Wednesday, May 02, 2007

HUGO CABRET As A Read Aloud

I have been trying to figure out how to read aloud THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick to my class. I had lots of options. I was going to use the projector at school each day but it would be hard to sign it out and get it to the room for 1/2 hour of read aloud each day. I was going to get the Audio CD that comes with a DVD. Then I found out that it had sound effects for the pictures. Sounded too much like animation to me. I want to be able to talk about what the picture tells us without the sounds that someone else put to the pictures. I thought about purchasing hundreds of transparencies and running a transparency of each page. Then, I remembered that at our local grocery store, we have a machine that counts our change and you can trade your coins in for......amazon gift certificates. I remembered we had a pretty full jar of change upstairs. So, I went to the grocery store, turned in my change and ordered 10 copies of HUGO CABRET. Kids can share in groups of 2 or 3. It was like they were free--okay, kind of anyway. (I could have been smart and organized and ordered 12 from the public library and waited, but I am not so organized and since we only have 5 weeks of school yet, I knew I had to act fast.) I love sharing things that are in the world of literacy chit-chat with kids. Since Al Roker just named THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET as his first book club book (kids 9-11), I thought we'd jump in and be part of the fun. So, we finish reading aloud HOW TO STEAL A DOG tomorrow or Friday (more on this later--it has been a great read!). We'll preview HUGO on Monday and we'll have about 4 weeks to read and discuss it. I am VERY excited. (And, I was smart enough to get the books delivered directly to school rather than carry 10 copies of the giant book from my house to school.) So, I'll keep you posted. I think it is going to be a great end-of-the-year read aloud! Can't wait! Check out the great HUGO CABRET website if you haven't seen it yet.

8 comments:

  1. I admire and applaud your dedication. And I love the Hugo book and know why you feel it is worth the extra effort to share it.

    Let me suggest a book for read aloud, I guess next year. I gave my fifth grader's teacher The Thing About Georgie to read to the class and they LOVED it! It has all these little exercises at the beginnings of the chapters that let the class get involved. Keep it in mind.

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  2. When I saw your post last night I kept thinking that book looked familiar. A student of mine pulled it out and was very excited about it this morning. He just loves it. ( he is a 7th grader.) I will need to check it out next! I always love your good information.

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  3. The Thing About Georgie would be a great read aloud. I just discovered it a few weeks ago after the author's blog tour. It is quite popular with my kids during independent reading time. They seem to love it.

    My kids are dying to know what our next read aloud it. I hope they are as excited as I am about HUGO!

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  4. Anonymous10:40 PM

    I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again: your students are so lucky to have you! I was feeling kind of tired and grumpy this evening, but then I read your post and, I mean it, your dedication and your students' enthusiasm cheered me right up. Thanks, Franki!

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  5. Looking forward to Al's Book Club! I think it's 5/8 for Hugo Cabret.

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  6. I hope my kids are excited as all of you are--what do you mean that HUGO is 5/8?
    Is that grades?
    Thanks!

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  7. Anonymous10:03 AM

    What a great idea! And I hadn't seen that Today show stuff yet, so thanks for the link. I'll have to remember to tune in on May 18 to see Selznick.

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  8. Anonymous11:45 AM

    I noticed that Brian Selznick commented on the audio book on Read Roger. He added his thoughts to the comments from Roger's post on the subject (right around the end of April).
    ~Julie

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