MR. DOSCH'S 4TH GRADE & WORDQUAKE

Mr. Dosch is just one of those teachers--open-minded and fun and on the lookout for new projects to
stir his students' imagination.

I met Mr. Dosch last year, when his class wrote letters to Auggie, the main character of THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY. (Of course Auggie wrote them back!)

This year, he got his reading class off to a running start with my latest release, WORDQUAKE.

I wrote WORDQUAKE thinking of the "kinda-sorta" readers; the book features the misadventures of Izzy Ashby, a girl who'd rather be anywhere but the library.

To encourage both close and creative thinking, Mr. Dosch posed two questions to his class:

1. Izzy accidentally removes all the words from her school, making it impossible to do any bookwork. Shortly thereafter, the Izzy Ashby Fan Club is formed, and is said to have 100% membership. Dosch asked his class if they think this is a true 100%, considering the fact that Alexander Gum (a fourth grade scientist / inventor and the only person in all of Eastwood Elementary with working knowledge of wordquakes) loves his reading so much. Did Alexander join? Why would he? Or do you think that the membership of the fan club was 99.9%? Why?

2. Before reading the last chapter, Mr. Dosch asked his class to imagine how the book would end. Would Izzy save the day? How?

Mr. Dosch's class at work.

Mr. Dosch was kind enough to share the responses with me, and they were all just an utter delight! I loved getting a chance to hear how his students were interacting with the book--I especially enjoyed their predictions regarding the book's end. Some were already feeling Izzy's change of heart regarding the power of words; others had really imaginative ideas on how Izzy would put the words back in their rightful place. (Ideas involving wind or evaporation or scooping the words into a bag or even using her head flashlight to melt them back into place...)

Thanks, Mr. Dosch's 4th grade! I'm so glad I got to be a part of your new school year. Keep up the great work!