One of the biggest points I’ve learned this year is that writing should be organic. Each time we give an assignment we tell our students what to write about, how to form the sentences and how long it should be. This can take away the joy of writing for the student. Not to mention the joy of reading for the teacher. Since the day we discussed it, I’ve absolutely loved the idea of giving students a voice through their choice. It can be choice of topic, writing style or even length of writing. In an effort to give students more enjoyment and ease of writing I feel that is definitely necessary when working with students at the secondary level. I’ve adapted more writing of choice in my lessons as it relates to content we’ve learned in hopes that my students can find their voice and enjoyment of writing no matter what the subject.

              As adults, we see the world differently than our students, we have to be open to the various views they have and be willing to meet them where they are in hopes to bring them where we need them to go. This falls in line with the idea of choice once again. Just as in writing we should give students an opportunity to choose their ‘just right book’ and enjoy the literature. It’s often better to pick our battles, I would much rather a student read a graphic novel on Naruto than have him/her read nothing at all.

              Creativity is sparked as we read, allowing students to be creative in their interpretations of the books or text they read is important. Pictures, symbols, songs, poems, journal entries all foster creativity and imagination on the part of the reader. It can allow them to take the literature to new heights or simply tell a new audience about a really, interesting story.

              I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this class. By allowing myself to become re-engaged in writing I have so much hope for my students as I plan new ways to peak their interest in both reading and writing.

Her cooking tastes like home

This reminds me of the first time we met

She was so nice, everyone was sooo nice

She smiled and stared at me, I think she hugged me a thousand times

I didn’t mind one bit

I ate so much that night

It was ALL good

But one thing stood out ….

It was golden brown

Warm… a little sweet

Flaky crust

I didn’t know this family, my family

But I left her house knowing that we all love Granny’s sweet potato pie

Slice of Life Post # 3

Last Friday my husband received an email from his university stating that he was cleared for graduation and would be receiving his masters. I always talk about how proud I am of my children or students but I had a proud wife moment. My husband and I met in college but he chose to leave after 2 years, which he always regretted. I saw it in his eyes at my graduation... many moons ago. When he decided to go back to school I was happy for him… when he completed his undergrad I was excited and now that he’s completed his master’s program I’m elated. I can’t wait to take the first pic of him with his degree.

My slice of life moment happened last Wednesday. After my Tuesday night class I was so excited to have a writing assignment with my students that I didn’t want to wait. After showing students my post and setting them up with the expectations I saw my kiddos really getting into it. Of course there was one or two who wasn’t really feeling the assignment but for the most part everyone enjoyed writing. No one was required to share...only if they wanted to. One young lady shared that she has always loved rainbows even before it became a symbol that everyone proudly displays now. When she read it, I felt her words and some sadness that her interpretation of rainbows is now gone. Another wrote of the first time she went to Mexico to meet her fathers’ parents. One girl told me that a commercial on the radio makes her smile every morning. It was awesome. Students wrote their words in a spiraling circle… in a box. One even drew box letters of the word life and wrote inside of that. By the end of each class students were excited about the option to write every week. I wish I'd started this sooner.

My slice of life moment happened last week. I was able to enjoy time with my babies. No grading papers, working on upcoming lessons,no multi-tasking homework (theirs and mine) while we have conversations and I prepare dinner. I was able to be … their mom, goofy, not-stressed ... happy.

I realized that I spend so much time trying to be everything they need (a role model, provider, educator) that I miss out on being what they want… just mom being goofy and hanging out watching TV.

When we read we lose sight of the fact that our mind is constantly moving processing the words to gain understanding. As fluent readers, we don’t think of reading as a process of thinking unless we’re reading in an official learning capacity. Yet comprehension, on some level, happens no matter what we’re reading.

Whenever we read we are in the process of thinking. For some of us we can picture scenes as we read. Although this doesn’t happen each time we read due to the nature of the text it is important to know that this is our brains way of thinking and processing the information we read. Comprehension happens because of our minds continuously processing the information we read.

Literacy needs of  adolescents in their own words

After reading our assigned articles last week I had a huge takeaway. I realized that we as teachers don’t rely on our students input enough. As teachers we sometimes think that our way is what’s best for our students because we see what they need to work on most. In order to truly understand what a child needs we have to incorporate the child in the process, find out what methods the student prefers to use, what methods, if any give them anxiety or they just don’t understand. As educators our job is not to just teach, it’s to listen and understand as well.

Sustained Silent Reading

Silent reading time can be wonderful if properly planned. One of my big takeaways from the article on sustained silent reading is that you have to have a plan in place for incidents that come up. It doesn’t seem like one should really plan for reading time but it is important. What happens when a student has no book, a student who decides they don’t like their book, a student who would rather talk to their neighbors. Before our silent reading time begins we must decide how we’ll handle these situations. Are we going to give consequences to students who aren’t reading or will we lovingly redirect them participate in the act of reading? Should we have a system of holding students accountable for reading? Most importantly how can I ensure I have books that interest the students. The most important takeaways from this article was choice. Students deserve the option of choice to feed the fire for their reading lives. When students are given an opportunity to pick a book of their choice they’re more likely to finish the book and move on to the next. Forcing a student to read a particular book can only lead to frustration with the book and teachers.