At the end of the school year, I happened to be in the office and Mrs. Freeney showed me a wonderful drawing her daughter, Aine, did:
I mean, isn't it great? The illustrations, and the text bubbles? And the meshing of the two stories into one?
I then asked Mrs. Freeney how it came about and she said that her daughter had recently read two books: MacBeth on MyOn and Diary of a Wimpy Kid...
Which got her to drawing that picture up above that was a combination of the two. I thought it was so awesome, as it was an authentic response to reading that was unprompted by any kind of "work" that kids were required to do.
Response is one of the five components of Reading Workshop, which is the model of reading instruction that the teachers at Emerson strive to follow.
One quote about reader's response says, "Research on reader response theories has shown that it is a reader's personal response to literature that encourages that reader to return to literature experiences." So, how are your children responding to what they are reading this summer?
Is it through conversation? That's a natural response selection - and as an adult, when I think of my my favorite books, the first thing I want to do after I finish it is tell someone about it. And if they liked the book as much as I do, then I want to talk about it....sometimes for hours!
I happened on this quote on Twitter last week which supports this notion, "Literate conversations with peers (as little as ten minutes a day) improve students' reading motivation, comprehension, and test scores" (Cazde, 1988 & Nystrand, 2006).
So, this month and always, encourage reading in your home by helping your child to respond to it in any ways they might like...through conversation, through art, through writing. Let's encourage our kids to come back to literature experiences through their response!
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