♪♪ ♪♪ >> Castronova: This is where I grew up.

>> Cassie: We have an author who used to go to Spring Garden School, believe it or not.

>> Castronova: So very excited to read the book that I wrote.

I just love to create experiences for kids in which they're figuring things out.

>> Harvey: Hi, kids.

>> Students: Hi.

>> Scotti: We were just so excited that we have a homegrown author right in our school, and we just could show the kids that, "Wow, I can do that, too, someday."

You just have to have a great idea and have that motivation to do it.

>> Hansen: Maybe I'll have to do... >> Rocco: You never get the experience of actually asking the author their purpose for certain things in the book, and it's something that they'll probably remember the rest of their life.

>> Woman: In which book does Miss Mackle receive a quilt as a gift?

>> Malachai: My team is Raging Readers, and I think that we're going to win this year.

[ Class chattering ] [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ >> Spiller: On this episode of "Classroom Close-Up: New Jersey," readers and writers.

Over the years, we've featured dozens of educators who are also authors.

Later, we'll see what happens when reading gets competitive.

But first, we're heading to Nutley to meet a hometown author.

♪♪ >> Castronova: This is actually where I grew up, right here.

Nutley has a very small, hometown feel.

Hi!

Oh, hi!

Alright, hold on.

And here we are at Spring Garden, my old alma mater.

>> Cassie: So, boys and girls, we have a very special guest.

We have an author who used to go to Spring Garden School, believe it or not.

Can you say hello to Ms. Castronova?

[ Class says "Hello" ] >> Cassie: I am so proud of having a Spring Garden alumni, a parent, a local author.

And welcome to kindergarten.

>> Castronova: Oh, thank you.

Thank you so much for inviting me to your kindergarten class.

>> Cassie: When Marisa sent me in this book and I read it, and I just fell in love with it.

>> Castronova: I'm so very excited to read the book that I wrote, Gigi Feels Jumbled.

Gigi the character in my book, Gigi Feels Jumbled.

You know what "jumbled" means?

Who knows what the word "jumbled" means?

That's sort of a big word.

>> Boy: Like, scared and, like, wiggly.

>> Castronova: But that character is based on my daughter, Giovanna.

"On this first day, I also felt scared."

On her very first day to kindergarten, she was really nervous.

She didn't know if she was going to make friends, you know?

And so this idea of, like, how can we calm her down?

You know, nothing's seeming to work.

And we invented "hugs, kisses, snuggles."

"Gigi, come close.

And she gave me a hug when I needed it most."

Which is what you see in the book that Gigi ends up, you know, using to help her calm her jumbled emotions.

But that was something that was invented between my daughter and I.

"As the school bell rang, the teacher came through the gate."

>> Cassie: "Children, line up, please.

We don't want to be late."

>> Castronova: "And Mom softly asked, 'Don't I get a hug?'"

Uh-oh, Mom's feeling jumbled."

Yeah.

I was going to miss her when she was in that classroom and be thinking about, you know, what was going on.

Is she okay?

Does -- You know, how is she doing?

So kind of reflecting on what I know and my life kind of I bring that into my writing and that helps me to figure out where I should go.

"So right then and there, I whispered, 'Mom, come close.'

And I gave her hugs, kisses, snuggles when she needed it most."

The end.

I just wanted to write the book as sort of like a fun, catchy read that, you know, a parent or grandparent or whoever could read with their child and just experience that moment with them.

And memories are made through bonding and connections.

And so I think books can create lasting memories.

Oh, my gosh.

There I am.

>> Laguardia: You look like -- your daughter looks like you.

This is the yearbook when Marisa was in sixth grade.

So that's where it all started.

>> Castronova: I went here from kindergarten through sixth grade.

>> Curry: And she was an outstanding student.

Just super high achiever.

And a dream.

A teacher's dream.

>> Laguardia: The fact that she was able to bring it back to her roots, kind of special.

I think we all look up to her.

>> Castronova: Would you like to meet the real Gigi?

I did bring a guest in.

Here is the real Gigi, everybody.

I thought that would be a cute touch for the kids to see.

And she's in third grade now, but Mrs. Cassie had her as her students.

Because Mrs. Cassie was her kindergarten teacher.

Giovanna, how did you feel on your first day?

>> Giovanna: Well, I felt a little bit, like, scared and nervous that I wasn't going to make friends because, like, I didn't know anybody here, but I felt excited because I was coming to, like, somewhere new.

>> Castronova: My daughter will say to me, when she senses I'm getting, like, heightened in mom mode, like stressed, "Mom, do you need a hug, a kiss, and a snuggle?"

Like, or she'll just come over and do it.

I think that's powerful, where you understand how a strategy works for you and then you start imparting it on somebody else to help them.

That's, you know -- that's a great thing.

>> Cassie: We tell our kids, you know, we're being writers and we're authors, and we're illustrators, and see, you can do it, you know.

And now they're seeing people that they know and people they're going to see around town, "Wow, they have a book.

Maybe they can do it, too."

>> Castronova: My day job is that I'm a science teacher.

I absolutely love it.

I just love to create -- create experiences for kids in which they're figuring things out.

But then I became a mom and I started to see that you could have those same "aha" moments in just regular, everyday circumstances.

I didn't just have to be in the classroom to be a teacher.

I could be an author and share my stories and share my words.

And kids could learn that way, too.

If one kid likes this book, I feel successful.

♪ Dear old Spring Garden School, best in the land ♪ ♪♪ >> Spiller: Meeting an author can be a valuable learning opportunity, opening a window to the creative process and connecting young readers with role models.

You never know where the story might take you.

♪♪ >> Harvey: Tell you what.

>> Grover: Yes?

>> Harvey: How about if I learn and someone puts this up for me?

>> Grover: What do you think?

>> Narrator: This is the story about a man who loves his job.

>> Harvey: My name is Paul Harvey.

I'm head custodian at Orchard Hill Elementary School.

>> Narrator: A reading teacher with an art background whose job is... >> Grover: Supporting children that are struggling with their reading and writing and their math skills.

>> Narrator: And a mischievous fellow dressed in green who used to show up once a year.

That all changed when the man asked the teacher for some literary guidance.

>> Harvey: One day, I went to Kathy in the hallway and I asked her if she can check out the spelling and everything.

>> Narrator: You see, Paul had written a book, and for him, that was no small accomplishment.

>> Harvey: I'm dyslexic, but back in my days, they didn't know anything about it.

My father -- I felt bad for him because he spent a lot of money on tutors and stuff like that, and they still -- they didn't know anything.

So growing up, it was hard for me because I had that wall around me and I didn't want to, you know -- I didn't want to write anything down because I figured I couldn't.

>> Narrator: But Kathy read the book Paul had written and... >> Harvey: A week later, she came back with the spelling and pictures, and I looked at it and I said, "Well, let me try seeing what a publisher would do with it."

>> Narrator: The result -- Shamus Goes to School.

>> Harvey: Shamus is leprechaun that is asked to come to the United States to see if the kids actually believe in leprechauns.

He comes through a rainbow, and he turns into human form and becomes a custodian at an elementary school and plays jokes and everything with the kids.

>> Narrator: Remind you of anyone?

It happens that Mr. Harvey has had a fascination with leprechauns for a long time.

>> Grover: Of course, I'm very aware of his antics on St Patrick's Day, and my own children have gone through this school district, and they remember it, as well.

>> Narrator: What they remember is a certain character who appeared on the roof of Orchard Hill Elementary every year on St Patrick's Day.

We weren't able to confirm the true identity of that mischievous sprite.

>> Harvey: There's a real leprechaun lurking around.

>> Narrator: But most likely, he was the inspiration for Shamus.

>> Harvey: Keep them -- Keep em dreaming.

>> Narrator: And Mr. Harvey kept on dreaming and writing.

>> Harvey: The second book, Shamus meets George Washington.

He's over in Pennsylvania, ready to cross the Delaware.

Christmas Eve.

Shamus and his flying dog, Rocko, they actually went and cross the Delaware with George and his troops to the old barracks in Trenton.

You know, thinking about our forefathers and what they had to go through to make this country the way it is.

The next book we're doing is Betsy Ross.

Of course, that would be the Betsy Ross house.

And then we're going to go on to Paul Revere, and we're just going to keep going -- going on.

>> Scotti: We really value reading and writing at our school.

You know, from kindergarten on, the children are learning to be writers and learning to be readers, you know, and we really nurture that here.

It's -- It's the foundation of their learning throughout their entire schooling here in Montgomery.

>> Harvey: Hi, kids.

>> Children: Hi, Mr. Harvey.

>> Scotti: We were just so excited that we have a homegrown author right in our school.

And we just can show the kids that, "Wow, I can do that, too, some day."

You just have to have a great idea and have that motivation to do it.

>> Harvey: The PTA asked us to read to a classroom.

We read to the classroom.

I asked Kathy to read it because she reads everything smoother than I do.

>> Grover: "The general knew what they wanted was unfair.

He knew that this was worth fighting for."

>> Harvey: The school is close to all the historic sites, the old barracks, the Princeton battlefield.

As a matter of fact, I do have a section there mentioning the old barracks, the address and everything, in hopes that when the children read these books, they'll ask their mom and dad to take them to these sites.

>> Girl: How did you do it?

>> Harvey: Well, I have an little friend named Shamus.

He's a real leprechaun.

He tells me the stories.

Him and Rocko fly into my house and say, "Hey, I got a good little story for you.

I do."

And he tells me it.

And then I write it down.

Get hold of Mrs. Grover.

She draws some pictures.

Kathy is a huge part of this book, as well as the staff here at Orchard Hill because of the confidence they gave me.

That first day I went and saw Kathy in the hallway, when I gave her the script and I asked her if she could read it, and maybe change -- change a little bit, I'll never forget.

She smiled, winked, and said, "I'd be glad to."

And you know, we've been partners ever since.

>> Narrator: See that twinkle in Mr. Harvey's eye?

Sure, there's a bit of the old mischief you'd expect when you're dealing with a leprechaun, but mostly, that's the magic he writes about -- the dreams that inspire children to find their own rainbows, because that really is the rest of the story.

♪♪ >> Hansen: I enjoyed that question.

>> Spiller: Coming up, a virtual visit with an award-winning novelist.

But first, we're looking back at how the education community faced the challenges of learning during the COVID pandemic.

It's our latest installment of Making the Grade.

>> Wright: Heads up.

>> Kristi: Heads up.

>> Tyler: Heads up.

>> Faith: Heads up.

>> All: And phone down.

>> Wright: "Our heads up, phone down" is actually a club.

We spread awareness about the dangers of texting while driving.

We kind of branched off this year and decided to highlight the importance of keeping their head up, phone down while they're walking outside.

>> Woman: Thanks for keeping your head up and your phone down.

>> Girl: Yay!

>> Tyler: A few years ago, my freshman year, I believe, one of the students died by car accident walking across the highway, and that was a really big loss for the school.

So I kind of wanted to help with the situation when it comes to at least car accidents, because I didn't want that happening again in our town.

>> Wright: At first, we were just going to make posters.

And then from the posters, thought, well, like, you know, that could only do so much, but how can we really get through to people in the community?

And so that's when Tyler thought up, "You know what?

I'm going to talk with my boss and see if, you know, Rita's would help out."

>> Tyler: I texted him, and he talked with Mrs. Wright, and we were able to get the coupons out and promote it.

>> Haley: Oh, my God.

Hey, Faith.

>> Faith: Hi, Haley.

Thanks for not being on your phone.

I basically just, like, thank them for, like, paying attention and being aware of their surroundings, and then I offer them the coupon if they want to take it.

>> Faith: Hey, great job for keeping your head up and your phone down.

Here's a Rita's coupon.

>> Boy: Thank you.

>> Kristi: I think that it's important to teach them the responsibility to pay attention, and really, you don't always need to be looking down at your device, and that helps with the safety of everybody.

You can't always control whether somebody is driving and looking at their phone, so at least you can control, like, being alert and paying attention.

>> Wright: I never imagined a reward system that affected all ages of the community.

And for the community members, for students to get excited about this campaign was really neat to see.

>> Man: Keep driving safe and keep your head up and phone down.

Thank you for coming to Rita's.

♪♪ >> Girl: Thank you.

>> Hansen: You're welcome, dear.

>> Eva: Hi, I'm Eva.

>> Hansen: Good morning, Eva.

>> Eva: The interview, it was challenging because we wanted to impress her.

We want to -- wanted to think of good questions for her to answer.

We wanted to make her think.

>> Girl: In chapter five, Afua reminds Kofi of his mother.

Why did you decide to have female characters remind him of his family?

>> Hansen: Well, and that is a great question.

Because, I think, he was a young boy, and I think that he still got a lot of nurturing from his mother and from his sister.

So I think the female characters would come to him.

>> Narrator: Today, Sandy Rocco's fifth graders are interviewing award-winning author Joyce Hansen about her book, The Captive.

Modeled after an actual slave narrative, The Captive tells the story of a 12-year-old Ashanti prince, who is kidnapped from his home in West Africa and sold into slavery in colonial Massachusetts.

>> Rocco: As I read books on my own, I am always questioning, "I wonder why the author did that.

I wonder why the author did that."

You never get the experience of actually asking the author their purpose for certain things in the book, and it's something that they'll probably remember the rest of their life.

It's such a unique experience.

Who's the one character that doesn't have a name?

Gab.

>> Gab: the mother.

>> Narrator: Rocco has used The Captive in her social studies unit on colonial history for several years, and what began with simple e-mail questions to Hansen eventually grew into personal interviews using Skype.

But that's not the only way the lesson has grown.

>> Rocco: With the help of my other teacher friends, we've kind of just gone full-out 21st century with technology and speaking and listening and critical thinking,, and they've really reached the expectations that we've set for them.

>> Girl: How many days of the week do you do parkour?

>> Boy: So I normally do it for five days a week.

>> Narrator: One of those expectations was that her students would be able to conduct a high-quality interview with Hansen.

>> Klock: Teaching fifth graders how to interview is a challenge because sometimes, what they're interested in knowing aren't necessarily the most relevant or what we would consider the deepest types of questions.

So just training them and giving them the opportunity to kind of go a little bit deeper.

We started that by asking them to interview each other, and in our classroom discussions, we had the students really critique the questions as they were asking them to see if they felt that they were relevant.

We used the criteria we called Google-able versus non-Google-able types of questions, which -- which was really interesting, because it really pushes the kids to try to go a little bit deeper.

>> Girl: Oh, I kind of like this one about the agriculture.

>> Girl #2: I like it.

>> Girl: If, she's related to -- >> Boy: Yeah, maybe we can make a follow-up with that.

"Are you related to them?"

>> Sutton: So we had this big sheet of paper called Google-able and non-Google-able questions, and we'd all get questions from certain chapters that we were assigned to, and ones that we thought that you could just pull up your phone and simply Google and find the answer, we put that under Google-able.

And ones that you can't just pull out your phone and search for the answer, that's non-Google-able.

So we tried making as many deep, non-Google-able questions as we could, and then we'd pick which ones we thought were good to interview.

>> Boy: Why does Joseph help Kofi even though he gets beaten?

>> Girl: If you couldn't be a teacher or a writer, what other occupation would you choose?

>> Boy: But why did he make him a family slave, not a member?

>> Girl #2: When I open a book, I like to read the dedication page.

Who is Matt and why did you dedicate this book to him?

>> Hansen: Oh.

[ Laughs ] I enjoyed that question.

No one has ever asked me that, so that was really a great question.

Matt was my husband.

>> Klock: If you think about interviewing, it's more of the art of conversation -- being able to listen, being able to follow up.

>> Eva: You have to have eye contact.

You have to have questions that you think will make the person that you're interviewing think about, not just be like yes or no, and you have to have a follow-up question.

>> Narrator: Technology like Skype allows Rocco to bring Hansen into the classroom.

Her students are also using technology to share what they learn with others.

>> Morgan: The students are building a website, and they're going to -- they're developing questions and answers about the chapters of the book.

Once we do that, then students globally can actually learn more about the book and experience what we're experiencing.

>> Narrator: The unit also has an art component.

>> Rocco: Kofi, who is the main character, is an Ashanti, and they have a certain sort of art that they use on their kente cloth, which is their robes that they use during their ceremonies.

It's very symbolic.

So they're going to learn a little bit about the symbols, what they mean, and then they're going to do prints.

>> Narrator: For Rocco, studying The Captive is about both the story and her students' personal growth.

>> Rocco: The biggest thing I want them to take away is not only the theme of the book -- you know, that human decency, and we need a whole lot more of it in the world -- but also that they can think deeper than they actually think they can -- that they are actually deep thinkers.

And that's what I want to create.

>> Woman: In which book... >> Spiller: In our final story, the competition is fierce at the Battle of the Books.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ [ Indistinct announcements ] ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] >> Boy: That was fun!

[ Children cheering ] ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ >> Spiller: Here we are at the Battle of the Books, and you can tell the excitement in this room.

I mean, this is just tremendous.

What gave you the idea to get involved and do this?

>> Rencher: Actually, my son, who's a senior in high school now, when he was in middle school, his school did this, but they participated in America's Battle of the Books, where you pick a top team from your school that moves on to competition with other schools.

We -- Mr. Lecaster and I -- presented it to our principal, but the three of us decided it would be better to be able to include all students who wanted to participate, so we decided to keep it just in-house, and everyone can participate.

Everyone comes out, the families come out, and just have one battle where they all compete.

>> Woman: Alright.

So here we go with our first question.

21 questions.

Are you ready?

In which book is the family so poor that all they eat is bread with margarine, boiled potatoes, and cabbage?

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] The answer is "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ >> Rencher: At the beginning of the year, any students that are interested come to a Battle of the Books meeting.

They form teams.

We assign them to a coach.

>> Dolente: Kids always come up to me and say, "I'm just not a reader, Ms.

Dolente."

And I tell them, "It's not -- It's not that you're not a reader, you just haven't found your right book yet."

Everybody has a book.

You just haven't found it yet.

>> Malachai: Before I came to Bowe school, I really was not much of a reader.

I don't know how, but I just, like, started reading, like, once I got into Bowe school.

I guess it was all the fun books that I saw.

>> Rencher: As it gets closer to the battle, we have all the teams, they come and they decorate their T-shirts.

>> Rencher: What was your favorite book on the list to read?

Malachai.

Which one was your favorite?

>> Malachai: Mine will probably have to be "The View from Saturday."

>> Rencher: Why?

>> Malachai: Because I love how in the beginning, it just went from a whole academic...

I'm a very competitive guy, so I like to compete a lot.

>> Boy: Hey!

We're gonna win!

We're winners!

>> Woman: In which book does Miss Mackle receive a quilt as a gift?

>> Stump: There's 21 books that they all have to read combined.

I had seven students on my team, so each student took three books.

[ Indistinct conversations ] [ Cheers and applause ] >> Spiller: Here we are between rounds.

Tell me what's going on.

>> Rencher: We just had our first round, where we had 17 teams participating in the battle.

They answered 21 questions, and now we are knocking out seven of the teams and taking the top ten teams to move on to the second round.

>> Spiller: Well, I got to tell you, based on the excitement in the room, it sounds like everybody is in the lead.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Boy: I want to shout out to my whole family and the whole TV crew for doing this!

Let's go!

>> Woman: Okay.

Are we ready?

[ Children shout "Yes" ] Alright, so those of you continuing on to round 2... [ Cheers and applause ] It is time to play Battle of the Books!

[ Cheers and applause ] Question number one -- in which book does someone say, "Once I sit, it's hard to get moving again."

[ Indistinct conversations ] >> Eleanor: When you read, you can just, like, get out of the world and put yourself in the book.

I think I like reading because when I was younger, my mom, she would always read to us one book every night since we were, like, babies.

>> Spiller: What's it like, being part of that team for her?

>> Lisa: Well, I think she -- well, for her, she meets new friends that have the same interests, and I notice that because she has those same interests, she builds stronger friendships because they have the common things, you know, of reading books together.

They go to the library.

You know, they can do different things together.

>> Eleanor: I kind of want to win because last year, I didn't win.

♪♪ >> Woman: Real Girls Read.

[ Cheers and applause ] Girl Power 2.0.

[ Cheers and applause ] And Owls in Reading.

[ Cheers and applause ] Congratulations to all of our teams!

Alright, you ready?

In which book is a team composed of a redhead, a blonde, a brunette, and a kid with hair as black as ink on paper?

♪♪ And the answer is... "The View from Saturday."

[ Cheers and applause ] Girl Power 2.0!

[ Cheers and applause ] >> Marchese: In today's educational world, there's so much push on testing, and, you know, sometimes we lose focus of what we're really here for, and that's to give a love of learning.

And I think it's a great thing for the kids to come in and be able to have fun with it -- to kind of lose all the stress that goes along with that and just get back into what we're here for, and that's to love learning and love reading and just love being here in general.

♪♪ >> Spiller: That's all for now.

Thanks for watching.

If you'd like to learn more, you can visit our website, Classroomcloseup.org, and search the video library.

And remember to join us next week for more inspiring stories on another episode of "Classroom Close-Up: New Jersey."

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Castronova: ♪ Spring Garden school, best in the land ♪