Thursday, August 23, 2012

Inspiring new kinds of thieves!

One thing I always try to do is to get sooooo excited about reading in my class that it's almost like I'm  a kid at the entrance of Disney Land! Or Sophia Grace meeting Nicki Minaj for the first time!

Part of the excitement is reading aloud to them the way my elementary teachers used to read to me...using VOICES!! (Yes, I remember Ms. Manuel and Ms. Smith!! And even my college professor Janet Juhlin reading Chrysanthemum!)

Okay...Do you see all the exclamation points??!?!?! It's because I actually want to SQUEAL in excitement when I talk to kids about reading! My hope is that it transmits to my students.

Last year, the last read aloud I chose was Roald Dahl's - The BFG. It is such a fun book!! The only problem is that time ran out and we didn't finish reading it. We had a few chapters left to read. What I should have done was skip some chapters and read the last one to give them some closure. I didn't give it to them, so they sought their own.

I didn't notice one bit, until I set up my classroom library this week, that more than HALF! of my class set of the BFG is missing!

Do you see what I mean? I inspired these kids to STEAL for the finish!

I'm not upset by it. Perhaps I failed on the character department...but if they took these books, I really, REALLY hope they actually read THE BFG!!