Twelve Cans of Jam

      This quarter my fourth-graders were learning about story writing in English. They learned about the title, characters, setting, and plot. After that they had a couple of assignments where they had to write their own story. We took it one step at a time, creating the story by answering the questions, Where? When? How? Who? How many? Which ones? and so forth. The book guided us through this process and they seemed to be doing pretty well with it. They could have been doing worse, but they were doing as expected, mostly taking too long thinking about each part. I did my best to help them use their imagination to just write what came to mind.

      As expected, their first short stories were generally lacking the plot and the problem. The book's next lesson was about revising the story, so that was helpful. Last quarter we learned dialogue, so I brought this into the picture as well. They rewrote their stories and more were better, but still lacking some. I was okay with that, because, after all, they were just learning about it and I can't expect perfection. After our second writing I let it sit, and continued with our next English lessons. It came up a little later when the whole class (third and fourth) read Mr. Popper's Penguins and did a book report together, because that is essentially how you write the summary of a book. I think this helped them understand what the plot of a story is even better.

      Midterms were this week and not until review started on Tuesday did I come up with the perfect way to study and test them on story writing. For studying, I simply told them to create a story with a title, two characters, a setting (where, when), and a plot (main event, a problem, and how it gets fixed). I didn't get around to checking all of their stories because I was busy with the whole midterm thing, answering questions and such.

      Come Thursday, for their midterm, I wrote on the board:

“Choose one of the titles to write a story about.

Titles: The Dragon That Could Talk OR My Pet Elephant

Characters (three):

Setting:

Plot:”

      I randomly came up with those titles on the fly to help them come up a story, quicker than they previously had. When I was checking the papers Thursday evening, I was completely baffled by what I read: all of the stories far exceeded my expectations, most being very detailed, and some even including dialogue (which I did not expect whatsoever). To say that I was (am) proud of my fourth-graders would be an understatement.

      Anyway, I figured I would type up the stories (from the pictures that I took of them), so here they are. I will admit that I have a favorite story, but I void the shame by saying that it is the most detailed. Of course, some of the sentences, or what transpires sounds strange. An interesting, and great thing is that because I know each individual kid so well, I know exactly what they meant. Meaning, when you read each story, you will miss words that I didn't miss. Isn't that something. (I corrected the spelling but not the grammar).

Michael: The Dragon That Could Talk

      Long ago three men climb the mountain. They saw a cave and they go in the the cave and turn on the flashlight and they saw a Dragon. It a fire-breathing and the Dragon said, “Turn the flashlight off!” and the three boys was scared and Timmy said, “A Dragon that could talk.” The Dragon and the three boys were friend and a Knight come to slay the Dragon and Billy said, “Let us go to the back.” The Dragon and they fly away out to the city and sometime they have trouble and sometime they have fun.

Logan: My Pet Elephant

      Once upon a time there was a Elephant and a man name Logan. In that time 2:35 am the Elephant and Logan walk to this city is Mango City. They walked they saw Kaytan and Kiyus were walking. Kiyus said to Logan, “You are trap. There is a trap there you have to run.” The Elephant cry and cry. Logan said, “Let's run down there,” and the Elephant run and they made it in time.

Prandson: My Pet Elephant

      There once was a girl named Suzy who owned a put elephant. And this elephant's name is Starfy. They lived in a beautiful and large hotel. And one day they went outside and saw the tall man who catches elephants. And the tall man saw the elephant got it with elephant catcher. So the he to the elephant to the zoo. So they went to the zoo and find him and so Suzy took the elephant and take care of him.

Kiyus: The Dragon That Could Talk

      Once upon a time there was a dragon name Billy. Billy live in a cave close to the sea. And there is a family there too. One day Billy went outside his cave and he saw a little boy on the grass. And the boy's name is John. And 3 boys try to kill the boy and the dragon kill them. The End.

Kaytan: My Pet Elephant

      Its about a Elephant and three boy. There name is Billy, John, Max. They meet a Elephant. They saw that he was alone so they brought the Elephant to there house. The Elephant become there friend. The End.

Monalisa: The Dragon That Could Talk

      Once upon a time there was a king and a Queen. And they have a daughter. They're daughter always want to talk to dragon. So her mom and dad was so busy. So they tell her to go play outside. So she went to her friend house to play with her but her friend mom don't want her to play. So she play and play. She saw a dragon cave. She went inside and then she saw the dragon sleeping. So she step on a stick and fell and then the dragon wake up. She stand up and tried to talk to the dragon and the dragon talk. So she ask if the dragon can play with her in the cave. The dragon said, “Yes.” So they play and play. The End.

Andrea: The Dragon That Could Talk

      Once upon a time 3 girl name Sue, Lou Ann, Shara. They have a dragon. They live in a town. One day they where talk to the dragon. The dragon also talk to them. It was so fun for them. One day the dragon was gone. They look for the dragon. The dragon die.

      I am of the mind that every kid is jam-packed full of imagination and creativity; these things cannot be created or destroyed by another. I, as the teacher (mentor figure), can either suppress them or encourage them. I am the can opener by which the jam can be released. To think that I have achieved this to some extent makes me overjoyed.

      Since I know that God has had a big part of my teaching career – which started seven months ago, and is ending soon – I can't ignore the analogy before my eyes. In the same way that every kid is full of imagination and creativity, every kid is also full of good. It can be either suppressed or encouraged, and I hope that I have been that can opener for them this year, teaching and showing God's love where I could.