Friday, March 25, 2011

Can You Hear the Country?

During our literacy time this morning, I was busy doing running records with a few students. The rest of my students were busy reading, practicing spelling, and writing. Everything went very smoothly which is not always the case. We were just wrapping up when one of my girls approached me with her writer’s notebook. She wanted me to participate in a “find the object” picture and key she had created. While I was looking for the objects she embedded into hand drawn pictures, she shared with me she had also written a couple songs. My curiosity was peaked. “You wrote a song?”

“Yes, I wrote two.”

“Where are they?”

“Back here on these two pages.”

I watched as she flipped back a couple pages. There was the page with a fair amount of writing on it. It was entitled; Sogs (songs in first grade spelling).

I started to read it to myself and then stopped and asked, “Will you read it to me?”

“Sure,

You left me alone

When you heard her voice

We used to be best friends

Until you knew it was her

One day me and you

Were playing in our room

You looked outside

And there she

Was for you

You knew I was

Your best friend forever

Until you knew

She was there.”

“Wow, I said, that sounds quite a bit like a country western song.” I proceeded to put her words to music over twanging just a bit. She looked at me and giggled. Then she said,

“I thought I was writing hip-hop!”

9 comments:

  1. I love the song! Don't you wish you had those moments on video. And I appreciated your comment on my post about writing contests. I'm not a fan either.

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  2. I loved her sog.
    I thot I was good
    Until I herd her sog
    and now I no
    she's better!
    Let's write the tune for her!

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  3. I love this! And from a first grader...

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  4. That is some very deep thinking for a first grader. Very impressive and sad at the same time. Do you have any musical families who could put it to music for her?

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  5. She's such a writer. Fine, she may not know the right terminology of music, but she sure can write. I am glad that she shared her writing with you, and that you shared it with us.
    Terje

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  6. Your first grader did an amazing job. She wrote a powerful and astute song.

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  7. What a sweet moment in your classroom. I agree with Elizabeth that your student's thinking is very deep. And she was able to show her sadness through writing--a powerful strategy to deal with troubling issues.

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  8. Impressive! What a lovely risk your student took in putting her thought down on paper. This is why we write-- to make sense of our world, to work through our issues, to be heard. This first grader "gets it"!

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  9. You thought she was writing country, she thought she was writing hip-hop! Sounds like some days in my writing class! What a great story about all the rich and authentic writing that goes on in classrooms!

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