Today, J. Patrick Lewis visited our writing camp to share his experiences. I couldn’t help but think about how lucky our young writers were to get to listen to him in such an intimate setting. Most impressive is that he treated our campers with the respect given to real writers. It was as if he was speaking to them as writer to writer. He sure got me thinking about myself both as a writer and a writing teacher. I ended up taking 4 pages of notes. Here are just a few of my thoughts on what he said: In order to be a writer, you need to be a reader.Check. I wholeheartedly believe that to be true.
You have to love words. The library is the hospital to the mind. I love this analogy…the library being the hospital to the mind. I believe that it is my job to immerse my students in words; to help them become curious about, oberservers of, and playful with language. My goal is to take time to gather these gems in my own notebook. I don’t know how many times I tell myself that I need to remember the certain way an author says something and it’s gone the next day. Or the times when I’m at a loss for words and I wish my vocabulary was a little broader.
Make the dictionary and thesaurus your best friend. What better way to learn more words? And no, I don’t mean copying definitions out of the dictionary. When was the last time you did that in your real life? We need to teach our students in an authentic manner how to use, when to use, and why to use these references. There are also many options available on the web that give the same information as the dictionary and a thesaurus. I think it’s important that we introduce our students to the myriad of possibilities.
Show, don’t tell. Capture the moment in words, not pictures. I have a filing cabinet of ideas on ways to teach this to my students. I have example after example of “showing, not telling” in other authors’ published work; however, I’m not very good at it in my own writing. So, one of my goals this summer will be to work on painting a picture with my words when I am writing for myself.
Write every day. Just like those in sports practice every day, so should writers. Jane Yolen calls it the BIC method (Butt in Chair). Pat writes from 6:00 a.m. until 4 or 5:00 in the afternoon every day. There is a dichotomy between what I teach and what I practice (and yes, I just used dictionary.com to make sure I used the word dichotomy correctly). My students write every day because Writing Workshop time is sacred in my room. I know that in order for them to become better writers, they need time to experiment, make mistakes, and learn from other writers. I do not afford myself the same opportunities. Life starts speeding by and before I know it, a chunk of time has gone by and I have not put pen to paper. This summer gives me the chance to slow down a bit and focus on my writing. I am going to make it a priority to have some BIC time each and every day.
These are just a sampling of my notes…I will continue with more of Pat’s thinking tomorrow. You can learn more about Pat here.
This week is our first week of the Young Authors Writing Project. There are 8 teachers, all of whom participated in the Columbus Area Writing Project, working together to create a wonderful experience for 28 kids ranging in age from 4th grade to 11th grade. I think we are all in heaven working with a group of students who want to be at camp because they love to write. The teachers have partnered up and each duo takes one day to present a lesson. What I love about this is that we are all sharing our ideas with each other and we can adapt them for our own particular grade level. Both the kids and teachers are from around the Columbus area and the teachers have experience at different levels (from early elementary to high school).
On Day 1, Debbie and Sarah launched our summer camp. We read an excerpt from The House on Mango Street and then wrote about our names. After sharing with a partner, we introduced our partner to the rest of the group. It was a great ice breaker. Next, Sarah shared some metaphors about being a writer. Wow! The creativity was flowing after that. Here are some snippets from what the kids wrote…As a writer, I am…
I am a train fueled by ideas.
I am an explorer roaming through different worlds. Sometimes I escape, sometimes I am reborn.
I am a flute, quietly following the director’s baton. I want people to appreciate my tune.
I am a wholesome meal simmering in the crockpot. Writing ideas warm up in my mind. There are no artificial colors or flavorings. The ordinariness of my words is precisely the point.
I am a fancy restaurant waitress who serves you the best.
Aren’t these great? I was trying to scribble these gems furiously as the kids were sharing.
Deb closed with another way to illustrate who we are as writers. She shared her Writing Journey Map with orange barrels (showing the detours) and all. As you can see in the pictures below, the kids spread out and went to town. It was amazing to walk from space to space and just listen to the conversations that were happening. Everyone depicted in one way or another, the hesitancy in beginning a new piece of writing, the dips and turns that occur throughout the process, and finally, the light at the end of the tunnel.
We end each session with a read around (sometimes large groups, other times small groups) and then ask the kids to write a little note about their experience for that day. We compile their notes and copy them all together for everyone to read the next day. It’s what we lovingly call the “Inkshed” in CAWP.
I will be writing more about this amazing experience. I am in awe each and every day!
We finished our Digital multimodal class on Friday with show and tell. Everyone shared their multimodal digital projects which were a digital response to a poem or song and a personal memoir piece. As what always happens when students are given choice, we had a wide variety of projects. The final projects ranged from humorous, to serious, to sentimental, to political statements. Everyone’s individuality was able to emerge, even though we all had the same assignment. That is one of the reasons I think student choice is so important when we are asking students to complete an assignment. We all learned how to use Photo Story and Audacity, to import pictures, scan images, create transitions, add music and voice overs just to name a few things. Probably more important, was the conversation that we had each morning before we began to work. Creating a metadiscourse, explaining the choices we made and why we made them was very important to the process. This project showed us that we were, in fact, creating another text to show our understanding of the original text. The social context was critical to the success of the project. Not only did we have conversations at the beginning of class about the process, but also conversation abounded during our work time. It was not uncommon to see participants at each other’s work stations trying to help. The tech support was very important too. John, our tech support person, was very patient with all of us and Dr. Newell was there to answer questions as well. I so appreciated Dr. Newell’s approach to this class. It was a true writing workshop atmosphere where we learned together and supported each other along the way.
So here are my projects. First, “I’m Learning to Speak English” by J. Patrick Lewis spoke to me because of my own student population. J. Patrick Lewis is coming to visit at the Young Author’s Writing Camp this week, so I thought I’d look for one of his poems. I was so pleased when I found it here. I chose photos of my kids that I took throughout the year and chose a song with Latino influence.
My second piece, “Summer Gifts” is about a week I spent with my grandma 6 years ago, about 3 months before she died. My grandma was something else! There were many times my grandfather would yell, “Turn that damn radio down” as she cleaned to Meatloaf or Prince blaring from her stereo. All 10 of her grandchildren thought they were her favorite because she made each of us feel that way. I chose “Heaven Can Wait” by Meatloaf as one of the background music pieces. She loved Meatloaf (my cousin took her to their concerts at Blossom Music Center until she was well into her 80s). I decided to show photos of her with only the music playing in the background at the end of my narration because I wanted my audience to focus on her and see the influence she had on my life.
I am already thinking of ways to use this on my classroom next year. I hope you enjoy!!
I am taking a class at OSU this week called Digital Multimodal Composition with Dr. George Newell, another co-director of the Columbus Area Writing Project. When my daughter asked me what multimodal meant, I gave her a fuzzy answer because I wan’t too sure myself. I’ve come to learn that it is a way of showing meaning that includes text, sound (voice and/or music), and visuals (photos, moving pictures, color, etc.). Our assignment is to do a digital response to a poem and then create a digital memoir piece using Photo Story. I used the poem “I am Learning to Speak English” by J. Patrick Lewis for my digital response and wrote a memoir piece about a week I spent with my grandma the summer of 2004 (about 3 months before she died).
The process that we have gone through has been eye-opening! Each morning, George asks us to write in our learning logs about how our thinking. One of the things we’ve talked about is how our own view of responding to a piece of literature has changed as we go through the process of creating a multimodal piece. There is so much to think about and most of us in the class have gone through the same journey…first being very literal as we found images to represent the piece of writing to becoming more thoughtful and looked at the writing in a more abstract way. Even choosing the music has brought about a myriad of thinking. One man put it beautifully today when he said, “I’ve asked myself if I am illustrating, responding to or reacting to this poem as I’ve been creating my project.”
We all agree that the end product does not show all the thinking and purposeful decisions that go into the final project. I think that tells us something as teachers. First, our students need time to work through the process, make mistakes, and change their minds. I also think that asking students to write about and engage in conversations that describe their process is important. A simple rubric for the final project does not do justice to the student’s work.
These projects have certainly given me a broader view of using technology in the classroom. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with the teacher group who is reading The Digital Writing Workshop this summer. I also can’t wait to try some of these ideas in my classroom!
Summer vacation…time to reflect on all the wonderful things that happened in the past school year. One of my favorite events was the Avery Arts Celebration. Our teacher writing group decided to combine the art show with a celebration of all the great writing and musical talent we have in our building. Wanting to reach out and help another group, we agreed to raise money for the earthquake victims of Haiti.
A few weeks before our celebration, we invited Alex Hoops and his friend Jared, two seminary students who were actually in Haiti when the earthquake occurred, to speak to our students. They showed slides from the schools they support as well as homes and other buildings around the area. After talking to my own students and other teachers who shared their class’ reaction, it was evident that these 2 gentlemen had a huge impact on our children. Our students were able to see that there are others in the world who live in difficult situations, but still find joy in life every day.
On the day of the celebration, we had 2 guests. Frank McGarvey, a storyteller told stories from Haiti and Nathan Anders, a faculty member at Capital University, brought a steel pan, as well as some friends to entertain us with Caribbean music. They had the place rocking! The afternoon brought parents to the first grade classrooms to visit as the students shared their pond animal informational books. After that, it was off to Open Mike! Students had the opportunity to read an original piece of writing in front of an audience of students and parents. Several fifth grade students played their instruments in between readings. In addition, the kindergarten teachers worked together to create a fundraiser for the Haiti victims. Families were then invited to visit the displays in the hallways. You can see from the slide show below that we had a wide variety of writing and art hanging in the hallway. It was truly a wonderful afternoon! I have to say kudos to our entire staff for helping it all to come together!
Today, J. Patrick Lewis visited our writing camp to share his experiences. I couldn’t help but think about how lucky our young writers were to get to listen to him in such an intimate setting. Most impressive is that he treated our campers with the respect given to real writers. It was as if he was speaking to them as writer to writer. He sure got me thinking about myself both as a writer and a writing teacher. I ended up taking 4 pages of notes. Here are just a few of my thoughts on what he said:
