Experience

Many things have happened around me today, but the thing I want to talk about is...............................
I read A Chair For My Mother by Vera B. Williams today and several of my students really seemed to connect with this text. A few of them shared their own personal stories of their homes catching on fire. One student in particular really touched me with how she related herself to the text by sharing with the class that she knew what it was like to lose all of her furniture, and clothes, and proceeded into telling of how her dog was in the house and the fireman couldn't save him.

My response to this was one of which I had to spit out rapid fire and didn't really consider very deeply. I said " So you can identify with the way the little girl in the story feels, because you have had a very similar experience and how does that make you feel for her?" and the student responded with sad.

Another student raised their hand and said "So my house has never caught on fire, so I can't know what she feels like, right?" and this led into a beautiful discussion about caring and being compassionate and sympathetic. The kids came up with the "care" and the "be sad for" on their own and then we talked about other words that meant the same thing. They began to put together the fact that you don't have to have the identical experience, to show sympathy and show compassion for someone who has.

They taught each other more about life in that 20 minutes than I ever could have. When I chose that book, last minute this morning, to help guide instruction I never imagined that they would do what they did with it. I am so glad that they did, because I feel like they were teaching me, instead of me teaching them.