Monday, September 27, 2010
Paige's Book Share: The Dot
In one of my classroom observations for my ET2T program, the teacher was doing a writer's workshop. She started by reading the story The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds to her students. From there they proceeded in basic writer's workshop instruction, but I was so enchanted by the book I could not pay attention! This is such a great book for all ages!
Reynolds is both the author and illustrator of this book and his pictures tell so much about the story, as well as his words. The theme of the book is creativity. A little girl is convinced she cannot draw so her art teacher tells her to make a dot on the piece of paper. The little girl does and the next day her dot is in a gold frame above the art teacher's desk. From there her creatively is sparked because she has confidence. The story ends with the little girl helping a boy find his creativity, so the ending is a ripple effect. I think this book does a great job of encouraging children to harness an idea (any idea!) and running with it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wow! This sounds like an excellent book. Whenever I read about teachers like this whether in fiction or in real life, it makes me a little teary eyed. Framing that dot let the little girl know that she was special and that the teacher valued her. Gives me the warm fuzzies!
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty cool. It makes me think of how I hang up all artwork the kids give me and insist that they sign it...even the littlest doodles. It would be fantastic to read this book and then get a "class frame" and have the students help you choose what to higlight each week...a community honor. It could be artwork, writing, homework, anything!
ReplyDelete