A Selection of Wonderbooks
Barbara Dowd was a beloved teacher in Suffield for 39 years. She began her career as a preschool teacher and enjoyed the young children for 14 years. The remaining 25 years of her career were spent teaching 4th grade. In her long tenure in Suffield, she touched the lives of countless students and was a mentor to many teachers as they entered the teaching profession. Although she shined in all areas of educating Suffield’s children, her greatest passion was helping students develop strong reading skills and thus a lifelong love of reading. She believed in immersing students in powerful texts that allowed them to carry over lessons forever. She loved guided reading and sitting around a small table having genuine conversations about literature. Through her classroom experience, she realized that her struggling readers found the books at their reading level to be not interesting. Additionally, these books didn’t allow children to relate to their peers about reading. Mrs. Dowd, always vigilant about connecting readers, began to purchase grade level books on cassette tapes, so struggling readers could follow along with the reader as they completed their 20 minutes of daily reading. The read-aloud worked wonders, as students gained valuable reading skills and were able to talk about grade level books with their peers. As a consequence, students’ interest in reading grew, as did their confidence. Shortly before her retirement, Barbara gave some treasured advice to her colleague and friend Alicia Rinaldi upon seeing Alicia read with her students. “Make memories that they will hold forever,” she said.
In order to honor their mother and continue her legacy of helping struggling readers, Barbara’s children made a generous donation in their mother’s name, purchasing dozens of Wonderbooks for the McAlister Library Media Center. Wonderbooks combine print books with audio books. Each book has a built-in MP3 player that allows students to listen to the text being read aloud while they read. The benefit is immense, as readers strengthen their fluency and comprehension through the paired texts. The Wonderbooks hit the shelves in late fall and were immediately checked out by students. The purchased Wonderbooks included some of Barbara’s favorite classics – The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Esperanza Rising, Wonder and Number the Stars. Additionally, popular new titles were purchased including The One and Only Ivan, Thirst (McAlister’s One Book, One Community Read of 24/25), and And Then, Boom! To date, not a single book has sat on the shelf for longer than an hour or two due to their overwhelming popularity. A few McAlister 3rd graders offered their thoughts on the Wonderbooks. Alexa DeMars says, “I like that they’re chapter books and the Wonderbook reads the story to you. You get to press pause and continue where you left off later. I like many kinds of books and so I have gotten to read a ton of new books this way!”. Her classmate, Michael Edmonds said, “My favorite part of the read-away books is that it makes it easy to read because you can listen to the story as you read it. My favorite was The Wild Robot Escapes because the lesson is you can be different and it’s okay.”
Thank you to the Dowd family for your generous donation and supporting the reading culture we are strengthening at McAlister Intermediate School. Barbara’s impact on the children of Suffield continues!