Day 4: The Writing Process, Preposition Poetry, and Effective Feedback

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