I had struggled with finding the right book to read, wanting my debut with these students to be memorable - wanting to make a difference even just in my little snapshot of 15 minutes. My Dyad CT suggested "Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg & Three Cups of Tea." It is the story of Greg Mortenson's trip to Korphe, Pakistan where he was so touched by the generosity of the people that he returned a year later to help this small village build a school.
I was astounded at the level of depth the students brought to the discussion! They made the link between the story characters' celebration of their new school to their own costume parade and party the next day. There was even one student who started a cheer for pencils - demonstrating an understanding that we should be grateful, even for these small things we take for granted every day.
So the take aways for me are several. First, I need to be doing more of this - actually acting like a teacher - because it helps me remember why I want to teach and it's good practice. Second, kids are amazing! - We can so easily underestimate them and they really can understand big ideas like the kinship of humanity if we give them the opportunity early and often.
Congrats on the successful read-aloud! Was there anything you wish you had done differently during your 15 minutes of fame? One thing I wish I'd done was read with more enthusiasm!
ReplyDeleteThe students were eating lunch at their desks, which made the timing convenient, but I think they would have been able to see, hear, and discuss better on the carpet. There's just something about sitting on the floor and listening to a story with nothing else to compete for your attention that I think is really powerful. But I almost waited for a "better" time to read it and I'm glad I went ahead - I learned that students are pretty amazing and they can learn important things in very small windows of time if we give them the opportunity.
DeleteSounds like you did great.
ReplyDeleteI like what you say here about "acting like a teacher". I think of teachers acting on the important work of coming to know a challenging child really well, of working with small groups of kids to build some skill that might have gotten missed the first time, of working really hard on a set of work from the class to really hone in on where the whole wonderful class is on learning the concepts you're teaching -- and then, of course, standing up in front with 27 pairs of eyes on you. They're all part of being a teacher and all so important to you reaching each child when you are doing the whole class teaching. Looking forward to hearing more of your successes!
This is a class of 27 students, so making sure they each had an opportunity to contribute to the discussion was really important in my planning. I chose to use a turn-and-talk strategy so the students could share with their neighbor and then include a few of their comments in a whole class discussion. Does anyone have any other ideas for including 27 voices in a discussion?
DeleteI've read "Three Cups of Tea" and its a great book. There was some controversy about the author's authenticity last year, but the message is great nonetheless. I hadn't heard about "Listen to the Wind" but I'll definitely check it out. I'm glad there's a kid friendly version of the story, since the message of providing all kids with access to education is definitely something the students can appreciate. I love the idea of using stories that kids can relate to in order to teach about bigger ideas such as inequality, prejudice, oppression, etc. I'm so glad that your first experience was so positive and powerful! Hold on to that feeling as I hear the road gets pretty bumpy from here on out :)
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