This year, as a turn from other years, I teach strictly math. However, my favorite thing to teach my fab fourth graders is (don't tell anyone!) reading. There is something to be said about opening the doors to character elements, plot, and foreshadowing that does my heart good. In the world of numbers that I currently live, I miss the written word like, as so many great ballads express, the desserts miss the rain. So, in an attempt to dissuade my mathematical melancholy, I have started to read several of the Sunshine State Readers to the classes I teach for the last few minutes of each class.
Today, I offered some of my too-cool-for-school fourth graders the opportunity to work on a computer program for math (http://www.xtramath.org/ – check it out, it’s cool) or they could continue listening to me read from the book Dragon’s Egg. I asked about six students if they wanted to go back and try it out (which they are usually BEGGING me to) before I got to a student who told me “yes”. I am not saying that I am the best, most theatrical reader (well, all of those years of drama classes and love of British programming have provided me with a reasonable ability to emphasize what I read and to do so in a variety of accents…), but I was feeling pretty good about keeping a room full of rowdy ten-year-olds at bay. When I reached the end of the chapter, I gave a pregnant pause between the last few words, looked purposefully into my students’ eyes, and slowly, deliberately closed the book and placed it on my table. You could have heard a pin drop!
Then the eruption began!
“Plleeeeeaaaassssseeeeeeee, read some more!” they wailed!
Ahhhhh! Triumph! I am awesome!
Then, one student asked something more.
“What happens next?”
Then, it hit me. Yeah, I read with feeling and enthusiasm, but what really got their attention was the story. A story about a girl in a tough situation making tough choices. A story about a kid their age doing spectacular things. That is was makes reading worth it. Not the acting, but the words.
After today’s experience, I began thinking about my research project. I am curious to know if my kids would want to hear the same story if it were done via audio book/eBook/etc and have the same reactions. Is it the human element or the story that makes the difference? Can technology substitute me (and my formidable skills)?
There is you reading the story, then there could be you recording the story and having the students listen as a class (all at same speed), there there could be the idea of them using their own ipods (or equivilant), listening to the story, but the device actually decreasing distractions.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dr. Cavanaugh. I like the suggestion of recording and monitoring responses. I would love to compare those results with those of using a device, however, I am not entirely sure if all of my students have iPods/mp3s/etc. (unfortunately).
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for the Kindle tutorial. I spent most of last night transferring all kinds of documents to my Kindle via email :).