Writing Into Their Lives

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting
--Edmund Burke 

Friday's demos from Karen and GranVille really had me thinking about authentic teaching and writing.  Last school year I changed school systems and was once again the "newbie".  This was a hard transition for me and I had to find ways of tweaking my teaching styles to fit the students, parents and teachers.  One aspect of my teaching that I did not include and regretted were independent book projects.  This use to be my bread and butter (food inquiry metaphor) of my classroom.  Reading and reflecting is what we need to have our students do, but we need to find ways in which we can connect them to their writing.

I think so much of my interest into the food inquiry is really about authentic writing.  Karen and GranVille both discussed in their demos about finding ways to connect with their students.  Use things (like music or free writes) to connect with students.  This is the root of my food inquiry.  I really want to find fresh ideas to connect with my students.  I want to have my students to start to inquire into their interests.  It might be food, music or sports; but I need to find a way to facilitate their writings into pieces that work for them and push them to write and write and write.


I have include a scene from Ratatouille.  This clip was a part of my original post, but I switched gears after Friday's demos.  However, I still think this clip is great for imagery and detail.  It also can get my students writing, hopefully about something that is important to them.  Hopefully this blog makes some sense and I am not rambling.  Just some of my thoughts that have come out of this past's week of writing.