Love that Dog and Brown Angels Reflection

I was surprised that I actually enjoyed “Love that Dog”. I thought the book was a great example of how teachers can get students to love poetry. Jack started off not liking reading or writing poetry. He even said that he thought only girls wrote poetry. The teacher only had to encourage him and show him some examples of good poems to get him to start enjoying poetry. She gave him an outlet for his feelings which he was afraid to put into his writing at first. Once he let go and let his emotions and feelings flow into his words, he wrote great poems. I really wish that a teacher had let me have free reign to write what I wanted. I never learned to like poetry or write it because I was never encouraged to write what I wanted. I had to write in a certain format and sometimes on a subject my teacher picked. I always thought that poems had to rhyme or be written a certain way. I loved how all the teacher did was ask questions, and post Jack’s poetry on the wall and it helped him grow. Even when he thought he had done something bad by copying another poem she showed him she was excited that he was writing and that it is perfectly fine to get inspiration from someone else’s work. She did a wonderful job of helping her students to love poetry. I also enjoyed some of the Walter Dean Meyers poems from “Brown Angels”. I didn’t realize he was the author until I read Love that boy. I liked that we read the books together. My favorite poem was Summer. It had a great beat and I could see the people that Walter Dean Meyers is describing. People being lazy, sweating and just enjoying themselves. Reading Love that Boy was a lot more important to me after reading Love that Dog. It meant more to me because I first saw it through Jack’s eyes. I want to try and use what I have learned in these books with my students. I want my students to like poetry even if I don’t always.

Notebook Know How #2

I thought the chapter about launching the notebook was very helpful. I myself am not the best writer so teaching others to write will probably be a challenge. I like all the different ways to start a notebook entry. I liked the idea about making lists because it is a great way to just start thinking about a subject. It can be hard to narrow your ideas down right away so by making a list you can determine which subjects are good and which ones aren’t. I also liked how the teacher gave her students a word and then told them to write for 20 minutes about that word. Depending on the word most students wont have a problem writing about it. My favorite part about the chapter was how she said not to expect your students to be reflective all the time. They should focus on just writing to begin with. I can tell that this book will give a lot of good ideas for helping students write.

HOT Blogging

I thought this was a great article, I had never really thought about creating a class blog before. I never used the web to communicate with classmates before college so it didn’t even cross my mind to use it with elementary students. After reading the article I think it would be a good way for students to share their opinions about books they are reading in class or thoughts about other subjects. It would be very useful because some students feel embarrassed to speak in front of the class, so this would be a way for them to share their opinion in a non-verbal way. I also liked how the article talked about how Stephanie allowed her students to have their own pages and to post about things or subjects unrelated to school. Having a page where students can showcase their work is a fantastic idea. It gives students a place to shine when there might not be any other place they can. It might also allow some of the more reserved students to break out of their shell and post something special that they have created or accomplished. It seems like it helps the class to connect because students can share their interests and would probably be more willing to talk or comment about what the other students are doing. As a teacher it can be very difficult to integrate different subjects, but this is a perfect way to integrate Language Arts and Technology. Instead of just reading a book and talking about it in class students can look up more information about the book. They can delve deeper into why the author wrote it and what the author is trying to say. They can also benefit from their classmates posts and comments. I think as long as the students use the blog responsibly that it would be a great way for a class to discuss a book.