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[CCBC-Net] A Book (and Person) That Changed My Life
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From: Monica Edinger <monicaedinger>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 09:03:20 -0400
I've enjoyed reading about others' favorite and significant books, many of which were and still are important to me, too. As for a book having a life-changing effect on me, at first I thought not. However, I realize that there is one book that someone had me reconsider and that experience has indeed changed my life.
The book is CHARLOTTE'S WEB and the person is Princeton University's U. C. Knopfmacher. In 1990, I saw a poster in my school's faculty room announcing that year's NEH Seminars for School Teachers. Ever since a high school teacher had commented negatively about my writing, I'd been convinced I couldn't do it to such a degree that I'd stayed away from English Departments in college and graduate school. As a result, I had no idea that children's literature was studied. When I saw Uli's seminar featuring classical American and British children's literature I salivated. With great effort I wrote the required personal essay for the application, probably the first piece of writing I felt good about in twenty years because I ended up being accepted into the seminar --- 15 out of over 100 applicants.
The seminar was incredible. We studied White, Twain, Alcott, Sendak, Hoban, Burnet, Nesbit, Carroll, and others. But I wasn't looking forward to CHARLOTTE"S WEB, a tearjerker I thought and not my kind of book. Until the day we did a close reading of the first chapter and I was completely blown away; in two hours my opinion of the book was turned upside down.
When I returned to my fourth grade classroom that fall, I thought about what I could possibly use from the summer in my teaching. I decided to see what happened if I had the kids do a close reading of that first chapter of CHARLOTTE'S WEB, part of a new program I called
"Children as Scholars." The kids loved it; like me they thought that it was amazingly cool. (After modeling how to read the first chapter closely, each does another on his/her own and then presents it to the class seminar-style.) And so every year since, I've been starting my fourth graders' school year with this way of looking at CHARLOTTE'S WEB, discovering that it is really the most amazing piece of writing, one that is worthy of year after year of close reading. Every year children discover new things. Other teachers have come to my school and do it too (and are blown away by the experience too).
And so, I guess, a book did change my life! I teach differently, I've written books and articles about this, I've spoken about it, and just look at books differently. (Years ago Peter Neumeyer was on the child_lit list serve and I was a bit worried when his ANNOTATED CHARLOTTE"S WEB came out, but it turned out that it didn't affect what my kids did. In fact, I still have their letters to him and his lovely answers. Turns out he did an NEH Seminar with Uli too!) And that soppy book, the one that started me on this path, is to my mind the great American children's novel. An amazing piece of work!
Monica
The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at gmail.com
Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 09:03:20 -0400
I've enjoyed reading about others' favorite and significant books, many of which were and still are important to me, too. As for a book having a life-changing effect on me, at first I thought not. However, I realize that there is one book that someone had me reconsider and that experience has indeed changed my life.
The book is CHARLOTTE'S WEB and the person is Princeton University's U. C. Knopfmacher. In 1990, I saw a poster in my school's faculty room announcing that year's NEH Seminars for School Teachers. Ever since a high school teacher had commented negatively about my writing, I'd been convinced I couldn't do it to such a degree that I'd stayed away from English Departments in college and graduate school. As a result, I had no idea that children's literature was studied. When I saw Uli's seminar featuring classical American and British children's literature I salivated. With great effort I wrote the required personal essay for the application, probably the first piece of writing I felt good about in twenty years because I ended up being accepted into the seminar --- 15 out of over 100 applicants.
The seminar was incredible. We studied White, Twain, Alcott, Sendak, Hoban, Burnet, Nesbit, Carroll, and others. But I wasn't looking forward to CHARLOTTE"S WEB, a tearjerker I thought and not my kind of book. Until the day we did a close reading of the first chapter and I was completely blown away; in two hours my opinion of the book was turned upside down.
When I returned to my fourth grade classroom that fall, I thought about what I could possibly use from the summer in my teaching. I decided to see what happened if I had the kids do a close reading of that first chapter of CHARLOTTE'S WEB, part of a new program I called
"Children as Scholars." The kids loved it; like me they thought that it was amazingly cool. (After modeling how to read the first chapter closely, each does another on his/her own and then presents it to the class seminar-style.) And so every year since, I've been starting my fourth graders' school year with this way of looking at CHARLOTTE'S WEB, discovering that it is really the most amazing piece of writing, one that is worthy of year after year of close reading. Every year children discover new things. Other teachers have come to my school and do it too (and are blown away by the experience too).
And so, I guess, a book did change my life! I teach differently, I've written books and articles about this, I've spoken about it, and just look at books differently. (Years ago Peter Neumeyer was on the child_lit list serve and I was a bit worried when his ANNOTATED CHARLOTTE"S WEB came out, but it turned out that it didn't affect what my kids did. In fact, I still have their letters to him and his lovely answers. Turns out he did an NEH Seminar with Uli too!) And that soppy book, the one that started me on this path, is to my mind the great American children's novel. An amazing piece of work!
Monica
The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at gmail.com
-- Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at gmail.comReceived on Thu 25 May 2006 08:03:20 AM CDT
