Megan's Reflection- Mem chapter 6

The layout of this chapter was very interesting and entertaining! It was nice to get information out of the writing and feel like I was reading a story. The Language Arts Teacher had a few essential things that she carried in her briefcase that she felt were very important to the literature process. The first was relationships. Mem stated that she felt it was important to try to get to know her students as soon as possible. She also wanted to make her classroom feel homelike, emotionally informal, and safe. I strongly agree that knowing our students and their interests are important to the literature process. We have to be able to know how to spark their interests and get them interested in writing. Another item in the briefcase was reality. She reemphasizes the fact that she believes the students should write about real situations or to real people. If they don’t see why what they are writing matters, it will be of no importance to them and the will not put a lot of effort into it. Another item in the briefcase was rejoicing in choices. Mem comments on the vast number of genres available to the writer and that children should be able to write about what they want to. I agree that giving them a subject to write about is not nearly as exciting as writing about something that you care about. The final item in the briefcase was the return of the affective. She says that the affective engagement of the teacher will spark the child to become interested in learning and therefore they will be affected by literature.