I've never had a lot of fun talents that I could share at parties or in the talent show. Nope, can't Irish dance or sing or even something silly like tie a cherry stem with my tongue. I AM though GIFTED at reading aloud. No seriously. I excel at read alouds. Reading aloud to the students is my favorite time of the day. Last year I didn't make time for it as often as I should have. This year, I am really making an effort to fit in a few minutes a day. I love it, the kids love it, and it's a great opportunity to expose the kids to grade level text and model fluency. But I digress.
In my attempt to make my fifth graders fall as deeply in love with read alouds as I am, I decided to start the year with a silly read aloud. I chose Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar, one that cracked me up as a 5th grader. My kiddos DIED over it--they laughed constantly and would actually quiet down and listen intently when I started reading!
We finished Sideways yesterday afternoon, and I immediately pulled out book two, Wayside School is Falling Down. Anyways, yesterday afternoon I had a grade-level planning meeting to work on our interventions, so my kids were with a sub (side note: one of my library checked out calculators seems to have disappeared during that time...sweet...), and she read the first few pages of Falling Down aloud. Today, I pulled out the book and asked how they were liking the beginning of it. I was SHOCKED when the kids gave me a lukewarm response! "Eh, it was okay." I gasped, "What, you're not liking it?!?"
Someone volunteered, "Well, the sub read it to us."
Half joking, I responded, "What, she wasn't as good at reading aloud as me??"
"No! She wasn't!!!"
And that's what made my morning: not only have I succeeded in my goal of getting my kiddos to LOVE listening to a read aloud, but they think Wayside School is funnier when I read it. :)
Not that I need constant reaffirmation, but it is nice every once in awhile... ;) I teach for moments like this...
No comments:
Post a Comment