Reading, Writing, and Rising Up

     So far this book has had some helpful advice. My favorite was the idea of the Read Around. I think this is a great idea because students are subjected to only criticism in many environments. I feel just offering positive feedback for a change can really help motivate students, and increase their self confidence. If I got a paper back and was able to just absorb all the positive comments first before just reading criticism, I feel that would motivate me more. It is important for students especially at middle school and high school level to not feel too discouraged. If a student just feels like they are a horrible writer, and their writer has no good aspects, they are ore likely to give up.
     Another thing that really stood out to me was the poems. I enjoyed reading those a lot. I especially liked the one the blind student wrote. I think the poem is very touching. I think it is very sad that he got picked on by the other students for being blind, but it is great that they all started to realize they were wrong after hearing the poem. The "I am" poems were very interesting as well. They have a very cool layout to them. I like how they are kind of random to everyone else, but they make perfect sense to the person who wrote it.