Goodreads!

Like many educators I am a avid reader who devours historical fiction. This is nothing like a good book that pulls you in and helps you forget the cold, snowy January weather of Ontario. While researching my next read I stumbled upon the Goodreads website. Where has this been my whole life? I was fascinated to quickly and easily find many titles to add to my reading list. I was also deeply surprised to find many of the books I have authored on the site - not just their titles but ratings too! This inspired me to create an author page in order to help me connect with readers in a new and fresh way. If you are on Goodreads come find me! Even better I would love a review of my books if you have read or purchased them. Come ask me a question or suggest your favourite book to read! I'm excited to connect with you in a new way!

Deanna's Goodreads Page

A Writer's Dream Come True

“Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them.” 

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be an author. I dreamed of writing books that would inspire people. I especially hoped to help educators and children overcome their hesitations and fears regarding math learning, and view math as a beautiful and complex subject that could be discovered everywhere in the world around us.

It was with much excitement that my dream became reality. I was thrilled to publish multiple books regarding both math pedagogy and practice. I was thrilled to find out this summer that many of my books are now available through a favourite Canadian bookstore of mine - Indigo. Thank you to all of you who have helped to support my writing; from those who have proofread and given suggestions for improvement, to those who use the books in their classrooms each day - I am forever grateful!

You can find the books at Indigo here: https://bit.ly/3PSxBJu

Using End Pages to Inspire Math Conversations

"I think all of these have four wheels."

"No, the truck in the middle has 8. You just can't see the other four because they are on the other side."

"I like the red car best. It goes faster than the others."

"The red car has a number 5 on it. That's because it came in fifth place."

"No, the number five is because there are five cars on these pages. The other ones just don't have numbers on them."

 

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Have you ever taken time to appreciate the beautiful art that exists on the end pages of books? This year my goal has been to really slow down and enjoy books together with the children. Sometimes my literacy appetite is so great that I just can't wait to read all these wonderful books in my collection - we rush through book after book each day, gorging ourselves without slowing down to appreciate their intricacies. It's hard not to - there are so many amazing children's books in the world and I'm eager to share as many of them with my class as possible. However the educator in me knows it's important to take our time so we really get as much out of each book as possible. Appreciating the book's design, the illustrations, text, even choice of font, can all help empower children as well rounded readers. There is so much to be discovered within books when we appreciate each text.

Kassia Wedekind, co-author of Hands Down, Speak Out: Listening and Talking Across Literacy and Math, challenges us to think about "how we can mathematize end pages of books". She gives the example from the book Creepy Pair of Underwear by Aaron Reynolds. The end pages feature an array of mini underwear pictures (always a perfectly humorous topic for any elementary school student!). Kassia suggests that children can examine the array and use different strategies for calculating the total number of objects. Children can then be challenged to write different equations to show a deeper understanding of their thinking.

Looking to extend this idea we read Count on Me by Miguel Tanco. This book helps readers uncover the beautiful math that exists in the world around us (e.g., geometric shapes on playgrounds, sharing during dinner time). After reading the book for pleasure, I reintroduced it again to children and asked them to take notice of the cover and end pages specifically. They immediately noticed the vibrant pattern on the inside cover, and made the connection that a small portion of the pattern was also visible on the spine.

 

 

Participating in their discussion while honouring their ideas by including them in an idea web is always challenging for me. It's hard to listen attentively, talk, and record what is being said at the same time. I tried my best to capture some of their thinking on a large chart paper. Most children were eager to discuss the intricate crisscross pattern and curious about what other objects in our yard had this same design (e.g., many noted the fence also looked like this). Towards the end of our conversation the idea of quantity arose, and children wondered if the estimate of 30 diamonds was correct. Many felt this number was too small and thought counting by rows would be an easier way to find out. A next step for us might be to place the book along with different loose parts (e.g., gems, buttons), chart paper and a hundreds chart and challenge children to see how many diamonds they can count in the pattern. I also wonder if helping children to calculate a large quantity by creating groups of counters using a friendly number such as 5 or 10 might work. It's okay if we don't arrive at an answer to this question - the process of working towards it is just as important in my opinion. 

Interested in exploring end pages with children in order to provoke deeper math thinking and exploration? After you find a book that is meaningful for children and has beautiful end page art, consider using some of these question prompts: 

• What do you see?
• What do you think about ____?
• What does this remind you of?
• What do you like/dislike about these pages?
  
• Why did the author/illustrator choose this design for the inside of the book?
• What meaning does this end page have now that we've read the story? 
• What connections to this design can you make?
• What math do you see?
• What math questions do you have?
• How might we find an answer to your question?
• If you were the author/illustrator how would you have designed the end pages?
• How would you improve this design?
• How would you change this design to emphasize patterning/quantity/shape/colour/etc. more prominently? 
  
• Can you draw your own unique end page for a book you've written?
• What would you ask the author/illustrator personally about this piece?

Connecting math and literacy is a wonderful way to help children appreciate how connected the world is and find authentic problems to explore in their lives!

Painting Portraits

We are currently doing an author study of Tommy dePaola. Other authors we have studied include Robert Munsch, Marie-Louise Gay, and Dr. Seuss. The first book we read by Tommy dePaola was "The Art Lesson". The children were interested in the story of Tommy, a little boy, who starts kindergarten and is sad to learn that his teacher wants all the children to copy artwork instead of creating their own. After reading the story the children brainstormed ways in which they created artwork in our classroom. We discussed the still life paintings we had done last week and how even though each person painted the same thing, no two paintings were alike. 

One of the children asked if we could paint one another instead of flowers. We explored a book called "Artists" that showed many examples of living subjects that had been painted by famous artists.

After circle we invited children to paint one another. The artist used a palette of colours while the subject sat still with his or her face displayed in a frame. The frame helped the artist to focus on what to paint - helping him or her pay close attention to detail.

The children were so engaged and focused on the task at hand.

Their finished works of art were simply beautiful!  Each unique and special in its own way!