Kieu's Reaction #1- Radical Reflections

From reading just the first three chapters of Radical Reflections, I can conclude that Mem Fox is, indeed, a powerful writer. This is evident not in the theories that she has about language arts, but in the way she writes. She writes not only to inform, but to educate and encourage as well. One can see in her work that she truly enjoys writing.
The theory she speaks of at the end of Chapter 1 really struck a chord with me. In order for children to learn to write, they need to write to someone who will respond. I have always been a supporter of the Social Cognitive Theory and truly believe that children learn through interaction. They do need to care about what they write and to whom they write. That is why it’s so important for them to have freedom of choice as to what topic to focus on. Although one child may enjoy writing about the ozone layer, the child sitting in the next seat may despise the topic. Personally, I have always preferred writing that came from my heart, whether it be a love letter or a birthday card. Rarely do I give out birthday and Christmas cards because it annoys me to stick a blank card onto a present. I often spend hours deciding what to write and then revising it on paper before I transfer it onto the card.
My most favorite memory of writing is my commencement speech. I had to compete with two other girls to earn the position. During the last few months of my senior at McKinley High School, I worked and worked with the speech teacher on my commencement speech, speaking of the ‘past’. Notice that I did not say ‘write’. For weeks, all I did was come up with ideas of what to write and once I found my ideas, I spent even more time expanding on those ideas. This speech was important to me because I was not only writing to my teacher, but to the whole senior class as well as our family and friends. The decision process itself was to be delivered in front of a dozen teachers. I had to impress all of these people before I could even revise further. It was crazy and exciting at the same time.
I think we all dread reading and writing to a certain extent. Even the best of writers, like Mem Fox, dread writing sometimes. However, it is our responsibility as teachers to help our students learn what it means to love to write, to write from their hearts.