​My language arts class is reading We Were Not Alone by Patricia Reece Roper and Karola Hilbert Reece. The students are writing stories from their lives containing symbolism and showing a time they were courageous. We are discussing the elements of story such as character, description using the five senses, and discovering the main character's need or want.  Yesterday I made a connection with one of the student's symbols and saw how it related to the story in a deep way. Then I thought about the symbols chosen by the other students and I was thrilled at how a simple symbol makes deeper meaning in a story.

​Not like death and taxes. My husband has his own CPA business, so I'm loving this beautiful spring day after tax day. We went on a walk with our youngest child around the neighborhood after the rest of the children went to school and I smelled lilac and we found a bird's nest in the grass made with sticks and dried grass, and pieces of plastic.

​I love to read what I want to read. My high school-aged daughter also loves to read books she chooses. But she dislikes analyzing literature and writing a literary analysis. I wrote a literary analysis for the language arts class I teach, and it was painful to write. So why do we study literature and analyze it? Do we cause children to dislike literature because we make them study it? I hope not. When we read and analyze literature, we make connections within ourselves and to the outside world. As I analyze stuff in literature like symbolism, theme, character, and archetypes, I make deeper connections. I've enjoyed reading the five books in the curriculum for my spring semester class and analyzing them.  I've also learned so much as a writer about technique and excellent writing. Maybe students won't appreciate it now, but if they ever teach a language arts class, they'll experience pleasure in analyzing literature.