Considering Feedback....

Now that you are in the process of working towards that final piece, what has been helpful to you in terms of feedback? In my conference with Ronnie, she asked me to give her "constructive criticism" instead of just telling her how wonderful her words were. I hope I was able to do both! We need to consider these words and the feedback that was most helpful when we are conferring with our students. It is walking that fine line between everything being wonderful in the name of high self-esteem combined with the rigor involved in asking them to be all they can be as writers. We are here to encourage and to teach. Our job is to know and "read" our students in terms of where they are in their processes. How much baggage is our own when it comes to asking our students to take that next risk? This is one of the most difficult and yet one of the most powerful things we do as writing teachers. How did you feel being on the other end?

Conferring

As I read your posts it seems clear that a conversation about your writing would be helpful. Find a friend or colleague to confer with. When you get together be prepared with questions for each other about your writing and your writing process. Please list the questions you had for your partner and how the conference went for you. What was helpful? What was strange? What was scary? What felt good?

Noticing...

As you are working on your writing, what are you noticing about yourself as a writer? Is there that inner critic sitting on your shoulder, questioning every word and phrase? If so then tell it to take a hike! Trust yourself and have some fun with this! Remember, if you are stuck then look to a mentor text to help guide you along.
We are doing this to become better teachers of writing. Our purpose here is to look at ourselves as writers, think about the process and what it is like. Through this we will become better writing teachers because we more clearly understand the process of writing. So, as the writer you are today, what are you noticing?

Time to Think!

This week all I am asking you to do is to keep thinking about writing! There is no need to respond this week unless you are so moved! I know it has been crazy for all of you and so...be looking towards next week when I will be asking you about your thinking! Keep breathing!

Envisioning...

Many of your wonderings seem to be around the idea of creating a piece of writing. What kind of writing piece do you envision that you want to write? What are the possiblities that you see as you begin to practice reading like a writer on your own and with your students? Think about the Seven Stories of your summer. Is there something from there that you can envision as a piece? What kind of piece? A poem? An essay? A short story? An article? What about your work with your reading and writing history as demonstrated to our class? What are the stories that were found in your Bio Book Bags? Each of you had stories for many of your pieces. How can you envision those stories? Remember, that often talking a story through is the beginning of writing that story. This is all a part of the process of writing. I believe we "write" all of the time. When we are driving and thinking about our piece..this is a part of writing.
"Our goal in this teaching was to help the students take the material they had gathered around their seed ideas and read like writers to find possiblities for how they might draft those ideas and write well. We wanted them to be able to envision doing many different kids of texts with a single idea, to know that they didn't have to be limited to just "telling about" their idea in a draft." Katie Wood Ray pp. 52
Let's go beyond "just telling" by envisioning your peice in as many different ways as you can! Have some fun with this!

Wondering.....

What are you wondering about? What are some of the questions that you have in relationship to our work together, our classes, your teaching, your own writing, the reading, mentor authors etc.? Take a moment to explore what it is you are most curious about right now...

Favorite Authors

Who are some of your favorite children's authors? What is your all time favorite? Get to know that author more intimately so that we can get to "Know a few authors well", as Katie Wood Ray talks about. Who will be that author that you can quote inside and out? What can you discover about this author's craft that makes them unique? Let's begin this process together, realizing that as we get to really know these authors we are planning for infinite teaching situations ahead! You never know when you might need Patricial Polacco's help through a lesson!
And yes, Patricia Polacco would be one of my all time favorites because of the way that she structures each of her texts. But the one text that I know the best and that I use over and over is a book called Emma by Lisa Say. I love this book because of it's rich illustrations and how it allows you to get to know the character, even though she never says a word. I love how this author creates a story that forces it's readers to wonder, think and feel with and for the characters. I have used this book to teach questioning, inferring, connections, sensory images, writer's craft and more. It is because I know this story so well that I can use it well. It is not about getting to know a million different stories on the surface, but going deep with one that you love that you can have by your side as you teach everyday! As we want our students to live with a stack of their mentors on their desks, you too need to have yours!! draft

Strong Leads...

"I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine's father over the top of the Standard Oil sign. I'm not lying. He got stuck up there. About nineteen people congregated during the time it took for Norman Strick to walk up to the Courthouse and blow the whistle for the volunteer fire department. They eventually did come with the ladder and haul him down, and he wasn't dead but lost his hearing and in many other ways was never the same afterward. They said he overfilled the tire." The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver.
I just LOVE this lead. This is the very first paragraph of this novel and instantly I am engaged and wanting to read more. From the language we get a sense of place, somewhere pretty remote with only a volunteer fire department and I am thinking somewhere down south. The imagery of the man being thrown through the air and hanging in limbo while everyone gathers and watches is so small town. This is the event of the year that everyone will be talking about. Then there is the humor of the fact that he was trying to blow up a tire. It makes me wonder...was he filling his own tire or was he the gas station attendant? Either way, it just seems so UNbelievable that it is believable!! This kind of good writing gives SO much information without giving it. That is what good writing is! It SHOWS us the situation instead of telling us about it. I am right there, in the crowd staring up in disbelief, putting us right in the middle of the action, if you will. It starts us out right in the middle of this scene without any lead up to it, but it works and it works well.

What makes a good lead or beginning? What makes us want to read on? Find an example of a good lead and post it as I have with your thoughts about what makes it a good lead. This can be from any source, a book, a newspaper article, a magazine...what makes you, the reader, want to read on? Look at it with the eyes of a writer and delve into it to discover as you read like a writer, what this writer did to win you over!

What are words to you?

I LOVED reading all of your stories and comments and thoughts about who you are as readers and writers. I have learned so much about you and as some of you commented, there was this sense of connection amongst us all that brings us together in terms of our histories or where we are currently.
This week I am going to ask you to think about just words. So, what are words to you? What are some of your favorite words? What is your relationship with words? One of my favorite words is succulent. I love the way it sounds just like what it is. It brings a strong image to my mind and it almost makes my mouth water. My relationship with words is very volatile as words are my greatest pleasure and my worst nightmare. Have you ever found yourself in that position where you want to say something, but just can't find the right words? I hate that!! I have posted a photo of a perfect summer evening because as many times as I have tried to capture this moment in words, it falls completely flat. Why is it that words cannot do this moment justice? Or is it that I just have not found the right words? Of course, without words we would be lost, and I wish I could say that I am always learning new words, but the truth is that I am not. I almost feel embarrassed when someone uses a word that I am not familiar with. I always feel that I "should" know what it means. And as I sneak away to my dictionary on the sly to find it, I realize that it often is not a word I would want anyway. Other times that is not the case and I work to meld it into my everyday thoughts. So, what are words to you? Do you think about words and how you say things to others? Do you find your plethora (great word meaning overabundance ) of words to be adequate or are you searching for something more? Do you celebrate words in your classrooms with your students? Tell us all about YOUR relationship with words!

Beginning Thoughts.....

Hello Everyone and Welcome!
Here is our own place to write, reflect, chat, and think about our teaching and how who we are impacts who we are as teachers. Thank you all for being so brave as to try this out with me! I am so excited to see what this brings in terms of continuing our conversations outside of class! I will post something once a week and would ask that you respond once a week as well.
I chose this name as a metaphor for us to write and follow our thoughts as they wind around, take side trips, overflow, dry up, are replenished again and flow into the sea of literacy! How was that for profound?
This week I am thinking about who I am as a writer and a reader. Where did I come from in terms of my own literacy? What is my history as a reader and a writer?
I was not a reader when I was little. My sister was not only the avid reader of the ENTIRE Nancy Drew set, but also quickly followed in my father and my grandfather's footsteps as the writer of the family! As the second child, well, let's just say there was no way to compete. She was already publishing stories as Christmas presents for the family before I was even beginning to write in cursive! I went through much of my childhood not understanding what I read, although I did get all A's on every report card. I was your classic word caller who loved phonics because I could and did read with great inflection and expression. The only problem is that I never actually thought about what I was reading!!
In terms of writing, again, coming from a long line of writers I was intimidated and when I finally did write something I recieved so much praise that it was embarrassing. Shameful too because along with that praise was the dark secret that I had stolen the idea from a wordless picture book! I wrote the reverse story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears where the bears do all the visiting. My Grandfather was SO enamoured with my story he HAD to talk about it every time we saw him. Little did he know that each time he talked about this I was sure someone was going to discover that the idea had not been mine at all!! If I only knew then what I knew now. All writers get their ideas from somewhere! Katie Wood Ray recommends that we should all write with a stack of our favorite writing mentors on our desk next to us to remind us what good writers do!! It was a very long time before I wrote again, and nobody ever did discover me...either that or they just never told me!!
So who are you as a reader? A writer? What are some stories or thoughts about your reading and writing history? What has shaped you into the literate person that YOU are today?