Morgan Haen

ECE 150

Teacher Memoir Assignment

28 March 2019

Teacher Memoir Assignment

I chose to read Vivian Paley’s You Can’t Say You Can’t Play for this assignment.

Something that troubled me was when she was listening to the student’s responses to when she

asked them “Should one child be allowed to keep another child from joining a group?” This

troubled me because when the students are responding, you can tell who the students are that are

told that they cannot play, and it is very sad. Something that amused me was when Vivian would

go to the older students in the school to see what their opinion was on some of the topics. This

amused me because when she was talking to the older students about the new rule, it was

amusing to read their answers and what they thought about the rule.

Something that stood out to me was that Vivian had a story table in her classroom and

wrote down the children’s story as they were telling it. This stood out to me because she is very

patient and sits down with these students so they can express themselves and tell a story so she

can write it down. Something that shocked me was when Vivian was talking with the first

graders about the rule, their answers shocked me, especially the little boy at the end about

brothers and sisters. Something that amused me was that Vivian’s Magpie stories went along

with what she was trying to decide about the rule in the classroom.

When Vivian implemented the new rule, the children who were the “bosses” were upset

that the rule was actually in place, and the children that were rejected were happy about the new

rule and that really stood out to me.

 The method I used was describing two or three particular events, incidents, or situations

in the text that “ring true” to me. One event that rang true to me was when Clara was told that

she couldn’t play with Lisa and Cynthia because she didn’t have a Pound Puppy. This actually

happened to me when I was younger. One of my friends had High School Musical hats and

handed them out to only a few friends. There were two of the 7 friends that did not gets hats and

I was one of them. We were told that we had to play by ourselves because we didn’t have a hat.

Because of this, this other friend and I became very close and we are still close to this day.

Another event that rang true to me was how the students implemented the rule. It was

very true because students who forgot the rule would be told by the student trying to play that

they forgot the rule and needed to let them play. I was working in a daycare center this summer

when a preschooler was playing with another preschooler, and a younger student tried to play

with them, but when told no, the younger student told them that when they were told no it hurt,

so the older two preschoolers let the younger student play. This event in the book seems realistic

because it does happen when students have different rules, they try to implement them when they

are playing with the other students.

I learned that children as learners, need to have certain rules to learn different things

about each other. When the children were first introduced to the idea of the rule “You can’t say

you can’t play” they thought that maybe it would be an okay idea. The students that were being

rejected thought that this rule was a good thing, but the students that were the “bosses” thought

that this rule wasn’t a good thing. But when this rule was implemented and used, the roles

switched sort of. These students learned that this rule was actually good so that way everybody

can play. I learned that these children even though they thought the rule was not a good idea,
they brought the idea into their own play and showed that they understood that the rule was

needed and proved that everyone can play and be happy.

What I learned about myself was that I maybe would not have went to the older kids in

the school for their advice, but that idea was smart because Vivian was able to put a little more

insight on if her plan was going to work or not. I also enjoyed her idea of having a story table in

the classroom for students to tell their stories and for her to write them down, and possibly read

them aloud to the class. This idea would be great because it helps the students show their

imagination and creativity and it may encourage the other students to show what they can think

of. It is also a good thing to look back on from the beginning of the year to the end of the year to

see how the students improved in their speaking skills, and how their imagination has either

grown or shrunk.