Remember to think about what you read
Published on February 23, 2022 at 2:20pm EST | Author: Chad Koenen
0Library Happenings
Henning School
Before school began, during the library remodel, I had purchased five blank canvas wall frames that I wanted to hang on the wall right behind where I read. I thought long and hard about what the canvases should say.
When I was a young child my mom had framed a Dear Abby column and hung it in the stairwell of our house. I would make umpteen trips up and down that stairwell in my young life and I knew what the Dear Abby column said regardless of how many times I had read it. There it hung, beckoning me to read it again and again. I’ve reminded my mom of this often and I, too, used the same tactic to get a message across to my children.
Today, as I write this column, I realized just how important that tactic is. This morning Shelby Loock brought me a thank you note that she had drawn the front cover to. The image on the card is priceless. It shows that Shelby knows what the five canvases say without sitting in front of them.
Each week she sits across from these canvases, just the same as 162 other students do throughout the week. The canvases say “Think about what you read” and that is the very message I want to convey to the children throughout this year. I want them to understand that they get to choose what they want to read but when they read it they should think about what is happening as they read. What is the character doing? What does the character look like? How does the character feel? What are the facial expressions? What is the body language? When was this, where was this, what was happening around the character?
Get into the story, don’t just read it to take a test on it. Read it to enjoy it, to know it. I have laminated the thank you card that Shelby made and I have it hanging at my desk to remind me that the effort we put in each day is worth every word. Thank you Shelby for reminding me.
Come on up to the Henning Library and checkout a book and get INTO the story. We are open from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons following the school calendar.