With Labor Day just around the corner, we're back to a regular flow of magazines. Suprisingly, there was only room for two oldie but goodie articles over the summer. This week's Memo has intriguing pieces from the Harvard Business Review with direct application to schools and several other strong articles.

I've made a few minor revisions in last week's #3 article on the murder of Larry King, and you can download the new version at www.marshallmemo.com if you wish. An important detail I omitted was that Larry was clearly fearful the day he was killed, but didn't speak up about it, and nobody else picked up on it. I've also made clearer a key distinction that the Newsweek article didn't make: between (a) Larry's shoes, make-up, and flamboyant affect, and (b) his acting-out behavior with other boys, especially Brandon. The first was Larry being Larry; it might have been disruptive and some limits could have been set (as well as some education done), but it was in a different realm from the second, which was sexual harassment, unwanted by the recipients, and a clear violation of the discipline code. The key discussion questions, should you choose to follow up on this story with your colleagues, are: What could Larry's school have done to prevent this tragedy? How can other schools head this kind of situation off at the pass?

I'm grateful for the affirming and helpful feedback in the Survey Monkey questionnaire responses. One pointer: if you're using the search engine to find articles on the website and don't remember the exact title, one strategy is to enter a key word in the headline or title box (for example, assessment or discipline). You can also zero in on a particular article by filling in two fields, for example, typing Schmoker in the author box and finding Kappan in the publication pull-down list. I continue to refine the topic list to make it easier to locate articles by subject.

I hope the year is getting off to a good start for you!

All the best,

Kim

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Quotes of the Week

“Leading effectively is, in other words, less about mastering situations – or even mastering social skill sets – than about developing a genuine interest in and talent for fostering positive feelings in the people whose cooperation and support you need.”
Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis (see item #1)

“When a leader’s demands become too great for a subordinate to handle… soaring cortisol levels and an added hard kick of adrenaline can paralyze the mind’s critical abilities. Attention fixates on the threat from the boss rather than the work at hand; memory, planning, and creativity go out the window. People fall back on old habits, no matter how unsuitable those are for addressing new challenges.”
Ibid.

“Because our behavior creates and develops neural networks, we are not necessarily prisoners of our genes and our early childhood experiences.”
Ibid.

“I’ve never met a teacher who didn’t want to get better, but I’ve met teachers who were afraid to try because they thought someone was out to get them.”
David Beranek, high-school principal (see item #7)

“Learn math or die trying.”
The motto of online games from Tabula Digita (see item #9b)
 

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1. Social Intelligence as a Key to Good Leadership

In this important Harvard Business Review article, leadership experts Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis write about the role of social intelligence in organizations. This extension of Goleman’s earlier work on emotional intelligence was sparked by recent research on what happens in the brain when people interact. Neuroscientists have found that when leaders show empathy and tune in to their subordinates’ moods, it affects both their own brain chemistry and that of their followers. It’s almost as though their brains were fused into a single system. This amazing symbiosis is at the opposite end of the spectrum from autism and Asperger’s syndrome, which are associated with the underdevelopment of the parts of the brain that deal with social interactions.
“If we are correct,” write Goleman and Boyatzis, “it follows that a potent way of becoming a better leader is to find authentic contexts in which to learn the kinds of social behavior that reinforce the brain’s social circuitry. Leading effectively is, in other words, less about mastering situations – or even mastering social skill sets – than about developing a genuine interest in and talent for fostering positive feelings in the people whose cooperation and support you need.”
Well, duh, you might be thinking. Of course leaders need social skills! But what’s new is the neurological backup. It turns out that our brains are full of mirror neurons that mimic what another person does. “When we consciously or unconsciously detect someone else’s emotions through their actions,” write Goleman and Boyatzis, “our mirror neurons reproduce those emotions. Collectively, these neurons create an instant sense of shared experience.” So within an organization, the leader’s actions activate neural circuitry in followers’ brains – positively or negatively.
Researchers looked at two groups of employees receiving performance feedback. One group got negative feedback from a boss who gave positive emotional signals (nods and smiles), while the other group got positive feedback from a boss giving negative emotional signals (frowns and narrowed eyes). In follow-up interviews, the first group felt better about their performance than the first, even though they got negative feedback; in other words, the way the message was delivered was more important than the message itself. People perform when they feel better. “So, if leaders hope to get the best out of their people,” say Goleman and Boyatzis, “they should continue to be demanding but in ways that foster a positive mood in their teams. The old carrot-and-stick approach alone doesn’t make neural sense; traditional incentive systems are simply not enough to get the best performance from followers.”
This brain research is backed up by studies of organizations. It turns out that many top-performing leaders smile and laugh a lot, eliciting smiles and laughter from their subordinates and creating a warmer work climate; the positive feelings help knit the group together and get better results. A boss who is self-controlled and humorless, on the other hand, engages subordinates’ positive neurons less often and overall performance suffers.
Can a cold fish change? Not easily, say Goleman and Boyatzis. Self-conscious attempts to display social intelligence often backfire, coming across as transparently forced. For a leader who is not naturally warm and positive to change, an intensive program is required, preceded by a thorough diagnostic assessment and followed by on-the-job coaching. The authors tell the story of Janice, a marketing manager in a Fortune 500 company who, despite outstanding credentials, was about to lose her job because others saw her as aggressive and opinionated, lacking in political astuteness, and careless about what she said and to whom, especially her superiors. Janice’s boss brought in a coach who conducted a 360-degree evaluation, in which Janice, her colleagues, her clients, and family members were asked about seven dimensions of social intelligence [these are the actual questions from Goleman’s and Boyatzis’s Emotional and Social Competency Inventory]:
Empathy:
- Do you understand what motivates other people, even those from different backgrounds?
- Are you sensitive to others’ needs?
Attunement:
- Do you listen attentively and think about how others feel?
- Are you attuned to others’ moods?
Organizational awareness:
- Do you appreciate the culture and values of the group or organization?
- Do you understand social networks and know their unspoken norms?
Influence:
- Do you persuade others by engaging them in discussion and appealing to their self-interest?
- Do you get support from key people?
Developing others:
- Do you coach and mentor others with compassion and personally invest time and energy in mentoring?
- Do you provide feedback that people find helpful for their professional development?
Inspiration:
- Do you articulate a compelling vision, build group pride, and foster a positive emotional tone?
- Do you lead by bringing out the best in people?
Teamwork:
- Do you solicit input from everyone on the team?
- Do you support all team members and encourage cooperation?
When the assessment was finished, Janice was presented with the feedback: low ratings on empathy, rapport, noticing people’s emotional cues and reactions, service orientation, adaptability, and managing conflicts. She was stunned; she was also chagrinned to realize that her behavior was preventing her from accomplishing her goals. Realizing that her job was on the line, she got serious about changing.
In the weeks after this epiphany, the coach had Janice describe successes and failures of each day, and she began to see the difference between expressing an idea with conviction and acting like a pit bull. Like an Olympic athlete, she began to mentally rehearse how an interaction would go and practice more effective ways of interacting with people. She transferred to a department where she could work with a mentor who exemplified better social interaction skills. “By observing him day in and day out,” write Goleman and Boyatzis, “Janice learned to affirm people even as she challenged their positions or critiqued their performance. Spending time with a living, breathing model of effective behavior provides the perfect stimulation for our mirror neurons, which allows us to directly experience, internalize, and ultimately emulate what we observe. Janice’s transformation was genuine and comprehensive. In a sense, she went in one person and came out another.”
This is a hopeful story, say the authors: “Because our behavior creates and develops neural networks, we are not necessarily prisoners of our genes and our early childhood experiences. Leaders can change if, like Janice, they are ready to put in the effort… In scientific terms, Janice was strengthening her social circuits through practice. As others responded to her, their brains connected with hers more profoundly and effectively, thereby reinforcing Janice’s circuits in a virtuous circle. The upshot: Janice went from being on the verge of dismissal to getting promoted to a position two levels up.”
Are there gender differences with social intelligence? Are women innately stronger in this area than men? Goleman and Boyatzis say that in the general population, women tend to be better at immediately sensing other’s emotions than men. But among successful leaders, these differences disappear; good leaders, male and female, had almost equal degrees of social intelligence.
The authors have come to believe that social intelligence is more important than emotional intelligence to being a successful leader. Socially intelligent leadership is especially important in difficult times, they say. “When people are under stress, surges in the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol strongly affect their reasoning and cognition. At low levels, cortisol facilitates thinking and other mental functions, so well-timed pressure to perform and targeted critiques of subordinates certainly have their place. When a leader’s demands become too great for a subordinate to handle, however, soaring cortisol levels and an added hard kick of adrenaline can paralyze the mind’s critical abilities. Attention fixates on the threat from the boss rather than the work at hand; memory, planning, and creativity go out the window. People fall back on old habits, no matter how unsuitable those are for addressing new challenges.” At times like these, people who are led by socially unintelligent bosses are much more likely to perform poorly, complain a lot, and feel emotionally exhausted.
The bottom line: what seemed like the soft side of leadership just a few years ago turns out to be surprisingly robust and important to success.

“Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership” by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis in Harvard Business Review, September 2008 (Vol. 86, #9, p. 64-72), no e-link available; the authors can be contacted at contact@danielgoleman.info and richard.boyatzis@case.edu.
 

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2. How Pixar Revs Up Its Creative Juices

In this Harvard Business Review article, Ed Catmull, the president of Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, describes how the organization has nurtured its collective creativity and continued to produce one hit film after another, including Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, and WALL-E. Basically, Catmull believes that people are more important than ideas. “If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they’ll screw it up,” he says. “But if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they’ll make it work.”
What makes good people operate at peak creativity? Here are Pixar’s principles, which might apply to schools as they work to find the best instructional approaches for each grade and each unique group of students:
• Giving everyone the freedom to communicate with anyone. “Members of any department should be able to approach anyone in another department to solve problems without having to go through ‘proper’ channels,” he writes. “It also means that managers need to learn that they don’t always have to be the first to know about something going on in their realm, and it’s OK to walk into a meeting and be surprised. The impulse to tightly control the process is understandable…, but problems are almost by definition unforeseen. The most efficient way to deal with numerous problems is to trust people to work out the difficulties directly with each other without having to check for permission.” Pixar’s headquarters was intentionally designed to promote frequent, random interaction: there’s a large atrium in the middle with the cafeteria, meeting rooms, bathrooms, and mailboxes. “It’s hard to describe just how valuable the resulting chance encounters are,” says Catmull.
• Making it safe for everyone to offer ideas. Almost daily, Pixar screens the work-in-progress to small groups of employees on a rolling basis, constantly getting fresh eyes on draft products and giving everyone in the company a chance to say what they like and don’t like and why. Staff members also take a wide variety of courses at an internal “university” – everything from screenplay writing to sculpture to yoga. These courses “reinforce the mind-set that we’re all learning and it’s fun to learn together,” says Catmull, who also lectures newly hired staff members that the company doesn’t have everything figured out and their ideas and push-back are welcome from Day One.
• Staying close to innovations in the broader community. Pixar encourages staff members to publish their research in the outside world. Although this means that some Pixar ideas are given away, Catmull believes that the company ends up benefiting because its people become part of a constant interchange of good ideas. Frequent publishing also reinforces the core value that people are more important than ideas.
• Using postmortems to best effect. After a film is finished, most people want to move on, and Pixar’s initial attempts to conduct postmortems were not very successful – people kept listing the same lessons learned and not digging deep. Catmull insisted on continuing to do a thorough self-examination after every film, and found three ways to get more meaningful input. First, he varied the format of each postmortem. Second, he asked each team to list the top five things they would do again and the top five things they wouldn’t do again, which produced better insights. Finally, he insisted on looking at actual data on the process of making a film – how often something had to be reworked, whether a piece of work was completely finished or not when it was sent to another department, etc. – which brought to light some of the issues that everyone had forgotten.

“How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity” by Ed Catmull in Harvard Business Review, September 2008 (Vol. 86, #9, p. 64-72), no e-link available
 

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3. The Promise and Pitfalls of Response to Intervention (RTI)

In this article in Reading Today, professors Marjorie Lipson and Karen Wixson, co-chairs of the International Reading Association’s commission on Response to Intervention, give a clear explanation of what RTI is all about – and some concerns:
• What’s the problem to which RTI is the solution? – Response to Intervention stemmed from concerns with the way students were being identified for special education: (a) Focusing almost exclusively on an achievement/ability discrepancy; (b) Limiting opportunities for early identification and intervention; and (c) Not paying enough attention to the quality of students’ regular classroom experiences.
• How RTI is different – Under the new Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provisions, an achievement/ability discrepancy is no longer the sole criterion for determining learning disabilities. RTI schools look at whether students are responding to research-based classroom teaching, catching learning difficulties earlier and promoting intervention before special-education services become necessary. The key ingredients are:
(a) High-quality, evidence-based classroom instruction; (b) Universal screening; and
(c) Continuous progress monitoring. All students have Tier 1 instruction to eliminate as many reading problems as possible; when assessments show that students are not responding, those students get small-group Tier 2 instruction (short of special education); and students who don’t respond to those interventions get Tier 3 – more intensive, special-needs instruction.
• What can go wrong – Lipson and Wixson say that RTI won’t work if there isn’t good communication between classroom teachers, reading specialists, and special-education teachers. Too many regular-education teachers see RTI as a special-education initiative and don’t see their role in providing first-rate Tier 1 instruction to eliminate as many reading problems as possible.
• The assessment tail wagging the instructional dog – In some schools, the desire for quick-and-easy assessment has resulted in a narrowing of the reading curriculum. “If progress is monitored on only one or two dimensions of reading, then these one or two things will become the most important focus for instruction, at the expense of other equally important components,” write Lipson and Wixson. “In addition, if the progress monitoring is done in a particular way – then that specific task will likely take on importance that may not be warranted.”
• More talking about teaching – The authors are also concerned that within RTI, there isn’t enough conversation about what makes good Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction, especially what works for culturally and linguistically diverse students.

“New IRA Commission Will Address RTI Issues” by Marjorie Lipson and Karen Wixson in Reading Today, August/September 2008 (Vol. 26, #1, p. 1, 5), no e-link available for this article, but the International Reading Association has been posting information, resources, and support materials on RTI at http://www.reading.org/resources/issues/focus_rti.html. Additional resources and information are available at http://www.rtinetwork.org.
 

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4. The Power of Two-Way Bilingual Programs

In this article in NABE News, bilingual expert Jim Cummins of the University of Toronto argues that dual-language programs produce positive literacy outcomes in two languages for ELLs and majority students. Specifically:
- The most successful bilingual programs are those that aim to develop bilingualism and biliteracy.
- Instruction in the native language develops proficiency in English – but it’s not sufficient to overcome other reasons for many ELLs’ low achievement.
To maximize the effectiveness of dual-language programs, Cummins says the research points to the following:
• Strong and effective promotion of both languages – He posits an “interdependence hypothesis” – that learning each language reinforces learning in the other. This is particularly true after third grade, says Cummins, when learning Spanish words can contribute to English-language learning because of the Latin and Greek cognates that Spanish shares with English.
• Extensive reading and writing – “The major failing of reading policy in the United States over the past 10 years,” says Cummins, “has been the reluctance on the part of policymakers and many researchers to acknowledge the evidence highlighting the role of extensive reading and, more broadly, literacy engagement in promoting reading comprehension.” Students in dual-language programs need lots of experience reading and writing for deeper meaning in both languages.
• Empowering students – Dual-language programs have the potential to overcome some of the psychological disadvantages that minority-group students labor under. “Power is generated in teacher-student interactions such that students (and teachers) feel more affirmed in their linguistic, cultural, and intellectual identities and more confident in their ability to succeed in school,” says Cummins. Writing and web-publishing dual-language books is an especially helpful activity.
• Allowing interaction between the two languages – Cummins says that keeping the two languages separate in dual-language programs has been discredited. He believes there should be constant interaction so teachers can draw attention to cognate links, get students writing and web-publishing bilingual products, and have them interact with other dual-language classes.

“Dual Language Education: Pioneering a Global Breakthrough in Second Language Education” by Jim Cummins in NABE News, March/April 2008 (Vol. 30, #4, p. 3-5, 18-19), no e-link available
 

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5. Making Class Work as Involving as Football and Drama

In this Edutopia article, Vermont high-school teacher Carl Engvall quotes Herb Childress on why high-school football is so much more engaging than regular school:
- Players are active participants rather than passive recipients.
- The unexpected happens all the time; you can’t coast or be unfocused.
- One player can let down the whole team.
- There’s no such thing as “good enough.” Players are always expected to excel.
- The adults who participate are genuinely interested.
- Accountable public performances happen regularly – games!
Engvall says the same is true in the theatrical productions he directs: “Students must memorize their lines, the blocking, a repertoire of songs and dances, and the many nuances of the characters they portray. It’s their production. And the unexpected happens all the time: Sound recordings don’t work, lights go on the fritz, props break, doors jam, people forget their lines or miss an entrance, and there are wardrobe malfunctions. Actors must be alert and able to adjust to surprises. As in football, the stakes are high. One actor or technician can let the entire cast and crew down; and also, as in football, ‘good enough’ isn’t good enough. There’s always something to be perfected, skills to be improved… Students learn that what looks effortless on stage is really the result of a lot of sustained effort. In sports, and in the theater, what the student is doing is real, about as real as it gets. And if it’s seen as real, it can provide the opportunity for active engagement and effective learning.”
The challenge, says Engvall, is bringing this realness into the regular classroom when students haven’t chosen to be there (as they have in sports and drama) and the subject matter doesn’t seem nearly as interesting. He pushes himself to create the same kind of relevance and involvement in his environmental science class – for example, having student test the E. coli levels in the creek near the school – and his math class – having students gather data, analyze the statistics, and graph the results to find the equation of the lines. When his lessons are successful, says Engvall, “Students get to experience the excitement of discovery, the frustration of periodic failure, the camaraderie of teamwork, and the jubilation and pride inherent in giving a performance that has meaning.”

“Stage Craft: Why Can’t a Classroom Have the Passion of Drama or Sports?” by Carl Engvall in Edutopia, Aug./Sept. 2008 (Vol. 4, #4, p. 10); a free trial issue of this magazine is available at http://www.edutopia.org/free-trial-issue.
 

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6. What to Look for in a Meeting

In this article in The Learning Principal, group-process expert Ann Delahunt suggests what a process observer might focus on these aspects of large- and small-group meetings:
Participation:
- Did all members participate?
- Did everyone have an opportunity to take part?
- Did anyone dominate?
- Did anyone remain silent?
- Who kept things moving?
- Did anyone make an effort to include a reluctant member of the group?
Decision making:
- Did the group decide on the decision-making process before the discussion?
- What processes did the group use to come to a decision?
- Did everyone accept the decision?
- How did members influence the decision?
Communication:
- What verbal behaviors were apparent: Proposing, building, supporting, seeking information, giving information, summarizing, attacking?
- Did members interrupt each other?
- Did members bring others into the discussion?
- Did members demonstrate active listening?
- Was anyone ignored?
- What nonverbal communication was present?
Group leadership:
- How did the leaders assure involvement?
- Did informal leaders emerge? How and when?
- How did the recorder and timekeeper support the group in its task?

“What a School Leader Needs to Know About Observing a Meeting” by Ann Delahunt in The Learning Principal, September 2008 (Vol. 4, #1, p. 4-5), no e-link available; see also Ann Delahunt’s book, Making Meetings Work (Corwin with NSCD, 2007).
 

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7. A Wisconsin Principal on Paperwork, Meetings, and Reluctant Teachers

In this interview in The Learning Principal, high-school principal David Beranek shares his views on:
• Administrivia – “If you just want to do managerial paperwork, there’s no end to it. If you force yourself to focus on student learning and teacher relationships, improving your classrooms, you’ll be shocked at how, when teachers are working hard, connecting with kids, and learning in the classroom – those other things will take care of themselves.”
• Staff meetings – “If you really want to get some work done, you can’t have a staff meeting in the traditional sense where everybody is going to talk about this kid did this or managerial stuff. When we get together for a staff or site team meeting, our agendas are laid out to fit under our core beliefs, and if it doesn’t fit under a vital sign, it doesn’t get talked about.”
• Bringing teachers along – “I’ve never met a teacher who didn’t want to get better, but I’ve met teachers who were afraid to try because they thought someone was out to get them. Who doesn’t want to have time and opportunity to learn something new that will make life easier for them in the classroom?”

“Continuous Learning Fuels School’s Success” – David Beranek interviewed by Valerie Von Frank in The Learning Principal, September 2008 (Vol. 4, #1, p. 2), no e-link available
 

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8. Children’s Books for the Presidential Race

In this Reading Today feature, former teacher David Richardson recommends eight books that will capitalize on the upcoming presidential election:
- Vote! By Eileen Christelow (Clarion, 2008) Ages 6 and up
- KidChat American Adventure: 201 Questions to Make you Think, Talk, and Giggle About Our Nation’s History by Bret Nicholaus and Paul Lowrie (Roaring Brook, 2008) Ages 10 and up
- Duck for President by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin (Atheneum, 2008) Ages 6 and up
- See How They Run: Campaign Dreams, Elections Schemes, and the Race to the White House by Susan Goodman, illustrated by Elwood Smith (Bloombury, 2008) Ages 9 and up
- LeRue for Mayor: Letters from the Campaign Trail by Mark Teague (Blue Sky, 2008) Ages 5 and up
- Vote by Philip Steele (DK Eyewitness Books, 2008) Ages 11 and up
- So You Want to Be President? By Judith St. George, illustrated by David Small (Philomel, 2004) Ages 8 and up
- Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution by Laurie Halse Anderson, illustrated by Matt Faulkner (Simon and Schuster, 2008) Ages 8 and up

“Campaign Trail – David’s List: And the Winner Is…” by David Richardson in Reading Today, August/September 2008 (Vol. 26, #1, p. 14), no e-link available
 

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9. Short Items: a. Online election game; b. Online pre-algebra and Algebra I games; c. Teen Read Week; d. Banned books; e. Lesson plans on picture books;

a. Online election game – Inspired by “The Game of Life”, eLECTIONS has students role-play virtual presidential candidates and explore how a campaign works. Check it out at http://www.ciconline.org/elections.

Spotted in American School Board Journal, September 2008 (Vol. 195, #9, p. 55)

b. Online pre-algebra and Algebra I games – At http://www.dimensionm.com, you can access Tabula Digita’s games, which operate in a futuristic, 3-D virtual world in which students are challenged to use coordinate systems and scatter plots, linear relationships, and data analysis to rid a remote island of a bio-digital virus and defend against mutated species. “Learn math or die trying” is the motto.

Spotted in American School Board Journal, September 2008 (Vol. 195, #9, p. 55)

c. Teen Read Week – October 12-18, 2008 is the week for the 11th annual campaign to get adolescents reading. It’s sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, in cooperation with corporations and non-profits and the International Reading Association. Last year, more than 4,800 schools and libraries took part: http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2008/index.cfm.

Spotted in Reading Today, August/September 2008 (Vol. 26, #1, p. 3)

d. Banned books – September 27-October 4, 2008 is Banned Books Week, sponsored by the American Library Association. Here are the most frequently challenged books of 2007:
- And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
- The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
- Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
- The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- TTYL by Lauren Myracle
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
For more information, including the reasons each of these books were challenged and books recently off the list, see http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2008/may2008/penguin.cfm.

“Banned Books Week Set” in Reading Today, August/September 2008 (Vol. 26, #1, p. 7)

e. Lesson plans on picture books – These three lesson plans from ReadWriteThink are geared to graphic novels and books with pictures:
• Applying Question-Answer Relationships to Pictures by Leigh Hall and Yongmei Li for middle-elementary students:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=370.
• Creative Writing Through Wordless Picture Books by Laurie Henry for middle-school students to write their own story lines:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=130.
• Pictures Tell a Story: Improving Comprehension With Persepolis by Janet Ankiel for high-school students reading graphic novels, focusing on the popular book, Persepolis:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1102.

“Inventive Picture Books Help Develop Imagination” in Reading Today, August/September 2008 (Vol. 26, #1, p. 12)
 

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