The Watsons -- Teacher Comments

Archive: November 18 - December 9, 1997 The messages on this page were posted during the Fall 1997 online discussion of The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963. To learn more about Book Club Online lesson plans, click here.
NOVEMBER 18, 1997
FROM: Sandy Bartlett Grade 4 Chancellor Elementary Houston, TX	MESSAGE: Hi! I am having a difficult time locating copies of The Watsons Go to Birmingham--l963 for the Dec. Bookclub. I have checked at Bookstop and Barnes and Noble. Our school library didn't have copies. Any suggestions? Thanks.

FROM: Liz Grube Managing Editor Small Planet Comm.	MESSAGE: Sandy, I have two recommendations for getting class sets at a discount. The first is Keith Distributors in Flint, Michigan (800-373-2366). I got a good price from them on a set of Hatchet paperbacks last spring, and they might offer even better discounts for schools. My second recommendation is the Amazon.com web site (www.amazon.com). It's very convenient to order from them online, and they discount most of their titles. You can use the "Search" function to locate information about The Watsons Go to Birmingham. Amazon.com is also a good place to browse -- they have synopses of many books as well as reviews from the online community.
NOVEMBER 20, 1997
FROM: Mary Anne Bronson LA Specialist Landis Elementary Houston, TX	MESSAGE: Sandy (Chancellor), To get copies of The Watsons, just call Southwest Books--your secretary should have their number. It's Murphy Road off 59 south. I called Monday to order and they still had lots of copies. --Mary Anne
DECEMBER 1, 1997
FROM: Patricia Grady Grades 5 and 6 Klentzman Intermediate Houston, TX	MESSAGE: This technology thing is great until . . . I can't get the first page of lesson 4 and the first page of lesson 7 to print. The heading and minilesson topic print and that's it. Could it be an internal problem? Or an external problem - ME!

FROM: Liz Grube Managing Editor Small Planet Comm.	MESSAGE: Hi, Patricia. No, the problem isn't with you! You probably aren't missing anything from your print-out, though -- Lessons 4 and 7 just happen to print out with the header on one page and the rest of the lesson on the next page. Check the text of your print-out against what you see in your browser window, and I think you'll find that it's all there. I'm sorry that it prints out so strangely -- perhaps I can fix it by dividing each of those lessons into two separate sections. I'll try doing that this afternoon.
DECEMBER 2, 1997
FROM: Mary Anne Bronson Grades PreK-5 Landis Elementary Houston, TX	MESSAGE: Patty - My lessons 4 and 7 printed out okay (at least they look that way to me). I'll fax them over to you sometime this afternoon. - Mary Anne
DECEMBER 3, 1997
FROM: Liz Grube Managing Editor Small Planet Comm.	MESSAGE: Hi, everyone. I just wanted to point out that, as a safety measure, I'm not using any children's last names on the Student Comments pages. It's fine if students want to use their full names when they write in -- I'm just shortening any last names to initials before I post the messages. If your students are wondering why their last names aren't appearing at the web site even though they've typed them in, this is the reason.
DECEMBER 8, 1997
FROM: Taffy Raphael Book Club Program Author Oakland University Rochester, MI	MESSAGE: Hi to participating teachers and students! I just read all the messages from Shiloh and the current ones for The Watsons and am looking forward to "lurking" as the unit goes on. I just got back from National Reading Conference where we talked about the development of children's talk about text in one of the sessions. We were looking at the question, What is the development of talk about text the "development of"? We've been trying to answer this question by studying conversations from the multi-title unit about the Civil War described in the handbook. We're currently thinking in terms of development of: (a) competence in communication (e.g., listening, turn-taking, taking perspectives of "others"), (b) literary knowledge (e.g., author's craft, literary elements, types of response), and (c) any content knowledge that is related to the literature unit (e.g., learning about the Civil War in the unit we're studying, or maybe learning about Civil Rights in the Watsons unit). Any insights about these ideas would be great to read about! Thanks, TER
DECEMBER 9, 1997
FROM: Nancy Bronson Grade 5 Barringer Road Ilion, NY	MESSAGE: I would appreciate any advice since I am attempting to use this with limited resources. I am reading the book to my class of fifth graders since I just have that one copy. Also the internet access is in the classroom next door to mine and the times when I can get to that machine with students is limited to before and after school. The kids like the book and are anxious to respond via E-mail but I am becoming frustrated. I have managed to get 3 kids to write and to receive responses, but it is tedious to get to the responses and then to get them to reply. Perhaps I am expecting to do too much or is there something I could try that might be more successful?

FROM: Liz Grube Managing Editor Small Planet Comm.	MESSAGE: Hi, Nancy. I can understand the problems you're having with limited access to the internet. I know that during the Shiloh lesson plan, one teacher allowed her children to send in their comments from home, if they had internet access there. The only other thing I can think of would be to have your students type their comments in a regular text document (this is assuming that you have a computer without an internet connection in your own classroom), and then you could cut and paste these messages into the form whenever you had a chance to use the computer next door. I realize that this would cut into your own time--so maybe it's not much of a solution! Does anyone else have any ideas?

Archive: November 18 - December 9, 1997