Wonders All Around

Learning Alongside My 5th Grade Wonders

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#SOL18 Day 30: Class Read Aloud

A few weeks ago I finished reading Wishtree to my class. It was a wonderful time. We loved the short chapters, the bits of mystery, and the beautifully crafted descriptions. When it ended, it took about 15 seconds for someone to ask, “So, what are we going to read next?” which led to a flurry of suggestions.

In the end, my students begged me to read Ghost by Jason Reynolds. I’m not sure exactly what exactly got them so excited about this book. No one knew what it was about; no one had read any of his other works. But I had read it, and I knew it was a book that would take them out of their familiar reading territory. I was a little worried about how my suburban 5th graders would react to some of the situations in the book, but, in the end, that’s exactly what made me decide to read it with them.

If you’ve read the book, you may remember that the first chapter starts off light-hearted. My students were wiggling on the carpet, poking at their friends, and giggling along with the sass of the narrator as I got started. Then, without much warning, the story takes a huge turn and shocks you with a terrifying situation. The classroom froze. I had to lower my voice to adjust to the lack of background noise. We were all barely breathing. When we finished the chapter, pretty much the only comments were “Wow!” and “I can’t believe that’s what happened!”

Of course, my worries about this book being too much for them resurfaced. We talked for a bit, and I reassured them that the rest of the book wouldn’t be as intense.

Reading this book has changed our read aloud time. Now, I find students squeezing in on all sides of me as I sit down to read. They’ve always sat close, but never THIS close. Seriously, I have NO elbow or leg room.

I know that Ghost isn’t what they were expecting, but I think it’s what they needed.

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