Dipping a Toe into Marketing Waters

As a charter contributor to this blog, I’m really going to miss it.  I have gained so much from this participation, including the discovery of my “inner blogger” which lives on with my contributions to the Huffington Post.  I hope you will follow me, like me and comment. 

Mostly, I’m grateful for the wonderful community this blog has created.  It has expanded my horizons—I have read books by everyone who blogs, and more.  What an amazing group of writers!

However, this is NOT the end of iNK Think Tank, which is gaining a head of steam.   Last week, Dorothy talked about our new endeavor The Nonfiction Minute  It is a legacy of this blog.  What are its chances—this new communal brainchild—of making its way in this world successfully?

I decided to find out by sending out an email announcement to the iNK mailing list—people who are interested enough in children’s nonfiction to have registered in the iNK database of our books in print.  I wrote a personal email (we know that people are more likely to open an email with a name on it) rather than a press release or corporate announcement. I quoted Alex Siy’s concept for it and gave them the link to the seven Nonfiction Minutes we have published as a sample of what will come in the fall. 

Within seconds I had a letter of congratulations from Nick Glass, president and founder of TeachingBooks.net.  Then I started checking the stats page for the NM website. I watched with amazement as the graph spiked.  I ran a report on the mailing.  The average mass mailing has an open rate of 8%--This one is 11.89% with a 53% click-through to the site.  As of early this week there was a total of more than 1300 page-views.  Since the number of page-views exceeds the number of clicks from the mailing list, I conclude that people are sending the link around.   In addition, our Nonfiction Minute Facebook Page is open for comments and I received a lot of personal emails:

“I really enjoyed these Nonfiction Minutes.  I could definitely use them in my classroom.  I teach second grade and my district will not invest in a reading series.  This has it's good and bad points as you can imagine.  It is tough to write lesson plans when there are no materials.  Some supervisors want text in the kids hands which can be tricky without many books, especially nonfiction.”

“Wow is all I can say. I loved the stories and I know my struggling readers will too. I used to do ‘The Reading Minute’  and it took time to find the articles or write my own, but these are done for me. These will be great for writing constructive responses on theme as well.”

“These sound bites are delightful. They add information and satisfying detail to topics that should be of interest to all. I will recommend them in the upcoming presentation I will be giving at the Ohio Association of Gifted Children (OAGC) this fall, and to my elementary school teachers in my school district.”

“This is spectacular!! I love it! I just wrote a short piece about Stubby, the dog. Funny coincidence.Your work never ceases to amaze me.”

“I love this! I am a special education middle school teacher and can't wait for this to come out in Sept! The kids can read and hear and then see a picture to help them remember it. I would make up one or two test questions that would be on our standardized tests for each one.”

  “Love, love, love the nonfiction minute.  Great choices and thank you for the audible for each as well which permits all learners equal access. My students adore learning facts as relayed to them by talented storytellers. I am now thinking differently about each potato chip I eat.

"Thanks for being inspired and then actually executing your great idea.  I will share with my librarians and they will pass it on.”

The Nonfiction Minute is a blog for kids about the various aspects of the world the fuel our passions as authors.  It is our opportunity to show (not “tell”) the world why we win awards.  It will lead to interest in us as brands—people who write about the real world through the filter of individual minds rather than adhering to the text-flattening guidelines for textbook writers.  Feel free to spread the word.

This mailing was a tiny test of the marketing waters. The idea is to do a soft launch—build a buzz before we go live in September.  In August we have a marketing plan to reach 13 million teachers. I’m fastening my seat belt.  Stay tuned.......This is only a "see you again, soon!"

Starting a Movement

In late 2007, I received an email from Linda Salzman asking if I would contribute to an idea she had.  She wanted to start a group blog of nonfiction authors to talk about our work, our process, or anything else that was on our minds.  Why was she asking me? She said she was approaching the nonfiction authors she admired most. Hmmm....flattery certainly creates openings. I was definitely interested.  Naturally, my first question was, “Is there any money in this?”  When she said, “No,” I said, without hesitation, “OK, I’m in.”  You see, I thought she had a really good idea and my mantra for my life, whenever an opportunity arises, is:

1. I might learn something.
2. It might lead someplace.
3. It pays well.

If the opportunity met two out of the three criteria, I did it.  My first post “Information Is the Least of It” was published on the third day of this blog.  In many respects it is shameless self-promotion, but hey, I assumed that it was allowed, part of the deal.

Looking back, I realize how much courage is needed to start something and Linda certainly faced rejection early in her enterprise.  Recently I saw this hilarious and strikingly insightful video about what it takes to get something off the ground:.   

In hindsight, I see that I was a first follower of Linda.  But, in July of 2009, I became the shirtless dancing guy when I woke up one morning with the idea of organizing the community of authors who contributed to the I.N.K. blog into a company called  iNK Think Tank.  The mission of iNK Think Tank is to get nonfiction literature into classrooms; to educate the world about our genre. To this end we provide a free database, which helps teachers and others find books on subjects that can fit into curricula.  Last month, without promotion, we had 500 new registrants for the database and the site is averaging about 5,000 visitors a month with a high of 8,000 last November..

But our books are still excluded from most classroom work. There are all kinds of reasons for this.  Some of them include the fact that there is the hegemony of textbooks as the source of content, the notion that the quality of writing doesn't matter as long as the subject is “covered,” and that efficiency in education means that everyone is literally on the same page often at the same time. (A text book is not the Bible!) Teachers do not know our work by our name and it would help if we defined ourselves by brand..  In fiction, the author’s name becomes the “brand” because the name is used to catalogue and shelve the books.  In nonfiction, we are cataloged and shelved by subject matter. At a time when the CCSS require that 50% if all reading in elementary school and 75% in high school be nonfiction, teachers still don't know about our books.  And, according to Roger Sutton, this demand for nonfiction reading is not translating into more nonfiction publishing.  iNK is  not going to take this situation lying down.

Alexandra Siy gave us an idea on how to get our literary foot in the classroom door. Again, I’m in the familiar role of first follower taking Alex's lead.  This summer iNK is launching a program for students, called the Nonfiction Minute, of very short (400 words max), stand-alone entries, which teachers will be able to use in their classrooms to introduce students to top nonfiction authors.   The writing will showcase the many voices and topics that fuel our passions.  For the moment, we will offer the Nonfiction Minute free.  I have every confidence that we’ll learn a lot and it will lead someplace.

I'm still walking the path Linda Salzman started me on so many years ago.  As this I.N.K. blog becomes an archive, I can only say a heartfelt thank you to Linda. iNK Think Tank would not exist if not for you.

Authors on Call

Since this post first appeared on May 1, iNK has participated in two conferences:  The 21st Century Children's Nonfiction Conference and ISTE.  One result of our participation is that it was noticed an article in School Library Journal and in Publishers Weekly.  An article for NPR's Mindshift, by Holly Korbey, featuring the iNK website and the I.N.K. blog as resources for parents is scheduled for release imminently.  

iNK Think Tank has been pioneering a new kind of interaction with schools through Authors on Call, a group of nine nonfiction authors who are equipped to do interactive videoconferencing.  (Many authors now Skype but there are other ivc technologies that some schools prefer.)   We call our programs Class ACTS where “ACTS” is an acronym for Authors Collaborating with Teachers and Students.  They are not exactly school visits nor are they professional development for teachers but a hybrid that takes the books and expertise of an author and “bakes” it into the classroom experience with the “buy in” of the teachers and the students. Andrea Warren wrote up her Class ACTS experience and posted it on this blog here.  Let me give you some other examples.

I have been working with, Sarah Svarda, a media specialist from Discovery School in Murfreesboro, TN.  She is using me as a mentor to help her 120 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade library students learn how to do research.  She teaches these students once or twice a week and since she has so many students and interactive videoconferencing is more effective with groups of 40 or less (so that kids can ask questions) we decided that I would meet the students in smaller groups over the period of time that they were doing their research. Sarah would then model the lesson to the other students who didn’t  interact with me. So I met with the 4^th grade just when they were starting the program, then with the 5^th grade as they were several weeks into their research to help direct it more specifically, and then with the 6^th grade as they were starting to write.  I have one more session to go, which will be some kind of wrap-up.  

The students’ original idea of “research” is to look something up in an encyclopedia (or Wikipedia) and write up what they find, which often includes verbatim material, and turn it in the next day as homework.   So, in effect, I was teaching them what I do when I start a project—a long term process that changes over time.  As it happens, I’m just beginning a new book on hurricanes, so I do what all nonfiction authors do.  I went to the library and took out every book on hurricanes I could lay my hands on.  I showed the kids my pile of 25+ books and told them that I start by reading a lot of sources.  This was a real eye-opener for them. I told them that I don’t read every book but that I look at all the books and read the ones that grab me first.  This was another eye-opener—comparing sources and expressing preferences for different writers.   In addition to the 4 videoconferences, Sarah and I also chronicle what we do on a wiki—a communal document.  You can see the wiki for our work, as can parents and other people in the public, but only Sarah and I can write on it.  Read it from the bottom up to get the chronology of our progress.  

We are also working with a group of teachers in PA.  Sue Sheffer is a retired educator working with the York School District on a Library of Congress grant to help teachers use primary source material.  The group is scheduling sessions with our history authors: Roz Schanzer, Carla McClafferty, Jim Murphy, Andrea Warren  plus  Myra Zarnowski, our children’s lit consultant,who wrote a terrific book for teachers: Making Sense of History.   The raves for each author have been off the charts.

Alexandra Siy is working with teachers from Lewis and Clark Elementary in Missoula, MT.  They are using her book Cars on Mars as a mentor text for their own research.  Here is the link to their wiki.  Again, the enthusiasm for the program is unequivocally positive.  

Here’s what our Class ACTS programs offer that is different from a school visit or professional development for teachers:

1.      Author school visits are considered “enrichment.” Class ACTS are programs that are aligned with the curriculum and the classroom work of the students. They take place over a period of time from two weeks to several months.  They bring the excitement of a school visit to daily work, although the author isn't present on a daily basis.  Since a Class ACTS program is no ephemeral one-shot, it can be transformative for students.
2.       An author visit is about the author and the author’s book.  Class ACTS is about students and their work. The shift is to the “demand” side of the school money—it’s where the rubber meets the road in terms of results, so here authors can make a profound difference. Students are discovering that doing work in depth produces a more thoughtful learning experience than simply “covering” material. And content is now starting to matter again.
3.       All educators know that the key to learning is motivation.  When students are motivated they will do the hard work of learning.  Having an author involved in the process provides motivation.  Studies have shown that another character trait exhibited by successful people is grit.  I maintain that none of us nonfiction authors would be here without it.  We also exemplify the skills mandated by the Common Core Standards.
4.        Scheduling is much more flexible than a school visit because it’s just a short time during the day and you don’t need travel time, etc.  So the videoconferences are booked with a short lead time and are given at the optimum time for the students.
5.        Teachers find that all day professional development sessions  are not nearly as useful as having a personal learning network—a place to go to ask a quick question on an as needed basis.  Through Class ACTS, an author becomes a part of the teachers’ pln with very positive outcomes. 

Last year, Authors on Call piloted a program with many authors and one school.  This year we have sold  a variety of programs and we’re learning all the time.  Here’s some of what we’re discovering:

1.       The teachers we’re working with this year are PHENOMENAL.  Make no mistake, there is a lot of extra work figuring out how to use us and our books and our skills so that students benefit.  The teachers we’re currently working with are early adopters who see something for themselves in taking a risk and doing something different.  As a result, they are, perhaps, a self-selected group totally committed to their students and are doing the lion's share of the work.  We authors are learning from them in this truly collaborative effort. I have no doubt that our incredibly successful outcomes are due to the quality of the teachers we’re working with.
2.       Last year, in our pilot program, the best teachers were the ones that signed on first.  They created a bandwagon effect with other teachers joining in because they didn't want to be left out.  But the teachers who joined later were not as effective
3.       A successful program depends on planning, collaboration and commitment. But the rewards are beyond anything anyone imagined in terms of student output.  It is humbling to see how much talent children have when you give them the opportunity to strive, think, create and shine.
4.       It takes patience for a new idea to take hold.  The success of Authors on Call depends on schools that have the videoconferencing technology to understand the value of books and authors and for schools that appreciate books and authors getting the technology. We’re moving forward, however, and Authors on Call is leading the way. 

For more information on Class ACTS programs, you can download  a pdf of our brochure here.

We're Rallying the Troops

               What was your reaction to Roz Schanzer’s excellent post, yesterday?  Frankly, it made steam come out of my ears.  I took it as a shot across our bow.  The Washington Post article she linked to and the article last week in the NY Times show an enormous lack of knowledge about our genre.  It’s almost as if we’re invisible to the rest of the world.  We’re fighting all kinds of assumptions.  Here are a few right off the top of my head:

·         All nonfiction is equal and equally boring.

·         Nonfiction is reading a manual

·         “there isn’t that human connection that you get with literature. And the kids are shutting down”

·         Nonfiction is “recipes and train schedules.”

·         “nonfiction requires more rigor than a literary novel”

·         “nonfiction may help you win the corner office but won’t necessarily nourish the soul.”

And the articles that I excerpted these quotes from mention only long-form journalism as an example of high quality nonfiction; neither article mentions the existence of our genre of nonfiction literature for kids.

It’s not like we haven’t been thinking about this for a looooong time.  Here are a few of the reasons our books are not studied in classrooms as the CCSS say they should be taught:  

·         They don’t come with ancillary material such as lesson plans, and teacher’s guides and study questions.

·         Educators don’t understand how they support and fit into the curriculum. 

·         Teachers are afraid to stray from the prescribed reading material for fear something might show up on the assessment tests that they should have “covered” but missed.

·         Teachers are over-worked, over-scheduled and have very little time to invest in doing something differently unless they know it will work.

·         Many educators have not taken the time to read even one of our books.  Teachers have no time to read them. Librarians may beg teachers to work with them and pull books but often they don’t have much influence. 

·         There is a LOT of confusion about the CCSS.  Educators need to understand that the standards are in the way things are taught, not in the books themselves.  Teaching from badly written material is NOT the way to teach kids to read to learn—one of the basic literacy skills of the CCSS. So they need to find out that our books are going to liberate them to teach with much more creativity, critical thinking and, yes, humanity. And reading is not just for ELA classes but for all subject areas.  Our books are not competing with the teaching  of fictional literature. 

iNK Think Tank is in the process of becoming a company that will address these issues.  It’s been a learning curve to find out how to be a business but, after three years, it’s starting to come together. Here are some of the things we’re planning:  (I’m into lists today.)

·         We are going to expand our membership to include you, our readers.  If you were a member, what would you want from such a membership? We’re thinking lesson plans, book clubs with online discussions, a community of sharing and strategizing about using nonfiction in the classroom.

·         We will have the money to pay for high-quality lesson plans, and consultants, and  passionate advocates and we invite you to participate. 

·         We’re not yet sure how things will develop but we already have a mailing list of thousands of registered users for our database and will use it to keep you informed.  So if you’d like to be involved please register in the iNK Think Tank database and be sure to use an email address that won’t come up against a school firewall. 

·         If you have ideas and suggestions about how you personally can help, please send them in to: thoughts@inkthinktank.com

It’s clear that we authors can’t fight this alone; we need your help. Please join us.  Learning is a struggle, but the community that reads this blog knows that it can be a joyous one.  It’s time to help the rest of the world find out.

PS.  Yesterday, I sent Roz's comments to Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post, who responded with interest.  Here two posts of hers hot off the keyboard:  Common Core Reading, Pros and Cons; and List: What Common Core Authors Suggest High-Schoolers Should Read.

WHY AUTHORS DRINK

Uh-oh, people, check it out.  Remember the new Common Core State Standards that say nonfiction should make up 50 percent of the reading kids do in elementary schools and 70 percent of what they read by grade 12?  Of course you do.  Pretty cool for the top-flight authors who write such outstanding nonfiction books for kids these days, yes?  Well, take a gander at this front page banner headline from yesterday’s Washington Post:

NEW SCHOOL LIT STANDARDS MAKE TEACHERS SMOLDER

 

Now there’s a headline that makes authors smolder too. So here’s a link to the very same article in its online incarnation, only with this kinder, gentler headline:

COMMON CORE SPARKS WAR OVER WORDS 

  

Will an alternate headline make this news any easier to swallow?  Let’s take a look.  
Nope, it only gets worse because in spite of commentary on both sides of the issue, here’s the main thrust of the story:

Now teachers everywhere will have to banish almost all traces of great literature from their classrooms, and especially from their English classrooms.  Instead, the CCSS dictates the use of such boring “informational texts” as a bunch of raw data, official papers from a Federal Reserve Bank and the General Services Administration, and some arcane speeches by dead people with no support material whatsoever to help put the material into context. 

Want more?  Calling the Common Core “misguided,” a Massachusetts’ specialist in pre-K-12 educational standards says that teachers “hate the Common Core, they hate the idea they have to teach nonfiction.”   She says its supporters are “trying to elevate fact-based reading and writing at the expense of literature and creative writing.”  So what are we—chopped liver?

And then there’s this:  “The effect of the new standards is to drive literature out of the English classroom,” says a professor from Teachers College at Columbia University.

What?  This article spans three pages in one of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers, and not one single mention is made about the outstanding nonfiction literature written specifically for kids?? 

WAKE UP, WASHINGTON POST.  At this very moment, we are basking in the glow of a Golden Age of nonfiction.  The best of these books bring to life some of the most exciting and riveting stories of all time, and better yet, these are books kids love to read. What a great way to make learning about the real world fun and memorable at the same time.  And how misleading to omit an entire genre of compelling, beautifully written and illustrated, meticulously vetted, totally accurate, and thoroughly entertaining books from an entire front-page article in one of America’s most prominent newspapers! 

What’s more, the best of the best nonfiction books can easily be tied to every aspect of a school’s curriculum, from English to math to social studies and science, making cross-curriculum work a pleasure.  In all probability, the reason you are reading this blog is because you already know about these books and might be a fan of the nonfiction authors who write for INK. But judging from the newspaper piece, there are plenty of educators out there who still don’t get it.

So would they like to check out some examples of great nonfiction literature for kids that's a perfect fit for CCSS?  Sure, be my guest and make things easy….just send them here.   Take a gander at the dust jackets of a bunch of INK’s award winning books. Then go to the top of the page, click on Find the Books, and sign into the free online database, where you can generate entire lists of books geared directly to any subject you have to teach - or for that matter, any subject your heart desires. 

Jumping Through Hoops

Last February, while driving to Vermont, I received a phone call from a businessman friend, Mike Landau, who has watched the development of iNK Think Tank  with great interest.  He called to let me know that Apple had just released a new FREE program, iBooks Author,  that formats books for the iPad so they can be sold in the iTunes store.  iTunes saved the music industry by monetizing each song so people could create  individual playlists.  Wow!  What an opportunity!  iPads are the tablet of choice in schools.  The playing field has been leveled.  It’s now possible for our publishing company,  iNK Books & Media (we reserved the domain name as part of iNK Think Tank) to come into being.  Since we don’t have enough money to invest in our hiring someone, I could now learn to format books myself.

That afternoon, I downloaded iBooks Author.  (I learn by plunging in and making mistakes, so I never hesitate to try something new.)  It required a free upgraded operating system for my Mac, which meant I had to pay for an upgraded Microsoft Office for Macs, but hey—we were on our way.  One of the BIG issues for us children’s book creators is that other devices for ebooks are mostly for text only and don’t show art well (although that is now changing).  The iPad, with its backlighting and relatively large (7” x 9”) screen is a stunning way to display images.  I knew that I had to learn the program, but first I had to find a way to take apart a book and get it scanned.   You Tube has some videos for that but it still takes some skill to do a good job.  I took my first deconstructed book (with all rights reverted--an earlier battle) to my local Staples where my name on the book stopped them from questioning me about my right to get it copied.  (Now I have a relationship with all the copy folk so I can get any book copied.)  I enclosed a flash drive and had them make high res scans (600 dpi) in both the pdf and jpg formats.
I uploaded the images first into iPhoto to crop off ragged edges, enhance the color, and make small touch-ups and orientation corrections.  At first, I wasn't all that familiar with iPhoto so there was a learning curve for this step; but by April I was finally ready to try and create my first book with iBooks Author.  The program offers a lot of templates where you can design a book by dragging art and text into their boxes.  I have a feeling that they had their designers work with textbook people, who are fighting hard to maintain their hegemony in the school market, and then threw their text-booky-looking templates out there for us to play with.  With the help of an online support community, I learned I could use the blank page option as my template to drag, drop, and resize images to create our books.  But the hair-tearing-out aspects of learning iBook Author, pale in comparison to the other hurdles thrown my way.

            Rather than bore you with the countless frustrations let me itemize all the learning curves:        

• We had to become paid vendors in the iTunes Store.  Apple has a 32 page contract (enough said!)
•  Each book requires an ISBN number.  This means learning how to assign ISBNs to new titles and register them in the Bowker database so that Apple will recognize them.  (iNK now owns 100 ISBNs. We've used 14.  I'm optimistic about using them all. )
• After the book has been formatted, you have to create a "book package" for delivery into the iTunes store.  This means learning a totally different program called iTunes Producer for Books, which includes a lot of "metadata" about each book. (I’m lucky I’m not bald!)
•  Finally, each book package is sent to the iBookstore. At first, they don't make the cut and error messages abound.  But they have a help phone line.  ( I now know everyone in that office.) 
• After the books are uploaded, I have to wait for the iTunes book review committee to review each book and issue a ticket for infractions.  BTW, the iBooks people communicate with the iTunes people only by email.  There are no humans talking to humans.

By last week, I had successfully uploaded 14 books, of which 13 were on sale in 5 markets, the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada.  The last book was not approved because it had “scanned text.”   They want the words laid into text boxes from a word-processing program so that they can use their new live dictionary and voice-over pronunciation function.  With the vague feeling that I was waking a sleeping dog, I spoke to an iBookstore person and sputtered, “But all of our books are scanned, and they were approved!”  Guess what!  I am now the proud possessor of 14 tickets and none of our books are in the market! Still fighting the good fight, I responded  to each of the 13 tickets with a highly articulate (possibly politically incorrect) letter about why we don’t need the dictionary look-up and that they were denying the bookstore superior works by well-established professional authors. No response so far from the anonymous powers-that-be at iTunes (the iBookstore people are sympathetic but relatively impotent).

After a few days, I bit the bullet.  For many of the books, the text (not fully copy-edited) exists in Word files.  This means that if I remove the text from the art with PhotoShop, I can reinsert the stripped art into iBooks Author and cut and paste text into text boxes—a LOT of tedious work.  But I’m a knitter and can handle it.  My new challenge is learning PhotoShop Elements so I can strip the text and match the background color.  I am now a one-trick-pony with that program but it was enough to get one of the scanned –and-banned books back into the iBookstore, where it is now awaiting approval.  (New error messages appeared on the other two books I prepared.)

This post is my long-winded explanation for why we haven’t triumphantly announced the opening of our publishing division, iNK Books & Media.  It’s also therapy for me. Thanks for reading this far. xxxo

This Blog, iNK Think Tank, and You

It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated. -Edith Hamilton, educator and writer (1867-1963)

When Linda Salzman founded this blog in January of 2008 (almost 5 years ago!) her mission was to introduce extraordinary books about the real world, available for the education of children, through the voices of their authors.  Linda’s vision was simple:  turn the spotlight on nonfiction literature and its authors as a resource for educators.  I became a charter member of I.N.K., because Linda’s mission was in perfect alignment with the educator in me.  I teach science through my books, which contain my best thinking for doing so.

About a year and a half later (July of 2009) I woke up one morning with a vision of my own.  Educators needed more than a blog to learn about children’s nonfiction; they needed a tool to find books that fit into their curriculum.  And we authors needed an organization to promote our genre and our expertise in a variety of ways.  iNK Think Tank emerged from the community of I.N.K. bloggers and made a splash in October of 2009 with the launch of our website and free online database.

There is no other organization out there quite like iNK Think Tank, LLC.  I call us the “United Artists” of children’s nonfiction and we are establishing a brand for excellence.  Membership is by invitation only.  Each iNK member has a body of work and has won numerous awards and critical acclaim.  Today, when anyone can publish with the click of a mouse, we believe that the public wants to know where to go to find excellence.  We are a classy boutique in an infinite yard sale.  And there are signs that the brand of iNK is taking hold.  The number of registered users of our database has been growing steadily, day by day and is now in the many thousands. We are receiving many favorable press notices.  Last year, a number of iNK authors were featured in Spotlight webinars by the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, and many of our authors wereinterviewed by Neil Haley on his Total Education Hour (recordings of these events can be accessed on our website.) Neil has recently been in contact with me and wants to give us a regular slot.

We are also designed to serve the needs of educators and students.  The Common Core State Standards focus attention on the processes of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and using language effectively in a variety of content areas.  The CCSS want students to be able to use language to report, persuade, interpret, and craft their own thoughts.  The standards encourage the development of critical thinking about what the students read. These are skills that we authors have mastered.  We are in a unique position to help students learn these skills through the passions we have for our own disciplines.  One of my epiphanies three years ago was the realization that it is our books that are excerpted on the state-wide assessment tests, yet the classroom reading used to prepare students for these tests doesn’t necessarily include anything remotely resembling our books.

All of us do school visits, which generate tremendous excitement for students and may have a residual effect in school libraries for years.  Yet, the impact of these visits is ephemeral.  If our books are not integrated into classroom work, where the rubber meets the road for genuine learning, they and our visits are doomed to be relegated to the role of “enrichment.” Teachers fear that if they substitute our books for prescribed reading they may not “cover the material.” Often the correlation between a wonderful nonfiction book and the prescribed curriculum content is not verbatim or obvious so teachers default to using pedestrian, formulaic, and packaged “instructional” material that can kill two beautiful birds with one stone: the desire to read and the desire to learn.  ELA instruction always includes fictional literature; why not use high quality nonfiction to teach science, geography, history, civics, and math?

I believe that a school’s job for the twenty-first century is to develop a child’s passion for learning.  Lifelong learners know their own idiosyncratic learning styles.  They are not easily thrown by the inevitable mistakes and difficulties that come with attacking a new skill or subject. They know how to persist.  iNK’s nonfiction authors are masterful lifelong learners.  So, why not bring us, along with our books, into your classroom? Why not have your students learn directly from us how we do it?

A group of iNK members, Authors on Call, is a team prepared to work with teachers and students via interactive videoconferencing to facilitate real learning.  Last year we piloted a program with an elementary school in New Jersey, and this year we’re starting to catch on.  In the interest of full disclosure, videoconferencing provides us authors with a revenue stream, essential if we are to keep writing. (Remember, most of us don’t have a day job.)   But videoconferencing also makes the fees very affordable (no travel expenses) and sessions (which are not one-shots but delivered over a period of weeks) can be timed to a teacher’s schedule.  A school can tap into the wisdom and knowledge of a group of authors as related directly to their curriculum needs for about the cost of an author’s school visit. Authors on Call, and its Class ACTS (Authors Collaborating with Teachers and Students) programs, create and fulfill teachable moments that deliver terrific professional development for teachers and the excitement of a school visit for kids.

 

iNK Think Tank authors  know the meaning of Edith Hamilton’s quote at the beginning of this post.  Now our mission is to help children, through their teachers, discover it. 

Note:  the current iNK Think Tank website is in the process of being updated.  It will go live shortly.  Registered users of the database will be notified when this happens and will also get advanced notice of upcoming publications. If you wish to receive iNK notifications, please use a personal email address as many schools have filters that prevent us from reaching you.

Peaks and Valleys

A couple of weeks ago I was in a waterfront hotel in Vancouver BC where I received a Lifetime Achievement Award from AAAS/Subaru Science Books & Films. It was certainly a validation, a crowning moment, (here’s the video) but awards are a funny thing. If one is truly engaged in life, it’s the struggles that are the focus. So right now I’m thinking about what happened this past weekend.

We are midway through the school year and about half of the authors participating in iNK’s pilot project, where we are collaborating with both teachers and students of Bogert Elementary School, have completed their missions. Roz Schanzer worked with two fourth grade classes. They had to learn about New Jersey’s government, a somewhat dry subject. But under Roz’s direction they produced an amazing book called The Golden Government. You can read a rave review of the project from teacher Heather Santoro here. Dorothy Patent worked with two fifth grade teachers. Read what Chris Kostenko said about that experience here. I worked with Carla Christiana and Alicia Palmeri on the solar system and we’re about halfway through the unit. I’ve written an article about our experience that will be the lead feature in the April edition of Science Books & Films but you can see the effect on student learning in this video where the kids are exclaiming over the NASA website. What we’re doing is groundbreaking because of its scale, its intimacy, and the effective timing of the conferences so that we are truly transforming the learning of the children. That’s where the rubber meets the road in education. It’s far more effective than a school visit, which generates enormous interest and excitement, very little of which is channeled into the work kids do in the classroom every day.

I may be a little impatient, but I want people to realize that using children’s nonfiction authors and their books as a resource for education produces powerful results. So whenever possible I’ve been submitting proposals to conferences to present our work. The conferences are NOT library conferences. (Librarians have their own problems trying to get classroom teachers to use nonfiction.) I’ve been sending in proposals to conferences for teachers of technology. I figure that many schools have videoconferencing equipment sitting around, gathering dust and the techies in charge of the equipment are looking for reasons to use it. It stands to reason that they’d like to find something that their classroom teacher colleagues will appreciate. Maybe this is a kind of oblique approach to marketing but hey, I have an experimental nature. I have no illusions that my reputation as an author is meaningful to technology teachers. Basically, I’m starting over, a humbling experience. So finally, after being rejected twice by the BIG conferences ISTE (international Society for Technology in Education) and NYSCATE (New York State Association for Computers and Technology in Education) I was finally accepted, for this past weekend at a little regional NYSCATE conference in Wappingers Falls, NY (about an hour from my home.)

Wow! This was exciting news. So I lined up Bogert’s media specialist, Heidi Kabot, and Dorothy’s two teachers, and Roz and Dorothy, to hang around their computers on a Saturday afternoon, so I could beam them in via Skype to speak at my presentation. I could not present them as a panel because the high school, where the conference was held, didn’t have the capability of providing a bridge so that several end points could be presented at the same time. (So much for being "cutting edge" at a technology conference!) So I brought them each in sequentially to speak for five minutes. Our presentation time was 1 pm , which gave me the morning to meet people at the conference and drum up an audience. The title of our session was “Catching the Love of Learning: A School-wide Project with Teachers and Authors.” I was listed as the presenter but there was no bio so I’m not sure if there was any name recognition or if being an author was of any significance whatsoever to this group.

So far, all peaks, right? Here comes the valley. I had to wait to get into the room. The session before mine was “Identify Effective SMART Board Use.” The room was jammed. When I was finally able to get in to set up, (with the help of a very savvy techie named Chance) I happened to have the iNK Think Tank website up on the SMART board and the instructor of the last session said, “Oh, I LOVE that site!” as he was gathering up his stuff. The room cleared out and my attendees entered. Only three people showed up and stayed! One person I had met at lunch came in, and sat down but left before I started. Okay. This is show business. We’re in an out-of-town tryout. So I hoped our three listeners felt welcome and proceeded with the presentation which went off without a technical glitch. Everyone who presented was wonderful and articulate. The audience took copious notes. But where were all the people I had met that morning who said they would come?

We’re doing a post mortem. As I’ve said many times, “A learning experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” There were seven other concurrent sessions. We’re trying to figure out what was the big draw. Did it have something to do with the new emphasis on Core Curriculum Standards? Did I offend people? Did I come on too strong? Are these teachers too concerned with keeping their jobs to be thinking about the “love of learning?”

In my perennially optimistic style (which some people find annoying) I can only say that failure is far more interesting than success.

LiNKing with Our Audience

A few days ago, Vicki wrote about the success of the first videoconference between an iNK Authors on Call author and students in Bogert School in New Jersey. I happened to be the author in that interaction, but I believe that all of us will have similar successes connecting with the students. Before each of us skypes with them, the students will be familiar with some of our work, and just the idea of having a “real author” interested in them is an exciting prospect. Real people write those books—wow! The enthusiasm of Bogert's devoted teachers also rubs off on the students, and the special projects they will undertake give them a change from routine classroom work. All the elements area there for a successful project.

A key element in what we’re doing that makes our interactions different from a traditional school visit is that we skype with the teachers first and find out what they would like to see in the students as a result of “meeting” their author. Different teachers can have very different goals. For example, Jason and Chris, “my” teachers, hoped that I could help their students to connect with their own real worlds, with their day to day environments, and to become curious about them and begin to ask “why” questions.

As a 20^th century kind of person, I tend to attribute the students’ disconnect with what I would call the “real world” to their incessant contact with input from outside worlds—music from their ipods, text messages on their cell phones, comments on their Face Book pages, and so on. These sources of “information” have little or nothing to do with the environment through which the students are moving on a day to day basis. As a result, when a teacher asks the students what in their lives sparks their curiosity, what around them might they want to learn more about, they have no answer. They are so wrapped up in those outside worlds that they are disconnected from the actual world in which they eat, sleep, and go to school.

So, when I talked to the students, I suggested they take a look around as they go home from school and start to wonder—why do some trees loose their leaves in the fall and others don’t? Where do the ants go when they disappear into a crack in the sidewalk? That sort of thing. From what Jason and Chris have indicated, some of the students are awakening to their environments, and the classes as a whole got truly engaged in our interaction. From five time zones away (I was in Hawaii), I could feel their enthusiasm as they murmured to one another while watching my slide show. As for me, this experience is only strengthening my knowledge that the two things in life that most help me “come to life” are learning new things and communicating the excitement of learning to others. I think that’s a powerful motivating force for all of us who have chosen to write nonfiction books for children, and connecting directly with our readers, even from far away, gives us a special high we can’t get in any other way. It's a win-win process.

“What We’re Doing Isn’t Ordinary.”

Happy New Year, everyone!

As many of you know, Authors on Call, the interactive videoconferencing (ivc) group of Ink Think Tank, is doing a pilot program with an elementary school in Upper Saddle River, NJ. Eight authors and several consultants are participating. We are hoping to answer the following questions, (among others):

• What happens to the learning environment of a school when teachers and a team of award- winning children’s nonfiction authors collaborate in a large-scale, school-wide project where everyone is involved in sharing knowledge and skills?


• Is this a way to create inspiration, motivation and the love of learning?

Our first results are starting to come in and they are very encouraging. A little background: Each Ink author suggested titles of his/her own books to fit into the Bogert scope and sequence. The teachers then selected the titles they wished to teach. The plan is to have teachers meet with the author of the book they’ve selected via ivc to brainstorm and plan how to teach the book. Together they plan projects and assignments based on the readings and schedule ivcs for the author to meet with their students to strengthen the personal connection between them. Since the devil is in the details, I’m going to quote some excerpts from the first participants in the project as entered on our wiki , which is the record of the pilot as it unfolds. Chis Kostenko and Jason Parkhurst, are two fifth grade teachers, who selected Dorothy Hinshaw Patent’s book Shaping the Earth.

Jason and Chris first met with Dorothy via Skype, which is the only ivc technology we have available at this school. (The photo at left shows the brainstorming session. Dorothy is on the laptop.) Dorothy later said: “As we talked, we quickly agreed that a major problem is getting students engaged with learning. Jason and Chris both said that even when they ask their students what in their own lives interests them the most, what inspires their curiosity, many of them can't come up with an answer. It seems they are detached even from their own lives. I had come into the session with that same question in a general sense--when we introduce a subject in the curriculum that the children need to learn about, how do we get them to relate to it personally?”

Dorothy then wrote about their plan: “Jason and Chris suggested that by listening to me talk about my own life, how my passion for the natural world drove me then as it does now, might help inspire their students to think about their own lives and spark their own interests. We decided that I would do two half hour Skype sessions with the students, one soon after Thanksgiving, in which I would talk about what drove me when I was a child, how I found my own writing voice that allows me to communicate clearly with my readers, how I write so that people want to read what I've written, and the more practical matter of how I find reliable information and how I choose which information to pass on to readers. Then, after the students have developed their own projects using my book, we would have a second Skype session together. We left the focus of that one somewhat up in the air for now, as we want to see how the project evolves.”

The first ivc with the students took place on Wednesday, December 9. Dave Kaplan, the principal, observed:

“From the general learning perspective, it was awesome. Truly awesome. Students were excited, taking notes, responding, etc. The two classes sat on the floor facing the smart board and there was a chair on which one student speaker could sit front and center. The camera faced the class and seemingly captured everyone. There was a real hum coming from the students as they related to Dorothy's experiences and laughed at some of her stories it was interesting to hear. There was energy in the room. For this first meeting, it was a get-to-know you. I loved that; relationship building = credibility for the kids. Next step is to dig into the learning-content area, writing, reading, etc. I am already talking to the teachers about possibilities and directions. The goal is to get the students more involved. In this introductory meeting, the kids generally listened, though they did come prepared with (great) questions for Dorothy."

Chris Kostenko polled his class the next day, “The class spoke about Dorothy as someone they knew. Here are some of their comments:

"It wasn’t just about books, science, or being an author. We got to learn a lot about you.’‘

"I enjoyed that story about when you and your friend set off the firecracker and set the grass on fire. I would feel embarrassed just like you did. Who wouldn’t?’‘

"I realized that nature is a very important and fun thing to explore. You’ve also inspired me to do my best and to work hard.’‘

"I can’t wait to talk to you again."

"Now when we read your book, we can hear your voice say every little word—no matter who is reading.’‘

"It seemed like you were right in the room with us."

’‘It’s exciting to know an author who can give us tips…I can’t wait to get tips from a real pro.’”

Chris’s conclusion: “What we’re doing isn’t ordinary. We’re playing with something that has extraordinary potential. Wow.”

This week we’re adding two more consultants to help teachers plan, we’re meeting (in person) with the Bogert faculty and curriculum people, and we’re adding some metrics to the program to measure our effectiveness, thanks to a couple of professors from the University of Kentucky. All the interest from the academic community only reinforces that we are on to something.

It looks like 2012 is going to be a very interesting year.

A Bridge to the Classroom

As most of you know, the questions I’ve been asking for many years, the questions behind the database of our books aligned to national education standards on the Ink Think Tank website and the questions behind the formation of Ink Think Tank itself are: Why aren’t our books used as primary reading sources in classrooms? Why are our books usually considered “enrichment” not to be read as part of the daily fare? Why are teachers so intent on “covering” curriculum material that has a good chance of showing up on assessment tests rather than on engaging students in a true learning process? One possible answer is that “covering the material” is entrenched tradition shored up by lesson plans, questions for discussion, and tests provided by textbook companies. Teachers fear that in straying from this path they’ll miss something crucial for the tests. (Never mind that the tests are made up of reading selections excerpted from our books.) Is one of reasons that our books are not used as widely as they should be this the lack of support materials? Do teachers need help in understanding how to use nonfiction literature in the classroom? Is the prospect of creating one’s own support materials, figuring out how to use nonfiction literature in the classroom, overwhelming for the overworked teacher?

According to Dr. Myra Zarnowski, who teaches nonfiction literature to prospective teachers, both graduate and undergraduate students at Queens College, CUNY, the resounding answer is: Yes! They do need a bridge to know how to effectively use our books. And Myra is just that. She is our “not-so-secret-weapon” at bridging the divide between authors/teachers/students. In recent days I have come to appreciate what she brings to the mix. We didn't do so well on our own. Let me explain.

Last school year, Ink did an experiment. We tried out a couple of “Computerside Chats” where authors talked online about using our books in the classroom. Myra listened and felt that our chats were not as focused as they could be. So we asked for her help.This year Myra is hosting a series of CILC “Spotlight” webinars where she is interviewing us with real strategies and guidelines for teachers. It has been an eye-opener for me! While there is some overlap between authors and teachers,the skill set needed by teachers is not the same as those used by authors. Myra suggests using our books in three different ways.

1. The author as co-teacher. How does the book help illuminate the content you have to teach?
2. The author as exemplary writer. How does the author bring the “magic mix’ of being funny, friendly and factual to connect with the reader?
3. The author as inquirer: How does s/he know what they know?

How do I know Myra’s approach so well? We’ve been working together. I’m in the first of four free “Spotlight” webinars produced by CILC along with Alexandra Siy. Science Writing that Makes You Question What You Know will be live on November 30, 2011 from 4 to 5 pm EDT. It will be recorded and archived.

The other upcoming Spotlight events (all from 4-5 pm Eastern Time) where Myra interviews INK authors are:

Person-Centered Views of the Past: Penny Colman, Jim Murphy, Andrea Warren 2/1/12
Innovative Picture Book History and Social Studies: Trish Marx, Roz Schanzer 4/25/12
Math and Science for Young Thinkers: Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, David Schwartz 5/16/12

For more information and to register for Science Writing that Makes You Question What You Know go here. Hope to see you there.

An Outside-the-Box Proposal

Welcome back, I.N.K. readers.... Another school year begins and one where we're gaining strength and a real voice. Our Ink Think Tank Website has been updated with many new features. But that's not what I want to discuss today.

For the past two years, I’ve been working on a very innovative project, and it has taken me a while to find a way to get others to share my vision. I’ve been on a very steep learning curve, but learn I have! I think I’ve finally figured out how to present my idea so others get it. I’m going to make it very specific and concrete. So this is an experiment; I’m going to share my outside-the-box thinking with you.

Here are the questions I’m asking:

* What would happen to the learning environment of your school if your teachers and a team of award- winning children’s nonfiction authors collaborated in a large-scale, school-wide project where everyone was involved in sharing knowledge and skills?

* Is the love of learning—the passion that drives us children’s nonfiction authors--contagious? Can you catch it from us? Because lifelong learning is who we are and what we do

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* What happens to student literacy when the core reading material is children’s nonfiction literature? Our books are normally considered “enrichment” and relegated to a secondary role in student learning, if not completely ignored in most classrooms, although they more than meet national educational standards. Suppose that they become the intellectual meal rather than a sometime dessert? Can you imagine it?

* How could personal contact with the award-winning authors of the books enhance the professional development of your teachers in both literacy skills (writing) and knowledge of content?

* How can these questions be addressed in a way that is affordable for a school and yet compensates authors (who have no salary or benefits) for their time and expertise?

Ink Think Tank has a group, Authors on Call of nine award-winning nonfiction authors and two consultants, one in literacy and one in children’s nonfiction literature. .We are pioneering a way to work with schools via interactive videoconferencing (ivc). Let me describe how a partnership with an elementary K-5 school with about 500 students would work. Please note that this is just an example that can be modified to fit your school:

* Your school would select one title from each author that fits into your scope and sequence in science, social studies and math. The authors can help with the selection. They can also show how the selected books fit into the scope and sequence of your language arts program.
* The authors are as follows:
Vicki Cobb (hands-on science, biography, physical science, chemistry, biology)
Penny Colman (history, women’s history, history of unusual things)
Trish Marx (geography, multicultural issues)
Jim Murphy(history, disasters)
Dorothy Hinshaw Patent (natural science, ecology, wildlife, western expansion history)
Rosalyn Schanzer] (author/illustrator history. science, and biography)
David M. Schwartz (math, animals, natural science)
Alexandra Siy (natural science, animals, technology)
Andrea Warren http://andreawarren.com/ (history—major world events from the point of view of the children who lived through them)

(Check out the videos on our Authors on Call Page)

* Your school would order 100 books of each title, one for each author, about 3 classroom sets.
* Your school would assign the books to the appropriate teachers who would read the book (s).
* Just prior to teaching a book, the teachers would meet for an hour via interactive videoconferencing (ivc) with its author for a brain-storming session on classroom strategies for teaching that particular book including tips on researching and writing.
* INK would establish a wiki for the project with your school. Each author would have a page on a wiki to answer teacher questions on an on-going basis for the duration of the use of the book. Teachers could also use the wiki to blog about their experiences.
* After the students finish studying the book, they would meet face-to-face with the author via ivc for questions and answers. In order to keep the groups small, this would be three 20 minute periods or four 15 minute periods.
* In addition, the teachers would attend an ivc with Dr Myra Zarnowski, a professor of children’s literature at Queens College, CUNY author of Making Sense of History and one with Angela Maiers, author of The Passion-Driven Classroom.

To sum up, the package would include about three classroom sets for each of nine titles (900 books in all), eleven hours of just-in-time professional development, and 9 hours of interaction with children. The wiki created by the authors and teachers would be a permanent record of the insights developed during the course of the program. The total investment is $50 per child, no more than $25,000 for a school of 500 students, with the books and the knowledge available for years to come.

I believe that this program will generate unprecedented excitement and a culture of learning in your school. Teachers and students will love the writing projects that come out of interacting with real authors. We could be a catalyst to rev up learning and creativity throughout your school. I also believe that reading terrific nonfiction will have a significant effect on test scores. Don’t forget, it is our books that are excerpted on the assessment tests. There is grant money available in technology, literacy and professional development and now is not to soon to start thinking about next year. We are piloting this program starting in October and will know more in the next few months. Think about it. And contact me if you’re interested in knowing more. My email address is: Vicki@inkthinktank.com. I’d love to hear from you.