17 August 2003

A Letter to American Teachers K-1:

This is a note of gratitude to all those teachers who have been my guides and mentors these past twenty years. You have opened your classroom doors to me and allowed me to learn from your students. You have evaluated manuscripts and offered encouraging advice and feedback. You have written to me about your use of my books in the classroom. You have sent precious parcels of children's writing - letters and innovations of my books. There are extra bookcases in my office to house a wonderful collection of stories written by your students. I have more than two hundred classroom publications about Mrs Wishy-Washy!

Recently I've had requests from many of you, for books that are no longer in print. I am sorry that I am unable to do anything about this. Publishers need to keep producing new product and as they do that, some books fall off at the other end. I have been sending to some of you, books from my own collection, but now I too, am running short. My apologies. I wish there was something I could do.

But I have some good news. Great news, in fact. Late July, I was at Dominie Press to launch a new K-1 reading program which Dominie have called Joy Starters - 72 books divided into twelve themes, and 12 rhyming wall charts. You can get specific details from the Dominie catalog or website, but briefly, I want to tell you what a pleasure it has been working on these books. In spite of the name, they are the product of great team work. I've been involved in every stage of production but so have teachers, reading advisers consultant Dr Adria Klein, and Dominie editors and designers. Publisher Christine Yuen has steered an excellent production team and the end result is an educationally sound program which is beautiful and, most important, child-centred.

I've been able to put into the Joy Starters, a lifetime of learning from children, forty-two years of writing early reading materials, several years of practical research into children's oral language, and in more recent times, comprehensive reading of other people's research on MRI scans and brain learning.

I am convinced that children learn most effectively through pleasurable and meaningful experience and these have been some of my goals for the Joy Starters:
* Entertainment - each book a real story.
* Meaning - stories, themes, related directly to the child's experience.
* Language Skills - phonemic awareness, sentence structure, punctuation, taught in the context of meaning.
* Affirmation - stories give the child emotional support and create a positive self-image.
* Social extension - themes begin with the reader and move out to family, friends, school, wider community.
* Variety of genre - real-life fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, rhymes, action rhymes, simple crafts, math.
* Practical skills - identifying insects, weather, time, how to make a phone call, how to write a letter, make a list, etc.
* Series characters - there are several series characters, each reflecting some growth aspect of the young reader: Senor Armadillo, Robot, Crabby Cat, Anna.
* Humour - an important ingredient, especially for the reluctant reader.
* Teacher input - every story at manuscript stage, has been evaluated by a large team of K teachers.

I could go on but you can find out more from Dominie Press. The purpose of this letter is gratitude, thanks to all those teachers who evaluated the stories and offered suggestions, and thanks to all who have guided me over the years. Most important, I thank you for the love you give to all the young friends in your classrooms.

As an old friend, I give you mine.
Love,

Joy Cowley


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