Blood and Guts

Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin

Guest author Linda Allison once asked teachers in my workshop to think of the 6-inch cube of styrofoam she'd placed on a table as the 1/20th-inch thick, 3/4-inch-square patch of skin outlined on the back of her hand. She pierced the cube with 30 hairs (shish-ka-bob skewers) and proceeded to drape and drop other sundry items around and atop it to represent what else such a skin-patch would hold: 9 feet of blood vessels (red yarn); 13 yards of nerves (twine); 6 cold and 36 hot heat sensors (white and red thumb tacks) and so on, until she'd completed the list itemized on page 17 of her Blood And Guts. Every time I look at the back of my hand, I think of Ms. Allison, what's beneath that teeny bit of skin, her luckily-still-in-print book, and the power of imaginative teaching. When human anatomy, its features and their function are on the agenda, teach a la Allison. And suggest students do the same. Encourage individuals or small groups to construct models of whatever body parts or systems are the subject of their reports.