One of the things I really look forward to in teaching language arts is finding ways to capture children’s imagination and ideas through creative writing, representing, reading etc. I always enjoyed the language arts as a young student whether through creative writing projects, reading novels, or even learning cursive writing. I distinctly remember my grade 5 teacher challenging me and a few of the other eager ELA students to writing a ‘novel.’ I think that now, she stands out to me as one of the best teacher’s I ever had because she recognized that all of the students in the class were unique and she found ways to engage all of the learners in the class.
After just returning from spending three years in Quebec
I am excited to learn ways to encourage my future students to appreciate and enjoy the language arts, and since I can’t say I have a lot of experience in the classroom I will be taking a more varied approach on the age groups. Like many of my other elementary education classmates, this is my first blog, so I’m still trying to figure this whole thing out ~ but fortunately it seems a little less daunting than I had anticipated, and hopefully it will get easier with practice. J
Welcome to the Blogosphere, Ashley! I love the story about the yams (that could have been a Sesame Street episode). Writing a novel in 5th grade must have been an exciting task...do you remember if you finished it? If so, did you have an opportunity to share it with anyone besides the teacher?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea to challenge students to write a novel! It's good that your teacher recognized the different levels of the students in her class and adapted her lessons to suit the needs of all of the learners. This approach also probably helped with behaviour management since the children were less likely to be bored and restless.
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised at how much body language plays a role in communication. When I was in Southeast Asia, all I could really say was "hello" and "no, thank you," but of course I needed to be able to ask for directions and suggestions on where to eat and stay. It is amazing how much you can communicate with very few words (and how much you can understand, too)!