April 30, 2009

Reflection:

M. was back today YEAH!  She went over her story and we decided on some clues that I can give her if she forgets where she is in her story.  She taped her story and all went fine, I wish she had been here last week so that we could have practiced more, but I think it helped her to see the other students perform and she will be ready for the performance next week. 

April23, 2009

My student was not there today.  She has not been there for four days, and the teacher does not know if she is sick or has moved.  I only hope she has been sick so that she will be back. (It amazes me how many of these students move so often.)  Therefore I spent some time with Elda’s students, and some time with Valerie’s students preparing them for their performance. 

March 19, 2009

Maria was not there todayL I worked with another little boy (I can’t think of his name right now, it will come to me…) he has finished his story and wanted to add a little more to it.  My intention was to write down the addition as he told it so that we would have a record of it, however, there was no way for me to keep up with his imagination!  I merely had to take notes, so that we could remember.  When he told the story a second time, he changed it, it was nothing like the first telling, apart from the first half of the story which he had recorded and memorized.  I pointed out the discrepancy and asked  him which version he preferred and he decided on the second one, because “it has more action.” 

I don’t think he will have any trouble telling his story when it comes to the presentation night.  He set some goals to read over the story everyday between now and the next time we meet, and to start creating his costume. 

March 12, 2009

Maria and I met with Samantha’s group for a peer review of their stories.  It went very well, and it was a help for the students.  Maria learned some good things about her story and made some good changes.  Her story is coming along very well.

I had learned about peer reviews of writing in my college classes.  I had participated as a student reviewer and found them to be helpful.  I have never been the teacher conducting the activity however, and it was nice to see how well it works for young students.  It not only gave them some good feedback, but it seemed to inspire them to do better as a whole on their stories.  I am grateful for this opportunity.

March 5, 2009

Reflection:  T has moved!  Darn it, I was so looking forward to hearing more about his story of his uncle saving the life of a man in a burning car.  I also just enjoyed being with him and getting to know him. 

M and I had fun playing the game and she is getting better about opening up and talking to me.  We were also able to organize her story.  It started out as just a set of descriptions about her baby brother, and turned into a story about how the baby is like his mom, dad and sister.  I’ll type up what we wrote and hopefully the peer review will be a good experience. 

February 27

Reflection: The game was a good idea, T and M enjoyed playing and I learned some more about their personalities.  T was wanting to talk in sign language and so the game was a good time for him to practice the sign language and get it out of his system to be prepared to work on their stories. 

We played the game for fifteen minutes, and then began working on their stories.  I alternated between the two helping them develop their stories.  In the process we came upon a great story for T to develop, he is pretty good about writing and thinking about his story.  M is a little slower in processing her ideas, and it helped for me to have her stand up and pretend to tell the story while I wrote it for her. She still has a ways to go to find the story.  We are making progress and I feel confident that we will get there.

1/19

What fun it was to do the performances, well it was more fun once my part was done.  I so much enjoyed seeing my classmates perform.  How talented they are, and what senses of humor they have. I admire that, for I am good at laughing and enjoying the humor, but not as good at creating it. 

I enjoyed telling Edna’s story; it helped me to understand Grandma more.  I have always admired her for what she did, and have enjoyed knowing that story, but to actually think about it, write it down and then perform it brought a whole new dimension to who she was.  The more I experience storytelling the more I am convinced of its power.  I remember a comment made at a teacher training I attended when I was teaching a religion class.  The instructor told us that the scripture stories are universal vehicles that transport lessons.  It does not matter where we are in our lives, we can always learn something from the stories that will help us.  I learned more about my Grandma today and am even more grateful to be her granddaughter.