Robert Young

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Best Reviews

April 1, 2014 Robert Young Educators, Kids, Writers No comments

While traditional reviewing sources help librarians select books to add to their collections (which is also helpful to authors who want to sell books), I prefer the feedback I get from kids who have read the book.

Here’s some recent examples from fifth graders:

“Moving Targets has good words, great details, and I like how it is kind-of like an everyday life story.” Kaitlyn

“…and it leaves you thinking what could happen if you become friends with a bully.” Aidden

“David is a very relatable character that a lot of us can see in ourselves.” Fisher

“I will give this book to my kids when I have them.” Dora

Here’s hoping that you will wait awhile, Dora. I appreciate all the comments. Thanks!

Here’s some book background:

Moving Targets, a novel for readers aged 8-11, is a beloved project I have been involved with for many years. The setting – a small town, near a migrating bird sanctuary – was inspired by Hawk Mountain, PA, where I took my seventh graders on field trips while teaching in New Jersey during the 1970s. Over the years, I have returned to Hawk Mt. on several occasions, the last being the fall of 2012 during a cross-country road trip with my son. It’s still an amazing place!

The topic explored in Moving Targets is a universal one: bullying. Bullying happens everywhere and, sadly, is not limited to certain time periods. I experienced it growing up and confronted it during my years as a teacher. It still goes on today, for sure, but it’s reassuring to see the concerted efforts being made to stand up against it (e.g. Project Anti-Bully).

In the book, eleven-year-old David Jennings, moves to a small town (Eagle View, PA) with his mom. He does his best to make friends, but the best he can do is a small group led by the town bully. Paul gets thrills picking on kids and abusing animals. Reluctantly, David follows until events force him to consider actions that could change – or end – his life.

The setting figures heavily in this story, as townspeople debate the future of the sanctuary. Should the town keep it commercial-free, or should they permit businesses to operate there? Finding a balance between commercial interests and nature is a universal theme that is considered in towns and cities throughout the world.

Moving Targets is for sale at Amazon or on my website.

The Wonder Full Classroom

March 25, 2014 Robert Young Educators No comments

It doesn’t take much to fill your classroom with wonder. The foundation is exhibiting your own sense of curiosity and providing your students with the opportunity to ask their own questions and seek their own answers. Your guidance is an integral part of the experience.

Last week I had the good fortune of working with a group of teachers to explore this important topic. Handouts from the session can be found in the Resources section of my website.

Have fun!

Making Magic Books to share information

My Two-Cents on Writers’ Workshop

February 19, 2014 Robert Young Educators No comments

Writers’ Workshop (Wordshop)

“There is no better way to develop and enhance students’ writing skills than through the mindful use of writer’s workshop.” – Me

Writers’ Workshop = an intentional environment for developing writing skills (the “word” version of a skate park, artist colony, or multiple-lift garage)

Key elements of a workshop

Known structure (students know what to do and where to do it)
Student choice (within parameters, students choose what to write)
Peer support (students edit each other’s work)

To develop a workshop (for grades 3+; adapt for lower grades)

Designate room areas and functions

Suggestion: Desk/main seating area of the room is for quiet, independent writing. Margins of the room are for collaboration, including discussing ideas and editing. Adult editing areas are at tables outside the main writing area.

Create a classroom process for writing

Suggestion:

Introduce type of writing (e.g. personal narrative, informational, argument)
Share examples (mentor texts, student samples)
Model writing
Students write
- Plan
- Create a draft (skip lines = easier edit)
- Self-edit/ revise
- Peer edit/revise
- Adult edit/revise
- Present/share

Note on adult editing: It will be helpful if you can arrange for additional adult editors. These could be educational assistants, administrators, or parents. In some instances, competent older students will work. Make sure to go over the process with all.

Devise a schedule

Suggestion: Three days a week for an hour. Include in that time a mini-lesson (10-15 minutes to focus on skill development – e.g. quotation marks, leads, strong verbs), writing time (30-40 minutes), and presenting (10-15 minutes). If you don’t have an hour block, focus workshop times on writing; use the other two days for mini-lessons and sharing).

Prepare students

Suggestion: Students should be proficient using dictionaries (for self and peer edits). Practice editing.

Special notes about editing: Teaching your students how to edit their own writing as well as the writing of others is one of the most important skills you will teach. Editing = helping. Editors help writers write better. Good editors do three things: Compliment, ask questions, and offer suggestions. Their comments are specific. Compliments come first.

Have writers first read their pieces aloud so editors can focus on the content of the writing. After that, have editors look at the writing to help with the other aspects (organizations, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions). Responses could be made on an editing page or on the original paper. Use editing marks for making convention suggestions.

Special considerations

Developing a functional workshop takes time. Start small (with short pieces like poems and letters/e-mails) and slowly (building over time), making sure students know the process and are comfortable working with each other.

Since the process is cyclical, make sure students know what their options are when they have completed a piece. That might be working on another piece of the same type of writing, or something you introduced previously. Use writers’ notebooks to cache ideas.

To help motivate students, include as much authentic writing as possible. Authentic writing (aka real-world writing) is writing that goes “beyond the eyes of the teacher.” It is writing meant to be read by others.

Every student has something to say. A writing workshop will help them develop the skills to say it.

Happy 130th Birthday A.C. Gilbert!

February 13, 2014 Robert Young Educators, Writers No comments

Educational toys – toys that encourage play and learning – are a mainstay in our stores today, but it wasn’t always that way. In the early 1900s, most children’s toys were mere playthings and were either homemade or imported from Europe. And then along came Alfred Carlton (A.C.) Gilbert.

Born in Salem on February 15, 1884, Gilbert grew to become an Olympic champion, professional magician, and a Yale-trained physician. But toys, especially toys that taught and engaged kids, were his true love.

Gilbert got his start in toys during his college years at Yale when he and a friend made and sold magic kits. When it became clear after graduation that sales of magic kits would not support his small but growing family, Gilbert came up with a new idea. Inspired by watching construction crews erecting towers while riding the train from New York City to Connecticut, he decided to make and sell construction kits.

The kits – which would become known as Erector Sets – were made up of metal girders with nuts and bolts to connect them. Pictures of models to build accompanied the kits, but young builders were limited only by their imaginations.

Gilbert introduced his kits to the world in 1913 at the Toy Fair in New York City. The world loved them, and the A.C. Gilbert Company was well on its way to transform the toy industry: American-made toys, advertising directed at children, toys that encouraged thinking and doing.

Even when World War I came along, threatening to divert all manufacturing (even toys!) to the war effort, Gilbert was not deterred from engaging children in purposeful play. He simply traveled to Washington DC and persuaded The National Council of Defense to allow toymakers to continue manufacturing toys.

After that, Gilbert added more toys that encouraged thinking and learning: chemistry sets, telescopes, microscopes, and every type of science kit you might imagine, including the Atomic Energy Lab, complete with Geiger counter and radioactive particles! The A.C. Gilbert Company became one of the most successful and well-known toymakers in America.

So, why don’t we hear of The A.C. Gilbert Company today? The answer is simple. By the 1950s, America’s children were more interested in hula hoops and Silly Putty than construction sets and science kits. Gilbert retired in 1954, and turned the company over to his son. In 1961, Gilbert died. Three years later, his son died unexpectedly. By 1967, the A.C. Gilbert Company was bankrupt. The Erector name was eventually sold to the Meccano Company, a longtime competitor, and they continue to produce Erector construction kits of their own design today.

While the toys made by the A.C. Gilbert Company are limited mainly to collectors today, Gilbert’s legacy will live for all as long as there are manufacturers producing playthings that encourage children to think and learn.

Robert Young is an Oregon author of more than 25 books for children, including The Magic of A.C. Gilbert, a 32-page picture book biography. Books are available at the author’s website (www.realwriting.us) and at amazon.com.

Done With Nonfiction!

February 3, 2014 Robert Young Educators, Kids, Writers No comments

I’ve written about my distain for the term nonfiction over the years. I’ve complained about how ridiculous it is to name something based on what it is not. To make this point with the countless students I’ve met with during author visits, I tell them to imagine a world in which there is no such word as girls; females are called non-boys. And then, to quiet the boys’ laughter and cheers get too loud, I reverse it. No such word as boys; they are non-girls. The kids get it.

Making matters worse is the role that nonfiction plays in our lives. It’s the type of reading and writing we mostly do. Sure, we read fiction, but we also read newspapers, magazines, reports, and e-mails. And, when was the last time you wrote a short story? Fiction is an essential part of living, but so is nonfiction. And so it should be accorded a more appropriate and meaningful name.

I’ve thought about this for a long time. Years. I’ve researched it and talked to anyone who would listen about my concern. Not a single person—not one—has disagreed that nonfiction should be renamed. And so, having not found an alternative term, I’ve created one: faction.

It’s simple and clear, has real meaning, and doesn’t try to upstage fiction in any way (it even has the same number of letters). It’ll be easier to teach as well as remember since fact is at its foundation.

Now, all we have to do is use the word and share it with others. Talk to your friends and neighbors. Tell librarians. If you’re a teacher, let your students and your colleagues know that they never have to use that senseless term again.

Faction is in; nonfiction is out!

The Big Question – answer still true

January 28, 2014 Robert Young Educators No comments

Found this exchange I had nearly four years ago with my buddy, Barry Lane. I think the answer is still true.

Okay, I ‘m here with Barry Lane and I’m posing a question – a BIG QUESTION – what’s wrong with education today?

Barry: “Because teachers don’t own their classrooms, students can’t own their learning.”

Care to elaborate?

Barry: “Teachers are not merely dispensers of information; they build bridges into the minds of their students. If assessment and curriculum demands interfere with the bridge-building, test scores might improve but learning will take three steps backwards.”

What’s the most important things teachers can communicate to kids about writing?

Barry: “Writing is a tool for thinking, not just a tool for showing what you know.”

Finding Facts In Fiction

January 15, 2014 Robert Young Educators, Writers No comments

I love presenting workshops to teachers. They’re interested in learning, enthusiastic about new possibilities, and excited to share. I always come away with something new. Last week I met with Springfield (OR) teachers. We were exploring the topic of faction (nonfiction – more on this term soon). Here’s an interesting idea I heard from teacher Debbie Knapp.

Authors writing fiction need to do research to make sure the contextual parts of their books are accurate. Think Charlotte’s Web and the information about spiders that E.B. White included. Accuracy is especially important in historical fiction, where incorrect facts will spread misinformation as well as detract from the story (e.g. colonists using rifles, watching TV in the early 20th century, etc.).

The next time your students read historical fiction, invite them to challenge any facts used in the book. Have them research the facts to verify accuracy, share their findings with the class, and the author (if alive) if a mistake is found. Authors interested in portraying the truth will be grateful for the feedback.

Suggested books:
The Laura Ingalls Wilder books
Number the Stars (Lowry)
Sarah, Plain and Tall (MacLachlan)
Johnny Tremain (Forbes)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor)
Bud, Not Buddy (Curtis)
Sign of the Beaver (Speare)
Chains (Anderson)
The Whipping Boy (Fleischman)

Hurrah Pleasant Hill!

January 10, 2014 Robert Young Educators 2 comments

Do you know what makes a great Author Visit from the author’s viewpoint? It’s about planning and organizing and attending to details. It’s about teachers taking time from their busy schedules to prepare their students. It’s about students opening their minds and being willing to engage, participate, and especially ask questions. It takes an active principal and strong parent organization that understand the value of literacy.

I had a grand time meeting with the writers of Pleasant Hill Elementary School today. I am grateful for the organizational expertise of Jeannie Miller, and for the support she got from the Pleasant Hill PTO and the staff in making this event happen. Lots of people contributed, from setting up tables and chairs to assisting with computer-related matters to documenting the sessions by taking pictures (some of which appear below). Thanks to all of you. Thanks also to the 400+ students with whom I got I got to visit. I really appreciated your interest, your enthusiasm, and the courtesy you showed me and each other. I wish you the best with your writing.

If you would like to reflect on your experience, I hope you will add a comment below.

p.s. to 5th and sixth graders: We had lots of kids in the groups today, but it didn’t get boisterous (at least not too much). Despite the numbers of kids, the gym was capacious so we didn’t feel cramped. As you continue as writers, I am hopeful (and confident) you will avoid screed.

It’s all about questions.

Sometimes we get crabby about having our work edited.

Writing is a process with several steps.

An editing sandwich. What’s on the outside? Inside?

Pleasant Hill P.S.

January 7, 2014 Robert Young Educators, Kids 37 comments

I love questions, so there will be a time for you to ask them. All questions are good, but some are better than others. See if you can think up questions that, finding out the answers, could help make you better writers. We’ll give those questions a high priority.

See you Thursday!

Pleasant Hill Challenge!

January 5, 2014 Robert Young Educators, Kids 85 comments

I’m looking forward to meeting with the writers of Pleasant Hill Elementary School this week. We will be talking about curiosity, questions, and, of course writing. The last time I visited, I issued a challenge to rename the term “nonfiction.” Lots of writers submitted, and we got many good ideas.

The challenge this visit will be different. Here it is: In 50 words or less, answer the question, “Why do you write?” Make your answer clear, creative, and compelling.

Post your answer below as a Comment. Make sure to add your first name and room number. I’ll be sharing some of your answers when I visit on Thursday.

See you soon!

Why do I write?

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