It’s Fine Press Friday! 

Today we’re taking a deep dive into Songs for Gaia, a slim edition of poetry by Gary Snyder (b. 1930). This understated, beautifully-crafted letterpress volume was printed in 1979 for Kah Tai Alliance at Copper Canyon in Port Townsend, WA, a fine press dedicated solely to poetry since its founding in 1972, and was handbound by poet and bookbinder Samuel Green. It features woodblock illustrations by poet and printmaker Michael Corr (b. 1940), who learned his craft while living in Kyoto from block printer and illustrator Takeji Asano (1900-1999). Asano was a notable figure in Japan’s Sōsaku-hanga woodblock printing movement. The book is quarter bound in cloth with a cover marbled in a finely executed combed feather pattern, a touch that lends a hint of psychedelia to its otherwise traditional aesthetics. It was released in a limited edition of 300 copies.   

Snyder, who is popularly known for his time amongst and spiritualist influence on the Beat poets and the counterculture of their generation (along with Kerouac’s portrayal of him as Japhy Ryder in the 1958 novel The Dharma Bums) spent 13 years in Japan (1956-1968) studying Zen Buddhism, forestry, and ecology. A scholar of Asian languages versed in cultural anthropology, he also studied calligraphy with accomplished calligrapher and seal carver Charles Leong during his time at Reed College. Snyder’s calligraphic signature graces the half-title page of this edition.  

This modest yet potent edition of Songs for Gaia is a fitting form for the work of a poet whom writer Bob Steuding once characterized as cultivating an “accessible” style and “a new kind of poetry that is direct, concrete, non-Romantic and ecological.” As Snyder wrote of his own work in A Controversy of Poets, “I try to hold both history and wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times.”  

View more Fine Press Friday posts

View more woodblock illustration posts

View more marbling posts (shout out to Alice, our resident marbling expert!)

-Ana, Special Collections Graduate Fieldworker

Art by  Engkit Leong

Celebration Month! #100challenges

Presented by CDQ Magazine

This month we are celebrating the 100th session of the community by resharing some of the most iconic artworks from the past! Next month we will start again with our regular posts.

Discover the artists of the Character Design Challenge community and the current Theme of the Month in our Facebook Group! And when you repost your design on our Patreon page, you can also win awesome prizes every month and choose the future themes!

RULES | WINNERS | MAGAZINE | BOOKS

selection of pages from GRAVENEYE (TKO 2022, with sloane leong)

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤

1. World Enough And Time (MFMM/Doctor Who, Phrack, 51k)

This will always be my favourite of my fics. It's the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries/Doctor Who crossover where Phryne is a Time Lady, Dot is from the past, Mac is from the future and Jack is just trying to work out what is happening. It's an AU that contains eight other AUs (including a Regency AU, a Mad Max Fury Road AU and a fake-marriage-with-aliens AU) and it represented an enormous milestone for me in my writing.

2. all the men and women merely players (Ted Lasso, Ted/Trent, Roy/Keeley/Jamie, 50k)

The Ted Lasso Station Eleven post-apocalyptic AU in which, in the wake of a devastating global pandemic, American comedy actor Ted Lasso leads a Shakespearean theatre troupe across the ruins of England. It combines my love of Ted Lasso, Station Eleven, Shakespeare and theatre, and it's probably the fic I've worked hardest on.

3. I Live And Lie For You (Good Omens/James Bond, Bond/Q, Aziraphale/Crowley, Adam/Eve, 13k)

The fic in which Wensleydale grows up to be Q. Features avocados, cats named after mathematicians, car chases in the Bentley, questionable ice-cream flavours, far too many spies at St James' Park, the Antichrist in his fuckboi era and tardigrades. I don't even like James Bond but I loved writing this.

4. The Legend Continues (Rivers of London, Michael Cheung/Sahra Guleed, 8.5k)

A closer, canon-compliant look at how a hijabi cop might have inadvertently apprenticed herself to the legendary swordsman of London's Chinatown and then started dating him. I always wanted to write an wuxia in English! Features my holy trinity of subtle Asian traits: bubble tea, passive-aggressive aunties and an original character clearly based on Michelle Yeoh. Fun fact: this fic was named after an actual Chinatown restaurant called Leong's Legend Continues, a spinoff of Leong's Legend (ironically Leong's Legend is still around but the Legend Continues has since, well, failed to continue).

5. Best Revenge Is Your Paper (Daredevil/The Punisher, Frank Castle/Karen Page, 15.5k)

In which Karen Page gets a bunch of bylines, pisses off a lot of people, tries not to fall in love with her newsmaker and fails. Kastle was the ship that brought me back to fandom after a five-year hiatus, and Karen remains one of my favourite fictional reporters of all time (the others are Trent Crimm, of course, and Hildy Johnson from His Girl Friday). It's been another five years since this fic and oh, I've had such a time.

Thank you for this ask!

Halloween Haul

Stewardess Heroines Foil Drugs Gang

30th October 2023; Kuala Lumpur

A happy group of Air Asia cabin crew are pictured above showing off the fake colouring books, toy envelopes and model pumpkins that an unscrupulous gang of drugs smugglers were using to sneak their dangerous wares into Kuala Lumpur, disguised as children’s playthings. Luckily this band of observant stewardesses were able to foil and capture the four man gang. Stewardess Siti Tan (pictured second from right above) first became suspicious when one of the children aboard the flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur delightedly showed her the Halloween colouring book one of the crooks had given her. “It had a funny smell,” said Siti later, “so I decided to run it through our on board testing kit.” Sure enough, the book had residue of cocaine on its pages. Siti reported her find to crew manager Dhia Rahman (pictured far left above) who ordered an immediate search of the bogus toy salesmen’s hand luggage. The search revealed the books and decorations were covering, or were filled with, copious amounts of Class A drugs.

Confronted by the stewardesses (including Etah Leong pictured second left above and Kasih Chai pictured far right), the men’s protests of innocence soon broke down after they were presented with the evidence. All four eventually confessed their guilt and surrendered to the crew. The women confiscated their hand luggage and then escorted the demoralised men to the rear of the plane where they bound them securely and held them there until the flight landed at KL International Airport. The haul of drugs and the prisoners, their hands still tied behind their backs, were then handed over to Malaysian police by the triumphant flight attendants. An Air Asia spokeswoman commented:-

Our professional and brave crew, when discovering illegal substances aboard Flight AA431, confronted the criminals concerned and apprehended them. We are extremely proud of our team of flight attendants and intend to offer them a cash reward for their skill and diligence in capturing the gang. They are real heroines. Well done, ladies!

* EKKO LEONG ∶ negligent yet dexterously  twenty - seven  year  old  rank  e  lone  fighter  who  goes by they + them pronouns and is always sporting an infuriating, self - confident smirk. born and awakened in portland, oregon, often can be seen walking around with their self - made axe resting on her right shoulder, drowning their tormented thoughts in a glass of whisky, or playing around with death, their pitch black cat. sharp as the weapon they carry but impetuous as a hurricane, ekko greatly enjoys the boiling anger that burns in another’s eyes when they manage to get under their skin, the strong, wet sound their axe makes when it hits its target & the feeling of alcohol burning down their throat. chaotic evil, capricorn sun & caos enthusiast, they identify themself as a pansexual non - binary demon person, has the terrible habit of tapping their blunt nails slowly on surfaces just to annoy people, and awakened at the tender age of seven, after bearing pain so enormous it got them begging for  death .

                  * QUICK  LINKS .

full  intro   (  gdocs  /  page  )   .   connections   (  soon !  )   .   aesthetic  .

September 18, 2023

Enriching and Assessing Young Children’s Multimodal Storytelling

Christy Wessel-Powell, Tolga Kargin, & Karen E. Wohlwend (2016)

Big Takeaway: Because children approach so much of the world around them from an attitude of play, incorporating multimodality and imaginative elements into literacy instruction helps expand the engagement of young learners, strengthen their depth of knowledge and understanding, and provide an assessment tailored to students’ individual strengths.

Nugget: One thing that stuck out to me from Wessel-Powell et al.’s article is all the ways in which the teachers in the study incorporated imaginative elements into their literacy instruction. As a student, I had experienced small insertions of multimodality in literacy instruction, but not to the point where the students and teachers were “all in,” or fully invested. Anything I had ever done similar to this, the teacher never seemed as excited, and thus students didn’t have much excitement, either. It was fascinating to read about and envision the transformation from writer’s workshop to literacy playhouse and how I might be able to incorporate something similar into my future teaching. 

Why Children Need Play

Leong & Bodrova (2018)

Big Takeaway: Play is a cornerstone of learning and holds place in the classroom because it is a developmental opportunity for children to interact with peers creatively and intentionally while growing both socially and cognitively.

Nugget: One thing that stood out to me in particular from this article was the idea of “unproductive” play and how play at home does not always have the same benefits as play at school. I had never heard the term unproductive play before, but it makes sense in that some play ends up as arguing or becomes redundant and is not as beneficial to children as genuine, thoughtful play. 

Building Language and Literacy Through Play

Scholastic (2018)

Big Takeaway: Play in the classroom provides learners with the opportunity to develop their language and literacy skills in a natural, imaginative environment, and teachers can foster play in the classroom by providing props and opportunities for students to engage in play. 

Nugget: Something that stood out to me in this article was the importance of teachers providing students with the opportunity for dramatic play and equipping them with the tools they need to play well. I had never thought about providing adequate play materials, or props, before, but this article revealed how props are supportive of high level play. 

Readerly Exploration:

I chose to do my Readerly Exploration on the Wessel-Powell et al. article. For this readerly exploration, I FaceTimed my younger sister, Nicole, to get her perspective and insight on the idea of multimodality in literacy instruction and assessment. Although most high school seniors would likely not have extensively meaningful consideration of this topic, Nicole is currently interning at our former elementary school in a fourth grade classroom and aspires to be a reading specialist or literacy instructional coach. She and I are very different learners as well, which is important to note regarding both of our experiences with multimodality in literacy. First, I shared the article with Nicole, and she skimmed through it. I then pointed her to the first and last page to read more deeply, and then I asked what she thought of the article and if she had experienced this kind of instruction as a student, and since she has, I also asked for her perspective as a learner. The first thing she said to me after reading this article was, “This makes so much sense- why doesn’t everyone teach this way?” The concept of multimodality and allowing students to tap into their imagination and natural inclination towards play made so much sense to her. Although not to the same extent as the study, Nicole had a similar learning experience in 5th grade that she remembers quite vividly. Students were tasked with creating a project instead of taking a test- their options included a movie, a commercial, a play, and various others that tapped into different modalities and required creative thinking. She loved this experience, especially since at the time she struggled significantly with test anxiety. When she reminded me of this, my understanding broadened relating to the assessment component of this. Conventional assessments are often stressful for students, something I did not think about the first time I read the article. Changing the mode of assessment not only enhances creativity and allows students to tap into their “play” mindset and strengths, but it also eliminates some of the pressure and stress from traditional testing. My understanding of the importance of multimodality in literacy instruction goes beyond how it allows students to play into their imaginative strengths, but it can also ease assessment anxiety and allow students to demonstrate their knowledge in a way that is engaging for them. 

Multimedia Component:

While FaceTiming, Nicole and I also talked about our overarching elementary school literacy assessment experiences- it was very interesting to compare the vastly different experiences we had. She had much more experiences of multimodal storytelling than I did, and she really enjoyed it, while I did not enjoy my few experiences as much.

August Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Full reviews below the cut.

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

What a brilliant and satisfying follow up to A Memory Called Empire. What a pleasure when the second book in a duology is arguable stronger than the first! This book picks up pretty much exactly where the previous one left off, with Mahit back on Lsel Station, Three Seagrass still in Teixcalaan promoted to a high level Information Ministry role under the new Emperor, and war against an unintelligible alien force brewing in the very edge of Teixcalaan space. Nine Hibiscus heads the fleet facing the mysterious enemy and her friendship with Twenty Cicada, her second in command, shines as one of the highlights of the story. This book once against wrestles with the limits of identity ("How wide is your your definition of you?" is a question asked over and over) as well how hard is it to resist soft power/cultural exports of empire, even by a people who desire to maintain an independence government. I highly, highly recommend this series and plan to keep reading anything Arkady Martine publishes!

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Bear read by Kinsale Hueston

An engaging young adult murder mystery which draws from a real mix of myths and cultures! The main character, Ellie, is Lipan Apache, and the heir to a family power to call back the dead. Her best friends are the ghost of her childhood dog, Kirby, and Jay, a human boy who is part fae. When Ellie's cousin, an elementary school teacher and new father, is killed in a mysterious car accident, Ellie's family rallies around his widow to try and figure out what really happened. The death occurred in Willowby, Texas, a strange town full of it's own secrets. Fairy mushrooms grow improbably from the dry soil, and vampires linger in unusual numbers around the mansion of a wealthy doctor. Can two teens and a ghost dog unravel this crime, and find justice for the dead? I listened as an audiobook and through it took me a while to orient myself in the beginning, by the end I really enjoyed the ride. It made me think of Gaimen's American Gods, but written from an indigenous perspective for younger readers.

A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong

This is a beautiful, complex book which follows five high school girls in Los Angeles, struggling to stay motivated and in school despite shaky friendships, challenging home lives, and a world of factors outside of their control. A young, peppy teacher convinces them to join a new, underfunded girls basketball team at the school and the desire to win becomes their motivating factor. The emotional heart of the story is the relationship of Ren and Luna, who spent one summer as best friends before Luna moved back to Oahu and stopped answering any of Ren's calls. When Luna reappears at the start of the next school year, she seems to think she can slot right back into Ren's life as if nothing happened. But Ren as been abandoned before, and she doesn't trust so easily a second time. Colored in a palette of bright, vivid tones that bring out the heat of an LA summer and the emotions of a bruised heart.

A Quick and East Guide to Asexuality by Molly Muldoon and Will Hernandez

At just 70 pages, this book is very much "just the basics". I thought the chapter sections were divided well and the flow of information was good, but I hope anyone who reads this goes on to pick up a few longer books afterwards! I also wish it had been printed in color.

I Know You Rider by Leslie Stein

Published in 2020, this book narrates an experience that should be ordinary: getting an abortion, and deciding to talk about it publicly. The author highlights conversations from the year surrounding the abortion, picking out poignant or humorous moments. Stein's circle of friends includes fellow cartoonists, musicians, restaurant owners and many others, all trying to do the best they can in a complicated world. The drawings are loose, panelless, charmingly rendered in watercolor and the hand lettering gives the book a particularly personal, almost diary-like feel.

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson read by Kate Rudd

This is a twisty and satisfying teen murder mystery, which weaves together two timelines at an exclusive private boarding school, Ellingham Academy, in Vermont. In 1936, the wife and daughter of the school's rich founder were kidnapped and never returned. The kidnapper also took one student and left a threatening cut and pasted riddle note which has frustrated scholars of the case for years. In the present day, true-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is accepted into the school and is delighted to walk on the grounds she has read so much about. She is determined to solve the Ellingham kidnapping case once and for all, but when a series of mysterious and threatening incidents begin to happen around her, Stevie realizes that she might be in the middle of her own new Ellingham case. The story ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but luckily there are four more books already out in this series and I have the next one on hold already!

The Best At It by Maulik Pancholy

As he heads into seventh grade in his small town in Indiana, Rahul increasingly struggles with his growing anxiety, worries that he might be gay, and desires to fit in to his mostly white junior high school. When Rahul's beloved grandfather tells him a story about his passionate grandma, an engineer who overcame prejudice by being the best student in her school, Rahul interprets this to mean that he also must become the very best at something. He tries out for the football team and auditions as an actor, while ignoring his actual best subject, math, because it seems too nerdy. He also stresses over a cultural fair his family is helping run, worrying about appearing "too Indian". Luckily, his best friend Chelsea cheerleads all of his projects, no matter how strange, and his family assure him that they will accept him no matter what- even before Rahul understands how much he values their support.

The Moth Presents: All These Wonders edited by Catherine Burns

I've listened to the Moth podcast on and off here and there, but picked up this book from a little free library mainly because of the pretty cover and forward by Neil Gaiman. So good job marketing and design team, you got me, at least when the price was $0. Anyway, this was a lovely collection of short human stories about all kinds of different life experiences. There are a few that will genuinely stick with me for years, including one about grief written by a chaplain, and one about the woman who became David Bowie's hairdresser during the Ziggy Stardust years. My one small complain about this book is the fact that all the stories are of nearly the exact same length slightly lessoned their emotional impact as I started to get towards the end of the book.

Spear written and read by Nicola Griffith

I loved Nicola Griffith's first book, and was highly anticipating this second one; it did not disappoint! I listened to the audiobook was completely drawn into the lyrical language and the magic of this Arthurian legend retelling. The story opens with a girl born and raised in a wild valley by a mother who is sometimes loving, wise, and overflowing with stories and other times depressed, fearful, and vacant. The girl knows that something terrible happened to her mother in the past; it has something to do with her birth and the beautiful enamel bowl that sits over the fire in the cave they shelter in. But the girl is too delighted by the world, and too curious about the plants, animals, and humans who live in the valley to dwell on it. She grows in strength and skill; visions and gut feelings draw her to collect armor and repair weapons, and eventually set out south towards King Arthur's court. There she stumbles into a story that was started long before she was born, but in which she will play a vital part. I absolutely loved this, it's deeply queer, and I highly recommend it!

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

Holy shit, what a book!! I've been reading Kate Beaton's work online since the livejournal days, starting in roughly 2009, just after the events which this memoir recounts. It's humbling to sit with the narrative of what was happening in the real life of an author I knew for her humorous history jokes in Hark! A Vagrant. In 2005, Kate was a recent college graduate with a double degree in History and Anthropology, and a mountain of student debt. She came home to Cape Breton, in Eastern Canada, to a very bleak jobless landscape. So, she did what everyone was doing at the time: went to work in the oil sands in Alberta until she could pay her loans off. At twenty-two she had no idea what to expect or what she would find there; what the isolation, physically challenging work environment, and massive gender-imbalance of the employee population would lead to. Men outnumbered women sometimes fifty to one; sexual harassment during work hours and assault after hours in the camp dorms was rampant, as was depression and drug use. Slowly, over the course of three years, Kate became aware of the conversations around environmental impact and misuse of stolen Indigenous lands. This book, nearly 500 pages, does not tell; it shows, in excruciating detail, the human cost of this harsh, damaging industry. But while the money remains, people who feel they have no other choice will keep working the oil sands. No one who works there wants to be there, but the other industries they worked in before are gone. I am extremely grateful that Beaton decided to write this book, and I hope the telling of the story was cathartic. Thank you also to Drawn and Quarterly, for giving me a copy in advance of its release. This is a heavy book, but I definitely recommend it, and I want to follow it up with some reading on how we begin addressing this huge, systemic problem.

Not to be stupid but what was X Force #75?

OK so you know how xuyen (karma) is a lesbian right. x-force #75 was her ….. soft-coming out. this is during the so-called xforce roadtrip era (NOT to be confused with the ricstar roadtrip era btw this is a different gay mutant roadtrip) in which the xforce team (who at this point is jimmy, theresa, beto, tabby, and danielle moonstar) goes out on their own without cable and they end up at like. basically burning man? and they run into xuyen and her …. "girlfriends". and while there's technically not anything explicitly saying that xuyen is gay in the issue, this is pretty unambiguous in my opinion?

("girlfriends" in this context has like a little bit of plausible deniability because straight women sometimes call their female friends their girlfriends, so that combined with the fact that there's nothing explicitly romantic shown on page between xuyen and them is why I say it's technically soft-coming out and not a coming out, BUT like I said . TO ME this is pretty unambiguous)

it's ALSO where she debuted this pink buzzcut hairstyle which is iconic and awesome and SOOOOO lesbian. the last story she was featured in..... or rather ... 2nd to last but I haven't read new mutants truth or death in like 1 billion years and that was the last story.. the 2nd to last story was the 1997 beast miniseries in which her brother and sister get kidnapped and experimented on by spiral. its really fucked up and she's super traumatized but in xf75 she mentions that they had found a way to help leong and nga and she was trying to explore her identity etc. and that's why she cut and dyed her hair. OR RATHER. SHE DIDN'T CUT AND DYE HER HAIR BUT . I CAN'T EVEN SAY IT . IT MAKES ME FEEL FRAIL AND FAINT

@dota2autochess tagged me and this looks fun!

last song: The Silence by Bastille which i’ve owned since i was a middles schooler and it bangs every time. it came on shuffle while i was driving which is the only time i really listen to music

last movie: Wendell & Wild! which i loved everything about EXCEPT man it was weirdly/badly paced. no other complaints tho, the animations was GORGEOUS the actors killed it and i liked the script a lot for the most part

currently reading: Death in the Mouth: Original Horror by People of Color edited by Sloane Leong and Cassie Hart, which is a horror anthology that i backed on kickstarter that i’m enjoying a lot! i’m about 100 pages in and all the stories i’ve read so far have been good but my favorite is Yah Yah Scholfield’s

tagging @charaznablescanontoyota and @cyberjudaica because i am curious about y’all’s answers

Literacy Post #3

Sept 19th, 2022

Big Takeaway- Scholastic: Teachers don’t need to sacrifice play in order to meet academic requirements and by supporting mature, high-quality play, we can really help children develop their language and literacy skills. 

Nugget: I found the part where the author(s) explain how to help children play at a higher level but not completely take over. Props play an important role in this development and it has to be during their preparatory phase.

Big Takeaway- Scholastic Leong/Bodrova: Play that has a potential for fostering many areas of young children's development, including social and cognitive development.

Nugget: The most interesting part to me was when the article explained that when children engage in dramatic play in their younger years, they learn to delay gratification and to prioritize their goals and actions. They also learn to consider the perspectives and needs of other people. I never knew that or thought of that before when I saw a child play “family”. That is so cool to me that dramatic play can basically build up sympathy and empathy and get rid of an ego-centric view.

Big Takeaway- Wessel/Powell: Multimodal storytelling guides and expands the playful ways children create stories through their voices, their actions, images they draw, and props they construct as well as printed words they write on a page. 

Nugget: So this article is actually more aimed towards what my research topic is about, so I found a lot of it interesting. Overall, I just found it so cool that there are many different ways on multimodal storytelling, but yet every single one has a positive impact on students during their primary reading years. I really enjoyed the “theater” aspect of multimodal storytelling, since I used to be a theater kid myself in high school, so this is something I’ll definitely implement in my own classroom.

Reflection: After you read, visit the Teacher Exploration Center Maker Space and create a “response” to what you read.

After reading all of these articles, so many things came to mind of what I could create as a response. I just kept thinking about how children are more complex than we think, and that they are able to think and create so many things that we are not really capable of doing as adults. They are not afraid of what they create either or how they play, and by doing that they are growing in many different areas of their life. 

If I’m being honest, I only used the markers in the maker space since I didn’t have the fancy ones they do, but I did put a lot of thought into my drawing. I decided to draw a student on a book looking out into what I call “a sky of imagination”-- since kids are so good at imagining things and scenarios during play. I also used a lot of bright colors for that same reason. Lastly, the student is on a book because play helps you in many aspects of life, and literacy and thinking is a main one! Play can help students imagine the scenarios in the book playing out in their heads better as well.

** also side note: I am not an artist at all 😅

September 12th 2022

‘Enriching and Assessing Young Childrens’ Multimodal Storytelling’ by Christy Wessel-Powell, Tolga Kargin, and Karen Wohlwend

‘Why Children Need Play’ by Deborah Leong and Elena Bodrova 

‘Building Language and Literacy Through Play’ by Scholastic

Enriching and Assessing Young Childrens’ Multimodal Storytelling

Big Takeaway: Literacy playshops and multimodal storytelling allow children to develop creativity, meaningful stories, collaboration, communication and provide opportunities to engage with crafts, scripts, movement, perspective and other literacy building experiences. 

Nugget: I loved the system the teachers put in place in this experiment to help the students develop their stories. From the minilessons to the checklist to peer feedback, all of it fostered innovation, communication, reading, responsibility and other skills that will carry over into later school years and adulthood. 

Why Children Need Play

Big takeaway: Allowing children self directed, dramatic, and symbolic play has been linked to growth in linguistic, cognitive, social, emotional, self-regulatory and memory abilities, and thus will foster school readiness and academic accomplishment. 

Nugget: Play can be ‘unproductive’ when the children repeat the same familiar roles or argue during play, because they are not growing in their understanding of other roles or developing appropriate social skills. 

Building Language and Literacy Through Play

Big takeaway: Dramatic play is an important component of literacy skills, with symbolic representation, planned play, and open-ended, play rich environments/props being critical aspects of mature, high quality play. 

Nugget: I never considered that the arguing that occurs during pretend play could be because the children are unfamiliar with the variety of roles that can be played in pretend situations; they may be fighting over one role (ex. Store cashier) because they are simply unaware that there are others (shelf stockers, customers, cleaners, etc). 

Readerly Exploration: For my exploration, I chose to explore relationships with other people through reading by using the text to gain insight into another persons’ perspective. I shared an excerpt from ‘Building Language and Literacy Through Play’ with my friend who is a business major to get his perspective on the reading. I chose this exploration because I’ve found that letting kids learn through play is an almost controversial topic right now in parenting/teaching spaces, so I was curious to hear from a friend of mine who I knew wasn’t involved at all in either of those spaces’ opinions. We facetimed to discuss an excerpt from the article. I was surprised that, after reading the first page that gave a general overview of the article and mentioned a few of the ways play aids literacy and academic growth, he said it ‘went over his head’ and he had ‘no idea how advanced and difficult information in early education courses were’. To me, the article seemed very easy to comprehend, so to have someone so intelligent tell me it was hard for him to understand was surprising! I asked him to share any agreements, disagreements, points of confusion or things he was curious about. He mentioned that he agreed children nowadays do not have as much time for play because they are always on screens. After reading about how play develops delay of gratification, communication, and social skills, he said he had never thought of how valuable play could be in contributing to those areas, but he can definitely see how kids would grow in those areas through play. He said there wasn’t anything he could pinpoint that he disagreed with, but he was confused as to how toys could be used as symbolism, which I explained to him. He said something he was curious about was if there is some way that teachers could teach kids self regulation, communication, delay of gratification and role playing in an explicit way, rather than just letting them figure it out themselves. He said maybe if we figured out a way to teach those skills, the kids could develop them more quickly and efficiently. Although I understand where he is coming from, I countered that by saying the academic pressure on kids is getting larger and larger, and affecting kids younger and younger - plus, ‘teaching’ those skills might create social skills and communication that only stems from obedience to rules rather than authentic desire to communicate kindly and appropriately. He agreed that that was a possibility. considers how engaging in this readerly exploration helped you better comprehend what you read and deepen your mastery of course content. This readerly exploration helped me to consider perspectives and thoughts outside of the teaching space, and see how literacy, play, and childrens’ development might be seen through the eyes of someone with no experience in these areas. I found our conversation about ‘teaching’ those skills to be interesting. I viewed communication, delay of gratification, etc as something that couldn’t be explicitly taught; more so, just gained through life experience. On the other hand, he saw it as a potential academic topic. 

Cole & I facetimed to have our conversation because he is currently travelling. He said he had to read the article excerpt twice because he wasn’t used to all of ‘this hard psychology stuff’! :)

Art by James Leong

March’s Theme: #RaccoonBurglar

Presented by CDQ Magazine

Discover the artists of the Character Design Challenge community and the current Theme of the Month in our Facebook Group! And when you repost your design on our Patreon page, you can also win awesome prizes every month and choose the future themes!

RULES | WINNERS | MAGAZINE | BOOKS

Random Real Thoroughbred: BUSY PATTY

BUSY PATTY is a mare born in 1960. By LEONGS out of BUSY LOVE. Link to their pedigreequery page: https://www.pedigreequery.com/busy+patty

RENOVATED Double Storey Terrace Intermediate Taman Puncak Jalil (PUJ 4) Bandar Putra Permai Seri Kembangan Property Details: - Leasehold & Bumi Lot (Expiry Mei 2113) - Individual Title - Land Area: 22’ x 70’ (1,540 sqft) - Build-Up: Approx. 1,800 sqft - 4 Beds & 3 Baths - Completion Year: 2008 Renovation: - Fully Extended Kitchen with Kitchen Cabinet, Fully Plaster Ceiling & Fully Grilled. Amenities: - SMK Bandar Puncak Jalil, SK/SMK Taman Desaminium, SK Taman University, SK/SMK Sri Serdang - IOI City Mall Putrajaya, Pavilion 2, Aeon Mall Taman Equine & The Mines - Hypermarket Giant - Petrol Stations & Banks: Maybank, Cimb, Public & Hong Leong - Commercial Area - Pasar Borong Seri Kembangan Accessibility: - LDP, MEX & SKVE highways - Putra Permai, 16 Sierra & Serdang Jaya MRT Stations ================== Asking Price: RM650K Bank Value: RM650K ================== Boleh klik link ini untuk perbincangan lanjut ya. *Jual/Beli Hartanah* https://jualbelirumahdengancikmizi.wasap.my Mohd Tarmizi Bakar AFZ Realty Sdn. Bhd 🏘️Klik sini untuk ke laman telegram carian rumah, tanah dan bangunan yang diperlukan. https://t.me/tarmizihartanaheastcost Page Link Untuk Hartanah: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090117935252&mibextid=ZbWKwL Profile FB: https://www.facebook.com/mohdtarmizi.bakar.5?mibextid=ZbWKwL Link Catalog Whatsapp: https://wa.me/c/60179454294 Link Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maimizihartanah?_t=8ZhJ6uYnZab&_r=1 Link IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/COukMpTj9-Q/?igshid=p0s13f4d0h12 Link Twitter: https://twitter.com/tarmizihartanah?t=6dF8l6VsEiyUpK-2krqndg&s=09 Link Tumblr: https://at.tumblr.com/tarmizihartanah/hp1td2uj85ed Link YouTube: Subscribe. https://youtube.com/@mohdtarmizibakar #TrustedAgentHartanah #PerundingHartanahKuantan #TeamNinjaKuantan #AFZREALTY #jualbelirumahpantas #pejuanghartanah ‌ #taman #kawasan #rumah #tanah #bangunan #kuantan #gambang #pekan #kemaman #kualaterengganu #dungun #paka #kerteh #jerteh #besut #rumahmampumilik #rumahbawahhargapasaran #lppsa #banker #lawyer #surveyour #morgage #refinance #pantaitimur @maisuzeanahartanah https://www.instagram.com/p/CpGpn0ePi7_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Écriture Féminine : A Woman’s Writing.

Bustling crowds, silent sleepers. In the midst of dawn, the woman sat by the mahogany windowsill. The scent of nicotine kisses the air as her pen dances upon the worn-out pages of a book. There, the woman writes.

Not much is there to be known of the mysterious writer. She goes by the pseudonym; Juliet Rose Atwood. A touch of je ne sais quoi trails each sentence she writes, perhaps it is in the way that she tells the tale of girlhood or the way she mocks those who live within the convents of society’s norms. A desire for liberation runs through her vein as she strides towards freedom.

Rumor has it that the woman resembles characters seen in literature and film, namely; Amy Dunne of Gone Girls, Lisa Rowe of Girl Interrupted, Astrid Leong of Crazy Rich Asians, Priscilla as written by Daniel Caesar in ‘Who Hurt You?’

Born under the Taurean constellation, her mind is sharp and jagged with thoughts that frighten yet fit those who are lucky enough to catch a glimpse. Her mind is an endless pit of thoughts, from monologues to critiques, a thinker is what she is. Although, a special place in her mind is reserved for feminist journals, philosophical theories and literature. To please her ears, she mainly listens to Arctic Monkeys, Cigarettes After Sex, Lana del Rey, TV girl and Jhene Aiko but her music taste remains as broad as the horizon.

Take this as a warning sign, the woman and her writings are not for the faint of heart. You may choose to leave upon your own discretion should you feel the need to, or don’t. The choice is all yours to make after all.