Chapters 5 and 7 in MGRP and Seedfolks

5 & 7 MGRP

I came away with two main ideas from the assigned chapters for the week in MGRP.  The first idea: The importance of showing, not telling.  Allen provides us with multiple reasons why showing is more compelling than telling and ways to incorporate this idea into class activities.  Through showing, the author "describes the scene as something is taking place with plenty of description" (Allen 58).  Telling, however, "lets the writer sneak into the text with interpretations and conclusions" (Allen 58).  If we are trying to educate children to write for an audience, it seems important that we teach the importance of not always including our own ideas in our writing.  Of course there is a time and a place to allow for our own opinions as writers, but not all the time.  Showing seems to be an important way of teaching students to write without filling pages with their own opinions and let the readers form opinions for themselves.

The second idea:  This is nothing profound, but I'm constantly grasping the idea of the importance of letting children share information in a way in which they are passionate.  For some children, a traditional research paper is comfortable and worthwhile, but for other children, a research paper is absolute torture.  As a teacher, it seems critical that we allow for all types of assignments for students to display what they know or what they've learned.  This could include anything from computer programs to drama to a traditional research paper.  However, if we, as teachers, stick to one or two types of assignments, certain children will struggle to stay afloat.  It is our job to explore with our students, so if we are not as comfortable with non-traditional forms of expression, we can assign these types of assignments and learn with our students as they participate!

Seedfolks


This story provided me with a wonderful example of Allen's "showing, not telling."  I loved the way Paul Fleischman created all thirteen characters through a strong depiction of their voices.  While each character did not always re-appear, I left the book feeling like I had a deep understanding of who each character was, even if their story was only five pages.  I attribute much of this to Fleischman's ability to capture the character through their personality and voice, not simply tell us about them.  This book really was quite charming...I loved the idea of such a dark and desolate neighborhood being completely transformed through a garden and the relationships that the garden helped to foster :)

Poetry in MGRP and "Invitations"

POETRY

I was at first struck by Allen's statement that poetry is "a great way to ease into writing."  As someone who sometimes struggles to write poetry, I found this statement a bit hard to swallow.  But after reflecting on what poetry actually is and continuing to read Allen's chapter, I definitely see her point.  If students are intimidated by writing, poetry can be great, if only in the sense that it's often short in length.  Students will not be bogged down trying to reach a certain length or have their mechanics just right.  It can be appealing to all students because it seems to me that poetry can have as much or little structure as the writer wants.  This could be great for students who need structure (you could provide a specific structural outline for a certain type of poem) and students who tend to be more confident with poetry and are comfortable writing their own poems with little prompting or structure.  I have come to appreciate the actual act of writing poetry and the value of the creative process it involves after reading this chapter!

INVITATIONS

There is no denying that invitations are a wonderful teaching tool that help students foster their own learning through questions and discussions. I love how interactive invitations are--that they require students to build community through their discussions with one another.  If a student is really engaged, it seems impossible that they would leave a discussion without learning something new and relating it to their lives, and isn't this the goal of most of our lessons as teachers?  To teach students to think creatively and for themselves?  What a wonderful way to engage students in literacy! 

The one issue I have with invitations is the time commitment.  It seems like a huge undertaking for teachers to create these invitations for students.  While I think they are a tremendous learning tool, I would worry about the amount of time teachers would spend preparing them.  I would love to do invitations often with my class, but I just don't know if that is realistic for a teacher?

Powell and Davidson article

I lived the elementary school dream with field trips ranging from the zoo to apple orchards to fire stations and even to Camp for a few days where all of the fifth graders stayed overnight!  I was fortunate enough to be able to expand my learning outside the classroom, and it was not allowed; it was encouraged.  My elementary classes allowed for much exploration through various field trips, however, I do not think we benefitted as much as the class with the donut shop.  Perhaps since this class wasn't able to go on as many field trips, they milked this one for all it was worth. I was amazed by the teacher's dedication to making the donut shop field trip the most educational experience possible.  And field trip doesn't even begin to do it justice.  These children ultimately created their own business, learning about loans and collateral, in kindergarten!  The teacher gave them the opportunity to see a business in their own neighborhood and then create their own business patterned off of it. She struck a wonderful balance between creativity and actual content teaching, allowing them to name their store and make donuts themselves, while still teaching them to spell and write more accurately.

As Powell and Davidson write, students from low income neighborhoods often have a poorer sense of self-efficacy so allowing these children to create such a detailed, organized business as their finished product was perhaps the greatest thing the educators could do.  Students not only felt accomplished and proud at the end by what they made, but enjoyed and learned in the process as well.

I must admit that my elementary school field trips were no where near as in depth as the donut shop.  While we would occasionally discuss a few things before we went on the trips, they were more for enjoyment than education.  This teacher gave her students a remarkable gift--the ability to learn through creating and taking pride in their work.  How wonderful!

Progress on MGRP

I was originally hoping to research dyslexia and literacy (Tentative Title: Deconstructing Dyslexia: Aiding dyslexic students in literacy).  I have found a number of articles, however, some do not seem to be as much about dyslexia in particular, and more about learning disabilities in reading in general.  I'm currently working on finishing up and finding the "meat" of all my articles and constructing an outline for where exactly I want to go with this paper.  I must admit that I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment, but hopefully once my outline is complete, I'll feel like I have a little more direction!  This topic is vast, but I'm hoping it will prove beneficial for my future career as a teacher :)

Crafting Writers, Chapters 10-12

As usual, I found quite a few rich suggestions from Hale in her final chapters of Crafting Writers.  Instead of trying to conquer it all, I would like to highlight a few segments I found to be particularly helpful.  The first important notion I took from Chapter 10 was the idea that students must feel emotionally secure in order to succeed as writers.  While I think I always assumed this in the back of my mind, I read this part of Hale's description and thought, "Oh my gosh, that is so incredibly important!" Hale gives credit to Gay Su Pinnell and Patricia Scharer and their idea that "the emotional aspect of teaching can either impede learning or cause it to flourish" (Hale 161).  Hale goes on to explain, "Reaching one's potential to learn depends so much on the relationships between the people involved, not so much the content of what is being taught" (Hale 161).  This passage has continued to resonate with me for the past couple days because it provides so much hope, both to the teacher and the student.  By taking some of the focus off of the actual content, the teacher can also learn to nurture and encourage her students before teaching them the content they are supposed to be learning.  This notion also relieves some pressure for the students, although they might not recognize it, because they are not expected to be masters of the given task right away, but instead are encouraged in their learning as a gradual process.  As a future teacher, I took comfort in this passage because it recognized that there are other aspects of successful teaching that go far beyond teaching students content mastery.  I was left with a question though...What is the proper level of emotional security and the proper level of content mastery?  How do we, as teachers, help our students feel emotionally ready to learn while still pushing them to achieve greatness?

Another small detail I noticed and particularly liked in Hale's writing was the "Next Steps" she demonstrated in Chapter 10.  Hale gave three examples of ways teachers can make statements when they are conferring with students who need some improvement in their writing. Hale listed one way to phrase a sentence that I especially liked.  She said, "One thing I think you're ready for as a writer is..." (Hale 165).  I loved this phrasing because it gives the student a challenge to work on, while still encouraging them of their strengths.  It says...I acknowledge that you've mastered this, and now I'm confident that you're ready to move on to this.  What a great way to give suggestions in a positive way!

While I feel like I could go on for a long time about Hale's suggestions, for the sake of time, I'm only going to highlight one last idea that really jumped out at me. I loved Hale's recommendation of letting students assess writing samples from previous years with a given rubric.  To me, this does two great things: 1. It gives students a sense of responsibility; they can see that their teacher trusts them enough to move on to the next step as writers--evaluating others' work, and 2. It allows students a chance to become familiar with the rubric that will be used in the grading of their papers.  This way students will gain a deeper understanding of the concepts being graded on the rubrics and will be able to become stronger writers in the future.  I'm sure that this exercise has many more benefits than the two I mentioned, but these two seemed to really jump out at me.