The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
September 19, 2009
Between Page and Screen
Having your book turned
into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.
John LeCarre
I enjoyed many movies this summer, but my favorite might have been
Julie and Julia. I went home, and within minutes I'd
downloaded My Life in France onto my Kindle. Julia
Child's memoir, written late in her long life, was used as source
material for the movie. Before viewing the movie, what little
I knew about Julia Child mostly came from an old comedy sketch I'd
viewed decades before and a vague notion she was a famous
chef. I was fascinated by the photos and sketches in the
book. As I read, I traced the differences between the words
and what showed up on the screen. I learned Julia and her
husband Paul were big letter writers, and even better, the relatives
who received their remarkable correspondence and photos carefully saved
them. The book was rich in the details I craved after seeing
just a bit of their life on film. The slim volume contains
three love stories - between Julia and her husband, Julia and France,
and Julia and food!
A good movie often sends me scurrying to buy the book, eager to learn
more. The reverse is also true - I've been so disappointed by
some of the film adaptations of my favorite books that I'm sorry I ever
went to see them. When you love a book, it's irritating to have those
perfect mental images in your head replaced with the wrong actor, the
wrong music, and sometimes even the wrong ending if the director takes
too many liberties.
This week we've posted a fun departure from our usual features, since
pleasure can be in short supply in schools these days. What
is your favorite film adaptation of a children's book? Shari
Frost's Top 10 list of film adaptations is sure to spark some
good-humored debate. It's a last wave good-bye to the summer
season of so many films based on favorite books.
Plus we've posted more new content as always - enjoy!
Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
Free for All
Shari Frost views the trailers for upcoming films based on children's
books, and is inspired to create her own list of favorites in From Page
to Screen: My Top Ten Film Adaptations of Children's
Books. Enter our contest at the end of the article by picking
your favorite adaptation, and you might win a prize pack of six DVDs
mentioned in Shari's article:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/980.cfm
School Library Journal has their own list of favorite film adaptations,
and they include the video trailers for most of the movies in their list:
http://tinyurl.com/ljxjr7
What are the three best ways parents can support teachers when it
comes to reading at home and in schools? PBS in their
Thursday Threes feature has some terrific advice. This would
be a good article to highlight in a newsletter to families:
http://tinyurl.com/nklsor
Literacy coaches, are you always hunting for post-its and other
materials when you visit classrooms? Angela
Stockman has posted a short and practical supply list for literacy
coaches on the go. As she notes, you rarely endear yourself
to colleagues when you borrow materials and accidentally use a
permanent marker on a whiteboard:
http://tinyurl.com/lvk2en
A hearty welcome to our newest site license members from Summerside,
Prince Edward Island (Canada); South Bend and Indianapolis, Indiana;
Chicago, Illinois; Tupper Lake, New York; Enumclaw, Washington; Essex
Junction, Vermont; Dousman, Wisconsin; and our renewing site licensees
in Elkader, Iowa; Edison, New Jersey; Fargo, North Dakota; Grand
Island, Nebraska; Naples, Florida; and Barrington, Illinois.
You can learn more about our affordable site license program and
download a registration form at this link:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department63.cfm
For Members Only
Is any teacher ever completely satisfied with their reading response
program? This week we've got examples from three teachers of
ways to improve the written back-and-forth with students.
In Dear Mrs. T, Karen Terlecky shares how student letter writing about
books has evolved over the years. The secret? Karen uses student
letters from previous years as mentor texts for moving her 5th graders
from summaries to more sophisticated responses:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/979.cfm
Shelly Archer finds a reading log wiki is the perfect way to meld
response journals and technology in a way that appeals to her
students:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/981.cfm
In this week's video, Aimee Buckner confers with Summer, who is
inspired by a book to create a list in her reading journal.
Aimee helps Summer see the possibilities for creating a longer draft
from the list:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/982.cfm
Finally, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan remind us that our own
children are often our best teachers. In Lessons from Family
Writer's Workshop, they share all they learned from their children
during a summer of writing together:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/970.cfm
That's all for this week!
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Jennifer Allen
