I was preparing first grade to hear Oh No, Gotta Go! (Susan Elya, Putnam, 2003). To connect the book to their experience, I asked, “When you need a bathroom, where do you stop when you are away from home?” There were a number of expected answers before one of my earnest cherubs answered, “The grass”. I quickly opened the book and began, “We were out driving, down the camino…”
Before I read a story aloud, I activate student’s prior experiences and knowledge (schema). I sat in my rocking chair, talking with kindergartners before reading a large, appealing book called A Splendid Friend Indeed (Suzanne Bloom, Boyds’ Mills Press, 2005.) I was enjoying the session and the children seemed motivated and involved. Evidently it was all too much for one little girl, who suddenly yelled loudly, “Would you just READ the book?!”
