I remember back to my first year teaching third grade, when my class was in the middle of reading Little House in the Big Woods, I decided to have my students build a model of Laura’s little house. Students were free to create their interpretation as long as it fit in a shoebox. They could use any materials available to them. Needless to say there were many standard looking shack -like creations.
But.. in the middle of all the ordinary came the extraordinary. From a quite, complacent and what I thought, not-too-involved-in-the-story, kind of student came an innovative gem. She built out of cardboard, sticks, grass, and parts of an old keychain flashlight a scene from the book that struck her and stuck in her imaginative and innovative mind. A scene of a little girl sitting by candlelight, in a tiny house in the emence darkness of the big woods. As she presented her work, she had us turn off the lights and she related how scared Laura had felt in the long dark nights. The class was silent and when she finished, quick to applaud.
My student took an ordinary assignment, made an emotional connection, and innovatively created a visual, tactile depiction of the fear the author wanted the reader to feel. She kicked my assignment up a few notches and I am humbled to this day.
Defending the Realm 