I missed the beginning of Anne’s presentation due to a school commitment so when I went to look further into the protocol that she had set out, I realized that I do my read alouds in a very similar fashion.  I had not seen that particular protocol before but I do start with some simpler questions for those students working on easier tasks such as recall but I continue to ask questions throughout the entire book. I strive to show my students that they have plenty of knowledge and insight to add to conversations in their classes, along with mine.  We work on simple recall questions and then I ask them questions that look to have them compare their lives with those in the story or ask them how they might feel in a certain situation or what they might have done differently.  

Often times, I feel that my students’ opinions and voices are not heard in all areas of my school because they are not given the opportunity to share their own experiences. Many homeroom teachers continue to read the same picture books or chapter book read alouds that they did ten or even twenty years ago.  Needless to say, my students cannot utilize that book as a mirror. They can not relate to the character most of the time or their experiences.  I hardly ever read the same books with my classes from year to year because there are always new books coming out that may be a better fit for the group that I have, so I change my read alouds and reading group work each year to best match the group of students that sit before me at that given time. 

The access to the “I’m Your Neighbor, Exploring this Story & Your Own” guides have been very helpful for me to see some different questions than I would have come up with.  Many of the books in this collection are ones that I already have in my collection or have used in the past but the guiding questions allow me to branch out in my thinking and take a different approach the next time I incorporate the book into my classroom.  The biggest impact that I think these guides will have is within the homeroom classrooms where many of the teachers want to start including more diverse books but are always talking about “being afraid” of where do I start or how would I go about asking appropriate questions. I think that the guiding questions can help some teachers feel more at ease and comfortable with including these books into their permanent classroom libraries.