Since Suzanne and I teach on the quarter system, our school year gets going only this week. I know many of you have been back at work for a while now (don’t worry, you get to gloat in the spring, when you’re done in May and we still have a ways to go!), and we’re curious how things are going. Have you started using the Third Edition in the classroom? Where did you begin? At the beginning? Or are you creating your own structure?

Since Chapter One is so much about memory–and especially early memories–I often like to start there. A good first or second day of class exercise can be to ask students to write their earliest memory of going to school. (This can happen before or after they even begin reading the text.) You can have them start with the phrase “I’m _____ years old and going to ____” Then have them write for just 10 minutes, encouraging them to use all their senses to recreate this moment in time.

Not only will this exercise provide good practice for writing quickly based on intuitive memories, it will provide a good icebreaker if you have the students share this writing with just one or two others in class. Going to school is such a common experience, your students might begin to see how they’re connected. Or if some of your students had different experiences–such as being home-schooled, or going to school in different countries or cities–they can begin to glean connections within diversity. It can also lead to further discussion or writing about how schooling has changed for them over the years, up to the current day.

Please let us know some of your experiences using the book so far. We’re all ears!

Here’s to new beginnings of all sorts,

Brenda