Tonight is the last night of our vacation. Tomorrow I start back to college, the wife to work, and the daughter to summer camp. So begins our summer reading extravaganza. My Grandma Pearl, a teacher for over 30 years, always says that a person can do anything if they can read. She’s right on that one. Reading is the lynchpin, the foundation, to success in life.
I went through our library and pulled out a basket full of books both above and below her reading level. I happen to know her reading level as it was sent home in a packet of information on the last day of school, although I don’t put too much emphasis into lexile ratings. I am more concerned with reading as a big picture first; kids should enjoy reading and should find books that interest them and energize them. They should not be concerned with the level of their book. Reading is something we do for ourselves, not something we do for others. I’m rambling – giving you too much of my personal educational philosophy.
The summer reading library.
I piled a bunch of books (picture books, novels, novellas, comics and graphic novels) into two boxes and put them in the living room. Clutter be damned; this is reading! We have carved out times everyday for reading and writing, something that we are all supposed to be doing.
Tonight, I pulled one of the books from the summer reading library for me to read to her. Reading on their own is important, my friends, but children (even fifth and sixth graders) need to be read to. We chose The Tale of Despereaux. An excellent piece of children’s literature and one that I think she will enjoy. Despereaux is “the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread.” It has castles and dungeons and death and all kinds of marvelous things.
I read the first three chapters to her tonight and we have learned much about Despereaux the mouse and about life. From chapter three comes this prophetic little tidbit:
“Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform” (DiCamillo, p. 25).
How can you not be hooked by that sentence?
The Tale of Despereaux
By Kate DiCamillo
2004 Newbery Medal Winner
Ages 7-12
Candlewick Press
I went through our library and pulled out a basket full of books both above and below her reading level. I happen to know her reading level as it was sent home in a packet of information on the last day of school, although I don’t put too much emphasis into lexile ratings. I am more concerned with reading as a big picture first; kids should enjoy reading and should find books that interest them and energize them. They should not be concerned with the level of their book. Reading is something we do for ourselves, not something we do for others. I’m rambling – giving you too much of my personal educational philosophy.
The summer reading library.I piled a bunch of books (picture books, novels, novellas, comics and graphic novels) into two boxes and put them in the living room. Clutter be damned; this is reading! We have carved out times everyday for reading and writing, something that we are all supposed to be doing.
Tonight, I pulled one of the books from the summer reading library for me to read to her. Reading on their own is important, my friends, but children (even fifth and sixth graders) need to be read to. We chose The Tale of Despereaux. An excellent piece of children’s literature and one that I think she will enjoy. Despereaux is “the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread.” It has castles and dungeons and death and all kinds of marvelous things.
I read the first three chapters to her tonight and we have learned much about Despereaux the mouse and about life. From chapter three comes this prophetic little tidbit:
“Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform” (DiCamillo, p. 25).
How can you not be hooked by that sentence?
The Tale of Despereaux
By Kate DiCamillo
2004 Newbery Medal Winner
Ages 7-12
Candlewick Press
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