IWP SLI 2016 Rockin' Day 1

Welcome to the Illinois Writing Project Summer Leadership Institute 2016!

We greeted new faces from Chicago city and suburbs to begin a journey to teacher leadership.  With an assortment of breakfast items of bagels, hard-boiled eggs, juice, and coffee provided by Jan and Amy, we were ready to dive into our first introduction activity using decorated index cards to identify our interests, passions, and hobbies.

The necessary logistics of signing up for treats, blogging, and read-alouds, learning about school facilities and the goal of SLI, and setting up wifi connections dominated a portion of the morning.  Afterwards we prepared ourselves to dig into writing.

Jan led us in a read aloud from It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It by Robert Fulghum that pointed to the significance of personal treasures--and recognizing the treasures of others.  This reading led into an interview activity that would help us learn more about each other.  

We brainstormed possible questions we could use to help us craft our interviews and the writing we would do until after lunch.  Partners introduced each other with creative stories based on the answers their counterparts provided.


Debriefing the activity as participants challenged us to think as our students.  Vulnerability with the first draft and acceptance of first draft shortfalls became common themes in our sharing.  Transitioning to how we would develop this activity in our own classrooms led to insights about partner and small-group sharing and providing debrief time for students.

After a day of logistics, introductions, and self-assessment of knowledge, we charted our needs and wants that would drive the planning for the remainder of our time together.  Importantly, we need time for personal writing and feedback on that writing.  We are looking for fresh strategies and tools for teaching writing in language arts and content-area classes.  Infusing technology and using assessment also topped our lists.  We excitedly look forward to guest presenters who will share on these topics and more in the upcoming days.