Hello and Welcome to our Blog!
We will be using this blog to engage in conversations about our pre-institute reading of Regie Routman's Teaching Essentials. As you read each chapter, please post your thoughts and reflections here. Thanks! Becky and Christy
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Reading Aloud: Filling the Room with the Sound of Wondrous Words
Respond to the excerpt from Wondrous Words by Katie Wood Ray here.
Loved this article!! Ray brought back memories for me of my second grade teacher, Mrs. Trueblood, who read Charlotte's Web with such conviction, that we were mezmorized and transported to that farm. When it was over, I wept in our cozy circle, and asked, "It's not over is it?" She later read us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we were delighted! I will never forget her! Later, when I was a sixth grader in a new school, far away, Mrs. Weston read Island of the Blue Dolphin. And as Ray remarks, we DID become a community, a family. I felt a part of this group, because we shared this common world and language with eachother and with our teacher. I cannot tell you who my math, or science teacher was, but I can never forget these women! When I was in college, my friend convinced me I needed to hear a woman named Maya Angelou, who was reading her poetry and novel excerpts to students in the USC Russell House. I did not know her, but I agreed to go. I left that experience a life-long fan! She masterfully used her voice, as one plays a beautiful instrument. It was awesome! What power! What language!! I think I have always told my students to read their writing aloud, and to listen to it like one might listen to a poem or a song. That is the way I write, myself, and it helps me to hear how I can improve it for my reader. More than once I have heard a student say to another, "Hmmmm. That just doesn't sound right." Great article!!
Being a teacher of three-year-olds with developmental delays, it is difficult for me to even conceive of doing guiding reading groups or writing workshop with my students. However, I do read aloud to my class every day and have seen the great things that it does for my students as I try to begin making a path for them to become readers and writers as they grow up. We use a language-based, literacy-enriched program called Read it Once, Read it Twice, Read it Once Again which was developed by Rae Schafer. I focus on one book per month (or as long as I can stand it!!) and read it every day. I plan activities based on the story which include different concepts such as vocabulary development, sequencing story events, rhyming words, etc. The majority of my students have language delays and most of them come to me with little to no verbal communication. When I discuss with the parents, specific IEP goals such as sit and attend to a book for 10 minutes and point to named pictures in a book, they tend to laugh and wish me luck because their child will never do that! I am proud to say that I prove them wrong because my sweet little babies will sit and listen to Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything. They even join in on the repeating lines and are able to finish some of the phrases when I leave them off. I know what a powerful tool, reading aloud is and have always done a lot of it in my classroom, no matter what grade I am teaching.
I had thought of what I wanted to post to this article, and first posted through my phone which didn't work bc my phone is tied to a google account I didn't know I had. So...now...about 45 minutes later I have it figured out, but have lost my thoughts! I have heard lots about Katy Ray, but have never read anything by her or seen her speak. She did take me back to my childhood...my mom reading aloud to me and my librarian Mrs. Richardson. I want my read alouds to be purposeful and memorable for my students. I want to choose thoughtfully...my chilhood favorites, new favorites, books chosen together as a class...
Katie Wood Ray is so inspiring! I have always loved the read aloud component of my day...I have the most fun changing my voices for the different characters. Something I want to add to my day is a short poem while lining up or a quote during a transition. I also laughed out loud when she wrote the piece about how Marcus was talking during her read aloud on page 76.:) In addition, don't you just love it when she writes...."Honor the sound....the absence of sound..the pauses in between words...." ?
I love this article, partly for what I learned from it and, in large part, because I love the way Ray writes. Her words are so powerful...she reflects on herself as a reader and writer, shares stories from her classroom, and engages her readers with powerful quotes. Just a few of my thoughts... -I don't do much reading aloud to MYSELF, as Ray says she does. I see the importance in that and want to do that this summer, so that I can carry my own personal experiences with listening to the sound of good writing into my classroom this August. -I want to incorporate more short read alouds into my classroom. For instance--poems or (my personal favorite, simply because I hadn't ever thought to do this...) quotes. -I love the idea of the performance poem to help students develop the sound of good writing in their heads and learn to READ LIKE WRITERS. How many times have I said to my students--We are always reading like writers and writers like readers...whew!
And somewhere on this blog someone mentioned a wondrous words bucket--also love that idea, as well! Thanks!
I enjoyed this excerpt from Wondrous Words. It made me want to do a better job when reading aloud to my students. I want to help my students fall in love with words, the sounds of words, the way they are put together to create beautiful text. I want to be one of the teachers that Cassie described in her blog! Is there anywhere we can go to actually HEAR Katie Wood Ray read aloud? If so, I want to know!!
I love reading to my class. I love when they laugh at the funny parts and have that surprised face when something unexpected happens. I want them to always love to hear stories no matter how old they are. The idea of sitting in a circle and taking turns reading the 15 or less words they have chosen to make a class "poem" is awesome. I want to try that next year with my 3rd graders. I love to write poetry and hope I can instill the love of writing into my children.
I love Katie Wood Ray. I think this is the only book I haven't read by her and now have to read it! I love the ideas she offers about writing like a reader and reading like a writer and having the students echo their writing after something or someone. What Katie says about matching our voices of match someone else’s is so true! I was raised in SC but have family up North and would remember spending summers up North and wanting so badly to sound like my grandmother that I would spend hours practicing. Anyways Katie has given me some great ideas to take back to the classroom about how to make my read alouds sound more wondrous so that my students are exposed to the sounds they need be become better writers!
Ok, I just keep filling my brain with all this great informtion on how to teach reading and writing in my classroom. I too loved the article by Katie Wood Ray. I love it when she suggests, " The dialect I adopt as a speaker comes from the places I have lived as a listener. Could it not be equally true that the 'dialect' I adopt as a writer comes from the plaes I have lived as a reader?" This to me just makes perfect sense to immerse our students in reading aloud, have them choose several books to read over and over during the year so that this becomes their "writing voice". I like her wish that I had known this as a child. But wow what an impact I can make on my own children and students, knowing this information!
Most of us grew up with our moms reading, ever so lovingly, to us. What a treasure. I was given another gift, a gift from my dad, probably the finest gift he ever gave to me. My dad was a “wondrous” story teller. He was funny, and he was serious. He was passionate. Dad also read quite often to us. My dad passed away shortly after my 30th birthday. The night before he died, he read to my brothers and I from Ecclesiastes. If I close my eyes, I can still see the dimpled smile on his face, the sparkle in his tired blue eyes and hear the depth of his words as he said good-bye to us. After reading Katie’s chapter, I took a trip back in time, some 19 odd years ago. Thank you, Katie, for your passion.
Katie Wood Ray's writing is so powerful. Her vision of reading aloud reminds me of the literacy as a window metaphor where literacy allows children to see a world outside their own as well as a reflection of themselves. Powerful read alouds inspire children to be writers just like these gifted authors and to have experiences that transcend time and place. To get this daily "wonderful vegetable" multiple times throughout the school day, Lester Laminack says we have to be as dedicated to our read aloud times throughout the day as we are to the recess and lunch schedules. Something that I am definitely going to have to get better at is leaving my "teaching self at the edge of carpet." I look back and cringe at the many times I have interrupted a read aloud because of student behavior! I am guilty of switching too quickly from my teaching voice to read-aloud voice and vice versa. I also want to be more intentional about holding that silence at the end. A huge ah-ha for me was that you need to choose read-alouds for language use and language sound above all else!
Like many of the posts above I too have some memories slowly coming back to me. One of my fondest childhood memories is going to the library each week. I remember how excited I would be just to go hear the librarian read aloud to my class. I remember listening to parts of those read louds and jumping inside that book becoming lost in a fantasy world. That was so exciting for me. The beautiful language at the beginning of Katie Wood Ray's article was so inspiring. I love when she says that a read aloud is like candy and the kids loved it. She is so right. There is no greater pleasure than those sweet little eyes staring at you as you read. I have at times even felt a little guilty for doing a read aloud because it is so much fun. It seems to me I have let myself become so standards driven that I have gotten myself away from the joy of doing read alouds. My goal this year is to change that. After hearing Lester several years ago,I started incorporating more read aloud and including many poems throughout the day. I found hanging a poem up and revisiting it daily for different lessons can be very powerful. It curbs the discipline problems too.
This excerpt brought back many memories and gave me some ideas that I would like to try next year. I have always enjoyed doing read-alouds in math and science. I always try to make the book I read aloud apply to what we are learning. Sometimes I read a short picture book, just to set the tone for the day. Students tend to be much more settled when you begin class with a good read-aloud. I can still remember my eighth grade teacher reading "The Hobbit" aloud to us. I fell in love with that book and went on to read the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy 11 times over the next several years. I remember reading parts of it aloud to myself because I loved the artisry and craftsmanship that J.R.R. Tolkien created in his books. Many people fall in love with his story and imagine themselves living in "Middle Earth". I find myself getting lost in worlds created by talented authors. In my science fiction club we call it the willing suspension of disbelief. After Gaye made the comment yesterday that she has stopped reading to her 3 children so much, I realized that I was starting to fall into that trap as well. My daughter Alexis is only 6 and she still loves to be read too. I decided that I should go back to reading to her every night. I also realized the influence school has on her. I was reading a section from an autobiography of Mary McLeod Bethune tonight (that she picked out at the library)and she would interupt me by raising her hand as she lay curled up on her pillow. Does this mean I am putting on my teacher face as I read a bedtime story or that my mom face is the same as my teacher face? I think I will be spending a lot of time at the library this summer reading and selecting texts that can be used for read alouds, shared reading, and guided reading in my classroom.
Wow! I am not even sure what I read but I loved the way it sounded. She uses the loveliest language and passion when she writes and teaches. It just flows so beautifully. She had me mesmerized and wanting to hear more. (Deliciously edible, her merciless dribbles of this wondrous story, catch children in a carefully spun web of words, so beautiful that they just melt in your mouth and so many more.) That was too cool for words. I would have loved to learn to write from her. The choral reading of the performance poem was phenomenal! I sure hope when I attempt to do this, because how could you not, that I can convey to my students the power and purpose that she did to her students. One of my many favorite lines: “I’m not reading to them because it’s good for them; I’m reading to them because it’s good for me.” I love to read aloud to anyone that will listen. I love a good book. I can’t wait to read more next year because I am teaching ELA!
I loved this quote from Katie, "At how awesome my responsibility was to fill that space between them and me with words, wonderous words that would not disappoint them, words that would not let them down, words that they and I could stand on, walk across and meet one another in a place the ordinary words of our days forbid us to go. It was a journey of words we could make together through reading aloud." What a power quote to remind us that books should foster imagination, community, and a love for the written and spoken words. I also was reminded of Jeff Anderson's "imitation to imitate" when I was reading the section where Katie said she sounded like Sandra Cisneros when she wrote the intro for Isoke Nia's speech at NCTE. As writers, we have the opportunity every day to stand on the shoulders of other authors and try out craft that they use in order to improve and grow as writers.
I think I went into teaching because of my love of reading aloud. No kidding. Just as Katie Wood Ray said about many countless children throughout time falling in love with a teacher who did it well and who did it often, when I was in the third grade I had a teacher, Mrs. Stanaland, who read Pippi Longstockings to us. I can still hear her voice as she read about the antics of Pippi. I can see the yellow rocking chair she sat in and remember vividly how she made me love her and love to read by reading aloud to my class everyday after lunch. From that moment on (and it was A LOT of moments ago :), I tried to read aloud just like she did and read and read and read. I was blessed to have teachers in elementary school that read to me and I feel like each time I hold a book in my hand and read aloud to my students I am giving back the gift of sharing "Wonderous Words".
As a teacher I‘ve known the benefits of reading aloud daily, and next year I plan on taking the time to do a great deal more. Kay Wood Ray’s article was inspiring to read. As a teacher of young mentally disabled students my greatest concern is to get my students to communicate and understand language. Kay Wood Ray has made it abundantly clear that the best language service delivery model is through read-a-louds. My students enjoy listening to books and it is evident that it builds community in my classroom. I felt pride watching my students spontaneously perform The 3 Bears for the superintendent after listening to a read-a-loud. I cried when I received a card with a handwritten note from an adult former student who is now a contributing member of society. I have seen my students become readers and writers and become empowered.
Since we are blogging about wondrous words and because we all need a good chuckle, I thought I would share an e mail I just received. For lovers of good writing, here are a few of this year’s winners of the Bulwer-Lytoton Contest Winners (aka “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” Contest) run by the English Department of San Jose State University, wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel.
10. As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it.
9. Just beyond the Narrows, the river widens.
8. With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description.
7. Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: "Andre creep... Andre creep...Andre creep."
6. Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become the woman he loved.
5. Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from eking out a living at a local pet store.
4. Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do.
3. Like an over-ripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor.
2. Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of the word “fear;” a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death -- in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies.
AND THE WINNER IS...
1. The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, "You lied!"
MISSED YOU AGAIN!! Oh, well. I'll respond on the right place for Record Keeping! :)
ReplyDeleteLoved this article!! Ray brought back memories for me of my second grade teacher, Mrs. Trueblood, who read Charlotte's Web with such conviction, that we were mezmorized and transported to that farm. When it was over, I wept in our cozy circle, and asked, "It's not over is it?" She later read us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we were delighted! I will never forget her!
ReplyDeleteLater, when I was a sixth grader in a new school, far away, Mrs. Weston read Island of the Blue Dolphin. And as Ray remarks, we DID become a community, a family. I felt a part of this group, because we shared this common world and language with eachother and with our teacher. I cannot tell you who my math, or science teacher was, but I can never forget these women!
When I was in college, my friend convinced me I needed to hear a woman named Maya Angelou, who was reading her poetry and novel excerpts to students in the USC Russell House. I did not know her, but I agreed to go. I left that experience a life-long fan! She masterfully used her voice, as one plays a beautiful instrument. It was awesome! What power! What language!!
I think I have always told my students to read their writing aloud, and to listen to it like one might listen to a poem or a song. That is the way I write, myself, and it helps me to hear how I can improve it for my reader. More than once I have heard a student say to another, "Hmmmm. That just doesn't sound right." Great article!!
Being a teacher of three-year-olds with developmental delays, it is difficult for me to even conceive of doing guiding reading groups or writing workshop with my students. However, I do read aloud to my class every day and have seen the great things that it does for my students as I try to begin making a path for them to become readers and writers as they grow up. We use a language-based, literacy-enriched program called Read it Once, Read it Twice, Read it Once Again which was developed by Rae Schafer. I focus on one book per month (or as long as I can stand it!!) and read it every day. I plan activities based on the story which include different concepts such as vocabulary development, sequencing story events, rhyming words, etc. The majority of my students have language delays and most of them come to me with little to no verbal communication. When I discuss with the parents, specific IEP goals such as sit and attend to a book for 10 minutes and point to named pictures in a book, they tend to laugh and wish me luck because their child will never do that! I am proud to say that I prove them wrong because my sweet little babies will sit and listen to Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything. They even join in on the repeating lines and are able to finish some of the phrases when I leave them off. I know what a powerful tool, reading aloud is and have always done a lot of it in my classroom, no matter what grade I am teaching.
ReplyDeleteI had thought of what I wanted to post to this article, and first posted through my phone which didn't work bc my phone is tied to a google account I didn't know I had. So...now...about 45 minutes later I have it figured out, but have lost my thoughts! I have heard lots about Katy Ray, but have never read anything by her or seen her speak. She did take me back to my childhood...my mom reading aloud to me and my librarian Mrs. Richardson. I want my read alouds to be purposeful and memorable for my students. I want to choose thoughtfully...my chilhood favorites, new favorites, books chosen together as a class...
ReplyDeleteKatie Wood Ray is so inspiring! I have always loved the read aloud component of my day...I have the most fun changing my voices for the different characters. Something I want to add to my day is a short poem while lining up or a quote during a transition. I also laughed out loud when she wrote the piece about how Marcus was talking during her read aloud on page 76.:) In addition, don't you just love it when she writes...."Honor the sound....the absence of sound..the pauses in between words...." ?
ReplyDeleteI love this article, partly for what I learned from it and, in large part, because I love the way Ray writes. Her words are so powerful...she reflects on herself as a reader and writer, shares stories from her classroom, and engages her readers with powerful quotes. Just a few of my thoughts...
ReplyDelete-I don't do much reading aloud to MYSELF, as Ray says she does. I see the importance in that and want to do that this summer, so that I can carry my own personal experiences with listening to the sound of good writing into my classroom this August.
-I want to incorporate more short read alouds into my classroom. For instance--poems or (my personal favorite, simply because I hadn't ever thought to do this...) quotes.
-I love the idea of the performance poem to help students develop the sound of good writing in their heads and learn to READ LIKE WRITERS. How many times have I said to my students--We are always reading like writers and writers like readers...whew!
And somewhere on this blog someone mentioned a wondrous words bucket--also love that idea, as well! Thanks!
I enjoyed this excerpt from Wondrous Words. It made me want to do a better job when reading aloud to my students. I want to help my students fall in love with words, the sounds of words, the way they are put together to create beautiful text. I want to be one of the teachers that Cassie described in her blog!
ReplyDeleteIs there anywhere we can go to actually HEAR Katie Wood Ray read aloud? If so, I want to know!!
I love reading to my class. I love when they laugh at the funny parts and have that surprised face when something unexpected happens. I want them to always love to hear stories no matter how old they are. The idea of sitting in a circle and taking turns reading the 15 or less words they have chosen to make a class "poem" is awesome. I want to try that next year with my 3rd graders. I love to write poetry and hope I can instill the love of writing into my children.
ReplyDeleteI love Katie Wood Ray. I think this is the only book I haven't read by her and now have to read it! I love the ideas she offers about writing like a reader and reading like a writer and having the students echo their writing after something or someone. What Katie says about matching our voices of match someone else’s is so true! I was raised in SC but have family up North and would remember spending summers up North and wanting so badly to sound like my grandmother that I would spend hours practicing. Anyways Katie has given me some great ideas to take back to the classroom about how to make my read alouds sound more wondrous so that my students are exposed to the sounds they need be become better writers!
ReplyDeleteOk, I just keep filling my brain with all this great informtion on how to teach reading and writing in my classroom. I too loved the article by Katie Wood Ray. I love it when she suggests, " The dialect I adopt as a speaker comes from the places I have lived as a listener. Could it not be equally true that the 'dialect' I adopt as a writer comes from the plaes I have lived as a reader?" This to me just makes perfect sense to immerse our students in reading aloud, have them choose several books to read over and over during the year so that this becomes their "writing voice".
ReplyDeleteI like her wish that I had known this as a child. But wow what an impact I can make on my own children and students, knowing this information!
Most of us grew up with our moms reading, ever so lovingly, to us. What a treasure. I was given another gift, a gift from my dad, probably the finest gift he ever gave to me.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a “wondrous” story teller. He was funny, and he was serious. He was passionate. Dad also read quite often to us. My dad passed away shortly after my 30th birthday. The night before he died, he read to my brothers and I from Ecclesiastes. If I close my eyes, I can still see the dimpled smile on his face, the sparkle in his tired blue eyes and hear the depth of his words as he said good-bye to us.
After reading Katie’s chapter, I took a trip back in time, some 19 odd years ago. Thank you, Katie, for your passion.
Katie Wood Ray's writing is so powerful. Her vision of reading aloud reminds me of the literacy as a window metaphor where literacy allows children to see a world outside their own as well as a reflection of themselves. Powerful read alouds inspire children to be writers just like these gifted authors and to have experiences that transcend time and place. To get this daily "wonderful vegetable" multiple times throughout the school day, Lester Laminack says we have to be as dedicated to our read aloud times throughout the day as we are to the recess and lunch schedules. Something that I am definitely going to have to get better at is leaving my "teaching self at the edge of carpet." I look back and cringe at the many times I have interrupted a read aloud because of student behavior! I am guilty of switching too quickly from my teaching voice to read-aloud voice and vice versa. I also want to be more intentional about holding that silence at the end. A huge ah-ha for me was that you need to choose read-alouds for language use and language sound above all else!
ReplyDeleteLike many of the posts above I too have some memories slowly coming back to me. One of my fondest childhood memories is going to the library each week. I remember how excited I would be just to go hear the librarian read aloud to my class. I remember listening to parts of those read louds and jumping inside that book becoming lost in a fantasy world. That was so exciting for me.
ReplyDeleteThe beautiful language at the beginning of Katie Wood Ray's article was so inspiring. I love when she says that a read aloud is like candy and the kids loved it. She is so right. There is no greater pleasure than those sweet little eyes staring at you as you read. I have at times even felt a little guilty for doing a read aloud because it is so much fun. It seems to me I have let myself become so standards driven that I have gotten myself away from the joy of doing read alouds. My goal this year is to change that.
After hearing Lester several years ago,I started incorporating more read aloud and including many poems throughout the day. I found hanging a poem up and revisiting it daily for different lessons can be very powerful. It curbs the discipline problems too.
This excerpt brought back many memories and gave me some ideas that I would like to try next year. I have always enjoyed doing read-alouds in math and science. I always try to make the book I read aloud apply to what we are learning. Sometimes I read a short picture book, just to set the tone for the day. Students tend to be much more settled when you begin class with a good read-aloud.
ReplyDeleteI can still remember my eighth grade teacher reading "The Hobbit" aloud to us. I fell in love with that book and went on to read the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy 11 times over the next several years. I remember reading parts of it aloud to myself because I loved the artisry and craftsmanship that J.R.R. Tolkien created in his books. Many people fall in love with his story and imagine themselves living in "Middle Earth".
I find myself getting lost in worlds created by talented authors. In my science fiction club we call it the willing suspension of disbelief.
After Gaye made the comment yesterday that she has stopped reading to her 3 children so much, I realized that I was starting to fall into that trap as well. My daughter Alexis is only 6 and she still loves to be read too. I decided that I should go back to reading to her every night. I also realized the influence school has on her. I was reading a section from an autobiography of Mary McLeod Bethune tonight (that she picked out at the library)and she would interupt me by raising her hand as she lay curled up on her pillow. Does this mean I am putting on my teacher face as I read a bedtime story or that my mom face is the same as my teacher face?
I think I will be spending a lot of time at the library this summer reading and selecting texts that can be used for read alouds, shared reading, and guided reading in my classroom.
Wow! I am not even sure what I read but I loved the way it sounded. She uses the loveliest language and passion when she writes and teaches. It just flows so beautifully. She had me mesmerized and wanting to hear more. (Deliciously edible, her merciless dribbles of this wondrous story, catch children in a carefully spun web of words, so beautiful that they just melt in your mouth and so many more.) That was too cool for words. I would have loved to learn to write from her.
ReplyDeleteThe choral reading of the performance poem was phenomenal! I sure hope when I attempt to do this, because how could you not, that I can convey to my students the power and purpose that she did to her students.
One of my many favorite lines: “I’m not reading to them because it’s good for them; I’m reading to them because it’s good for me.” I love to read aloud to anyone that will listen. I love a good book. I can’t wait to read more next year because I am teaching ELA!
I loved this quote from Katie, "At how awesome my responsibility was to fill that space between them and me with words, wonderous words that would not disappoint them, words that would not let them down, words that they and I could stand on, walk across and meet one another in a place the ordinary words of our days forbid us to go. It was a journey of words we could make together through reading aloud." What a power quote to remind us that books should foster imagination, community, and a love for the written and spoken words. I also was reminded of Jeff Anderson's "imitation to imitate" when I was reading the section where Katie said she sounded like Sandra Cisneros when she wrote the intro for Isoke Nia's speech at NCTE. As writers, we have the opportunity every day to stand on the shoulders of other authors and try out craft that they use in order to improve and grow as writers.
ReplyDeleteI think I went into teaching because of my love of reading aloud. No kidding. Just as Katie Wood Ray said about many countless children throughout time falling in love with a teacher who did it well and who did it often, when I was in the third grade I had a teacher, Mrs. Stanaland, who read Pippi Longstockings to us. I can still hear her voice as she read about the antics of Pippi. I can see the yellow rocking chair she sat in and remember vividly how she made me love her and love to read by reading aloud to my class everyday after lunch. From that moment on (and it was A LOT of moments ago :), I tried to read aloud just like she did and read and read and read. I was blessed to have teachers in elementary school that read to me and I feel like each time I hold a book in my hand and read aloud to my students I am giving back the gift of sharing "Wonderous Words".
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher I‘ve known the benefits of reading aloud daily, and next year I plan on taking the time to do a great deal more. Kay Wood Ray’s article was inspiring to read. As a teacher of young mentally disabled students my greatest concern is to get my students to communicate and understand language. Kay Wood Ray has made it abundantly clear that the best language service delivery model is through read-a-louds. My students enjoy listening to books and it is evident that it builds community in my classroom. I felt pride watching my students spontaneously perform The 3 Bears for the superintendent after listening to a read-a-loud. I cried when I received a card with a handwritten note from an adult former student who is now a contributing member of society. I have seen my students become readers and writers and become empowered.
ReplyDeleteSince we are blogging about wondrous words and because we all need a good chuckle, I thought I would share an e mail I just received. For lovers of good writing, here are a few of this year’s winners of the Bulwer-Lytoton Contest Winners (aka “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” Contest) run by the English Department of San Jose State University, wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel.
10. As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it.
9. Just beyond the Narrows, the river widens.
8. With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description.
7. Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: "Andre creep... Andre creep...Andre creep."
6. Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become the woman he loved.
5. Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from eking out a living at a local pet store.
4. Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do.
3. Like an over-ripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor.
2. Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of the word “fear;” a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death -- in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies.
AND THE WINNER IS...
1. The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, "You lied!"
Ahhh...to be a great writer...