Blog 6: co-authoring classroom texts

I chose these first two pictures because it reminded me of the vast library Mrs. Maier had. The way Joanne Larson discussed how many books the children would read and on average a week and a year astounded me. It also amazed me to hear that the children were reading between 10 and 12 books a night when they took them home in the zip lock bag. I think it is simply amazing what Mrs. Maier has set up for the children and how she grasped their interest in books and turned it into something so much more. Because she was able to have the children read so often – and love doing it – makes me believe that she has forever impacted how they will view reading in high school, college, and for pleasure. I want to be able to install reading into children like she has, so it will be viewed as a happy thing, and not a tedious punishment as some children think.

 

 






 
Writing is such a useful and necessary tool in life, but it is also a way of expressing thoughts, feelings, and imagination. The second picture was chosen because I wanted to talk about the excitement the little boy has when he ran in from the playground, excited to write and share his thoughts. It’s this excitement for reading, writing, and learning that made me want to be a teacher; I love seeing this excitement in the children. When he ran in, I knew I was going to want to read what Mrs. Maier had done in her classroom so I could do the same. I want to be just like her now; I want make the children WANT to read and 
WANT to write and WANT to share their thoughts.

I chose this third picture because it reminded me how Mrs. Maier would walk around the room during writing time and stop to “work with students. She did not pull students to a separate area to talk, but used this opportunity both to instruct individual students in writing directly and to instruct those students sitting at the same table indirectly” (487). I thought this was a very good learning/teaching tool that I should remember. Also, I could not find a picture that portrayed a teacher modeling writing so I figured I would just talk about it here. I have always thought that teaching writing should mainly be done through modeling; it is when I look at an example and compare mine to it when I learn the most, so why not start at young age with this technique? I loved how Mrs. Maier actually wrote in front of her students; she wrote her feelings and her thoughts, showing the students that they should do the same. She gave them the beginning of some sentences to help kick-start their writing, which I also thought was great, and after writing she would read it. Every night she would take their journals home and read what they wrote and respond. This made writing personal and fun for the student. Also, at every major holiday event she would look at every individual student’s work and look at their progress. Wow, I do not know many teachers that would take the time to do that. I enjoyed this reading.