I have unshakable faith in children. They always show me the way. ♥

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

lightbulb moments

Masonhall made a good point here on her blog in talking about different types of reading. She had an a-ha moment when she realized that her 5th grade students might not know how to read a magazine, so she did something about it.

It reminded me of this post I made back in November about my students getting interested in reading Mr. Putter and Tabby books on their own and checking them out of the library to read at home. As a corollary to that, I thought the students might find as much joy out of the Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant and started recommending them to my students.

Didn't work.

Well, it worked for Lanie, who pretty much takes my word as the gospel, but the others? Not in the least. They nodded and smiled at me as I told them a bit about Henry and about Mudge, basically giving me the 6 year old equivalent of a pat on the head, and then went and checked out other books.

Well, it took me another week to have the *lightbulb* moment of: "If I want them to enjoy these books, I can't just tell them about the books, I have to read to them!"

So, I did.

And now? Every Wednesday, the library supply of both Mr. Putter and Tabby and Henry and Mudge books is well depleted by my class.

Awesome.

3 comments:

Allison said...

Thanks for the sweet comment! Glad you like my designs :)

Mason said...

Glad I could help with a lightbulb moment...and I totally agree with this post! The novels my kids read the most are the ones that I've been able to recommend because I've read them too. It's hard to keep up with reading 5th grade novels...but it's worth it!

kirsten said...

I think talking about books is one of the best ways of getting conversations going. Remind me that there's an article I wanted to recommend to you! ♥