One Last Story

I've attended numerous ELA related workshops and in services over the years.  Typically I glean at least one useful nugget from each one.  Perhaps a dozen years ago I attended one on the importance of reading reading aloud to students.  Not all children who enter our classroom doors have heard many stories before coming to us.  Therefore it's important for us to immerse them in stories as much as possible.  This presenter suggested that we read "One Last Story" to our students before they leave at the end of the day.  As soon as I got home I started that.  While it doesn't occur on a daily basis, one student or another frequently reminds me to read "one last story" before dismissal.
When I began this tradition, Leroy and Roman were in my classroom and I distinctly remember one of them regularly begging for "one last story".  The day of their graduation in 2012 we began another tradition.  I invited them back to my classroom.  They sat down on little yellow chairs just like they did in by-gone years and when Leroy saw me sitting with a book he grinned, "This is literally 'one last story'," be exclaimed.

 I Knew you Could!

I proceeded to read them, "I Knew you Could!: A Book About all the Stops in your Life." by Craig Dorgman.
In this book, "the determined Little Blue Engine is back, bringing inspiring and enlightening words of wisdom to graduates of all ages as they make the transition from one phase of life to the next."  Thus this delightful story makes an ideal read to graduates.
Bringing them back to the classroom, where their formal education began, and sending them off with a simple, though insightful story in some way brings closure to this phase in their learning and hopefully prepares them for the many life-lessons they are sure to encounter after closing the classroom doors behind them.