Reblogged from A Teacher’s Reflections… on the importance of reading to children:

When good reading happens in my classroom, it opens the door to so many other things. Children have questions and ideas.  Interrupting in the middle of chapter reading means children are listening and interested.  I can answer those questions and get back to reading, or I can do more and follow through on those questions.

I do more and follow through on those questions.

It’s called emergent curriculum.  Here’s how it goes: a teacher reads, or gives a lesson. Children (or a single child) ask a question or make a comment.  That comment leads to something interesting yet completely different.  It’s like taking children into the woods and finding divergent paths, and then a child asks “Why can’t we climb a tree to see where they go?”

Continue reading at A Teacher’s Reflections