Reflections 3/22- FOUND IT!

I totally forgot this thing saves a draft every so often! OMG I AM SO HAPPY! haha ok, well, here is my original post haha:

As I began to read this article already on the first page I was brought back to 6th grade- we had been workin gon poetry for quite some time and had been encouraged to try a variety of styles. Towards the end of the semester my teacher, Ms. Davison planned a coffee house with us. We decked out her room in lava lamps and mushroom memorabelia and we all put on our best buret's. The lights were dim and all our parents sat in our desk. I memorized a really long poem I had written and was particularly proud of. I still remember my best friend Nick dressed up as Shakespear or something rediculous and recited some famous poem. It was silly and serrious all at the same time, and we had a blast. That one night meant so much to us and I will never forget it. I am by no means an expert poetry writer and do not remember much else from that class, but I will never forget out 6th grade lit coffee house.

I believe, as the article talks about, that it is these type of meaningful activites that teachers can do with their students that will really stick with them, especially when it comes to writing. It is such an expression of ourselves, I feel like I always hear stories of students blowing their teachers away with their writing, and this only happens because the teacher sets the stage. We need to really dive into writing and allow the students to really feels its value for themselves. I feel like in my classroom at Whitehead Road the students get a good amount of writing instruction and have time to write, but it is not richly framed and encouraged to follow through. This article really articulates that, even if it is not the main idea.

To veer off a bit but come back to the article a little more, i LOVE the idea of a collage of a research paper. Who likes sitting down and putting things into some random format boring people decided we should write in? I certainly dont. But if I can write a poem, a shirt story, a newspaper article and create some piece of artwork to go with it all revolving around the same subject- how much more fun is that?! It would really stimulate different parts of the brain and encourage creativity. I have never really heard of something like this, and feel it might be more appropriate for 3-5th, but I truly love the idea.