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| Luke and Liam reading PEOPLE |
Tonight
was Family Reading Night at my school. For the first time I attended as a
teacher AND as a parent! Our librarian chose “celebrating our differences” as
our theme this year. All students had Wonder read aloud to them over the
past month. There have been WONDERful conversations in classrooms about Auggie
and how he is treated at school.
Our
librarian, Mrs. Doherty, had three “stations” set up for the night. We began at
the iPads. She had loaded several books onto them. The book my boys and I chose
to read was People by Peter Spier. What a special book. I asked my boys
what was the reason Mrs. Doherty would have us read this one and they
immediately said it showed how different we all are.
Then we headed to a shared read of Peter Reynold’s The Dot. Mrs. Doherty started this station by playing a copy of my Wonder soundtrack. I had many questions about this last time I mentioned it. A friend simply noted all of the songs mentioned in the book Wonder and created a playlist. After listening we then read The Dot and talked about perseverance. We then headed to the hall and created a display of “dots.”
Moving
along we came to our special education teacher’s station. She shared a book she
loves, Al Capone Does My Shirts. She talked a little about the sister
from the book and how her brother celebrated her differences. Then she shared
some photos of Alcatraz and her summer trip to visit it.
Finally,
we came together back in the gym. Dr. O’Brien talked about costumes and how do appearances
change our reactions to others. He had several volunteers come up and we talked
about when they put on various accessories that it changed the way they looked,
but not who they were. Mrs. Doherty closed the night and gave me a quick second
to mention the Choose Kind Tumblr and to mention once again what Wonder
means to me.
I loved
the chance to see my students with their families, and the opportunity to celebrate
some wonderful books. What a terrific evening! And if you haven't seen my students' video reacting to WONDER, click HERE.
