Readings Upon Readings Upon Readings…How good of a multi reader are you?

The series book that I chose is called The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer (A star on Glee). I really like my series choice because it is an easy read, I like fairy tales and the main characters don’t bother me. The main characters in this series are twins. One brother and one sister, the sister is the smart over achiever in school and the brother is the more laid back student. I am currently on chapter 7, so I have a pretty good idea about the book so far and am enjoying it. I actually am interested in the whole book, which is nice. This series also strays from the common children’s stories we were told when we were younger.  Different in the way that the main characters of each story are more brave and different than our common childhood stories, they are not in the same boat as the Grimm fairy tales though. So far I haven’t really found anything I dislike about it, except that it builds up a lot of background info before you get to the Land of Stories, which I think is probably a good thing. I think children of elementary school and junior high, maybe grades 4th through 8th grade could enjoy this series, especially if they are considered wild readers. The length of the book is long it has 1-438 pages with 24 chapters including the prologue, which you should read it has more background. Some assumptions about children and childhood, I would say is that children are innocent until something tragic happens in their lives and it takes children on different paths than maybe they wouldn’t have originally been on. For children of this series I would say that because of their family dynamic and the tragedy that took place these fairy tale stories give them hope and something to look forward to. It also keeps them connected with their families because it is something they shared as a family. Some resources available related to the text is hard to say, maybe encouraging students to dig a little deeper into fairy tales and discover all the different versions that have been created. As a teacher you could expose them to all the different types of versions of one fairy tale, such as Cinderella and encourage students to write their own story.  Any ways I hope everyone is enjoying their series as much as I have, Happy reading!

Since reading Miller, I have taken more moments of my day to get a little reading time in. Before I wouldn’t want to read a book unless I knew I had time to finish a chapter, now I tell myself it is okay if you don’t finish they chapter you will eventually get there. Some take-a ways from chapter 2 are the following: having students be confident in their own abilities, improving students ability to choose their own books, reading aloud creates natural opportunities for modeling and practicing comprehension strategies and reading response, expose students to lots of books and building a confidence and capacity for students to pick their own books. I feel some of these key points are really important for building strong readers. Based on the chapter I learned that the library in my classroom wasn’t just because it was a classroom requirement it was the teacher providing us with the opportunity to read and choose books on our own. I guess I never really looked at our classroom library that way. Another magical moment I had from Miller’s chapter two was this quote “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” I used to love getting read to and reading books with my parents as a child. It was my favorite part about going to bed. I strongly feel that parents need to be a part of this moment to bond with their kids and teach them how to  read as well as different stories as well.  I believe that in my classroom I will try to incorporate silent reading times as well as reading to the class whenever the opportunity presents itself. Reading is a great way to be distracted or taken to another planet and I want my students to find that special bond with a really great book!