Take A Look, It’s In A Book

EduBlogsClub Prompt #21 (#20 was a catch up week):

Prompt: Write a post about a book, books, and/or reading!

Here are some possible topics to help get you started:

• What has been the book that most impacted you or your teaching? Why?
• Share the story of a time when students responded in a positive way to a book used in class.
• Share your favorite book about teaching that’s helped change your approach to the classroom.
• Create a reading list for other teachers either to use with students or for themselves.
• What books do you wish you had time to read and why?

I love reading, I always have. Maybe I was lucky I grew up in a time before there was Internet. Sure there was television when I was a kid, but there wasn’t the kind of television there is today. I remember what a big deal it was when we finally got “cable” TV, which was called “On TV” or “Select TV.” Essentially it was a flip we switched to get some additional content, it may have only been one channel at the time. [I am really making myself feel ancient right now. 🙂 ] There were video games too, but it was Atari or Intellivision. We had both, and I was never overly engaged with either of them.

I don’t remember having an extensive collection of books, but I do remember a lot of time at the school library or the public library. When I was in high school, I practically LIVED at my local public library. When I became an elementary teacher, I thought back on what I enjoyed about my experiences. One of my most memorable elementary school memories is around read alouds. My 4th grade teacher at Hurley Elementary School in La Puente, Californa was Mr. Delgado. I think he was the first male teacher I ever had (and one of the few for sure) and I thought he was so cool. One of the things he did was after lunch read alouds. He would turn off the lights, have us put our heads down and read to us. He read us several books, but the one I remember most was “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” by CS Lewis. Those after lunch read alouds were such a powerful memory for me and helped to foster my love of reading that I just had to do that with my students.

I have read all kinds of books to my students, but I have never dictated which ones. Another powerful experience for me as a young student on the whole was the lack of student voice and choice in most of my elementary years. I remember how much I resented that as a student and I made sure that my students would have a voice and choices in my classroom. Read aloud was certainly an area where my students had both. My students make suggestions for read aloud and we decide together. I love when they want a series read to them. I remember reading the Percy Jackson series to a 5th grade class I had, and loved the discussions we would get into while reading. In my most recent 3rd and 4th grade classes they were very much into the Creature in my Closet series and I read them several of those books. During my read alouds I would use my document camera to project the book so students could follow along, eventually I started getting the books on my Kindle and projected that. I would also make sure to have a paperback version  available in class for students to check out and so many students wanted to follow along with their own copies that they would check out the book from an area library or ask their parent to purchase them a copy. Its memories like these that really make me miss my time in the classroom.

I am currently in the process of starting a similar process with my son. He is in the 7th grade and due to a few reasons (which I will likely discuss in future posts), we decided to remove him from the district I work for and enroll him in an online charter school. We are only on week two of this new learning adventure and I am creating new routines to support him. I have to admit I am really enjoying the online charter school experience so far, as is my son. I am essentially his co-teacher and support the work he is doing with his online teachers. One of the areas I have to support him in is his independent reading. I am a fan of GoodReads and provided him this list of books recommended for middle school. He has selected “The Diary of Anne Frank.” We will be reading that together and I hope to recreate the magic of read alouds for him.

What is a fond memory you have about reading and books? Share with me in the comments below. 🙂