Meredith’s Blog

After today’s multigenre presentations, I have learned so much about so many different things.  Each person took a great amount of time and ownership into their projects, and I felt everyone learned so much as a presenter and as an audience.  Over and over again I was reminded of how much the world has to offer through mounds of information.  I heard more than once during each presentation that each person learned so much more from doing a multigenre project than a regular research paper.  All the valuable information that each person presented can be taken and used in the classroom and shared with others to help in their teaching.  Once again it was not something I was excited about doing in the beginning, but now that I have experienced this type of project, I cannot imagine doing another boring research paper.  Yes, these took each of us a long time to do, but the information I have gained and RETAINED has a priceless value.  The pride and understanding each person took from doing their projects and watching other present is beyond words.  In the end, I loved doing my multigenre project and I’m proud of myself and others accomplishments.

“The endless possibiilities for creative interpretations!”  What an amazing statement.  Even though I’m not a middle grades teacher, I find that without words, students are invited to write their own story; to put their own thoughts and feelings onto the paper and make it their own.  This is a way that truly got those non-writers writing and reading the imaginary words.  My ESL and lower achieving students were the ones who took off in the wordless activities.  I cannot believe the quality of work they produced.  Just like the article said students did complain at first because there were no words, but later jumped at the opportunity to write their own story.  I really enjoyed the excitement and eagerness in each of my students.

I know I’ve said before how graphic novels got one of my children to write a well written elaborate story, so I decided after reading Owly to write Owly’s story as a class.  So for our writing lessons until spring break, we will become authors of the story.  We started today and after introducing graphic novels and talking about wordless picture books, we completed three pages.  My students noticed that some of the pages did have “words” on them, (chew, chew etc.) and were concerned because there were words in the book.  I explained to them that those words were there to help the reader understand the story.  I was very amazed at the outcome of the first 3 pages.  On the first page (7), we looked at each picture and talked about what we thought was happening, then went back to each individual frame and made a story that made sense.  Our story begins…One sunny morning there was an owl WHOOOOOOO (this was later revised by a student who said the story would sound much better if we spoke in owl language) who lived in a tree.  The owl falls out of the tree and lands beside an apple.  He picked up the apple and started to get hungry.  We did the same thing with page 8 and 9.  Different children took turns writing the story.  The use of the ELMO in this activity is a must, unless you use transparencies of each page.  Those students who really never have anything to say spoke, and made an effort to add to the story, well first 3 pages.  I was impressed.  They are a little nervous at the fact the book is so long, but I told them we were going to work at it little by little.  I can’t wait to see what kind of story Owly becomes in the eyes of 6 and 7 year olds!

How do you read a book without words has probably been asked a million or more times in an adult’s life.  When I’m faced with that question, I tell my children it’s their turn to write the story.  To use the pictures as clues to help them to predict what they think will happen.  It’s not going to be wrong as long as they tried and it in some way relates to the picture.  I explain to them it can’t be about something that is not there.  I tell them to look at the emotions, faces, expressions, surroundings, and become the story.  Make the reader want to read more.  I also try to have them to understand that when the reader reads their words, they should be able to draw a similar picture to that the illustrator drew. 

When reading the article, I loved how it said that graphic novels give the brain more of a workout.  I saw this first hand when reading To Dance.  My student’s brain wheels just kept on turning.  It brought so much excitement and enjoyment to my class.  Many of my students want to write their own graphic novels, and they have that choice during writing time.  Since I have gone away from the “tell the class the topic to write about,” and have given them the freedom to just write.  I really do like the graphic novels for my students.  I may not care to read them, but they get the attention of my students, and as long as they are learning…they can read and write whatever they enjoy.

Ms. Bromley what’s ______?  Ms. Bromley what’s ______?  Ms. Bromley what’s ______?  I have never had so many questions and interaction with a book ever until I chose to read To Dance to a group of my students last week.  Each week during Title 1 pullout, I choose a book to read and discuss with my higher students for about 10 minutes a day before working in groups with those students.  Last week I chose to read To Dance.  Even though my class is mostly boys (11 out of 17), I thought let’s give this book a chance.  Well to my surprise, the boys loved it.  They learned so much, they put more thought into what they were listening to, and could go back and explain feelings and emotions from picture to picture.  I had not read this book before presenting it to my class, and I’m glad I did not.  The children were able to bring out parts of the book that I did not see.  They asked questions I would never ask, and they wanted to know more.  They loved the fact that they were able to learn about one’s life in one book.  They went from childhood to adulthood and they began to believe that they too can do whatever they want in life.  I was able to tell them of when I was a dancer growing up and they asked me to bring in my toe, ballet, and tap shoes…I promised them I would bring them in when I can get them out of storage.  I do not have any dancers in my classroom this year, but a few of my boys wanted to know if they could dance and I told them that a lot of athletes, especially football players were dancers.  The boys assignment for next week is to research and find out what NFL players have taken or do take ballet to help with their football skills.  I can’t wait to see what they come up with.  I really did enjoy this book.  Instead of reading Owly alone, I’m going to give it to my students on Monday and Tuesday to read and tell me what the story is about, since there are no words and they will be able to make up the story.  I really think graphic novels are a great way to get students to read and predict.

I have made the decision after reading this book to my class that I am going to have each of them do a memoir.  This piece can be about anything in their lives as long as it involves someone living that it can be presented to.  I am going to start this next week and we are going to work on it for the remainder of the year.  When the end of the year approaches, we will publish our work, and invite families and friends and most of all, the person the memory involves to join our class for a celebration.  I really think my children can express themselves through their memories and I want them to know how to touch someone’s life through their words and memories.  I am going to ask those people my children wrote to or about to respond to the child through writing.  I want to see how this goes, hopefully well, because I think it will be a great experience for myself and my children.

Can’t you just see yourself as Richards little sister?  I could and it brought back so many memories of my sister and me growing up.  Both good and bad, but most of all memories I’ll never forget!

Teaching English speaking children how to open up their minds and write about their lives through experience is very challenging, but when it comes to teaching limited English speaking students the challenge becomes that much harder.  Giving all students regardless of their language the opportunity to grow and become one with their writing and learning will only help to develop the joy of learning in a child.  Always providing a model of situations, experiences, moments in your life that a child can relate to helps them to become a part of what they are trying to do.  In teaching you always have to give meaningful experiences for those children who may have a hard time doing a particular activity.  A teacher can’t expect a child who has never been to the beach to write about the beach, but instead take that child to the beach through books, videos, pictures, to help the child become a part of the experience, and that child will have something to write about.  They may have never been to beach in person, but they were taken there in their minds and will be able to come up with a story or idea of the beach.  All in all the more meaning a child has in something and personal experience or connection the much better product you will get from the student.  Never assume anything as a teacher…make sure all students are given the resources and experiences needed to become all that they can regardless of their ethnicity or language.

Having time to think about an event that occurred in your life that has changed your life enough that thoughts of the memory take time to come full circle is my definition of a memoir.  Those memories you have day after day when you see, smell, hear or taste something that reminds you of a period in your life are those things that one should take the time to write a memoir about.  No matter what’s going on in a person’s life things always bring certain experiences and memories back into their thoughts, and those memories are the ones that God is telling you to write down.  Those memories are there to help you become a stronger person in one way or another.  Memories may be sad, happy, scary, etc., but that is what they are memories.  Things that happened in your life that may have been hard or enjoyable, but shaped you as the person you are today.  I have never really thought about taking the time to write a memoir, but have decided that this summer I will take that time and write memories that reoccur in my mind down, and keep them in a safe place to always have. 

Finishing the multigenre readings took no time at all.  I had a lot of interest in what was being said in the chapters, and kept trying to figure out how to change things to make them work in the lower grades.  All the charts and graphic organizers are similar to those that I use in my room to an extent.  It truly helps children to know where to go with all their ideas.   Coming up with a list of ways to help children write in different ways is so much easier now.  I never really thought about a diploma or check could be a way to express ideas and facts about a specific subject.  Like I have said multiple times, I wish I were giving the opportunity to do a multigenre project instead of a research paper in college and in high school.  I am actually having more success in the project I am working on for the Titanic and recalling information I am reading due to the fact that I am enjoying what I am working on.  The freedom I have has made me feel as if I own this project as my students now have better ownership of their work.

My multigenre project I will be doing will be on the Titanic.  If you have any information or ideas I could use, please let me know!