Friday, May 18, 2012

Incorporating Ideas From the Book

Besides the YCSYCP rule, Paley presented some practices that I might incorporate into my own classroom. I liked the idea of reading a story to the class over multiple sessions and connecting the story to other activities in the room, liking writing down the story and having the students illustrate it, making their own book. I also liked how Paley went back and amended the story to reflect what was happening in her classroom, adding in the YCP rule.

Paley didn't simply enforce the rule, but had many conversations with the students about what YCSYCP means, how it makes them feel, welcomed their input and their suggestions. Paley treated her students like their opinions mattered and helped them sift through their feelings and ideas. She spent time talking to the students in the older grades that her class was fascinated by (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th), and conveyed their comments and concerns to her class, allowing her students to indirectly collect research that they could then draw upon in their group conversations.

I might want to have a lesson around or somehow incorporate the students' dramatized storytelling in my classroom. Having the students work together to put on mini-productions would be fun and educational for both me and the students.

4 comments:

  1. Nicole, it occurs to me after reading your post that perhaps Paely could have enlisted the older grade kids to model for her classroom. The majority of the older kids thought it was a good rule but that it could only work if implemented in Kindergarten. They did not think it could be implemented in 4th or 5th grade. I wonder what would have happened if Paley had asked 4th & 5th graders to write and act out a skit that modeled YCSYCP for her K class. What would the K class learn from these older kids they were in awe of. What would the 4th & 5th graders learn about themselves in the process?

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  2. Nicole, I too, applauded the fact that Paley engaged her students in dialogue. It reminds us that we are not to view our children as empty vessels, but as treasures chests, that when "opened," provide us with gifts beyond belief. The students, at each grade level, had viable explanations and intriguing insight concerning the matter of exclusion and hurtfulness. I can't wait to engage my students in like manner!

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  3. Good points again, Nicole. I also wrote about how I liked the continuous story, and eventually how Paley allowed her students inside the story enough for them to have the power to alter it by diverting the plot to address the lack of the rule in Magpie's world.

    One thing you point out is how significant having the discussions about the rule actually turned out to be in getting the students to embrace it. I thought it was pretty odd, actually, that Paley went on to say toward the end of the book that she would just start out future years with the rule already in place. Since so much of the children's acceptance of the rule came from participating in its creation, what legitimacy would it have if that entire dialogue were removed?

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  4. Those were my favorite parts of the book and the main thing that I want to incorporate into my own classroom. The discussions that she had with her students about the conversations that she was having made them feel like she respected and valued them and their opinions. It was very interesting to see their comments about the plan. They were very insightful and it is obvious that Paley learned a lot from them during these conversations as well, not just for her research but for her life as well.

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