|Ideas|

Amy Krouse Rosenthal once asked us, “Aren’t we all just trying to leave one good, lasting thing behind?” I contemplated Amy’s question and reflected on how I may have answered over the years. My mind brought me back to middle school, the grades I am most interested in teaching, and I would have probably answered, confidently, “of course!” But I also know that I would have wondered how I may reach this concept of leaving one good, lasting thing behind.

I think one impact we can have on students’ lives is giving them the opportunity to leave something behind. One of the most powerful things, I believe, are our words and thoughts. All thoughts are valuable. However, some of our students may have been led to believe otherwise, which can leave such a negative impact on them expressing their words and thoughts. I was one of those students. By eighth grade, I thought I was a “bad writer” because of endless red ink on my writing throughout the years. When I reached a stage in life where red ink did not really matter, I found myself in a perpetual state of writer's block.

Thankfully, now, with the comfort and support of professors, peers, and family, I am left with a beautiful understanding that we are all writers, and good ones at that. But what do I do for my students who have that same writer’s block I once had?

Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6, by Lynne R. Dorfman & Rose Cappelli provide great insight on ideas to get students writing for themselves, to push them to leave their good, lasting things behind. At the end of Chapter 3, readers are provided with “Your Turn” lessons to explore when incorporating writing into the classroom. I utilized two of the lessons after reading a few mentor texts assigned during one of my graduate courses this week.

Mango, Abuela, and Me: Using an Inverted Triangle to Find a Specific Writing Topic

After reading Mango, Abuela, and Me, written by Meg Medina and illustrated by Angela Dominguez, I was comforted by nostalgia. The big topic running through my head was memories, especially with my family. In order to get more specific, I decided to make an inverted triangle graphic organizer to hone in on my thoughts. The graphic is as shows:

By narrowing down my topic, I can really tell a story that is inspired by the thoughts sparked when reading this mentor text. This is such a great way to get students writing! We all have ideas, it is just about finding the right spark.

Happy Like Soccer: Creating a Hand Map

Happy Like Soccer, written by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Lauren Castillo, reminded me so much of the bittersweet memories of my family cheering me on during speaking competitions and sporting events (and those sporting event cheers were purely out of love, the lack of coordination was and always will be unreal). The story brought on so many emotions, or “feels,” like joy, warmth, and peace... just to name a few. There are so many emotions we feel every single day. In middle school especially, our emotions are all over the board. Emotions can be difficult to pinpoint, which is why I love the idea of creating a hand map to focus in on strong ideas for writing.

By creating a hand map, I have used emotions to conjure up fourteen topics to write about in my writer’s notebook. After brainstorming emotions that a character in a story may have felt, students can then reflect upon their own emotions and come up with instances in their lives where such emotions were felt. This is another wonderful way to incorporate a story, such as Happy Like Soccer, into our writing!

I love the idea of mentor texts because it allows us and our students to unlock memories we may not think of on a regular basis. For instance, I try to block out my short lived soccer career, but Happy Like Soccer reminded me of the happiness my family’s cheers from the sidelines once brought me. We all get writer’s block, but there are so many ways to stop and reflect on possibilities for our minds to explore--- for exploration is one of the key elements to leaving at least one good, lasting thing behind.

References

Boelts, M., & Castillo, L. (2014). Happy Like Soccer. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Dorfman, L. R., Cappelli, R., & Hoyt, L. (2017). Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.

Medina, M., & Dominguez, A. (2017). Mango, Abuela, and Me. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Rosenthal, A. K. (2016). Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal. New York, New York: DUTTON.