Crime Does Not....

I teach first grade.
In reading class,
I teach that there are
a number of ways to figure out what a word is;
two choices are
sounding it out (phonics)
and putting in what makes sense (context clues).
Most kids use a combination of approaches as needed.

I was leading two groups in reading Aliki's Feelings.
The page was about
the verbal consequences of flying a paper airplane in class.
The teacher's words were in capitals,
the boy's thoughts were in lower case letters*,
and a commenting bird's interpretation of feelings were in italics.
At the end of the page,
the bird's final comment is
"Crime does not pay,"
but each time the child read
"Crime does not play."

I guess the knowing the result of classroom misdemeanors
outweighed the phonics in this case.
Kids are so funny.

S.

*Did you know that lower case letters
were kept in the bottom drawer
at the Oxford print shop?
Thus "upper case" and "lower case."
I love trivia.