With our new "Big Book" shelf put in, the students use pointers, big glasses, or post-its to interact with or respond to their reading. Here one of the students was marking up the book Stellaluna with questions he had about some interesting words. He was so interested that he asked if he could look them up in the dictionary during recess! What dedication!
By now, we have learned MANY word families (-ight, -ell, -ake, etc.). I pinned a particular word family to everyone's back and let them have at it with coming up with as many words as they could. I was so impressed with what they discovered together!
During our writing workshop, this student is choosing to write a non-fiction piece. He found his own resources from our classroom library, came up with great questions in his brainstorming web, and did not need my help for any of it! Is it possible to feel bored during the day when your kids are so independent they don't even realize you are there? Maybe this is a good thing...I definitely don't miss the beginning when I wished I was cloned with the demands of all my dependent learners.
Sometimes the connections that my students make when they are reading just crack me up. This student feels that he made a valid "text-to-text" connection because the fox's teeth in the book The Mitten were sharp like the shark teeth in his book Hungry Hungry Sharks. While it IS a connection, this shows we need to work on finding more meaningful ones...
Well...I feel encouraged already. Just by posting about it has reminded me of how far my students have come. Thank you Father for allowing me to see the joys of this year. YOU alone have accomplished quite a work in these students. Thank you for letting me witness your handiwork.
