Diggin' the Dictionary

This morning I had one of those heart-warming, morale-boosting, "Yay!" teacher moments. In third-grade English we are currently doing a unit on reference study skills, becoming more familiar with informational text such as an index, glossary, encyclopedia, and dictionary. During our indoor recess this morning, I couldn't help but smile when I noticed two of the boys looking through the dictionary together, just for the fun of it. Both of those boys have learning challenges—one of whom has dysgraphia and dyslexia. Schoolwork is usually very frustrating for him. But this morning those boys were diggin' that dictionary! They were so interested, that when recess ended and it was time to line up for restroom break, both boys asked me if they could take the dictionary to read during restroom time! (With a large class, restroom break takes so long that I encourage the children to read silently while we wait for everyone to get a turn.) It was so cute to see those two boys sitting quietly along the hallway wall, bent over the dictionary in their laps. =)