What can teach tolerance, sympathy, ad- miration for the great and good, worthy ambitions, a sense of human fellowship and world brotherhood better than the reading of inspiring biographies of men and women who have moved the race forward and furnished our best examples of noble cond
This can be especially true for characters who were not necessarily treated kindly throughout history (MLK Jr. is a good example). Even in the face of adversity, they overcame the negativity.
Young and old alike read biography for the inspirational value. The innate desire of the human heart is to achieve greatness, overcome handicaps, and strive nobly.
This could be given to a student that is having hard times in his or her life and they could be given a biography to someone who has overcome hardships to inspire them to persevere.
lly. References to heroes of the past and present naturally lead to their reading more biogr
Kids need heroes to look up to and biographies give them a good insight into the people they look up to the most.
e feels important. Further, self-expression may emerge into some
The child may also find these stories inspiring, especially when they tell of the people's childhoods
Biographies are not yet sufficiently constructed on the comprehension level of the ch
Thankfully, there are more biographies coming out now that are catered to children as young as in second grade.
When the small child asks, "How old are you?" or "How much money have you?" and other personal questions, he is manifesting a normal interest in people.
Another perfect example of teaching a child about something when it's at their peak interest and not forced on them.
The child loved this person, and was confused and hurt by what had happened, so my friend wrote him a story about a fox cub that loved his uncle, a wolf. One day, the wolf hurt him. The fox remembered the love, but he also understood that wolves were dangerous, and had to be avoided. The child went away with the tools to reconcile the irreconcilable.
What a perfect way to explain it to a child. Telling a child that his uncle is simply a bad person and leaving it at that will likely confuse the child even more.
This is why they need to be scared and fantasy is an excellent, "safe" way to do it - going out to find real crocodiles to play with is neither practical nor safe.
I concur. Children without these little imaginations in their head are just destined to become robots.
Fantasy fiction is often pooh-poohed by academics and intellectuals
That is too bad, because there is fear among people that some kid's imagination is less now with video games, electronics, etc. Fantasy books could be a great way to stimulate the imagination without their faces stuck in a screen.
Scientific research shows there are clear positive neural affects to novel reading. For example, Emory University researchers found that students experienced heightened activity in the left temporal lobe of the brain, the area associated with semantics, for days after reading novels
This is an interesting study and very encouraging to parents who may be concerned that their kid's head is "in the clouds".
Many parents are concerned that reading fantasy to their children might lead them to develop overactive imaginations or skewed perceptions of reality
As a parent, I want to make sure my daughter has a vivid imagination, while making sure she can distinguish fact from fiction. Imagination is what gives us so many wonderful childhood memories, and for parents to be worried about imagination can be a bit perplexing. As long as there is a dialogue between parent and child about what is real and what is not, there should be minimal issues.
reinforcing a culture's values
Depending on the area we could teach in, I think adjusting our fables accordingly would help the kids better connect with their culture, and also help the teacher better connect with the kids. Introducing new material would be a good idea too, to give the kids a better view of the different cultures surrounding them.
They claim fables just aren't relevant in today's fast-paced world
I think because our world is so fast paced that children need fables. Fables could be a way to ground kids in important life lessons that can be entertaining as well.
Encouraging expressive engagement in the classroo
This section is extremely helpful. Some articles only point out the research, but gives no indication to teachers on how to implement it in their own classroom.
Finally, what of the profound influence of teachers on expressive engagement? Teachers have a lot to say about what counts as response in their classroom interpretive communities (Fish, 1980) and whether children are allowed or encouraged to speak during read-alouds. Those teachers who encourage this type of response or exhibit it themselves are probably more likely to see it than those who consider such responses too out of control, too subversive, too transgres sive, too viscerally pleasurable
As for speaking during read alouds, whenever I did read alouds with a class, I would always ask questions to the class to get feedback. Just reading to them may have them "space out" a bit more.
teachers as "off-task" or inappropriate.
There could be times where a particularly unruly class can be driven off task by these responses, I have seen it personally. I would imagine it would take a teacher a while to find just the right mixture of having the children interacting with the book in their own way while maintaining the order in their classroom.
they show children making stories their own.
Children taking ownership of the stories is such a great concept. Previously, I would have thought this behavior is disruptive but now it's leading me to believe that this is how the students are interacting with the story given to them.
ake punches at each other. This type of response shows the children in the process of becoming one with the story, to the extent of assuming their stance as fellow characters with equal agency and presence in the story. In a similar way to "talking back," this re sponse represents a curious blurring of the dis tinction between the primary world of reality and the secondary world of the story, a melding o
This is a very interesting take on inserting into the story. Previously, I thought this type of behavior would be considered disruptive, but this approach suggests that the students are learning from this type of interaction with the story.
o understand a story, they may also compare or contrast it to other stories they know; other cul tural products like movies, TV programs, a
I believe teachers also need to seek out these connections to captivate the students a bit more. Getting to know your students not only allows you to make a better connection to them, it allows you to teach them more effectively. This could also be known as "know your audience"
In terms of practice, students need a fluent oral model. We know that there is a difference between language that is written down and language that is spoken.
Having a fluent oral model will possibly make these kids more successful public speakers in the future.
Think a minute about life with no crime. Sounds good, right? What would be the price of a society like that? What would you have to give up to have a life with no crime?"
Asking (older) students questions like this really prepares them for rigors that high school and eventually college will present them with. They will also follow along with the book, keeping their own responses in mind and they will be able to see if their response will change or stay the same.
Clear purpose establishe
This is interesting...perhaps teachers heard that read aloud was important, but had no clear purpose as to how to implement it into their own classrooms.
They asked questions about some of the words and shared stories about the problems they had had with peers in the pas
One of my favorite things to do is to make connections from stories with real life situations, both with students in the classroom and with my daughter at home. It can create more self awareness, as demonstrated with my daughter in "My Mouth is a Volcano"
he eloquently explained the importance of read-alouds but stopped short of providing an in structional mode
While an explicit model may not be necessarily needed, some sort of starting point probably would have been nice. Or perhaps his idea was that teachers should just pick up a book, read and see where it takes them from there.
ead-alouds mod el expressive, enthusiastic reading, transmit the pleasure of reading, and invite listeners to be read ers" (p. 3), and Daisey (1993) r
There is a fourth grade teacher I worked with once who did a read aloud with his class everyday after recess and you could just tell it was the class' favorite part of the day. Normally rowdy boys would actually settle themselves and get lost in the story being told because of the enthusiasm that the teacher showed in his readings.
"He goes to a bar after school? Is this dangerous? Is this true? Is this really where his mother is work- ing
This is a perfect example of the culture divide that this teacher and this student has. What seems almost like child abuse in this teacher's eyes is seen as completely normal in this 5 year old's eyes.
This is for Katie, Christian, Kelsey and Emma