Blog 6

In Family Stories and the Fictional Dream, I was incredibly moved by Tom Romano’s story involving his daughter’s paper about her grandfather’s journey to America. I became extremely emotional when reading about how he and his daughter were able to connect over one of her school assignments. Thinking back to middle and high school, I can still remember that some of my favorite assignments involved my researching the history of my family. I can clearly recall sitting with my late grandmother while she discussed such girlhood memories as watching horse-drawn wagons deliver blocks of ice to her front porch or taking special Sunday streetcar rides to Willow Grove Park. Having the opportunity to talk with my grandmother about these things and to then follow-up by writing about her experiences allowed me to feel connected to her on a much deeper level. Now that she has passed away, these writings remain behind as a permanent record of some of our best times together. In my opinion, assignments like these are great ways to get students invested in their writing.

In Writing and the Writer, Smith discusses the importance of engagement when considering how children learn. He talks about the “learning hooks” that help to engage you in a demonstration and prepare you to grasp the information that is about to be presented. In the new Learning Focused Schools program being implemented in our area, teachers are expected to have some sort of activating strategy or “hook” before each lesson they present. When I have witnessed these hooks being used, I can tell that students are already more intrigued about what they are about to learn. On the other hand, teachers who simply stand in front of the room and begin lecturing miss the opportunity to truly engage their students. If we as teachers do not engage our students before we begin to teach, we cannot expect them to see any significance in what we are teaching them. The result will be that students will most likely zone out for the entire lesson.

I found Vicki Spandel’s chapter on finding your own voice to be extremely helpful in terms of guiding my own students when I begin teaching writing. I especially loved the story in which a student wrote to express his annoyance with the phrase “writing from the heart” in which he ultimately accomplished the purpose of the phrase by writing what he was truly feeling. I loved the idea of having students try on the voices of famous writers that they enjoy reading. I think this is a great activity to consider how voice affects different genres of storytelling (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and can also help students to ultimately find their own voices. I would also add that I think the activity we did in class of “show me don’t tell me” is another great way to help students see the importance of voice and to help them find their own voices.

I have to say that I was so excited to come across the example from Frog and Toad used as a demonstration of how to create characters using voice. A few years ago, while performing for the summer at a professional theatre in Vermont, I had the wonderful privilege of playing Toad in A Year With Frog and Toad (the Broadway musical based on Arnold Lobel’s books). During the rehearsal process, we had the opportunity to travel to several schools and perform for elementary school students (this was in June right before the end of school). Before one performance, I learned from a teacher that all of the students in the school had read all of the books for class and that some teachers were using them to discuss with students the differences between Frog and Toad that were evident from the dialogue. Elementary school students were learning voice and didn’t even know it! Our cast had the incredible experience of being able to bring those characters to life and to demonstrate to students how the voices in the books influenced our character choices as actors.

One final note: I loved the story at the end of this chapter in which Barry Lane confessed publishing several newspaper articles as a female writer. Too funny!!!