Literacy Now

Putting Books to Work:  Where Things Come Back
By Judith A. Hayn, Karina R. Clemmons, Heather A. Olvey, & J. D. Wilson

Where Things Come Back (Atheneum, 2011)
By John Corey Whaley
Grades 7—12

John Corey Whaley’s debut novel Where Things Come Back is the winner of the 2012 William C. Morris, and Michael L. Printz awards.  Cullen Witter is a typical teenage boy living in the small town of Lily, AR. This unique setting has a profound impact on the characters, almost acting as a personality itself.  Cullen has a close-knit circle of friends and family, and when his brother Gabriel goes missing at the same time as the first sighting of the believed-to-be-extinct Lazarus woodpecker, Cullen begins to freshly examine his life, the town, and all the people in it.  In alternating chapters, the reader is introduced to both Benton Sage and Cabot Searcy, whose fanatical searches for truth using The Book of Enoch as a guide lead them both down very dark paths.  The reader may struggle to see parallels between the different characters in the two stories other than the characters are all searching desperately for meaning, however, the plots eventually come to focus on the question of ultimate import to Cullen: Will Gabriel Witter come back, as everyone else who attempts to leave the small town of Lily inevitably does?

Cross-Curricular Connections:  English language arts, Social Studies, Science

Ideas for Classroom Use:

Creating a Timeline of the Novel’s Events

Discuss with the class the difficulty of understanding the novel’s events in linear order as the chapters in the book flip back and forth between different people’s stories.  As a class, ask students to contribute several important events in the story and add it to a timeline that is displayed. Assign students to groups of three or four, making sure each group has access to a computer or tablet. Assign each group to collaboratively fill an empty timeline with relevant events in the story using collaborative technology such as Dropbox.com or Google Docs. Students should integrate events from multiple characters, referring to the book if necessary. Each group should share their digital documents with the class for a class analysis and discussion of the novel’s events.

Creating Titles of Possible Books Based on Students’ Own Lives

Cullen creates fictitious book titles to indicate snapshots of his mental state at certain times in the novel. Whaley’s question in the Reading Group Guide in the back of his novel asks participants to create some of their own examples of book titles. As an extension, this activity allows students to connect their own lives with the book. Instruct students to flip through the novel and make a list of the possible book titles Cullen creates, along with the events that inspired them.  List the titles found on a master list as a class, and then assign students to individually make a list of several important events in their own lives.  Then have students write creative book titles corresponding to the life events. Give students the option to share their events and corresponding titles anonymously in small groups or anonymously by turning in their papers.

Brown Bag Exam

As an assessment activity, use Denise Ousley’s instructions for a brown bag exam based on Where Things Come Back.  In preparation, collect the following items and put each item separately into its own bag.  Close the bag, and give one bag to students, instructing them to wait until everyone has a brown bag before opening.  Once students open their bags and see their items, explain to students that they will be expected to list all the possible connections between the item and Where Things Come Back.  They should attempt to find correlations for plot, character, setting, theme, symbols, or events, however, every item will not fit into every category.  Once students have worked alone and answered question 1, allow them to work in triads, and add the group’s additions for 2.  Instruct students to individually find at least two passages in the book that connect the brown bag items to the text, and write the quotes and page numbers down for 3.  After answering 4, students can then share one idea about their item with the class as a whole.

                                                            Brown Bag Exam
Brown Bag item:___________________________

• Initial ideas connection item to novel (a bulleted list is fine)
• Additional comments from small group discussion:
• Passages:
• Idea/Connection/Comment to share with the class:

Items to place in brown bags:

• Lily—This represents the small town in which this book is set.  It is an actual town in Arkansas that is located halfway between Little Rock and Memphis.  Lily plays an important part in the book as most of its inhabitants want or try to leave, but they inevitably come back.  It can also be a symbol of all of the Arkansas cities and town names the author uses as character names in the book.
• The Bible—Benton Sage begins his journey doing missionary work in Ethiopia.  He is a Christian and fails to live up to his father’s perfectionist expectations.  Benton wants to bring the word of God to the people he meets in Ethiopia, and is unhappy with the result of simply feeding and caring for them.
• Book of Enoch (can be made by covering a small notebook with the title)—A book in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible that tells the story of Gabriel being sent by God to punish the Nephilim (children of the fallen angels) for giving humans too much knowledge.  After Cabot Searcy finds a quote from this book in Benton Sage’s journal, he becomes obsessed with finding the truth by using this book as a guide.
• woodpecker—The Lazarus woodpecker was believed to have been extinct for over 60 years.  The believed sightings bring excitement to the small town of Lily, AR.
• picture of a gas station— Cullen works in a gas station.  He interacts with many of the characters in the book there.
• picture of a zombie – Cullen’s imagination tends to drift toward creating zombie stories in his mind when confronting stressful events in the book.  Cullen has a list of titles of possible books he might write someday, and many of titles include zombies.
• angel – This is representative of Gabriel’s character, since both the angel Gabriel and Gabriel Witter play such a prominent role in the book.  There is also much discussion of the Grigori and Nephilim, who are the fallen angels and their children.
• copy of The Catcher in the Rye – Gabriel’s favorite book.  Cullen read it to his brother when he was 10, and Gabriel read it for the 11th time a week before he disappeared.

Examining Where Things Come Back through Different Lenses of Literary Criticism

Break the class into groups of three or four students and give them the following chart:

Additional Resources and Activities:

Whaley’s Playlist

Whaley has created a playlist of songs that inspired him as he wrote this novel.  Play a selection from his list each discussion day in class to get students to consider possible connections.  Provide students with the playlist and have them create their own playlist that includes a caption for each choice.

Where Things Come Back Study Guide

BookRags has created a Summary and Study Guide that is available for purchase.  It offers a summary and analysis of each chapter followed by an analysis of characters and objects and places, as well as themes that are found in the novel

Additional Texts Dealing with Problems and Coming of Age:

Anderson, M. T. (2012).  Feed. Candlewick.
Booth, Coe (2013).  Bronxwood.  Push.
de la Peña, Matt (2010).  We Were Here.  Ember.
Lockhart, E. (2014).  We Were Liars.  Delacorte Press.
Page, Robin Epstein (2010).  God Is in the Pancakes.  Dial.
Rowell, Rainbow (2013).  Eleanor & Park.  St. Martin’s Griffin.
Sáenz, Benjamin Alire (2012).  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.  Simon & Schuster.

Judith A. Hayn, professor of Secondary Education, her colleague Karina Clemmons, associate professor of Secondary Education, and students in the Masters in Secondary English Education program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock prepared these classroom suggestions.

Every teacher knows the best plans in the world are only as valuable as the paper they are on, when asked to stand alone. Great lessons in the classroom are taught, reviewed, and practiced and writing isn't the exception. Students need clear, concise directions for writing that are consistent and deliberate. When writing is taught in this manner, students can thrive. 

Students should start from a successful point and writing should increase in difficulty and rigor throughout the year. Each student will have individual starting points and individual growth, but class whole-group lessons will benefit all. Students may start with writing their names, progress to writing predicable text and repetitive sentences, to constructing stories at varying lengths.

Teachers who have a plan for writing, can help their students plan, as well. Here is my year-long writing plan. For a breakdown in chart form with additional details, look here.

September (month 1)

Whole group writing: As a group, students need to know they can write a word, a sentence, a story. Even if they are not writing their name independently, a supported whole-group experience allows writing to be a safe place for success. Certain routines need to be introduced and practiced. In my class, we have a structure for writing stories called the Sentence Maker©. I have used in my classroom for years. Students are shown a poster-sized version of the method. It provides a clear path toward a story. The first sentence is a topic sentence using newly introduced or known wordwall words. The second sentence is a sentence describing the color of the topic. The third sentence is about the size and the final sentence describes where the topic is or the setting of the story.  This provides the structure for our weekly stories.

Our routine is a story a week:    

• Monday: Topic and Topic Sentence.
• Tuesday: Color sentence.            
• Wednesday: Size sentence.
• Thursday: Setting Sentence.
• Friday: Review, reread, illustrate.

From the beginning, I introduce the concept of a topic and a topic sentence. The topic is pulled from a mentor text and we add our known words to create an opening sentence. We orally decide on the sentence. We count it on our fingers, one word at a time. As we count the words, we decide on the first word. We say the word, over and over, listening for the sounds in the word. The word is written one sound at a time. Typically, I write the letter or letters on a small dry erase board, while the students write it on the carpet and one child will write it on the paper. I provide oral reading and handwriting directions at the same time. After we write each word, we use our spacer as a pointer and read what we have written. Then, we start again. Repeat the whole sentence, count, fold our fingers and whisper words we have already written, and decide on the next sentence.

Independent writing: If the word is on our wordwall for a week or so, one student will write the whole word. Another student is asked to find the word on the wordwall and shout the spelling to the writer. Students also work on writing names.

October, November (months 2, 3)

Whole group: Continue writing a story a week, in a whole group setting.

Independent: During the writing center, a predictable sentence starter is provided. Students are asked to write sentences using the starter and the sound chart. They are introduced to The Big 3, the rubric for sentence mechanics. The students look for capitalization, spaces, and end marks. Students are also introduced to “The Squiggle Center” with the expectation they will write a sentence to describe their squiggle.

December (month 4)

Whole group: The class continues to write stories, but students are given paper and pencil to write the stories as we create it. At the end of December, they have a book for their parents for a holiday gift.

Independent: Students are using the sentence starters and sound chart to make sentences.

January (month 5)

Whole group: Students are given a “Happy New Year” gift of a writing folder. This folder contains sheet protectors which include the sound chart, an individual wordwall word chart, a sentence starter chart and a personal Sentence Maker©. The front pocket is for incomplete stories and the back pocket is for completed stories. When students have four completed stories, they can use “fancy paper” (decorated computer paper or special themed paper) to publish a story. Published stories can be shared with family or read to special people in the building, such as the principal, the assistant principal, the guidance counselor, etc. Whole group writing becomes directed towards the science and social studies curriculum or interactive writing with reading skills, such as predicting or summarizing.

Independent: More centers are added that require writing: “First, Then, Last” and “Read it, Write it, Draw it.”

February–June (months 6—9)

Student writing becomes more and more independent. They are expected to use the Sentence Maker© when they are writing, if they need it. If they outgrow it, they do not need to use it. They are given free rein on topic choice and story length. At the end of the day, completed stories are shared with the class. Children’s “requirements” are differentiated during writing conferences.

By incorporating writing into every part of our day, I am thrilled to see students grow with writing skills. Before you know it, they enjoy writing time and call themselves “authors.”

Cathy Collier is a reading specialist at Great Bridge Primary School in Chesapeake, Virginia with an additional 15 years as a kindergarten teacher. She has her B.S. in Special Education, a master’s degree in Special Education and a certified reading specialist. She is the immediate past president of the Virginia State Reading Association.

Before landing my dream job as a teacher-librarian, I taught third grade for four years. Every morning I placed a book and a short message on two or three students' desks. Sometimes the books and students matched, sometimes they did not. One morning a finicky reader found Amulet: The Stonekeeper on his desk. He usually ignored the note and shoved the book in his desk. Not that day. The cover caught his eye. And guess what? He started reading the words and studying the pictures. He finished it during recess. On the way back to the classroom, he handed me Amulet and said, "When are you going to buy the second book?" A graphic novel reader was born, and I became a staunch believer in the importance of graphic novels in every school classroom and library.

Have you ever encountered a parent, a teacher, or a librarian who does not support graphic novels? I have. Whenever someone questions why I promote graphic novels, I pull one of the following resources out of my hat:

Raising a Reader! How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read

I print out a dozen copies of this powerful document before parent-teacher conferences. It is a must-read for every educator and parent.

Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens: A Guide for Teachers and Librarians

This colorful guide inspired one of my all-time favorite displays in my school library. It shares with everyone who enters our space why we support and promote graphic novels.

The Association for Library Service to Children’s Graphic Novels Reading Lists

Use this list to build or enhance your graphic novel collection.

My Blendspace Lesson

And here is something of my very own. I created a Blendspace lesson that highlights 14 graphic novels I regularly promote in my library.

I hope you have a wonderful school year reading and promoting graphic novels.

John Schumacher is a K-5 School Library Director in Oak Brook, IL. Read his popular blogs, Watch. Connect. Read. and Two Libraries One Voice for even more book suggestions. Follow him on Twitter at @mrschureads.

When asked, “What is different about informational text?” many students readily respond by listing informational text’s obvious text features. Students are familiar with its features and make comments like:

“It has headings.”

“Informational text has pictures of real things.”

“You see maps and charts.”

“It has an index and glossary of words.”

While informational text features are easily recognizable, text structures require further training for most of our students. Focusing on text structures is worth the effort because research suggests that understanding text structure strengthens overall comprehension and may also provide students with models for writing, according to Marjorie Lipson at the University of Vermont. Common Core Standards require students to “Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.”

Since informational texts are written to inform, persuade, or entertain the topic covered and author’s purpose determines the text structure. For example, a second-grade science text about the life cycle of a frog is written to inform and fits an obvious time order sequence pattern. The Civil War chapter in a history text for upper grades may follow different organizational structures within the same chapter, including time order for sequence of events and cause and effect when discussing the causes of the war.  There are five basic text structures that authors use as they craft their informational texts including descriptive, problem/solution, time order sequence, compare/contrast, cause and effect.  

Think about how you use text structures to guide your understanding when you read informational texts.  If you pick up a travel guide about Hawaii you probably flip through it to see how it is organized. Are the chapters or sections focused on geographic regions of the island you are visiting or by recreational activities (eating, snorkeling, hotels etc)?  Is a map included and then some descriptive text? Text structures help you gain information about the topic.

Text structures play an important role in comprehending informational text. When you teach text structures using engaging mentor texts, graphic organizers, along with interactive think-alouds and partner or group practice, your students’ comprehension will soar. Here are some practical student-centered ideas to bring text structures to your students throughout the school year!

Use graphic organizers

Using graphic organizers throughout lessons helps students to improve their comprehension and good readers use graphic organizers to summarize texts. By posting the five basic informational text structures in the classroom and referring to them often, students become familiar with how authors choose to organize their texts with examples from my book, Best Ever Literacy Survival Tips. 

Share mentor texts for each structure

When you use catchy high interest mentor texts with engaging illustrations to demonstrate each of the text structures, students have a hook to remember the structure!  Read the text aloud and show students how the graphic organizer above fits the text organization. The mentor texts become models or examples you return to all year long!

Mentor Texts to Teach Informational Text Structure

Pay attention to text structure throughout reading

Encourage and guide students as they read to use text structure to comprehend text.  Before reading text walk to predict the text structure. During reading fill in the appropriate organizer or verbally summarize the learning so far.  After reading summarize using a graphic organizer either verbally or in writing.

Conduct frequent think-alouds

Explain to students that good readers use text structures often to guide their reading. Show how to text-walk before reading to anticipate which structure will be used by saying, “I think the author wrote this ( article, book, chapter, section) by using (one of the five structures) because I see (clues, clue words, etc).”  Anytime the class is reading informational text, pause to consider which structure fits the text.

Assign a text structure to groups or pairs

Students work in teams to hunt for text structures to identify in weekly student newspapers, online articles, and content area textbooks.   Read aloud from informational texts and have students stand up if their assigned structure is named.

Lori Oczkus is an independent literacy consultant, speaker, and author. Her most recent book is Just the Facts: Close Reading and the Comprehension of Informational Text. She can be reached at loczkus52@earthlink.net.

Cindy Gerwin is a dedicated member of IRA who took the long way around to become a classroom teacher. She was inspired to be a teacher by her father, but wound through theater, the business world and the fitness industry before she went back to college and earned a degree in education. She said she’s never once regretted her journey, calling it an exploration of all sides of herself.

Gerwin is president of the Illinois Reading Council, which recently earned the IRA Distinguished Council Award at the Council Leadership Academy. The council was honored for its work in community engagement, teacher empowerment, and public awareness.

How did you begin your career, and what led you to your current position?

I was born in Oak Park, IL, and raised in the Cook County Forest Preserve at a place called the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center. The building was originally used in the 1800’s as a one-room schoolhouse to teach the three R’s—reading, writing, and arithmetic. After the building was moved from its original location in the 1950s, the doors reopened to provide a different type of educational environment—a nature center where visitors could learn about plants and wildlife native to the Cook County area. My dad was the director and caretaker, and he was an incredibly talented speaker. With his biological knowledge of the area and his quick wit, he gave engaging presentations to many school groups. He was my teacher inspiration and role model. For as long as I can remember, I also stood in front of visiting school groups and “taught.” Teaching was in my blood, or so I thought.

After spending several years actively involved in various theatre groups, I came to realize I was imitating my dad’s performance, which wasn’t the same thing as teaching. But, I was still interested in teaching as a profession. I was concerned, however, that I could not provide for a family with a career in teaching, so when it came time for me to choose a career and a college, I chose to pursue a business degree.

I graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1984 with a bachelor’s in marketing/advertising. My first few years after graduating were spent as a director of marketing in the business industry. I moved to the fitness industry, as both a manager and an instructor and had two children. As my children got older, my thirst to make a difference in the lives of others through teaching brought me back to school. I obtained a master’s in elementary education from Benedictine University, an endorsement in English as a Second Language from National Louis University, and I became a National Board Certified Teacher. I am excited to begin work in January on my Doctorate of Education in literacy at Judson University.

What are you most excited about as president of the Illinois Reading Council?

Literacy teachers across the state know the Illinois Reading Council (IRC) is an organization empowering teachers, and raising community engagement and public awareness. After I was elected vice president of IRC, the executive committee began to realize that although IRC was an excellent organization, the organization had become complacent—losing focus and quickly depleting financial resources. The executive committee analyzed IRC’s current status as an organization, implemented immediate corrective financial action and began strategic planning to ensure its sustainable success. In two short years, IRC is operating with a balanced budget, replenishing depleted reserve funds, and increasing membership. The group organized the most well-attended and profitable annual conference in IRC’s history, and has a renewed sense of direction and purpose. I am so excited and proud to be part of the incredible leadership team that has accomplished so much in a relatively short time, and of the energy for the direction we are heading as an organization. I am excited about IRC’s strategic plans, including increasing membership value, researching the connection between active involvement in a professional organization and student achievement, growing our quality professional development services, increasing productive relationships with administrators, pre-service, and early career teachers, and empowering lives through literacy.

The Little Red Schoolhouse in Oak Park, IL.

What role does your council play in empowering teachers?

IRC empowers teachers through the quality of professional development we provide our membership, particularly our annual conference. Our conference is one of the largest literacy conferences held in the United States. For many of the downstate teachers who attend our conference, this is the only professional development they can afford and receive throughout the entire year. Teachers often are discussing the conference in their schools and with their students for weeks after.

Our local councils often compliment IRC’s annual conference by providing professional development throughout the year related to the conference theme, which we help support. IRC also empowers teachers with our nationally known quality publications including the IRC Journal, our quarterly newsletter Communicator, and monthly e-newsletter iCommunnicate. As part of our strategic planning, IRC is working towards offering professional development in variety ways utilizing various media formats—our overarching goal is to increase membership value by attending to our membership needs.

How do you raise community awareness and engagement as a council?

IRC raises community awareness and engagement by funding Literacy Support Grants to support teachers and their learning communities as they work towards empowering lives through literacy for all the citizens of Illinois.  IRC provides classroom libraries that are culturally diverse through the Obama Library Award and libraries that support rural towns through the Pamela J. Farris Library Award. Many of our statewide special interest councils and local councils also support such projects as the annual Young Authors Conference and various International Projects. The “Illinois Reads” project was launched two years ago with the purpose of getting everyone in Illinois in a “reading state of mind.”

What are you reading (personal, professional, or even children's/YA)?

Professionally, I am reading Falling in Love With Close Reading by Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts. Personally, I am reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner, which will be released as a movie this fall. My favorite book of all time is Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. When I was little, my dad used to ask me, “How much do you love me?” I would reply, “This much!”—spreading my arms out as wide as they would go. When I read Guess How Much I Love You, it spoke to me. After I had kids (John, 23, and Ashley, 20), I read it to them every night when they were little, we still sometimes read it together. When the kids were little we began what we referred to as our “I Love You book collection.” We created the following saying from the books in our collection that we still repeat to each other multiple times a day, “I love you this much, to the moon and back, forever and ever and always.” I have the Little Nut Browne Hare tattooed on my ankle (I love you this much). My son has the moon on his ankle (to the moon and back,) and my daughter has the infinity symbol on her ankle (forever and ever and always.). Guess How Much I Love You means a lot to my kids and me!

How long have you been a member of IRA? How has membership influenced your career?

If I am reading my records correctly, I became a member of IRA December, 2005, and attended my first IRA conference in downtown Chicago in 2006. When I was working on my Master’s degree, during one of my reading methods courses I was given an assignment to explore various professional literacy organizations and write a two-page paper summarizing what I found. I researched, and joined, IRA. The professor who was teaching the course was a member of IRA, the Illinois Reading Council and Prairie Area Reading Council. She was being asked to step in as president of the Prairie Area Reading Council and inquired if I wanted to join her for PARC’s fall meeting featuring Dick Allington. I went to the meeting, loved Dick Allington, and when the meeting was over, I was the newly elected Vice President of PARC. The rest is history.

What do you consider to be your proudest career moment?

Boy this is a tough question. I would have to say my proudest teaching moment was a moment I had before I officially became a teacher. It is a moment that inspired me to pursue my passion for teaching and it is a moment that still brings tears to my eyes when I think of it.

When I was in high school, I taught swimming lessons during my summers. It was my senior year and my last year of teaching swimming lessons at the high school before leaving for college to pursue a career in business. A little boy with blonde curly hair and blue eyes (I can still see his face) was there for swimming lessons. He sat in the corner of the deck crying hysterically, so of course no one wanted him in the group they were teaching. I took him into my group, reluctantly. He never left the corner of the deck that day. After the lesson, I talked with his mom. She was desperate. He had nearly drowned has an infant and became hysterical every time he was near water, including bath time. She did not know what else to try. Long story short, I worked with him every day over the summer. And, at the end of our time in the pool together, before I set him back down on the deck, I would always ask him to promise he would come back the next day. He never said a word, he just ran off at the end of each lesson. I taught him to swim, and he grew to love the water by the end of the summer. The last day of class, he appeared with a white rose in his hand and said, “Teacher, I promise I be back next time.” I knew that I played a small role in changing that little boy’s life forever. Even though I have accomplished other things in my teaching career that I am proud of, this moment stays with me and inspires me daily.

What's the best advice you could offer someone new to the profession?

To make a profound impact on the life of another, you have to be a passionate lifelong learner yourself. Today, for many reasons, the odds are stacked against you in the teaching world. Contrary to popular public opinion, teaching is not 9 a.m.-3 p.m. job with summers off—at least good teaching is not. But, if you love what your do, it is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. Seeing someone succeed and knowing that you played a small part in that accomplishment is worth all time and effort you put into teaching. Those are the moments that inspire and energize you.

Do you want to suggest an IRA member for the Member of the Month feature interview? E-mail readingtoday@/.

April Hall is the editor of Reading Today Online. She can be reached at ahall@/.