"Great Books" - what has worked

Inspired by Andrew Pudewa (Institute for Excellence in Writing), I began "Great Books" in our classroom two years ago ("Great Books" = me reading books out loud to my students). Pudewa advises reading to children "reliably correct and sophisticated language." Whether I've actually followed that prescription is debatable, but this is what I have done thus far that has worked for me.

Great Books: Method #1

I love this book! (I left out some words
when reading aloud to the kids.)

Read books that have been turned into movies.

The first year of Great Books we read Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As we read through the chapters, w
e'd take breaks to watch clips of the movies. I annoyed the kids with my endless pausing and asking questions, but the comparing and contrasting between book and movie not only completely engaged their interest but also helped develop higher level thinking skills. The kids loved it, I loved it, it exposed them to the literature behind the movies, and hopefully taught them that they can view entertainment with a discerning eye.

We also read Winnie-the-Pooh and most of Wind in the Willows (elevated language, yes; easy to follow, no) and did author studies at the end of all these books.

Great Books: Method #2
Read a book and draw pictures at the end of each chapter.

November is considered novel-writing month, so last year I used that as a springboard for Great Books. Because my students overlapped from the year before, I wanted to do something different (even though one of my new students really wanted to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory like his older brother had). I chose Patty Reed's Doll since it corresponded with our history curriculum. It ended up being a huge success, and I loved how the book immersed them in a period of history. At the end of each chapter, we would discuss some of the events in the chapter, and then I would have them draw a relevant picture. At the end of the book, every student had their own Patty Reed's Doll booklet to take home!

The one thing I would change here is to use the daily draw-n-write pages to teach and practice writing main ideas with supporting details. I didn't emphasize writing enough.

Through Patty Reed's Doll and with the help of the Internet we learned about prairie dogs and buffalo chips!

In March (while more organized people were doing March Book Madness) we picked up Great Books again with the first couple books of the Boxcar Children and Alexi's Secret Mission (by Anita Deyneka, put out by A.C.E.)

I'm still working on my plans for next year. I have aspirations of reading Pollyanna and The Tale of Despereaux and maybe mixing both Great Books methods! I also have been collecting copies of Sarah, Plain and Tall so we could do a unit study together, but I'm not sure if I'll tackle that this year (even though I already bought supplementary material for it last year!).

I blog to remember what I've done, because otherwise, I'll forget.