Haiku Story Summaries and NCTE

If you are attending the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference in Denver, check out my author panel entitled "Threads of Possibility." I'm honored to be presenting with Colorado authors Beth Anderson, Jolene Guitaerriez, and Dow Phumirik. Joining us from New Mexico is Laurel Goodluck. I will be sharing a poetry writing activity from my book, Story Frames for Teaching Literacy: Enhancing Student Learning through the Power of Storytelling. 

The activity is from Chapter 10: Poetry: Exploring the Power of Language and Story Through Verse. Here are two examples from the book that use poetry to create a mini-book summary.

Can you tell what these two poems have in common? 

1. They are both based on narrative non-fiction picture books that are biographies.

2. They are both haikus with a 5-7-5 syllable structure

But there is more. Each line follows a specific pattern. Use this pattern with your students to create Haiku Book Summaries.  The example below is based on Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille

Haiku Book Summary

Line 1: 5-syllable prepositional phrase

In a cold, damp school

Line 2: 7-syllable subject with adjectives out of order

Louis Braille, blind and alone

Line 3: 5-syllable verb phrase/predicate

Created a code

During the presentation, I will also share haiku based on the picture books of the other panelists. Here is one below from Beth Anderson's book, Hiding in Plain Sight: Kate Warne and the Race to Save Abraham Lincoln. This haiku is also a story summary. The book is illustrated by Sally Wern Comport and tells the story of a female detective who helped save President Lincoln from an assassination plot on his way to his inauguration. I always learn an interesting tidbit of history from Beth's books.

I will also be presenting on Friday morning at 9:30 on a panel discussing poetry clubs. Get more information HERE.

In 2026, the focus of my newsletter will be on sharing stories and activities from Story Frames. Sign up for my newsletter HERE so you don't miss any fun freebies.

ASHA and NCTE 2024

I'm presenting at the ASHA (American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association) Annual 2024 Conference in Seattle on Thursday, December 5, at 5:30pm.  If you are at the conference, I will be in Summit  433-434 on the fourth floor. My topic is "The Write Stuff: Creating Narrative-Based Interventions for Articulation, Decoding, Executive Functions, and More." Even if you can't come to the conference, check out my handout packet using the QR code below. The packet will give you a chance to preview the beginning of my new book, The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles. All the activities are based on The Raven Remix Activity Book, coming in early 2025.

Last week I was in Boston for the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) conference, where I spoke on a panel with Jolene Gutierrez, Beth Anderson, and Debbie Myers on the topic of using Illustrated Narrative Non-Fiction as a bridge to traditional non-fiction. 

While I was at NCTE, I got the chance to go to dinner at a fun Italian restaurant in the Seaport with Leslie Roessing, who wrote a chapter for my book, Story Frames for Teaching Literacy: Enhancing Student Learning Through the Power of Storytelling. Use the code AF on the Brookes website for a 10% discount. Although I have known her for years, this was the first time I ever met her in person. See my interview with her about Teaching Memoir Writing to Kids. Find her books (The Write to Read and more...) on Amazon. She also has a great website, Literacy with Lesley, which lists her books, informative blog posts on a variety of topics, book reviews, and more reading and writing strategies than I could count. Lyn Miller-Lachman was also part of our dinner party. I interviewed her three years ago, talking about her book, Rogue, and her personal challenges with Asperger's Syndrome. Read that blog post HERE, check out all the new books on her Amazon page, and visit her Website. 

I also got to meet some fun new people, including Jo Watson Hackl (see her Website), author of Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe, and blogger Melissa Thom. Check out Melissa's author interviews at the Joyful Learning Podcast. 

Next year NCTE will be in Denver!! No telling who I might run into then.