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[CCBC-Net]Harris and Me
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From: Kathy Isaacs <kisaacs>
Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 19:39:32 -0400
Harris and Me has been a standard read aloud in my sixth grade program since a student brought it in 4 years ago. She found it on her own. These students are almost all 11. The book is one of their favorites. They love the repetitive elements -- particularly the whacks every time Harris swears. They laugh uproariously at the gross out parts. They are intrigued and amused by the continuing motif of "dourty peectures." They smile with sympathetic understanding at the protagonist's inability even to speak to the girl of his dreams. For me, one of this year's most enduring memories will be the afternoon they heard about Harris peeing on the electric fence. There were 14 students literally rolling on the floor laughing, the boys protectively clutching themselves at the same time. The 15th, whose English is not up to a read-aloud story, was contentedly measuring desk legs to see how tall the owl he was reading about might really be -- totally oblivious. They had little trouble with the language, although there are things that I explain. Just today, a month after we finished the book, I was reminding them what a "governor" was (in the unfortunate context of telling them that some were lacking one). I reminded them that it was what Harris had removed from the washing machine motor that made his bike go out of control. "Oh yes," one giggled, "and then he lost his bibs and was looking all over for them." That image, and that piece of vocabulary about a style of clothing none of them wear, is firmly embedded in their minds. My students have already read The Winter Room as a class novel. They are fascinated by Paulsen's reuse of material. Interestingly, they find the jumping on the horse Gene Autry style funnier in Winter Room -- where it is not surrounded with other slapstick, and perhaps more smoothly told -- than they do in Harris. I don't think there's anything in the humor that I see that they don't, although some are slower to get the joke than others. The read aloud context helps them see what classmates find funny, and what I find funny, too, of course.
Kathy Isaacs kisaacs at mindspring.com
fairrosa wrote:
Received on Thu 09 May 2002 06:39:32 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 19:39:32 -0400
Harris and Me has been a standard read aloud in my sixth grade program since a student brought it in 4 years ago. She found it on her own. These students are almost all 11. The book is one of their favorites. They love the repetitive elements -- particularly the whacks every time Harris swears. They laugh uproariously at the gross out parts. They are intrigued and amused by the continuing motif of "dourty peectures." They smile with sympathetic understanding at the protagonist's inability even to speak to the girl of his dreams. For me, one of this year's most enduring memories will be the afternoon they heard about Harris peeing on the electric fence. There were 14 students literally rolling on the floor laughing, the boys protectively clutching themselves at the same time. The 15th, whose English is not up to a read-aloud story, was contentedly measuring desk legs to see how tall the owl he was reading about might really be -- totally oblivious. They had little trouble with the language, although there are things that I explain. Just today, a month after we finished the book, I was reminding them what a "governor" was (in the unfortunate context of telling them that some were lacking one). I reminded them that it was what Harris had removed from the washing machine motor that made his bike go out of control. "Oh yes," one giggled, "and then he lost his bibs and was looking all over for them." That image, and that piece of vocabulary about a style of clothing none of them wear, is firmly embedded in their minds. My students have already read The Winter Room as a class novel. They are fascinated by Paulsen's reuse of material. Interestingly, they find the jumping on the horse Gene Autry style funnier in Winter Room -- where it is not surrounded with other slapstick, and perhaps more smoothly told -- than they do in Harris. I don't think there's anything in the humor that I see that they don't, although some are slower to get the joke than others. The read aloud context helps them see what classmates find funny, and what I find funny, too, of course.
Kathy Isaacs kisaacs at mindspring.com
fairrosa wrote:
Received on Thu 09 May 2002 06:39:32 PM CDT
