- I introduced the idea
- I shared a partially-completed model I was working on
- Students brainstormed with peers
- Some students reconnected with their past by reviewing their history of book checkouts, in our online catalog system
- Some students reconnected by exploring the kindergarten and first-grade books in the library
- Students created their own elementary school history in covers of favorite books.
- I was interested to note how the gender of the main character on the book cover chosen compared with the reader's gender. As shown in the slideshow examples, girl readers self selected books with female main characters (such as Fancy Nancy, Junie B. Jones) and male characters (Captain Underpants, Harry Potter, Calvin and Hobbes). Boy readers, however, largely chose male main characters only; the one possible exception I found was the Magic Treehouse brother-sister duo.
- This, to paraphrase Hercule Poirot, causes me "furiously to think" and to ponder future read-aloud choices; it also strengthens my goal of providing empathy-themed literature.