Free Range Readers

Nurturing Self Reliant Readers and Writers in K-6 classrooms

It’s Monday!

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It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?

I’m just really enjoying the holiday break, and today I’m reflecting on reading aloud The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane with my 5th graders recently.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

We really enjoyed reading this book as a class. The students loved the story, and the beautiful illustrations. I also used the teaching resource by Kyleen Beers and Bob Probst, Notice and Note. Using the signposts to develop lines of thinking worked really well, and the story lends itself to very nice, consistent noticing of literary elements. Something unexpected that arose when we were reading Edward was a wonderful connection to The Velveteen Rabbit. It kind of seems like, “duh, of course!” but I had not made the connection before. Now, I will never teach Edward again without introducing the children to the classic story. We were really struck by the conversation between the rabbit and Skin Horse:

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

How do toys become real?

How do toys become real?

We kept referring back to this conversation as we considered Edward’s journey and his  growing understandings about love and loss. My students had a few “Aha Moments” as they compared Abilene’s love for Edward to Sarah Ruth’s love for Edward. It was an immensely satisfying read aloud experience.

I am getting ready to launch into a Fantasy unit of study when we return to school, and I am thinking about a fairy tale focus this year. I learned that not only were none of my students familiar with The Velveteen Rabbit, but they don’t know many of the classic fairy tales. Stay tuned!

 

Author: mnosal

I have been in education for all of my life, in one way or another. After teaching 5th grade at an urban public charter school, I have decided to return to the public schools and to literacy coaching K-5. I also teach and mentor preservice teachers.

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