Our small RTI group read a readers' theater version of Cinderella since students had been writing fractured fairly tales. As we read the elevated vocabulary in the text, I was reminded of the wonderful Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Cinderella. I played the song for students as we talked about the vocabulary and script.
The children watched and listened. One child sat back in her chair with not a lot of interest.
Then I said, let's watch a more updated version of the same song, and I showed the one below. The little girl in the seat looked on. "I want to watch the whole movie," she responded. Clearly she identified with the second version of the song more than the first.
It's important as we teach that we think about what students identify with and that we find time to connect that identification with the materials we use to teach and learn.
