This summer I made it a goal to read more widely in the picture book area. Previously, the book I shared with students on the first day of school was THE NAME JAR by Yangsook Choi. The power of that book for me was that I could share a personal story about the importance of names, that it is every child's right to be called by their name (in whatever variation that may be) and have it pronounced correctly as a part of their identity, it's written by an author who has personal stories about adapting to a new culture, it's a beautiful book and story, and it is a great segue into introductions and my making sure I have the correct name and pronunciation for each of my students.
This year is the first time that I will have a group of students for the 2nd year in a row, so it was time to decide on new first day of school read alouds for my incoming 8th graders (who I taught last year as 7th graders - I will probably still use the same one I've used before for my incoming 7th graders because I like the message it sends about building our community from the start). The great thing is that I won't have to waste any time in getting to know you activities because we all know each other already, so we can jump right into the learning and reading. In thinking about all of the picture books I read aloud to this group last year (and there were many) and all of the new ones I've found this summer, and what I know about this class of students from last year and their group dynamics, I realized I wanted to tailor the theme of the books I chose to what I think they need and what I want to focus on from the start of their 8th grade experience. What I realized is that there were three picture books I read that all related to themes of friendship, supporting each other, and courage. Thus, my first day of school read alouds for my 8th graders this year. *I'm also very much looking forward to being able to rethink this every year for my incoming 8th graders based on what I know about that group and how I want to start our year.
This year I will start with:
THE STORY OF FISH & SNAIL by Deborah Freedman
BOY + BOT by Ame Dyckman
I especially love that when I tweeted this list out, Deborah and Ame expressed their excitement that I was reading aloud picture books to 8th graders...and even more so this:
If you haven't read any of these, I highly recommend that you do. Happy reading!
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