Year of Miss Agnes
Level 1 guides are recommended for grades 2-3. Each guide is designed to be completed in five weeks, which allows students to work through six to eight guides in a typical school year. Will Miss Agnes last more than a year? Teaching the children in a one-room schoolhouse on the Alaskan frontier in 1948 is not every educator's dream. Then one day, Miss Agnes arrives and life is never the same for the community. Fred discovers that, unlike previous teachers, Miss Agnes doesn't mind the smell of fish. Miss Agnes stokes the fire to warm the schoolhouse each morning, wears pants, and speaks with a strange accent. Miss Agnes packs away the old textbooks, hangs up the children's brightly colored artwork, plays opera music, and brings stories to life. Transforming the language arts program by establishing a tradition of literary exploration has profound results. Blackbird & Company literature discovery guides enable students to independently analyze and respond to great stories while freeing up the teacher's schedule to read and discover alongside their students. Empowering teachers to become mentors releases them from the confines of a tedious, and often frustrating, language arts schedule and affords golden opportunities to nurture the child's heart and mind.