Okay, Lori. I can't help but think the title of your last blog post-"ch-ch-ch changes"- was brought on by my brilliant ability to title MY blog with a catchy song. So now it's on. Whether you expected this or not, whether you knew your blog title would make some of us think about songs, either/or... now I challenge you. Can you take it? Can you come up with a song title for your blogs? We shall see. Oh yes, we shall see.
So I've been reading The Wizard of Oz to my students for "I Love to Read" month. What I've found to be most interesting is that the majority of them have NEVER heard of this movie, let
alone the book. Yet those same kids (aka- the majority) could quote from the classic movie titled Chucky at the drop of a hat. And I'm not joking. Pretty stupid, 'eh? Not to mention disruptive, scary, irresponsible, sickening, etc, etc. SO, in my quest to teach them more about classic literature and things that children should be more aware of, I happen to pick up the book that starts out with a scary cyclone and a little girl who ends up killing a witch by landing on her. Hmmm. Even being a gal from Kansas, I can say that I had truly forgotten about the house landing on a witch. So I got to that part, read it, and then decided we needed to have a class discussion. We talked about how they felt when I read that part. We talked about what Dorothy could have done so she wouldn't have landed on the witch (huh? This one came up from one of the little gals who always likes to sit in the front.). And we talked about how bad the munchkins must have felt to have a leader who treated them so yucky (tyranny=angry townspeople).
All in all? I'm amused. I can't believe I'm sitting down with a group of first graders and discussing munchkins. And how it would have been super cool if Dorothy could have steered her house like a giant car. Oh why Dorothy? Oh why couldn't you have been more industrialized?
PS- That picture is one my aunt has ended up putting on a rubber stamp. It was taken of me way back in the 80's- she sells it as "Courtney Rose" but has used it as Dorothy. Pretty awesome, 'eh?
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Somewhere, over the rainbow
Posted by Courtney Rose at 4:20 PM
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4 comments:
thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
I have been looking SOOO hard for a book that none of my students have read or have had read to them. I spent an hour in the library this afternoon looking for the VERY PERFECT book. I gave up. We have been through all 3 Pippi Longstocking books and just finished Mr. Popper's Penguins. It seems like no matter what book I show them all I get is..."I've heard that book." I am now going to do it...The Wizard of Oz - perfect.
Did I say thank you?
Ok-that's awesome. The rubber stamp, the reading Wizard of Oz, all of it.
I love children's literature. I teach high school biology and social studies, so for the most part-I don't get to share in that love with my students. But, what you did today sounds amazing.
I'm glad you titled this post Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I finally came up with an idea for our older child's room-and, it has something to do with that song. (It's one of my favorites).
I'll post pictures within a few months.... :)
I want to be a teacher. That sounds like fun to me. I actually had just started certification when we decided to adopt, so I put that on hold for a bit...not to mention that it would end up being my second masters - can you say "Over-educated"? And, with no career to show for it. Oops... I got on a tangent there. What I wanted to say was how great it is that you recognized the need for a discussion and how fun that must be with first graders.
Something to bore you first-graders with: One of my grad school professors had this hobby research-project to record every reference to Wizard of Oz he heard in a day. He'd been working on this for more than a year when I was his student, and he'd discovered at least one reference *per day*. Amazing. Truly.
And I don't know about that song title challenge. Currently, my brain is operating about as brilliantly as a bowl of oatmeal, so I may only let you down, Dorothy.
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