Week 5

The Fox reading addresses games you can play with first graders such as Bingo which gives children practice reading words that are spelled with the letter-sound patterns they are learning. Games are a great way to connect ideas for kids. My seven year old played Bingo in class a week ago and it was his favorite part of the day. I am also a fan of hangman (I might alter the title of this game) for kindergarten. It gives kids an opportunity to fill in the blanks, a chance to work on filling in the gaps between consonants or the rest of the word. Our kindergarten student we worked with spells monster MST so hangman is a game I might play with him with this word. I would probably put some letters in for the child to work off of depending on the age. This game is great for some kids while not so engaging for others. I like how Fox introduces activity ideas as I found these to be very effective in working with the kindergartner.

The Lamott reading addresses writing. To be a good writer, you must care for what you write about. I completely agree. If you don't have your own buy-in you certainly won't have the buy-in of your audience. To be a good writer, it is helpful to have experiences. This means you venture outside your own world or at least attempt to avoid getting caught up in your own world.  Lamott says "my deepest belief is that to live as if we are dying can set us free." She goes on to say that this means paying attention, to forgive and not sweat the small things. I believe this contributes to good writing because again, if you live this way, you will have more experiences, fewer constraints thus, more to write about. Unfortunately, the reality is, one cannot understand what this means without having a brush with "finality" meaning a time when everything almost slips away. Those who have had such an experience understand what she is saying all too well. She goes on to talk about jealousy in depth. Perhaps if we had a better understanding of the previous stated thoughts above, jealousy "a secondary emotion that is born out of feeling excluded and deprived" would come by us less naturally.

Finally, writing is a powerful way for a student to express themselves while having the option to edit, retract a thought and finalize without regret. We have fewer editing options with speech (also a powerful tool) but does not work for us 100% of the time. We often say things we don’t mean, what we say is misinterpreted, or we say something hurtful unintentionally of course. Writing allows us to communicate with greater control and thoughtfulness.

Per Lamott's reading on how a writer needs to be passionate about their subject, this further backs the necessity of giving kids a choice with their subject matter.