Dear WinkWorld Readers,
If you are following along in this series of blog posts, you will remember that Chapter One, Loving That Literacy focused on literacy stories. In this glimpse into Chapter Two, Loving Those Stories, I focus on the value of storytelling, and I use stories to answer, “Why Stories?”
Many of the stories, which will be used in this chapter, have previously been posted on WinkWorld. For example, you may remember the story of Violet, who had to find a compelling story in the book about numbers before it made sense for her. See “4 Questions about Stories.” You may also remember Violet’s mom, Ruthie, who was struggling in her doctoral class on statistics until she learned to find a story in the numbers. At that time on WinkWorld, I used the title “Why stories? Ruthie and Regression Help Us Understand.”
Hidden within the stories of Violet and Ruthie are also other stories: First, you already met José, who wanted to read the huge Tucson phone book, just to challenge me and my ideas about teaching reading; and, second, the story about Grandma Mary’s fudge recipe–and, oh, if that were only about fudge…
You might like the chalk story, too. Yes, it really happened.
Again, I am sharing one illustration from this chapter, which I particularly like, as it is based on a photo of Katie Knox (the illustrator) and her Dad.
at 4:39 pm
I am excited to purchase a copy of your book when it comes out! I was a graduate student of yours. I took 11 years off to stay at home with my girls. My oldest is going to middle school and my youngest is going to 1st grade. I am going back to teaching, and will be teaching 1st grade in the fall. There have been lots of changes from when I first began teaching for sure!
at 3:25 am
Hello Heather, of course, I remember you. Thank you for staying in touch. 11 years home with your girls. Wonderful. And, all of that lived-experience will benefit you and the students, when you go back to the classroom