Seedfolks, and MGRP Ch. 5 & 7

I really liked the book "Seedfolks". It was a really easy read, but I think that the different stories were all really interesting, and I liked how they all meshed together. I think that the meaning behind "Seedfolks" is very important, and something that needs to be taken into consideration each and every day. My chapter was on Florence. I really liked her view on things. She wasn't able to plant seeds in the garden herself, but in a way, she was the most important character in the story. She watched that lot change from a trash dump that was ugly and smelled bad, into a green garden where people learned to accept other people, even if they were different from themselves.

In chapter 5 of Allen,  I love learning about the different ways we can help to get the students engaged with the characters they are reading about. I think that a lot of times, students will read about a character, but if they don't relate to the character, they are not getting as much out of the story as they might get otherwise.

Chapter 7: I think that incorporating art into their papers is a great idea. I know that when I was younger, I would have LOVED the chance to do a picture that went along with my paper. I think that by allowing the students to do art that is related to their paper, they will have fun, and will also get more out of doing the paper, because sometimes doing art can help you understand what you wrote better.

Chapter 4, and Invitations

I have never really been a huge fan of poetry. However, I love the different examples of ways you could introduce poems, and I think that poetry is something that children do enjoy, at least for a little while. I think that as soon as you put requirements on poetry, it becomes something that children, or just students in general do not enjoy. For example, I hated being given a prompt, and knowing that I had to write a 10 line poem about trees. But, for our "Where I am From" poems yesterday, we were really able to write about whatever we wanted, and it could be as short or as long as we wanted, and that made it so that it wasn't so mundane and stressful. I think that this is something to keep in mind when introducing poetry to our students, and we should not put guidelines on them, at least in the beginning.

With Invitations, I think that they are great ways to learn. One thing that I liked about them was, according to the chapter, "Invitations are also opportunities for students to delve deeper into issues in their live or engage in comparative discussions about their experiences and relationships." I think that this is really important, because the more connection between the classroom and home, the better.