Noticing Literacy Moments

Day 27 SOL
Today was a fabulous day to just have a few peeks into human interactions with words and the power of words that touch your heart and bring us closer together.

I started my day with a teacher in my doorway so excited to share a book title with me. Wow, what a perfect morning greeting!

Before school started we had an optional meeting. The focus was on building relationships through reading. We were asked to bring a book or two that means something to you or your students. As so often happens, it seemed that the agenda was dual purposed as once we started talking about our books the relationships between us strengthened. There were so many cross-connections as people shared, as one teacher talked about a book, memories, ideas and thoughts were shared that wrapped us closer to the books and closer to one another. We talked about past classes, our own children, the power of read aloud and how books give us common language.

The next interaction I observed was a new student walking into a first grade classroom. The girl was of Chinese decent and the teacher had no idea if this student was new to the United States or not. As the child slowly advanced into the room to meet her teacher, the teacher extended her hand and said ni3 hao3 (pronounced knee how) and the child said hi! It was precious. The child with her anxious eyes seemed to quickly relax and smile, she saw the humor and felt the welcome.

Mid-day, in a fifth grade classroom one student who is ready to dig into a great book, he looks at me desperately from across the room, he shrugs his shoulders, he needs a book. I had lent a book to a teacher and I told him that it just might be the type of book he was looking for. Don’t be afraid I tell him; just go ask for the book. He left the room and returned with book in hand. I sat down next to him and introduced the book. Tried to pull him in with some of the humor of the book. I could not tell if he bought into the idea of reading this book or not. Just as I was leaving the room I observe him calling over a friend and sharing the sentences that I had pointed out and both boys are cracking up! I can’t wait to see what he thinks of the book – tomorrow will tell.

Later in the day, several emails fly through our building as we rejoice in our resident poet, Mary Lee's, next work.  We rally around her gift for words and are excited to read all the poetry written for kids.

All day, all around me, there are literacy moments to take in and celebrate.