I had a wonderful experience this week meeting with classes to share with them Boy Soup by Loris Lesynski. It was part of The Canadian Children's Book Centre and TD book give away for grade 1 students. Apparently, this book give away has been going on for a few years now, and our grade 1 students receive a book from them every year. However, I wanted to take a different approach to the book give away this year and really sell the idea of reading cool books with the grade 1s.
In doing this, I decided to visit each class that had grade 1 students, share the book with them, talk about how my daughter received this very book at school, how it has blessed our family because we read it regularly before bed (among other stories), and then read the book to/with them. I am happy to report that this process was a success and the students seemed to really enjoy the experience, and were especially excited about receiving a book that they can keep and take home with them.
As I visited the different classes across the division, I was pleased to see the level of comfort that our students have with read alouds. This is evidence to me that their teachers are doing a great job in reading to them on a regular basis. I was even impressed by a couple of classes where the students naturally, and in unison might I add, echoed my reading as I shared the story with them. This was most amusing for me because the students would even emphasize words and phrases in the story just as I would as I read it to them.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this experience with you because I believe that we really need to be in the business of promoting reading and writing to our students. We also need to model this to our students. They need to see us read and write and be and example of how this is part of who we are on a daily basis. Whether we like it or not, we are examples to them. They watch us and emulate us. And even if they think we suck, deep down inside they see who we really are and that will influence who they become one day. I am who I am, in part, because of the teachers that I had over the years. I love reading and writing because a few of them did. It has shaped who I am now as a person and a teacher, and I would hope that we all are the kinds of teachers that are having that kind of an effect on our students.
Good luck, and happy reading, writing, and teaching :D
Cheers,
Ryan
In doing this, I decided to visit each class that had grade 1 students, share the book with them, talk about how my daughter received this very book at school, how it has blessed our family because we read it regularly before bed (among other stories), and then read the book to/with them. I am happy to report that this process was a success and the students seemed to really enjoy the experience, and were especially excited about receiving a book that they can keep and take home with them.
As I visited the different classes across the division, I was pleased to see the level of comfort that our students have with read alouds. This is evidence to me that their teachers are doing a great job in reading to them on a regular basis. I was even impressed by a couple of classes where the students naturally, and in unison might I add, echoed my reading as I shared the story with them. This was most amusing for me because the students would even emphasize words and phrases in the story just as I would as I read it to them.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this experience with you because I believe that we really need to be in the business of promoting reading and writing to our students. We also need to model this to our students. They need to see us read and write and be and example of how this is part of who we are on a daily basis. Whether we like it or not, we are examples to them. They watch us and emulate us. And even if they think we suck, deep down inside they see who we really are and that will influence who they become one day. I am who I am, in part, because of the teachers that I had over the years. I love reading and writing because a few of them did. It has shaped who I am now as a person and a teacher, and I would hope that we all are the kinds of teachers that are having that kind of an effect on our students.
Good luck, and happy reading, writing, and teaching :D
Cheers,
Ryan