Seedfolks

We so often spend life looking through our own lenses; we fail to realize others around us and the ways separate lives are lived differently yet impacted by many. Seedfolks is a book that is built around this concept. Developed around a garden that brings a community together, this story coves the lives of about 12 different people. Each person tells his/her own story within each chapter. As you read the chapters you realize that most of the lives inter wind with one another, just seen from a different perspective. One aspect of Seedfolks that made it interesting is the fact that all the characters are from a different ethnicity. There are Koreans, African Americans, Caucasians, Haitians, Hispanics, etc. A simple read with a deeper meaning; this would be a wonderful story for a 6th grade class. The activities we did in class gave me a good understanding of how you can take this book to the next level; good activities make all the difference in a students comprehension and application.

MGRP Process

The Multi Genre Research Paper is one of the best academic projects I've ever done. It allows the researcher to have such a vast variation of topics to use and genres to do. The genres are really what makes this project so unique. In all typical research papers topics are picked, multiple resources are used to gain information, and in the end and findings are reported in a paragraph/ document format. These same aspects of a research paper still apply in the MGRP, but instead of stopping there things get took to the next step. The genres that can be used range from journal entries to movie trailer clips. A majority of genres like this allows for the students to pick how they want to complete the assignment; they allow for variation. My topic was learning/teaching in poverty and activities that allow variation are what these children need. Overall this project helped me as a teacher. I was able to pick a topic that will relate to my future and not only held my interest but also taught me a lot on the issue. I give the experiment/assignment an A+...perfect for any area, any class, any student!

The Donut House

Never put a limit on a child's ability to understand. After reading this article I realize that children can comprehend more than adults think. This article was about applying real world literacy into the classroom. A urban kindergarten class created their very own donut house in their classroom. What made this activity so spectacular is that the children went through the real-life process of starting a business to start their donut house. The teacher set up a trip for them to go see how donuts are made, they wrote letters to banks for funding, had a building expection, etc. Once the project was done students "felt a sense of accomplishment after they had worked toward and achieved their goal". This type of 'real-life' learning allows the student to feel like their doing something that matters in the world. I know we can all remember the times when we were little asking the teacher if what we were learning would ever be used in the real world...creating lessons that are built around real-life situations ensures that the answer to that question can be yes!