Lucky Ducklings

Title:  Lucky Ducklings

Author:  Eva Moore
Illustrator: Nancy Carpenter
Publisher: Orchard Books,  © 2012
ISBN:  978-0-439-44861-1
Grade Level:  PreK-2
Book Review:  Lucky Ducklings, a true rescue story, is about a mama duck and her five baby ducklings. As the ducklings follow their mama around town, one duckling falls through a storm grate. Thanks to an attentive passerby and a dedicated crew of fire fighters the duckling is rescued.  Mama and babies continue on their way. A well written story, with beautiful illustrations, and a timeless theme make a picture book that could certainly become a classic.
Systems Thinking Connections:
Habits: This story easily lends itself to a discussion of Mama Duck's point of view and thus the Habit changes perspective to increase understanding.  Children can relate to being separated from a parent. The fears of both the mama and her ducklings draw children into the story and create opportunities for conversation.
Tools: A great book for introducing young readers to behavior-over-time graphs.  I was reminded of this story as the start of the school year has prompted primary teachers to ask for recommendations of books that make introducing this tool accessible to young learners.  Lucky Ducklings is such a story. The preschool teacher who created the graph shown here shares that her students had quite a conversation about when to make the line go up, showing that the mother duck was worried.  Some students wanted to indicate the change when the duck fell through the grate.  Other students argued, quite convincingly, that the change for mother duck, did not come until she was aware her duckling had fallen.  This conversation illustrates the power of a visual systems thinking tool to promote deep thinking and create the conditions for children to construct meaning.

which one doesn't belong?

Title:  which one doesn't belong?

Author/Illustrator: Christopher Danielson
Publisher:  Stenhouse Publishers ©2016
ISBN:  978-1-62531-080
Grade Level: PreK-adult
Book Review: This books is brilliantly created to promote deep thinking.  Each page contains four shapes and each page asks the same question:  which one doesn't belong?  The brilliance is found in the fact that each shape is a justifiable answer to the question.  In Marzano's famed meta-analysis of educational research, he deemed the ability to identify similarities and differences as the number one strategy to promote student success.  This book offers a wonderful way to explicitly teach and model that instructional strategy with content that is accessible to all learners.  The skillful practitioner can then help students transfer the skill of identifying similarities and differences in shapes to identifying the similarities and differences in the content that he/she teaches.
Systems Thinking Connections
Habits:  What a great way to introduce the Habit surface and test assumptions! As students take turns sharing which shape does not belong and explaining their thinking, they are practicing the habit and experiencing in real time that there are many possible correct assumptions.
Tools:  This text embodies a critical concept of systems thinking:  There is not just one right answer. Helping students and educators recognize and accept this fact is an essential part of building systems thinking capacity.

Wemberly Worried

Title:  Wemberly Worried

Author: Kevin Henkes
Illustrator: Kevin Henkes
Publisher: Green Willow Books © 2000
ISBN: 0-688-17027-7
Grade Level:  PreK-2
Book Review:  Wemberly worries about everything and the beginning of school brings many additional worries. Once Wemberly makes a friend, that makes all the difference.  Henkes creates characters that stimulate children's imagination and places them in familiar settings so that children can readily connect with them.
Systems Thinking Connections:
Habits: Wemberly is easy to relate to making this text a great catalyst to help children explore systems thinking Habits like mental models and multiple perspectives.




Tools: Starting the school year with behavior-over-time graphs is a great strategy for a number of reasons:  It is a tool that students will be able to use throughout the school year to make their thinking visible.  It is a great way for teachers to learn more about their students and their perceptions.  The graphs can serve as a pre-assessment of students' understanding in a number of areas.  And behavior-over-time graphs can help track learning, attentiveness, cooperation, kindness and other qualities that teachers are trying to build as the school year begins. The first grade teacher, whose work is shown here, got her students off to a great start by graphing the level of  Wemberly's worry.  The text uses very explicit language for describing more and less.  Graphing is relevant way to help students share their feelings about the start of school and build strong retelling skills at the same time.

Wise Guy: The Life and Philosophy of Socrates

Title:  Wise Guy:  The Life and Philosophy of Socrates

Author:  M.D. Usher
Illustrator:  William Bramhall
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux ©2005
ISBN: 978-0-374-31249-7
Grade Level:  2-5
Book Review: "You shouldn't think you know something without first having looked at it very closely." Extrapolated from ancient sources Usher writes a biography of Socrates for younger readers.  The book weaves together the main text, a narrative that chronicles the life of Socrates from his youth through his death, with a series of scrolls that highlight his teachings.  Cleverly drawn illustrations add to the reader's understanding of Usher's portrayal. The importance of being willing to ask questions is an important message in this text.
Systems Thinking Connections:
Habits:  What better than a book about thinking to facilitate students own thinking and encourage their questions.  The scroll text found on each page provides information about Socrates' teaching or philosophy. Many of these scrolls lend themselves to making connections to the Habits of a Systems Thinker.  For example, in one scroll, the author explain Socrates dialectic process -- how he refused to believe things were always as they appeared. A connection could be made between this idea and the systems thinking habit considers an issue fully and resists the urge to come to a quick conclusion.  
Or perhaps a link to successive approximation could be found in the idea that Socrates believed "wisdom was an art, like cobbling, that you have to practice if you're going to be any good at it."
If we are really to use this text in a way that honors the philosophies of Socrates, it will be critical to allow readers to make their own meaningful connections within and between systems.

I am a boy of color

Title:  I am a boy of color

Author:  Deanna Singh
Illustrator:  Ammar Nsoroma
Publisher:  Orange Hat Publishing © 2016
ISBN:  978-1-943331-21-5
Grade Level: PreK-adult
Book Review: Passionately committed to changing the image of boys of color in modern society, Deanna Singh created a picture book designed to celebrate the best qualities and reinforce the positive characteristics found in children.  The book begins with a boy looking in the mirror and transitions to positive affirmations of what he can see.  Each quality and characteristic carefully selected to create a portrait that brings deserved honor to boys of color.


Systems Thinking Connections

Habits:  While the text does not reference the tern leverage specifically, Deanna Singh used her understanding a system structure and identified the creation of a children's book as a leverage action. This book filled with positive messages, read to multitudes of children, multitudes of times will affect mental models. Impacting mental models is the greatest way to bring about significant change, affecting current reality and the future. Another explicit purpose of this text is for boys of color to make personal connections, being able to see themselves in this powerful piece of children's literature.
Tools:  Teachers using this book with young children and early readers could take any of the positive characteristics or qualities -- possibility, joy, pride, caring --  and look at those through the lens of a stock-flow map. Building  multiple stock-flow maps could lead to discovering the connections and interdependencies between these qualities.

Flight School

Title:  Flight School
Author:  Lita Judge

Illustrator:  Lita Judge
Publisher:  Atheneum Books for Young Readers
© 2014
ISBN:  978-1-4424-8177-0
Grade Level: PreK-2
Book Review:  Penguin believes "he was hatched to fly," but despite his enthusiastic participation in flight school his initial attempt lands him swimming in the depths of the ocean.  Committed teachers find a way to let him experience his dream.  They instill such confidence that he brings his friend the ostrich for a chance at experiencing flight. Flight School is a charming text with a positive message that will bring a smile to both children and adults.
Systems Thinking Connections
Habits:  While Penguin may believe that he was hatched to fly, he was not built to fly.  By carefully considering the issue, including Penguin's deep disappointment, the flight school teachers create a structure that allows Penguin to fulfill his dream.  A straightforward lesson for young children on how changing not only your perspective, but also a system's structure can produce a very different result. Systems thinkers recognize that a system's structure generates its behavior.
Tools:  The story is straightforward, and yet it offers an opportunity for students to ask some simple questions connected to the ladder of inference. For example, what was Penguin paying attention to that led him to believe he could fly?  How did his experience (action) reinforce his belief that ostrich too could experience flight?  How were the teachers able to change their approach in order to make Penguin successful.