Reading Assignment, Chapters 6-8

Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.

Chapters 1-5 were such good and easy (interesting) reading. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 were very difficulty (boring) reading. Why? All these chapters included new information, so why did it take me longer to read fewer chapters?

I agreed totaly with Chapter 8, poetry is (was?) boring, but now I know why—I had horrible teachers! Actually, I only remember (it's been a few years since I was in elementary school) one poem—"It Was the Night Before Christmas". I remember this because we (4th, maybe 5th grade) presented it in the school auditorium, before a packed house (as packed as an elementary school in Nixon, TX could get). It was wonderful and I still remember most of the poem.

There was one other poem, but I can't remember the title. I just remember standing in front of the class, reciting something, and wanting to be finished so I could sit.

More recent, I remember wanting my students to write a Haiku and being so frustrated because they couldn't understand how. It was so easy. After all, I had walked them through the process, twice. So what was the problem?

The problem was, my poor kids had inherited a horrible teacher, who had had a horrible teacher! I feel sooooo guilty; expecting those poor kids to a grasp the abstract concept of a Haiku. I'll need to remember this the next time I go to confession.