Not Just Child's Play: Challenging Young Minds: Would You Want Junie B. Jones in Your Class?

I had a request from one of my students to read a Junie B. Jones books as our next chapter read-aloud. I have read her before, but it's been a long time. I had forgotten how funny those books are. I especially relate to the teacher's perspective. We are reading Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine. Junie is in Kindergarten and there are perfect lessons for inferencing when she asks question after question and her teacher has to close her eyes, put her head down or take some aspirin. :) We can inference that she obviously has a headache caused at least in part by the protagonist in the story. That happens quite often. :) In the chapter we just finished Junie wanted to know if she had to even give valentines to the big, fat stinkyheads in the class!

So my question to them was: If you were a teacher, would you want Junie B. Jones in your class and why? I knew most of them would probably say no (even the ones who remind me of her a lot!)-but I was really looking for the reason they would give. I think it's very ironic that they say they wouldn't want her in their class because of behaviors they exhibit! I personally would rather a student who was more brash and honest than one that you have to pull answers out of all the time. We certainly do get all kinds. Definitely would make things more interesting! Sometimes that trade-off is worth it! It was also interesting to me that the kids think we get to choose who is in our class. I guess the good side to that is they think they were all chosen for our group.

Anyway, here are the responses: