Writing Books with Despereaux

Before I began student teaching, my parents asked me how I would handle those times during class when I would really want to laugh, but I should keep a straight face instead.  I don't think I had an answer for them at that time, and I don't really have an answer at this time, but I do have more experience with it!

In English, I called some students up to my desk to conference with them about the adventure stories they are writing.  I had been encouraging them to use descriptions to help the reader visualize what was going on in their books.  One boy has a very vivid imagination and took my suggestions to heart.  This is a sample of what he wrote, "He grabbed the brown hat and in the blink of an eye the TV turned on with a man in black clothes with shades on.  Ralph was so stunned his eyes popped out like he got stung in the butt with a needle 6 inches deep in his skin... the first thing that ran through Ralph's head was to get the stuff and go. Ralph ran to the pack of stuff like a dart cutting through the air." 

I don't know about you, but I was really struggling to keep a straight face after reading that, especially the first part.  He also asked me if we could vote on the best story; I assume he thinks he's in the running, and he probably is.  Some other students were at the desk when I told the student he could go back to his desk.  Seeing the emotions playing across my face, a few asked, "Miss Heintz, was [that student's] story funny? What did it say?" 

The other incident of the day was during spelling.  On Tuesday afternoons, right before the end of the school day, I read my 4th graders' spelling sentences.  One of our words this week is "duty."  Yeah.  You can imagine how that went over.  The sentence I read began, "Who's duty is it to clean the..."  To give them adequate time to write the sentence, I broke it down into smaller parts.  I didn't perceive this word as a problem until it was too late, "Who's duty is it..."  Every single student cracked up and couldn't stop laughing.  I looked at Mrs. J to see what she was thinking; all she said as she shook her head was, "Every year."  We had to get through these sentences, so I gave them a lecture on how they were 4th graders, soon to be 5th graders; they could be mature about this and handle it in an appropriate manner.  After that, they sobered up and I didn't hear any more giggles about that word.  But I sure was paranoid about reading that sentence!