What is a circular story? A circular story contains sequencial patterns and a predictable sequence of events. The story begins with one event, progresses and "circles" back to the original event or object in which the story first began. A circular story can be used in the classroom for making predictions, sequencing, comprehension and involving students in critical thinking. Circular stories and other genres can be intgrated into any school subjects. Upon looking for the various types of circular books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle is a great book that can be integrated into several subjects. Students learn from the life cycle of a butterfly to sequencing the events in the story!
Making Reading Fun! Just like Dr. Harris made reading fun with bubbles, pancakes and creating a class story, we too can do the same! Having hands-on activities like the bubbles and eating in class, children will want to read and learn. Bringing in manipulatives (like the bubbles) and everyday objects into the classroom, will allow children to relate and participate in real-life settings. Reading and eating food in which the story mentions is a great idea! I think creating an atmosphere in which the students are comfortable is important.
Some fun ways to make reading enjoyable:
Partner read: students partner up and each choose a book and take turns reading.
Mentor read: older students read with younger students or vise versa.
Secret reader: tell students you have a secret reader coming to read, excite students by asking questions as to what the reader might read, make tallies, keep track of guesses, etc.
Book of the week/day: teacher randomly chooses a student's name from hat, secret ballot, etc. The chosen student brings in a book, sits at teacher's desk or reading area and reads the book for the class.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Jessica, I like the example you gave of Eric Carl "The very Hungry Caterpillar" that is a very good example you gave as a circular story and it is as well one of my favorite Authors. I also enjoyed your ideas of fun reading. Good Job! Very informative. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteJessica, I also agree with you on the fun reading ideas. I think Dr. Harris' ideas of the bubbles and making up our own stories really made the book more interesting and fun. I also like the idea you gave of the mentor read. I think this a wonderful idea because it gets the students excited to share a book with someone else and sometimes even someone older who they look up to. Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteJessica
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of having an older student come in and read to the students. They can help with reading skills and the younger students may feel more comfortable reading to them. This can help build self esteem as well.
I enjoyed your idea on having the secret reader because it keeps the students in excitement to read. It is always great to keep students off their seats for reading. And, of course The Very Hungry Caterpillar is an excellent example of a circular story. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your ideas on making reading fun. I agree with you that you can use the same activities Dr. Harris used in her class is someting that we can do in our future classrooms. I also agree that having hands-on activities like the bubbles and eating in class would be something that would make children want to read and learn. I also liked the things you listed that we can do to make reading fun. The partner thing was something that I did in school and it was always enjoyable. I also liked your idea to do mentor reading, this was also something that I did in school and it was very helpful for the student doing the mentoriong and the student who was being read to.
ReplyDelete