{"id":431,"date":"2009-04-17T17:52:04","date_gmt":"2009-04-17T22:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=431"},"modified":"2010-05-07T09:41:46","modified_gmt":"2010-05-07T14:41:46","slug":"fight-the-testing-season-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"Fight the Testing Season Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are entering the cruelest part of the school year, standardized testing season. For those of you interested in introducing a bit of levity into your classroom without overtly protesting the tests, might I suggest the following books to read aloud to your students. Don&#8217;t just sit there! Read something! (then opt your own children out of the testing)<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Hooray for Diffendoofer Day\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0679890084?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=constructivistconsortium-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=0679890084\" target=\"_blank\">Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!<\/a> is a literary gem begun by <a title=\"Dr. Seuss books\" href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/cjblwe\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Seuss<\/a> and completed posthumously by <a title=\"Jack Prelutsky books\" href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/ddc2ne\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Prelutsky<\/a> with illustrations by <a title=\"Lane Smith books\" href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/cswebc\" target=\"_blank\">Lane Smith<\/a> of<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0679890084?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=constructivistconsortium-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=0679890084\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"margin: 10px;\" title=\"Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!\" src=\"http:\/\/jennifermorrill.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/03\/hooray-for-diffendoofer-day.jpg\" alt=\"Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!\" \/><\/a> <a title=\"Stinky Cheese Man\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/067084487X?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=constructivistconsortium-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=067084487X\" target=\"_blank\">Stinky Cheese Man<\/a> &amp;  <a title=\"Math Curse\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0670861944?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=constructivistconsortium-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=0670861944\" target=\"_blank\">Math Curse<\/a> fame.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Hooray for Diffendoofer Day\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0679890084?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=constructivistconsortium-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=0679890084\" target=\"_blank\">Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!<\/a> tells the story of a fabulous teacher, Mrs. Bonkers, who teachers her students at Difendoofer to be creative, to think and to appreciate that learning can be fun. That is until the principal, Mr. Lowe, who normally treats Mrs. Bonkers with great affection and respect, tells the children that if they don&#8217;t do well on an upcoming test, their school will be shut and they will all be required to attend school in dreary Flobbertown where everyone thinks alike.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the coolest part of this delightful (and timeless) little-known classic is that the book contains a substantial chapter explaining how the book came to be. This includes Dr. Seuss&#8217; sketches, notes and word play. It might be a neat project to show kids JUST this section of the book and ask them to write a book from Dr. Seuss&#8217; sketches and notes, just like Prelutsky and Lane Smith did.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Buy Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0679890084?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=constructivistconsortium-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=0679890084\" target=\"_blank\">Buy Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! from Amazon.com<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The official <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seussville.com\" target=\"_blank\">Seussville<\/a> web site offers a <a title=\"Project ideas for teachers\" href=\"http:\/\/www.seussville.com\/titles\/diffendoofer\/guide.html\" target=\"_blank\">free collection of project ideas<\/a> for teachers who wish to use this subversive book in their classroom.<\/p>\n<p>Other books you might consider are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Testing Miss Malarkey\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0802776248?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=constructivistconsortium-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=0802776248\" target=\"_blank\">Testing Miss Malarky<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B001FWXRB6?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=constructivistconsortium-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=B001FWXRB6\" target=\"_blank\">Miss Malarky Leaves No Reader Behind<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Parents and educators<\/strong> interested in learning more about standardized testing and what they might do about it should click <a title=\"Anti-standardized testing books\" href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/costructingmodernknowledge-20?%5Fencoding=UTF8&amp;node=31\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> for a collection of <a title=\"online books and videos\" href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/costructingmodernknowledge-20?%5Fencoding=UTF8&amp;node=31\" target=\"_blank\">books and videos<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You might also point your browser at <a title=\"PencilsDown.Org\" href=\"http:\/\/pencilsdown.org\" target=\"_blank\">PencilsDown.org<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/susanohanian.org\" target=\"_blank\">SusanOhanian.org<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/alfiekohn.org\" target=\"_blank\">AlfieKohn.org<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/fairtest.org\" target=\"_blank\">FairTest.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are entering the cruelest part of the school year, standardized testing season. For those of you interested in introducing a bit of levity into your classroom without overtly protesting the tests, might I suggest the following books to read aloud to your students. Don&#8217;t just sit there! Read something!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[437,435,434,429,431],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-featured","category-learning","category-project-based-learning","category-teaching"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fight the Testing Season Blues - Stager-to-Go<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=431\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fight the Testing Season Blues - Stager-to-Go\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are entering the cruelest part of the school year, standardized testing season. 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Read something!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=431\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stager-to-Go\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gary.stager\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-17T22:52:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-05-07T14:41:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/jennifermorrill.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/03\/hooray-for-diffendoofer-day.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gary Stager\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@garystager\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@garystager\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gary Stager\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gary Stager\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bd320bea4758fc56f376ecdd9b8b184\"},\"headline\":\"Fight the Testing Season Blues\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-17T22:52:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-05-07T14:41:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431\"},\"wordCount\":340,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/jennifermorrill.files.wordpress.com\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/hooray-for-diffendoofer-day.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Books\",\"Featured articles\",\"learning\",\"project-based learning\",\"teaching\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431\",\"name\":\"Fight the Testing Season Blues - Stager-to-Go\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/jennifermorrill.files.wordpress.com\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/hooray-for-diffendoofer-day.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-17T22:52:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-05-07T14:41:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bd320bea4758fc56f376ecdd9b8b184\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/jennifermorrill.files.wordpress.com\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/hooray-for-diffendoofer-day.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/jennifermorrill.files.wordpress.com\\\/2009\\\/03\\\/hooray-for-diffendoofer-day.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=431#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fight the Testing Season Blues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/\",\"name\":\"Stager-to-Go\",\"description\":\"The personal blog of Gary S. 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