Day 47


RUBY THE COPYCAT by Peggy Rathmann is so funny. It is about a little girl who starts a new school and copies Angela, a friendly fashionista and classmate. This story generated an interesting conversation.

One boy said, "I didn't like this story. It's for girls."

I asked him why did he think that and he said that it was because the characters were girls and the story surrounded what Ruby wore. 

Just as I was about to go there, one of my others boys said, "No, not really. The story is about being yourself and that's for all of us."

"Yeah, but it is about what she wore," said the first male student.

"No. That was just one of the ways Ruby copied Angela. She copied her poetry, her Math problems and even lied about the kinds of things she did," second male student answered.

"Yes. The clothes were just details gave me....the...theme?" a girl joined the conversation. I asked her what she meant.

"Well, I think that all the stories are kind of the same. All the stories have a problem. All the stories have the character try to solve it and they try different things that gets them there."

SECOND GRADE folks! And all I had to do is read a book to them, shut up and let my students talk.




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