The Girl With the Brown Crayon

Rating:
Summary: What a great book!
Review: I just thought that this one one of the best books that I have ever read. The way Paley tells the story of her last year of teaching is wonderful. I am currently an education student with hopes of becoming a kindergarten teacher and this book really inspired me. I recomend this book to all peopl, weather you are a teacher, a parent, or just someone who loves a great read. I hope that you enjoy this book as much as I have.

Rating:
Summary: What a Child Sees
Review: I was so happy to have an opportunity to read this book for one of my summer literature classes. The Girl with the Brown Crayon by Vivian Gussin Paley is a great read!! In this book, Paley uses experiences from her last year of teaching kindergarten to express, even to her own amazement, how children can use stories to identify themselves, their development, and the charactersitics of their peers. Her class finds a spark in the picture books of Leo Lionni, a spark which shapes the curriculum and tone of the entire year. Her year-long memior records the voice and opinions of her students as they discover the character's of Lionni, the class's self-proclaimed literary hero, and apply them to their own environment. Her openness to let this happen as a way of promoting learning serves as an important model in teaching. It is like watching an involved study on learning take place right before your very eyes!! Though it discusses experiences with kindergarteners, it does relate to working with texts in a classroom on any level. It even helped me see how to better read to my own children This is a very small book, but packed with great insight from an award-winning author/teacher who has earned her stripes. By the last chapter, the reader is just as sorry as the class that their time together is about to end! I feel it is a worthy read for anyone.

Rating:
Summary: What a Child Sees
Review: I was so happy to have an opportunity to read this book for one of my summer literature classes. The Girl with the Brown Crayon by Vivian Gussin Paley is a great read!! In this book, Paley uses experiences from her last year of teaching kindergarten to express, even to her own amazement, how children can use stories to identify themselves, their development, and the charactersitics of their peers. Her class finds a spark in the picture books of Leo Lionni, a spark which shapes the curriculum and tone of the entire year. Her year-long memior records the voice and opinions of her students as they discover the character's of Lionni, the class's self-proclaimed literary hero, and apply them to their own environment. Her openness to let this happen as a way of promoting learning serves as an important model in teaching. It is like watching an involved study on learning take place right before your very eyes!! Though it discusses experiences with kindergarteners, it does relate to working with texts in a classroom on any level. It even helped me see how to better read to my own children This is a very small book, but packed with great insight from an award-winning author/teacher who has earned her stripes. By the last chapter, the reader is just as sorry as the class that their time together is about to end! I feel it is a worthy read for anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Leo Lionni
Review: Paley is wonderful at inviting us into our kindergarten classroom to show us two things. First, she is an example of how an experienced teacher treats the children in her care. She provides new teachers with a model of how to encourage their students to explore new topics and to find themselves. Secondly, Paley is very insightful as to the lives of children. Her years of teaching have shown her many things and made her an authority on the minds of 5 and 6-year olds.

This book follows Paley and her students through her final year of teaching Kindergarten. She makes the decision to read only books from a specific author for the year. The author selected was Leo Lionni. Lionni's books are read, presented and interpreted by the children. One student picks up on the qualities of these stories more than any other - she becomes the Girl with the Brown Crayon.

The reader gets a good look at not only how a teacher can guide his or her students into a deeper understanding of literature and with that find lessons to be learned about life through the parallels that are made. Paley also teaches her readers a lot about children. But then, this is only what I saw - the author herself reminds us that "Ultimately...it is the reader (italics) who interprets the writer" (42).

Why 4 stars?: I have read several of Paley's books and have enjoyed them all. This one is no different. Her insights into the world of teaching, education and the joy of children are profound. However, my only problem with this book is that I was not familiar with the Leo Lionni books discussed so heavily in the text. But, don't let that stop you - there is still much to be learned from this text.

Rating:
Summary: Children reading Leo Lionni's books
Review: Paley's purpose for writing this book consists of helping to open our minds to the insights of children. She implies in her writing that we, as adults, can learn from children. Paley wrote about events that took place in her classroom during her last year of teaching. This book has many stories within itself. The theme or topic revolves around the children and how they react to literature and each other. This book is good that it opens us up to the world of children and how they think and feel. A good portion of the book is Paley's thought and feelings about what is going on with the children. It is good that we know her thoughts, but I would like to have read more about what the children were doing. I think more details about how the other children reacted and behaved would have been nice, other than concentrating a good deal on Reeny. Also when Paley writes about the stories she read to the class, I think she should have given a little bit more detail about the stories. Some people, including myself, may not have read some or any of Leo Lionni's books. Overall, it is a fun book to read.

Rating:
Summary: Children reading Leo Lionni's books
Review: Paley's purpose for writing this book consists of helping to open our minds to the insights of children. She implies in her writing that we, as adults, can learn from children. Paley wrote about events that took place in her classroom during her last year of teaching. This book has many stories within itself. The theme or topic revolves around the children and how they react to literature and each other. This book is good that it opens us up to the world of children and how they think and feel. A good portion of the book is Paley's thought and feelings about what is going on with the children. It is good that we know her thoughts, but I would like to have read more about what the children were doing. I think more details about how the other children reacted and behaved would have been nice, other than concentrating a good deal on Reeny. Also when Paley writes about the stories she read to the class, I think she should have given a little bit more detail about the stories. Some people, including myself, may not have read some or any of Leo Lionni's books. Overall, it is a fun book to read.

Rating:
Summary: Paley's personal recollection...
Review: The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a beatiful illustration of the intellect and insight of young children. As Vivian Gussey describes her last year as a kindergarten teacher, one is reminded of just how often adults overlook the example of tolerance and unconditional love that children provide to our society. Ms. Gussey uses the literary works of Leo Leonni to help the children explore such complex issues as self-esteem, racial discrimination and group dynamics. What Ms. Gussey learns by the end of this book is priceless, and the real "teaching" is done by the children.

Rating:
Summary: Girl with the Brown Crayon
Review: The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a book that displays a journey through a kindergarten classroom which can only be described as a unique adventure of self discovery. Vivian Paley is the author as well as the kindergarten teacher of this very classroom. During her last year of teaching, she meets an interesting child named Reeny who leads Paley as well as the rest of the class on an exploration through the books and illustrations of Leo Lionni.
The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a book which covers important topics that cannot be learned in any college course. It discusses issues of identity and acceptance seen and felt through a child. I enjoy Paley's excessive use of dialogue. It aides in capturing the emotions felt by the characters and allows experiences to become more realistic in the readers eyes.
Overall, I recommend this book to future educators. It will teach you to become more open to your students thoughts and ideas rather than constantly focusing on certain curriculum. It will allow you to see the vastness of opportunities education can hold for you and your class!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a non-fiction book that is also an autobiography. It does not describe the complete life of the author, but it does explain a year in her life and in her classroom. This book is intended for any one interested in becoming a teacher. I would recommend this particularly a lower elementary teacher, because it would help them to understand the wonderful things children and comprehend and accomplish at such a young age. Ms. Paley has a simple, straightforward writing style that is easy to read.
There is one sentence that sums up Ms. Paley's last year as a teacher. "...I resist the uninvented classroom." (p. 50) Throughout the year, Ms. Paley and her students are books of Leo Lionni. It is through these books that the students and Ms. Paley discover themselves. One student in particular plays a major role in the development of the class. Reeny "sees" things before any one else does. She also brings new interpretations to the class.
I would say that The Girl with the Brown Crayon was an interesting book. At the beginning the author warns us that it might not seem like a true story. She is right, the events to seem incredible. It takes a very special class full of very special students to have a year such as they did. Throughout the book the author is very analytical of herself. She keeps finding traits of herself that the characters in the books also posses. Due the fact that this is her last year of teaching, she is very reflective, and rightfully so. Ms. Paley is also a good teacher in the sense that she is constantly reviewing what she is doing with her class. It has become stereotyped that older teachers follow the same exact curriculum from their first year. Ms. Paley fights that, and is always inventing something new and creative for the class she is teaching that year, not the class she taught the previous year.
There is a common theme of a person versus society. Throughout the book the students discuss the feeling of the characters and whether what they did was appropriate or not. While the students were looking at the books with a very high intellectual level, it should have also been brought down to their level. For example, would they give into the peer pressure of giving up the golden wings? The key words in that sentence are peer pressure. Through out the entire book, this idea was never brought up. The students could think higher, but only when they were talking about wings. What about issues in their lives.
Overall, this was a very good book and I would recommend it to anyone that is looking to teach in the near future. Ms. Paley has wonderful ideas, which she brings into her teaching. Ms. Paley makes her children excited about what they are doing.

Rating:
Summary: Last thougths of a teacher
Review: This book affected me in a major way. As a future teacher it made me open my eyes to the wide range of students that I will be working with. Paley does a wonderful job of explaining her students, and the insightful comments that they make. After learning about the students you wonder where they are today and what they are doing with their lives. She describes her classroom in a way that allows the reader to picture the students, and details of the classroom. I would recommend The Girl with the Brown Crayon to any adult who interacts with children. Paley describes the children in her book in a way taht would gain respect from adults that normally do not respect children or believe that children can offer things that adults can learn from. Paley cared about her profession and her students and it shows in her writing.