Multiliterate

The school I was placed at during my last placement had a strong focus on literacy. It was their whole school priority to develop students with strong literacy skills. The school has a low SES status and as a result many of the students who go there do not share the same opportunities as other schools in there area. 

I was lucky enough to be present for a professional development session on classroom libraries and ‘just right’ books. As a result of minimal funding and lack of time, my own classroom’s library was a sad sight. Books were scattered everywhere, there was no pride taken in the books with many of them falling apart. During professional development there was an emphasis on the importance of quality literature being available to students on a daily basis within their classroom. It also stressed the importance of children’s ‘book boxes’, and how they need to have a variety of literature, including at least a couple ‘just right’ book (a book which is not too hard and still engaging to them), as well as a challenging book (to be read with the teacher’s assistance), easy books and a piece of non-fiction.

The thing that stood out to me most was something generated by the music/dance/drama teacher. She was working around the clock to produce a ‘Seussical’, a show where students performed songs based around Dr. Seuss books. For me, this was where the excitement lived. Dr. Seuss books were in every classroom and children were reading them all day, every day in excitement for the ‘Seussical’. What an excellent way to promote excitement around literature without students even reading a word!

Some of my fondest childhood memories centre around being read to. My mum read to us every night without exception. We started with books like Horton the Elephant (and every other Dr. Seuss book ever written). The first book I ever read from start to finish was Go Dog Go. I was so excited. I then proceeded to read it over and over again until I drove my parents insane. 

In grade two, my teacher read us Roald Dahl’s The Witches. I could see she loved the book, maybe even more than we did. For weeks we whispered amongst each other, detecting which of our teachers were most likely witches. My mum, at the time, was our school librarian. She conspired with my classroom teacher and began to wear gloves all day long. It’s now a long standing tradition at the school. Whenever The Witches is read, the gloves come out.

Later on it was A Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter that really took the cake. In my mind I could conjure up infinite scenarios in which Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, or Harry, Ron and Hermione could encounter.