William F. Natale Jr.
One way of increasing interest in reading is to sustain the child’s enjoyment of a book that he has read, There are many ways we can integrate classroom activities with the child’s enjoyable reading experiences. Some will be presented now.
In the Area of Writing
(1) Have children pretend that they are characters from a book and send another character (student) a letter, For example,
Homer Price7
might write a letter to Zeus (from Greek mythology) and ask him if he would be interested in some “heavenly” doughnuts. Or maybe Odysseus
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could write a letter to his wife explaining why he will be late for dinner. Or, the monster Medusa
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might write a letter to her shampoo company, complaining about strange side effects she has experienced since using their shampoo, when again, Polyphemus
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might write to his doctor about the pain he is experiencing in his eye or atlas (same source) concerning his backache.
(2) Children can change or give stories new endings. They can pretend that they are the main characters and change the story to their liking. For example, King Midas
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could have been given th “peanut butter touch” or Pyramus and Thisbe
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might have scared the lion away with a can of mace.
(3) Pupils can keep a diary or log in which they pretend that they are the Inain characters of a book. A student pretending to be Odysseus can keep a log of his adventures. Another can give an account of some of the strange things she encountered as Persephone
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in the underworld.
(4) New stories can be written with plots, setting;s, or endings simiLar to those of a book just read and enjoyed. For example, someone who has read of Odysseus’ adventures might write a story to his mother explaining why he was two hours late for dinner Someone who has just read of the origin of the seasons
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might create a-story explaining why we have night and day.
(5) A class newspaper or magazine can contain headlines or articles about a character or situation from a previously read story. For example, “Odysseus Returns Home—Owes $10,000 for Overdue Library Book” or “Medusa Loses Head Over Handsome Greek.”
In the Areas of Art
(1) Posters or murals can be created displaying a situation or episode from an enjoyable book, Children love to draw, The teacher can use this desire to enhance their interest in reading so that they can accurately portray details in their art work, Gods, Men and Monsters and Greek myths have some beautiful illustrations that might inspire children.
(2) Cut-outs of characters from books can be displayed on bulletin boards. The teacher can assign groups of children to be responsible for monthly bulletin boards. The children will get much more excited if they are the creators.
(3) Mobiles, dioramas, shadowboxes, dolls, clay figures and book markers can be created. Stories can be told by use of these creations.
In Drama
Children of all ages love to pretend, Some very creative methods of motivating further pupil reading can be found in the following activities:
(1) Panomime—Through pantomime an individual or small group may share events of a popular story with the class as a whole. A few people may pantomime an incident to see if the rest of the class can guess what the performance represents.
A small group might easily pantomime King Midas turning things to gold while others might imitate Sisyphus rolling a rock up the hill.
This exercise not only gives ego satisfaction (attention) to those who have read the story but it also passes on interest (children motivating children) so that others might want to read the same story.
(2) Puppets of book characters can act out scenes or complete stories for the enjoyment of the rest of the class,
(3) Panel discussions, small group reporting and quiz show games pertaining to book characters can be made enjoyable to the class by a clever teacher. For example, Zeus might be interviewed and asked why he shot down Phaethon
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with a thunderbolt.
All of these suggestions can of course be varied by the teacher to create as much motivation as possible.