Today’s guest blogger is Raymond Khoury, the New York Times bestselling author of THE LAST TEMPLAR
December 17, 2010
Since 'tis the season….we created this holiday greeting for you, which we hope you enjoy with much appreciation from me and the entire staff at Bookreporter.com. It is “constructed” from my Bets On Picks and other books we featured prominently this year. The idea was inspired by some wreaths created by students that I saw in the windows of the Academy of Art University when I was in San Francisco earlier this month. Click on the image to the right to see a larger version of it.
December 2010
The holiday season is in full swing, with trees lit up at every corner and holiday music in every store. We here in New York even had our first real snow this week, though it disappeared too quickly. The bitter cold has stuck around making us all want to hunker down inside. What a great reason to stay inside and curl up with a good book. We know today is the last day of school for many of you, with others starting holiday breaks next week. Soooo happy vacation to all!
December 17, 2010
This is the last time we’ll “speak” before the new year, so I wanted to take this time to thank you all for a great year. This was an amazing 12 months for the site, for me personally, and for graphic novels in general; I’m incredibly pleased and grateful that we have such loyal and discerning readers.
In today's post, regular contributor Denise Neary shares an amazing program for kids to help them with reading comprehension. With programs like this - kids have so much fun they don't even realize they are learning. Thanks to librarian Heather Wright for your commitment to kids - and thanks Denise for sharing!
It is my personal belief that librarians have magical qualities.
I was trolling my local library’s website when I came upon this posting. Act It Out: for children in grades Kindergarten, first and second grades. We will share stories and act them out. Please register.
Wouldn’t you have had to know more?
I did-----and lucky for me, I was connected with the unquestionably magical Heather Wright of the Rockville (Maryland) library.
Her answers to my endless questions appear in italics.
What made the library decide to offer this program?
A woman named Lenore Kelner came and spoke to librarians a few years ago and demonstrated the technique she uses in her drama classes. She runs a place called "Interact Story Theater" which does after school drama classes using children's literature. I have tweaked her strategy to fit library audiences. I then read a book before I began called "A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension", in which I learned how important drama is in the area of reading comprehension. So the participants are having fun and improving their reading at the same time! (All without actually reading a word)
How does the evening play out?
Kids in Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade are the audience. No parents, no younger siblings, are allowed. The format is: I, the librarian do some warm-up drama exercises with the kids (creative, using-your-imagination kind of things), then I read a story, then I have the kids tell the story back to me in their own words making sure all kids get the gist of the story. Then, I assign parts to all the kids, and we basically act it out. I am the narrator and I move the action along. The kids sit around a rug in the children’s programming room in the library, and when it is their character's turn to say or do something, they stand on the rug. They don't need to say exactly what the character says in the book--they can say something they think that character might say under the circumstances. In this way, the kids are internalizing their characters, truly understanding their actions and motivations. This is an excellent way of building reading comprehension and listening comprehension. After the story is acted out, we do some cool-down exercises to come back to reality. It lasts usually about 45 minutes to an hour.
How widespread it the program?
Mary Jane Clark, the author of several highly addictive whodunits --- including TO HAVE AND TO KILL
Comics ratings: So useful in theory, so complicated in real life. It certainly is handy that the publishers put that age rating on the back, but what does it mean? Who decides what a 13-year-old can see that a 12-year-old can't? And which 13-year-olds are they talking about, anyway?
