Classroom visit brings back school memories

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Updated: March 21, 2012 8:04AM

It’s been many years since I’ve been in a classroom, being called upon to answer questions that seem to come out of the blue. Yes, I read that chapter. Yes, I studied for that test. Why isn’t my brain spewing forth the information I crammed into it?

Well, an experience last week at Aux Sable Middle School in Plainfield School District left me feeling a bit like that student again.

Language Arts teacher Laurie Marusak invited me to come and speak with her class of 35 accelerated students about being a writer and journalist.

Marusak taught life science at Channahon School District, and had my oldest son Peter as a student. I covered many stories in her Channahon science classroom.

She moved on to Plainfield. While her first love is science, she has found a niche in teaching some extremely talented and creative sixth-grade students.

Their assignment was to take what they learned in science class and write about it in language arts. It’s part of the district’s integrated curriculum writing.

The students had been learning about ocean animals. Marusak saw a great opportunity for a cross-curricular assignment and had them write about the day they woke up as the ocean animal they learned about in science class.

She was so impressed with the creativity of the students that she wanted to share their talents with others. During a classroom discussion, student Joey Rohm commented it would be neat to talk to someone in the field of journalism.

The student sparked an idea and Marusak invited me to not only talk about my profession, but also hear some of the stories written by her students.

I was so impressed by the questions they came up with, many off the top of their heads. Many had two, three and four questions for me.

I spent nearly the entire class time fielding questions about what a reporter does, how I come up with stories, if I’ve ever covered anything dangerous, my favorite type of writing, and on and on.

Beforehand I was worried I wouldn’t have enough to tell these students during a 70-minute class period. But that fear quickly dissipated.

One student stumped me when he asked if I used Bloom’s Taxonomy when I wrote stories.

I must have looked puzzled, so Marusak quickly pointed out the chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy of higher order thinking, which students use to help them write a good story.

While the chart didn’t ring a bell, the concepts of good writing were all there — Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating and Creating.

By using higher order skills, what they learn will be a part of their long-term memories and make connections to new information in the future, Marusak said.

Then I got the privilege of hearing a handful of the essays written by students Arianna Lynch, Bryanna Meythaler, Zach Panozzo, Ella Miller, John Hunt, V.J. Herron and Rohm.

Two essays were from a creative writing assignment about the day a spaceship landed in front of Aux Sable Middle School. The majority were about the ocean animal they woke up to be. They were all extremely creative.

Their essays not only used the information about the animal they depicted, but they tied in their knowledge of figurative language, sensory and imagery words to make the stories really come alive.

It was an honor to be asked to Marusak’s class, to talk with the students, hear their work and to see how intelligent this generation is becoming.

In an e-mail the following day, Marusak summed up her feelings about her students.

“There is no doubt in my mind that these brilliant youngsters will be our future writers, poets, authors and correspondents,” she wrote. “I know that someday I will see their faces on the cover of a novel, or read about their work in a magazine. It’s a true honor to be part of their education.”

Reach Kris Stadalsky at
writestuff56@comcast.net.