Content Literacy Fun

recits

2006-05-17T19:00:07-04:00

You know, I really don’t like singing recits. They’re boring and unmelodic and it’s flat out hard to do them in a way that is interesting for the audience. They are like a transitional sentence. Necessary perhaps, but not art. They are the driveway for art. So what do I get stuck with? A bunch of recits. I mean, Mendelssohn had delusions of opera and since he couldn’t be successful at writing opera he turned an oratorio into an opera without costumes or setting. It’s just so much ornamentation.

But, Ok. I’m singing Mendelssohn. I can live with that. But I’m not going to roll my “R’s.” I don’t care what the conductor says. How pretentious is it to sing “Thither hide thee at Cherith’s brook” and roll the R in Cherith and the R in brook. I’m singing a recit for heaven’s sakes. I already sound like a dweeboid. If I have to roll my r’s I’m going to sound like a pretentious dweeboid. I have to sing the word “thither!” Isn’t that dumb enough?

Patricia Polacco and McGraw Hill

2006-05-16T10:55:00-04:00

This is copied from Patricia Polacco's website. McGraw Hill/SRA has acted very much like a guilty child who protests too much. And their guilt is in their pushing of NCLB, not because it is good for schools and children, but because it is good for their profit margin. Publishers Weekly recently reported that McGraw Hill made 1.5 BILLION dollars from its standardized tests.

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A RESPONSE TO SRA/McGRAW HILL REMARKS IN REGARD TO THEIR CANCELLATION OF MY PROGRAM AT THE I.R.A. CONFERENCE MAY 2 AND 3, 2006.

I am deeply troubled by the response and position that SRA/McGraw Hill has made public through their two spokespersons, Tom Stanton and John McHale.

Their official position is: “Patricia Polacco did not fulfill her contract to us, therefore her programs were cancelled”…”the company cancelled Polacco’s speaking engagements only after officials learned that she wasn’t willing to keep her remarks limited to the subjects covered in her contract”…”Patricia Polacco CHOSE not to honor her contract”…

I CHOSE??? HOW COULD I CHOOSE NOT TO APPEAR WHEN MY CHOICE WAS TAKEN FROM ME BY SRA/McGRAW HILL’S CANCELATION? I WAS NOT GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO FULFILL THE CONTRACT. IT WAS CANCELLED OUT FROM UNDER ME!!!! SRA/McGRAW HILL MADE ALL OF THE CHOICES HERE! THEY EFFECTIVELY REMOVED ANY OF MY CHOICES WHEN THEY ACTED AND CANCELLED THE APPEARANCE.

I had agreed to do two of my well-known speeches. “The Heroes in My Life” and “Tales and Talk”. My corporation produces videos of both of these speeches. Within the content of both of these programs I make reference to the NCLB and it’s destructive and counterproductive force in American education today.

On April 11, 2006, after my staff was hounded for four months to furnish a complete written manuscript of my program, I finally contacted Buchannan and Associates by phone. It was only then that I was informed that it was “unacceptable” to include any and all references to the NCLB. I was told I could conduct my presentation as usual, but I had to exclude any and all remarks regarding the NCLB! When I registered disbelief at this even being suggested, the reply was…”our client is very sensitive to this material and does not want you to include this in your remarks”…Buchannan and Associates actually put this in WRITING and sent it to my office in an email! There is no way SRA/McGraw Hill can distance themselves from any of this and their blatant attempt to censor and alter specific references within the context of the two presentations that I contracted to perform.

As far as the SRA/McGraw Hill contract is concerned, obviously I signed it January of 2006. I have never disputed this. I am, however, ashamed to admit that I did not read this contract, nor do I have any memory of ever signing it. Especially in view of the fact that Buchannan and Associates was the ONLY entity that my staff was dealing with concerning the IRA appearance. They assumed, as did I, that Buchannan and Associates represented the IRA.

If this makes me a complete idiot…then I will take the heat on this. I sign a stack of documents every single day. In the interest of saving time, my assistant simply puts the stack of documents, letters, and missives in front of me, leafs through, exposing only the signature pages, points at the signature line, and I simply sign them period. I never see any of these contracts with the exception of only the signature page. I do them so quickly that I pay no attention…I just sign my name. Appearance contracts are usually so straight -forward and uncomplicated that they don’t warrant severe scrutiny…again, if this makes me a blithering, drooling idiot, I take the hit again.

From January 2006 on, the only communications that my staff received concerning the IRA was from Buchannan and Associates who represented “a client” that was never named, thus the confusion. Our conclusion was that Buchannan and Associates represented the IRA.

Speaking of the contract that SRA/McGraw Hill was good enough to furnish on the web, please review it carefully. It clearly shows that I agreed to do my two presentations – “Heroes in My Life” and “Tales and Talk”. It was never my intent to deviate from this in any way. Please examine the contract further and see if at any point within this contract it says that SRA/McGraw Hill reserves the right to approve of, alter, change or order exclusions of certain portions of the programs that I was to provide. YOU WILL NOTE THAT NO SUCH PROVISION OCCURS!! So, within the constraints of their own contract, SRA/McGraw Hill had no legal right, basis or authority to demand exclusions within my presentations.

Also , please note a paragraph that I completely overlooked and have SRA/McGraw Hill to thank for drawing my attention to it. The third paragraph down from the top of page two of the contract clearly stated “If SRA/MCGRAW Hill cancels the engagement sixty (60) days or less prior to the scheduled dates of the engagement, then the entire appearance fee will be due and payable”. I was cancelled on April 26^th, 2006 at 3:18 PM.

McGRAW HILL, YOU OWE ME $5000.00!

SRA/McGraw Hill has also implied in various articles and responses that I had no intention of presenting the two programs agreed upon, but had, rather, taken it upon myself to present a completely different program that was to be exclusively my objections to the NCLB. This is a gross misrepresentation of the facts and a total fabrication. Their remarks only serve as a rather transparent attempt on the part of SRA/McGraw Hill to justify their outrageous position in taking action to force me to exclude any and all references to the NCLB within the two speeches that I had every intention of presenting at the I.R.A.

Another ridiculous assertion by SRA/McGraw Hill is: “Patricia Polacco was to be paid for her appearances, therefore making her an employee of SRA/McGraw Hill, which means that she is obliged to represent the views of our company”…

I am paid an appearance fee (look at the contract)…NOT A SALARY. SRA/McGraw Hill would have sent me a 1099 form in January for tax purposes. A 1099 form is available only to INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS. The optimum word here is…INDEPENDENT!! A VERY CLEAR DEFINITON RELIEVING ME OF ANY OBLIGATION TO EXPRESS SRA/McGRAW HILL’S VIEWS.

Oh, and here is the best of all…SRA/McGRAW HILL ACCUSES ME OF “HAVING A POLITICAL AGENDA”…

WHAT AGENDA??

It was not my agenda…BUT SRA/McGRAW HILL’S POLITICAL AGENDA THAT HAS CREATED THIS ENTIRE MESS!

SRA/McGraw Hill publishes and sells the NCLB tests to our public schools. It is estimated that this is $1.4 billion dollar industry annually (as reported in the recent article in Publishers Weekly).

WHO DO YOU THINK HAS THE AGENDA HERE?

SRA/McGraw Hill is completely responsible for politicizing this entire situation by having the arrogance and audacity of taking issue and attempting to sensor portions of my two presentations, which, apparently flies in the face of their connection to the NCLB and their profit margin.

If I had not been approached by SRA/McGraw Hill and ORDERED to remove portions of my two presentations, I would have simply come to Chicago and given my presentations without incident. Teachers, Librarians, and Educators would have left the room with full hearts and gladdened spirits…thankful that they had chosen to become the heroes that they are. They would have left the event inspired, validated, and renewed. I believe with all of my heart that our Librarians, Teachers, and Educators are among the last heroes standing in our nation. It is their integrity, their fortitude and their generous and caring spirits that makes our children’s dreams soar. It is their fervent hope that all children succeed. Not one of them wants any child left behind!

The error of SRA/McGraw Hill’s position is this:

IT IS UNTENABLE.

WHERE IS THEIR HONOR?

WHERE IS THEIR HONESTY?

WHERE ARE THEIR ETHICS?

WHERE IS THEIR SENSE OF DECENCY?

It seems clear that their vested interest will not tolerate any discussion or disagreement with the NCLB. Could it be that if the NCLB Mandate is repealed and defeated, that it will have a profound and direct effect on their bottom line?

It matters not, how diligently SRA/McGraw Hill’s spin doctors, damage control wizards, computer trolling experts, and public relations gurus try to twist and rewrite the facts…

THE FACTS ARE INDISPUTABLE! THE FACTS REMAIN UNCHANGED!

SRA/McGraw Hill cancelled my presentations at the Chicago I.R.A. on May 2^nd and 3^rd, 2006 for one reason and one reason only…to insure that no reference would be made, by me, concerning my opposition to the NCLB!

SRA/McGRAW HILL CHOSE TO OVER STEP BOUNDARIES AND DISPLAY THE MOST UNACCEPTABLE AND OUTRAGEOUS ARROGANCE! NOW IT APPEARS THAY HAVE GROSSLY UNDERESTIMATED THE POWER OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB AND ITS DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION…BUT MOST OF ALL, THAY HAVE MADE THE TRAGIC ERROR OF UNDERESTIMATING THE POWER AND INTELLIGENCE OF THE AMERICAN EDUCATOR!!

The irony here is, that McGraw/Hill could have avoided all of the ramifications of THEIR actions by simply offering an apology and allowing me to perform as scheduled in Chicago. If they had, everyone would have walked away from this a winner. Shame on you McGraw Hill. Shame.

Patricia Polacco

bitterness

2006-05-15T20:46:13-04:00

Bitterness is a cup of curdled milk left too long in the hot sun

Bitterness is a raw wound that seeps and weeps and never heals over

Bitterness is a sharp pebble in a too tight shoe

Bitterness is a shard of broken glass that festers under the skin

Bitternessi s any angry word that echoes over and over

May 15

2006-05-15T19:15:00-04:00

For years I didn't know that my father had a phobia about snakes. But one day a garter snake had found its wa into our garage and I, with my 15 year old bravado, said I would take it out to the edge of the yard and turn it loose. My father did not hesitate to let me do it. Nor did he watch over me as I scooped the snake into the wheel barrow and wheel it out to the lilacs. My mother later told me that Dad didn't like snakes.

It was years and years later that I learned he couldn't even go to an Indiana Jones movie because of the snake scene. My aunt told me when Dad died that when he was a little boy he would wake up screaming. His nightmares were about snakes.

Mine are about insects. It used to be that I couldn't be in the same room as a spider. I would scream and huddle in a corner of my bed when I saw one. Dad would come running, fearing perhaps that I was beng attacked. And then he would mutter and say the spider was more afraid of me than I was of it, something I had a difficult time believing. But he always murdered the creature, wadding it up in a piece of toilet paper, or batting it to the floor and stpping on it.

Today I less terrified. But generally no less violent against them. I will squash them or drown them, flush them, or suck them up with a vacuum cleaner. Always a shudder goes through me, though. My teeth bite at my lower lip. Eight legs are too many. More than eight is a nightmare. Centipedes, silver fish--instant disgust, instant recoil.

But even butterflies repel me. Six legs are too many. I will never go to a butterfly house.

I garden with gloves because of insects. I cannot touch them, and I cannot tolerate any of them touching me. No grubs. No slugs. No worms. No larvae of any sort.

Patricia Polacco and McGraw Hill

2006-05-13T14:20:00-04:00

Subject: [Schools Matter] Boycott NCLB or McGraw-Hill?

There is good reason for SRA/McGraw-Hill to move into damage control over the dis-invitation of Patricia Polacco at the recent IRA Conference in Chicago. The New York Times has picked up the story <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/us/13author.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print> , and school librarians are mad as hornets about the bare-knuckled arrogance that M-H has exhibited in this most recent assault on freedom of speech, that is, speech that comes up against that big NCLB gold-plated gravy train that SRA/M-H is riding. Not a good move, SRA/M-H--you don't alienate those people who are in charge of selecting the books that go into every children's collection in every library in the world. From the Times:

        Ms. Polacco says the publishing house, McGraw-Hill, a sponsor of the convention, canceled her contract for two appearances because of its dual role as book and test publisher. McGraw-Hill says it only sought to stop an author with an agenda from turning its exhibit at the reading convention into a political platform.

        "I see teachers across the country, and they come up to me with tears in their eyes and say we used to be able to do creative things" before the emphasis on testing that came with No Child Left Behind, Ms. Polacco said, explaining why she wanted to talk about the law. She accused McGraw-Hill of trying to benefit from her popularity yet censor her views. "If they want someone to stand up and say how wonderful No Child Left Behind is, then hire someone who feels that way," she said.

Even the most non-partisan onlooker would be impressed by the monetary connection between M-H and a federal education policy (NCLB), that same policy that appears now to be off-limits to M-H authors who are critical of the policy. One must wonder if SRA/M-H would have had the same slamming-door reaction if Patricia Polacco had planned to plug NCLB in her speech, or any of the vast catalog of materials that M-H is marketing <http://www.mheducation.com/programs/nclb_solutions.shtml> to all the desperate school systems across America who have shifted their purchasing priorities from children's literature to the scripted reading instruction.

Here is part of the message that M-H left in the comments box at Schools Matter <http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2006/05/mcgraw-hillnclb-and-freedom-to-agree.html> yesterday:

        Ms. Polacco chose not to honor her commitment to SRA/McGraw-Hill. Shortly before the event, she began insisting that she wanted to use her appearances as a platform for expressing her personal views on public education policy. We respect her right to express her ideas; however, since the SRA educational presentations were focused on writing and children's books, SRA did not believe that its exhibit booth was an appropriate forum for a public policy speech. Ms. Polacco's statements about this event are inaccurate and unreasonable.

        SRA's intention was to have Ms. Polacco deliver four presentations that would inspire the people who have the greatest impact on educating our children - classroom teachers.


On the face of it, it would seem that there is nothing more relevant to the writing and reading of children's books than a national policy (NCLB's Reading First) that is intended to replace children's literature with the relentless chain gang de-coding Code <http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2006/04/victims-of-code.html> embraced by the pseudoscience of Engelmann/Carnine <http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2005/09/carnine-great.html> , the crackpots marketing the DIBELS miracle <http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2006/04/dibels-and-science-of-60-second.html> , or SRA/M-H's own entry to straightjacket learning, Open Court <http://www.sraonline.com/index.php/home/curriculumsolutions/reading/ocr/622> (teachers refer to it as Open Cult for good reason). Obviously, "inspiring the people who have the greatest impact on educating our children" would require Ms. Polacco to pretend that her own publisher is more interested in literature than it is in supporting the national drive to brainwash children for purposes of economic exploitation.

Did I fail to mention that McGraw-Hill owns Standard & Poors, which owns School Matters <http://www.schoolmatters.com/> , where you can find out where all the poor people in America live simply by looking up school test scores.

blocked paths

2006-05-13T10:13:44-04:00

It was a simple task really, something I've done hundreds of times. I got off the expressway at Ottawa and expected to go down to Pearl and turn right. I would then go over the bridge, past the hotel, around the Big Boy to Winter, and then turn left and find a parking space in the DeVos faculty staff lot. Not today. I couldn't even stay on Ottawa.

No prob, I thought. But there was. The "Run" was happening today and every street that lead to a campus lot was blocked off. I saw few runners, but I saw lots of police and security people who had no time for my questions. "This run happens every year. It's not like you didn't know about it."

Well, that was comforting and accommodating. I drove around again hoping that perhaps I had missed a pathway to a lot. Nope. The same comforting and accommodating security person popped up in my path. I rolled down the window and said, "I need directions on how to get to THAT lot." I was right next to the damn lot, but all entrances were blocked. She looked at me as if I were gnat. "Turn around, go up to Bridge, turn right and then turn left."

"Turn left where?"

"I don't know the name of the street," she said, eyes ever so slightly rolling up.

"Groovy." I didn't want to say "thank you" because I didn't feel all that appreciative of her generosity. Besides by this point I was 20 minutes late for the workshop. I saw Shirley about a hundred yards ahead of me, so I knew I wouldn't be the only one.

May 10

2006-05-10T20:18:20-04:00

Sometime this summer I'm going to move. I'm going to leave my charming little bungalow and live in a place with new neighbors, new rooms, new pathways. I'll leave the pile of dirt in the basement where the new sewer pipe went in and where the roots from the maple get churned out. I'll leave the long-legged spiders that have lived generation after generation since perhaps before the house was even there. I'l leave the Plines and the Martins. The porches. The rumbling water heater. The cat odor that wells up from the basement.

I'll leave the garden.

I'll find new spiders, new neighbors, new dirt. New bills. No more $308 house payment. No more skimpy tax bill. No more friendly credit union. No more neighbors who will mow my little patch of front lawn for me or notice when I stay up until 2:30

May 3

2006-05-03T17:40:00-04:00

The fields were greening up and the big apple tree in the front yard was full of white blossoms. The late afternoon sun filtered through the trees in the lane cast streamers of light against the barn. In the distance I could hear the geese quarrel. Perhaps Solomon was casting stones in their end of the pond. Perhaps the ganders were squabbling over the females.

The nights were still cool and the bees that had been so busy in the apple tree just a few hours earlier had fled to their warm hive. Only a year ago Solomon would have been in the tree rustling the blossoms to the ground and bringing scolds from me. He had grown so this year, his legs lengthening and his feet striking out at the bottom of his pantlegs, forever seeming to burst his shoes. His feet were well past his cousin Jordy's and soon Solomon would have to wear his father's cast offs, if they held.

The smell of rabbit roasting in the dutch oven caught my nose and I returned to the stove. Soon there would be new potatoes. But the fiddle heads were up and would provide a taste of green for tonight's supper. I was hungry for dandelion fritters and thought they might be nice for dinner the next day. In a few weeks the sparrow grass along the fence rows would be ready to pick. Solomon would plant peas and lettuce soon, and there would be mushrooms.

I looked around for Solomon. There was no sight of the boy, which was unusual. His appetite had grown faster than his legs and he always seemed to be pestering for a buscuit or two befor supper to tide him over.

Tom walked in, his hair full of straw and dust. He took the rag from the hook above the wash pan and wiped his face.

"That was a clean cloth, Tom Radcliffe. And now it's dirty. Go take you and your dirt outside and wash yourself up before you walk into my clean kitchen," I said as I pointed toward the doorway into the back yard.

"They're recruiting soldiers for the army, Grace," he said. "Maybe they're looking for a sergeant."

"What do you mean they're recruiting soldiers?"

"For the north," said Tom, bending over and running his fingers through his straw filled hair. Little bits fell onto the ground.

"They just declared war last week," I said. "They don't need soldiers yet. It's planting time." There had been talk of little else but the coming war in town on Saturday. But everyone agreed that nothing would happen for months. I suspected that as soon as both sides decided that war was the only answer, they would end their posturing and talk sense.

"Nope, Lincoln wants 75,000 troops. Where's Solly?"

"They're recruting in town you said?" My heart fluttered a bit the way it sometimes did at night before I went to sleep. Tom looked at me. His eyes squinted a bit, the way they did when he was sizing up clouds on the horizon or reading the wind on a hot stormy evening.

Then he moved quickly toward the gate punching it open, almost ripping it from its weathered hinges. His stride lengthened into a run when he hit the road. I couldn't keep up with him, but it didn't matter. I gathered my skirt about me and raced my legs down the ruts and around the bend onto the market road. Tom's legs had already disturbed a clutch of geese and they scolded past me, extending their long necks and beaks to nip at my petticoat. Had I not felt the urgency of fear in my I would have kicked the one that found its mark on my stocking, but it was not the time to argue with geese.

I remember when my father fell in his tracks on the hill leading to the west pasture. I was 12 and pounding biscuits for my mother. I was looking out the small window of the tenant house we lived in, daydreaming about the doll May Beth Mills had gotten from her grandmother and how angry I was that she bragged about that doll. And then my father fell, face down, in the pasture. And I ran toward him, feeling the dread pound itself into my heard with each thud of my foot on the ground. I remember my mother passing me, her skirts tucked high, her legs striking out before her, strong, eating the distance between her and Father. Her breath rushed out of her in explosive grunts each time her foot struck the ground. And then I heard nothing. The world went silent. I didn't hear my own feet pound into the meadow. I no longer heard my mother's breath explode with each step.

test

2006-05-03T16:36:31-04:00

this is a test

success workshop

2006-05-03T14:09:16-04:00

Welcome, SUCCESS teachers!