First Post of the Day
Still no time to write!
Also originally posted in Teachinmama, my other journal/blog, Jerrick returns in this post as a 4th grader.
Tom Sawyer Proves Its Worth, originally published January 17, 2013
Last August, as part of the state's new push to get kids reading better, I was given a shipment of several boxes of books for my class, most of which were DRIVEL. (The irony!) First I cried, and then I got mad at being told I would have to read those instead of the children's classics my kids love and do so much with.
Fortunately, I have a wise principal who was fully aware of what my students did with those classics. When I came to her with my frustrations about the new books, I used Tom Sawyer as an example of what we were reading, and how those other books couldn't come close in vocabulary, plot, character development, etc. to it and the other classics I used. She told me to go ahead and continue on with them and whisked those other boxes of books away the very next day.
Today, Jerrick came up to me with a huge smile on his face and Tom Sawyer in his hands. "Mrs. I!" he cried. "I am at the place where Tom is attending his own funeral. This book is so funny - I can't wait to read the rest of this chapter." And he went back to his desk and buried his nose in that book.
Jerrick arrived a year ago as a 4th grader who had no love of reading. He got started reading classics, became hooked, and now he's reading some of the best of the best.
I highly doubt he would be reading high level books such as Tom Sawyer and others had he had to endure those other books that were originally intended for our class. Thank goodness for my principal's wisdom!
Fortunately, I have a wise principal who was fully aware of what my students did with those classics. When I came to her with my frustrations about the new books, I used Tom Sawyer as an example of what we were reading, and how those other books couldn't come close in vocabulary, plot, character development, etc. to it and the other classics I used. She told me to go ahead and continue on with them and whisked those other boxes of books away the very next day.
Today, Jerrick came up to me with a huge smile on his face and Tom Sawyer in his hands. "Mrs. I!" he cried. "I am at the place where Tom is attending his own funeral. This book is so funny - I can't wait to read the rest of this chapter." And he went back to his desk and buried his nose in that book.
Jerrick arrived a year ago as a 4th grader who had no love of reading. He got started reading classics, became hooked, and now he's reading some of the best of the best.
I highly doubt he would be reading high level books such as Tom Sawyer and others had he had to endure those other books that were originally intended for our class. Thank goodness for my principal's wisdom!
And how nice to have received his most recent message telling me he still loved Classics!
This is so wonderful. A lifetime of reading has made me who I am, and to see the miracle perpetuated is the nicest thing! For the record, I never thought Tom Sawyer was "high level." I just knew what I liked and could go back to many times; but he was on that list.
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