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[CCBC-Net] Read Alouds
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From: LAURIE DRAUS <draus>
Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:50:41 -0600
The not-so-classic stuff I read as a kid--including comic books--would fill an ark, but I read *constantly*. I greatly enjoyed Charlotte's Web, Alice, Caddie Woodlawn, Robin Hood, and some others when I stumbled onto them or picked them on my own, but I developed a severe cringe reflex when people would say, "Here, you're such a good reader, try Treasure Island or Black Beauty..."
I loved reading things I liked, good or "bad", because it was so much fun and world-expanding. And the more I read, fine literature or formula, the more of a knowledge and vocabulary base I built.
There's a lot more "good stuff" nowadays for children and young adults that is both "good" and "fun", but still I think we sometimes underestimate and undervalue the gut-level connection to the idea that reading is a cool thing that is engendered by kids relishing reading "junk" or "fun stuff" that will never be on a list of award winners.
I work in a K-12 school, and the kids who can't get enough of Pokemon comics, Goosebumps, TV tie-ins, Nancy Drew, etc., in elementary usually seem to turn out to be the ones I don't have to worry about remaining readers when they get older, because they've unlocked the secret of how reading can bring glorious other worlds that you love right to your mind's doorstep. When they are ready for something more meaty, the reading-lovers don't usually have much trouble finding it.
Lauri S. Cahoon-Draus K-12 Library Media Specialist Suring School Libraries draus at suring.k12.wi.us
**suring
"It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.
>>> James Elliott <libraryjim at embarqmail.com> 2/29/2008 1:46 pm >>>
You are right, as library material they are next to comic books for value (they are to the classics what McDonalds is to gourmet food), but for reading aloud at home -- as good as or better than many other choices.
Jim Elliott
----- Original Message ----- From: Clark Underbakke <cunderbakke at hoover.k12.al.us> To: edie ching <edie.ching at verizon.net>, Ross and Ellen Smith <rsmith1541 at cogeco.ca>, CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Sent: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:40:43 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Read Alouds
A dear friend of mine and I used to scoff at "illustrated classics"...you know...the books you see knee deep on large counters in HUGE bookstores. They are usually "value priced". We always scoffed and wondered who would ever read the "watered down" version.
That thinking changed when my friend found herself the mother of two children and I found myself the godfather of them! I'll never forget the phone call exclaiming, "You will NEVER guess what garbage Phillip (her husband) chose to begin reading to Claire! AN ILLUSTRATED CLASSIC!" my friend bemoaned. What followed was a near hour discussion of how their father should have known better and how he should be able to pick out better literature to read to his daughter(s).
Years and years later...these two not-so-little-anymore girls have a wider knowledge base of classic literature than their mother or godfather do! THEY LOVED listening to them being read aloud by their dear, dear father...who wasn't so wrong after all.
Regards, Clark Underbakke, Ph.D. 2nd grade teacher (proud godfather) Trace Crossings Elementary Hoover, AL
-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu [mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of edie.ching at verizon.net Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 12:28 PM To: Ross and Ellen Smith; CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Read Alouds
In my early days on the job as a librarian, I discoverd that Miracle on 34th Street was really a book first and decided to read it aloud at the dinner table to my family (one non reading husband, 3 teen-age children) during the month of December. They moaned and groaned and decided I was taking my job much too seriously. But one night, when I decided to just give up and not bore them any longer, they became incensed that I wasn't going to "finish the story" and so I did. I think you can try reading aloud at any time..it is a wonderful bonding experience and a very personal one. And it also a great way to "get through" a difficult reading assignment when your children are older. I had a friend who read her children Shakespeare all through high school and when they came home from college on breaks. Edie Ching St Albans School
Ross Smith Niagara Falls
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Edith Ching Washington Children's Book Guild President Librarian, St. Albans School
If she...had known how long he first haf-inch beginning to let go would take--and how long her noticing and renouncing owning and her turning her habits, and beginning the slimmest self-mastery whose end was nowhere in sight--would she have begun?
Annie Dillard
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Fri 29 Feb 2008 02:50:41 PM CST
Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:50:41 -0600
The not-so-classic stuff I read as a kid--including comic books--would fill an ark, but I read *constantly*. I greatly enjoyed Charlotte's Web, Alice, Caddie Woodlawn, Robin Hood, and some others when I stumbled onto them or picked them on my own, but I developed a severe cringe reflex when people would say, "Here, you're such a good reader, try Treasure Island or Black Beauty..."
I loved reading things I liked, good or "bad", because it was so much fun and world-expanding. And the more I read, fine literature or formula, the more of a knowledge and vocabulary base I built.
There's a lot more "good stuff" nowadays for children and young adults that is both "good" and "fun", but still I think we sometimes underestimate and undervalue the gut-level connection to the idea that reading is a cool thing that is engendered by kids relishing reading "junk" or "fun stuff" that will never be on a list of award winners.
I work in a K-12 school, and the kids who can't get enough of Pokemon comics, Goosebumps, TV tie-ins, Nancy Drew, etc., in elementary usually seem to turn out to be the ones I don't have to worry about remaining readers when they get older, because they've unlocked the secret of how reading can bring glorious other worlds that you love right to your mind's doorstep. When they are ready for something more meaty, the reading-lovers don't usually have much trouble finding it.
Lauri S. Cahoon-Draus K-12 Library Media Specialist Suring School Libraries draus at suring.k12.wi.us
**suring
"It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.
>>> James Elliott <libraryjim at embarqmail.com> 2/29/2008 1:46 pm >>>
You are right, as library material they are next to comic books for value (they are to the classics what McDonalds is to gourmet food), but for reading aloud at home -- as good as or better than many other choices.
Jim Elliott
----- Original Message ----- From: Clark Underbakke <cunderbakke at hoover.k12.al.us> To: edie ching <edie.ching at verizon.net>, Ross and Ellen Smith <rsmith1541 at cogeco.ca>, CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Sent: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:40:43 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Read Alouds
A dear friend of mine and I used to scoff at "illustrated classics"...you know...the books you see knee deep on large counters in HUGE bookstores. They are usually "value priced". We always scoffed and wondered who would ever read the "watered down" version.
That thinking changed when my friend found herself the mother of two children and I found myself the godfather of them! I'll never forget the phone call exclaiming, "You will NEVER guess what garbage Phillip (her husband) chose to begin reading to Claire! AN ILLUSTRATED CLASSIC!" my friend bemoaned. What followed was a near hour discussion of how their father should have known better and how he should be able to pick out better literature to read to his daughter(s).
Years and years later...these two not-so-little-anymore girls have a wider knowledge base of classic literature than their mother or godfather do! THEY LOVED listening to them being read aloud by their dear, dear father...who wasn't so wrong after all.
Regards, Clark Underbakke, Ph.D. 2nd grade teacher (proud godfather) Trace Crossings Elementary Hoover, AL
-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu [mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of edie.ching at verizon.net Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 12:28 PM To: Ross and Ellen Smith; CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Read Alouds
In my early days on the job as a librarian, I discoverd that Miracle on 34th Street was really a book first and decided to read it aloud at the dinner table to my family (one non reading husband, 3 teen-age children) during the month of December. They moaned and groaned and decided I was taking my job much too seriously. But one night, when I decided to just give up and not bore them any longer, they became incensed that I wasn't going to "finish the story" and so I did. I think you can try reading aloud at any time..it is a wonderful bonding experience and a very personal one. And it also a great way to "get through" a difficult reading assignment when your children are older. I had a friend who read her children Shakespeare all through high school and when they came home from college on breaks. Edie Ching St Albans School
Ross Smith Niagara Falls
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Edith Ching Washington Children's Book Guild President Librarian, St. Albans School
If she...had known how long he first haf-inch beginning to let go would take--and how long her noticing and renouncing owning and her turning her habits, and beginning the slimmest self-mastery whose end was nowhere in sight--would she have begun?
Annie Dillard
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Fri 29 Feb 2008 02:50:41 PM CST
