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In just a week, I will have the opportunity to introduce myself to your parents/guardians on “Meet the Teacher” night! Thinking about this has caused me to reflect upon when I first met all of you during 6th grade orientation, and I asked how many of you knew about The City of Ember. At the time, you did not know how much you would come to enjoy this 270 page treasure. As excited as we are to reach the conclusion, I have purposely been pacing you because every cliff-hanger and newly revealed clue makes the experience of reading The City of Ember more memorable and valuable. I imagine that when we finish, you will still wish that you had just one more page left to read. However, fortunately for you, if you’re interested in reading more, Ember is a whole series. You can read it at your leisure!
There are two simple scenes in The City of Ember that I enjoy because of their symbolism. Symbolism is when an author represents ideas using symbols. Think back to the bean seed that Clary gives to Lina. What does that bean seed represent? Think now to the moth that Doon spends so much time focusing on in the recent chapters. What does that represent? These symbols were not lazily placed by Jeanne DuPrau. She was not just looking to fill up the pages with words. These details were put there for thoughtful readers like you (and me) to make sense of them.
Speaking of “thoughtful” readers, I surprised some of you in class this week when we discussed verbs, and I told you that the word “think” is a verb. We tend to define verbs as those actions we can observe: skipping, falling, shuffling, spinning, hollering, whispering, sneezing, and singing (on-key, I hope!). Thinking is not something we can see a person doing though, and as a result, we come to forget that “thinking” is also a verb. It is something we can choose to DO or NOT do. When I was a student, sitting at a desk with the teacher in front of me did not automatically earn me good grades. What earned me good grades was my decision to deliberately think about what that teacher in front of me was saying. I didn’t only learn by listening. I became involved by asking questions and making connections. This is what I’ve been trying to encourage you to do through Edmodo. Active reading strategies (like asking questions while you read and making predictions) are precisely what allow us to enjoy books so much. Once you learn this, you will never look at a book the same way again!
No one becomes a lover of reading simply by skimming words on a page. You will only learn to love reading the day you decide to see those words as thoughts put together in a meaningful way. We talk so much in our world about exercise being good for our bodies, but rarely do I overhear people on TV advertising how reading is exercise for our brains. Perhaps we all need a “workout plan" for reading, and perhaps I will be the spokesperson!
-Ms. Sanford