Thank you

As I drove home today I was mindful of the beautiful day it was :)
But I was also very aware of how truly honored and blessed I was to
have been in your presence during this institute.
You all allowed me to share my voice and you encouraged
me to write using it.
For that gift I thank you. But more importantly I thank you
for your friendship and unconditional acceptance.

I wish for you all a wonderful rest of your fall and school year.
I hope we cross paths again and in the mean time enjoy the poetic words
of a favorite song that seems appropriate:

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung,
Would you hear my voice come through the music?
Would you hold it near as it were your own?
Writer(s): Jerome J. Garcia, Robert C. Hunter

Keep on writing!
Mary

For the memories....

MIndfulness at Chewonki

Here is the link for the workshop at Chewonki

http://www.chewonki.org/workshops/mindful_education.asp

Mindfulness questionairre

Last Day To-Do's

Please complete the three tasks on this to do list.  I've kept the portfolio links from the summer, so if you simply added your fall pieces to you summer portfolio, then you don't need to update your link.  If you made a new portfolio for fall, please update the link.

Saturday, October 17

Blogging the Day: October 17

Opening Moment: https://youtu.be/dkHqPFbxmOU

Lorry started the day with her presentation: Teaching Writing Through Literature. She started by having the class read Alice Walker's Feminist Prose: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens and highlight or underline an important passage. She called a small group into a circle to model what she would do in her classroom. Each "student" read aloud their passage, and then afterwards everyone went back and explained why they chose it. This was known as "The Quiet Circle of Voices." Then, the group revisited the passage to look at the author's element of style using the writer's toolbox. Finally, there was a discussion about how the meaning of the piece was enhanced by style.

Margi presented next: Writing About Informational Text. Not only did we learn all kinds of fun facts about owls, but we learned to be mindful about choosing nonfiction texts to read with our students. Margi discussed ways to help students picture images while reading, how to help them navigate material on the page, how to take notes and find key information, and she gave us time to practice all of these strategies. We categorized; we acted; we made predictions; and we learned how to have fun with informational texts in the classroom.

Kerstin and Kelli presented about Writing Across the Curriculum. They showed a video where they interviewed their staff about their prior experiences with writing, and then they reviewed common grading strategies as well as writing strategies to use in every classroom. Erin and Stephen shared an introduction to the Lucy Calkins' Writing Program that they plan to present at their school this year. 

Mary presented about the importance of mindfulness in the classroom. Her research did not have the results that she'd hoped it would, but this could have been because of emojis. She talked about the procedure of mindfulness in her classroom: quiet chime, gentle neck rolls, and other relaxation techniques were used before writing time. She explained that hesitant students started to look forward to this time in her classroom, which was validation enough to continue the practice in her classroom and to promote it for others.

Kate presented about pre-writing exercises for the college essays and whether or not this helped students. Unfortunately, she missed many classes with her group and by the time they returned to her, they had already completed the essay. Her results were inconclusive, but she explained that she wants to continue pre-writing exercises and also to communicate with teachers about what they are doing for college essay prep in their own classrooms.

Closing Moment: Kahlil Gibran's "On Teaching"

True Facts About the Owl!

I was thinking of this video all day last Saturday after reading the awesome book Margi shared about owls.

Writing Across the Curriculum Conference

Write Here Write Now

Writing Group

     Come experience SMWP's monthly writing group this Monday, October 19,  at McAuley High School beginning at 4:00.  We typically write for 45 minutes.  Leah offers a prompt which you can choose to use or not and then some folks, or everyone, will share.  Enjoy the camaraderie and debunk the myth that writing is a solitary occupation!
     McAuley High School is located on 631 Stevens Avenue.  Feel free to text or call Rebecca when you get there.  Her cell is:  332-1627.
     Hope to see you there!

Writing Through Reading

Lesson Objective:

Teaching Writing through Literature

Focus Piece: Feminist Prose: In Search of our Mothers’ Gardens, “When the Other Dancer is the Self”,  Alice Walker

Objectives: How does Form compliment Content and vice versa?

         How to teach writing through literature.

To use personal essay to instruct, model and promote writing in an Upper School classroom.

To introduce the elements of style in a “Writer’s Tool Box” that can become the foundation for designing a personal essay.

To teach annotation of writing elements.

To promote the use of the elements of style within the students’ writing.

Goals:

Over the course of time, students will begin to build a portfolio of personal anecdotes that will be the foundation for personal essay work.

Plan:

Students are assigned the reading of the essay.

They are instructed to hi-lite and look up the definitions to unfamiliar vocabulary words.

Hi-lite passages, sentences that effective, interesting, well-crafted, confusing.

Come to class prepared to share a single sentence, phrase, passage.

In-class instruction:

Quiet Circle of voices: Going around the room, students read the selection from the essay. Students intentionally repeat any selection that has already been shared. No comments or analysis.

Discuss the selections:

Why did you choose your selection?

What repetition/pattern did you hear from your classmates? Why?

On Board: How does form (style) compliment content and vice versa?

What specific elements of style are contained within the selections you made?

Other places in the essay?

Writing Tools:

narrative voice            sentence pace                  language (vocabulary/diction)

        

use of verbs/adjectives                           dialogue

sentence construction                  anecdote                  verb tense

         italics                              poetry          circular writing                        metaphor

Periodic sentences

simile                                    tone                           mood

other

Discussion:

How is the meaning enhanced by the style? Where? With what?

Annotating a passage on the board:

I am in shock. First there is intense fever, which my father tries to break using lily leaves bound around my head. Then there are chills; my mother tries to get me to eat soup. Eventually, I do not know how, my parents learn what has happened. A week after the “accident” they take me to see a doctor. “Why did you wait so long to come?” he asks, looking into my eye and shaking his head. “Eyes are sympathetic,” he says, “If one is blind, the other will likely become blind too.”

Writing Exercises:

1. Complete the following sentence and write a paragraph that captures a moment in time of this age:

                                    “I am ________________ years old…”

2. Look closely in a mirror at your face. Create a list of words that details what you see: use color, texture, mood words.

3. Create a conversation between you and a member of your family that best embodies your relationship.

4. Write a poem that expresses a question you hold in your heart about yourself.

5. Define your other self: an ambition, fear, passion, question that is hidden from sight.

6. I remember a time…

                        a place....

7. I do not remember…

8. A time when you were silent.

9. A time when you were silenced.

Re-seeing:

Now the work of revision begins. Open your tool box.

What specific writing tools did you use in your piece?

How do your tools reflect the mood and message of your piece?

What is necessary? What can you delete?

Where are you going?

These review questions vary depending on the genre of the essay: descriptive, argument/persuasion, metaphor.

Peer Review Narrative Essay

Please answer the following questions in complete sentences. Use the text for specific examples.

1.    Read the opening lines of the essay. How has the writer drawn the reader into the work? What voice is used in these first lines? Does the essay begin in a narrative voice?

2.    Consider the use of anecdote in this essay? How/where does the author use this tool to develop the intention of the essay? How effective is the anecdote in supporting the intention.

3.    What is the mood of this essay? Where is it most effectively developed? How?

4.    Has the author considered verbs and verb tense? How and to what effect?

5.    Has the author used descriptive language to show the intention of the essay? Where and why?

6.    Has the author considered sentence pace? To what effect?

7.    Hi-lite metaphor, imagery, language that supports the intention of the essay.

8.    Has the author considered audience? How?

9.    Annotate a specific passage in the essay for the writing tools within.

10.  Does author successfully weave the intention of the essay throughout the text? In one sentence, complete this statement:

This essay is about…

11. What suggestions do you have for the author to direct his/her re-seeing work?

Other:

        

Beauty with a Capital B

Trying to keep the door open to writing:

Beauty with a capital B

So full and round with your

Soft mewing and articulate consonance

As if uttering your essence with great reverence

Willing

Being

Into

Day

            When the light from the sky

Darkens with its own solemn call

And mornings hold the sound of owls

Long past the hour of rising

            We reach

For the paling repetition

Of color

Falling petals

from unopened buds

To gather into the earth,

Our hearts

            For Beauty

September 26, 1015

We returned to Bailey Hall for a day of presentations and a book discussion.  Here is the link to the video from S7 Airlines that I used on my opening moment on imagination and naivete.

Mary Lou started off the day with her presentation on Our Youngest Writers-Where Do We Start?
She walked us through the process of  how she  helps guide kindergarteners through the writing process by  generating their very own book.  First she helped us get into the mindset of  our youngest writers by providing us with props that helped us to understand the constraints, both cognitive and physical, of these very young writers.  With or without our props (Coke-bottle glasses, gloves of varying thickness, mittens and a giant pencil,) we were assigned the task of  copying the sentence, "I love my dad," writing with our non-dominant hand and with the wrong end of our crayons, reproducing the sentence using the opposite end of the alphabet.  We struggled, complained, discussed strategies and  downright shut down, just as might happen to kindergarteners in the classroom.  She then walked us through the process of writing a book.  She focused on 8 Kindergarten Mini-Lessons (see below Mary Lou's post) and by the end of her presentation we learned a lot more about our youngest learners and their challenges with a hands-on illustration of many of her mini-lessons and analysis of sample books.  Thank you, Mary Lou for a thought-provoking and fun presentation.  I understand you had been sick all week with bronchitis and this took some cognitive and physical effort on your part to present on this Saturday.

Ben followed with his presentation entitled, Wanna Argue About It?  Ben's presentation was on his instruction of rhetoric with multimedia in his high school classroom.  He began by helping us to understand our everyday use of arguments and why it is so important that all students-AP and otherwise, understand rhetoric.  He showed us Joliffe's Rhetorical Analysis Framework Design, as the basis for his instruction and how his students come to understand and recognize each component as they analyze rhetorical writing. He underscored and illustrated the meaning of syntax with his "I NEVER SAID HE HE HIT HIS WIFE, demo.  He then showed us Mary Ewald's letter and how his students learn that rhetorical writing can mean life and death.  We then were presented with various print media ads and in small groups, analyzed them for ethos, logos, etc.  Both print ads and video ads were shown and discussed and we were given a great basis of rhetoric and examples of projects on balanced letters, photo analysis (Ben's FaceBook page), the creation of PSA ad which the students produce before they ever write their first rhetorical analysis essay.  Thank you Ben for showing us the importance of rhetorical writing and your innovative and engaging multi-media approach.

Sue Van Wyck
Sept 26 Host

Kindergarten Writing Mini-Lessons

 Kindergarten Writing Mini-Lessons

 by Mary Lou Shuster

Here is the link for the individual mini-lessons presented during my workshop.

 Kindergarten Mini-Lessons for Writing Workshop

Welcome Back!  We began the day catching up with friends on summer fun, discussing the heat and humidity as we all headed back to school, and eating the variety of breakfast items and snacks provided by this weeks hosts, Diane and Ben.

Opening Moment: Meditation

Life in a Pond

You find yourself sitting in the middle of a huge lily pad.  It is early morning and the frogs are still singing.  There are dozens of water lily buds standing proudly.  As you look over the edge of your lily pad you see lots of small fishes swimming around.  When they see your shadow, they dive deep into the pond. The sun strikes the water and  you watch dozens of pink water lilies open and greet the day.

As you watch the petals unfold, you feel your heart open and fill with love.  You take a deep breath and watch as dragonflies drift by, just touching the surface of the water.  You watch water spiders dart around, seemingly walking on the water.  You are fascinate with all the different life forms that inhabit the pond.

As you watch in awe, you realize you are no longer sitting on the lily pad.  you are standing beside the pond and you smile at the gift you have just been given.

"And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."  Marianne Williamson

Team Building

Pass the bean bag Name Game
Rock Paper Scissors Shoot

Writing Time

Thought you might enjoy. Very endearing. A tribute to the late, great Walter Dean Myers - http://www.cbcdiversity.com/post/123370330093/andrea-davis-pinkney-is-the-new-york-times

Portfolio Share

What a memorable experience!  The oral readings to the computer-based readings, looking at the diversity of work and thinking is splendid!
Even reading all the entries, knowing the people and what they've shared over the past week, brings the writing to life in magical ways.  To see pieces grow from infancy to maturing, reflections the desire and passion of everyone aspiring to write.
Well done work by all.
A pleasure to be amongst such incredible talent

Closing Moment on Closing Day

Naomi Shihab Nye

Shared a poem at the Boothbay Literacy Retreat offered by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst (Heinemann).  

This a chinese student who attended a school specifically designed to send Chinese students to Universities in English Speaking countries.

The poem was submitted and taken for "Flow."  This is a trifold placard (menu) that is given to patient's during hospital stays.  Some read these poems as the are patient's patiently waiting for food and their hospital stay to end.

The poem, the first one, is her first ever written in English.

 I use this poem as a reminder, that as well all depart ISFI for the summer, wondering if we may ever be published, just look around, your opportunity awaits you!

Please enjoy!

 http://www.poetryireland.ie/content/files/Menu_of_Poems.pdf

 

 

Kara reading "with passion"!

Many people asked to have a copy of this video of my friend's granddaughter reading her picture book. At the young age of 13 months, she demonstrates that if you read to children as soon as possible they do pick up on the Concepts of Print - i.e. books carry meaning, in order to read a book you turn the pages from left to right, your voice carries inflection as you read, a book is read from top to bottom and front to back. So many of our kindergarten students do not enter school with basic skills because they are not read to on a daily basis.

Kara reading "with passion"!

What to do with SMWP! (After the Institute)

Young Authors Camp
* one week camp (16-20 hrs)
* 8 Students minimum
* Writing marathon done with kids!
* Closing & Opening moments
*  Not just for struggling writers, open to all!!
* USM & SMWP does alot of the leg work for you.

Nurturing Self as a Writer
* Burnt Island Writing Retreat, Aug 4-6
* Chance to write alot, relax, be with like minded people, become one with nature.
* Chance to come up with ideas talking with other writers and teachers, over dinner and Bocce.
* $350 for three days (included a place to sleep & food. Unless you want to sleep in your car?)
* There is an octagonal table!

*Monthly Writing Group
*Meets a few times over the year, tries to be once a month.
*Opportunity to share the variety of writing.


Continued Professional Groups 
* Sharing work with others, spreading the SMWP "way"
* Building capacity for writing instruction
* What's not done that you can make possible!
* Chance to represent your school; show off your institute work.
* Conferences, mainly TC people, very positive.
* Modest stipend for offer workshops at places, institute facilitators, if asked.
* USM/SMWP there to back you for some entrepreneurship's?

* Study Groups, TC's can take the lead (empowerment) to answer questions, institute practice.
* Grass roots initiatives.

Check your e-mail.  Group e-mails will becoming!!

Saying good bye to writing time.

Can you tell we are all thinking about 12:15?
No, not lunch time... but the portfolio share.  Writing time has become an exciting dash of urgency as we try to make sure links work, presentation appeal is present, and the writing is enjoyed by all.
Good Luck everyone. Enjoy the ride!