C&Pa Love that dog

After listening to Love that Dog think about the following:

1.     What connection did you make with Jack?  Miss Stretchberry?

oh how I relate – i hate poetry. The stuff I like to read is limericks, but the stuff I write and get praise for is the boring “literature” that people find deep. Because of the insincerity of my own writing I have never found it a useful medium to express myself. However, I did love Miss Stretchberry’s ability to make Jack feel like a ‘real’ writer, slowly allowing him to develop his writing voice and providing him opportunity to explore writing styles.

2.     Why do you think you were asked to listen to/read this text?

The experience with Jack is such a normal thing, to not understand why you’re being asked to do something, not wanting to do it, and just not ‘getting’ what your teacher is asking. Yet we get to go through the experience of Jack developing a love of writing, understanding how to express himself and using his writing journal to look at his thoughts.

3.     What did you take from it about how a reluctance to write and read can be addressed?

Find connections. Accepting that there is reluctance, and that’s ok. We all have reluctance around things, who wants to do housework! But we can find ways to work through this and reframe our thinking.

4.     What did you take from it about becoming a teacher of literacy?

If we love words that will shine through in our teaching – but forming a connection with a student allows us to better understand their reluctance, and allowing them to slowly develop their writing muscles and explore their feelings around writing helps them feel secure in their own ability to work with words.