Virtually, I zoomed to the upper west side of Manhattan and learned from smart educators yesterday morning. First, Amanda reminded me of the importance of using identity webs with my read-alouds all year long. Next, Katie showed me how to have a middle school morning meeting with a greeting, a share and news, all in 5-minutes. (This can be a routine to add at the beginning of my MS block – duh!). Danny next shared tips specific to supporting kids with IEPs. I found this so helpful as this group has been part of my personal inquiry as a teacher researcher this year. Heather shared test prep tips, perfect timing as that starts for me after spring break. Then Brooke shared coaching tips. And I ended with the amazing Mary. She showed pages from her writing notebook which she decribed as more of a scrapbook.
“The hardest part of writing is getting started. Kids need to know this and they need to be shown generating ideas.” Then she shared this page from her notebook/scrapbook as three generating idea strategies to show to a writer struggling to start:
The middle strategy is First TIme / Last Time. As I wondered about what to write today, day 17 of this writing challenge, I thought about the first time I attended the TCRWP Reunion Saturday in March. I looked back and I first blogged about a March Reunion here on March 9, 2013. Eleven years ago.
That March, I bravely trained to NYC and took a seat at the crowded Riverside Church to listen to author, Katherine Paterson during the opening Keynote. Then I trekked across Broadway to enter the Teachers College buildings to learn that day from Carl, Mary and Cornelius.
I ended that blog post with this line: “I can’t wait to return to NYC and continue to learn from the smart educators at Teachers College.” Today, I am grateful for the opportunity to spend my Saturday morning virtually learning from the rebranded Advancing Literacies, Teachers College, Columbia University. I gathered my learning onto this padlet. I look forward to learning from them again, come October and again next March. Such smart educators!
I love attending author events. I go to them at bookstores….like here (Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram Kendi) and here (Kwame) I go to them at Convention Centers….like here. (The National Book Festival) I go them at National Conferences…like here (NCTE2019).
But best of all, I love planning them for my school….like here (for More Than a March) and here (Margaret Paterson Haddix)and here (Nic Stone).
Thanks to our school librarian who worked to raise money through a bookfair, my school is hosting Amina Luqman-Dawson, 2023 Newbery winning author for her debut novel, Freewater.
Another thing I love is preparing the students for an author visit. I hang signs up around the school to start creating a buzz. Then I plan lessons for teachers to use to introduce them to the author and the novel.
In preparation for our event in a few weeks, I spent time this weekend recording myself reading aloud chapters of her book. I also created this padlet of activies using her website.
I do think of children’s literature authors as “rock stars” and I am super excited this month to use the padlet and the slides to help get our middle schoolers ready to meet Amina on March 19th. (stop back here on the 20th to read about how the event went!)
FUN FACT: Amina lives in our community in Arlington, VA. It will be super fun to host a hometime author!!
Last week, I was asked to work with an 8th grade boy. During November, his classmates and he were writing stories as part of National November Writing Month, AKA NaNowWriMo. I sat down next ot him and asked him to first read his story to me. Once he finished, I explained, “You’re the kind of writer who doesn’t use very much punctuation as you draft. However, as you just now read your story to me, I heard you pause. At those moments, that’s where the punctuation can be added. May I help you reread it again and add punctuation? It will help a reader to know when to stop and pause,” I ask.
His eyes moved from his iPad and looked right at me. A smile formed and he agreed. For the next 20 minutes, he reread his story. At the pauses, I showed him how to type a period or a question mark. Then I showed him how to use the shirf key plus a letter to ensure the next word, after the end punctuation, begins with a capital letter. Once he suggested adding an exclamation point and I agreed. It was a statement that needed an extra umph! After reading the last line, without prompting, he exclaimed, “Thank you so much.”
“My pleasure. Now a reader of your story will knows exactly how to read it because you are the kind of writer who edits for punctuation!” I told him proudly.
Today, I helped an 8th grade girl. Just prior, the classroom teacher was offering some tips to the whole class. One was to reread your story and if you see the word “and”, consider turning that long sentence into two shorter sentences. This teacher also mentioned how the first thing to do today was to read the comments that she added to each person’s story. When I sat down, I dutifully asked this student to show me her comments from her teacher. Typed into the small box, to the right of her document draft ,was the tip the teacher had just orally explained about eliminating “and”.
“May I help you to turn that long sentence where you used “and” into two shorter ones?” I ask.
This student also lifted her eyes from her electronic document and smiled. For the next 15 minutes, she read her story sentences to me. Each time “and” was found, I simply verbally reminded her that just before the “and”, she could end the sentence with punctuation. Then I whispered, “Now delete the word “and”. Now make the first letter of the next word begin with a capital letter.” Having my voice supporting her allowed her to successfully turn the teacher’s tip into a reality. As I got up to leave, I mentioned to the teacher, “She’s now the kind of writer who doesn’t write really long sentences with an “and” in the middle.” As I shared this news, the student had the biggest smile on her face.
These two experiences remind me of the importance of teaching writing. A student can write. A student can hear tips. But having a teacher pull up beside a student and ask if they can help edit a story is the best. Whispering in after a student writer drafts is one of my favorite tasks as a teacher!
I attended the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy from last Sunday to this past Saturday held in Washington, DC at the MLK library. The co-leaders, Dr. Sonya Cherry-Paul and Tricia Ebarvia, shared their briliiance through the lens of Reading for Freedom for 3 days and the lens of Writing for Freedom for 3 days, with a special event on Wed. evening. They arranged for authors, Jason Reynolds and Carole Lindstrom, to be on an author panel and then the authors signed free books for audience participants. It was an informative week of learning, plus LOTS of extras rolled in to celebrate joy.
I am still processing all I experienced and today will share just one favorite small activity which Tricia call “Interview Questions”.
I’m used to the ice breaker, “Find Someone Who…” game, often played at the start of the school year. One purpose of this Interview Question game was similar, to get to know those in the room. But the rules were different. First, I was given a piece of paper. On one side was a list of 43 questions. On the other side, was a 2-column chart with the headers, Name and Response.
Some questions were pretty straightforward: #7 How do you sepnd a typical Saturday? #19 What is your favorite flavor of ice cream or sorbet? #40 Do you prefer to sing or dance? Other questions required more thinking: #2: What is one goal for the new school year? #9: If you were given the power, what is one law you would create for the country? #24: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
Then each person in the room was given a number. I got #21. My job then was to go around the room and ask everyone question #21 from the sheet which read: If you could live in any other historical time period, what would it be and why? (Frankly, I was glad to be asking this questions because right off the bat, I wasn’t sure what my answer would be!)
My task was to record each person’s name and their answer on the 2-column chart. And also to listen and answer all the questions asked of me by others participating in this activity. We did this for about 10 minutes and I met and recorded the answers of 17 people. I recall sharing The Brady Bunch (fav. TV show as a kid), chocolate chip ice cream from Baskin Robins (fav flavor), St. Patrick’s Day (fav. holiday) and Spring (fav. season).
Then, everyone was told to stop, tally the data collected and create a visual representation of it. Blank paper and markers were on the tables. As I looked at all the replies given to me, seven picked the 1960s. five picked the Harlem Renaissance and 2 picked the 1400s, one to live in the Americas and one to live as a Mayan. Because I had dates, I chose to display my data on a timeline. It looked like this:
Other visual representations looked like this:
As the institute day went on, I was asked to star 3-4 interview questions whose answer reveals something about my indentity and circle 3-4 questions that do not. Then I was asked to pick a question and flash draft an answer in my writing notebook. And I was asked to repeat this three times.
The reasons I like this activity:
I found it fascinating asking everyone the same question. Many people chose the Harlem Renaisance but their reasons varied (art, music, vibe). Many chose the 1960s. One said “to be part of the change” and another “to be with my people”. Because I listened to each person tell me why, I heard a story and realized my brain was easily remembering each person’s name who spoke with me. In Find Someone Who, I would tend to tell another “I can sign this box on your sheet” and then I’d add my own name and I may not have taken time to share a story. In contract, limited brain connections were made and I rarely recalled people’s names when playing that game.
I loved using the data to create!! I had fun making my timeline and looking at others’ bar graphs and pie charts. Creating is fun!
Havng a long list of questions, some easier that others, is very useful when drafting in writing workshop. The long list provided choice and the variety of question types acted as a natural differentiation tool.
I look forward to using this activity with my staff and with groups of students.
And I look forward to IREL24 next summer in DC as I will attend again!! I’m spoiled because it is just a metro ride away from my home so no hotel cost is required. I so enjoyed learning from fellow participants from the DC area, California, NY, MA, Maine and many more places! Due to the DC Library Foundation funding, the cost was not too high for a week-long conference and I came home with seven free, really great new books for my classroom library. This is just a small glimpse into one day during the Writing for Freedom portion of the institute. I encourage you to consider attending next year.
NOTE: The co-leader, Tricia Ebarvia has a new PD book coming out in October called Get Free: Anti-bias Literact Instructions for Stronger Readers, Writers and Thinkers, published by Corwin. She shared with me it is 6 chapters long so I plan to use it in a staff book club, a chapter a month from January – June, 2024!
After writing every day in March and showing up for three Tuesdays, I skipped two. But I will attempt to get back at it today. Another thing I skipped for a while was monthly documenting my literacy life. I did it each month for the past two years and then September to December. And then skipped a few. Last week, to prep for hosting a consultant, I cleaned up my classroom and took time to make this to hang on my door – a March and April Literacy Life sign:
March of course was FILLED with LOTS of writing. I also viewed a few movies, thanks to that trip to Amsterdam. I can never sleep much on an airplane so I filled my time with movies! I regularly walk to the bakery on the weekends listening to podcasts. But it wasn’t until my April Spring Break that I was pushed to read. While at a winery one Saturday with my husband, his brother and wife, all had read A Gentleman in Moscow. I hadn’s so that evening, I began reading it on my kindle and finished it the next day. At the same time, my daughter recommended Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Lessons in Chemistry. I devoured them both next as both were page turners! And looking now at my top row, my favorite authors got me reading, too – Nic Stone, Clint Smith and Lois Lowry.
As May begins, I’m glad to be back here writing again. I’m glad to be returning to my monthly (or bi-monthly) habit of recorning my reading life. I’m grateful for my family and friends that nudge me along.
“Can you add more about your mother? Did she ever work?” stated my one writing partner after I read aloud my draft. (which I posted last Tuesday and you can see HERE).
I awoke early last Tuesday morning and drafted and posted that slice at one Starbucks. Then drove to meet up with F & B at another Starbucks at 10am for our first of the summer writing club meetings. This has been a happy habit of ours for the past several summers. As I drove, I was already thinking of a few revisions. I felt I had rushed the ending so I chose to work on my slice some more during this time. B wanted to write about her garden and F arrived with no set idea but our celebration of her recent retirement and her sudden broken iPad gave her two. We set the timer for 30 minutes and wrote at the same outdoor table in silence. When my phone alarm sounded, I offered to share first. As I read my writing aloud, F & B listened with full attention. Then both offered compliments and suggestions.
As a write, it is so helpful to have trusted “strangers” listening. They make me aware of rushed, confusing or missing parts. Today, I took their advise and added more about my own mother’s story to my last week’s slice and pressed Update, all because I am lucky enough to have F & B as my writing partners who nudge me to revise. I am doublly lucky to then be a part of this virtual writing community which gives me a place to share little moments and which ultimately keeps me writing.
Do you have any trusted, in-person friends who listen and offer writing suggestions? Do you ever return to a slice and revise it?
My interview of Jerry Craft, which I SLICED about the planning of HERE, for VSLA went great (if I do say so myself!) Sadly, it wasn’t recorded or I’d share the link with you and my students. Here’s one of his responses, as I recall:
ME: My students loved meeting Jordan and Liam and Drew in New Kid and Class Act. In fact on Monday, my one student came to class and announced, “I finished it!” and handed me back my classroom copy of New Kid. When I asked him to name one thing he really liked about the book, he said the way the mom talks. “She sounds just like my mom. My mom says, ‘Are you going to hook up? Have a playdate” For him, the dialogue sounded so real. Can you talk about your process for both drawing and creating the words/inner thinking found in these two amazing graphic novels?
Jerry: I have one mouth but two eyes and two ears. So I spend twice as much time really listening and really noticing. Then I use all I hear and see as I create my stories. One more thing that allows me to authenically write a story is having my two sons. They read my drafts and are honest. “Dad, that is NOT the way a kid would say that!” They helped me so much with the writing of The Offenders: Saving the World while Serving Detention that he made Jaylen and Aren co-authors.
As I think about Jerry’s writing process, I wonder about my own use of ears and eyes as writing tools. Perhaps today, I will try to be super aware of what I hear and see in various moments. Perhaps today, I will try to be Jerry-like. Perhaps today, as I read comments, I’ll look for Jerry-like dialogue and descriptions written by Slicers. I know I’ll find some!
MORE FROM JERRY: I work 7-days a week from 10am-3am (yep, not a typo – that until 3AM) from my home office in CT. I’m currently working on the 3rd book to follow New Kid and Class Act. Instead of spotlighting just one characters, this third book will be more like the TV Show, The Office, with lots of characters highlighted. My office walls are covered by bookcases and filled with my books. I sit in front of 3-computer screens and use an electronic tablet and stylist to draw all my comics. As a Black Creator, I feel a responsibility to continue to write and create the books that were not available when I was a child. I write the books my 10-year old self would have loved to read!
We took our state test last week but still have 2 weeks of school….so final project time!
My middle schoolers brainstormed their passions by jotting down where they spend time, at home, in the neighborhood, on vacation, doing a hobbie, and with a pet.
My middle schoolers chose to either share their passion in one of these forms:
* an Ignite speech for a 6th grade audience
* an ABC book for a Pre-school / Kindergarten audience
* a graphic comic book for a 1st grade audience
My passion brainstorm list looks like this: reading, cooking, swimming, writing at Starbucks, snorkeling, France, quilting.
I realized as I brainstormed that I spend a lot of time at the Starbucks in my town. I go there mostly to write before school or on a Saturday morning. I decided to try to write my ABCs of Starbucks. Here’s my draft!
A
I scan my smartphone starbuck’s app.
B
I ask the barista for banana bread.
C
Starbucks is my favorite coffeehouse.
D
Chocolate milk is a drink I order.
E
Starbucks is a good place to eat
F
Starbucks is a good place to sit and talk to friends by the fireplace.
G
I order a grande size.
H
I order grande hot chocolate, no whip.
I
I order grande ice tea, no sweetener.
J
JUST the treat to sip in my reuseable Keep Cup.
K
I take out my computer out of my keepsack.
L
I type away as lively music plays softly.
M
Some days I eat a muffin.
N
nibble – nibble – reflect and type.
O
Some days I eat oatmeal.
P
or a cake pop.
Q
Some day I sit quietly and think,
R
by the roaring fire.
S
Some days I order a strawberry frappuccino.
T
Some days I order a turkey bacon egg white sandwich.
U
Upstairs seating is my favorite.
V
Some days I order venti size.
W
Each visit I write.
X
Then I eXit.
Y
Sometime taking a yummy treat home with me.
Z
At the end of the day, I dream of writng and eating and sipping at Starbucks….zzz….sleep tight!
Ok…this may seem like a silly ABC book but it is still a draft…I have until next Friday to revise, edit and published. An end of year project to highlight our passions as we end 6th grade.
Since this was year 6 for me, I knew I could write for 31 days, post and read at least 3 others and leave a comment, daily for each day in March. But as I reflect back on this month, I am celebrating all I did:
I added a Featured Image to each post: I learned this from a great online class I took this summer by Cult of Pedegogy finding my image using Pixabay , as suggested in the course.
I added hyperlinks to direct the readers to another place to go related to my topic (see examples in last bullet point!)
I added Tags, something I started last year. Now on the right-side of my blog, a word cloud appears. A glance at it now shows the topics I write lots about include my daughters, Anne and Bridgit, along with books, my home, reading, writing, TCRWP, travel, and my OLW (one little word).
On the 28th of this month, a fellow slicer and colleague taught me how to make a slideshow in wordpress. First I pick the +Add dropdown menu, then choose Media, then pick 3 or more photos, then press Continue. A new screen appear. Pick Layout Dropdown menu. Scroll down and pick SLIDESHOW and insert. Magically, wordpress inserts those images as a slideshow! (Must choose 3 or more images to have slideshow option in layout). For example, I just snagged an image of the blog headers of all my friends in the DC/Arlington, VA area that I know sliced and who I have been reading with month. Now here are those images in a slideshow:
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As I look through the 30 posts I made this month, I notice:
8 poems
9 true small moments
9 school stories
6 related to porfessional development
2 family stories
1 basketball story
1 about an Orange Slicer Party
1 about the PLACE I like to write
2 about time
As I reflect, I know I spent more time trying to craft my stories and when I got this comment yesterday, it became my favorite because I had really worked to set up a contrast:
As I reflect, I am amazed at how much went on in my personal and school life this month and yet, I still took time to write. It was hard. But it is a routine I am glad I embraced six years ago. It is also one I am fine to now just post weekly on Tuesdays! (And to be honest, maybe I’ll start my Tuesday posts after Spring Break! )
As I reflect, I give a special thank you to TwoWritingTeachers who include Stacy, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, and Melanie. The community of writers you create is one I feel honored to be a part of. March is my now favorite month!
APRIL 11 – If you are in the DC area, come to my SLICER celebration! Orange Party at my house at 4:30pm. (Leave your contact info in a comment and I’ll send you the address) Wear ORANGE and/or bring an orange inspired snack to share! I plan to make an Aperol Spritz Pitcher.
As I read Betsy’s invitation to write today (1/21/19), I realize she is the second person to relfect on the passing of a poet that I humbly admit, I did not know. The first person is a friend (and fllow Slicer) who posted to facebook on the day of her passing:
Then while driving Sunday morning I was listening to NPR and the show On Being was replaying their interview with this poet. Once I got to the coffee shop, I found the podcast online and sat and listened and even made a Reading Notebook page to help me hold onto what I was hearing and thinking (something I am trying to do more so I can show my work to my students).
If you are like me and don’t know this poet, I encourage you to find time and listen:
I’m glad I did if only to know of her poem, The Summer Day, which I found online:
After she recited it on the podcast, I wrote in my notebook, “WOW – what a poem!!!!
Stretching out ALL she saw as she watched a grasshopper.
MENTOR TEXT – bit by bit
I’m am grateful for friends who write and who take time to mention how much they love the words of other writers, like they did about Mary Oliver, my new favorite poet!
Writing Stories by Sally 