My principal embraced the idea of a read aloud even though he was a little wary of the book Flight by Sherman Alexie I had proposed. I described it as having a good deal of "language" that may offend some, but the message of this book, I knew, would resonate with our student body. After reading the book himself, my principal agreed.

While to be sure the book has a lot to do with this engagement, I think the read aloud matters too. It's something the students return to in their discussion--how much different it is to be read to and how they "see" the story differently when they hear it and see it (every student follows along in his/her copy of the book) rather than just reading on their own.
When successes like this come along, there's nothing to do but celebrate them. And replicate that success in other ways. Engaging students with read alouds. Who knew? It makes all the difference.
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