Lindsey Lundberg: A Series of Unfortunate Events

I’m reading the Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning. It’s very different from normal children books. I like it, because I enjoy thrillers and mysteries. I’d recommend this series to children who like thrillers and don’t get scared easily. I wanted to say I’d recommend this group to children who are orphans, foster children, or children that live with stepparents, but I think it portrays a bad connection between stepparent or foster parent and child.

The central characters in this series are Violet, Klaus, Sunny, Count Olaf, and Mr. Poe. Violet, Sunny, and Klaus are all siblings that recently lost their parents in a devastating fire. Mr. Poe is their financial trust holder and placed the three orphans under Count Olaf’s care. Count Olaf becomes their legal guardian. The assumptions about children presented in this series is that they’re intelligent, strong, and capable even though they’re young. There’s multiple activities related to this series. With a simple google search, you can find worksheet kits specifically for the series. You can use these for comprehension checks. If I were creating a lesson for this series, I would have students write poems in the perspective of one of the characters per book. I think it would be a fun way for students to bring more depth into the characters.

I really appreciated Miller’s thoughts on the all or nothing reader. I was a three sport athlete, so I really didn’t have a lot of time on my hands. Between practices, games, and piano lessons I found it hard to set aside time to read. It wasn’t until college that I realized I could bring books with me and read in between waiting for things. It might be three minutes here and fifteen minutes there, but I end up reading way more by doing that. It’s challenging bringing a book everywhere you go, but it’s worth getting a few minutes here and there in. I think I’m most excited about not testing students on reading. Whenever I was tested on reading, I wouldn’t be reading because I wanted to. I’d be reading because I had to. I think making reading fun by not making it a chore is what excites me the most about teaching reading. It’s all about the atmosphere you create in your classroom about reading. I’m not really afraid of teaching reading. I’m excited to make it a fun positive experience for my students.