Jaime S. Graves (Ch. 6&7)

After hearing about publishing so many times from our texts and from class, I was beginning to feel like I was so deprived in school because I never published anything. I finally realized while I was reading Chapter 6, that I did publish in the seventh grade. The sad part is that I threw away that book three months ago while we were moving. The funny part is that I still remember what I wrote in that book. It wasn't a story, it was just a sentence with a picture. I won't mention what I wrote because I think it's rather silly. But I do regret throwing that book away. Lesson for the day: Keep all your work!

Chapter 7 gave three different ways of surrounding children with literature. I enjoyed reading all three but I liked Mrs. Andersen's the best. Her second graders spoke, wrote, and listened to poetry from the first day of class. When she would introduce a poem, she would speak the poem twice then have the children recite whatever they could remember. After three repetitions the children knew about sixty percent of the poem and by the end of the week they memorized it all. I experienced something similar with my daughter. Her homework was to sing "You're a Grand Old Flag." I didn't know that song well enough to teach her nor could I read the music notes, so I went on I-tunes and bought 2 versions of that song. I practiced it myself then I sang it to her and then I had her repeat after me. We played the CD on the way to school and on the way home. It took her about 3 days to remember that song.