Heart Maps
This is my second time completing a heart map. My first time was when I was in Block 2 in undergrad. I love creating a heart map because it reminds me what is important to me and what makes me who I am.
In my heart map I included, my husband, Michael, our cat, Aggie, my parents, my family, Jesus, and friends. I also wrote down some of my favorite foods like pizza and ice cream. When was done, though, I realized I had forgotten one of my favorite foods which is macaroni and cheese. I then included things like candles, blankets, snow days, smiles, reading, and much more that brings joy to my heart.
Heart maps are a great way for students to create ideas for future writings and it is a place where students can include important people, places, animals, food, and objects to them. When reading the article about heart maps written by Heard, I realized just how many heart maps someone can create. These include blank canvas, favorite animal, special place, and much more. There are so many ways for a student to be engaged in creating their own heart map.
Textbook by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Like I mentioned in my last post, I am in love with this book. If you have not read it, you NEED to!! I love the fact that she writes about anything she wants and it is a place for her to put all of her thoughts and memories. When I am writing in my writer’s notebook, I think back to how she is writing and what she writes about and use it as a mentor text. There are also many stories I relate to and write them down in my writer’s notebook to return back to as things I can write about in the future.
A few of my favorites from pages 60-101 were the Craigslist experience, associating a certain food to people, and trying to figure out who someone is talking to on the phone. After reading the Craigslist experience, it made me really want to try it and I hope one day I will. It seems to be fun and it will allow me to connect with others. When I was reading the associating of food to people, I could not help but thinking how many family members of mine associate macaroni and cheese to me because of how much I love it. I then started to think of the foods I associate to those I know. A few examples are, when I think/see Mexican food I think of my husband, Michael, because he loves it, key lime pie to my mom because it is one of her favorite desserts, and crispy fries to my dad because that’s the way he likes them. Then the last piece I related to was when Amy is trying to figure out who her husband, Jason, is talking to on the phone. I do the same thing when Michael is on the phone. Usually I can figure it out, but there have been times where I had no idea and have to wait in suspense to find out when the phone call is over.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Wow! I love this book so far. It is all poems about her life and her parents. There is so much thought and emotion put into each one which makes me want to keep reading and learning more. I also loved how she discusses the differences in the North, where her father is from, and in the South, where her mother is from. Their lives were completely different and her father wanted nothing to do with the South. I have also been using this book as a mentor text when writing poems because I love the way she formats her poems.
In one of the poems, Jacqueline writes about where her name is from and how her parents chose it. Her father wanted her name to be Jack so she could grow up strong, but the women in the family did not like that idea. So, her mother came up with the name, Jackie. Her father was not the most enthused about this because it was not his first choice, but went along with it. Then her mother decided to name her Jacqueline incase anybody tried to remove the ‘ie’ from Jackie. A writer’s notebook entry we were asked to make was about our name. This was a lot of fun to write about because it made me think about where my name came from and what it may have been. For example, my parents were going to originally name me Kourtney, but my maternal grandmother reminded my mom that she did work in the courthouse and every time she would say my name, she would think about work. So, they decided to name me Kaitlyn instead. Although my legal name is not Kaitlyn Allie Thomas Thompson, my original middle name, Allie, still holds a deep meaning to me since it was maternal grandmother’s first name. We were very close and I miss her so much everyday. To have that piece of her with me means so much. Also, me and Michael have already decided when we have kids and if one is a girl, we will name her Allie.
Mentor Texts Chapter 2
There are many takeaways from this chapter. One of those being how students need a change of scenery to be able to write more and gain more topics to write about. In this chapter, Lynne takes a class outside to gain a different perspective and to gather more ideas of what they could write about. One student wrote poems about the branches and grass. Another student wrote about the baseball field and what it would be like to be playing in one. Just moving the students from inside the classroom to outside made a world of difference and the students seemed to really enjoy it. Another writing strategy that was introduced in this chapter was “Developing a ‘What If’ Story”. For this, the teacher would start out by reading the book The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and once the teacher was through reading, they would then share ideas to help the students brainstorm “What If” scenarios related to the book. For example, the teacher said, “Drew Daywalt saw a box of crayons on his desk one day, noticed that they were used unevenly, and wondered, What if these crayons could talk? What would they say? (Dorfman, L. &Cappelli, R. 2017) The students would then get to think of places they have been and brainstorm “What If” scenarios. This seems like it would be exciting and engaging for the students and gets to let them think outside of the box. This is definitely a strategy I would like to use in my future classroom.
Mrs. Thompson's Blog 