In this clip, I model the process of asking myself, "Why is this event important to me?" I demonstrate how I turned to the next blank page in my sourcebook to record my thoughts.
After reading my own example to the students, I point out briefly that this process helped me to remember details that I had initially left out (and that I wrote those down as well). I then give the students a few silent moments to really think about why the brief they chose was important to them.
I had tried this task myself at the professional development meeting that I had attended a few weeks prior. I found the task of asking myself why the event was important to me quite difficult to do.
In my own sourcebook, I had written a few briefs of narrative moments in my own life. Since I teach second grade, I tried to think back to myself as a 7 year-old and to zero in on things that were a big deal to me at that time. I wanted the children to have an entry point, or a way to connect to the writing that I was sharing. I hoped that would help them to make sense of the work I was asking them to do.
| TEACHER: |
I asked myself this question, why was this event, of jumping into the swimming pool and splitting my chin open, why was it important to me, why did I need to tell the story? I went to the next blank page in my source book and I wrote at the top, why was this important to me and then I started to write.
So before I share what it was that I wrote, I want to talk to you a little bit about what I was thinking. When I asked myself that question I had to think of it a while. Why? And I asked myself that why a lot. Oh, okay, yeah, I hurt myself but was that why I had to tell the story? Well, it was the day that I was going from the little pool to the big pool. Was that why this story was important? And the I had to think, well, it was the first time that I'd been in a hospital. Was that why it was important? It was the first time I got stitches. So there were a lot of reasons. So I had to keep asking myself, why? It was kind of hard. Actually, more than kind of, it was really hard. But this is what I came up with when I thought about that question. So I said, this was important to me because this was the first time I can remember going to a hospital and getting stitches. I was terrified. I didn't know what was going to happen to me, yet I made it through and showed myself I could be brave when I was scared. I remember lying on the skinny metal bed with metal rails on the side that could go up and down. My mom stood next to the bed and held my hand. She was very reassuring. My dad even came from work to be there with me during this scary time. A nurse gave me a shot in my chin to numb so that I couldn't feel them stitching it up. I remember the sensation of them tugging the thread as they were pulling it through my skin and as they were tightening it up. It was a very strange feeling. After they finished with my eleven stitches, they had to do five inside and six outside, the doctor gave me a prize for being so good, a surgical glove blown up like a balloon. It looked like a cow's udder. It was cool! What I also found happened as I was writing why it was important to me, was that I started remembering a lot of details that I had originally left out. So I went ahead and wrote those down too so that I wouldn't forget them. But that first chunk, that focus was really on why it was important. So you've had a little bit of time to think about why your event that you selected might have been important to you. So I want you to really - I'm going to be quiet and let you think for just a second, really why. Why is the even that you selected yesterday important? Why does that story need to be told? |