Sunday, July 15, 2012

A Six Year Old Reads Me Dr. Seuss

A blabber and a more interesting anecdote:

So the whole past week I have been working 9 hour days (including program set up, clean up, and planning time out of it) plus spending at least two hours a day commuting via bike.  And while I kind of have used that as an excuse not to write new blogs (when I started this blog I had a week off from work and thus wrote tons of articles that I would edit the day of posting) I'm out of pre-written blogs.  Been wondering if the daily paragraph is reasonable.  (Have I mentioned a glorious teacher training that was my weekend?)

Here's one of those moments that makes me feel the type of work I do is a blessing to get to do.  This past Wednesday I had a lesson plan based on the Dr. Seuss classic "The Sneetches".  All the 6 -10 year olds who already heard it were excited.  Isn't it interesting how when we are young we know that good writing is worth reading over and over, yet as we get older often develop the habit that you just read a book once, if you even read books at all?  We discussed how ridiculous the Sneetches' imagined differences were and experienced being both the plain bellied and star bellied Sneetches first hand.  One little girl, who was especially excited for the story, began to finish a line with me.  First I thought the rhyme helped trigger her memory, but as we progressed and continued on she began reading to me.  Not quoting from memory.  Not finishing the rhymes.  Sounding it out and reading, even though she hadn't even started first grade.  An essay that accompanied the story was written by a children's book store owner.  Meeting Seuss he said "thank you for teaching me to read."  Seuss, without missing a beat, said "funny, I don't remember that.  Well, Mr. Seuss, thanks for getting a 6 year old to read to me.

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