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!
All of the oral history movies are uploaded to the computer and the kids have watched the videos with Melissa and taken notes on the stories, just like real researchers. The next step is for each child to create an illustration for their stories. We delved into 2 of my favorite illustrators, Eric Carle and Steve Jenkins. I love their work because they use a variety of textured papers to create beautiful collages. We spent some time just looking through their books and talking about what we noticed. Of course, the kids noticed so many things. Ideas were “ping ponging” (I made that up) back and forth among each other. It took on a life of its own…I almost didn’t even need to be there. After I charted their thinking, I said, “I wonder how Eric Carle and Steve Jenkins made these textured papers?” The excitement mounted as they shouted out their ideas. They thought of things that I didn’t even consider. You should have heard them when I told them that they were going to try some of these techniques on their own.
Well, I got out the paper, paints, forks, cotton balls, and foil balls, and we were ready to go. You can see below all the fun they had and there was only one major water spill. Now that the papers have dried, I will cut them up into smaller pieces and the kids will use them to create their own collages to go along with their oral history story.
I stayed late tonight to help some of my after school writing clubbers finish their projects for our writing celebration Monday night. The glogs look great and I have to give a shout out to our technology teacher, because I couldn’t do it without her. I owe her a lot of biscotti!! It’s the first time that the only publication will be a digital one – the glogs. This is a huge paradigm shift for me. I keep thinking that I should have a book to give the kids. I wonder if the parents or kids will miss having a physical publication to hold.
The students have loved the digital project. As always, I wish we had more time to work on them. It’s been a little hairy having only 2 adults to work with 16 kids who all need attention at once (and one of the adults…me…was learning along with the kids). I would still do it again though. The kids were so enthusiastic and they each were able to express their individuality through their glogs. It’s been very fun to watch the whole process.
Things the kids learned to do:
Create a plan to use visual and audio components to complement their writing
Use Wordle
Take a screen shot
Upload photos and audio
Use Garage Band to record their voices
Embed sound into their glogs
Embed movies (only a few got to do this)
Think about the best way to represent each piece of writing
Design a layout that was appealing and made a statement about who they are
So, the glogs will be unveiled Monday after school. Each student will have the opportunity to stand up in front of the audience and share his or her glog as well as the thinking that went behind its creation. The process is the most important part!
I just finished watching all of the videos the kids have done for our oral history project. I am so proud of them! They all took on the persona of an interviewer. You can hear the authority in their voices as they ask questions and then ask more questions to get more details. They are also first graders…the camera gets clicked off amidst giggles, video that is so shaky it makes your stomach roll, and probably the best…L. asking his grandma what her favorite movie is after she shares a beautiful story about her great-grandmother from Puerto Rico who was a popular midwife.
One thing that came out of all of the videos is the love felt in these families. As I watched the grandparents’ and parents’ faces as they told their stories, I could see such a sense of pride. This project has become an opportunity for families to share across the generations and for my students to learn that even though we come from different backgrounds, we all have many things in common.
The stories are spectacular! Some made me laugh, some gave me goosebumps, and some brought tears to my eyes. Nobody has denied telling a story and some families even traveled to get stories from all the grandparents. J’s grandparents live far away, so her parents skyped the grandparents and they videotaped the interview.
Next, Melissa and I will sit with the kids individually to watch their movies with them. I’ve created a graphic organizer to help the kids organize their thinking so that they can write about the interview. After they write, I’ll record their voices, photograph their writing, and incorporate all of it into an iMovie. Our final celebration will be during the last week of school when all the families will be invited to see the movie and celebrate the important work the kids have done in this project!
Isn’t teaching all about reflecting on and tweaking our original plans? After the first oral history movies came back, we realized that some of the students didn’t quite understand that the interview questions should evoke a story, not a one word answer. So, Melissa and I modeled 2 different kinds of questions…one that requires a one word answer and one that invites the person being interviewed to tell a story.
My first question: “Mrs. Wilson, do you have any other brothers or sisters?”
Melissa: “Yes, I have 2 brothers.” (There’s no story here.)
Me: “Will you tell me a story about a time you had fun with your brothers or a time that they were annoying to you?” (This question allows the person being interviewed to elaborate.)
Melissa: “Let me tell you a story about a time that we lived in North Africa…”
I wanted the students to hear the words, “Will you tell me a story about…” I also tried to tie my question into the list of questions we originally created (think “My Rotten Red Headed Older Brother).
I’m interested to see what the latest videos bring back to us. One of the girls did get a wonderful story from her grandma about living on a farm when she was a small girl in Italy.
I’m supposed to be preparing for our teacher book talk tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait to share these pictures! Juan, an undergrad student came to visit us yesterday so we could practice asking interview questions before we took the cameras home. He told some wonderful stories about how his family came to the United States from Mexico. The kids had lots of questions about what school was like for him in Florida and what kinds of things his mom cooked for him when he was little. They also wanted to know about what kinds of books he liked to read. He shared an engaging story about how he liked to pretend he was Curious George and how he loved to climb trees when he was 6 years old!
Next, we divided the kids into small groups so they could learn how to use the iPods and mini-cams. It was one of those magical moments when all is going well and you know that you are doing something right! I had enough parent volunteers along with Juan and his friend and Melissa to work with the students. As they worked, I walked around, listened in to conversations, and took photos and video. Each child was engaged…deciding on what questions they wanted to ask (We typed up the list the students developed the day before), highlighting those questions, and then learning how to operate the iPod or mini-camera. Spanish was being spoken fluently at one table, at another table, one of my girls was learning that an interview involves asking the other person questions, not talking about yourself, another group of boys was learning how to change the batteries, and the other table was learning how to hold the camera still and keep the subject in the middle of the frame.
Today was the big launch day! 5 kids giddily walked out the door with either a mini-cam or iPod ready to interview their families this afternoon! Check out the Smilebox to see all the fun we had yesterday!
I’ve shared quite a few books with the kids to help build a foundation for our oral history project. The kids were able to come up with a very long list of interview questions based on the books we read.
Each of these books was wonderful in its own way. They all evoked stories from the kids and there have been many days that the kids have come in with stories from their parents. The excitement is mounting as “camera day” gets closer. It’ll be so interesting to see what kinds of stories the kids record and bring back to school.
