Writing | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Art Heals

Posted in Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged art, NCTE, parent death, Picasso on September 23, 2014| 11 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

My little Emily is an artist. She is a fragile leaf fluttering in the wind. She blew through the classroom Monday quietly creating. I read aloud the book Emily’s Blue Period by Cathleen Daly. In this story, the character Emily is sad about her parents’ divorce. She uses art to express her feelings. That is how my Emily expressed her feelings. It was her first day back at school following the death of her mother.

I don’t want to become an expert at this, but Emily is helping me discover the best way to handle the death of a child’s parent. Be present. Be flexible. Let the child lead you to what she needs. Do not deny the death. Talk about it. Let the other students express their love. Be patient. Cry. Hope.

This is the collage project she created on her own. She gathered different papers from my box for journal decorating. She patiently used a ruler to make smaller and smaller crosses, nesting them together. The final cross is covered in black yarn glued in a swirl.

Emily needed space. She needed art. She needed freedom. I think I heard her singing.

I am posting my schedule for NCTE. Please join me if you are there.

NCTE Schedule:

Thursday, Nov. 20th from 4:30-6:00 PM: Elementary Section Get Together: I will receive the 2014 Donald Graves award for the teaching of writing, an amazing honor. Read about it here.

Friday, Nov. 21st from 12:30-1:45, I am presenting with colleagues from the National Writing Project: From Poetry To Picture Books To Polemics: We Write and We Teach Writing: A Story of Cross-curricular, Cross grade-level Collaboration Among National Writing Project Teachers.

Saturday, Nov. 22nd Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life dinner. I can’t wait to meet my virtual friends face to face.

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14 Cows and 9/11

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged 14 Cows for America, diamante poems, Sept. 11th on September 12, 2014| 5 Comments »

Renee at No Water River is hosting the round up today. Click here to join in.

In the past I have avoided the subject of the tragic Sept. 11th with my young elementary students. Yesterday, fellow blogger Holly Mueller posted about using the book 14 Cows for America to teach empathy on Sept. 11th. So I looked in our school library first thing in the morning, and she had the book. I took it as a sign. There was also an accompanying YouTube video about the story of the 14 Cows. I showed the video and read the book aloud. I have to admit I was fighting back tears the whole time. This day affects me deeply as I am sure it does many of you.

Following the read aloud, I asked my students to write for a few minutes. I was amazed by the profound nature of their writing. They can all be found on our class kidblog, but I wanted to share a few.

Point of View

Looking at a plane,

directly in front of you,

coming closer, closer, closer,

finally, you run. But you’re too late.

It has already hit. Shards of glass graze your skin,

you’re blinded by dust. Finally, you’re out.

You wipe your eyes and see…nothing.

Fire, smoke, and debris are where you just were.

The other tower, just south of the first, is hit.

The first collapses, and you know anyone inside is gone.

–Matthew

Cows are the grass that sways.
Cows are the roads we drive on.
Cows are the great buildings standing tall.
Cows are the stars in the sky.
Cows are life.

–Vannisa

Hope

passion,desperate

loving,wishing,believing

It is in you.

Wonder.

–Tyler

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Truth

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged Mary Oliver, spiritual journey, Truth on September 11, 2014| 5 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

Holly Meuller invites fellow bloggers to reflect on our spiritual journey each week. The theme this week is TRUTH.

I am not a true believer. I do not believe that everything happens for a reason. I do not believe that God has total control. I believe that God is real and true. I believe that we are given free will and with that gift, we can make the choice to nurture the God within.

Morning moon

Morning moon glow

I started the day thinking about truth. Looking into the sky before dawn, the full harvest moon looked down on me. My camera in my phone could not tell the truth. These photos do not show what I saw. Are these photos a lie? My husband and I discussed this dilemma. He said that now that he has had cataract surgery and has lens implants, everything he sees is a lie. Actually, everything we all see is only true to us, clouded by our vision or our perception.

The Bible is full of metaphor. Metaphor points to truth, but the message is not always visible.

The kingdom of God is…
a mustard seed,
a pearl,
a lost coin.

The Good Shepherd watches over his sheep,
knows them by name,
and goes out to look for the lost one.

One of my favorite poets is Mary Oliver. She writes with precise simplicity that speaks volumes. In A Thousand Mornings, she brings us into her daily morning meditations. Her poem “On Traveling to Beautiful Places” speaks of the search for God and for truth.

Every day I’m still looking for God
and I’m still finding him everywhere,
in the dust, in the flowerbeds.
Certainly in the oceans,
in the islands that lay in the distance
continents of ice, countries of sand
each with its own set of creatures
and God, by whatever name.
How perfect to be aboard a ship with
maybe a hundred years still in my pocket.
But it’s late, for all of us,
and in truth the only ship there is
is the ship we are all on
burning the world as we go.

–-Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings, New York: Penguin Press, 2012. 67.

As I contemplate truth, I realize that there is no real truth. We are on a journey of discovery, doing the best we can with what we have. Truth is blurry, hard to see, like the moon in a photograph. Yet, it is there waiting to be discovered.

(After I finished writing this post, serendipity sent me the message that it was Mary Oliver’s birthday.)

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Blogging Fever

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged Kidblog, student blogging on September 7, 2014| 14 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

My students have gotten the blogging fever. I did not expect this and am silently cheering. I am sharing our kidblog site with a colleague whose students are also posting. Also, two former students who are now in middle school are joining in. The site is getting lots of activity.

On my simple rubric for kidblog, my students have four requirements, each worth 10 points: Post 3 times, GUMS (Grammar, Usage, Mechanics, Spelling), 3 comments, and comments must be thoughtful and constructive. Here are the highlights:

1. Lots of posts! What are you reading? Slice of Life stories. Poetry Friday. My students are writing a lot. This must be good for them. I have seen great strides in just these first three weeks of school. They are adding details. They feel like their writing matters. They are using sentence structure and humor to make their writing more interesting.

2. I am using their posts to teach grammar, either in whole group or one on one. This is working. My students are realizing that grammar matters to the reader. They are noticing when other writers are not following grammar rules.

3. Sharing and caring! My students are getting to know the other students posting on our blog. They are relating, connecting, wondering.

How do I turn this activity into data? In this day of data-driven instruction, I want to find a way to track and analyze the progress of my students. I know it’s happening, but how do I prove it? I welcome your responses.

To read some of the many student blog posts, click here.
Please link up your own digital literacy post with Mr. Linky.

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Dialogue Poem

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged dialogue poem, Kim Douillard, photography on September 5, 2014| 10 Comments »

Laura at Author Amok has the Poetry Friday round up today.

I enjoy good photography. I also think photos make good prompts for writing. Kim Douillard posted two photos from the beach on her site “Thinking through my Lens.” They were taken minutes apart, and during that small space of time, the sun set and turned the sky orange. She asked her blog audience what the two photographs may be saying to each other. I posted them side by side on the board in the classroom and suggested students write a conversation or dialogue poem. I imagined the following conversation.

photo by Kim Douillard, all rights reserved.

The Hang Glider Speaks to the Sandpiper
A lone sandpiper
steps into the clouds,
reflected sky on serous sand.
I hear the echo of his call,
“Come wade with me.
The sand is cool
between your toes.
Come take a walk with me.”

A lone hang glider
flies in the sunset,
warm rays guide him on.
The silence of the sky speaks,
“Up here, where the air is thin and light,
you can fly like a kite–free–
Come up here with me.”
–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved.

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Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged dog party, schnoodle on September 2, 2014| 9 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Charlie, a schnoodle, loves his birthday hat. It lasted long enough for a photo after 3 tries.

Charlie turned seven on Monday. In all his seven years, I had never tuned in his birthday. After seeing a friend’s post about her dog’s birthday, I decided we should celebrate. I don’t know how Charlie knew that this trip to the dog park was special. He makes a high pitched yelping sound when he is excited. He started to do this before I even turned into the park. He knew he was going to see his best friends.

Charlie is a black schnoodle, half schnauzer, half poodle. We chose him from the litter because whenever you would pick him up, he would immediately calm down and relax in your arms. He still loves to be held. My husband and I have three daughters, but we had chosen Charles as a possible boy name. It was a natural choice for our empty nest dog, and it fits his personality perfectly.

Charlie loves to play with other dogs. His favorite friend is Petey, my mother-in-law’s dog. He and Petey walk together often. Charlie knows Petey’s name and will respond to it whenever we say it. “Petey’s here!” gets an excited yelpy run to the backdoor. Petey’s mother was hesitant to bring him to the party. She says he is ~~wimpy~~ not social. The dog park birthday party was a success for Petey. At one point he even wandered off with the other dogs.

Some of Charlie’s other guests were dogs from the neighborhood that he has walked with. Mollie and Trixie soon learned that I had Berry Shortbread Cookies. They would sit and smile up at me. They were under my spell which made it easy to take cute pictures of them. Mollie even danced for her cookie.

Charlie and his friend, Mollie.

Breesy, the cocker spaniel, and Lucy, a white standard poodle, also came to the party. I am not sure who had more fun, the dogs or the people, but we all decided one thing, “We should have more birthday parties at the dog park!”

After the party and a bath, Charlie curled up for a nice long nap.

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August Chalkabration

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Digital Learning, Writing, tagged chalk poetry, DigiLit Sunday, Haiku Deck on August 31, 2014| 3 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

My students love Chalkabration Day. (Thanks to Betsy Hubbard for inventing this special way to spread poetry love.) My students chalked the sidewalks on Friday despite the threat of rain. Excited about a long weekend, many of the poems have TGIF as a theme. Kielan wrote a cinquain for her birthday weekend.

I loaded the pictures onto Haiku Deck. I am disappointed that some of the pictures were cut off. I also wish that WordPress would support the embedded deck, but you’ll have to follow the link. I welcome any other digital ideas for publishing our Chalkabration.

Link up your Digital Literacy post here:

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Celebration in Action

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Gratitude, Writing, tagged apple peeler, birthdays, student poetry on August 30, 2014| 10 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

What a wonderful week with students! It’s our second week together, and we worked hard. I am requiring three blog posts each week: It’s Monday: What are you Reading?, Tuesday Slice of Life, and Poetry Friday. I thought it might be too much, but so far, my students are meeting the challenge. I am more and more convinced that blogging is the way to get students writing. You can read their writing here. I want to share one of the fingerprint poems. I posted the lesson on Poetry Friday.

Unique Fingerprint

I am the expert: you are the rookie.
You will never see my treasure,
Invisible to you but
Everything to me.
My print shines bright like a diamond,
As beautiful as a bow.
My treasure is one thing I love more than gold.
Maybe one day you will see my unique design,
But for now you have to classify your own.
by Kielan, all rights reserved

I love to celebrate birthdays with my students. For her birthday celebration, Kielan wanted me to bring the apple peeler and apples. She remembered how much fun it was from last year. The kids loved it!

Kim Douillard’s photo challenge this week was action. I did a video of the apple peeler in action. At the very end of the video, you can hear Emily say, “You’re about the best teacher in the universe.”

We also celebrated Andrew’s birthday. Look at the lovely cupcake his talented mother made!

Emily brought me a special gift this week, a happiness box. She gave it to me on Monday which segued perfectly into a discussion of tone. She had turned my irritable mood into joy!

Come back tomorrow for DigiLit Sunday and our first Chalkabration. What are you celebrating this week?

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Celebrating Sky

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Creativity, Gratitude, Teaching, Writing, tagged #nwpianthology, #sky, journal decorating on August 23, 2014| 5 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Every week Kim Douillard puts out a photo challenge from her blog site, Thinking Through my Lens. This week’s challenge word was Sky. Last night we went out to dinner near this pond and the sunset grabbed my attention. Using a filter on my phone, I captured this image.

Original photo (iPhonography) by Margaret Simon taken at Sugar Mill Pond, Youngsville, LA.

This was my first week with my students. It was so much fun to be back with them; although, a few were missing. (Moved on to middle school) We read together, decorated journals, and wrote poems about fireflies and cicadas. Two of my students, 6th grade boys, made me rubber band bracelets. My arm is very colorful.