I’ve joined the learning community of the National Writing Project and Educator Innovator Connected Learning MOOC. Week one began with a plethora of emails from the Google+ Community. I couldn’t possibly keep up. Rather than quit, like my introverted self was telling me to do, I selected a few to read and found a new app for making word clouds, Tagul. My first attempt was not worth saving, but I tried again. For this word cloud I copied my bio for all things poetry. I was attracted to the arrow shapes, as though the words point to who I am somewhat indirectly. I think this is the point of the UnIntroduction assignment for this week.
Michael Weller, one of the camp counselors support team members, offered this activity: Make an Inquiry. He wrote, “I want to formalize my inquiry process. As a result, part of my goal for the summer is to formulate questions, read what others have to say about those questions, write about the questions, and – I hope – create a research plan for the fall semester.”
I asked myself, “Can I make this a jump start for my own inquiry?” And of course, in typical CLMOOC fashion, here is the answer, “You can do the same, or similar, or you can go in whatever direction your questions and context take you. My hope is that we can support each other in our efforts to use an inquiry approach to improve our practice.”
My inquiry question: How can I create an environment for student writing that encourages individual expression while covering necessary benchmarks?
Michael’s process begins with the question and then goes into a review of the literature. I have ordered The Unstoppable Writing Teacher. Do you know of any other resources I should use? I welcome conversation about this topic here or on Twitter. You can find me @MargaretGSimon. Use #clmooc.
A fun UnIntro activity I tried was a Mad Lib created by Stephanie West-Puckett, another counselor coach in CLMOOC. The result was mad and funny. (Author’s note: I have more than 3 poems.)
Yay! My name is Margaret. I’m the lovely yarn and I joyfully walk with soft shawl. I have 3 poems and am looking forward to speaking with all of you in #clmooc!
Love your question, and wish we didn’t need to ask it (worrying about benchmark standards instead of individualized learning). Thanks for being part of the inquiry led by Michael. There’s a Hackpad somewhere where folks are adding their inquiry ideas. Let me find it …
Kevin
Never mind. You’re there. See? You are keeping up.
🙂
I like how the arrows you chose for the word cloud look recursive; who you are informs what you do and what you do informs who you are! Nice.
Thanks for this comment. I hadn’t really thought of this. Poetic.
Camp counselors! I love that idea. CLMOOC is the summer camp I need this year, for sure. Also, thanks for sharing your processes. I love hearing about the pathways that brought us to our results.
It is impossible to ACTUALLY keep up, so I am glad you are jumping in and doing what feels right for you. Great questions. Awesome solution to select a few posts and not try to read everything.
I’m with Anna: “camp counselors” is awesome! I didn’t have a chance to look at the Hackpad yet today, but I’ll pop over there to see what you added.
One resource that I’ve relied on lately is Shagoury & Power’s Art of Classroom Inquiry (http://www.heinemann.com/products/E00543.aspx). I love your inquiry question and I’m looking forward to reading more!
I love your inquiry question. I’ve been trying to create a mission statement to direct my thinking. Perhaps it should be formulated as an inquiry question. Something like — How can I create authentic and responsive writing experiences that help students tolerate the hard work so they can find joy in writing. Struggling with it!
I’m going to explore these links. Michael is in Los Angeles! Wow! Someone in by own backyard.
Thanks!
Julieanne
PS. Another book I’m studying is Good to Great Teaching by Dr.Mary Howard.
Good question. Will you be jumping in to CLMooc? It’s open to all. Thanks for the book suggestion.
[…] lots of play with meaning as we glitched words and images with madlibs and corrupted selfies. Margaret Simon’s madlib gave us the poetic line and an invitation to “joyfully walk with soft shawl” and Ian O’Byrne […]
Neat mad lib idea! I’ve used Wordle.net for word clouds, but will need to try Tagul!