Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Have You Heard About the Wii Bear?

Yesterday I read the "Three Bears" by Galdone to my third graders. This was a new story for about three quarters of my class. One youngster had heard the story before and proclaimed it "Awesome".

The edition I read calls the cub a "wee" bear. After several repitions of the word wee, one student asked "Where is the Wii Game? When do we get to play it? I laughed to myself as I realized I was in the presence of "digital natiives". They even explained that Wii was spelled w - i - i.

I ran through the story mentally applying modern meanings to this traditional story. It certainly painted a different picture in my mind. As I explained the contextual meaning my students nodded their understanding, but looked around hoping to see a Wii Bear.

4 comments:

  1. That is so interesting Ruth and there will be more to come. Keep sharing your observations.
    Great share,
    Bonnie

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  2. The kids always make me laugh. It always takes me by surprise when I think we are speaking a shared language only to discover - not so much.

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  3. I love this! Oh my goodness, here I am reading this story to my mostly ELL class and I would never have imagined that this might be the connection they are trying to make!

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  4. If only people had word balloons that told the rest of us how they were interpreting their experience.

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