Reflections for Note Slipped Under the Door and First Readicide Group

A Note Slipped Under the Door

Ben Okun        Williams Burns

Wesley Pautsch           Sarita Urbano

Teadra Vance

            

First things first. That was a fun assignment. Drawing pictures and then passing them along to other students was a great task. Doesn't require much prep and the children can actively engage with each other multiple times. My big critique for the lesson was maybe watch the language. I know Wesley caught himself when he started talking about his favorite piece of poetry. Watch out who you’re giving praise to because if you constantly give praise to a few good poetry students, but don't acknowledge other students poems then you can have hurt feelings and they may not see their poems as being good.

            Having a classroom that loves to write and loves to comment and critique each other’s work is a dream for my future classroom. This book shows how poetry can be used to achieve this result by having lessons that inspire students to be creative and unrestricted, but still make great work. And it’s not just the already established poets that inspire, but the student’s peers that inspire. I would definitely get this book in the future. When I have money, or find it cheap in a bookstore.

Readicide by Kelly Galagher

Amy Andracchio                    Megan Asel

Danielle Aylesworth               Kelsey Barger

Dana Cummings         Christian Danzero

Miranda Jones                         Kim Sharp

            As an avid reader who spent 2 hours in his bed reading a book this morning, I am not a victim of Readicide. But I have seen its effects in classrooms. I can remember being ecstatic when my brother actually liked the assigned reading in class because normally he wasn’t. Most people in my class cringed and hated assigned reading, and writing essays, and having to take standardized tests. I would hope that as a teacher, at any level, I could have a profound effect on how much my students read.  Even if I was a science teacher, I’d find a way to incorporate a love of reading.

            The group did a good job with their activity. They weren’t prepared when the class actually preferred the multiple choices over the one-pager, but it’s been beat into us so much that we have quietly accepted it. I for one loved the one-pager and found it to be a much better way to think about the story. The prompts, which I didn’t answer all of them and I wouldn’t enforce too much, let me write and organize my thoughts on the story. On my one-pager was the beginnings of an essay that I could have easily expanded upon. Like I pointed out in class, it could be combined with multiple choice tests in a way that can guide students into noticing the main points or remembering important characters and people. Like having a multiple choice test on one side, but a space for notes on the other.