Challenge Accepted

This week at Alan Shawn Feinstein Middle School was a week of change as Katie and I moved on from simply observing to actually taking center stage in the classroom. Ms. Tundis presented us with the challenge to take over two of her classes by reading the novel, A Chance in the World out loud to the students. We happily accepted this unexpected offer and jumped right into the novel. We also had to use our judgement to decide which parts to stop on and foster a brief discussion. Our English expertise paid off since we were both able to make on the spot decisions regarding which points we wanted to clarify and which parts we wanted students to express their opinions on. Reading out loud to the students was both a fun and exciting experience for myself, since I not only enjoyed the reading part but was also drawn in by student responses. Students would debate back and forth over a question as simple as whether or not one of the characters was a sympathetic or unsympathetic figure. After teaching these classes we engaged in a discussion with Ms. Tundis, in which she expressed her perspective on the benefits of reading a story to the class. She said how most teachers would view this as being extremely oldschool, but that this technique allows for students to comprehend and engage in the novel during those during reading discussions. Also, students are better able to understand and become engaged since it is being read with expression and not in a monotone voice. I could not agree with Ms. Tundis more and plan on implementing this as much as possible in a classroom of my own one day. I wonder if this book would have been as successful in another classroom had students been assigned to read chapters on their own for homework. Would they still be anxiously asking the teacher if their going to focus on the novel in class? Would they have as much knowledge of the events and characters?