I feel like I have not blogged in awhile, I've been so busy with other course work as I am sure the rest of you have.
This will begin a series of four blogs reflecting on my writing process. The assignment is to first write an informative essay on a genre, then write a piece in that genre. In the informative essay I must define the genre, explain why it is important to teach, and come up with classroom actvities that will teach students to read and write in this genre.
The genre I choose is memoir. I choose this genre because I have a passion for learning from expereinces and people's different perspectives which are major aspects in memoirs.
Today in class we started conferencing with our rough drafts (or in my case- rough outline, lol) of our informative essay. I feel as though it was a very valuable use of time. I found my peers to be very helpful with ideas for the memoir genre and also helped me to better understand the genre. There were three total members in my group and we all choose a different genre. We all gave and received valuable feedback and ideas for our upcoming papers. I was definitely more interested and productive in our writing conferences then our book club meetings so I think I will enjoy them more and hopefully help out my peers as they help me in these conferences through this genre writing process.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Monday, October 20, 2014
Book Club 4
This was our book club's final meeting and was focused on chapters 31 to the end of the book. Again, we had a member missing so we did not get to see how she feels about the end of the book.
I found that we all noticed how the end of the book really tied together a lot of lose ends in the story and ended in a very positive way. Our book club made connections to the many aspects of education such as inclusion and special needs that they discussed in the book
As a reflection- I cant say this experience sparked my interest in joining any other book club. I do enjoy reading, but prefer to keep it to myself. I can understand why people join books clubs though, maybe the same reason adults join a book club as if a young student in a readers workshop...sometimes reading things together and discussing the text in a group helps you to gain a better understanding or see different opinions/perspectives.
I did enjoy this book, as did our entire book club. I feel as though it was a great choice for our book club because we are all special education majors and we were able to tie in a lot of aspects of the special education field to Caitlin's journey through the book. Most of all, we were able to see how Caitlin benefited from special education related services and how she overcame a very difficult situation.
Being a part of a reader's workshop re-exposed me to the benefits of a reader's workshop, by discussing the text, hearing other's perspectives, thoughts and opinions. It has been a very long time since I have discussed a book in a setting like this. I am interested to see the comparison/contrast we will make to writing workshops now.
I found that we all noticed how the end of the book really tied together a lot of lose ends in the story and ended in a very positive way. Our book club made connections to the many aspects of education such as inclusion and special needs that they discussed in the book
As a reflection- I cant say this experience sparked my interest in joining any other book club. I do enjoy reading, but prefer to keep it to myself. I can understand why people join books clubs though, maybe the same reason adults join a book club as if a young student in a readers workshop...sometimes reading things together and discussing the text in a group helps you to gain a better understanding or see different opinions/perspectives.
I did enjoy this book, as did our entire book club. I feel as though it was a great choice for our book club because we are all special education majors and we were able to tie in a lot of aspects of the special education field to Caitlin's journey through the book. Most of all, we were able to see how Caitlin benefited from special education related services and how she overcame a very difficult situation.
Being a part of a reader's workshop re-exposed me to the benefits of a reader's workshop, by discussing the text, hearing other's perspectives, thoughts and opinions. It has been a very long time since I have discussed a book in a setting like this. I am interested to see the comparison/contrast we will make to writing workshops now.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Book club 3
Yesterday was our third book club meeting. We had one member missing. Our assigned reading for this meeting was chapters 21-30.
In these chapters Caitlin's social worker was out to attend to her sister's troubled pregnancy. Caitlin and her dad attend as fund raiser which makers her feel very uncomfortable in a crowd full of people but it was here that she is intrigued by a character artist and is convinced to draw her first character which she fails to draw the person's eyes. She is continuing to "find closure" and wants to do this by finishing Devon's chest. She is adamant about going to Lowe's to retrieve the items on Devon's list. This really upsets her father and he isn't able to bring himself to do this. After Caitlin's relentless efforts he finally agrees to work on it and starts to think it might be a good idea. The start of their project is disrupted by another shooting on the news. In chapter 30 Caitlin attempts to make friends at lunch and is teased, triggering behaviors and being a negative experience.
In our meeting we focused on these main events and discussed Caitlin's perspective. We made connections to her behaviors and the events taking place. While also discussing our own perspective and thoughts. Some members of our book club feel as though Caitlin's father does not understand her, while I disagree and feel as though he has been very patient and understanding of her while they are both dealing with an overwhelming amount of grief and that he is doing a lovely job of doing so. I put myself in his perspective of a single father to a young girl with autism who just lost his son in a school shooting and his wife to cancer a few years ago. I applaud him, even during moments of weakness. It seems as though at only our third book club meeting it has become routine and somewhat dull. It leads me to wonder what a larger book club, with a more intensive story, or a book club for hobby would be like....Maybe a book club that is based on politics and there is a debate- or a book club that exposes others to a new culture- or a book club based on a successful recovery that unifies other survivors of an accident, war or illness.
In these chapters Caitlin's social worker was out to attend to her sister's troubled pregnancy. Caitlin and her dad attend as fund raiser which makers her feel very uncomfortable in a crowd full of people but it was here that she is intrigued by a character artist and is convinced to draw her first character which she fails to draw the person's eyes. She is continuing to "find closure" and wants to do this by finishing Devon's chest. She is adamant about going to Lowe's to retrieve the items on Devon's list. This really upsets her father and he isn't able to bring himself to do this. After Caitlin's relentless efforts he finally agrees to work on it and starts to think it might be a good idea. The start of their project is disrupted by another shooting on the news. In chapter 30 Caitlin attempts to make friends at lunch and is teased, triggering behaviors and being a negative experience.
In our meeting we focused on these main events and discussed Caitlin's perspective. We made connections to her behaviors and the events taking place. While also discussing our own perspective and thoughts. Some members of our book club feel as though Caitlin's father does not understand her, while I disagree and feel as though he has been very patient and understanding of her while they are both dealing with an overwhelming amount of grief and that he is doing a lovely job of doing so. I put myself in his perspective of a single father to a young girl with autism who just lost his son in a school shooting and his wife to cancer a few years ago. I applaud him, even during moments of weakness. It seems as though at only our third book club meeting it has become routine and somewhat dull. It leads me to wonder what a larger book club, with a more intensive story, or a book club for hobby would be like....Maybe a book club that is based on politics and there is a debate- or a book club that exposes others to a new culture- or a book club based on a successful recovery that unifies other survivors of an accident, war or illness.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Book Club 2
Today was our second book club meeting. I would say it went smoother then the first because we were all more on the same page as how to facilitate the meeting and what to expect.
This meeting was focus on the content of chapters 11-20 of Mockingbird.
In these chapters Caitlin becomes hyper focused on researching facts about the heart, after we find out she knows Devon got shoot in the heart and is aware of gory details, also recalls what the doctor said "there's nothing we could do".
Caitlin loves to read and is at an above average reading level, she says "books are easy, they don't have feelings". After her research she climbs into Devon's unfinished chest and start to mimic functions of the heart from inside the chest.
She also becomes hyper focused with "finding closure" and wants to try to "figure it out". She goes into Devon's room for the first time, into her "safe spot/cozy corner", she expereinces the feeling of memories and finds a list Devon left of thigns he had not finished before the shooting.
She decides she needs to finish this list, and that maybe it would bring her closure, which she is still unsure about.
Meanwhile she is in a position where trying to make friends and working diligiantly at it during recess. We see the begining of her beliving she developed a "friendship" and experiences jealousey over a book buddy siuation. Her social worker is also trying to expose her to empathy. She is very overwhelemed, also trying to chomprehend her father's feelings which ties in with empathy.
During our book club meeting we focused on the key points she is dealing with such as juggeling feelings of grief, jeaslousy, empathy, pressure of making friends and finding closure.
We analyzed these feelings through Caitlin's unique perspective due to her autism.
I believe that a great deal of this book reinforces the idea of communication through behaviors in children with autism, and how we as teachers must learn to read the attempt at communication (which is something I will remember to mention at our next book club meeting).
This meeting was focus on the content of chapters 11-20 of Mockingbird.
In these chapters Caitlin becomes hyper focused on researching facts about the heart, after we find out she knows Devon got shoot in the heart and is aware of gory details, also recalls what the doctor said "there's nothing we could do".
Caitlin loves to read and is at an above average reading level, she says "books are easy, they don't have feelings". After her research she climbs into Devon's unfinished chest and start to mimic functions of the heart from inside the chest.
She also becomes hyper focused with "finding closure" and wants to try to "figure it out". She goes into Devon's room for the first time, into her "safe spot/cozy corner", she expereinces the feeling of memories and finds a list Devon left of thigns he had not finished before the shooting.
She decides she needs to finish this list, and that maybe it would bring her closure, which she is still unsure about.
Meanwhile she is in a position where trying to make friends and working diligiantly at it during recess. We see the begining of her beliving she developed a "friendship" and experiences jealousey over a book buddy siuation. Her social worker is also trying to expose her to empathy. She is very overwhelemed, also trying to chomprehend her father's feelings which ties in with empathy.
During our book club meeting we focused on the key points she is dealing with such as juggeling feelings of grief, jeaslousy, empathy, pressure of making friends and finding closure.
We analyzed these feelings through Caitlin's unique perspective due to her autism.
I believe that a great deal of this book reinforces the idea of communication through behaviors in children with autism, and how we as teachers must learn to read the attempt at communication (which is something I will remember to mention at our next book club meeting).
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Book club 1
Yesterday was my first "book club" meeting. I have never been in a book club so this was a new experience for me. I assumed the obvious..... we would agree to read to a certain point and then refelct on it during our meeting, and that's how it went. So for our frist meeting we agreed to read chapters 1-10 of Mocking bird, by Kathryn Erskine, and reflect on it. Well when I began the book I was so into it that I could not put it down and ended up reading the entire thing straight through. Some of the other girls said they felt the same way and some also read ahead. So one girl made a point that it was kinda weird because we were all at different points in the book. We still just decided to focus on chapters 1-10. We all really liked the book but it seemed that we all perceived parts of the book in different ways, which is fine. So my first experience of a book club meeting was pretty much what I expected but with a little awkwardness honestly.
But like I said above, the book was great! So let me tell you a little about it based on chapters 1-10 that were assigned for this first book club meeting....
This book, Mockingbird, is written from the perspective of Caitlin, a young girl with autism, who just lost her older brother in a school shooting, after also loosing her mother in the previous few years to cancer. Because this is written from Caitlin's perspective we have such a strong insight and connection to her instantly. We see how she tries to process through the grief and huge change in life from loosing her brother, how she is aware of the distress in her father and is trying to cope with that all while having the normal pressure of being a young girl with autism in a public school.
Key parts of chapters 1-10 that were discussed in our meeting was how overwhelmed she must be, how she is coping and expressing herself through the writing and behaviors, and her focus on the literal meaning of words. Such as "soon" and "next year". Which is a classic autism trait.
PS- I am not sure how specifically I should go into details of the book based on the fact that many readers of this blog may not have read the book and because I am under the impression these book club blogs should reflect more on the actual book club meetings and not so much the content in which it is based on (that being the book). But if my blog readers have not read Mockingbird, then I hope my brief summary gave you a general idea of what our book club meeting was about.
But like I said above, the book was great! So let me tell you a little about it based on chapters 1-10 that were assigned for this first book club meeting....
This book, Mockingbird, is written from the perspective of Caitlin, a young girl with autism, who just lost her older brother in a school shooting, after also loosing her mother in the previous few years to cancer. Because this is written from Caitlin's perspective we have such a strong insight and connection to her instantly. We see how she tries to process through the grief and huge change in life from loosing her brother, how she is aware of the distress in her father and is trying to cope with that all while having the normal pressure of being a young girl with autism in a public school.
Key parts of chapters 1-10 that were discussed in our meeting was how overwhelmed she must be, how she is coping and expressing herself through the writing and behaviors, and her focus on the literal meaning of words. Such as "soon" and "next year". Which is a classic autism trait.
PS- I am not sure how specifically I should go into details of the book based on the fact that many readers of this blog may not have read the book and because I am under the impression these book club blogs should reflect more on the actual book club meetings and not so much the content in which it is based on (that being the book). But if my blog readers have not read Mockingbird, then I hope my brief summary gave you a general idea of what our book club meeting was about.
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