Wednesday’s Words/The 2020 Alphabet Challenge

Today’s post is a mishmash of many memes.

 I want to tell you first why I ordered a copy of this particular book. First, one of my students read it for her Memoir Assignment, and her review made me want to read it. Second, in April I’m going to start a meme, “All Things Autistic” for the month, participating in National Autism Awareness Month; and third, because the author’s name begins with an “H.”

It is an easy read, done in the form of Questions and Answers, and it is written by a thirteen-year-old, autistic author. So far it is a great read.

WWWWednesdays

What are you reading?  

 

What did you finish lately?

What will you read next?

 

I will finish City Of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert .

 

Wednesday Word of the Day

audacious

Audacious is my word for 2020, and it means  “bold” / ” courageous” / “outspoken.  This is something I want to learn–to speak up for myself, to speak up when something is not right (I just finished watching the movie, The Hate U Give on Amazon. I highly recommend it.), to try new things: foods, techie skills, teaching on line; maybe you CAN teach an old dog/woman/professor new tricks! LOL

Let me know YOUR word for 2020. Write a comment in the reply box below.

AND…AS ALWAYS…KEEP ON READING. Books are cheap in a time when libraries are forced to close.

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Wednesday’s Words: On Shel Silverstein and Other Things

Continuing with the idea of teaching poetry to elementary age kids, one sure fire poet is Shel Silverstein, a favorite of kids and adults alike.  With Silverstein, one does not have to wait for an occasion to integrate poetry into daily activities, whether in the classroom or at home (Listen up Grandparents!). Looking at trash from the classroom or from the home, Silverstein’s “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out” is the perfect poetry “happening.” Reading aloud the sound-filled poem (“She’d scour the pots and scrape the pans”) introduces what Sarah will and will not do.  Taking the garbage out is where she draws the line.  Vivid, but gross images follow:

“And so it piled up to the ceilings:

Coffee grounds, potato peelings,

Brown bananas, rotten peas,

Chunks of sour cottage cheese…

…With bacon rinds and chicken bones,

Drippy ends of ice cream cones,

Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel,

Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,

Pizza crusts and withered greens,

Soggy beans and tangerines,

Crusts of black burned buttered toast,

Gristly bits of beefy roasts…

This poem is as much fun for Mom or Grandma to read as it is for Sally and Noah to hear and imagine.  It is a smile bringer when little Joe or Carole do not want to fulfill their daily chore of taking the garbage bag to the trash can in the garage or to the dumpster. After hearing the poem, they will be in a better mood, laugh, and “get it over with.”