I remind my students all the time, that in order to really ENJOY a book the reader must always read with all of his/her senses. To really EXPERIENCE a book we must pay attention to the words are read with our eyes, hands, ears, and nose in order to see what is going on, feel what the character is feeling, hear what is going on, and smell the character's surroundings. It is until now that I learn how to explain to my students what to do to really UNDERSTAND the story. In order to really understand the story, the reader must remind himself/herself of BHH, Book, Head, Heart. If you are not familiar with the BHH strategy by Beers and Probst here is a quick explanation. If you are familiar with the strategy scroll down to the next paragraph. :)
B-BOOK
What is in the book
-What's the book about?
-Who's telling the story?
-What does the author want me to know?
H-HEAD
What's in your (reader) head?
-What surprised me?
-What does the author think I already know?
-What changed, challenged, or confirmed my thinking?
H-HEART
What's in your heart?
-What did I learn about me?
-How does this help me be better?
It is true that it is never too late, at least I hope that's true, because I am going to teach this to my students. And if that is not true, then I hope the "its better late than never" quote applies to my case. I feel that a good reader must use the book, his/her head, and his/her heart in order to really understand and capture the theme and message of the story. This is not only great for kids to try, but also for us, adults. This is a great strategy for ALL readers regardless of their age and it applies to ALL books, regardless of it's READING LEVEL.
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt is a great book with a terrible ending (don't worry, I wont spoil it). I thought when I read the book, I had truly captured the story that is until I did the BHH strategy. This is what I got out of the book. Remember that this strategy is between the book and the reader so, not everyone will get the same responses, SO what my BHH looks like will not spoil the book for you.
B-book
The book is about a young man, a kid really, who is retelling the story of his family adopting a young man who is not exactly the ideal adoptive brother to have. His hard life has produced a beautiful daughter, even at his young age,a life full of anger and pain, and a misunderstood teen.
H- Head
As an educator my mindset got challenged with this book. There is a part of the book where the narrator is explaining how the teachers treat Joseph (the protagonist) and how they don't like him or are even afraid of him. Then the Jack, the narrator, says the line that resonates in my head even to now, "if the teachers only knew..." referring to the nightmares Joseph has, the ways the cows react to Joseph (it's a big deal in the book), and the true story behind the "bad" kid in the school. It made me think on how as teachers, we tend to jump into conclusions, and judge students based on their past. This book really challenged me to be as open minded as I can be and try to understand my most disturbed, misunderstood, bad, and whatever else you want to call them students. As an educator I must be as clueless, yet not careless, to the baggage the students carry and bring with them to my class.
H-heart
Finally, after reading this book, I learned that I must fight my peers and coworkers, even, when it comes to the most difficult students. First, I must fight them, push them to forget their baggage and to get them to accept themselves and explore what they are good at. Once we find their talent, I must help them channel all of their anger brought by their baggage into their positives and exploit those talents. When that happens, my coworkers may not understand it and may even push harder on the student, that is when the push and pull will begin and trying to not get them discouraged may prove to be even more difficult.
Overall, this is a great strategy to use and teach my students. I love how three simple letters deepen the connection and understanding of a book. The simplicity of the strategy makes it easy to remember and the complexity of the thinking involve helps the reader grow and realize more than what he/she had hoped.
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