Today in class we looked at several pieces of literature. We started the class by reading two books The Relatives by Cynthia Rylant and The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson. They were both really interesting stories to begin a new class with because they talked more about leaving something, rather than starting something new. In other classes where teachers have chosen to start a class with a book, its usually one that I have heard of or at least one with a very optimistic and exciting feeling. I don't know if I got that feeling from either book, but it did get my attention. It also left me wondering why exactly both of those books were chosen.
Toward the end of the class, I really enjoyed reading the little bits of House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and Never in a Hurry by Naomi Shihab Nye. Although I don't like writing an analysis, I really do enjoy analyzing literary works, so I really liked
that everyone got a chance to share what they got from each work in terms of what each author said and also what the text
structure itself said about the work. Talking about this as a class and then writing our own piece about our name was a
smart way to help us to not only think like a writer, but also to practice writing in our Writer's Notebook.
Overall, I really enjoyed the content of the first class with the exception of the length (which I'll have to get used to), and I'm
actually excited to start writing and documenting things on this blog and in my notebook.
Wow, Emily, I didn't even think about your comment that both books were about "leaving something". But, we all did "leave" to come back to school. Both authors are amazing writers and we will use these books to illustrate several of the writer's craft we will discuss soon. I'm glad you are excited about writing!
ReplyDeleteI wondered the same thing about both of the books we started class with. I liked both of them but they were about leaving. I feel like I missed the point.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I really like your background and I totally agree that the length of the class was a bit painful. I think we will be okay as time goes on. It was interesting to listen to the stories. It's going to be so exciting to write in our new journals! It will definitely be a way to escape from school work and really get our thoughts flowing.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I felt that The Relatives was exciting at first when the author was describing all the things that the family did together. But I also did not get the relevance of the two stories to the first day of clss.
ReplyDeleteI found the stories at the beginning of class very interesting, but I also feel like I missed the point of them.
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