A Round of Applause...

Today I read Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco to the class. I was modeling for them how to make text-self connections. I told them how I related to the part where she was treated poorly by other kids at school and how the tears burned in her eyes. I referred to a time when I was in 6th grade and was taking a note from my teacher to a 7th grade teacher. As soon as I opened her door, a boy in her class, referring to me, goes, "UGH!" That one utterance from some boy I don't even know hurt my feelings so badly that day- I felt so low- ugly, dumb, etc. (By the way, if your child tells you that I teared up during this part, I'm neither denying nor confirming this ;) We had a little "teachable moment" about how I care so much about this class and how it hurts me so badly to hear them say ugly things to each other.

THEN, as I finished reading the book and closed the back cover, the sweetest thing happened...the whole class spontaneously broke out in applause! It truly is a touching book, and it was so heart-warming to see how it impacted this class. One student even exclaimed, "that was SUCH a GOOD book!" They didn't even notice that we were 5 minutes late to recess because we all were caught up in the story (usually I have 3 or 4 reminders that recess starts in a few minutes ;)

I am so proud of this wonderful class. Getting lost in a good story is what reading is about. As readers, when we develop a connection with the characters and with the story, it becomes not just pages with words, but a wonderful journey we can all go on together. Thank you for taking me on that journey today!

"Honey is sweet, and so is knowledge, but knowledge is like the bee that made that sweet honey, you have to chase it through the pages of a book!”

-Thank You, Mr. Falker
by Patricia Polacco