Happy World
Read Aloud Day! In the past I have celebrated by Skyping with authors and
classrooms from all around our country. This year I didn’t plan ahead for any
Skype visits. The date snuck up on me and I wasn’t sure what my schedule would
hold during our two week PARCC testing window. So last week I looked at my
plans with dismay – how to celebrate WRAD with no guests via Skype? And then, I
laughed at myself. Who read to my class wasn’t as important as what we did – we
needed a read aloud. And so, I did just that.
As I
mentioned, we’re in the middle of PARCC testing. In my 4th/5th
grade building we are testing grade levels on alternating days. So, in the next
two weeks my class will test every other day. On the days that we test, we
cannot switch for classes due to the alternating times of the test. That means
I can only have class five times in ten days. As I planned ahead and debated
what to teach, I decided to make the next two weeks about celebrating reading
and writing. If we have to test, let’s make the rest of the time together about
books and enjoyment. The best way I can think to do that is to read aloud.
Flipping
through my picture book bins last week, I selected 10+ picture books to share
over the course of the next ten days. For today, I picked two wonderful books: Red: A Crayon’s Story and The Day the Crayons Quit. I picked them
because I wanted to review point of view, but also because I simply love them.
Red: A Crayon’s Story is a newer book in our classroom. I
wasn’t sure what the kids would think about it, they loved it. After I finished
in each class we talked about how it would have been different if told from the
crayon’s point of view. When I asked each class what the story was about, they
blew me away with their insights. These fifth graders shared ideas like:
It’s about being who you were meant
to be.
It’s about the way we label others
and how they can break free.
It’s about finding confidence,
finding your story.
It’s about our tendency to put
people into categories.
It’s about judgment and blindness.
It’s about feeling comfortable in
your own skin.
Have I
mentioned I love these kids?
Then I read
The Day the Crayons Quit. I love this
book. The kids pointed out the use of personification. They discussed how they
felt bad for some crayons. How each one had a distinctive voice. They discussed
how this book in first person would have been different if told in third. They
were fascinating to listen to.
One thing I
realized mid read during my third class is that my students are anything but
quiet when I read many picture books. Some do stun them into silence, but often
these kids have a running conversation
about what they notice as I’m reading. It doesn’t seem to detract from the read
aloud, if anything it adds to it. I love listening to their thinking as I read;
they always go in directions I could never anticipate.
I ended our
day with my homeroom in a perfect way. We read from our current novel read
aloud, Fish in a Tree. I picked this
book because I adore Lynda Mullaly Hunt. Her book, One for the Murphys, is still one of my absolute favorites. I don’t
think, no I know, that I didn’t realize how healing this book would be. Reading
about Ally’s difficulties in school, the way she visualizes things, the way her
art comes to her, the way she feels when she cannot read – it is powerful. I
have many students who connect to Ally. When I read Fish in a Tree aloud, you could hear a pin drop. It isn’t that my
students aren’t engaged here; it is that they are almost holding their breath,
waiting to see how Mr. Daniels will help Ally. Waiting to learn how to help
each other, and themselves.
I looked up
at the clock and closed the book to a chorus of groans. Kids filed out of the
room, shouts of “See you tomorrow, Mrs. S.!” and then, it was silent. I thought
back to all of the books I shared with them today and realized, I can’t think
of a better way to spend World Read Aloud Day than just the way we did.
Perfection.
