Writing | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

DigiLitSunday: #WhyIWrite

Posted in Digital Learning, Writing, tagged #WhyIWrite, National Day on Writing, NCTE on October 16, 2016| 10 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Excitement is building in cyberspace for the National Day on Writing scheduled for this Thursday, Oct. 20th. This is a day when everyone is asked to think about why we write. NCTE created the hashtag #WhyIWrite for Twitter. The day is a collaboration among NCTE, National Writing Project, The New York Times Learning Network, and Teaching Channel.

Here are my top ten JOYS for writing:

Writing helps me see clearly.
Writing makes hard times easier.
Writing sends my words into the world.
Writing is a creative act that feeds my soul.
Writing is hard and challenging like vitamins for my brain.
Writing connects me with others.
Writing leads me to me.
Writing is understanding and confusing all at the same time.
Writing builds hope.
Writing is the thing with feathers.

Kevin Hodgson says he writes digitally to feel the groove between the spaces. Read all about Kevin’s groove and explore a Thinglink of thoughts here.

Enter your DigiLitSunday posts below:

Read Full Post »

DigiLitSunday: Mentors

Posted in Digital Learning, Teaching, Writing, tagged mentors, PowToon, students as mentors on October 9, 2016| 4 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Mentors are teachers who have a specialized experience in a certain area and can pass on that knowledge to someone else. An effective mentor builds a level of trust by being authentic and understanding.

In my classroom, I invite all kinds of mentors from the students themselves to professional authors. One day we may watch a video of Naomi Shihab Nye, while the next I am projecting a student mentor text. It doesn’t matter where the mentor comes from as long as the writing is real, accessible, and pushes the level of my students foreword.

This week my students were working on end-of-the-nine-weeks (yes, it’s here already) book presentations. I allow the students to choose which technology platform to use. They will use Animoto, Emaze, Prezi, Powtoon, etc. My sixth graders love Powtoon. It’s my least favorite because I just can’t figure it out.

Emily was working on her project, and she was having a blast. She was taking screenshots of the Google doodle and making the computer automatically type the text in. The presentation looks like it is happening right before your eyes. At one point, she called out, “Kaiden, I need help.” Kaiden rushed over to show her how to do what it was she wanted to do. On the spot mentorship.

I do not have to be the expert in the room. I can call on expert authors, speakers, or colleagues. Most of all, I can call on my students. They are the experts for each other. And that is just the way I like it.

Please add your link below.

Read Full Post »

Fairy Tale Poems

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged fairy tales, Jane Yolen, Marilyn Singer, Reverso poem on October 7, 2016| 22 Comments »

Poetry Friday is with Violet.

This week my students and I have been reading and writing about fairy tales. They enjoyed hearing Sleeping Ugly by Jane Yolen. We also read aloud reverso poems by master Marilyn Singer in Mirror, Mirror.

“Writing a reverso is stressing me out. How did she write a whole book of them?” said Emily as we worked together to write a reverso for Sleeping Ugly. Yes, it was tough. But we were happy with our results. (Formatting has been another challenge.)

Sleeping Ugly

Plain Jane

On the outside,
beauty sleeps
lying still
finds
the Prince
wandering through the woods.
He knows
beauty
lies within.

Miserella

Lies within.
Beauty
he knows
wandering through the woods,
the Prince.
Lying still,
beauty sleeps
on the outside.

Andrew worked on his own and created this reverso about Pirates

Don’ Steal me Booty

Here’s the truth Forever I have it

I have the treasure I shall battle

An ordinary treasure Or I have to let it go

Give it up never

never Give it up

I have to let it go An ordinary treasure

I shall battle I have the treasure

Or forever you have it Here’s the truth

Kaiden enjoys word play in his poem about “Fairy Fales (not a mistake)”

Magical stories, forever to be told.
Fairies,princes,and eggs made of gold
Talking toads, yellow brick roads,
stories happy and Grimm
Evil queens, horrible dreams
Long sleep, what a treat
In a palace, standing bold
Slaying trolls
Magical stories, forever to be told.

Read Full Post »

Presence

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Digital photography, fall, wedding on September 27, 2016| 14 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

There is no better time for me to revisit my One Little Word than this week, the week my daughter Katherine is getting married. It’s here! We’ve worked for months to be ready for this day, cleaning, painting, planting… And here it is.

I want to be present for this event. I want to lose the list that has been running my life, and just BE!

My Enneagram Thought for the Day for Sunday was this: “How can you fully experience your Presence here and now? Allow yourself to be touched by impressions of life around you.”

Photography helps me experience Presence. I stop and pay attention.

A heron happened by.

Bayou Teche blue heron, photo by Margaret Simon

Light made shadows on the side of our house.

And fresh acorns match the color of Bill’s eyes.

A close friend advised me that when the wedding day comes, the details are done, and all that’s left is joy. I am ready to be Present for the Joy.

Read Full Post »

I Spy a Septercet

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Jane Yolen, science poems, septercet on September 20, 2016| 12 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

If you follow my blog, you know I am a little obsessed with poetry. In the world of words, syllables, and sounds, I find puzzles in making them all fit together into something meaningful. Jane Yolen was recently featured on Michelle Barnes’ Today’s Little Ditty with a challenge to write septercets. This is a form Jane Yolen created with the pattern of seven syllables in three line stanzas.

I challenged my students to write septercets. And I played along.

I Spy

Looking for spinning spiders
hiding between limbs of trees
miraculous thread designs

Studying patterns of light
refraction reflecting bows
miraculous sky designs

Skipping stones from uncle’s pier
a ripple breaks the surface
miraculous water designs

–Margaret Simon

Can you write a septercet about the harvest moon above? Share in the comments and on Ditty of the Month padlet.

Read Full Post »

Celebrating Africa!

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged Maasai, pen pals, Tanzania on September 10, 2016| 13 Comments »

Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

Maasai-Jacob

Jacob lives far away from these Maasai boys, but Minga (my mother-in-law) and I tried to give my students a small understanding of the place we visited this summer, Tanzania, Africa.

My students anticipated Minga’s visit for weeks. Over the long Labor Day weekend, I compiled a sampling of our 1000 photos into a Google slide show. I also included videos. I brought in watermelon and cucumber because, in reality, we ate fresh fruits and vegetables every day in Tanzania. We dressed the kids like Maasai. Minga talked about the discovery at Olduvai Gorge in the Ngorongoro crater of a new species of man Homo Habilis. The incredible long expanse of time is difficult to conceptualize, but she tried with a long rope. My sixth graders are studying this time period in their Social Studies class, a nice coincidence.

Mound at Oldupai Gorge where we can visibly see the layers of time.

I had a surprise for my students…pen pals. When we visited Endoro School in Karatu, our guide suggested that I get the names of the children who surrounded me. I showed this picture and they proceeded to “claim” pen pals.

Visiting with school girls

My students’ pen pal letters are as varied as they are. Erin sat at the computer and translated her “high-level” words into Kiswahili. At my suggestion, she made a key at the bottom of the page to help teach her pen pal the words in English.

Emily wanted to share her art talent and decided to do a silhouette drawing of an acacia tree with a girl reading.

Girl reading under acacia tree by Emily, 6th grade.

Here is Madison’s letter that is just so Madison!

Read Full Post »

Slice of Cleaning Out

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Naomi Shihab Nye on September 6, 2016| 15 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

This long Labor Day weekend was just the time I needed to clean out. Usually it’s a summer chore, but this summer I traveled quite a bit, so I put it off. In a month, my daughter is getting married. We are hosting the rehearsal dinner at our house. I want things to look nice.

Obviously, no one will be looking in my drawers, but I’ll know they are neat and organized.

Cleaning out also leads to memories. I found this Thanku poem written by Kylon when he was in third grade. I think he’s in 8th grade this year.

I was thinking about the little gems and memories today when I wrote poetry with my students. We were discussing Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem Valentine for Ernest Mann and how poems can hide.

Note: Kylon wrote this poem, but Kieran was the boy who cried on the last day of school. Both were gifts in their own way.

Poems Hide

Sometimes when you aren’t even looking, you find them,
tucked into the junk drawer, sticking out,
saying, “Here I am; Read me aloud!”

That’s where I found this poem.
I was looking for something else,
a roll of tape maybe,
but what I found was this gift
from that last day of school
when you cried into your mother’s lap
because you would never be in third grade again
with me,
with Mr. Pants, the class guinea pig,
or with that desk
that had become your sacred space.

Things change, Kieran,
but memories live on,
Like poems
in the junk drawer.

–Margaret Simon

Read Full Post »

Slice of Life: Writing Free

Posted in Photography, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Brian Doyle, hummingbirds, Katherine Bomer, notebooks, student writers, The Journey is Everything on August 29, 2016| 13 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

Thanks to Carol Varsalona for this image to add my words to.

Every time I walk by the kitchen window, I look toward the hummingbird feeder. I put it out after the flood two weeks ago. The rain had stopped. A hummingbird flew to the window and hovered looking right at me, as if he was saying, “Where’s the sweet stuff?” It didn’t take me long to find the feeder and a storage of food in the cabinet, but he did’t return…for days. I wondered if he ever would.

He’s there now, and almost every time I look. I’ve come to depend on his appearance. Like he’s the rainbow after the storm. He’s the sign we all need that life goes on.

Photo by Margaret Simon

Last week I read aloud the essay “Joyas Voladoras” by Brian Doyle to a group of 6th graders. This is the first essay in Katherine Bomer’s book, The Journey is Everything: Teaching Essays that Students Want to Write for People who Want to Read Them.

In his essay, Brian Doyle crushes our own hearts by writing about the hearts of hummingbirds.

(Hummingbird) hearts are stripped to the skin for the war against gravity and inertia, the mad search for food, the insane idea of flight. The price of their ambition is a life closer to death; they suffer more heart attacks and aneurysms and ruptures than any other living creature. It’s expensive to fly. You burn out. You fry the machine. You melt the engine.

My students audibly gasped. Their reaction was pure emotion.

Katherine’s book leads us all on a quest for that reaction from our readers.

Watching my hummingbird, (Yes, he’s mine. I’ve named him Chuey), I realize that the smallest of beings, those minuscule moments, can bring about an emotional reaction.

However, to be open to these moments, I must be willing to write…every day.

Monday, I asked my students to start the class time sitting with their notebooks for 10 minutes and just writing. This freedom to express whatever was happening in their heads excited my young writers. There wasn’t a sound except the clicking of pencils for 10 minutes. Then they couldn’t wait to share!

Jacob wrote about a song he couldn’t get out of his head.
Noah wrote about imagining that everything was made of candy.
Madison wrote about the fire drill earlier in the school day.

To grow my young students into writers, I need to help them view their world as something worth writing about. To show them, I join them. I write freely and share the dribble that comes out on the page. I talk to them about how we must weed through the dribble to find some good stuff. To find those small moments worth savoring and sharing.

If you missed it, here’s the link to the storify for the #DigiLitSunday Twitter chat with Katherine Bomer.

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: Gratitude

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Laura Foley, Mary Lee Hahn, Praise poem, Tara Smith on August 25, 2016| 18 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe

A few weeks ago, Mary Lee Hahn posted her poem Gratitude List as an exercise after Laura Foley’s Gratitude List. I immediately saved it to do with my students. This was the week of Gratitude, eating popcorn (Popcorn & Poetry), and writing our own Gratitude List. My students responded well to Laura Foley’s as well as Mary Lee’s poems. See this post to read these mentor texts.

As always, I write alongside my kids, so with a handful of popcorn and pictures from my trip to Tara’s farm, I fashioned my own version.

Praise be the morning mist,
the dewy grass, the crisp air,
and that moonrise last night
we raised a glass to.

Praise be a gathering of friends,
travels across miles, and the dog
that greeted each of us with a wagging tail.

Praise be the morning coffee, pancakes
covered in blueberries and maple syrup,
sweet, cool watermelon.
Praise be the wildflowers
in a canning jar.

–Margaret Simon (For Tara Smith)

I want to share a few lines from my students, too.

Praise be this afternoon
for gifted, the relaxing writing,
the fun of talking to friends,
reading a book.

Praise be Frootloop breakfast,
the hard floor under our feet
and a roof above our heads
and sunshine
after the flood.

–Madison, 3rd grade

Read Full Post »

Mississippi Book Festival

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged middle-grade authors, Mississippi Book Festival, writing on August 23, 2016| 15 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

Mississippi Book Festival 2016

I am lucky in so many ways. I grew up in the great state of Mississippi, my parents still live there, so I was able to attend the best book festival ever. The author line-up was a middle-grade teacher/author’s dream come true. Just look at that picture above. There’s me with Kate DiCamillo, and me with Jacqueline Woodson, and me with Irene Latham, me with Kathi Appelt, and me, my mom, and my blogger friend Keri with Augusta Scattergood.

Surrounded by such amazing authors and just plain smart generous people I felt amazing, smart, and generous. I also got brave. I realized early in the day that when you ask a question, a famous author knows you and likes you better.

I listened while Kate DiCamillo told stories that I had heard before (at NCTE 2015, on a streaming video with Mr. Schu, and on The Yarn podcast). But as she spoke and told her stories, funny ones that I never tire of hearing, I remembered on The Yarn interview that she said the only book she would consider rewriting was Tale of Despereaux because of its complicated plot structure. As a teacher of smart kids, I happen to love the structure of Despereaux. It makes for great conversations about craft. So I held up my hand and said that to her, face to face; she was looking right into my eyes.

And Kate said that the narrator in Despereaux guides the reader and guided her, too. Isn’t that a beautiful answer? When I stood in the forever-line to get her to sign my books, she knew me. Well, at least for that moment she did.

Kate (I can call her by her first name now since she knows me) left me with this advice as a fellow writer: “Write your Heart.” I have a WIP (work in progress) that is just that, my heart, so I am comforted by that advice.

With my new brave on, I asked Jacqueline Woodson a question, too. She talked mostly about her new book Another Brooklyn, but I wanted to know how she speaks to social justice through her picture books, specifically Each Kindness.

She told the story that led her to write Each Kindness. She was visiting her daughter’s 2nd grade classroom. A girl came in with striped pants on. Jacqueline admired her pants, but then she overheard another child tell this girl, “Why’d you wear those pants to school?” And the girl covered her pants with her jacket the rest of the day.

Jacqueline says you can’t be didactic with kids. You have to teach them through story, so she thought about how all of us at one time or other have probably said a mean thing that we could never take back. Each Kindness makes us think about what we say and the ripples our words may cause. I so admire Jacqueline for her social consciousness and for her gift of language.

Here is advice to writers from Jacqueline Woodson.