"Oh, Mrs. Eck! You have to keep going!"
These words are music to a reading teacher's ears.
We have been reading whole class novels these past three weeks. One class is reading Grenade by Alan Gratz, and the other five classes are reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham. I read selected chapters through the book study, and I always read aloud the last few chapters.
As I read today about the bomb in Birmingham, you could hear a pin drop. Every set of eyes were either on me or were in their own copy of the book. And when I read about Hideki, a young boy in the Japanese army about to surrender to the Americans, students begged me to continue reading.
Today gave me back some of the hope that has slowly been dwindling this year. The hope that books can capture their attention. That books can stand up to the distractions of the world around them. That even middle schoolers still enjoy being read to.
It may just be one day, but I'll take it.
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Your post gives me hope as well. It really is harder than ever to create and keep readers in a world filled with electronic distractions.
ReplyDeleteYou grapped their attention with the engaging story. We have to find more books that have that effect in the hands of our students. This slice is encouraging.
ReplyDeleteThat hope is tangible in moments like that. On “leap day” I got to read Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson’s The Undefeated with a 6th grade class and felt that hope.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem harder than ever to hook my students on reading. The power of read-aloud cannot be denied!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I love to hear stories of students engaged in a read aloud. Even better when they are older students. This made me smile
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of reading select chapters and always the last. I think if I were a student and my teacher were reading a chapter and I hadn't read my parts to be ready for the story to build and me to know what was going on, I would only have that happen once. From then on, I would do my reading to be up to speed with the book. Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThose are the best words "Please keep reading". I love when that magical hush falls across the classroom during a read-a-loud. There is nothing like it.
ReplyDeleteI miss read alouds and Literature Circles probably the most from my past teacher life. And writing with kids.
ReplyDeleteReading aloud is so important. I love the joy and positivity your post shares about books.
ReplyDeleteSo heartwarming to read. I love read alouds. I'm glad to hear that middle schooler love them tool
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