We
started Day 4 by welcoming our newest group member, Michelle. A symbol she
shared was a book surrounded by birds to symbolize that education should be
liberating and given to all students. (Love it; couldn’t agree more.)
Next,
Erin brought in The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr, a “A wickedly funny
account of an apocalyptic childhood”. Erin relates to this book because the issues
in the memoir hit close to home (even though Erin’s childhood was not as
apocalyptic as Karr’s.) From the
excerpt that was chosen, it was clear why Erin says the author has “a way with
language”. The Texan lifestyle is captured in subtle ways and really shows us
through writing exactly how it is to grow up in the South. Jan connected “The
Liar’s Club” to the play “Next to Normal”, a musical about bipolar disorder.
We
then began a fairly lengthy de-briefing of our Writing Marathon @LP Zoo. In the
interest of saving time, here are abbreviated versions of everybody’s kernels
of wisdom:
“Since bilingual students are skeptical and negative about writing, a nice peaceful environment would help change those feelings.” ---Iris
“This was a good lesson in patience, perseverance, being
independent and which strategies you use when left to your own devices.“
–Madeline
“There’s not enough class time
to declutter all the noise and get to the craft- of writing-- the IMPORTANCE of
devoting a whole block of time in the day to find your voice.“ -Sandra
“I was hesitant to share my journaling at first. This would help students become more aware that journaling is helpful to SEL, connecting to themselves and their thoughts. “ -Lauren
After
thinking about how lucky I was to be in the presence of such great educators
and overall awesome human beings
during these 12 days, we embarked on a gallery walk of how each group chose to visually
represent the Writing Process. Some similarities we found were that:
- the
process is never linear
- it
takes time
- it’s
all about perseverance and multiple revisions
***Shout out to the pirate group. Best thing ever. If your poster suddenly goes missing, it’s not me. (It was me.)
Amy
today led our writing activity today. The sequence was as follows:
1.
Pre-write:
What kind of child were you?
2.
Read:
There Come a Soldier by Peggy Mercer
3.
Write:
I was once a girl/boy who…
4.
Edit:
Go back to writing and work on verb choice
5.
Workshop:
Discuss writing and provide feedback
Next,
we got a little creative with Preposition Poetry. This is where everybody
frantically googled “what is a preposition” before starting. The concept is
very simple: every line of your poem must begin with a preposition. (Super
cool! Will use with students ASAP.)
Here is a clip of “Austin’sButterfly”. Besides
being filled with adorable little children, it shows the importance of teaching
students HOW to give precise feedback during the drafting process. Critiques
should be specific and focus on one quality at a time. As Ron questioned the little cuties about Austin’s
butterfly, you could really see the wheels turning in their sweet little minds
as they understood the purpose of multiple drafts, and the process we all have
to go through to present something we can be proud of.
RESOURCES MENTIONED TODAY
YoungChicago Authors
creative
YA curriculum & lesson plans
www.ning.com Classroom blog (Pro: user friendly;
Con: not free)
Notebook
Know-How Aimee
Buckner
There Come a Soldier by Peggy
Mercer
Momma,
Where Are You From?
by Marie Bradby
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