Writing Across the Curriculum Conference
Saturday, October 17, 2015
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!
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:
Thursday, October 1, 2015
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
Sunday, September 27, 2015
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
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
Friday, September 25, 2015
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.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
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
Opening Moment: Meditation
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
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