Here’s a report from Erin:
Hola, Ben!
Just wanted to share an update for the group.
In my district, we still have a week to go until spring break, since they’ve tied it to the Good Friday holiday. The kids are understandably antsy, so of course last Friday my principal came in for an observation during my last class of the day. We were reading & discussing “Mi propio auto,” and it felt a bit flat. So I assigned them the next two pages to partner-read and draw, then make a prediction about the newest character that is introduced. I felt like that salvaged the lesson somewhat. On Monday, my admininstrator came by to discuss the observation, and he had a lot of questions about how I use the novels. He was very enthusiastic about how I’m supporting literacy and the Common Core (I emphasized the non-fiction cultural parallels we get into), and at the end of it he asked, “So what would it take to put a novel in every student’s hands to keep?” My answer: five bucks! We’re going to make it happen next year. I feel so lucky to have supportive admins, and I am looking forward to getting my hands on more novels!
Gracias,
Erin Bas