by Kristine Schaefer
One of the mantras of my ninth-grade English class is not to judge a person until you have walked in his/her shoes. These words of wisdom come directly from Atticus Finch, the famous father figure in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
Over the last two weeks friends and family have inquired about what we actually do in the Capital District Writing Project summer institute. I’ve been struggling with how to answer this question, but at some point during today’s conversation Atticus’s words popped into my mind. Nancy, one of the members of this year’s cohort, was giving a demonstration lesson on poetry. As she led us through her lesson, I suddenly became aware that I was doing exactly what Atticus teaches his children to do, and exactly what I encourage my students to do. I was going through the steps of the writing process: brainstorming, talking with peers about my ideas, and then generating a draft of a poem. I was putting myself in the shoes of my students.
For me, this is what the summer institute is about. What we do is put ourselves in our students’ shoes so that we can understand them and ultimately be better teachers for them. We engage in the writing, inquiry and discussion that we ask students to engage in on a regular basis. We evaluate whether the activities that we ask students to engage in are valuable. And finally, we look for ways that we can continue to grow in our instruction.
