Reading aloud inspires kids to engage and connect with stories, and is an essential tool for building a lifelong love of reading. When students listen to a story while following along visually, understanding of sentence structure and flow deepens and stories truly come to life. When children read aloud themselves, they get to hear the story unfold in their own voice, and to ride with the flow of sentences--becoming more in tune with sentence rhythm, challenging diction and punctuation. 

Increased comfort with and interest in reading emerges with this process, as does greater confidence and skill with comprehension--not to mention the joy that comes with sharing the experience of a story in a small group. 

In this class, we read Lois Lowry's The Giver aloud together. The Giver is a dystopian novel set in a community where no one ever feels sadness or anger, the weather is always perfect, and love does not exist (--it's far too messy!) All seems perfect in this easy world until Jonas, a 12 year old boy, is assigned to become the town's new memory keeper. To do this, Jonas has to connect with 'the giver' to tap into his ancient memories from when things were unpredictable--terrible things happened to people, wars were rife---and feelings existed. This fantastic novel won the John Newbery Award for 1994. 

As we read, we explore theme, language, character, and other significant aspects of the story. I read aloud and also encourage students to read aloud, although this will be optional.  Regular reflection throughout our reading will play a main part in the course. I pose questions frequently--some recall-based, others designed to motivate critical thinking by encouraging students to explore subtext. 

In the final fifteen minutes of class, we work together to create a group ‘reading quiz’. For this, we each brainstorm questions about the reading we just completed and enter them into a spinning wheel to solve together game-show style.

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FOR RETICENT READERS: 
I teach in a supportive way that allows students to work at their own pace. I will encourage students to read aloud, but will not require that they do so. Reading aloud can be highly daunting to some in the beginning, and I feel it is of utmost importance for learners to go at a pace with which they feel comfortable, stepping out of that comfort zone gradually as they feel ready. I always see growth in confidence and willingness to take risks as the class progresses. 

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More about The Giver here:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez2vF5XCJBc 


OUR CLASS SCHEDULE 

Meeting 1 of 10:  Chapters 1,2
Meeting 2 of 10: Chapters 3,4
Meeting 3 of 10: Chapters 5,6
Meeting 4 of 10: Chapters 7.8
Meeting 5 of 10: Chapters 9,10
Meeting 6 of 10: Chapters 11-13
Meeting 7 of 10: Chapters 14-16
Meeting 8 of 10: Chapters 17-19
Meeting 9 of 10: Chapters 20,21
Meeting 10 of 10: Chapters 22-end