ZIGZAG KIDS
My new series, ZIGZAG KIDS, began at a family dinner. Laura, my teacher-daughter, and my grandson Jimmy, laughed their way through the meal, interrupting each other to tell me about teaching at the afternoon center.
Healthy snack came first and homework help was next. There were plays and nature study. At ballroom dancing one of the boys wore his father’s tie over his tee shirt. He wanted to look elegant. Why not? He won the competition. During swimming, one of the girls yelled, “I’m drowning,” not once, but four times, causing life guards some consternation. The water was knee-high.
The kids loved the center; so did the teachers.
I wrote on my napkin, I wrote on Jim’s. In two minutes I knew this belonged to me as a writer.
For many years, I was a reading teacher, searching for stories for my emerging readers, for my remedial kids. I wrote The Polk Street Kids for them. I was always thinking about fluency. I wanted them to read many things on their independent level, turning the pages faster, comprehension assured. How well I remember the children I worked with, their joy when they read their first book and then the next.
And so I began to shape my stories about the kids at the Zigzag Afternoon Center: the sentences short, the phrases few. I tried to provide context clues to help them decode unfamiliar words.
Laura calls often to remind me about school gardens, trips to a museum, inventions and musicals. I buttonhole kids to ask for stories and they certainly tell me.
I can’t wait to get to my desk every morning. What a joy this writing is.
Sounds like a great series! I am looking forward to reading it and introducing my 2nd grade students to these new characters.
Classroom teacher, 2nd grade
I am all over the idea of students making the rules, but having them in groups to present them to the class is Brilliant! I am doing it and cannot wait. We work in groups all year long and this activity is a great way to introduce group work. Maybe, just maybe one of my students will use this as a small moment in our writers workshop. What a gift it would be for my class to have your series. Thank you for sharing, I cannot wait to get back to school, going on 16yrs of teaching.
Do you feel that summer is long gone? Settling in? I hope you’re enjoying the kids. Where do you teach?
Pat
Hi:
I have a blog where kids review books. Today, Cora, who’s 7, reviewed NUMBER ONE KID. I think she did a great job. If you want to check it out, it’s at: http://wp.me/pDio9-lD
Thanks!
I’m so glad these are available on Kindle! It sounds like they’ll be perfect for my struggling readers. I teach online, and it’s really tough to find enough early chapter books, especially ones that boys will enjoy. For some reason, more girls books are available.
I hope they’ll love the books as much as I loved the story you told above about how you got the idea.
It’s thrilling to have finally found a way to teach again, after having to leave school for health reasons. Hurray for the internet in my life! I’m a teacher once again.
Thanks for all you’ve done for my students over the years.