I have unshakable faith in children. They always show me the way. ♥

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

what's in a name?

Currently, we're studying timelines in our class. The assignment was to cut out the pictures and put them in an order that would show a person's life. After students cut and arranged the pictures, I encouraged them to tell a story about the person's life: they could give the person a name and write about each part, or write a story the way they wished.

I walked up to Jack and looked down at his paper. At the time, it had the pictures in order and just his name and the letters "OWNK" printed underneath.

"Read this to me," I said, pointing to the word.
"It says, oink," he told me.
"Why does it say oink?" I asked. (note to self: silly question)
"That's her name," he said, matter of factly.

I nearly lost it laughing. Oink. Her name. Yup. I did encourage them to name the person and tell a story, never expecting that an animal noise might end up as a name.

After I composed myself, I told Jack, "Don't forget to write about each part of Oink's life."

He giggled at me when I said it.

"You named her," I grinned.
"It just sounds funny when you say it."
"I think it sounds funny when anyone says it."
He considered that. "Yeah, I think that's right."

Then he wrote the story. About Oink, of course. I wonder if she'll appear in any writing during our Writing Workshop...





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Girl Oink. Oh my god, the adorableness. All I can think is of like, a Super Oink Girl! This super hero pig with a pink cape and striped leg warmers.

kirsten said...

Leg warmers, yes. Yes, yes, yes.

I think my favorite is: "pregment." I want to start calling it that.

Anonymous said...

I had a student last year who was probably a little autistic (can you be a little autistic?). When we did our final project (a storytelling activity about a doll we worked with in class) he named him Real Ring. Hmmm...

This year in third grade he spends his time writing stories about monsters that smell like Oreo cookies because "people-like-oreo-cookies!!!!!!!." (He really talks like that...super fast.)