Tom Thumb

My mother sent me, a while back, all of the tapes of children's stories that we had in our house. Last week at the listening center, I taped myself reading our story of the week because it was long and difficult. This week, since most of my students can read our story, I thought it would be nice to let them listen and respond to another fictional story. One of the things they scored low on on their mid-year tests was oral comprehension. So I figured a story with no pictures would force them to think about what was happening in order to draw their "My Favorite Part" picture and write their sentence.

I found a bright orange Disney-esque tape labeled "Tom Thumb." This will be fantastic, I thought. This is a fairy tale, but probably one they've never heard. So on Monday, when Mrs. B-- and I were both busily testing the kids for the end of the "Reading Olympics," I had three groups "listen and respond" to the tape. The lowest group went first. "I didn't understand," they told me when I asked why they hadn't drawn a picture. "Just draw what you heard in the story!" I snapped, thinking they just hadn't been paying attention. Neither of the other groups said anything, but when I checked the work in the evening, there were no pictures of a little dude. In fact, there were no storytelling pictures at all, really.

So I asked about it today. One of my sweetest little girls tentatively raised her hand. "I just didn't know what was happening," she said. "It seemed to repeat and repeat." I looked at her askance. "It's about a little man," I said. "Wasn't it a story about a little man?" I got blank looks. I went over to the player, pulled out the headset connecter, and turned it on. My voice crackled on. I had to listen for a few moments until I realized that it was a practice tape I had made of a monologue in high school.

Oops.