Sophie and Sadie's Scholarly Site

After blogging about My Back To School Best , I decided that I need to upgrade my frog. I found this Kermit doll along with this book at Amazon along with several other Muppet characters. For a little frog, Kermit has a lot of dreams, or at  least he did back in the original Muppet Movie. Kermit ( actually this is Jim Henson singing the words of Paul Williams) said it best. Have a listen just in case you forgot:

The Muppet Movie

This has always been a song  that makes me think of  why it’s okay to be called a dreamer:

Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that called the young sailors.
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it.
It's something that I'm supposed to be.

So I am going to encourage my kids this year to be dreamers. Kermit will be our mascot of sorts. He will represent what we want to take hold of ( as in More Than Anything Else).  He will be an example of someone small who has big dreams that call his name, and he will be our model of someone who explores the world around him and beyond to find that dream.

Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
and rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Thanks, Kermit for reminding me that it’s okay to dream.

Last year was the first year I tried this read aloud and comprehension activity, but it will now be a tradition. It really does set the tone for what kind of  deep thinking you are aiming for in a literacy-based classroom.

One of my first read alouds was an old favorite of mine, More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby. I have read this book for years, but last year was when I “got it”!

PLEASE NOTE: In case, you’ve never read the book, I will only refer to the main character as “the boy”. If you want to know why, you may look at the end of this blog.

During the first week, I read the book,  but what was different this year was that I thought of some lessons I wanted to use after reading Angela Bunyi’s blog at Scholastic on Using Symbolism To Deepen Comprehension and the work of Kelly Gallagher. Skeptics be prepared to be amazed.

I read the book aloud with my fourth grade students. Usually we would  just follow up with some writing response to the read aloud, about our goals-blah, blah, blah, but not this time! I went back to the text, and we looked again at the boy in the story catching a frog and reread and discussed using the pictures and the text the boy playing with the frog. I reread those pages, and we talked about how the frog was slippery, wet, and always on the move,  and the boy had to  carefully hold onto this little animal that he wanted.

I asked the children what was the boy hanging onto and wrote that on a t-chart under  the word tangible  ( which we had already talked about). I asked them what the  boy wanted “more than anything else,” and  most easily  my class said “to learn to read, ’” and so they needed a little  more prompting from me . I showed them the man in the book who can read, and the children then understood it was more than just being able to read, the boy wanted to be like the man- not just a reader but an educator! It was being educated that this boy wanted, and he wanted to  share and pass this education on to others! That was his dream or goal. I wrote  the words dreams/ goals under intangible.

I just so happen to have a stuffed animal- a frog in my classroom. I told them that  I was putting the frog where we could see it to remind us of how the boy in the book wanted his education and also to be a teacher, and he had to hold onto those dreams or goals despite the rather bleak situation he was in at the moment. It may be that you can think of a tangible object that can be a class mascot or symbol for your students as well ( a bird, a seed, a book, a rock).

The next several days we read some other books that had a similar theme. Here are some other  children’s book that follow that idea of having a dream or goal for both children and teachers:

The one Angela Bunyi uses in her lesson is:

How great would this book be to get kids thinking deeply and setting goals for themselves?

The funny thing is once you use this reading strategy with your classes, you will never look at books the same. I dare you to reread the book, Everybody Needs A Rock, and see what I mean.

If you want more ideas on using books to have students think deeply, I recommend that you take a look at  Kelly Gallagher. If you are a teacher of third grade or higher, you can adapt his ideas to your lessons. Don’t let the idea that he has high school in his books intimidate you. You can adjust many of his ideas for younger readers.

His book Deeper Reading is a great resource for reading teachers who teach intermediate, middle and high school students.

Note: The boy in the fictional  story More Than Anything Else is educator Booker T. Washington!

My friend Meredith Landis posted this on her Facebook page:

Question of the Week: Picture books to teach characterization protagonists, antagonists, and changing characters.... Who has ideas?

My vote: An author study of one of my favorites: Eve Bunting!

I chose three of her many, many books with characters that change in some way with themes that older elementary students can dig deeper into.

Which picture books would you suggest?

I love reading, and of course, I love my dogs. I have known some kind, patient old souls who are of the four-legged variety, but the first and best example would be  our  beloved old Max,  my Daddy’s German Shorthaired Pointer, who let so many little children ride him, rough-house, and play with him. When Max was being “loved on,” his  big brown eyes would shine so brightly and that little nub of a tail would wag like it was on by a motor.  He was the most patient, sweet-natured, and kind dog  I’ve ever seen -hands down.

I thought of our old Max when I saw that  therapy dogs were being used to help kids read. I can see Max doing something like this. Max would have been a natural!

Here are several ways that dogs are being used in libraries across the country to help children in learning to read beginning with a story from ABC News.

Good Morning America

Therapy dogs are used in the READ program in Salt Lake City.

The READ Program

And in New York, both the dogs and the kids in this library share something in common: They both live in shelters.

CBS News

You can read more about a similar program using dogs to promote literacy at TALES FOR PAWS.

And here are some great books to read aloud to your own dog. I am sure our old Max would approve.

Get a tissue for this one by one of my favorite authors, Cynthia Rylant.

TEACHING WITH INTENTION by Debbie Miller. This is just the kind of book I need to read this summer!

"I believe that classroom environments are most effective when they are literate and purposeful, organized and accessible, and most of all, authentic."

Debbie Miller,
Teaching With Intention

As you think about what you want  to go on inside your classroom, you may want to check  out Reading With Meaning which is definitely one of my  teaching “anchor texts” for teaching reading comprehension. My  hard copy is now about ten years old, and I have a backup copy on my Kindle.

• What do people see when  they come into my room?
• Is what I value about learning evident?
• Does what I have displayed reflect my own beliefs about learning?

So as I am preparing for my new school year, I need to be careful, selective, and thoughtful  not only in how the room looks ( and Lord knows, we teachers LOVE to plan  and decorate our rooms) but what goes on when my class arrives MUST BE DONE WITH INTENTION.