Follow the drinking gourd...

Chapter 8 Historical Fiction in our text talks about the benefits of using stories to teach history. It talks about reading stories allowed to students and using Drama to enhance students understanding of the events. This past spring in one of my classes a teacher introduced me to the song Follow the Drinking Gourd. While he sang it for us I recognized it from when I was in elementary school. It tells the story of the Underground Railroad. He used music and art to introduce us to this story that he told. He created a river and forest out of paper that we could walk through and together we sang the song.

Granny's Stories

Growing up my Grandmother would always tell my sister and I stories, about her childhood, my dad as a child, and her friends from the neighborhood. It was my favorite part of her visits. In chapter 5 of our text we read about traditional literature and how storytelling in a classroom is a great technique to use. I was also reminded of this yesterday while I was at camp. All the staff gathered around the bon fire and told some of our favorite stories, some scary, some not so scary. Matt made a really good point when he talked to us about how the more you practice a story the better it gets and that you can take any traditional stories and make them your own. 

How to Model Storytelling for Children 
1. Select stories with good plot structure. 
2. Be sure you know the story thoroughly so you can retell it in your own words. Include any rhythmical or receptive phrases. 
3. Be expressive, changing your voice to reflect dialogue, intonation, and inflection. 
4. Tell the story slowly and with animation of body, hand gestures and facial expressions. 
5. Use props and other creative storytelling techniques such as puppets, stuffed animals, cutout characters and settings, a felt-board, and dolls.  

There is a bird on your head...

My Friend Matt

I was reading a wonderful book by Mo Willems with my good friend Matt today. The book is called There is a Bird on Your Head and after reading my text book I was able to apply what I read in Chapter 4 of our textbook Picture books: Beyond Words and Illustrations. The book falls under the Easy-to-read books category. The book contains strong charicterization and themes that engage young readers. The simple and repetitive words make learning to read fun and easy. 

Planning Sheet

So this week I worked on my Planning Sheet, it allows me to know what books I am going to read this summer for my Children's Literacy class. I used many online resources such as Barnes & Noble, and Scholastic's websites to choose my books. I also went to the local public library to check out some books. The Librarians turned out to be fantastic resources, they are so knowledgable about children's books! I got a library card and currently have 25 children's books with me while I am at camp this week! I am so excited about reading them! As hard as it was to find books to fit under each category I learned a lot from the experience! 

I Broke My Trunk...

So this past week I was able to practice reading allowed to students by reading I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems to some of my friends. After reading chapter 2 of our text How Children Respond to Literature, I was able to use some of the tips to help entertain my friends. They thought it was really funny because the story is pretty close to how I broke my foot a few weeks ago. Mo Willems is the author that I am doing the Author Study on so it allowed me to get a jump start into that. 

By Mo Willems