We often assume kids know more than they actually do. That’s why it’s important to be explicit with them when reading aloud and demonstrating skills or strategies. When I decided to read-aloud Freya Littledale’s The Magic Fish to a first-grade class who were just starting a fairy tale unit, it was to help the kids pay attention to what the fisherman and his wife do, what they say, and even how they say it. I wanted them to eventually deduce that the fisherman is kind and his wife is greedy. The first page of The Magic Fish goes like this:
Once upon a time there was a poor fisherman.
He lived with his wife
in an old hut
by the sea.
Now I certainly intended to show the pictures, talk about how poor the couple was, and then mention that a “hut” is a simple, small house. One that’s not at all fancy. But then it dawned on me that this may not be enough. It’s unlikely that young children will have had much experience with concept of a “hut,” and then I realized that some children may never have been to the “sea.” So I printed some clip art of “hut” and “sea,” laminated the pages, and showed them to the children at the start of the story.
The setting of this story and the characters’ relationship to it has everything to do with the story. Now I’m not trying to make excuses the wife for wanting more, more, more, but I certainly understand her at least wanting a pretty house. Don’t you? After all she has to stay home all day while her husband is out fishing for dinner. A passtime he may even enjoy! But after that she’s on her own—her wanting to “live in a castle,” to “be queen of the land,” and to “be queen of the sun, and the moon, and the stars” is over the top and can only be attributed to her being GREEDY! Not at all a nice way to be, as she soon finds out.
My point is…take the time to help kids understand the stories we read aloud or those they read on their own. This may make the difference between creating readers who only read when they have to and those who choose to read because they love it.
