I love quotes, and Jim starts every chapter with one. The one that starts chapter 3 I really love.
Few children learn to love books by themselves. Someone has to lure them into the wonderful world of the written word; someone has to show them the way. Orville Prescott
This quote seems to sum up my reaction to this entire book. I want to be someone who shows kids the way to love books.
So far, this book makes me just want to read and read and read to my class. It has affirmed some things I did last year in my first grade class. When we had a little "extra time," I usually would read a book. I read to introduce or reinforce concepts in math, social studies, and science. Sometimes I felt like I was taking an easy road...but this book makes me think I did okay (and maybe should have done it even more reading!).
These two chapters both talked about helping develop attention span. I like the intentionality Jim mentions in chapter 3 - reading shorter picture books, reading related picture books, reading books by the same author, reading different versions of the same story, reading a picture book series, reading chapter books, reading longer chapter books and novels. I guess that's my biggest takeaway from these chapters - intention.
This past year we read "The Three Little Pigs." I remembered that I had a couple of books that had different versions of this story. I took them to school to read. I pulled a few other versions from the library. We read a version with modern pigs and a version with javelinas and a version with gators. One told the story from the wolf's point of view. In one version, there were three wolves and a big bad pig. The kids loved them. We compared and contrasted them. We watched this version. We listed out our ideas of title for our own version. (My favorite title: The 16 children and the Big Bad Teacher. Hmm. Maybe I was not in the best mood then?)
At one point we even wrote a short version of our own. Here are photos of that story.
This learning experience was just a whim of a new teacher - not sure what to do but doing it anyway. I can see some other things we should have done to extend it. And we should have made a book of our own version (or versions). But it was a fun experience. And we will repeat it this year - with more intention.
Sometimes I read a book multiple times. Sometimes I wanted to emphasize a particular skill or strategy related to reading and comprehension...so repeating a book meant that kids already knew what was going to happen. Sometimes I read the same book again because I didn't have another one ready; kids would finish sentences or add to the story. I had learned early in the year that reading a book more than once helps kids remember and talk about the story. Again, sometimes I didn't have a lot of intention. This will be different this coming year.
I am really enjoying this book. What has inspired or stood out for you?
