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"My son listed you as his favorite author in his 'school years' journal. Thank you for inspiring him with your talent." Laura, a mother from New York |
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Archive for the ‘Author’s Purpose’ Category
From Louisville to Lynchburg!
Written on Friday, May 29th, 2009 [permanent link]
Last week I got to spend time in Louisville, KY, then lead Ohio students on tours of Jamestown and finish with a trip to talk to teachers in Lynchburg, VA. That’s a lot of mileage for history education!
My trip to Louisville, KY, began with cheese grits and “spiced berry pie” at the painted eatery shown above: Lynn’s Paradise Cafe, a beautiful burst of quirky local color. It was like eating in the middle of Mardi Gras! My host, Malana Salyer from the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, was right on with this breakfast choice!
I did two things for the McConnell Center in Louisville: speak directly to teachers in their outreach program (I was the wrapup to a year of study about the Civil War, so we brainstormed some cartoons and tried to analyze what they had learned) and visit several of those teachers’ schools to talk to students. I do a lot of these Author’s Purpose talks in the spring; what makes each one interesting to me is the character of each different school building and the ideas from the different students. In Louisville I did three sessions at the Brown School, a beautiful downtown school that teaches all grades, K-12! It was fascinating to see all the ages mixing when the day ended. (The auditorium also had some beautiful 1950s tile walls that must have been hand-glued because there were four different creme colors of tile in no noticeable pattern; so I linked that tile to one of my cartoons about Roman mosaic art!)
After two days in Louisville, I flew back to Williamsburg for a 12-hour day of guiding three charter buses of middle schoolers through Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg. Then Thursday was six hours of driving so I could talk to teachers in Lynchburg, VA, about how to use comix in the classroom. Once I get my audience to agree on the terms of comix, I test those terms. I had fun showing the Lynchburg teachers a page from a beautiful comic called “Meridian,” about a girl with powers. No word balloons on the page I show, but a lot of cursive writing in boxes — just like the writing in journals that many teachers have their fourth- and fifth-graders do!
The teacher training was at Amazement Square, a fantastic children’s museum right on the James River at the edge of Lynchburg’s downtown. For the past four years I have drawn an educational comic strip for the museum — one created to fill the gap after Chester the Crab ended as a newspaper feature! (The Lynchburg News & Advance was the first paper beyond the Daily Press to run the Chester comic, and when those 5 years of stories ended, they wanted to keep providing material for their younger readers; the newspaper approached the museum, and the museum called me) The strip features bug characters that were designed before I came along. It’s been fun to bring personality to beautiful characters that had been used in limited ways before I got ahold of them. The Lynchburg teachers seemed psyched for Year Five of The Adventures of Scorpy Bug. You can see examples of Scorpy’s stories at: www.amazementsquare.com/scorpy/
Tags: Amazement Square, Bentley Boyd, comic book, Kentucky, Louisville, Lynchburg, Lynn's Paradise Cafe, Virginia
Posted in Author's Purpose, Historical Travel | No Comments »
One student's trouble with History education
Written on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 [permanent link]I got these great messages this week from a high school friend whose daughter is really struggling with the NAME-DATE-PLACE style of history education:
“I think my daughter needs to have an extended conversation with you regarding social studies and social studies education. She has complained lately that the way it is taught is boring. I told her that I actually find history more fascinating now and that the key to history being interesting is in large part good storytelling and being able to weave in interesting tidbits. She hates the read it, recite it type of teaching. Yet, I think she likes history some because she comes home with questions like “How do they keep track of history?” “Does someone write it down?” “If some of it is passed down orally, couldn’t it get messed up or inaccurate?” So I know she is pondering things. I told her to get on your Chester site as I know you had talked up social studies education on there. She has like the things they have done that have been simulations – i.e. forming their own colonies, etc. but has been in a social studies funk lately. . .
We just conversed over breakfast this morning again about how history is recorded and whether it is accurate. [My husband] talked about the physical evidence that substantiates what is reported so that you know it is not made up but we did talk about how anything reported, including today’s news, can be subject to the reporter’s point of view. I also explained how when I practiced law, our opening statements were to be only facts. Yet, the two sides could report the same facts and color them in such a way as to be more favorable to their side. It is interesting how she is so obsessed with accuracy in history suddenly. On the way home from play practice I suggested maybe she should do historical theater as a way to enliven how history is presented.”
What a fantastic discussion! My quick reactions:
1. This is the kind of talks parents need to be having with their kids about their schooling, no matter the subject. Half of the job is to LISTEN to your kid — but then look how my friend answered using her own professional experience. That’s great. Don’t leave education just to your kids’ teachers.
2. NAME-DATE-PLACE IS BORING! It’s the way history was taught in 1950 and 1850. Why are we still stuck in that?! Certain things must be known — the War of 1812 didn’t happen in 1912, after all — but the most important question in history education is WHY. When you answer WHY something happened, the names and dates will fall into the story.
3. We should use as many disciplines as possible to teach history. Historical theater is a great idea. So is making historical episodes using a digital videocamera. Reenacting of biographies is popular in Virginia classrooms. Turn historical stories into rap songs. WHATEVER — anything but flashcards!! When I see all the possibilities of consumer technology I feel a bit sheepish — Chester Comix seem downright stuffy, being a holdout of the printed word on paper!
4. So that’s why I put in lots of DETAILS. My friend’s daughter seems right in line with most other kids I’ve met — they want to know how the sailors on the ships to Jamestown went to the bathroom. They like the extra stuff I put into Chester Comix. I’ve had a few teachers complain that there’s a lot of material in there that they don’t have to teach — info about Clara Barton’s childhood is not on the standardized test, for example, but I believe that understanding her childhood does a lot to explain WHY she went onto the Civil War battlefields to help the wounded. Which IS on the test. Details humanize these people of history and make it easier to remember the big Name, Date and Place that the tests demand.
What do YOU think??
Tags: Bentley Boyd, Chester Comix, Chester the Crab, graphic novel, history education
Posted in Author's Purpose, History Teacher | No Comments »
Chester Charity
Written on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 [permanent link]
My business model is to help students, teachers and parents, but I also want to use my time and business proceeds to help my community at large. In a good sign for the business, I’m getting more and more of those requests (Chester’s brand expands every time someone asks me to donate books for a charity auction!).
Last week I had a great time at a calendar signing for Beyond Boobs, a new nonprofit to help young women deal with breast cancer. (This photo includes some of the wonderful cancer survivors featured in the calendar — the two founders of the charity, Rene Bowditch and Mary Beth Gibson, are on the left). I also gave them a check based on the sales my great friend, Wendy Owens, (to the right of me) got for me by running my booth at the Virginia school librarians conference earlier this month. Please visit the Beyond Boobs web site and buy a beautiful calendar!
www.beyondboobsinc.org/
Tags: Bentley Boyd, Beyond Boobs, charity, Chester Comix, Williamsburg
Posted in Author's Purpose | No Comments »
