3321 M&W Ch. 3

Today in class we discussed chapter 3 from our book which was about understanding what we read. The big thing that I am glad Mrs. Pickett made a point to stress was the fact of how important comprehension is whenever it comes to reading. I have always known that comprehension was important, but after she talked about how comprehension really is the point of reading. Without comprehension we are simply decoding print, and nothing more, and I never thought of it like that. So at educators we have to make sure that our children are comprehending what they are reading.

I really enjoyed the part about the role that the teacher must take on, and that is the role of a facilitator. I feel that there are too many teachers who believe that because they have that name tag and desk that they are the boss, and they too often play the role of dictator whenever that is the exact opposite of what we are supposed to do. We are merely facilitators, and like she said in class, the magic happens inside the students minds.

Something that I plan to use in my classroom that this chapter talked about is structured retelling of the reading. A method that I believe is effective and plan to use is what some might call the popcorn method. This is where I would call on one student and have them tell me about one part of the story and then pop over to another student and have them tell me what happened next. Eventually all of the children in the room get a chance to talk about one part of the story and it is a lot less stressful for them than calling on one poor child and putting them in the hot spot in front of the whole class to retell the entire story. We could also make this fun by having something like a beach ball that the chidlren pass around the class and whenever you catch it you have to say what happened next in the story. Another way to do it is to write on different parts of the beach ball words like "who, what, when, where, why, etc" and which ever word their right hand lands on is what the child has to talk about. These are different methods that are testing and helping the children's comprehension in a manner that is fun to them :)

The book that I chose to share with you all this week is called Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Jr. Martin and John Archambault (the picture is at the beginning of the blog because I had no idea how to get it go be down here with this paragraph and could not figure it out!!). You guys may or may not be familiar with this book but it is a hit with children! I remember reading it whenever I was young, and I have it in my classroom at the daycare I work at. It is a book about the alphabet and each letter is trying to get to the top of a coconut tree. It is a book that is good for children Pre-K and K but can be read aloud to children even younger. The wording is almost like a chant and it is so fun for the cildren to read, even those who can't read the text yet love hearing it. It goes "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Will there be enough room?" and the children just love to say this line over and over again! I was babysitting a little boy just last night who is almost three and right before dinner he started saying that line from the book, and kept repeating it! It is the cutest thing, and I do recomend this book for younger children. It is very fun, and a colorful book that they will love looking through as they read!