It's hard to believe that A Wrinkle in Time is turning 50 this year.
This book was a landmark book in my reading life. I chose it from the Scholastic book order in sixth grade. I was a voracious reader, but this was in the first book that really challenged me to THINK and to FEEL.
Although I've read it over and over again, I've never read it aloud to my students. Last year's class (4th grade) embraced the challenge of a long science fiction book (The Search For Wondla), so I decided to try A Wrinkle in Time with this class.
I reserved 24 copies of the book from the public library so that every student could read along, and they've each got a short stack of mini stickie notes to mark juicy (or unknown) vocabulary words and places to go back to and discuss.
Then I made a somewhat radical decision. I am not reading the book to them.
Madeline L'Engle is.
We're listening to the audio book!
We are only a few chapters in so far, but the combination of having a book to follow and a very different voice to listen to as we read has been magical. The students have been studying the cover illustration in minute detail, and as we have been introduced to each new character so far, they go back and look again and talk some more. This is our cover:
Can you see the evil man with the red eyes? He's both in the background and in the sphere that someone (we're not sure who) is holding aloft. I didn't notice him until my students pointed him out to me.
I'm excited to see what else about this old favorite will be made new and fresh as I read along with my fourth graders.
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Visit the A Wrinkle In Time Facebook page.
Here are all 50 of the blogs that are participating in the 50 Years, 50 Days, 50 Blogs Celebration Blog Tour:
Week 1: Revisiting A Wrinkle In Time
January 16 -20
Week 2: Sharing A Wrinkle In Time
January 23 - 27
Week 3: Characters in A Wrinkle In Time
January 30 - February 3
Week 4: Expressions of A Wrinkle In Time
February 6 - February 10
Word For Teens
Fictional Food
New Cover
Textbook
Presenting Lenore
Modly Chic
The J. Sorese Visual Companion
Read. Breathe. Relax.
Book Aunt
Meg Bentley Illustration
Week 5: Reading A Wrinkle In Time for the First Time
February 13 - 17
Geek Girl’s Book Blog
The Cozy Reader
I Just Wanna Sit Here And Read
Jenn's Bookshelves
Booking Mama
Page Turners
I Read Banned Books
YA Bibliophile
Alison’s Bookmarks
Galleysmith
A Wrinkle in Time was a seminal book for me as well. Your read-aloud plans are great. I'm impressed by this list of 50 blogs! Many of them are new to me.
ReplyDeleteTabatha, I only recognize a few of the blogs on this list, too! I'm thinking I'll continue Mother Reader's comment challenge by checking out all of these posts!
DeleteHi Mary Lee, I just reread this for an award challenge I'm participating in, and reviewed it. It's such a marvelous book, along with all the others. What a great idea to use the audio of L'Engle reading her own book. It will add to the magical experience. I hope you tell us what your students think after the book is finished.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I am DEFINITELY planning at least one follow-up post!
DeleteI also was heavily influenced by A Wrinkle in Time, and I wrote about my Madeline L'Engle experience!
ReplyDeletehttp://usedbookclassroom.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/a-wrinkle-in-meeting-madeline-lengel/
It is one of those books that marks the literature of our childhoods. As such, I knew I wanted to share it with my students and have read it aloud a couple of times to 5th grade classes. I had never thought of using an audio version. I will have to pursue this idea as doing all of the Mrs' voices sure drains my vocals. Great idea!
ReplyDelete