I'm wondering why it has taken me so long to come to this conclusion but I'm just now thinking that I should individualize my invitation to students. Up until now, I have been relying on teachers to suggest to students that they visit The Write Place for writing support. Of course I have no way of knowing whether that message is being spread or not. For some reason, I seem to have forgotten that the strength of writing centers lies in student initiative and motivation to use them. Both of the girls that I have conferenced with in the last two weeks sought out my help because they WANTED to be better writers - not because a teacher told them to come to the writing center.
Anyway, after I have a friend look it over and give me feedback, I will hand out flyers to all students during their English classes on Wednesday. I will also put flyers in all teacher mailboxes emphasizing that students may visit the writing center for writing support in any content area.
Another thing I haven't done is post a definite schedule of when I will be in The Write Place for student support. Now I am posting definite hours for the month of March. Our state tests are early in April so this may be another motivating factor for students.
If this center is to continue into next year, I need to find a way to get students to use it.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Valentine Thoughts
Just got a note from the person who sends out a community newsletter for the school - asking for articles. seems like the perfect time to have pictures and sentiments from our all-school write included. I took the Valentines down today and typed up some of the more original sentiments and am including them in this post:
LOVE
Meeting you was fate,
Becoming your friend was a choice,
Falling in love with you was
Way beyond my control!
-M. Yang
Let love embrace you…
-Annie Carey
To love and be loved is everything!
Love is when you give your heart and soul to someone in hopes that they’ll return it.
If you have any tears to cry,
I will be there by your side.
When you’re sad and feeling blue,
I will be there to care for you.
If you’re scared and all alone,
I will kiss away your fears.
When you need someone to love you,
I will be here.
-Karen Lee
Trust is the way of creating love.
Love is the closest thing we’ve got to magic. When we see the details, we start to see what really matters. There’s regrets and forgets, hearts and desires. You can’t WANT something to be yours. You have to KNOW it truly is. Missing someone is painful; losing someone hurts. Knowing you can’t do anything to change it is a living nightmare.
-Sydney Yang
Everyone says that LOVE hurts, but that’s not true.
LONELINESS hurts.
REJECTION hurts.
LOSING SOMEONE hurts.
Everyone confuses these conditions with love, but in reality, LOVE is the only thing in the world that covers up all of the pain and makes us feel wonderful again.
-Sheng Vang
Love is an uncontrollable passion that weakens even the strongest walk.
Love hurts!
Dislike it!
Love has a 1/1,369 chance on Match.com
Love is a strong word that you want to use carefully.
Love sucks and makes people do stupid things.
Love is a crime that makes everyone blind.
Love is good while it lasts, but you have to burn it at the end.
Love is unconditionally, blind and dangerous.
Love has a 14% chance on ABC’s The Bachelor.
Love sucks:
It kills,
It hurts,
It burns,
It is the worst thing ever
It will always pain you…
Never leave the one you love for the one you like
Because the one you like
Might leave you for the one they love.
FRIENDSHIP
True friendship is no fistfights or hurting,
Not here one day, gone the next.
In friendship,
Everything is better for those
With the ability to love and hate,
Make war, then peace;
To dream and hope and always
Be by their friend’s side,
Never leaving.
-L. Cody Jackson
Friendship is helping one another through thick and thin.
It’s something you need to survive reality
when you’re at your worst.
-KLH
Friends are like stars.
You don’t always see them,
But you know they are there.
-Nina
Best friends are people who know your whole life story and your flaws yet, they still love you.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Valentine's Day
I guess I should back up a bit...I thought that Valentine's Day would be a perfect time to celebrate "the love of writing" with another all-school write. Two weeks ago, I purchased a variety of doily hearts from the $ store and peeled about 1000 of small, medium, and large red, white and pink ones into piles for each homeroom. My intent was to have the students write about either love or friendship on the hearts, the week before Valentine's Day. Then, on Valentine's Day, I would post all of the hearts on the wall in the lunchroom and set up a table in front of them and hand out suckers and chocolate hearts (more $ store purchases) to those who stopped by...
Because I was gone last week, I arranged for the newspaper staff to introduce the hearts and the topic to students in activity classes at the end of the day. Although I was worried that all students wouldn't get the opportunity or that teachers might not collect them and turn them in to me, the newspaper staff did a beautiful job. When I got to school today, I picked the hearts up from the mailroom and posted them. Next, I set up my table in the lunchroom. I had many paper hearts left over so I spread those out on the table with markers. My plan for handing out suckers and chocolate roses was not quite as successful...my table was mobbed! Almost everything was gone by the end of first lunch...if I had it to do over, I would have portioned my supplies and treats out. Even without the treats, many students stopped by just to write out a valentine for someone special.
I did get in a number of conversations on writing and writers. One girl even got a pass to come back with an essay she was writing so that I could sit and conference with her. A very fun day!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Student Connections
Today I met with Tara, a 9th grade student writing a novel about shape-shifting humans, werewolves and vampires. Two days ago, she handed me her notebook for feedback as I looked through 9th grade papers in her classroom. I wasn't prepared for the amount of writing that she had done on her "novel" or for the tiny, single-spaced, light pencil that it was written in. I struggled to read it, but was amazed by the intricate plot structure she had devised and the complicated code that involved what the characters could do and how their names were created and what each name signified. How do you give feedback on such a big piece that is still a rough draft? I wondered where she was going with the piece - which authors she read on a regular basis - and what kind of feedback she wanted from me. I left her a note to come to The Write Place to talk about her piece, and today she showed up.
She was nervous, swinging her foot rapidly as we began to talk. I asked her to tell me about herself as a writer and she apologetically recounted how she started out by "plagiarizing" other authors. That led to a discussion of the difference between plagiarizing and emulating. I told her about using books as mentor texts and inspiration which is very different from stealing an author's plotline. That seemed to calm her down. She told me that when she reads, she gets inspiration for new plots and characters. Once she started talking about her story, she seemed quite at ease.
The feedback that she wanted was an evaluation, really, of whether what she wrote was any good. I gave her lots of praise about the intricasies of her plot and the character relationships. I pulled out Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, Orson Card's Ender's Game and J.K Rowling's Chamber of Secrets and talked about how she might use her own mentor texts to create description and detail that would help the reader follow the story. (Her piece was filled with dialogue.) She said that she adds description when she types up her drafts. I don't know if I gave her enough, but I wanted her to think of this as a positive experience, so I'll just have to wait and see where this goes...
I encouraged her to come back with new sections or any other writing that she wanted to have feedback on - I also encouraged her to send her friends to The Write Place to talk about their writing.
She was nervous, swinging her foot rapidly as we began to talk. I asked her to tell me about herself as a writer and she apologetically recounted how she started out by "plagiarizing" other authors. That led to a discussion of the difference between plagiarizing and emulating. I told her about using books as mentor texts and inspiration which is very different from stealing an author's plotline. That seemed to calm her down. She told me that when she reads, she gets inspiration for new plots and characters. Once she started talking about her story, she seemed quite at ease.
The feedback that she wanted was an evaluation, really, of whether what she wrote was any good. I gave her lots of praise about the intricasies of her plot and the character relationships. I pulled out Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, Orson Card's Ender's Game and J.K Rowling's Chamber of Secrets and talked about how she might use her own mentor texts to create description and detail that would help the reader follow the story. (Her piece was filled with dialogue.) She said that she adds description when she types up her drafts. I don't know if I gave her enough, but I wanted her to think of this as a positive experience, so I'll just have to wait and see where this goes...
I encouraged her to come back with new sections or any other writing that she wanted to have feedback on - I also encouraged her to send her friends to The Write Place to talk about their writing.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
What's My Focus?
I guess January is made for reflection. The last two weeks I've been thinking about The Write Place and trying to really center my work as well as look ahead to possibilities. I'm in an awkward position since I'm funded by ARRA money and unless I can find a way to fund this Center next year, it will cease to exist in June. This is compounded by the fact that I need to establish the presence of the writing center in order to attract the attention of people who would see this as a viable funding opportunity. I've been in this position before, acting "as if" great things are already happening or building my bridge as I walk across it.
So, I drafted some possible options for 2nd semester and some thoughts about next year...I met with the principal and we narrowed my ideas down to another all-school write; work with the 9th grade teacher on preparing for the state writing test in April; and work with students preparing to enter the History Day competition this year. I also plan on hosting at least a couple of "Writing Excursions" for interested students.
Then, I met with others in a Writing Center Symposium format and started re-thinking my role once again...Is this writing center for the students or for the teachers? I want it to be for the students, but I am unsure how much summative writing is actually assigned, and I wonder if it is being assigned, do teachers understand the process approach to writing and how a writing center could be used by students to develop their final drafts? I'm only thinking this because in the 3 instances in which I have worked with teachers, I have not seen final products. In each case, I was asked to help develop and deliver the assignments but my work with students and their writing was minimal. Should I be visiting Professional Learning Communities here and give them a menu of possible writing topics I could explore with them? Or is that really branching away from my focus?
More later...
So, I drafted some possible options for 2nd semester and some thoughts about next year...I met with the principal and we narrowed my ideas down to another all-school write; work with the 9th grade teacher on preparing for the state writing test in April; and work with students preparing to enter the History Day competition this year. I also plan on hosting at least a couple of "Writing Excursions" for interested students.
Then, I met with others in a Writing Center Symposium format and started re-thinking my role once again...Is this writing center for the students or for the teachers? I want it to be for the students, but I am unsure how much summative writing is actually assigned, and I wonder if it is being assigned, do teachers understand the process approach to writing and how a writing center could be used by students to develop their final drafts? I'm only thinking this because in the 3 instances in which I have worked with teachers, I have not seen final products. In each case, I was asked to help develop and deliver the assignments but my work with students and their writing was minimal. Should I be visiting Professional Learning Communities here and give them a menu of possible writing topics I could explore with them? Or is that really branching away from my focus?
More later...
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Digital Poetry
It seems like awhile since I last posted but only because I haven't had the time...A 10th grade English teacher requested support for a concluding project for a recent poetry unit. The district curriculum called for a "chap-book" (ex. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse) format for the concluding piece in the unit, but because of a variety of circumstances, students had not written more than one or two poems which were in very rough draft form and this teacher needed to conclude the unit. It seemed to make sense to both of us to have students bring one of their drafts to a polished form and digitizing that piece seemed perfect. Although B. didn't feel he could carry that out on his own, I felt confident (over-confident?) that I could provide what was needed to help his students create some intriguing products.
Needless to say, with technology, it's one step forward, two steps back. While I smoothly went through the process using imovie and a student poem, my version of imovie was not the same as that at the school which created problems for me that I hadn't anticipated. While I had worked with both versions, I was not an expert at either. I was fortunate in having a tech friend support me through all the stages of our process and step in to help students when I was at a loss for what to do.
I will attach my powerpoint and samples but basically, students came to the lab on their first day with rather hastily created poems. It did concern me that we were creating final projects out of very rough or nonexistent 1st drafts, and I had to remind myself that my role was to help students digitize their writing as a second draft. What surprised me was how much that step contributed to the revision process. It forced students to look at their poetry in a new way - to look for images to fit with their thoughts and in the process, change their words to fit the images. As it turned out, students created many more drafts than they would have in a traditional assignment.
Our final step was supposed to be the addition of voice - students reading their poetry into the computer. Not having done this before, I was sure that the process was easy - I tried it myself, at home. What I didn't count on was the background noise in the lab and the softness of the students' voices. They needed to record with a microphone and in a quiet room. The majority did not want to have their voices attached to their poems. The pictures and words by themselves needed some kind of background sound so we gave students the option of downloading appropriate music without lyrics. Now the project seemed finished.
Frustrations about final editing were similar to working with traditional writing: spelling - getting students to edit their work; capitalization - following the rules or at least being consistent in not following them. I ended up telling students that if they were consciously breaking conventions that they needed to attach an author's statement explaining why they made the choices they did - otherwise, they would be graded according to traditional grammar and spelling rules. As you will see in the videos attached, it worked to a degree. If the class was my own, I would have required stricter editing. Oh, and I would have censored the "love" theme which comprised 90% of the finished work.
After working intensely with the 3 classes, I was motivated to experiment and create a family video combining music, words and photos which I gave to my family for Christmas. I am now anxious to go in another direction with digital writing and build on what I've learned.
Needless to say, with technology, it's one step forward, two steps back. While I smoothly went through the process using imovie and a student poem, my version of imovie was not the same as that at the school which created problems for me that I hadn't anticipated. While I had worked with both versions, I was not an expert at either. I was fortunate in having a tech friend support me through all the stages of our process and step in to help students when I was at a loss for what to do.
I will attach my powerpoint and samples but basically, students came to the lab on their first day with rather hastily created poems. It did concern me that we were creating final projects out of very rough or nonexistent 1st drafts, and I had to remind myself that my role was to help students digitize their writing as a second draft. What surprised me was how much that step contributed to the revision process. It forced students to look at their poetry in a new way - to look for images to fit with their thoughts and in the process, change their words to fit the images. As it turned out, students created many more drafts than they would have in a traditional assignment.
Our final step was supposed to be the addition of voice - students reading their poetry into the computer. Not having done this before, I was sure that the process was easy - I tried it myself, at home. What I didn't count on was the background noise in the lab and the softness of the students' voices. They needed to record with a microphone and in a quiet room. The majority did not want to have their voices attached to their poems. The pictures and words by themselves needed some kind of background sound so we gave students the option of downloading appropriate music without lyrics. Now the project seemed finished.
Frustrations about final editing were similar to working with traditional writing: spelling - getting students to edit their work; capitalization - following the rules or at least being consistent in not following them. I ended up telling students that if they were consciously breaking conventions that they needed to attach an author's statement explaining why they made the choices they did - otherwise, they would be graded according to traditional grammar and spelling rules. As you will see in the videos attached, it worked to a degree. If the class was my own, I would have required stricter editing. Oh, and I would have censored the "love" theme which comprised 90% of the finished work.
After working intensely with the 3 classes, I was motivated to experiment and create a family video combining music, words and photos which I gave to my family for Christmas. I am now anxious to go in another direction with digital writing and build on what I've learned.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Into the Classroom
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1D1HZ6LK3ZWMWEzYjVlOTAtOTQ3ZS00NjcxLWJjZmUtYTAxZTY4ODdiNDRj&hl=en
My sole purpose for this job is to get to the students - to create an interest in, if not a passion for expressing themselves through writing. After the all-school write, I didn't really have a plan for next steps. Lots of options but no plan.
So, when I entered The Write Place last week, I was surprised to find a social studies teacher waiting for me. I greeted him and he sort of sideways asked for support for his 7th grade students who were going to be writing historical letters situated in the period of The Civil War - in 5-paragraph essay form. And then he was gone! With that little bit of information, I began to think through how I would introduce this genre - definitely I would use a model of some sort. And I would ask students to identify the characteristics of the model letter. I also would want them to identify typical contents of the letters of the time. I dashed off these ideas to Mr. W. who responded enthusiastically and we negotiated a date when I could come into his classroom and work with students.
I began to do a little research on Civil War Letters and found some great websites. http://reflections.mndigital.org is a site that houses various types of MN historical artifacts including letters and diaries. I used letters written from White Bear Lake, Minnesota in the early 1900s to acquaint/remind students of the trivia included in personal letters. I also found a Civil War letters site that offered love letters from The Civil War as well as ordinary soldier's accounts of life on the front. (http://www.civilwarhome.com) Another valuable piece, in terms of letter writing is "Making Sense of Letters and Diaries" by Steven Stowe. From this source, I solidified my thinking on what I wanted students to look for in the models that I gave them. (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/letters/letters.pdf)
I ended up with a 6-slide Powerpoint presentation (attached) that I estimated would take about 45 minutes with an intro, student reading, and student writing sections.The lesson went reasonably well - it is always difficult to step cold into the middle of someone else's unit. The students were fantastic. Glitsch's: 1) wrong adapter for my computer (it's probably still on my LCD at home) - no problem because I emailed the pres. to the instructor who brought it up on the SmartBoard. 2) Inadequate space to record student thinking - should have anticipated this one - will bring chart paper next time - ended up using a corner of the whiteboard that the instructor erased immediately at the end of the lesson. 3) Disconnect between what the instructor wanted students to write and what it means to write an historical letter. The 5-paragraph essay with an adequate introduction is not the same as an historical letter. I offered to come back another time to talk about essays and support them.
It would be great to follow-up this lesson with students - When they left class today, most knew their role; some had decided on their audience (who they were writing to); most had 3 historical facts to include in their letters; I'm not sure if they saw the need to include mundane details in order to make the letter seem real, and I'm definitely not sure how they will include an "introduction" at the beginning of the letter as Mr. W. is requiring.The student teacher explained that the introduction would summarize what they were going to be talking about in their letters - Who does that? She also gave them the word of the day, Epistle, pronouncing it E-pistol "not to be confused with guns." She suggested that the letters they were writing would be "E-pistols," Hmmmm.
I'm anxious to find out how the next hour went. Mr. W. felt he could handle that one alone.
I know the PowerPoint attachment is not showing up correctly - 1/2 the words missing - How can I fix this ?
My sole purpose for this job is to get to the students - to create an interest in, if not a passion for expressing themselves through writing. After the all-school write, I didn't really have a plan for next steps. Lots of options but no plan.
So, when I entered The Write Place last week, I was surprised to find a social studies teacher waiting for me. I greeted him and he sort of sideways asked for support for his 7th grade students who were going to be writing historical letters situated in the period of The Civil War - in 5-paragraph essay form. And then he was gone! With that little bit of information, I began to think through how I would introduce this genre - definitely I would use a model of some sort. And I would ask students to identify the characteristics of the model letter. I also would want them to identify typical contents of the letters of the time. I dashed off these ideas to Mr. W. who responded enthusiastically and we negotiated a date when I could come into his classroom and work with students.
I began to do a little research on Civil War Letters and found some great websites. http://reflections.mndigital.org is a site that houses various types of MN historical artifacts including letters and diaries. I used letters written from White Bear Lake, Minnesota in the early 1900s to acquaint/remind students of the trivia included in personal letters. I also found a Civil War letters site that offered love letters from The Civil War as well as ordinary soldier's accounts of life on the front. (http://www.civilwarhome.com) Another valuable piece, in terms of letter writing is "Making Sense of Letters and Diaries" by Steven Stowe. From this source, I solidified my thinking on what I wanted students to look for in the models that I gave them. (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/letters/letters.pdf)
I ended up with a 6-slide Powerpoint presentation (attached) that I estimated would take about 45 minutes with an intro, student reading, and student writing sections.The lesson went reasonably well - it is always difficult to step cold into the middle of someone else's unit. The students were fantastic. Glitsch's: 1) wrong adapter for my computer (it's probably still on my LCD at home) - no problem because I emailed the pres. to the instructor who brought it up on the SmartBoard. 2) Inadequate space to record student thinking - should have anticipated this one - will bring chart paper next time - ended up using a corner of the whiteboard that the instructor erased immediately at the end of the lesson. 3) Disconnect between what the instructor wanted students to write and what it means to write an historical letter. The 5-paragraph essay with an adequate introduction is not the same as an historical letter. I offered to come back another time to talk about essays and support them.
It would be great to follow-up this lesson with students - When they left class today, most knew their role; some had decided on their audience (who they were writing to); most had 3 historical facts to include in their letters; I'm not sure if they saw the need to include mundane details in order to make the letter seem real, and I'm definitely not sure how they will include an "introduction" at the beginning of the letter as Mr. W. is requiring.The student teacher explained that the introduction would summarize what they were going to be talking about in their letters - Who does that? She also gave them the word of the day, Epistle, pronouncing it E-pistol "not to be confused with guns." She suggested that the letters they were writing would be "E-pistols," Hmmmm.
I'm anxious to find out how the next hour went. Mr. W. felt he could handle that one alone.
I know the PowerPoint attachment is not showing up correctly - 1/2 the words missing - How can I fix this ?
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