Wednesday, March 21

I will be conducting a read-aloud, think-aloud in my E340 class on the book John's Secret Dreams: The Life of John Lennon.  I loved this book!  It was all about John Lennon's life and how he had a huge impact in music, culture, and world peace. It starts at the very beginning when John Lennon was only a child, and the rough childhood he had, all the way up through being part of The Beatles and meeting Yoko Ono, and finally his death.  It's a very inspiring book and sends the message that even though John Lennon has passed away, we should still set out to make the world a more loving and peaceful place.  

This would make an excellent read-aloud, think-aloud for upper grades, because for one, it's about a famous musician and I feel as though older students would really be into this and be really interested in it, increasing their engagement.  It's also a great book for upper grades because of their background knowledge.  A lot of younger kids would not know who The Beatles or John Lennon was, and therefore would not be very interested in knowing about John Lennon's life.  There's also a lot of deep concepts in this book, that could be a great discussion starter for older grades.  The idea of loneliness, world peace, love, and death is something younger grades wouldn't be able to handle as well as intermediate grades.  These concepts could arouse great discussion which would reflect their thinking.  

Using this book about John Lennon and his dreams could really help students to think about huge concepts like world-peace and love.  By reading about these very intellectual and deep concepts, students will learn how to reflect on big ideas like these, and express how they feel about them.  This is a great choice for upper intermediate grades.