Multi-Genre Night April 8, 2009

WOW! I am filled with a sense of relief that this project is finished and presented.  I was amazed at the fantastic projects that our class has created and the amount of time, work, and effort that has obviously gone into these projects.  I can only imagine the learning that has taken place behind the scenes while these artifacts were being created and researched.  I know personally I have learned so much more about Egypt than I would have if I just wrote a paper.  I was interested before, but now I just have to go do some more research because I have so many questions that are not answered.  I would love to actually go to Egypt and see the pyramids now, because I know so much about the site and the construction of them and how much time and effort went into building them. 

I really wish I saw more of this type learning happening in my school.  My daughter (5th grader) absolutely was obsessed with my Egyptology study and the idea of the multi-genre approach.  I am sure part of that was stemming from my excitement about it; she loves anything that she knows I love.   She was determined she was coming tonight to see the presentations, and see what all the other classmates had created.  I know she would really enjoy doing this type work rather than the papers she writes now, and I wonder if the upper grade teachers at my school are familiar with this concept.  I’ll have to share it with them:) 

Completing this assignment took an extreme amount of time.  I can’t even imagine how many hours I put into the research and construction of the artifacts.  I felt stressed about getting it done by the deadline, but I honestly enjoyed creating this project and I am so proud of my finished work.  I am sure that my writing circle members feel the same about theirs because they really did some amazing work.

Owly and To Dance: Graphic Novels April 1, 2009

Wordless books, I have found, are not my thing.  I have a few in my class, but I don’t use them much for lessons.  My class enjoys looking at them, because when you are 5 and don’t know any words yet, you can make up the story.  Like the child in the article said, she read Owly to her 2 year old sister and she loved it.  Not only do little kids like wordless books, but I think for older students it would be a great writing tool because the children could pick parts of the story to write the words for, and that would be a scaffolding mechanism for those who always get writers block and don’t know what to write.  I think kids would enjoy making up wordless picture books, and even my little kids could do a simple version of that. 

As I tried to read Owly, I just kept getting frustrated because I really wanted some words there to tell me what was happening.  I was having to think way to much to keep up with the storyline, and a few times I admit I just completely didn’t know what was going on.  Maybe it was because of the length of the book.  As a child, I loved the Sunday comics, even the ones  that were wordless, and thought it clever that someone could write something so funny without even writing any words.  As an adult, I love books and love to read, and I still read the comics every Sunday.  Comic books, however, were never interesting to me and I much prefer a novel full of words.  If the world were full of wordless picture books and nothing but graphic novels, I might feel differently about books.  I do however think they are a valuable tool to use in teaching because lots of kids do love them, and even if it is a comic book, it’s still a story that has plot and characters.

Well, after listening to class discussion tonight and seeing the different kinds of wordless books, maybe I have decided I like them a little more.  I guess I am thinking of application here and how I would use it in my class, and Owly was just too hard for kinders.  Some of the other books we looked at in class tonight, however, I think would fit perfectly into a kindergarten classroom and I can envision a few of my little ones who would just eat them up.  I am going to have to do some book shopping to find some easy wordless books and try this out with my kids.  I was thinking about how with Lucy Calkins we are teaching the kids to write about the small moments, and if you used a simple picture book that would really help them to focus on one small moment, writing about one picture at a time.

Memoirs April 1, 2009

After reading the information and discussing memoirs in class, I began to wish we could have explored this a little more deeply and perhaps chosen to do a memoir project or the poetry project.  I just think I would have really enjoyed working on a piece like that about my life and that it would have been an easier task to undertake with my class.  Someday, when my life is calmer and less hectic, I plan to do this on my own anyway.  What a great way to reflect on important moments of your life, and since you actually lived it you should have plenty to say about it.

On Memoirs…. March 25, 2009

I had never really thought about the definition of a memoir before reading the articles and listening to tonight’s discussion.  I would have probably said it’s a retelling of one’s life, from cover to cover like an autobiography would be.  I enjoyed our discussion about it tonight though and found it to be one of the more interesting genres we’ve discussed so far. 

As we read examples in class, my mind was spinning about how I would love to write like that about my life, and retell events from my childhood to my girls.  I loved the book I Wasn’t Always Your Mother.  I absolutely have to write a version of that for my daughters.  I don’t think they realize that once upon a time their mommie was just like them and I did a lot of the same things they do presently.  What a treasure that would be for them to have a collection of stories written by me about moments in my life from my childhood.  I know I would love to have something like that from my mother. 

I think that by using Lucy Calkins’ model I have in a small way been teaching my children to write memoirs.  There are lessons in her books  about helping them to grab the small moment and just write about that particular moment, just a slice,  and not the sun up to sun down version of an entire day.  They always think they have to retell the entire day’s events to make a story, and they miss the opportunity to elaborate on one specific event and make that one event be the story.  I have found that modeling this is the most effective way to help kindergarten children learn how to choose a small moment to write about.  We are in the process of learning how to do that now.  When I model choosing a topic to write about and they watch me make a story about something so small as getting a haircut or feeding potato chips to the dog, it helps them think of small events in their own life they can write about too.  They often don’t consider those things important enough to write about, and so they have a hard time coming up with topics because they can’t think of anything exciting to write about.  I remember last year when my kids finally realized they could really write about anything, from breaking a shoe lace to what they ate for snack that day, they were excited because they suddenly had tons of ideas and I couldn’t keep the shelf stocked with enough writing paper for them.  It was after that realization that I started to get really good writing samples from them.  They were writing about things that really meant something to them so they had a lot to say about them.  I think this year I want to have the kids choose some photos to bring in and we are going to do some writing about their pictures.  I think I may make a little memoir book for each child and let him choose the pictures to put in and we’ll make a little life story book  about their short little lives up until this point. 

I love the “feeling” aspect of writing memoirs.  I like that you put your heart into it and not only share the story but share what it felt like to live that story.  I like how they make you recall events in your own life that are similar and they make you want to create your own story.   Autobiographies can be boring and uninteresting to read, unless you are really fascinated with the person in the first place.  But a memoir, even about someone you don’t know, evokes emotion and feeling and that makes it beg to be read.  I am excited about this and just as soon as I get through these projects and have a little spare time, I am going to start working on a momoir/scrapbook about my life.

Shortcut March 25, 2009

Shortcut 

 

By:  Donald Crews

 

I have the book Freight Train by Crews and I always use it with a transportation unit I do in the fall.  We used to take our kids up to Tweetsie and learn all about trains.  We didn’t get to take that trip this year due to costs and the economy, but in the past my kids have always loved to learn about trains.  Especially the little boys; what little boy isn’t fascinated with a train?  There is something mysterious and exciting about a train, and I can still remember my first train ride as a little girl.  I was pretty excited about it myself.

 

I grew up in Taylorsville, which happens to have a train track running right through the older part of town.  A cousin we used to visit often actually had the track running right through her front yard.  It was parallel with the road, so you had to cross it to get to any driveways on the left side of the street.  Even though I thought trains were really cool, I was terrified in a big way of train tracks.  I have no idea what brought this about; I’ve never been in an accident involving a train but I was just always horrified when I had to go across the tracks.  I seem to recall seeing in a movie when I was very young a child who got his shoe stuck in the track somehow and he couldn’t get out.  I guess I thought that a train would appear and crash into me, and I still to this day feel a little twinge when I go across tracks.  I kind of draw up inside and look both ways twice before crossing.  It’s a quirky thing I know but I just can’t help it.  I am not afraid to be on a train, it’s just the tracks that give me the willies. 

 

When the kids in the book decide to walk along the track, I just felt sickish inside.  Why on earth would anybody ever do a stupid thing like walk on train tracks???  They just are not meant to be walked on.  They are for trains, not people.  Then the whistle sounds and you know the train is approaching, and I can hear myself shouting in my head, “Run!  Run as fast as you can!  Get off the track!”  And even though I know it’s a kids book and they are going to be okay, I am still feeling nervous.  It’s a big relief when the train finally passes and they are safe and out of the way. 

 

I love his illustrations of the nighttime.  There is one page in Freight Train like that too where the train is travelling at night and the page is black.  I have the kids paint that scene after we read the book, then we paint over it with diluted black paint and it looks very much like the scene from the story.  The kids always love that project.  It’s a great lesson on scenery and how to show more detail in your picture, something kindergarten kids don’t always want to do or know how to do. 

 

I liked the ideas we talked about in class about writing with this book, and how to let your readers know how you feel without saying it directly.  Kids always want to write what their feelings are and this book would be a great way to introduce them to letting their story convey those feelings without directly printing it on the page. 

My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother March 25, 2009

My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother

By: Patricia Polacco

Wow at the memories this story evoked! I am the youngest of 3, with an older brother and sister. Jeff is 12 years older and Kathy is 14 years older. Needless to say, my family was not ready or expecting a new baby in their lives when I came along. My sister married young, so she moved out when I was 4. My brother, however, lived at home forever so I can really relate to being tortured by an older brother. Growing up, he was such a thorn in my side and I remember longing for a sister my age to just hang out with. My sister and I were never close and so growing up for me was almost like being an only child.

My brother graduated high school the year I started kindergarten. (Bless my poor mother.) I recall many, many things he did to pick on me, but the most vivid involves a very old and loud Hoover upright vacuum. My mother had a Saturday ritual of cleaning and we each had our chores we had to do. Mine was dusting and cleaning the bathroom. My brother had to do the vacuuming. I was terrified of the vacuum. It was loud and scary to me and for some reason I was afraid if he ran over my feet it would suck my toes right off. (He probably had told me that at some point in time.) He knew my fear, and he would chase me through the house with the Hoover and make me scream. He was always able to do things I couldn’t do yet, of course, being so much older.

Everybody says I was so spoiled being the baby, but I don’t remember it that way. Being the baby was hard, because I got picked on so much. I was the youngest grandchild too, with all my cousins being much older than I. My closest one was a boy who was 4 years older. He also enjoyed harassing me so I got it in multiple doses. I could really sympathize with the little girl in the story because I know how it feels to just want to come out on top just once. Just once, I wanted not to be the baby and be the winner or the best at something. For me, that turned out to be school. I found out early on that school was something I could be good at and better at than most kids, so I pushed myself to be the kid at the top of the class. I always had to get the best grades and wanted my teachers to be proud of me. I was the first person in my entire extended family to go to a 4 year college and get a degree. If I survive this program, I’ll be the only person in my family to have a masters degree.

As we grew up and went through struggles that families go through, my brother and I began to develop a bond that I hadn’t really thought existed before. He’s never married or had children, so when my first daughter was born in 1997, that really brought us close. He was so smitten with her and I don’t think he could possibly love her more if she were his own child.  She immediately became the love of his life as did Regan when she arrived in 2001. 

My dad never really was there for us growing up like he should have been, and there have been many times in my life that my brother has had to fill the shoes for that spot in my life. He actually walked me down the aisle and gave me away when Darren and I got married. My parents were going through a long and bitter separation and it was a very turbulent time in all our lives.  That meant so much to me for him to do that, and we have grown closer over the years since then. When our dad passed away earlier this month, it took me back to earlier days and memories of my childhood I hadn’t really thought about in ages. Going through the death of a parent has changed our relationship even more, and he and I have talked about things and said things to each other in the last month we have never talked about and said to each other before. Even through this traumatic and painful event in our lives, we’ve strengthened our bond somehow a little deeper.

As I read this book, it made me realize that even though it seemed at the time that we were from 2 different worlds, he would have given his life to save me if needed. There is such a special bond between us now and I wouldn’t trade our relationship for anything. I can even look back now on the memories of the Hoover and chuckle just a little bit.

Concrete Poem March 17, 2009

This poem is about one of my “can’t do withouts”:  coffee!!  Surprisingly, I didn’t become a coffee drinker until just a few years ago, after I had started teaching.  I just never tried it and didn’t think I’d like it.  Now however, I am addicted.  It’s really my only addiction, but I just can’t function in the morning until I’ve had a mug full.

 

Multi-genre Project March 15, 2009

Trying to choose a topic to do my multi-genre project probably took more effort than the actual project will take.  I have mulled this over and over in my brain trying to decide; I went from being clueless about what to pick to having too many ideas and having to choose just one.  I’ve thought about the things that are meaningful to me and that I would enjoy doing more research about, and wanted to be sure I chose something I would be able to find plenty of information on.  When we first started discussing multi-genre projects, I was excited about getting to research anything I wanted to.  Then as I began thinking about it, I realized that having grown up in schools where the teacher ALWAYS told you what to research and write your paper on, I’ve never had to choose the topic and I was surprised at how difficult that part was for me.  I looked up possible topic ideas on the internet and several seemed appealing to me, but I found myself always coming back to one of the first ideas I’d had:  Egypt and the pyramids.  I have always been intrigued by this culture and part of history, partly because of the mystery surrounding the pyramids and partly because of the religious connections to the Biblical story of Moses and the Exodus.  That’s always been one of my favorite Bible stories and I’ve always thought that there was probably a connection between the Israelites and the building of the Great Pyramids.  I love to watch shows on the History Channel and National Geographic about the Egyptians and the process of how the pyramids were constructed.  I think it is absolutely amazing that they were able to engineer and construct such architectural wonders so many, many years ago.  I think this will be an exciting project to do and I think that I will learn a great deal about a subject that I am very interested in.

Persona Poetry February 23, 2009

Persona Poetry to me is when the author writes with a voice other than his own.  Instead of saying what he feels or thinks, he is taking on the identity of another person, animal, or object and writing from that point of view.  The interesting thing about persona poetry is that the author can write for an animal or object that wouldn’t be able to have a voice on its own.  For example, in Dirty Laundry Pile, the laundry is an inanimate object and would not have any feelings or emotions, let alone a voice, but the author spoke as he thought the laundry would speak if it had a voice.

 

My favorite persona poems and I poems are the ones written from an animal’s point of view.  I love creatures and sometimes wonder what my dog Luci would say to me if she could speak.  Sometimes I think I know exactly what she wants to say just in how she looks at me, but I think that it would be really cool if she could actually tell me.

 

I think children would really have a lot of fun writing persona poems in the voice of an animal.  I found when writing my poem I really had to go back several times to the book and look up things I wanted to write about.  You have to really know about the object or thing you want to write about to create this kind of poem. 

I Poem: The Elephant Mother February 23, 2009

I Poem in Response to an Informational Text

 

I originally had chosen a different book for this assignment, but ended up using a book my daughter brought home from school.  She was showing it to me and it was so interesting that I sat down and read through it and discussed it with her.  She wants to be a vet when she grows up, or work with animals in some way, so she is always bringing home books about animals that are sick or hurt.  This book was entitled The Elephant Hospital by Kathy Darling.  It was about elephants that are sick or injured in the jungle of Thailand and the doctors (mahouts) who try to help care for them.  They have actually created a hospital just for elephants there in the jungle and they do everything from surgeries to assistance in deliveries of new baby calves.  It was a very interesting book and I learned a lot from reading it.  I decided I wanted to write my I Poem from the perspective of a mother elephant giving birth, which I found after reading the book is a very dangerous and painful experience.  Often the mother will be so frantic during the birth that she tramples the baby accidentally.  Often the baby will be killed by her unintentionally because she is in so much pain.  In the wild, other female elephants called aunties assist by moving the baby out of her way after birth, but if no aunties are available, humans from the hospital step in and help out.  This can be a very dangerous job for the mahouts as well and they risk their own lives to try to help save the baby elephant.

 

 

The Elephant Mother

 

I am a gentle gray giant.

I wonder why I feel great pains.

I hear the trumpets of the aunties.

I see the mahouts gather round me.

I want to understand what is happening.

I am a gentle gray giant.

 

I pretend I am in another place and time.

I feel pain I do not understand.

I touch the fresh sweet hay.

I worry if I will survive this event.

I cry when he’s finally born.

I am a gentle gray giant.

 

I understand now what has happened.

I say it was a worthy cause.

I dream he’ll grow up safely.

I try to teach him the ways of the jungle.

I hope he learns these lessons well.

I am a gentle gray giant.