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TEACHING ARTIST JOURNAL 5(4),260-268 'i . ' 26S
<br /> 250 Copyright®2007•Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,Inc. r
<br /> :`■' '''TEACHING ARTIST JOURNAL
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<br /> underrepresented?My guess is that fiction's lack of rules,directions,and outcomes make
<br /> it messy and scary for most educators.
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<br /> I understood the teachers'situation better when I took an art class and had to create a
<br /> l piece of visual art.I trembled with confusion looking at all materials I could choose.It
<br /> § was almost impossible to get started;I wracked my brains for an idea.Then I went crazy
<br /> "W,i:;i� N An alien with a skin suit that needs dry clean? •an electric E to re out how'to make my art object match the picture I had in my mind"
<br /> ..v�''u``x , teacher who hides her secret; an old woman who knits clouds: Continually frustrated by technical difficulties,I was rarely pleased with my results.
<br /> o � ''+'J r y. these are characters from just three of the hundreds of collate- Teachers have a lot more at risk I don't have to instruct children in something that
<br /> o ,wn`:� orative stories S've written with children during sixteen years unnerves me or get them to perform in ways that might impact my performance record
<br /> N °'" —�' of working in U.S.schools.Like most teaching artists,I have a or income. So I turned my inventive spirit to helping teachers understand writing, um-
<br /> ' unique vantage point.Visiting many schools creates a montage meli"ng and poking at the creative process,and breaking down writing into manageable
<br /> co LU of education practice,rather than theory.In over a decade and steps to build a complete story
<br /> LL a half I've seen joy fade and stress flourish.Until a recent trip
<br /> m to Wales,I wondered if I could keep working in the schools. Schools and Students Shift
<br /> v
<br /> o Bringing Stories to Schools -
<br /> �ar five years I responded to successes and failures.]just when I felt it my teaching was
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<br /> co working well I began to see a change in students.Almost overnight,they became harder
<br /> When I started writing in schools in 1990,I savored stn- to engage and their desire to create evaporated.
<br /> w dents'spirit and imagination.I relished showing them how to I asked educators that I respected what they thought was behind this shift.I was fore -
<br /> 00 _ make sense of stories,how to create stories that made sense, er changed by a conversation I had with Nancy Margolin,a thoughtful elementary school
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<br /> h saw Y° and how to have fun doing both.Play was the best way to many my �day they
<br /> co - �' y librarian, She asked me how mart books I'd read to children ev da when th
<br /> o combat two problems I saw recurring in every classroom I vis- were young.
<br /> Correspondence regarding iced,where I found children could neither think nor wonder. "A minimum of two or three,"I messed.
<br /> o this article should go io:
<br /> TD Children's urge to play is as innate their sense of wonder, "So,if you read two or three a day,you probably read five thousand books to your
<br /> > Susie Wilde but by early elementary school,the sandbox and dress-up cor- children before they went to kindergarten.Does that sound right?"she asked.
<br /> LTJ c Chap Ta ill, Way ner stories fade.Most language arts r0
<br /> Chaps:Hill,NC 27576 programs dedicate them- "Probably,"I agreed,remembering fifty some read-alouds of Goodnight Moon.
<br /> (919)932-3300 selves to writing about personal experiences.This is great "Then think about children who have never been read to before they enter school who
<br /> susiewilde@bellsotfich.net
<br /> O practice for focusing and observation,but why is fiction so come to kindergarten five thousand books behind.How can we make up for that gap?"
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