The Dunderheads

I have been a big fan of Paul Fleischman for years. I love his out-of-the-box thinking and his radical change approach to many of his books. Well his newest book, The Dunderheads, may not be so much of a radical change style book, but it is a different style for him.

This quick read is about a class of students with some unusual talents. Together the students combine their talents to outwit their mean teacher, Miss Breakbone.

A fun read aloud with neat illustrations by David Roberts. For those of you that have elementary-aged children, the artwork will resemble that of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, although the latter does not compare to The Dunderheads.

Keep Reading,
Dr. Quinn

Read Aloud in the DR

This is a video of me reading Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus to Miss Brewer's class in the Dominican Republic. Miss Brewer and Miss Jantzen, both Taylor graduates and current teachers at Jarabaocoa Christian, do a great job sharing literature with their students.

As always, I love the chance to read to children. Thanks Miss Brewer for recording this read aloud.

DR Read Alouds

While in the Dominican Republic I had the opportunity see two recent Taylor graduates. Both are teaching in Jarabacoa Christian School. Brooke teaches 5th grade, and Natalie teaches 4th grade. Both requested that I read my two new dinosaur books (Dinosaur Versus Bedtime & I'm Bad). I wasn't real sure how this would go with upper elementary students, but let's just say some of the students laughed so hard they fell over. After I read these books, the classes asked me to read one of the pigeon books by Mo Williems. Of course I had to say yes. For those of you that have heard me read before, you can imagine that my voice was nearly gone at the completion of our time together. Below are a variety of photos from the two read alouds.


Happy Reading,
Dr. Quinn

Dominican Republic

Tomorrow I will be leaving for an eight day mission trip to the Dominican Republic. I will be accompanied by 18 Taylor students, 2 teenage girls (one is my daughter) , and my co-leader. During our trip we hope to serve and help out any way we can. All of us will stay at Students International's base in Jarabacoa. Each day we will separate to various sites (education, sports, medical, social works, special education, art, dental, & social work). I will be housed at the sport's site where I will play baseball, lead a running clinic, and share my faith to 110 8-20 year olds. The last day I will put on a 2k race and distribute shirts the 110 Dominican boys. As a team we will also do two evenings of outreach (singing, drama, & testimony) in local villages.

One day I hope to take 10 of our elementary education majors to two of the Christian schools in Jarabacoa. We will take tours and see two recent TU grads (Natalie & Brooke). I am hoping for an opportunity to read out loud to both of their classes. TU also has two recent grads teaching in Santiago (Christie & Dave). Sorry you two, we will not have time to tour your school, but feel free to see us at the base.

When I return I hope to get to work on the NBLA list, and keep my blog updated better.

Happy Reading,
Dr. Quinn

Two Fun Read Alouds

Today I had the privilege to read to a first grade class and two third grade classes. Those of you that have had me as a professor know how much I love to read stories out loud. So you can imagine how happy I was to be in multiple elementary classrooms today.

Since I had been in these classrooms before, I asked them what they wanted me to read. Interestingly, both grade levels chose Dinosaur Versus Bedtime and I'm Bad. Personally, I love both books as read alouds because I can add a lot of energy to them, but I was a little surprised that the third graders wanted these as repeats. I would have thought they would want something a little more mature. After a quick informal survey with a few students, they said, "It's all about the voices." I tried to persuade them to let me read some new books to them, but they wanted the comfort of those books they enjoy. This was true in the first grade as well, because they chose the two dinosuar mentioned books above and two Pigeon books by Mo Willems.

Here is the bottom line: I love to read out loud; students love read alouds with dynamic voices; & if you haven't read either of the dinosaur books, you need to do so.

Happy Reading,
Dr. Quinn