The Velveteen Rabbit was all that and more today. The text is amazing, and I chose it, rather than the other preselected text I'd planned, because I knew it held a little magic door that pulled its reader from disbelieving to the magical state of suspended disbelief.
My teaching point was wide and sweeping at first--"Readers! Pay Attention. Fantasy is a genre of mysteriously tangled plots, twisted characters and magical settings that test our sense of reality!"
We talked again about character driven versus plot driven storylines, and we dabbled into sharing about books we've read, and that knowing point at which the author has us in the palm of his or her hand.
Margery Williams is a master, elegant, simple with a Silk Horse instantly becomes our sage.
Well, we didn't need to look far. Today, we read the page toward the end, where Bunny is left in the bracken, and the other two sharp-eyed rabbits come and test him...telling him there's no way he can be real! But Bunny knows better and he tells them so. After all the Boy has told him he is real. The boy has snuggled him, and loved him. But now, he feels that tingle, the little tickly feeling that makes him want to leap up and dance.
He doesn't of course, not then anyway. That, is the tease. And that is the point when the author dangles the carrot, and we want so badly for him to leap in the air. The magical pen stroke of a masterful author!
"Readers--today, I want you to find the place when you can feel that tickly feeling. The point in the book where the author creates that opening in the platform, and you find yourself completely sucked in!"
Author meets reader, and it is really is love at first (un)sight!
The ground falls away, senses take over and the heart leaps up for the dance!
Learning often has that tickly feeling, and today, it swept us all up and took us away!
Slice of Life Challenge:
For the month of March, I'm participating in a daily writing challenge, blogging, and posting, and reading other teachers' blogs. This challenge was started by two writing teachers, and can be found at their blog each day: www.twowritingteachers.wordpress.com. Feel free to join me! It's a great way to keep story threading throughout your brain each day.
2 comments:
Love this book and haven't read it for a very long time. I'm going to bookmark your blog and do this with my class after spring break. Thank you! D :)
The Velveteen Rabbit was my favorite book as a child. I still have the copy that was my moms, then mine. I haven't read it in a very long time. I think it's time to pull it off the shelf and share it with some little people! Thanks for the reminder.
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