Happy Thursday, and a good morning to all! Welcome to parents and kids from 4St who are reading this post. It is such a pleasure to have a chance to think and talk about one of the most important – and beloved – skills we try to build in school: reading! It is important to learn how to think while we read, and this is a life-long goal for any reader to develop. This morning, I invite students and parents alike to post a comment below about what reading means to them. What is reading good for? Why do we read? You can also just post a comment about what you are reading now, or a thought about a favorite reading experience you've had.
At the start of the year, the children will probably remember that we had a discussion about this as we learned about working together in Reading Workshop. Many students said that we read simply because it is fun. Others noted that it can build vocabulary, is a way to learn, and can help us become better writers.
It will be interesting to hear if there are any new ideas, or if some of the same ones come up in today's comments. Keep in mind that new comments will not post right away, but we look forward to reading through your ideas from today and putting them up on this page for all to read very soon. So, share your ideas about reading below by clicking on the "comment" link below. Thanks for reading!
I am very excited to be coming back to a book I really enjoyed the first time I read it: "You, Them, and the Others" by E. G. Frontera. This book stands out to me for the way it grabs your attention with the 2nd person narrative point of view. It has these characters that are bizarre, powerful, and a bit intimidating. Manus is blessed (or cursed?) with big hands, and Bucca has a mouth that is immense, as well as an appetite and voice to go with it. We (the main character?) are hiding in a closet amongst armor and weapons as this book begins, and we are seeing each character as they come into our bedroom, which is covered in sand and smells of the sea. It really is a book I am glad to share with the class! Oh, and I forgot to mention - there is a version of the text in Spanish that we have in the room, also. It is cool to try out the Spanish we're learning by trying to read some of this story in that language.