Lynn Rubright's Blog

The descriptive language and colorful characters made “Mama’s Window”
an excellent read-a-loud choice for my fourth grade class. The students
were begging to hear more about Sugar and the swamp and when it was
finished, they were requesting the sequel. The story provided
springboards of discussion on a wide range of topics from the medicinal
uses of leeches to the importance of creating memorials; from the
scientific study of Cypress trees to debates on how to face your fears.

Jean Turney, 4th grade teacher, St. John the Baptist School, St. Louis, MO

Just finished reading Mama’s Window to my class. They want to know if there is MORE. They love it. We are playing around with it now. I loved this book when I read it last summer, but watching the faces and enjoying it with the kids as I read it to them was incredible. They always like to hear good stories, but they just begged for the next chapter. it is so rich with detail and description, they were there in searching for snags in Sun lake, smelling te catfish frying and living every moment.
Jean Turney, 4th grade teacher, St. John the baptist School, St. Louis, MO.

(Note from Lynn) Jean received a National Geographic grant to have me come work with her students in a storytelling workshop, which will include my program on the development of Mama’s Window. The children have been researching trees in Forest Park, St. Louis, and some of the children, inspsired by the setting in Mama’s Window, have chosen to study cypress trees growing there in a simulated swamp in the aviary of the St. Louis zoo.

Lynn, I was a student in your storytelling class last spring (told a story about my mother shooting a rattlesnake??).
Anyway, I wanted to share a success with you because I was inspired by you.
I decided to show Oh Freedom After While to my sophomores as a pre-reading to To Kill A Mockingbird. There are so many parallels that can be drawn, but more importantly, it gave them a true baseline of conditions for African Americans and poor people in general during the time of the novel’s setting.
It was very effective – the kids had many questions and one boy even said he wished we could go on a field trip to the location of the protest and the abandoned Cropperville.

I passed the lesson and video on to a fellow teacher who followed my guidelines to use the summer article (on you) that showed the photojournalism’s role in raising the level of awareness. She also followed my guidelines for helping students generate questions.
Her students loved it as well and one student told her he decided to write about Owen Whitfield in another class. Woo hoo!
I’ve told our librarians about the film and Mama’s Window and hope to have the book in our library soon. My department chair has agreed to purchase the film and let me add it to the curriculum!! My fellow teacher and some of our students have expressed an interest in reading Mama’s Window.
I wanted to let you know because I know your heart and energy are so invested in this story.
The only thing I wish I could have included was your photo slide show – that would be very effective.

Thank you!! By the way, I used my rattlesnake story to model storytelling before the students chose their slice of life on which to write a narrative. I also guided them into telling stories (through various questions) and they were so excited and READY to work on the essay over the weekend!
Storytelling is and always will be a part of my teaching. Thank you.
Mary Kurtz