No name

Show Don’t Tell! Secrets of Writing by Josephine Nobisso

About 25 years ago, I attended a workshop for teaching writing in which the presenter talked about writing that "shows" as opposed to writing that merely "tells." As she described her method, I thought it was astounding and could quite possibly revolutionize the writing of my students. When I tried to teach it to middle school students, though, I had to break it down into components: What exactly is “showing” writing? How I wish I had had Nobisso’s book at that time. She breaks it down and makes it highly entertaining.

She begins by making the case for writing that shows. It requires specific nouns, clarifying adjectives, and action verbs with their modifiers. However Show Don’t Tell only deals with the nouns and adjectives. (A sequel dealing with verbs and adverbs is promised.) A lion who is a writer does the narration, and he is instructing the other animals on how to make their writing more engaging. He says that merely adding adjectives to a noun doesn’t cut it, and adjectives should never end a sentence (as in, She is pretty) because that would only tell the reader something, not show it. The lion leads the other animals on a lesson in finding the noun that is “just right” to show the reader the ideas he has in his imagination, and then adding adjectives only if it helps to clarify the sentence.

After the instruction, the lion asks the animals to do an exercise in which they feel, smell, and hear something and have to write about it. Your students can do this exercise as well since a little mesh patch, a scratch-and-sniff strip, and a push-button noisemaker are included in the book. Having the exercises makes the book so much more valuable and makes Nobisso’s point—children can write in a way that engages the reader’s imagination. My favorite line in the book is this: “One of the secrets of good writing lies in being not fancy, but honest.”

The illustrations are fantastic (oh dear, I ended my sentence with an adjective! I’m not showing it to you very well.). The text font and size for this book vary by who is speaking and is not printed conventionally on the page. Your kids will love looking at it, though some might be bothered by having to figure out who is talking or where the lion’s narration comes back in. And, even though it looks like a picture book, I think a middle- or high-school student could read it and get something out of it. You would need to read it aloud to younger children, sitting right next to them so they can see the varied text and discuss who is talking. And then, revisit it often as you practice writing that shows.

Mike Aquilina's newest book, Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols is a great read and a great reference book in one.

It's also an exquisite piece of art, thanks to the illustrations by Lea Marie Ravotti. (Do yourself a favor and click through to her site. Her work is gorgeous.)

It's so easy to take illustrators for granted, isn't it? But one cannot do so with this book. The illustrations are integral; the book is, after all, about looking more closely at symbols, visual representations of the life of faith. It won't do merely to talk about them. We need to see them. And see them we do, beautifully rendered by a gifted artist.

But the other thing we can't take for granted is the explication of these powerful, enduring symbols, and the importance of a knowledgeable guide. We need a guide who can gently but firmly impress upon us the power that is present in the visual language we're touring:

These symbols are, in one sense, quite ordinary; they are commonplace items from everyday life in the ancient world. And so we might take them for granted, overlook them. But they're there for a reason ...

When we see these signs, how can we help sensing we have received an urgent message, telegraphic, cryptic, from a distant family member?

If it would be an injustice to merely talk about the symbols without illustrating them, it would be an equal injustice to focus only on the visuals. Signs and Mysteries takes us on a pilgrimage of sorts, delivering those urgent messages from our ancient brothers and sisters in Christ, because, as the author tells us of these symbols:

The first Christians traced those lines because they wanted them to stand forever as a perpetual prayer, for remembrance of the dead, for the perseverance of the living, and for deliverance in times of trial.

Exploring these ancient (but still relevant) symbols is far more than an archaeological exercise. Signs and Mysteries may be a fascinating read and a valuable reference, as well as a visual feast, but it is also about connections to our Christian family. It is a personal book in the best sense of the word -- a book that connects us, through a shared and vital language, to the person of Jesus Christ.

Silver for General Washington is an engrossing story about twelve-year-old Gil and his sister, Jen, who are living in Valley Forge with their cousins during the occupation of Philadelphia. Before leaving their well-to-do home in Philadelphia, Gil helped his father bury all the family silver in a chest beneath the house. As the winter progresses and conditions grow worse for the poor soldiers, Gil overhears people saying that what's really needed is money to get food and other supplies. Knowing that it's what his father would want (his father is away on war business) Gil decides to sneak back into Philadelphia to recover the silver himself and offer it to General Washington. A nice story that brings to life the struggles and courage present in a critical and difficult time in our country's history that is all too often taken for granted.

Suitable for a family read-aloud or independent reading grades three and up.

Singapore students are scoring the highest in the world in math and science. The web page for these texts in the US is http://www.singaporemath.com

Singapore Math seems to solve the "conceptual/drill...Saxon jumping around problem". Here's an example from a problem in the first half of fifth grade book

<< Mr Li paid $36 for 3 singlets and 2 T-shirts. A T-shirt cost 3 times as much as a singlet. How much did Mr Li pay for the 2 T-shirts?>>

Apparently the children are taught to "think mathematically" and are able to solve these types of problems in 5th grade without using algebra....these types of problems lead up to a better understanding of algebra.

Multiplication asian style The children learn facts families in sets ....for example they chant as follows

2 2 4 2 3 6 2 4 8 2 5 10

They don't say "times" or "equal" although that is explained to them. They are taught the reciprical nature of multiplication and division after they can chant this from memory they write out the sets as-

2x2=4 2x3=6 and so on
4/2=2 3x2=6......
6/2=3
6/3=2

and finally provide answers for equations....then they go on to memorize the next set which would be

2 6 12 2 7 14 2 8 16 2 9 18

If anyone is thinking about going with this program I would suggest making the move before going in to New Elementary Math. It would be easier to acclimate to this way of thinking while still in Primary Math I believe.

There are answers at the back the book but no other aid. To be honest I think I would have trouble teaching this material. I did "ok" in math but not great and I don't remember more then basic algebra. If you tend to think mathematically and enjoyed algebra, trig. you could probably use this without too much effort.

The Singapore texts actually do have almost as much drill as other books I've used (Miquon, Horizon) but not as much as Abeka. For example in 3rd A Singapore gives about 8-10 examples of adding 5 digit numbers then the workbook has at least that many that the child does on their own. The difference is that Horizon has the child doing a few of those problems every day for a week or two while at the same time they introduce new things. Singapore moves on after 2 lessons that cover that...but the child should have mastered that skill before they can move on to the next lesson. In Asia the kids spend a lot of time working on drills at home.

In Saxon you learn to add fractions then you repeat the same level of adding fractions for 6 or 8 lessons in the doing 3 or 4 problems in each practice section. During the intervening lessons you jump from learning short division to dividing with remainders to using metric scale etc before you finally get back to fractions again.

With Singapore you learn to add fractions and spend maybe 3 lessons learning how to do that (slight difficulty increase with each lesson) then you move on to using the skill of adding fractions with word problems (real life) for a few lessons. By this time the child has probably done more fraction addition problems overall then they would do in Saxon. The skill is learned and won't be touched again until the review chapters. If the child has trouble, the teacher/parent shouldn't move on. I did this a few times with my son and regret it. The review chapters occur often enough that the child shouldn't forget.