The Median Sib

Wordless books? What’s the use of wordless books. In wordless books, the author tells the story through the pictures. Then the reader “reads” by making up his/her own story to match the pictures. It’s a great way to foster creativity and the use of expressive language. I have two favorite wordless books. The first is Tuesday by David Wiesner. I’ve used this book with all elementary grades, and they LOVE it. I love to watch the children’s reaction when I show them the last two pages. You can just see the wheels of thought and imagination turning in their heads. Children of all ages and abilities will enjoy making up the story to go with this book. As I’ve worked with third, fourth and fifth graders teaching them how to be effective”reading buddies” with the younger grades, I’ve used Tuesday as an example of a book they can “read” with their buddies, regardless of their buddy’s reading ability.

Tuesday
A great wordless (or nearly wordless) book for engaging children in creative writing is The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg. This book contains fourteen black-and-white drawings, each accompanied by a title and a caption. The children are first intrigued by a mysterious introduction explaining how the incomplete manuscript had been found. Then they are invited to finish the stories.

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

I started to write that I watched Martha Stewart’s “The Apprentice” tonight. However, that would be a lie. I started watching it, but it was so boring, I switched over to re-runs of “The Amazing Race”, but that was a re-cap show, aka a filler show. The B word again. So I turned off the TV and started a batch of yogurt instead. A perfectly logical change of activities. Since I TiVo’ed “The Apprentice”, I checked later to see what happened in the boardroom. Even when Martha called the entire Matchstick team back into the boardroom so she could fire the person she wanted to fire rather than choose between the two the project manager had selected, I was still yawning. I can’t put my finger on why Martha’s show is boring - and Donald’s isn’t. I WANT it to be better than Donald’s. Unless it gets better very quickly, I’m thinking that it’s unlikely there will be a second round of Martha’s “The Apprentice.”

I watched a few minutes of “America’s Next Top Model” tonight. A dozen or so beautiful young women competing for a modeling contract. One girl, Kim, was explaining to the camera about how, as a lesbian, she must deal with straight girls coming on to her – but, she continues, that’s okay - she likes to have fun. She has a steady girlfriend at home that she’s really committed to. However, she just really has a thing for blondes, and one of the other aspiring models in the house, Sarah, is just so . . . well BLONDE. And Kim and Sarah made out in the limousine on the way home from a photo shoot when they were all drunk (Note: captured on camera, of course), and then they spent even more time together and made out again (Additional note: captured via night vision lenses – much more dramatic!) - and so, as Kim so earnestly explained, even though she’s committed to her girlfriend at home, she and Sarah did a lot of making out because they’re girls and (the next line was the kicker) THAT’S JUST WHAT GIRLS DO. They have fun and make out together, but it doesn’t mean anything. OK, I realize I’m eons away from my teens and twenties. But is that REALLY what girls do now? Fortunately or unfortunately, we won’t see how this relationship turns out since Sarah was kicked off the show at the end of tonight’s episode for not performing well enough with her “signature walk”.