She came up with an idea of a reading discussion group where the purpose of the group would be to communicate and exchange meaning, not focus on someone else's questions. The teacher let the students choose what books to discuss, and encouraged them to respond to pictures as well as words, and to return to the story as often as possible to simplify and clarify their ideas. Through these discussion groups the children shared their interpretations and connections. Instead of "directing" the discussions, the teacher facilitated them, and let the children talk more. These groups were a success in the classroom, and the groups met and discussed books on the regular basis throughout the story. Another turning point in the story is when Jamie becomes too sick to attend school for extended periods of time, because her body becomes very weakened. At the end of the story she dies, peacefully, surrounded by her friends and family, and most importantly, her books and writing. The story reflects on how many other students, parents and the teacher herself were touched by Jamie and her writing. This book will have several impacts on my teaching career. First, it provided numerous real-life examples of teaching activities that can be implemented in the classroom, to instill a true love of reading in the classroom. I also like the journal idea, where the children immediately recorded...

This is something that I plan to implement in my teaching career as well. This is an excellent concept because it can be implemented into classrooms of older children also. I think that keeping a journal encourages the mind to think about what one has just read, and to put their thoughts on paper.
A also support the literature discussion groups that the children regularly held. Especially in the early years, reading and talking about you have read needs to be encouraged. In my classroom, I will also implement the free exchange of ideas after reading a book, and will continue the same structure that the teacher in the story followed. In this manner I will act as the facilitator, not the main speaker who has to be listened to. Another thing that the story made me think about was how some of the students learned and did better from working with their classmates, and having their classmates help them with writing or teach them about reading. This veers from the traditional role of the teacher teaching the students, but in the story it was clearly demonstrated how some of the students flourished from Jamie's help, in comparison to the traditional school setting. By applying the methods employed in the story, I believe my teaching career will undoubtedly help others in learning the value of reading and writing.