARs) within the text.

In addition, we’ll discuss the origins of Anancy stories and the counterparts in Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, and the American South.

We’ll also examine the following elements of a Trickster tale and their relationship to “Anancy, Snake, and Tiger’:

A clever animal or person who plays a trick on other characters.
One of the characters has a problem to solve.
The trickster has one or two main characteristics such as greediness or boastfulness.
There is a moral or lesson to learn.

Of course, Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories is a story within a story, so the children will also have another level of complexity when they compare Jimmy's serious need--to outsmart a bully-- and Anancy's in the story, “Anancy, Snake, and Tiger.” They’ll also compare the methods that Jimmy and Anancy used to achieve their goals and the lessons to be learned from their actions.

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun!

Marcus and the Amazons @ Zelda Glazer Middle School

 Melba Brito (2nd from L.) and her staff with yours truly

Talk about making a writer feel special!

Yesterday, I had a great time at Zelda Glazer Middle. From the minute I entered the parking lot, I was greeted by the administration of the school and ushered to the library where approximately 60 students waited patiently at their tables for me to begin.

Of course, the students were prepared for my presentation. But then, again, they weren't. I began with a sing-a-long, "The Ants Go Marching," which had some of the boys, who were way too cool to sing anything, eventually joining in on the chorus: "Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Then, I read from the first two chapters of Marcus and after the reading, the students asked several interesting questions. One question, in particular, floored me: "What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview?"

I had to pause for about three minutes. Finally, I had an answer; "Do you think readers will understand all of the references from Joseph Campbell through Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Bob Marley that you have in Marcus and the Amazons?"

And then came another, "If you were writing a book about your life, what would the title be?" Talk about thought provoking.

Immediately following the Q&A, I was treated to a delicious lunch with the principal, Melba Brito, who said words that were music to my ears. She'd ordered a class set of Marcus and the Amazons for the students. Now I was on top of the world!

No wonder Zelda Glazer Middle is an "A" school. The administration, teachers, and staff are committed to excellence and back up their words with actions that support local authors. I wish there were more schools like Zelda Glazer Middle in Miami!

Thank you Zelda Glazer Middle School for your enormous generosity and hospitality. Special thanks to Melba Brito, Principal; Jesus Gonzalez, Assistant Principal; Katia Lopez, Chair, Language Arts; Hans Gonzalez, Chair, Math Department; Armita Prakash, Assistant Principal; Lucas Delatorre, Assistant Principal, and Nick Garcia, Media Specialist, who helped me with the setup of my PowerPoint presentation.

I am also grateful to the Miami Book Fair International under the leadership of Alina Interian and her staff, Lissette Mendez, Nicole Swift, Lisa Palley of Palley Promotes, and Rebecca Calvert, MBFI/MDPS liaison, who made everything flow so easily.

Give thanks...

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I will be reading from Marcus and the Amazons at the Miami Book Fair International on Sunday, November 20, 2011 in room 1164 at 11: 00 a.m.