Project 7 Comments4Kids # 1,2,3

Comments4Kids, Comment 1

My first comments4kids was a great experience.  I was not sure what to expect.  The first student I visited was Georgia, a sixth grader in Ms. Lugrin’s class.  Ms. Lugrin teaches in the small town of Saskatchewan, Canada.  Her assignment was to summarize the ending chapters for the book Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker. 

              

I have not read this book before, so I read through Georgia’s older posts about this story before reading the post about the ending.  She did a very good job summarizing the different sections of the story.  She did a great job illustrating what the author had written.  She also gave her personal thoughts and predictions on what would happen throughout the story.

After I read her conclusion I made a comment about her summary and predictions.  I asked her if she had read any other books about slavery and gave her my personal thoughts about literature on slavery, having been raised in the south.  I was interested in how the opinions may be different to children who live in Canada from those who live in the south.  I then asked her a few questions about the end relating to her predictions.

I was surprised to get a response so quickly.  She suggested that I read this story or have my teacher read it as a class.  Georgia said that she had read other books about slavery, but they were all picture books.  She then answered the questions I had about the end of the story and thanked me for my comment. 

I thought it was interesting that she had seen other books about slavery.  Even though they were picture books, her previous teachers had also thought it was important to expose her to that piece of her country’s cultural history.  Ms. Lugrin had given her this assignment and she took it seriously. 

I remember reading The Yearling in the seventh grade and did not realize how important that was to my cultural history.  I wonder if she feels the same way?  Either way I was impressed by her understanding viewpoints of this material.  She tried to relate emotionally to the characters and that is amazing!  If not now, one day she will realize how big of a deal it was for people from her country to help slaves from America through the Underground Railroad.

 

Comments4Kids, Comment 2

This was an interesting change of pace.  My second comments4kids lead me to a fifth grade student, Julianna, in Mr. St Pierre’s class.  She attends Terryville Elementary school in Port Jefferson Station, New York.  In class, they have been reading the book Food Rules by Michael Pollan.  Mr. St Pierre posted a comment for students and parents about Michael Pollan visiting the Oprah show about eating like a vegan.  He announced that they had been learning about this and disusing it in class and on their blogs.

This lead me to Julianna’s blog post “Being a Vegetarian” where she was documenting her week as a vegetarian.  She wrote about the experience as being difficult and noted her body’s reaction to abstaining from meat.  She said that she had not given in yet, and she was going to see how long she could make it without eating any meat. 

The end of her post mentioned that her family was having chicken for dinner that night and she was not going to eat any.  She said she would tell everyone how that worked out for her the following day in class.

Then I read her other comments about this blog post.  Some of her classmates said that they had to give up certain foods to test for allergies.  They talked about their personal struggles with not eating their favorite foods.  I then left her a comment asking her how long she thinks she can stand not eating meat.  I told her she was a stronger person than I am because I would not be able to make it long on that diet.  I also told her about my food allergy and how that has affected my diet.

I then said I would be interested in hearing how her personal experiment with this would turn out and left my class blog site.  I have not heard back from her and she has not posted anything new on this topic.

Comments4Kids, Comment 3

My third comments4kids assignment took me to Martha in Auckland, New Zealand!  She is in Ms. Squires’ fifth grade class at Pt England School.  This year the students are learning to make their own blogs.  They are excited to start working everyday on their new netbooks!

Martha’s blog post only contained the picture above.  Judging from other student’s blogs, the assignment was for the students to create a picture on their computer about one of their own holiday adventures.

I left her a comment encouraging her to explain her picture.  First I told her what I liked the most about her picture, such as the colors and how happy the people looked.  I then asked her a few questions about who the people are and where they were.  Hopefully she will respond to my comment. 

This was her first blog post and I really hope that I could help motivate her to continue blogging.  As a first time blogger myself, I know that it is hard in the beginning and any positive remarks and feedback really help.