Fortune Cookies

I don't enjoy cooking, so occasionally we order Chinese take-out after a busy day at work. We always order chicken fried rice, some egg rolls, and some kind of beef with vegetables that you layer on top of white rice. I don't know what it is called, because my husband always does the order. Each time, our meal is generously topped off with enough fortune cookies for each of us to have several. I am not generally superstitious, but it is just fun to break open the folded sugar wafer, take out the little slip of paper, and read what is inscribed there. We laugh at the way the fortunes match, or don't match, their recipients. Most of the time they are random meaningless predictions, but every now and then we will find a wise thought that causes us to stop and ponder.

My husband found this wisdom in a fortune cookie tonight. It isn't a fortune, but it is a very good thought. I believe it is worth pondering. It has nothing, and everything, to do with children. What do you think about this?

"There are only three colors, ten digits, and seven notes; it's what we do with them that is important."

Just a Soft Touch

An interesting thing happened in school yesterday. I was on my knees beside B, talking about his writing, when M, a precious little talker, famous for his charm and smiles, passed behind me. As he passed, he softly placed one hand on my shoulder for just a second, and moved on by. I continued talking to the boy at my side, but I glanced at M with a question on my face. He held up his right hand in a little wave.

“Do you need me, or were you just being affectionate?” I asked quietly.

His quiet answer matched my question. “Just being affectionate,” he said.

I returned one of his famous smiles and said a heartfelt, “Thank you.”

It was just a brief soft touch on my shoulder, but it encouraged me and has haunted me. How often do I think to reach out and encourage someone with a brief touch of affection? How often have I neglected those small opportunities?

Stop and Think About It

Sometimes it surprises a teacher when a student actually absorbs and practices the lesson. I love to teach reading. You see, reading is thinking. If my first graders can develop the strategies of great readers, they will be equipped to be great life-long thinkers. You may ask, what are the strategies of great readers? I'm glad you asked. According to Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman, the authors of Mosaic Of Thought-Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop, the strategies proficient readers use are:

• making connections, text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world
• making sensory images
• asking questions
• making inferences
• determining importance
• synthesizing
• using fix-up strategies when meaning breaks down.

Some may be amazed, but first graders, even while they are learning to "crack the code," can learn to use these strategies. I am learning to teach them how. And, even though I am convinced that they can, when it actually happens, I find myself delightfully surprised. A case in point:

Last Thursday I sat on the carpet beside one of my first grade boys with my 5x8 card poised to jot down my observations of his reading. He began reading. He read two pages slowly, but smoothly. Then he closed his book in his lap, and sat. He just sat there starring into thin air. I looked at him. He just sat.

Knowing this young man to be a hard worker, not one to take short-cuts, I questioned, "S, I know you are doing something important here. Can you tell me what you are doing?"

"I'm thinking," he responded.

Okay, I thought, I've been telling the class to stop and think about their reading after every few pages. Let's see what he's thinking.

"S," I prodded, "since I can't read your mind, can you talk to me about what you are thinking?"

"Well, it says that owls see by moonlight," he answered, "but I was wondering, if they see by the bright moonlight, why do they need such large eyes?"

As I said, it takes me off-guard when they show me their thinking skills. I'm not sure why. They do it often. "S," I encouraged, "What is your schema about that? What do you already know?"

He cocked his head to one side and pondered. Then his eyes lit up. "The moon doesn't always shine brightly! They need those big eyes for the times when the moon is not bright!"

Do you see what S did? He read the text. He asked a good question. At my prompt, he added his own knowledge to what the text said to make an inference, answering his own question. He is a first grader, in the process of learning to read, really read. I am his teacher, and I am surprised that he can do so much.

Remember Your Vows

Several years ago, early in the first grade year, one of my curious boys was eavesdropping on a conversation I was having with the Principal of our school. The Principal and I were talking about the vows from a coming wedding. We were comparing whether we had included the words "love, honor, and obey" in our own vows to our spouses. Ty overheard the conversation at the point where the Principal commented, "I don't even remember my vows." Having just learned about the importance of some such thing in reading, Ty exclaimed, "What? Mr. G doesn't remember his vows??? He doesn't know his vows? A-E-I-O-U!"

The Questions a Child Will Ask

I teach first grade in a small Southern town. One day at lunch, one of my co-workers, a very fit mother of seven, walked up to me at lunch. She had tears in her eyes and her face was red with laughter. She touched my elbow. "Who is that little girl at your table?" she asked pointing to a particular child.

"That is V." I answered. "Why?"

She swallowed her laughter. "I was at the salad bar just now, and V came up to me and said, 'Mrs. F, do you know how to belly-dance?'"

My mouth dropped open in disbelief. "What did you say?" I asked my friend.

Mrs. F answered, "I said, 'No, I don't. Then V looked up at me in all seriousness and said, 'Neither do I. You sure do have to use your tummy muscles, though!'"

The questions a child will ask!