Jayne's Favorite Book

I remembering when I entered the third grade that the big thing was that in Language Arts class were going to read chapter books, and only chapter books. Being a student that struggled quite often with reading, it was an understatement to say that I was nervous about this. On the first day of class my teacher pulled out a book with a wildly beautiful colors swirling around the cover. The book was My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannet. The book was basically about a young boy named Elmer Elevator who goes on a fun adventure to a wild island to save a baby dragon. On the first day I went home and was assigned to read the first chapter. When I sat down I was so enthralled with the story that I did not really notice that I might have tripped over some words or struggled with pronunciation.

I really enjoyed the book because it was such a great story. It was every child’s dream to go on some expansive adventure. It’s a fun story and a pretty great read for starting readers. There really is something in the book for everyone.

I think I would definitely use this book in my class if I taught the young elementary grades (1^st,, 2^nd, 3^rd grade). I think the text allows for a lot of places for you to pose questions to the class. If I were to teach it, I would maybe assign a chapter or two at night. The chapters are very short so this would not be a lot to ask. The next day, maybe first thing in the morning so that the story is somewhat fresh in their minds, I would have a little mini quiz. This way I could assess 1) which students are struggling with the comprehension of the text and 2) which students are even doing the assigned reading. I also think that the text is a fun one, a text in which students will be very excited to read. I feel that by the second and third grade there are a lot of students that are somewhat disheartened by the whole reading process. Hopefully by giving them a book that is fun and having a lesson plan that is somewhat interactive I can hopefully change their minds about reading.