Connections

I am finally beginning a deeper level of focus lessons. We have talked about how stories remind us of things from our own life. Today, we relooked at our connections from Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe and talked about which ones were helpful in making meaning and which ones were "shallow" connections. They were kinda getting it, so I set them out for their own reading...in my first conference, we talked about how you need to know what in the text helped you make the connection (strike one). In the second conference, we talked about how the connection needs to help you understand the story in a more meaningful way, just having the cat sit on a plate is not a connection (strike two), and in my third conference, he didn't have any connections whatsoever (strike three).

During sharing (which, Ruth, I write down their comments in my Becoming journal to keep track of where I'm going to go with lessons and future ideas and to see their growth), one of the last speakers said, I made two connections in my book. Could there be a light at the end of this tunnel? She said, "a monkey and max." When probed by the kids (whew, at least there was this glimmer), she explained a little more...she can sound like a monkey and she has a dog, Max. Well, I guess there's always tomorrow!

Any ideas for great books that your children were able to make deep, meaningful, text-to-self connections? I am going to try Today I Feel Silly tomorrow.