Today I sent the big O-man off to Kindergarten and Maddy off to second grade, and I absolutely cannot believe it.
If I think about it too much, I seriously might burst into tears. Weren’t they just in diapers? Crawling around on the floor? Where’s the time going?
Though Cora and I will soon adjust to our new norm and have lots of cool things in store for us this year, I am feeling so incredibly blue today. So after we played in the sunshine at Cora’s preschool playdate, we ran some errands, had a quiet lunch, and spent some time doing one of our favorite things–reading.
On my way up to her room, I grabbed a library book that must have been put on top of the pile by sheer luck because it was a book that fit perfectly into our day. It was a book that gave us reasons to chat about Cora’s upcoming school year, to talk about what she remembered about last year and what she looked forward to this year.
It helped to remind Cora that very soon she–like Owen and Maddy–will be starting a new school year, in just a few weeks. And Cora’s new school year will be just as important as Owen and Maddy’s.
It was a book that provided us the opportunity to make connections to Cora’s prior school experience and between Cora and the characters, connections between Cora’s memories and the events in the book. It gave us a good reason to do some back-to-school chatting, which I hope qualms some of my tiniest’s back-to-school anxieties.
Here’s the skinny:
- Making Back-to-School Connections in an Interactive Read-Aloud: Any book that features D.W. is a winner for Cora, and this book was no different.
I knew from the bat that Cora would be interested in this one, since immediately after I said, Okay, this book is written by one of our favorite authors, Marc Brown, and it’s called ‘D.W.’s Guide to Preschool‘, Cora said, I’m going to preschool!! D.W.’s just like meeee!
So making connections during this read-aloud was a natural next step.
D.W.’s Guide to Preschool is just that–D.W. giving readers the lowdown on what preschool is like, from the pets in her classroom, to the daily schedule, to eating snack and going on field trips. It’s a great picture book for kiddos who are Cora’s age and who will be tackling preschool in the near future. It’s upbeat and positive and is spoken in familiar D.W.’s confident voice.
Cora’s flashlight is ready.
When we reached the page about class pets, I said, Can you remember if you had pets in your class last
year? We talked for a while about it, and then I asked, What pets did Owen have in his class?
I wanted to have her think about other preschool classrooms and compare them. Until today, she was pretty convinced that she’d be returning to her last year’s classroom.
What do you think about this year? What animal do you think you’ll have? (Very quickly she said she thought they’d have a fish, some gerbils, and definitely a small brown bear.)
In our frantic hurricane-prep, my husband and I scattered flashlights throughout our house, and coincidentally, Cora had one in her room. So we used her flashlight to ‘shine’ on her answers to the questions I asked. She loooooved it, because she looooves playing with flashlights–especially tiny ones. And in our house, because we lose power so often, flashlights are not toys; they’re tickets to sanity when we’re powerless, it’s nighttime, and it’s cave-dark in the kids’ rooms.
As we read, I asked:
- on the page about free-play— Looks like D.W. has a fun classroom! What do you have in your class that’s the same as D.W.?
- on the snacktime page— I know you love snacktime at school. Shine your light on the snack that you love the most. Which of D.W.’s friends has the same face that you do when you’re eating snack. Tell me why you chose that little girl.
- on the park time page— I see kids doing so many things here. What’s your favorite part of the park? Why?
- on the numbers page— They’re learning their numbers! How high can you count, Cora? How did you learn to count that high?
- on the field trip page— You have been to so many cool places, during school and even this past summer. Shine your flashlight on things that you have seen on trips to museums.
- on the school page— Wow! This is a busy class! What would you be doing if you were in D.W.’s class right now?
And before we knew it, the book was over. I loved how the emphasis was on how exciting it was that parents returned to pick up their kids and that school was so fun, D.W. couldn’t wait to come back the next day, because even at the park playdate, not two minutes after we arrived, my tiny said, Mommy, you’re not leaving, are you??
Cora wants to dress up at preschool. But lucky for her, her class has high heels that fit kids, not big ones like D.W. . . .
I think this is a definite library book renewal; we’ll read it a few more times before Cora starts, and hopefully the connecting and chatting will help ease her into a happy 2011-2012 school year!
The interactive type of read-aloud we did today happened naturally and I think may be just what the doctor ordered (I hope I hope I hope I hope).
Cora made connections, but more than just giving me simple one-word answers to my questions, more often than not, she was doing what McGee and Schickedanz refer to as an ‘interactive or dialogic’ read-aloud, one that results in gains in vocabulary, comprehension strategies and story schema and concept development’. These authors contend that ‘merely inviting children to talk’ during read-alouds is not sufficient for helping them develop their literacy skills; rather, they need to engage in ‘analytic’ talk–predicting, inferring, connecting from different parts of the story. Not always easy, I know, because kids–and parents–have to be in the mood for adding the ‘think’ element.
But teachers and parents can ‘boost the value of reading’ (I love that phrase!) not only through ‘analytic talk’ but also through:
- encouraging retelling or dramatic play;
- reading several books and playing with concepts or characters that bind them;
- reading the same book repeatedly;
- describing illustrations;
- inserting short definitions for unfamiliar words and having kids use those words in other situations.
Do check out the article, ‘Repeated Interactive Read-Alouds in Preschool and Kindergarten’ in May 2007’s The Reading Teacher for more specific information; I found it incredibly informative.
But you know what? If you can’t manage a whole lot of ‘analytic talk’ during your read-alouds, don’t sweat it.
Any and all reading we do with our kiddos counts, and we’re ‘boosting’ their academic success and school readiness just by reading what books we can, when we are able.
Happy reading!
Just thought you should know that today I was doing something with the kiddos and used the phrase: “Here’s the skinny.” My children just looked at me like, “what?” LOL!
I saw your comment about letting you know all about us homeschooling. I haven’t forgotten to email you…I just don’t even know where to begin. I can tell you this, being an educator myself, it was an agonizing decision (that took a year and half to make….that’s how agonizing). And we’ve decided to take it one year at a time and re-evaluate each year if we want to continue with homeschooling or go a different route.
Interested to hear your thoughts about homeschooling if you ever get the chance. I know you’re as busy as me…if not more. I’m always looking for as many different perspectives as I can.
OH my gosh, Brandy!!! That is so funny!! I am seriously on the floor. Your kids probably thought you lost your mind! I would LOVE to chat w/ you about homeschooling–let’s try to connect on the phone in the next few weeks. In short, though, I firmly believe that every family is different and every situation calls for different schooling. I LOVE teaching, and I love teaching my own kiddos even more than I thought I would, but because our county here is so strong, (and my husband is an administrator here in the county), we know that our public school is the best choice for our kids right now.
You’ve hit the head on the mark-we are on the 2nd full week of my oldest in 2nd grade, my middle starting kindergarten and my baby starting preschool. It’s been an adjustment for the kindergartener to adapt to all-day school and the baby to be without siblings for a lot of the day. It’s so quiet without them around, but there are times when you just sit and revel in it and others when you can’t wait for them to get home!
Susan!! We’re living parallel lives!! I wish we were close–we could have playdates!! Let’s stay in touch throughout the year–please let me know how things go!
Thanks for your opinion, Amy! The county I taught in was very strong as well and if we still lived there, it would never cross my mind to homeschool. When we moved here, I really didn’t think I would be so tough in my educational opinions of my children’s school because I understood what it was like to be a teacher in a classroom with many different types of kids and a million things going on. It’s hard. But, it turns out, I am tough. My expectations are high because they’re my children and because I know better exists. That’s not to say the county we’re in is just terrible. It’s really not. Most people here are very happy. And I can see that they’re trying to go in the direction I think would be great. But it’s nothing like some of the surrounding systems that are just plain great. Though, I’m sure this system has awesome teachers too…we weren’t sure if we wanted to gamble on getting one each year. (One of the nice perks of being a teacher was getting to choose my children’s teachers…sigh)
One of the biggest factors of of choosing to homeschool this year was what we were seeing in our daughter after having only been in school for two years. She’s smart. Like really smart. She truly loved school and loved being the best at it. (another reason it was hard to pull her out) However, she began to think that she should never have to work hard for anything….and that if she did have to work hard somehow she was a failure. So frustrating. I saw this happen to one of my brothers and he had a VERY difficult time (and sometimes still does) accepting that he can’t do everything…to the point of he’d rather not try than fail even once. You know, the part that bothers me more than anything is that they weren’t even willing to try to help her. They really didn’t see a problem because children who do well (and are pleasers like her) really aren’t problems in their eyes.
Of course, that’s only one reason we decided to homeschool. There are many, as with most decisions.
At the end of this school year, we are going to weigh everything about homeschooling against going back to public school and make a decision again. If we are able to move into a better school system at some point down the road (not anytime soon), then we will probably give that school a try. Though, I must say, so far homeschooling rocks! Something else I worried about was loving homeschooling so much that we wouldn’t want to go back to school and I’d have to give up all my traditional school fantasies that I had for my children. I can see how I was right on with that thinking. It’s awesome teaching your own children! Plus, if it doesn’t work out, it will be a hard pill to swallow sending them back to school. My ego might be hurt for a while. LOL! It’s also been hard dealing with what others think…especially my school minded friends. Absolutely no one has been ugly about it, in fact they’ve all been supportive. But I know which people think it’s great and which ones may think we’re making a mistake.
I would love to talk to you sometime on the phone. Though, I might be nervous…you’re like famous! Also, it’s funny to me that your husband is an administrator. Remember when I told you I had a friend that you remind of personality wise? Well, she was a teacher (our lead teacher when we met…now a stay at home mom of twins in 2nd grade) and her husband is an administrator (principal) too. I’m telling you, y’all could almost switch places.
Brandy!! We do need to chat–and I am SO not famous, it’s hysterical. I’m just like your buddy–almost exactly like her, in fact, now that our husbands have the same job! I can imagine the struggle you have experienced, and I can’t thank you enough for sharing it. I think if you go into each year as just a tiny step–a chapter in their schooling–then you’ll be better prepared for any next decision, you know? Like you’re doing what is best for the kids and your family THIS year, and come spring/summer, you can reevaluate and determine what’s best for everyone at that time–you know how kids change continually, how situations change, etc. Let’s chat, girl!! We have a lot to talk about!
Yikes! It didn’t seem so long when I was writing it. I guess you were due a long comment from me. It’s been a while.
ha! love it!! you are awesome!!