Today we’re doing an ASK program with author Jim Stovall on his book, The Ultimate Gift. This program is provided in partnership with several organizations as follows:

• Author coordination/liaison: Elaine Shuck, Polycom, Inc.
• Event coordination: Janine Lim, Berrien County ISD,
• Blog and Event Facilitation and Bridging: Jim Wenzloff and Arnie Comer, Macomb ISD.

In addition to reading this report, you may wish to review the Polycom Press Release on this program. We are delighted and thankful that Polycom is sponsoring this event and others like it!

We also thank Oklahoma State University for providing a videoconference room for Jim Stovall to connect to the students.

In preparation for this event, students have been writing responses and stories for the various gifts presented in the book. They also followed the ASK process in journaling and preparing quality questions for the event.

The classes participating in this session include:

• Algonquin Middle School, MI
• Bayless Intermediate School, MO
• Mad River Middle School, OH
• North Middle School, SD
• River Valley Middle School, MI

The program started with Jim Wenzloff, Macomb ISD, giving a welcome and reviewing the procedures for the program.

Following this, Jim Stovall began with a welcome message with his background and experiences with life and especially on writing books. Then we began with questions from each school, rotating with two questions from each school. Some questions included:

• If you had to pick one gift, which one would you pick and why?
• If you had to add another gift, what would it be?
• Have you thought about expanding each gift into its own book?
• What problems in your life inspired you to write?
• When you became a writer, was that your first dream, or did you have another dream before you wanted to be a writer?
• Do you think the lessons in the Ultimate Gift are directed toward a specific age group?
• In the book there is a blind man with a wonderful sense of humor. Is this character similar to you?
• In your movie, the Ultimate Gift, who would you like to play the character of Jason?
• When you were younger, did you have any books that were inspirational to your life?
• In the book we read about friendship. Do you have a friend who means a lot to you?
• In the book, Jason wrote about what he’d do on the last day of his life. What would you do on the last day of your life?
• Which gift do you think the world needs the most of?
• At the beginning of each chapter, you have a quote. Why did you choose to begin the chapter that way?
• Of all the characters you created, which character did you like the best & why?

What a wonderful interaction with the students and the author! It’s incredible how friendly and accessible he was to the students.

We are doing this event again, March 6, 2006, and we have room for one more class to participate! Details here.

Today we have a full day of ASK programs with Janie Panagopoulos, author of many books about Michigan history, among other things. E.P. Clarke Elementary, St. Joseph is hosting, the Berrien County ISD is bridging, and TWICE is sponsoring the cost for member schools participating.

Janie’s stories are so interesting and funny. She has so many interesting stories to answer the students’ questions. Here are some of the questions I enjoyed today:

• In the book the two boys argue all the time. How is it that two people who didn’t get along ended up working together? Have you ever worked with someone you didn’t get along with?
• Why did you choose boys as the main characters?
• Of all the food in the book, which do you like the best?
• One student started his question with, “I like Michigan history a lot better than I did before I read this book.”
• In the book the Indians paddled without lifting their paddle from the water as a silent paddle. I think I know what you mean, but can you explain it for me?
• How did the turtle rock get to the big tree in the forest?
• We both loved your book. In our class we had to rename the chapters. How did you decide on the chapter titles?
• Do you think people will ever be able to travel in time? And what time period would you travel to?
• How do you write to meet the needs of your audience?

The questions today showed clear evidence that the teachers had worked hard with the students on writing good questions, thinking about the writing process, and understanding the Michigan history content.

Today I’m bridging a set of ASK programs for TWICE with author Margaret Willey on her book Clever Beatrice, a fairy tale set in the Upper Pennisula of Michigan.

We have two of my local classes participating, Three Oaks Elementary and Hollywood Elementary, as well as several classes across Michigan and one from Texas.

Ms. Willey’s husband is French Canadian from Ottawa Canada, which explains her interest in the lumberjacks in both Michigan and Canada.

As usual, the students’ questions are very fun to hear, as well as the answers to them! Here is a sampling of the questions:

• Do you think the giant will ever realize that Beatrice tricked him?
• We noticed at the beginning of the story the giant is rich but he doesn’t seem to work very hard. Do you think it’s important to know how he got rich?
• It didn’t seem like Mr. Giant had family with him. Why did he live alone?
• Do you think Beatrice’s mother wanted her to go to the giant?
• What will Beatrice do when she grows up?
• How long did it take to get Clever Beatrice published?
• Where do you sit or where you go to start writing a book?

ASK programs always amaze me. The quality of student’s questions is incredible. Clearly they have thought carefully about their reading. Ms. Willey commented that she appreciated the students’ questions too.