Why a good book is a secret door

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Author: molson18

Blog #10 Megan

Blog #10 Megan

When I was reading Williams poem I pictured a little farmhouse in the middle of winter. There was a chicken house with a little red wheelbarrow next to it that has filled with water from the rainstorm. I think with the way Williams said “so much depends on that red wheelbarrow” it made it obvious that for the farmer to get everything done that he needs to do it will depend on the wheelbarrow and if it will make it through the rain. Williams could have been annoyed with the weather or even a little sad because rainy weather is gloomy and depressing to some people.

 

So much depends

on

my iphone

filled with everything

all the numbers

all the pictures

all the alarms

and so much more

Megan’s Artifact

Megan’s Artifact

photo-29

For my artifact I used the book The Fault In Our Stars and made a bucket list because it really reminded me that life is short and you should do everything you want while you can.

 

Reading Into the Wild Response

Reading Into the Wild Response

I really enjoyed reading the first chapter of Reading in the Wild. Miller talks about how we can find little time throughout our day to read and I think that is important for people to realize. You don’t need to sit down for a certain amount of time to read but instead take some time here and there. If you bring a book with you, then you may realize how much extra time you have throughout the day to just read a little bit. I really liked how Miller put silent reading into her daily lesson plan. While it is important for children to read outside of school it is also important for them to read at school. Children have busy lives outside of school so allowing time for them to also read at school gives them more time to learn to enjoy reading.

While allowing them time at school to read is important it is also important to allow them a choice of what they are reading. Miller talks about student who are “fake readers” and as I was reading all the things that these students would do it made me realize I was a “fake reader” throughout middle school and high school. I hated reading during these school years and avoided it at all costs because I was always being forced to read certain books. In high school when we were assigned books to read I don’t think I ever finished one of them because they were never books that interested me. Being told what I “had” to read all throughout school just made me hate it in general until I got to college. During my freshman English class we had more of a choice of what we wanted to read so I actually picked a book I enjoyed and this changed my whole outlook on it. When you give students the option of reading what they like they are going to want to do it more. If they are being forced to read something it’s going to be more of a punishment.

The thing that seems challenging when it comes to teaching my own class is going to be how to get nonreaders to want to read. Reading isn’t for everyone but I hope that when I have my own class they at least enjoy it a little. The worst is when you force someone to read something they don’t want to read so like Miller I will have many different options of books for my children to chose from. I hope by doing that the nonreaders can enjoy it more and not look at it as something they hate doing like I did. With this comes what I am most excited about. I can’t wait to get my students excited about reading. Since I grew up hating it to now loving it I hope to change the outlook on reading. I want my future class to be able to want to read as much as possible and get excited when they finish a book or pick up a new one.

Kissing the Witch

Kissing the Witch

When reading Kissing the Witch it was really interesting to see even more versions of these fairytales. I like being able to see these stories end differently but with that being said I enjoy the typical “Disney” versions the best. I don’t think I have one specific favorite. The ones I didn’t enjoy, as much were the ones where I had never read the actual story while the ones I enjoyed reading the most were the ones from stories I have already heard. These ones interest me because I get to see how the end differs from what I grew up hearing. Its cool to see how they change certain parts of the story while other parts remain the same. One little thing can make the story completely different from another. In Beauty and the Beast the beast ends up being a female while in the version I have grown up hearing the beast is Belles prince charming. In Cinderella she ends up leaving with a women instead of her prince charming.

I think the author titles the book Kissing the Witch because in the story not all the “evil” characters are actually evil. Usually the hero tries to stay away from these villains but with the title she might be trying to say that there is good in some. Kissing is something you do with someone you are close with so when she says kissing the witch she could be implying that not all are bad. The book could also be titled this because it has many different endings to its stories that don’t include the girl running off with the prince so when the author says kissing the witch she could just mean they wont be getting the typical “happily ever after”.