From: Barbara Tobin <barbarat>
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 18:14:37 -0400

Susan wrote: <I use Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes as a first day of school book for the first day of class.>

I've similarly used Denys Cazet's Never Spit on Your Shoes-- though it's hard to read aloud because of its multiple perspectives and nonlinear narration.

For books that highlight the importance of a good (wise/sensitive) teacher for children who feel different or overlooked, I have successfully used Taro Yashimo's Crow Boy. You could hear a pin drop at the end.

We've sometimes done an emotional GROUP read-aloud of Polacco's Pink and Say, where students sit in small circles with one copy of the book per circle. They take it in turns to read a page aloud, showing the pictures to their group, with each other group following along silently. The first reader passes the book on to the next person in his/her circle, as a reader from the next circle reads the next page. And so on. People have the option to "pass" if they so desire, but only my French speaking students sometimes choose to. By hearing each other read in this way, they are inspired to read with feeling and expression
 we get a multi?ceted story, told through a wonderful variety of accents. It's the sort of book that is sometimes best requiring no verbal response for a while, but later (sometimes next class) I give them free exploration of the illustrations in their groups, then use the sort of discussion frame used by Kay Vandergrift's wonderful
'Visual Interpretive Analysis' approach to study how illustrators communicate with the reader.

One more thing. We've talked on this list before (I think it was this one) about the special pleasure of enhancing a read-aloud through the use of music. A picture book that Linnea and I have found to be especially riveting this way is Pam Munoz Ryan's When Marian Sang. There are verses from some of Anderson's spirituals within the text, and the read-aloud is electric if you can either have someone sing those verses/songs, or play from her CD. There were other books we discussed in a similar vein, but the titles escape me now. Oh, of course, Chris Raschka's jazz trio books are superb when read-aloud to the music of Coltrane, Parker, and Thelonious Monk.

Oh, another 'one more thing'. Besides teachers doing the read aloud, did we already talk about readers theatre as a perfect read aloud technique, one that the students themselves can participate in and grow from? I've had success with a number of adapted picture books and novel excerpts, especially verse novels. I sometimes use Mem Fox's Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge on the first day for a getting to know you exercise, where either I read the picture book to them (in my best Aussie accent), or have them do a readers theatre version (how embarrassing for some of them on day one, the non?ucation majors!!), then share five of my own 'memory objects' (something from long ago, something that makes me laugh, something that makes me cry, something precious as gold, something warm). Next class they bring along memory objects of their own to share in their first literature circle. In this way, if this group of mostly strangers get to know a little bit about each other first, they feel more at ease discussing books with their new friends.

Sorry, got a bit away from read alouds... but they are an integral part of my teaching and hard to unwrap from the rest of the lesson.


Barbara Tobin barbtobin at optonline.net
Received on Wed 25 Aug 2004 05:14:37 PM CDT