From: Sue Warner <Susan>
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 13:47:31 -0400

I teach Literature for the Young Child at Western Michigan University and, while we read aloud a lot of picture books to each other over the course of the semester, one of the highlights of each class (3 1/2 hours, once a week) seems to be the chapter that I read aloud just before we leave. For the past few semesters I've been reading Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. Although their faces show disbelief on the first night when I tell the students what I'm going to do, by the end of the second night they're either all hooked or are at least polite about keeping the eye-rolls hidden. The room is absolultely silent! No papers shuffle, no backpacks are packed, no whispers are heard . . . just the sighs and gasps and laughs that every good read-aloud generates. We are able to read the entire book this way. On their end-of-semester evaluations of the class, many of the students comment about how much they loved listening to "their" book over the course of the semester. The story itself is, of course, so very fine; but the listening experience is one that they enjoy and appreciate and (I hope) take with them into their future classrooms and families.

Susan K.S. Warner

Head of Youth and Branch Services Kalamazoo Public Library 315 S. Rose Street Kalamazoo, MI 49007

(269)553x76 susan at kpl.gov
Received on Tue 24 Aug 2004 12:47:31 PM CDT