From: BEHNKEC at vms.csd.mu.edu <BEHNKEC>
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 15:13:39 -0600 (CST)

Hi! I'm Chris Behnke, Assist. Prof at Marquette University, School of Education. I teach the sequence of literacy courses for elementary teacher preparation.

Although many of you have mentioned Van Allsburg's books, I haven't seen one of my favorite titles of his for older readers, "The Wretched Stone." Besides his very fabulous art work the kids really have a great discussion on the application to their lives.

Two favorite wordless books for older readers are "The Silver Pony" by Lynn Ward and Molly Bang's "Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher". Since M.B.'s books were a CCBC topic not long ago, I'll only comment on Silver Pony. First of all the sheer length aims it more for older than younger folks. Plus the fantasy and abstract nature certainly lend themselves to the type of discussions that older elementary (and even beyond) students can handle. I observed a great lesson where a teacher silently showed the book page by page, then sent students off in discussion groups to hash out what they had
"read." The insight of the 7th and 8th grade students was impressive!
Received on Fri 14 Nov 1997 03:13:39 PM CST