mon.night 9/24/09

I was actually bummed when I read that the Aesthetic stance was the least used or most neglected in schools. I'm a firm believer that literature can mean different things to different people. When one reads a poem, a novel or even music for that matter it becomes something personal for them, means something special to them based on their life experience. My daughter and I like to print out lyrics to songs we like and write out what we think it means. Sometimes they come out similar, but they are different a lot of the times. I like doing this to show her that she has her own perspective and that doesn't make it right or wrong, its hers. I much prefer this deeper connection to literature over that of remembering facts. I'm not saying comprehension is not important, it is, I just think that the aesthetic stance is equally important and should not be dismissed. I enjoyed the activities that the chapter gave to help children respond to art. One of my favorites is putting on a puppet show or skit. I also think it would be fun to take a piece of literature and put a few twists in it to make it your own.

While working on the Author's profile I came across a site for children's poetry. Poetry is also important to keep in your classroom, available for children to pickup and read. www. poetry-online.org/childrens_poetry_resource_index.htm offers poetry from the classics to modern poetry.

With the growing numbers of children with disabilities being included in general education classes its a good idea for the class library to contain literature for children about children with disabilities. Its difficult for children with mental/physical disabilities to socialize, yet socialization can have positive effects in their lives. Literature can help a non-disabled child better understand a child with disabilities and can help them develop compassion and offer friendship. The teacher vision website at www.teachervision.fen .com/learning-disabilities/reading/5316.html offers a list of books for children about children with different disabilities. They are categorized by age groups. It also has printables, lesson plans and resources all categorized by age groups.

While on this subject, I came across a book about friendship. Since We're Friends: An Autism Picture Book by: Celeste Shally, David Harrington, Alison Singer. It is about two boys who befriend each other, one of which has Autism. The story gives examples of how their relationship works. The story also helps show kids that children with autism can offer fun friendship. I think a variety of books dealing with different disabilities should be included in all class libraries.