Nancie Atwell

Nancie Atwell is an education guru. She wrote the wonderful, wonderful book In the Middle. Now she is coming out with more books, and my husband just bought me Naming the World. It comes with a DVD showing Nancie teaching several lessons to her students focusing on the "Daily Poem."

The whole time I was watching the DVD, I kept saying what my students would say at each point. "I don't get it." "Huh?" "You want us to underline what?"

She makes a big point of the fact that her kids are ordinary kids. Yes, but she has taught them to do amazing things. These kids are noticing things about poems that just blow my mind. And I think my kids could probably do it too, if I taught them the way she does. My kids are smart and curious, too.

However, I do understand the article that was in the English Journal earlier this year - I found it online, but you can only read it if you have an NCTE password - here. It's called "Why I Detest Nancie Atwell." Of course, in the end it turns out that the writer just looks up to her a lot, and wishes to be like her. She "detests" her because she made the job so much harder. You can't just be satisfied any more with doing it the same old way. You feel as though you have to measure up to her now. Grrrr.

I want to be just like Nancie Atwell when I grow up.