Chapter Three

The first thing that caught my eye on the chapter is, "Scaffolding, which is supportive teaching that includes questioning, modeling, feedback, and instruction with the idea that adult support is gradually withdrawn as learners become more autonomous (pg 38)." Whereas, I thought it meant building on their prior knowledge. There are so many things that go into teaching and we are just getting started!!!! I didn't know that aesthetic reading (reading for fun) didn't demand anything of you. I learned about other methods of reading, like efferent, which is more demanding and requires more work. Readers are more likely to slow down, reread passages, attempt to read every word, and struggle, which I did not know did more for me when I was a child. I remember it being frustrating to learn, but look where it got me for continuous effort. But all of our readings fall in between either efferent (hard) or aesthetic (easy). We have to learn the difference between these because it is the balance of where we want our children to be reading, not too difficult, but not too easy as well. We need to talk about the new concepts and vocabulary with them. I always found it helpful to write down words that I didn't know and then I would look them up later. And we cannot get enough of critical thinking, I believe it is a fun part of elementary school and needs to be addressed more often at an early age versus an adult, because if you don't have the proper education, it makes it very difficult to figure out problems later on. I thought it was helpful that they listed ways to assess comprehension on page 45. I also think it's good to go over the story and discuss it as a class, that way we know they read it and it clarifies any unanswered questions they may have. That's all I have for now, but Chapter 3 is the beginning of many very important chapters that we need to study!

"Author Study"

"The Giving Tree," by Shel Silverstein, is about a tree who loved a little boy. Every day the boy went to the tree to eat apples or play and it would make the tree happy. But when the boy got older he wanted more and more from the tree. This story teaches about giving and taking and love. It's a must have for your classroom library!

"The Year I Didn't Go to School," by Giselle Potter, is a children's book based on the author's past. The author's parents had a theatre company in which they performed, "Mystic Paper Beasts," and this story tells it all. It's different, I have to say. But that's what we need, we need to broaden our horizons and try new things.

"Counting Christmas," is a baby book, probably and more than likely used in Pre K classes, because it is a beginner book. This book, by Karen Katz, one of my favorite authors and illustrators, counts down from ten days of Christmas to one. It's really cute when you are teaching the basics.