One of the many(?) benefits to being a teacher is interacting with young, impressionable minds on a daily basis. More often than I’d like to admit, my days are filled with moments reminiscent of those on Bill Cosby’s “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” One such encounter occurred today, and I think it will stay with me for a long time.
My 6th graders are in the process of completing a major research project on countries. This is their first real introduction to notecards, research, bibliographies, and research writing – all things they will learn to hate in the next several years. We recently began working on outlines for their multi-paragraph essays. In order to avoid getting the standard “Step-Up to Writing” introduction paragraph including “[Insert Country] is a fascinating country…” or “There are many interesting things about [Insert Country]…” we decided to tell our students that they were not permitted to infuse any opinions into the introduction paragraph. This directive seemed insurmountable to many students.
One of my students who likes to get his work done quickly found this challenge to be particularly infuriating. He came up to my desk and asked me to check what he had written.
“Canada is a great place to live.”
I stopped there. I spent a few minutes convincing him that his statement was an opinion. Exasperated, he returned to his desk to try again.
I was skeptical when he returned a few minutes later with his second attempt.
“Canada’s rich history makes it one of the most important and interesting countries in the world.”
This time he was visibly defeated when I stopped reading after the first sentence. I explained, again, that he had definitely included his opinions in the opening sentence. Just for fun, I challenged him to find the notecard on which he had written that Canada was one of the most important countries in the world. He argued that it would be impossible to make his introduction paragraph interesting without adding his opinion. With a few words of encouragement, he returned to his seat to make another attempt.
I was surprised to see him back in line at my desk after only a few minutes. I knew he was excited about what he had written because he was impatiently doing the “I’ve got it!” dance while I helped other students.
Before he gave me the paper this time, he explained that he had found a way to grab attention at the beginning of the essay and had not used an opinion. Cautiously, I read his paper.
“Canada – it’s in North America!”
Funny on so many levels, this statement made my day.
