We read the last two chapters of Where the Red Fern Grows today and I got the reaction I was looking for... they cried their eyes out!
In our school, we have so many incentives for kids to read lots of books. The problem with this is that the students are learning to read for prizes and recognition and not for the joy of it. The other problem is that they don't even know that there is joy in reading. It's not modeled for them at home and at school it is all about learning bigger words. So my goal this year has been to get my students to connect to a book on an emotional level. Mission accomplished!!
I have to be one of the happiest teachers in the world right now. I had a student clutching the book to her chest because she didn't want to let it go, another who was still crying on her way down to lunch, and when one girl asked if she could keep the copy she had been reading (and I explained that I couldn't give them away) a boy offered to copy the story by hand so he could take it home.
I received these books as a donation from www.donorschoose.org, a wonderful organization that allows donors to choose which projects they'd like to fund. The title of my proposal was, "Enough to make the cry". I wasn't sure if they actually would cry or not -- you know inner city kids connecting to a hillbilly -- but the unconditional love of a good dog is a universal message.
6 comments:
it made me cry as well. and was one of the many books that taught me about the joy of reading. kudos! and im checking out the donors choose website. :)
Oooh, please do and tell others about it too. It is such a great cause.
For all those people who want to help out a teacher, but don't have the time to volunteer, this is the next best thing.
It is a great book, isn't it?
BTW, most of them weren't as impressed with the movie as they were with the book! Another mission accomplished -- teaching them that a movie can NEVER replace a book.
Yippee, Gloria!!! Kendra and a few others were still talking about it today. :)
And I second the motion to get all your readers to check out donorschoose.org. Some of us at school have been incredibly blessed with the generosity of people we've never met but who have anonymously donated to our projects.
Just an FYI ... Gloria has had more projects funded than anyone else at our school!!!!
Good job, Mrs. Moya. You have just bettered the world.
Uh, I still cry thinking of that darn book. Doesn't everybody else?
I also remember Mrs. Benefiel reading to us everyday before the end of the school day. She would do that, I think, to get us entranced into something other than the "end of the day" bell. The book was Boxcar Children and I keep telling myself I need to get it and reread it now.
Thanks Kurran and Talia -- it feels good.
Post a Comment