When asked about books I love to share, it makes me pine for my days in the elementary school classroom. I miss the daily interaction with such a big variety of texts, and the experience of really digging in to a novel with my class. Now as a middle school science teacher most of the books in my my classroom are non-fiction. Against the recommendations of the NSTA, I do have some favorite children's fiction books with talking animals that I still love to share, but on the whole, non-fiction has taken over my classroom. Now, maybe it's because I was missing teaching novels, or maybe it was because I got to visit England and spend a whole day in Roald Dahl's hometown and museum, or maybe just because my students were being crazy in the lab, I decided we need a novel. Roald Dahl is my all time favorite children's author and this book has everything you expect in a Dahl story; a mischievous but clever child, lots if humor, a little magic, and of course an adult acting horribly who gets what's coming to her in the end. I have used this book in my fourth and fifth grade classrooms, but as a science teacher I can now look at this story in a new light with my students. It is an excellent look at why scientists work the way they do, and therefore how we should work as scientists in the classroom. During the events of the story, George makes a potion in his kitchen and tests it out on humans and animals, but he doesn't write down his procedures, ingredients, measurements or results. Later, under his father's insistence, he tries to recreate the potion he made the first time, but with very different results. He cannot seem to recreate the Marvelous Medicine from his memory the way he did the first time. If only he had written it down!! What a fantastic opportunity to talk about observations and the importance of recording data during everything we do in the lab. Of course because it is Roald Dahl there are lots of opportunities to teach literary elements and reading skills in the context of a wonderful silly story and outrageous characters. And the amazing vocabulary, voices of the characters, and tons of alliteration make repeated readings for fluency practice fun instead of tedious. The book is less than 100 pages, so it reads quickly, and from here on out it may be how I start the school year. Going to test it out this semester on my science elective class. I'll let you now how it goes.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Blog Challenge 1: Favorite Book
When asked about books I love to share, it makes me pine for my days in the elementary school classroom. I miss the daily interaction with such a big variety of texts, and the experience of really digging in to a novel with my class. Now as a middle school science teacher most of the books in my my classroom are non-fiction. Against the recommendations of the NSTA, I do have some favorite children's fiction books with talking animals that I still love to share, but on the whole, non-fiction has taken over my classroom. Now, maybe it's because I was missing teaching novels, or maybe it was because I got to visit England and spend a whole day in Roald Dahl's hometown and museum, or maybe just because my students were being crazy in the lab, I decided we need a novel. Roald Dahl is my all time favorite children's author and this book has everything you expect in a Dahl story; a mischievous but clever child, lots if humor, a little magic, and of course an adult acting horribly who gets what's coming to her in the end. I have used this book in my fourth and fifth grade classrooms, but as a science teacher I can now look at this story in a new light with my students. It is an excellent look at why scientists work the way they do, and therefore how we should work as scientists in the classroom. During the events of the story, George makes a potion in his kitchen and tests it out on humans and animals, but he doesn't write down his procedures, ingredients, measurements or results. Later, under his father's insistence, he tries to recreate the potion he made the first time, but with very different results. He cannot seem to recreate the Marvelous Medicine from his memory the way he did the first time. If only he had written it down!! What a fantastic opportunity to talk about observations and the importance of recording data during everything we do in the lab. Of course because it is Roald Dahl there are lots of opportunities to teach literary elements and reading skills in the context of a wonderful silly story and outrageous characters. And the amazing vocabulary, voices of the characters, and tons of alliteration make repeated readings for fluency practice fun instead of tedious. The book is less than 100 pages, so it reads quickly, and from here on out it may be how I start the school year. Going to test it out this semester on my science elective class. I'll let you now how it goes.
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