Sarah_9_I

Simmons speaks in this chapter about the “storytelling voice” when reading to children. I identified with this immediately. My mom is an elementary school speech & language teacher. I’ve gone to school with her so many times & observed her in the classroom. Often when she goes into the kindergarten or first grade classrooms she does a “large language unit.” This usually starts out with her reading a story & then doing a related activity afterwards. When I say she reads a story, that is an understatement. She is SO LOUD and really gets into the story. If you are in the classroom, you understand why. Kindergarteners & first graders are squirmy, loud, impatient people. To truly get into the story you have to grab their attention right away & hold it until the very end. I really believe you have to be a certain type of person to be a teacher, especially elementary. Each time I go into my mom’s school, the chaos reminds me of a zoo. I think the teachers are like zoo-keepers, trying to keep track of the children. They do a fantastic job, and captivate the children each day.