Read Alouds

Last week I read Separate Is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh to 3rd through 5th grade. This book is on the Texas Bluebonnet Nominee List. Tonatiuh tells us the true story of Sylvia Mendez and her family's fight to desegregate the schools in Orange County.  I started every lesson with a statement like "We are going to read a book that covers a sensitive subject. As we read we will stop and discuss some of the situations we read about." Students never cease to amaze me! Their insight on Sylvia and her brothers being separated from the white students and forced to go to a Mexican school was... well, deep. Their understanding of segregation and the injustice of it amazed me. We compared what Sylvia's family went through with other times in our nation's history. They brought up people like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges. I highly recommend this book!

I read My Teacher Is A Monster (No I Am Not by Peter Brown to Pre-K through 2nd. This book is on the Texas 2x2 list. This is an excellent read aloud. Bobby has a problem... his teacher Mrs. Kirby is a monster! Only when he meets her outside of school he realizes she really is human. We had so much fun with this book! Mrs. Kirby starts out looking like a green monster. But as Bobby realizes she's not a monster Mrs. Kirby starts to change color and starts to look more human. Sometimes students would notice these changes on their own and would frantically wave their hand in the air (I highly discourage frantic hand waving) to tell me about the changes. Other classes I had to point it out. The most fun questions I asked was at the end. I asked students if their teacher ever turned green. Then I'd ask who made their teacher turn green. Some students were so funny! Man! Their hand would fly in the air, they totally owned their behavior. Others sat there sheepishly with a little grin on their face while other students (good naturedly) pointed at them. I got some real insight to some of our teachers! Ha!