Tuesday, July 28th
The last day of CAWP begin with Ruie returning personal narratives to everyone and stating that we could continue working on those narratives instead of the adolescent memory. Next week completed two surveys for National Writing Project. One survey was completed and sent to Paige. The other was completed and submitted online for the National Writing Project. We will complete a follow up survey in the spring. More than likely the follow up will test to see if we completed professional development in our schools. I’m sure it will also ask questions that seek to see if we implement the writing strategies that we learned during the Capital Area Writing Project. After handing in our CAWP implementation plans we completed our focus area post-test with consensograms. There was some debate about why fellows rated their ability to conduct a professional development session so high. Individuals who present often stated that they did not rate themselves as a ten. Perhaps delivering professional development is more difficult than it looks. After using the consensograms to rate ourselves Ruie gave me a breakdown of pre and post test data. Below is the pre and post test data for self-evaluation. I have posted the percentages of fellow who rated themselves between an 8 and 10. The data shows that after attending CAWP fellows feel much better about their ability to teach writing, to present writing teaching strategies to other teaches, and to write themselves.
Charts Pre Post
I feel that I know the research on the teaching of writing 12% 78%
I am confident about my abilities to teach writing 42% 88%
I am confident about my abilities to integrate technology and writing 18% 81%
I am confident about my own abilities as a writer 53% 82%
I am confident that I could deliver professional development of teaching writing 48% 81%
Next we were given time to read different sections from the class position paper. Each section was posted to the CAWP Pbworks wiki. Some fellows commented on the wiki while they read each of the sections their classmates posted. It was neat to see the multimodal products created by our classmates. Our wiki also provides ideas for how fellows can use wikis in their own classrooms. The last activity of CAWP was one of the best. Fellows finally revealed the person they spied on during the last few weeks. A variety of gifts and writing pieces were presented. We shared laughs and memories of a great summer. A few people even shed a few tears. All in a few weeks work at North Carolina State University’s annual Capital Area Writing Project.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
July 27
Monday
July 27, 2009
1. Writing into the Day: Six Word Stories
The day began with Donna’s presentation about writing stories with only six words.
Example used was E. Hemingway’s six word story. He said it was his best work.
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Donna explained she likes her students to be precise, to help them she gives them an article to read. She has her students write a paper about the article using only 175 words. She wants them to learn to be exact.
Class was shown six word stories from Wired Magazine to help generate ideas. Class wrote their six word stories. Donna will place them on the CAWP Blog. Remember to email your six word story to Donna.
A few that were shared: Wendy—Technology became useful and in reach.
Karen—Writing is really like a bikini.
Jessica—Wrote until the cows came home.
Donna shared the book: Not Quite What I Was Planning, from the editors of the storytelling magazine SMITH. Review for the book: Read. Enjoy. Pass it on. Repeat.
2. Writing Apprehension Post-test
Students went to the online survey site Survey Monkey. CAWPers took the post-test and compared their pre-test answers. Donna will compare the results to see how the group shifted.
3. Presentation about Presenting Professional Presentation at a Professional Conference
Presentation by Paige and Alex—Experience and Advice to Group—Dos and Don’ts
Paige began the presentation with a role play of the “wrong way” to introduce oneself: bragging, expanding on experiences, honors, awards, etc. Advice: Always begin with introduction—be able to establish your credentials and then move on (don’t repeat or run it into the ground!). Know your audience: 1. Jerks (move on; don’t dwell on them or their comments) 2. Non responders (try to engage them; if you can’t--same advice—move on; don’t dwell on them)
Showed Video from You Tube: Do you know who I am?
Paige encouraged the group to begin thinking about writing their Bios to have on hand for their presentations. She reminded group they were now National Writing Fellows. Each person’s name would have NWP after it. Alex added to have several resumes done to serve different menus.
They shared other information: PowerPoint should not contain more than 20% of your presentation. Only use an outline of your presentation (never read from the screen), have your notes on your computer screen so audience will not see them. Donna gave advice: review your presentation after you have completed them and write down your concerns so you can improve your presentations. Have humor, connect with the audience.
Groups were formed to make a T-chart about the likes and dislikes about presentations. People were picked before activity and planted in each group to help the Paige and Alex make a point about presenters not treating the audience as professionals. Alex shared a comical story about a presenter not treating her audience in a professional manner. Paige role played the unprofessional presenter to the point that small arguments began in one group. Good job, Paige!
Group shared T-charts.
Additional Advice: Setting the Tone of your Presentation:
v Teacher-monitor/participate when appropriate
v First Impressions (the first two minutes the audience has analyzed you! Paige’s advice: fake it until you make it—so know your audience—have energy in your presentations—don’t go overboard, but don’t pull back
v Apologies—Don’t Apology!
v Lecture vs. Presenting
v Presentation Logistics: time, materials, communication, have a back-up plan, grammar (proofread your stuff)
v Goals/Purpose
v Invitation: leave time for sharing
Alex and Paige Responses:
v Tech problems (there will be some—be prepared)
v Have a hard copy
v Know your own material: to help with tech problems: post your presentation to the web, email your presentation to yourself for another back-up
v “Pepper” Presentation (Alex dashed pepper (research) into his bowl (presentation) by just added a little spice, Paige overdid her pepper (research) by pouring all the pepper (research) into her bowl (presentation)
v Reflection—( positive and negative—be honest with yourself)
Class assignment: make a list of positive and negative reflection from individual presentations.
4. Working Lunch: Time to work on consolidating sections of class position papers
5. Share Implementation Plan
Groups met and shared their individual implementation plan. Groups rejoined and one person per group shared ideas/overview of implementation plans.
Assignment: Hand in hard copy to Ruie on Tuesday of individual implementation plans and bring calendar to class.
Megan shared her “Second Life” account.
July 27, 2009
1. Writing into the Day: Six Word Stories
The day began with Donna’s presentation about writing stories with only six words.
Example used was E. Hemingway’s six word story. He said it was his best work.
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Donna explained she likes her students to be precise, to help them she gives them an article to read. She has her students write a paper about the article using only 175 words. She wants them to learn to be exact.
Class was shown six word stories from Wired Magazine to help generate ideas. Class wrote their six word stories. Donna will place them on the CAWP Blog. Remember to email your six word story to Donna.
A few that were shared: Wendy—Technology became useful and in reach.
Karen—Writing is really like a bikini.
Jessica—Wrote until the cows came home.
Donna shared the book: Not Quite What I Was Planning, from the editors of the storytelling magazine SMITH. Review for the book: Read. Enjoy. Pass it on. Repeat.
2. Writing Apprehension Post-test
Students went to the online survey site Survey Monkey. CAWPers took the post-test and compared their pre-test answers. Donna will compare the results to see how the group shifted.
3. Presentation about Presenting Professional Presentation at a Professional Conference
Presentation by Paige and Alex—Experience and Advice to Group—Dos and Don’ts
Paige began the presentation with a role play of the “wrong way” to introduce oneself: bragging, expanding on experiences, honors, awards, etc. Advice: Always begin with introduction—be able to establish your credentials and then move on (don’t repeat or run it into the ground!). Know your audience: 1. Jerks (move on; don’t dwell on them or their comments) 2. Non responders (try to engage them; if you can’t--same advice—move on; don’t dwell on them)
Showed Video from You Tube: Do you know who I am?
Paige encouraged the group to begin thinking about writing their Bios to have on hand for their presentations. She reminded group they were now National Writing Fellows. Each person’s name would have NWP after it. Alex added to have several resumes done to serve different menus.
They shared other information: PowerPoint should not contain more than 20% of your presentation. Only use an outline of your presentation (never read from the screen), have your notes on your computer screen so audience will not see them. Donna gave advice: review your presentation after you have completed them and write down your concerns so you can improve your presentations. Have humor, connect with the audience.
Groups were formed to make a T-chart about the likes and dislikes about presentations. People were picked before activity and planted in each group to help the Paige and Alex make a point about presenters not treating the audience as professionals. Alex shared a comical story about a presenter not treating her audience in a professional manner. Paige role played the unprofessional presenter to the point that small arguments began in one group. Good job, Paige!
Group shared T-charts.
Additional Advice: Setting the Tone of your Presentation:
v Teacher-monitor/participate when appropriate
v First Impressions (the first two minutes the audience has analyzed you! Paige’s advice: fake it until you make it—so know your audience—have energy in your presentations—don’t go overboard, but don’t pull back
v Apologies—Don’t Apology!
v Lecture vs. Presenting
v Presentation Logistics: time, materials, communication, have a back-up plan, grammar (proofread your stuff)
v Goals/Purpose
v Invitation: leave time for sharing
Alex and Paige Responses:
v Tech problems (there will be some—be prepared)
v Have a hard copy
v Know your own material: to help with tech problems: post your presentation to the web, email your presentation to yourself for another back-up
v “Pepper” Presentation (Alex dashed pepper (research) into his bowl (presentation) by just added a little spice, Paige overdid her pepper (research) by pouring all the pepper (research) into her bowl (presentation)
v Reflection—( positive and negative—be honest with yourself)
Class assignment: make a list of positive and negative reflection from individual presentations.
4. Working Lunch: Time to work on consolidating sections of class position papers
5. Share Implementation Plan
Groups met and shared their individual implementation plan. Groups rejoined and one person per group shared ideas/overview of implementation plans.
Assignment: Hand in hard copy to Ruie on Tuesday of individual implementation plans and bring calendar to class.
Megan shared her “Second Life” account.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Summary of Friday, July 24th
Summary of Friday, July 24, 2009
Oh dear! Our last Friday together! All of us now sense the end of our time together down in the “guts” of Poe Hall. Do we really just have two days of CAWP after today?
The morning began more calmly than usual with everyone working rather quietly on individual tasks. Our first order of business was the writing of letters to the members of Congress (our individual state representatives and our two senators) to encourage the continued funding of the National Writing Project. Dr. Honeycutt provided to the group verbal direction and a thorough handout entitled “Writing a Letter to Congress” that outlined the steps to follow in preparing our letters. He also showed us how to find these individuals via the website https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome/shtml, a website that allows users to look up their representatives and senators by zip code. Amy Kay also suggested using http://www.congress.org which also provides contact information and allows users to post their letter digitally. Once the letters were written, Dr. Pritchard asked us to send her digital copies for her records.
As we continued to consider 21st century literacies, Julie Abdulla challenged us all by showing two versions of the very popular “Shift Happens.” Most of us had seen the original version of “Did You Know?” (http://www.shifthappens.wikispaces.com), but most of us had not seen the updated version of “Did You Know? 3.0” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8&feature=fvw). Even though the two versions are very similar in information, viewers may want to compare the two and especially note the more current information in the second one. No matter how many times I see “Shift Happens,” the information in it startles me. It seems to me that the words that “the only constant is change” could not be truer as we consider our role as educators in preparing students for their futures.
By mid-morning, CAWPers were working on their research projects for the final big task of our institute—the position paper. Some groups worked in other areas of the building; some folks worked on their own; others worked in small groups in our room. Heather’s wonderful cream cheese coffee cake kept us energized. It was quite tasty!
As lunch approached, many of us escaped the building (for me the first time in three weeks) and walked over to Hillsborough Street for an off-campus lunch. By 1:00 (or a few minutes after since some of us were a little late—oops!), we were back in our room to get our instructions for “Final Word” where we examined Chapter One entitled “The Read/Write Web” from the book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson (Corwin Press, 2006). Donna set us in groups of four for discussion and showed us how to use audio recorders to record our group conversations. She explained that this method provides another way to set-up student discussion groups that allows the teacher to monitor the groups by listening to the recorded conversations without being present for all of the discussions. “Final Word” is a discussion format that gives everyone a chance to share specific ideas about a piece of reading before everyone else reacts to that statement. The strategy involves a great deal of listening as group members react to each others’ comments.
As the groups assembled in different areas of Poe Hall, Donna instructed us to first identify individually 3-4 sentences in the reading that aroused interest in us. Dr. Honeycutt provided sticky tags for us to mark our choices. Then, while recording, one person in the group shared their choice aloud as group members listened. Then in a sequence, individual group members reacted to the statement one by one until we worked our way back to the person who had first shared. That person then had the “final word” on that statement. The process then repeated itself with the next person sharing their choice, members reacting, and the original person again having the “final word.” My group really enjoyed the format and ended up sharing about four rounds of discussion before time was up. The recording was easy as well.
If you’re interested in more strategies for discussion and reading, you might want to review the following material. It’s from the Chambersburg Area School District in Chambersburg, PA. It does include “Final Word” as well as a myriad of other reading for before, during, and after reading. I wouldn’t say it’s the best site I’ve ever accessed, but I thought it was fairly comprehensive and user friendly. The URL is as follows: http://www.chambersburg.k12.pa.us/education/components/ scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=13834&&PHPSESSID=92a4a8f2c5231e1cdb8933c26088ce77.
Our day and week ended with the final lesson demonstration by Darius Horton. Apparently Darius has “issues,” as his demonstration was entitled “I Have Issues: How to Evaluate Online Sources and Investigate Current Events.” Darius had invited us all to his blog on Thursday so that we could participate in his lesson activities today. Citing research from Jim Burke and Kathy Schrock, Darius convinced us that digital skills were integral to our students’ literacy, especially in the finding, evaluating, and manipulating of information. In a lesson he designed for his middle school students on how to determine reliable and accurate sources of information on the web, Darius sent us to his blog to learn specific strategies to evaluate on-line sources. (http://investigatingissues2009.blogspot.com/ ?zx=1bd54cae70f50138) Using materials from sources like the on-line writing lab (OWL) at Purdue University, Darius had us first look at each website and post comments on his blog as to whether we believed the source was reliable or not using the criteria he provided. Then he assigned us the task of choosing a current events issue that we wanted to research on the web (as though we were sixth graders in his class) but were not allowed to access the web at school because of restrictions. We were to write our school’s principal asking for permission to conduct web-based research; the letter had to demonstrate that we had learned to choose reliable web sources. (Darius allowed us if we wanted to write about our work in CAWP rather than as sixth graders.)
Darius outlined the steps of the letter in a handout packet.
· The first paragraph was to explain the current events topic we wanted to research and why.
· The second paragraph was to explain the advantages of using on-line sources and how they will augment our work.
· The third paragraph was to explain how we will conduct the research using the specific strategies we had learned from the quality sites.
· Finally, we were to post our letters to the blog and then read at least one letter from a classmate and respond by discussing one thing they did well and one are for improvement. Our work is on the blog (referenced above).
Darius ended his lesson by applying this activity to other subjects and grades. Nice work Darius! The last one—at the end of the day—on the last Friday! You were a brave soul indeed!
As everyone packed up to leave for the week, research groups made their final connections, grabbed resources, took a quick look at the agenda for Monday, and bee-lined for home! See everyone on Monday for our final two days!
Oh dear! Our last Friday together! All of us now sense the end of our time together down in the “guts” of Poe Hall. Do we really just have two days of CAWP after today?
The morning began more calmly than usual with everyone working rather quietly on individual tasks. Our first order of business was the writing of letters to the members of Congress (our individual state representatives and our two senators) to encourage the continued funding of the National Writing Project. Dr. Honeycutt provided to the group verbal direction and a thorough handout entitled “Writing a Letter to Congress” that outlined the steps to follow in preparing our letters. He also showed us how to find these individuals via the website https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome/shtml, a website that allows users to look up their representatives and senators by zip code. Amy Kay also suggested using http://www.congress.org which also provides contact information and allows users to post their letter digitally. Once the letters were written, Dr. Pritchard asked us to send her digital copies for her records.
As we continued to consider 21st century literacies, Julie Abdulla challenged us all by showing two versions of the very popular “Shift Happens.” Most of us had seen the original version of “Did You Know?” (http://www.shifthappens.wikispaces.com), but most of us had not seen the updated version of “Did You Know? 3.0” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8&feature=fvw). Even though the two versions are very similar in information, viewers may want to compare the two and especially note the more current information in the second one. No matter how many times I see “Shift Happens,” the information in it startles me. It seems to me that the words that “the only constant is change” could not be truer as we consider our role as educators in preparing students for their futures.
By mid-morning, CAWPers were working on their research projects for the final big task of our institute—the position paper. Some groups worked in other areas of the building; some folks worked on their own; others worked in small groups in our room. Heather’s wonderful cream cheese coffee cake kept us energized. It was quite tasty!
As lunch approached, many of us escaped the building (for me the first time in three weeks) and walked over to Hillsborough Street for an off-campus lunch. By 1:00 (or a few minutes after since some of us were a little late—oops!), we were back in our room to get our instructions for “Final Word” where we examined Chapter One entitled “The Read/Write Web” from the book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson (Corwin Press, 2006). Donna set us in groups of four for discussion and showed us how to use audio recorders to record our group conversations. She explained that this method provides another way to set-up student discussion groups that allows the teacher to monitor the groups by listening to the recorded conversations without being present for all of the discussions. “Final Word” is a discussion format that gives everyone a chance to share specific ideas about a piece of reading before everyone else reacts to that statement. The strategy involves a great deal of listening as group members react to each others’ comments.
As the groups assembled in different areas of Poe Hall, Donna instructed us to first identify individually 3-4 sentences in the reading that aroused interest in us. Dr. Honeycutt provided sticky tags for us to mark our choices. Then, while recording, one person in the group shared their choice aloud as group members listened. Then in a sequence, individual group members reacted to the statement one by one until we worked our way back to the person who had first shared. That person then had the “final word” on that statement. The process then repeated itself with the next person sharing their choice, members reacting, and the original person again having the “final word.” My group really enjoyed the format and ended up sharing about four rounds of discussion before time was up. The recording was easy as well.
If you’re interested in more strategies for discussion and reading, you might want to review the following material. It’s from the Chambersburg Area School District in Chambersburg, PA. It does include “Final Word” as well as a myriad of other reading for before, during, and after reading. I wouldn’t say it’s the best site I’ve ever accessed, but I thought it was fairly comprehensive and user friendly. The URL is as follows: http://www.chambersburg.k12.pa.us/education/components/ scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=13834&&PHPSESSID=92a4a8f2c5231e1cdb8933c26088ce77.
Our day and week ended with the final lesson demonstration by Darius Horton. Apparently Darius has “issues,” as his demonstration was entitled “I Have Issues: How to Evaluate Online Sources and Investigate Current Events.” Darius had invited us all to his blog on Thursday so that we could participate in his lesson activities today. Citing research from Jim Burke and Kathy Schrock, Darius convinced us that digital skills were integral to our students’ literacy, especially in the finding, evaluating, and manipulating of information. In a lesson he designed for his middle school students on how to determine reliable and accurate sources of information on the web, Darius sent us to his blog to learn specific strategies to evaluate on-line sources. (http://investigatingissues2009.blogspot.com/ ?zx=1bd54cae70f50138) Using materials from sources like the on-line writing lab (OWL) at Purdue University, Darius had us first look at each website and post comments on his blog as to whether we believed the source was reliable or not using the criteria he provided. Then he assigned us the task of choosing a current events issue that we wanted to research on the web (as though we were sixth graders in his class) but were not allowed to access the web at school because of restrictions. We were to write our school’s principal asking for permission to conduct web-based research; the letter had to demonstrate that we had learned to choose reliable web sources. (Darius allowed us if we wanted to write about our work in CAWP rather than as sixth graders.)
Darius outlined the steps of the letter in a handout packet.
· The first paragraph was to explain the current events topic we wanted to research and why.
· The second paragraph was to explain the advantages of using on-line sources and how they will augment our work.
· The third paragraph was to explain how we will conduct the research using the specific strategies we had learned from the quality sites.
· Finally, we were to post our letters to the blog and then read at least one letter from a classmate and respond by discussing one thing they did well and one are for improvement. Our work is on the blog (referenced above).
Darius ended his lesson by applying this activity to other subjects and grades. Nice work Darius! The last one—at the end of the day—on the last Friday! You were a brave soul indeed!
As everyone packed up to leave for the week, research groups made their final connections, grabbed resources, took a quick look at the agenda for Monday, and bee-lined for home! See everyone on Monday for our final two days!
Friday, July 24, 2009
July 23, 2009
July 23rd, 2009
Summary
CAWP 2009 began the day, drawing cards to create metaphors for our writing process that we then shared with the class. Karen’s bikini metaphor and Richard’s zipper created quite a few chuckles.
Group IV: Considering Writing as a Craft that Can Be Learned presented. The group includes Paulette Campbell, Jessica Greene, Leigh Ann Lane, and Amy Kay Nickerson. We had homework last night to prepare for their group’s presentation. The are both from the New York Times entitled Genius: The Modern View by David Brooks and A Star Is Made by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt.
Jessica found a You Tube by Dylan Thomas Poetry. Dylan died very young. We listened to his poem “In My Craft or Sullen Art”. The group gave us the definitions of craft, skill, and art. Our table group agrees that writing is a craft. Heather felt that Dylan’s poem felt very lonely. Paige noted that she was given writing assignments through out her life because she was considered ‘good’ at it, even though it took a lot of effort. We shared out each group discussion. Next, we listened to a Voice Thread of the quotes from the articles the group had to read. Amy Kay read some quotes from Fletcher about Day Books and is inspired to use some of the ideas with her students. Leigh Ann really enjoyed Ann Lammot and continued the Voice Thread. It’s okay to be scatterbrained. But the biggest thing to take away from this CAWP experience is that we need to scaffold what we ask our students to do, especially if we have difficulty with the process ourselves. The next Voice Thread was from Welty. It wasn’t about instruction but about awareness. What you witness and learn is from where we gather our writing ideas. The last Voice Thread is about Stephen King. He spent a lot of time in this selection on description. Paulette is going to be able to use this in multiple areas of her job ‘Odyssey of the Mind’, Yearbook, reading and Daybooks. The articles were discussed next using the questions from the handout.
Are writers born or made?
What makes some writers seem like they have God-given talent?
When someone is good at something, what makes them seem good at it?
Discuss a quote or something from the article that spoke to you.
People enjoy doing things that they do well. Did the talent come first or did the practice?
Touched With Fire by K. Jamison was mentioned by Paige about the anguish that some writers had to go through to become prolific writers.
We ended with putting up sticky note ideas with the question “How can you take the information, quotes, and topics we’ve discussed today, and apply to your own instruction?”
Dr. Ron Honeycutt
CFA’s and Conferring
Writing Workshop is the most powerful way to teach writing. Teacher is facilitator. There is a lot of direct instruction for the struggling student writers with available times outside of the classroom for individual work with the teacher.
Group participated in a Six Traits Rap. Group 1 had a professional edge to their sound incorporating some adlib style. J
Dr. Honeycutt shared his handouts:
1. Writing Workshop – Flow chart with the definitions of each participant in the workshop.
2. Reading Drafts in Progress: Levels of Response
a. Large-scale concerns
b. Mid-level concerns
c. Sentence-level concerns
3. Looking for an edge or angle
4. Having A Writing Conference With Yourself
5. Self-Regulating Strategies
6. Ten Commandments of Teaching Good Writing
Dr. Honeycutt role models his expectations for students in his class about conferring, writing and the writing workshop.
As new students come and go from his class other students share – class rules, organization, warm-ups, your writing and conferring.
1. No apologies for your writing.
2. No rolling eyes.
3. No over sarcasm.
4. You can’t speak negatively unless you speak positively.
Within his class conferring is held with pairs, groups and teacher. Dr. Honeycutt gives grades on the FCA’s to develop quality responses in his student.
Dr. Honeycutt shared a story of writing from his class. The student scored a 1 on the writing test as a fourth grader and a 4 on the retest in 5th grade.
Dr. Honeycutt gave out student papers from the last writing assignment in his class this year. The prompt was ‘write about a time, a person or an event that changed your life’. We were supposed to write FCA’s and discuss with someone at our table.
Kate shared a story that a student wrote about how Dr. Honeycutt and another language arts teacher at his school changed his life. A student gave a very touching tribute to his teachers.
He begins his school year with ‘Found Poems’, short stories and summaries. Each reading has a writing connected to it. One example of writing with reading is a letter to Aunt Polly from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn as a character of that time. Dillard Drive Middle School tries to integrate the subjects as much as possible. Another example was a science fiction piece through science class. Question about writing in math came up. Description and process were primarily used in math. Taking formulas and writing them in English sentences. Take a concept in math and how they would use it in real life. Students writing story problems was also a great way for students to understand math too.
AFTER LUNCH
Dr. Pritchard
Combining Sentences
Ruie started with sharing major findings of teaching of grammar.
1901 Started research on the quality of compositions based on grammar instruction.
Shared an article that there is a genetic component to using grammar, there is a grammar gene. Correction is not the way to change it in oral language.
Teaching of grammar is still a part of every curriculum. Grammar is the structure of the language not just spelling. Why would you do formal instruction of grammar? Early findings:
There is an absence of correlation between knowledge of formal grammar and the ability to compose, orally or in writing – general conclusion of over 85 studies.
There is no relationship between the knowledge of grammar and the ability to interpret language.
If grammar study doesn’t improve composing does it have another use? No transfer of training of grammar study and ability to correct errors, apply reason, make a rule or to apply definition.
Looking at correlations…intervention/pre/post…the correlation between attainment in formal grammar and the ability to correct compositions and correct language errors is about the same as taking any two random subjects in a school. P.E. and Art, math and history or between composition and anything else.
The ability to write English compositions depends to a considerably higher degree upon general ability than upon knowledge of formal grammar.
Writing background and ability leads to more success in college than a grammar background.
Grammar study doesn’t repay the students for the effort and the time they spend on it in the curriculum.
One group used textbook on grammar/One group considered problems. Finding – an academic year is too short to bring about productive growth on grammar. The study of English grammatical terminology has a negligable effect upon the correctness of children’s writing. It is almost an almost harmful effect on grammar.
An inductive approach is best. Model, model, model.
Ruie took all of this information and tried to put some meaning to the findings around what she knew and understood about Intelligence/creativity and grammar/writing. Ruie’s idea is that creative people are generally intelligent but intelligent people aren’t necessarily creative. So, maybe people that are good writers are generally good with grammar but people with good grammar aren’t necessarily good writers.
The grammar group far exceeded the thought group in mastery of formal grammar, but the thought group achieved superior results in sentence structure and had longer retention of the fundamental abilities involved.
We all took a diagnostic exercise on grammar.
Combining exercises, that are not graded but shared orally, is a powerful tool for learning. Frank O’Hare noted that student’s grew 4 years in 1 year.
The Parts of Speech: Rap-Style
On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about halfway between the Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud rose-colored hotel. –F. Scott Fitzgerald
Did another activity where we combined sentences together to create a cohesive paragraph.
Summary
CAWP 2009 began the day, drawing cards to create metaphors for our writing process that we then shared with the class. Karen’s bikini metaphor and Richard’s zipper created quite a few chuckles.
Group IV: Considering Writing as a Craft that Can Be Learned presented. The group includes Paulette Campbell, Jessica Greene, Leigh Ann Lane, and Amy Kay Nickerson. We had homework last night to prepare for their group’s presentation. The are both from the New York Times entitled Genius: The Modern View by David Brooks and A Star Is Made by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt.
Jessica found a You Tube by Dylan Thomas Poetry. Dylan died very young. We listened to his poem “In My Craft or Sullen Art”. The group gave us the definitions of craft, skill, and art. Our table group agrees that writing is a craft. Heather felt that Dylan’s poem felt very lonely. Paige noted that she was given writing assignments through out her life because she was considered ‘good’ at it, even though it took a lot of effort. We shared out each group discussion. Next, we listened to a Voice Thread of the quotes from the articles the group had to read. Amy Kay read some quotes from Fletcher about Day Books and is inspired to use some of the ideas with her students. Leigh Ann really enjoyed Ann Lammot and continued the Voice Thread. It’s okay to be scatterbrained. But the biggest thing to take away from this CAWP experience is that we need to scaffold what we ask our students to do, especially if we have difficulty with the process ourselves. The next Voice Thread was from Welty. It wasn’t about instruction but about awareness. What you witness and learn is from where we gather our writing ideas. The last Voice Thread is about Stephen King. He spent a lot of time in this selection on description. Paulette is going to be able to use this in multiple areas of her job ‘Odyssey of the Mind’, Yearbook, reading and Daybooks. The articles were discussed next using the questions from the handout.
Are writers born or made?
What makes some writers seem like they have God-given talent?
When someone is good at something, what makes them seem good at it?
Discuss a quote or something from the article that spoke to you.
People enjoy doing things that they do well. Did the talent come first or did the practice?
Touched With Fire by K. Jamison was mentioned by Paige about the anguish that some writers had to go through to become prolific writers.
We ended with putting up sticky note ideas with the question “How can you take the information, quotes, and topics we’ve discussed today, and apply to your own instruction?”
Dr. Ron Honeycutt
CFA’s and Conferring
Writing Workshop is the most powerful way to teach writing. Teacher is facilitator. There is a lot of direct instruction for the struggling student writers with available times outside of the classroom for individual work with the teacher.
Group participated in a Six Traits Rap. Group 1 had a professional edge to their sound incorporating some adlib style. J
Dr. Honeycutt shared his handouts:
1. Writing Workshop – Flow chart with the definitions of each participant in the workshop.
2. Reading Drafts in Progress: Levels of Response
a. Large-scale concerns
b. Mid-level concerns
c. Sentence-level concerns
3. Looking for an edge or angle
4. Having A Writing Conference With Yourself
5. Self-Regulating Strategies
6. Ten Commandments of Teaching Good Writing
Dr. Honeycutt role models his expectations for students in his class about conferring, writing and the writing workshop.
As new students come and go from his class other students share – class rules, organization, warm-ups, your writing and conferring.
1. No apologies for your writing.
2. No rolling eyes.
3. No over sarcasm.
4. You can’t speak negatively unless you speak positively.
Within his class conferring is held with pairs, groups and teacher. Dr. Honeycutt gives grades on the FCA’s to develop quality responses in his student.
Dr. Honeycutt shared a story of writing from his class. The student scored a 1 on the writing test as a fourth grader and a 4 on the retest in 5th grade.
Dr. Honeycutt gave out student papers from the last writing assignment in his class this year. The prompt was ‘write about a time, a person or an event that changed your life’. We were supposed to write FCA’s and discuss with someone at our table.
Kate shared a story that a student wrote about how Dr. Honeycutt and another language arts teacher at his school changed his life. A student gave a very touching tribute to his teachers.
He begins his school year with ‘Found Poems’, short stories and summaries. Each reading has a writing connected to it. One example of writing with reading is a letter to Aunt Polly from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn as a character of that time. Dillard Drive Middle School tries to integrate the subjects as much as possible. Another example was a science fiction piece through science class. Question about writing in math came up. Description and process were primarily used in math. Taking formulas and writing them in English sentences. Take a concept in math and how they would use it in real life. Students writing story problems was also a great way for students to understand math too.
AFTER LUNCH
Dr. Pritchard
Combining Sentences
Ruie started with sharing major findings of teaching of grammar.
1901 Started research on the quality of compositions based on grammar instruction.
Shared an article that there is a genetic component to using grammar, there is a grammar gene. Correction is not the way to change it in oral language.
Teaching of grammar is still a part of every curriculum. Grammar is the structure of the language not just spelling. Why would you do formal instruction of grammar? Early findings:
There is an absence of correlation between knowledge of formal grammar and the ability to compose, orally or in writing – general conclusion of over 85 studies.
There is no relationship between the knowledge of grammar and the ability to interpret language.
If grammar study doesn’t improve composing does it have another use? No transfer of training of grammar study and ability to correct errors, apply reason, make a rule or to apply definition.
Looking at correlations…intervention/pre/post…the correlation between attainment in formal grammar and the ability to correct compositions and correct language errors is about the same as taking any two random subjects in a school. P.E. and Art, math and history or between composition and anything else.
The ability to write English compositions depends to a considerably higher degree upon general ability than upon knowledge of formal grammar.
Writing background and ability leads to more success in college than a grammar background.
Grammar study doesn’t repay the students for the effort and the time they spend on it in the curriculum.
One group used textbook on grammar/One group considered problems. Finding – an academic year is too short to bring about productive growth on grammar. The study of English grammatical terminology has a negligable effect upon the correctness of children’s writing. It is almost an almost harmful effect on grammar.
An inductive approach is best. Model, model, model.
Ruie took all of this information and tried to put some meaning to the findings around what she knew and understood about Intelligence/creativity and grammar/writing. Ruie’s idea is that creative people are generally intelligent but intelligent people aren’t necessarily creative. So, maybe people that are good writers are generally good with grammar but people with good grammar aren’t necessarily good writers.
The grammar group far exceeded the thought group in mastery of formal grammar, but the thought group achieved superior results in sentence structure and had longer retention of the fundamental abilities involved.
We all took a diagnostic exercise on grammar.
Combining exercises, that are not graded but shared orally, is a powerful tool for learning. Frank O’Hare noted that student’s grew 4 years in 1 year.
The Parts of Speech: Rap-Style
On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about halfway between the Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud rose-colored hotel. –F. Scott Fitzgerald
Did another activity where we combined sentences together to create a cohesive paragraph.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 from Heather
This morning as we assembled, you could hear the gentle click of cameras as everyone attempted to catch our fellowship digitally before Ronnie left us this afternoon. It seems strange to think that we only have a few days left before we return to our daily lives. Coming into our little basement icebox every morning instead of my dark, cave of an office has begun to feel like normal.
Paige started us off today with a workshop lesson that she called a “potpourri” of writing ideas that can easily be used in the classroom. They were the real-life applications of the research that we have been learning from Ruie and Ron.
She shared a number of engaging and flexible activities for teaching writing concepts and stretching student’s thinking. We described, compared, and explained plates in order to learn about different types of writing. We played with the Stick Man and Visual Character Representation to develop characterization. Could you have scanned that student’s character drawing into Voice Thread or a Wiki and have kids leave their comments/feedback on that? We received a number of other highly useful strategies such as Descriptive Writing for Poetry, bio-poem, newspaper poetry, analogies framework, evaluating reasoning worksheet, Survival Kit, and Learning Product cycle. Finally, we had a great discussion about assessment, the different types and purposes for it as well as system constraints.
After a short break in our intensely packed day, we were treated to a 2-in-1 presentation from Amy K and Karen. Their topic was called Mood Swings—Teaching the Same Concepts Different Ways. Amy K started by sharing research about how to teach tone and mood in different ways, especially when the goal is writing to learn. She focused on a finding by G. Wiggins that audience and purpose matter considerably more in real-world writing. We, as teachers, need to make sure that we teach this explicitly in our classrooms, but do it with authentic, meaningful writing activities with genuine audiences. We practiced this by temporarily revisiting 10th grade while voicing our opinions on a Wake Count policy. Karen then shared a lesson that focuses on developing mood in narrative writing. She began by explaining how she builds background knowledge on memory writing and then shared a creative way to use visual, auditory and multimedia to feel, describe and analyze mood orally first. The lesson would culminate in writing a reminiscence themselves.
Hungry, we devoured the Louisiana redbeans and rice that we had been salivating over all morning. Thank you Tanya for bringing such a scrumptious lunch! All the cameras came out again as we continued to take pictures!
After lunch, Ron gave a presentation regarding writing across the curriculum. He shared research on writing across the curriculum, NAEP results, reasons why students have difficulty writing to learn and how the writing process can improve someone’s writing. Finally, he shared the 6 Research Based Strategies that have been proven to be effective:
1. Focused Freewriting (Peter Elbow)
2. Entry/Exit Slips or Quick Writes (Martha Ruddell)
3. Author’s Prejudices/My Prejudices (Axlerod & Cooper)
--more of a middle/secondary level activity, below 5th grade students are not really cognitively ready
4. Sentence/Passage Springboard
5. Concept Exploration (adaptation from Xiufeng & Ebenezer)
6. Microthemes (Bean, Drenk, & Lee)
The last activity of the day was Group 3’s presentation onWriter’s are Continually Growing and Changing. They did a fantastic job by having a movie about the different stages growing writers go through. Richard read quotations from different authors on the topic. Julie used the 4 A’s Protocol to show a way for a group of people to discuss an idea in a format that ensures that everyone can be heard. Melissa took us back to thinking about our own metaphor for continually growing and changing as writers and set us working together as groups to draw and described our metaphor for the journey and what we would need to take with us.
We ended our last day with Ronnie with a special ceremony to show her how much we appreciated her contribution to our fellowship and learning. As a group, we gave her handmade jandals, a guide to southern English, orange coffee, warm thoughts, a book to inspire writing, a Wordle, and a Native American medicine bag. Megan contributed two scrumptious cakes in absentia, leaving little else for us to do this afternoon but hug Ronnie goodbye and walk off the shared calories.
Paige started us off today with a workshop lesson that she called a “potpourri” of writing ideas that can easily be used in the classroom. They were the real-life applications of the research that we have been learning from Ruie and Ron.
She shared a number of engaging and flexible activities for teaching writing concepts and stretching student’s thinking. We described, compared, and explained plates in order to learn about different types of writing. We played with the Stick Man and Visual Character Representation to develop characterization. Could you have scanned that student’s character drawing into Voice Thread or a Wiki and have kids leave their comments/feedback on that? We received a number of other highly useful strategies such as Descriptive Writing for Poetry, bio-poem, newspaper poetry, analogies framework, evaluating reasoning worksheet, Survival Kit, and Learning Product cycle. Finally, we had a great discussion about assessment, the different types and purposes for it as well as system constraints.
After a short break in our intensely packed day, we were treated to a 2-in-1 presentation from Amy K and Karen. Their topic was called Mood Swings—Teaching the Same Concepts Different Ways. Amy K started by sharing research about how to teach tone and mood in different ways, especially when the goal is writing to learn. She focused on a finding by G. Wiggins that audience and purpose matter considerably more in real-world writing. We, as teachers, need to make sure that we teach this explicitly in our classrooms, but do it with authentic, meaningful writing activities with genuine audiences. We practiced this by temporarily revisiting 10th grade while voicing our opinions on a Wake Count policy. Karen then shared a lesson that focuses on developing mood in narrative writing. She began by explaining how she builds background knowledge on memory writing and then shared a creative way to use visual, auditory and multimedia to feel, describe and analyze mood orally first. The lesson would culminate in writing a reminiscence themselves.
Hungry, we devoured the Louisiana redbeans and rice that we had been salivating over all morning. Thank you Tanya for bringing such a scrumptious lunch! All the cameras came out again as we continued to take pictures!
After lunch, Ron gave a presentation regarding writing across the curriculum. He shared research on writing across the curriculum, NAEP results, reasons why students have difficulty writing to learn and how the writing process can improve someone’s writing. Finally, he shared the 6 Research Based Strategies that have been proven to be effective:
1. Focused Freewriting (Peter Elbow)
2. Entry/Exit Slips or Quick Writes (Martha Ruddell)
3. Author’s Prejudices/My Prejudices (Axlerod & Cooper)
--more of a middle/secondary level activity, below 5th grade students are not really cognitively ready
4. Sentence/Passage Springboard
5. Concept Exploration (adaptation from Xiufeng & Ebenezer)
6. Microthemes (Bean, Drenk, & Lee)
The last activity of the day was Group 3’s presentation onWriter’s are Continually Growing and Changing. They did a fantastic job by having a movie about the different stages growing writers go through. Richard read quotations from different authors on the topic. Julie used the 4 A’s Protocol to show a way for a group of people to discuss an idea in a format that ensures that everyone can be heard. Melissa took us back to thinking about our own metaphor for continually growing and changing as writers and set us working together as groups to draw and described our metaphor for the journey and what we would need to take with us.
We ended our last day with Ronnie with a special ceremony to show her how much we appreciated her contribution to our fellowship and learning. As a group, we gave her handmade jandals, a guide to southern English, orange coffee, warm thoughts, a book to inspire writing, a Wordle, and a Native American medicine bag. Megan contributed two scrumptious cakes in absentia, leaving little else for us to do this afternoon but hug Ronnie goodbye and walk off the shared calories.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
7/21/09
From Sharing to Progressive Writing
A Summary of CAWP 7/21/09 by Justine LaMantia
We began the day hearing an intimate sharing session of personal narratives from Cathy, Karen, Richard and Jessica. During these sharing sessions it is evident how CAWP ‘09 has come together as a writing community that supports, reflects and encourages. We have all created a safe-space environment to grow professionally and personally. A big shout-out goes out to Karen and Jessica for persevering through personal subject matter to finish reading their narratives.
Megan and Donna introduced us to creating our 2009 Position Paper on our CAWP Wiki site, writeapedia. Remember to check the list of topics with corresponding names in case you have forgotten what position you are to take, or are confused at all. Megan provided us with a handout, “Wiki Basics”, outlining the various ways we can publish our position paper, edit photos and imbed photostory or videos. It is beneficial how every piece of technology we are using as professionals during this course is applicable to each of us in our classrooms. Using Frontpage/PBWorks enables us to view students’ revisions, delete any inappropriate publishing that has occurred, hold students accountable, and provide a forum for group projects and individualized work.
Our position paper groups were able to meet to brainstorm and begin researching our topics for our cohesive class piece. We will be putting our Position Paper together next Monday.
We were all greeted by our enthusiastic instructor, Ronnie, after lunch. Ronnie conducted a session dealing with student writing apprehension entitled Interactive Ways with Scaffolding Towards Transactional Writing: The Expository Essay. Ronnie informed us all that this presentation was a good gateway to Karen and Amy K’s presentation tomorrow. Ronnie’s strategies of tapping into students’ prior knowledge and combating their anxieties growing around a blank page are capable of being modified at any content and any level. The strategies introduced to us included collaborative efforts of speaking and writing… “There’s no ONE way to do this, but we can open up a forum for discussion.”
First we looked at what topics students would be interested in writing about, engaged in a collaborative, timed brainstorm laid out in squares, and followed that up with a paired-verbal fluency activity. A Jump-In Debate is a great way for students to consider the pros and cons on an issue while making only one point at a time—classroom management is something to be dealt with on an individual teacher basis. On our Mock-Panel based on the issue of Boy Racers we were introduced to our host Tanya on her talk show Vantage Point. Tanya mediated discussion between Alex, a politician with a shady past, Julie the health professional, Karen the surprised reporter, Richard the questionable researcher, Darius and Heather our boy-girl racers, and Katie the law enforcement. Ronnie’s strategies will be a great success because of the unlimited choice they provide for our students; we know that choice = engagement. There is a shift in learning power and a shift in roles here for students.
Alex followed with his presentation Table by Table: A Progressive Look at Writing, which took modeled how to take an overwhelming task and break it down into manageable parts. There was much commonality between the presentations of Alex and Ronnie as they focused on diminishing writing apprehension. Alex discussed Round Robin writing where one student begins a piece and others add to it. It is important that we are not doing this writing activity once, but that we are reusing it until we can wean students from it and emerging writers can become better off.
Choosing between a photograph of a flame or woods we all engaged in a Round Robin writing activity. Some were surprised to find what direction their story took, some writing sounded as if only one person authored the piece rather than four. It was clear how this activity could be useful in our classrooms, as long as it was used purposefully. Structured Progressive Writing was presented to us next in the form of composing various 4 page essays. Once each student has gone home and written one page of their essay, students exchange pieces and the next night they write the second page. This process continues 4 times until all 4 essays in the group are completed (the 4th paper received is the one that must be completed). Completing essays in this manner help students hear various opinions, justify multiple opinions and practice the structure. Progressive Writing can also be applied in line-by-line poems and short stories (Plot).
I cannot believe how much I have learned about the writing process and have been exposed to in just two weeks. I wonder what CAWP would be like if it ran months?
A Summary of CAWP 7/21/09 by Justine LaMantia
We began the day hearing an intimate sharing session of personal narratives from Cathy, Karen, Richard and Jessica. During these sharing sessions it is evident how CAWP ‘09 has come together as a writing community that supports, reflects and encourages. We have all created a safe-space environment to grow professionally and personally. A big shout-out goes out to Karen and Jessica for persevering through personal subject matter to finish reading their narratives.
Megan and Donna introduced us to creating our 2009 Position Paper on our CAWP Wiki site, writeapedia. Remember to check the list of topics with corresponding names in case you have forgotten what position you are to take, or are confused at all. Megan provided us with a handout, “Wiki Basics”, outlining the various ways we can publish our position paper, edit photos and imbed photostory or videos. It is beneficial how every piece of technology we are using as professionals during this course is applicable to each of us in our classrooms. Using Frontpage/PBWorks enables us to view students’ revisions, delete any inappropriate publishing that has occurred, hold students accountable, and provide a forum for group projects and individualized work.
Our position paper groups were able to meet to brainstorm and begin researching our topics for our cohesive class piece. We will be putting our Position Paper together next Monday.
We were all greeted by our enthusiastic instructor, Ronnie, after lunch. Ronnie conducted a session dealing with student writing apprehension entitled Interactive Ways with Scaffolding Towards Transactional Writing: The Expository Essay. Ronnie informed us all that this presentation was a good gateway to Karen and Amy K’s presentation tomorrow. Ronnie’s strategies of tapping into students’ prior knowledge and combating their anxieties growing around a blank page are capable of being modified at any content and any level. The strategies introduced to us included collaborative efforts of speaking and writing… “There’s no ONE way to do this, but we can open up a forum for discussion.”
First we looked at what topics students would be interested in writing about, engaged in a collaborative, timed brainstorm laid out in squares, and followed that up with a paired-verbal fluency activity. A Jump-In Debate is a great way for students to consider the pros and cons on an issue while making only one point at a time—classroom management is something to be dealt with on an individual teacher basis. On our Mock-Panel based on the issue of Boy Racers we were introduced to our host Tanya on her talk show Vantage Point. Tanya mediated discussion between Alex, a politician with a shady past, Julie the health professional, Karen the surprised reporter, Richard the questionable researcher, Darius and Heather our boy-girl racers, and Katie the law enforcement. Ronnie’s strategies will be a great success because of the unlimited choice they provide for our students; we know that choice = engagement. There is a shift in learning power and a shift in roles here for students.
Alex followed with his presentation Table by Table: A Progressive Look at Writing, which took modeled how to take an overwhelming task and break it down into manageable parts. There was much commonality between the presentations of Alex and Ronnie as they focused on diminishing writing apprehension. Alex discussed Round Robin writing where one student begins a piece and others add to it. It is important that we are not doing this writing activity once, but that we are reusing it until we can wean students from it and emerging writers can become better off.
Choosing between a photograph of a flame or woods we all engaged in a Round Robin writing activity. Some were surprised to find what direction their story took, some writing sounded as if only one person authored the piece rather than four. It was clear how this activity could be useful in our classrooms, as long as it was used purposefully. Structured Progressive Writing was presented to us next in the form of composing various 4 page essays. Once each student has gone home and written one page of their essay, students exchange pieces and the next night they write the second page. This process continues 4 times until all 4 essays in the group are completed (the 4th paper received is the one that must be completed). Completing essays in this manner help students hear various opinions, justify multiple opinions and practice the structure. Progressive Writing can also be applied in line-by-line poems and short stories (Plot).
I cannot believe how much I have learned about the writing process and have been exposed to in just two weeks. I wonder what CAWP would be like if it ran months?
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009 ~ Finally Friday!
- At the end of a second intense week of writing, technology, and presentations, CAWPers filed into the room to discover a pleasant atmosphere of music, images, and quotes as Heather and Wendy prepared to open our day with their presentation. Promptly at 9am, they began and dazzled us with their topic- Stepping Into the Craft: A Workshop Approach. A research whiz, Heather shared numerous excellent resources, all conveniently listed on their handout. As an expert in teaching strategies for students with disabilities, she reminded us to always have a low-tech back-up for the high-tech strategies we use. Wendy then modeled the Writer's Workshop model for us using Angela Johnson's Joshua's Night Whispers and an anchor craft chart. They also shared the importance of Celebrations- a writer's moment to publish and share his work. We were all amused with her story of how parents fall short of finding the elements in a story that their children have the ability to find. They ended their presentation by asking us to work in groups to discuss ways the writer's workshop model could be used in elementary, middle, and high school content areas. All three groups found numerous ways the model could benefit our students' learning.
- Ruie then intimidated us with the assignment of the Class Position Paper. The purpose of the paper is to take a position on writing, find support for our position through authors, other teachers, and researchers, and defend our position against the anticipated skeptical arguments. Our class position paper should be multi-modal, so we've been encouraged to seek Donna and Megan's expertise in creating our portion of the final product. Some suggestions they gave us were using Youtube, Teachertube, or flip camera videos, voice threads, links, web pages, or blogs. We all contributed to a huge laundry list of topics to include in the paper and then chose two we felt we could expand upon with a partner. The topics' assignments are listed on the class wiki: http://cawp.pbworks.com/Position-Paper
- Donna presented a brief history and explanation of TPCK- Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Though Pedagogy and Content have always been merged, adding technology into the equation is necessary though tricky. Donna reminded us to note the affordances and constraints of integrating technology into our lessons. We should ask ourselves how technology has the ability to move us along in our goals. What can it do and not do for us? TPCK is the concept of all three components merged together, a successful accomplishment when it is achieved.
- After lunch, I presented my topic, "I Hope You Dance": Creative Expression of Poetry through Songs. I discussed Louise Rosenblatt's Reader-Response theory of making personal connections to literature, gave a brief explanation of the background of the project, and showed my own example. Then, we got to work making our own movies. We did encounter some technology mishaps, but I think most CAWPers were able to at least begin a movie. Hopefully, everyone began something she would like to finish at a later date. Maybe after CAWP when we have a little bit more time to ourselves. =) Wendy was able to finish her movie and share it with us at the end of the presentation. (Thanks Wendy!) We all chuckled over her kids' adorable pictures and quotes. It was a charming way to end the presentation. (Thanks, CAWPers for being patient with me and the technology! I appreciate it!)
- Ron ended the day with an intense diagram and discussion of the Rhetorical Paradigms for the Teaching of Writing. He talked Classicists, Current-Traditionalists, Expressionists, and New Rhetorics. He also included the Cognitive and Social Views. He was surprisingly upbeat for 4pm on a Friday afternoon, which helped us to digest the serious subject matter with our fried Friday brains!
- Happy weekend everyone! See ya Tuesday morning!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Day 7, July 16: Phew…a long Thursday
Group II, Cathy, Darius, Margaret, and Wendy, started right at 9:00 a.m. with "Appreciating that Writing is Hard Work."
· Role Play: Margaret as the teacher needs to get grades done, so she tells her students (Wendy and Darius) to take out their daybooks and do some free writing
o Darius thinks this is stupid. Wendy is hard at work
o Margaret challenges Darius (from her desk) to “just write something.”
o And he does. The word “something” is centered on his page.
o Margaret and Darius go back and forth, Darius being the typical passive “reluctant” writer and Margaret being the typical uninformed, uninterested teacher.
o Margaret finally releases an audible sigh of relief as the bell rings and Cathy comes in for their planning period.
o Cathy asks Margaret how things are going and upon hearing a negative report shares some ideas of how to help Darius be less reluctant.
o Margaret still seems jaded but ends the planning period and role play by admitting that there are some things she could do differently.
· Margaret debriefed and asked CAWPers to think if they’d been in one of those roles (as Darius, the reluctant writer; Wendy, the successful writer; Margaret, the reluctant teacher; Cathy, the helpful teacher). CAWPers shared various ideas:
o Heather mentioned that some students are reluctant to write because they don’t think their ideas are good or they haven’t had enough prior experience.
o Margaret shared how some of her reluctant boys were afraid of being judged for spelling.
o Paige shared how she played dumb with some of her repeating 9th graders so that they would write about sports rules.
o Ruie mentioned Donald Graves’s terms for writers: reactive (Wendy) and reflective (get up, sharpen pencil, think out ideas). Graves says that reactive writers have been rewarded throughout their school careers.
o Ronnie mentioned some teachers who use writing as a management tool.
o Margaret commented that she feels uncomfortable confronting her colleagues.
o Heather mentioned the National School Reform Faculty and their protocols for various situations and how their resources might be helpful. http://www.nsrfharmony.org/protocols.html
o Margaret also added that some teachers are reluctant writers and that may be why they have a hard time with reluctant writers in their classrooms.
o Paige wondered if some of the reasons students may be reluctant to begin free-writing may be a personality difference. Paige, task-oriented, remembered a kindergarten experience with finger paint. She was reluctant to draw because she didn’t have any idea of the goal.
· Darius then transitioned to an example lesson of chunking the writing process and helping students work hard at writing:
o CAWPers wrote lists of adjectives relating to vending machines and cafeteria food.
o Then we wrote freely on the idea of cafeteria food and vending machines.
o Then we collectively wrote a thesis on the topic of students being able to use vending machines during school/lunch.
o We created a map one bubble at a time, adding in specific examples and support.
o Darius modeled one paragraph of the letter; we wrote one on our own.
· Wendy took over and gave each table a quote and told us to “Turn and Talk”:
o After some discussion about hard work, each group read its quote and shared some insights discussed.
o Ron rewrote Stephen King’s quote about attacking “the blank page” aggressively: “Tackle writing like the linebacker tackles the quarterback.”
o Wendy mentioned that this activity of rewriting a quote about writing might translate into some good posters for your wall.
· Cathy called on her expert listeners to recap the presentation:
o Teachers can motivate students to work hard by:
§ Giving various writing prompts and styles (persuasive for boys)
§ Giving personal topics that students can relate to
§ Chunking the writing process into digestible sections
§ Modeling and showing examples
§ Giving feedback in a non-threatening way
o Some of the reasons that writing is hard are:
§ Students think their writing will be criticized
§ Students are afraid to misspell words
§ Students are confused by conventions
§ [later in the day we learned that writing is hard because it uses 12 mental constructs!]
o Students can feel successful by:
§ Knowing that it’s ok to make a mess – quotes from other authors
§ Realize that they can make a sloppy copy
At 10:15, Paulette and Richard began their technologically-filled presentation on Threaded Discussions
· Paulette opened with the benefits/uses of using Blackboard’s Discussion Forum feature
o Talking about text
o Extending a discussion beyond what class time allows
o Longer response
o Time for quiet students to reflect then contribute
o Outlet for creative expression
o Nuggets for future pieces of writing
o Pre- & Post-Testing
o 21st Century skill
o Collecting resources
o Building community
o Opportunity for more writing
· Richard asked us to read and identify a couple of words/lines that “called out to” us from Stephen Edgar’s “The Secret Life of Books”
o We logged into BB
o Added discussions
o Replied to other CAWPers’ comments, thus creating a threaded discussion
· Richard showed the Mentor/Mentee idea he’s considering using with his ELLs and IB 12th graders at http://ohsnapphoto.net/matkins
o Richard had uploaded students’ essays and based on our group numbers, we read and responded to a student’s essay
After lunch and a time for sharing personal narrative drafts, Julie and Cathy took the stage, presenting “Flip the Script” on integrating science and literacy curricula
· Cathy asked us to think, pair, share about prior knowledge we had of electricity.
o She mentioned Horizon Research of UNC http://horizon.unc.edu/index.html , also associated with the National Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov/
o Their research revealed that not enough time was given to “sense-making” or closure of science (i.e. Teachers do demonstrations/labs but don’t follow up with explanation or ask students to explain)
· Julie and Cathy focused on goal from the 4th grade science curriculum on magnetism and electricity while using an assessment with the Flip cameras
o Cathy showed the lesson plan model for science that integrates the Standard Course of Study as the What (intended); the lesson plan as the How (implemented); and the assessment as the learned (achieved).
· Using inquiry-based instruction, Cathy walked us through a scenario that presented a problem (we need light but don’t have a flashlight) and Julie passed out our “kits” that contained a wire, battery, and bulb.
o We started by creating a focus question (our first “entry” in our science notebook).
o Cathy shared student examples, making it clear that this is a skill that needs to be taught, scaffolded, and retaught.
o Then we made predictions about we can get the bulb to light; we also drew a diagram of the prediction
o Next, we worked with our partners to test our hypotheses, created a chart of the results, and diagrammed three successful ways to arrange the three parts and three unsuccessful ways
o We all learned that the bulb has two contact points, the battery has two contact points, and that all must be touching to create light. Some were AG and knew the term circuit.
o After our experiments, we independently wrote claims and evidence based on the models given by Cathy.
o Finally, we wrote conclusions and reflections based on the activity.
· Julie then passed out the Flip cameras and explained that the assessment piece involved our writing a script and filming it.
o We all answered the question: How does the relationship between a battery, bulb, and a wire create energy?
o We could create a commercial, a how-to, or anything else we wanted
o Working in pairs, we wrote the scripts and filmed ourselves. We then learned how to upload the videos to our laptops. Tomorrow Leigh Ann will show us MovieMaker, which can work as an editing program for Flip videos.
· Julie and Cathy asked us to end the presentation by sharing on our reflections what we learned and how we can apply it to our own “situations.”
After a quick break, Ron put us all to sleep with his presentation on research—just kidding!
· After a quick skim of the article we read for homework, Ron asked us to share among our table what was standing out to us.
· Ron identified two key people and an organization who helped the process approach replace the traditional linear methods taught in schools.
o Peter Elbow, author of Writing Without Teachers and Writing with Power
o Donald Murray, author of A Writer Teaches Writing and Write to Learn and former mentor of our very own Resolved Ron Honeycutt
o National Writing Project, begun in the 1970s in California (Bay Area Writing Project)
· Our Aha’s revealed that there is no consensus on the writing process, that the process approach is different for different people and can even evolve over the life of the same person.
· After a quick history lesson on the process approach, Ron shared some explanation of meta-analysis and what the research revealed about how teachers were teaching writing
· To conclude, we watched a short video of Peter Elbow explaining his struggles as a student of writing. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDUn1c4uxUE . Elbow almost failed out of undergrad and did drop out of graduate school before observing his own writing process and then writing about it.
Tomorrow Heather and Wendy begin our day with a presentation titled “Taking it Apart to Put it Together,” and Leigh Ann will wrap it up with “I Hope You Dance: Working with Song Lyrics.” In the middle of the day, Ruie, Donna, and Megan will help us begin on our position paper, and Ron will explain the seven rhetorical paradigms for the teaching of writing.
I tried to cover it all, but I’m sure I missed something. Please share your funniest moment of the day or your own Aha!
· Role Play: Margaret as the teacher needs to get grades done, so she tells her students (Wendy and Darius) to take out their daybooks and do some free writing
o Darius thinks this is stupid. Wendy is hard at work
o Margaret challenges Darius (from her desk) to “just write something.”
o And he does. The word “something” is centered on his page.
o Margaret and Darius go back and forth, Darius being the typical passive “reluctant” writer and Margaret being the typical uninformed, uninterested teacher.
o Margaret finally releases an audible sigh of relief as the bell rings and Cathy comes in for their planning period.
o Cathy asks Margaret how things are going and upon hearing a negative report shares some ideas of how to help Darius be less reluctant.
o Margaret still seems jaded but ends the planning period and role play by admitting that there are some things she could do differently.
· Margaret debriefed and asked CAWPers to think if they’d been in one of those roles (as Darius, the reluctant writer; Wendy, the successful writer; Margaret, the reluctant teacher; Cathy, the helpful teacher). CAWPers shared various ideas:
o Heather mentioned that some students are reluctant to write because they don’t think their ideas are good or they haven’t had enough prior experience.
o Margaret shared how some of her reluctant boys were afraid of being judged for spelling.
o Paige shared how she played dumb with some of her repeating 9th graders so that they would write about sports rules.
o Ruie mentioned Donald Graves’s terms for writers: reactive (Wendy) and reflective (get up, sharpen pencil, think out ideas). Graves says that reactive writers have been rewarded throughout their school careers.
o Ronnie mentioned some teachers who use writing as a management tool.
o Margaret commented that she feels uncomfortable confronting her colleagues.
o Heather mentioned the National School Reform Faculty and their protocols for various situations and how their resources might be helpful. http://www.nsrfharmony.org/protocols.html
o Margaret also added that some teachers are reluctant writers and that may be why they have a hard time with reluctant writers in their classrooms.
o Paige wondered if some of the reasons students may be reluctant to begin free-writing may be a personality difference. Paige, task-oriented, remembered a kindergarten experience with finger paint. She was reluctant to draw because she didn’t have any idea of the goal.
· Darius then transitioned to an example lesson of chunking the writing process and helping students work hard at writing:
o CAWPers wrote lists of adjectives relating to vending machines and cafeteria food.
o Then we wrote freely on the idea of cafeteria food and vending machines.
o Then we collectively wrote a thesis on the topic of students being able to use vending machines during school/lunch.
o We created a map one bubble at a time, adding in specific examples and support.
o Darius modeled one paragraph of the letter; we wrote one on our own.
· Wendy took over and gave each table a quote and told us to “Turn and Talk”:
o After some discussion about hard work, each group read its quote and shared some insights discussed.
o Ron rewrote Stephen King’s quote about attacking “the blank page” aggressively: “Tackle writing like the linebacker tackles the quarterback.”
o Wendy mentioned that this activity of rewriting a quote about writing might translate into some good posters for your wall.
· Cathy called on her expert listeners to recap the presentation:
o Teachers can motivate students to work hard by:
§ Giving various writing prompts and styles (persuasive for boys)
§ Giving personal topics that students can relate to
§ Chunking the writing process into digestible sections
§ Modeling and showing examples
§ Giving feedback in a non-threatening way
o Some of the reasons that writing is hard are:
§ Students think their writing will be criticized
§ Students are afraid to misspell words
§ Students are confused by conventions
§ [later in the day we learned that writing is hard because it uses 12 mental constructs!]
o Students can feel successful by:
§ Knowing that it’s ok to make a mess – quotes from other authors
§ Realize that they can make a sloppy copy
At 10:15, Paulette and Richard began their technologically-filled presentation on Threaded Discussions
· Paulette opened with the benefits/uses of using Blackboard’s Discussion Forum feature
o Talking about text
o Extending a discussion beyond what class time allows
o Longer response
o Time for quiet students to reflect then contribute
o Outlet for creative expression
o Nuggets for future pieces of writing
o Pre- & Post-Testing
o 21st Century skill
o Collecting resources
o Building community
o Opportunity for more writing
· Richard asked us to read and identify a couple of words/lines that “called out to” us from Stephen Edgar’s “The Secret Life of Books”
o We logged into BB
o Added discussions
o Replied to other CAWPers’ comments, thus creating a threaded discussion
· Richard showed the Mentor/Mentee idea he’s considering using with his ELLs and IB 12th graders at http://ohsnapphoto.net/matkins
o Richard had uploaded students’ essays and based on our group numbers, we read and responded to a student’s essay
After lunch and a time for sharing personal narrative drafts, Julie and Cathy took the stage, presenting “Flip the Script” on integrating science and literacy curricula
· Cathy asked us to think, pair, share about prior knowledge we had of electricity.
o She mentioned Horizon Research of UNC http://horizon.unc.edu/index.html , also associated with the National Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov/
o Their research revealed that not enough time was given to “sense-making” or closure of science (i.e. Teachers do demonstrations/labs but don’t follow up with explanation or ask students to explain)
· Julie and Cathy focused on goal from the 4th grade science curriculum on magnetism and electricity while using an assessment with the Flip cameras
o Cathy showed the lesson plan model for science that integrates the Standard Course of Study as the What (intended); the lesson plan as the How (implemented); and the assessment as the learned (achieved).
· Using inquiry-based instruction, Cathy walked us through a scenario that presented a problem (we need light but don’t have a flashlight) and Julie passed out our “kits” that contained a wire, battery, and bulb.
o We started by creating a focus question (our first “entry” in our science notebook).
o Cathy shared student examples, making it clear that this is a skill that needs to be taught, scaffolded, and retaught.
o Then we made predictions about we can get the bulb to light; we also drew a diagram of the prediction
o Next, we worked with our partners to test our hypotheses, created a chart of the results, and diagrammed three successful ways to arrange the three parts and three unsuccessful ways
o We all learned that the bulb has two contact points, the battery has two contact points, and that all must be touching to create light. Some were AG and knew the term circuit.
o After our experiments, we independently wrote claims and evidence based on the models given by Cathy.
o Finally, we wrote conclusions and reflections based on the activity.
· Julie then passed out the Flip cameras and explained that the assessment piece involved our writing a script and filming it.
o We all answered the question: How does the relationship between a battery, bulb, and a wire create energy?
o We could create a commercial, a how-to, or anything else we wanted
o Working in pairs, we wrote the scripts and filmed ourselves. We then learned how to upload the videos to our laptops. Tomorrow Leigh Ann will show us MovieMaker, which can work as an editing program for Flip videos.
· Julie and Cathy asked us to end the presentation by sharing on our reflections what we learned and how we can apply it to our own “situations.”
After a quick break, Ron put us all to sleep with his presentation on research—just kidding!
· After a quick skim of the article we read for homework, Ron asked us to share among our table what was standing out to us.
· Ron identified two key people and an organization who helped the process approach replace the traditional linear methods taught in schools.
o Peter Elbow, author of Writing Without Teachers and Writing with Power
o Donald Murray, author of A Writer Teaches Writing and Write to Learn and former mentor of our very own Resolved Ron Honeycutt
o National Writing Project, begun in the 1970s in California (Bay Area Writing Project)
· Our Aha’s revealed that there is no consensus on the writing process, that the process approach is different for different people and can even evolve over the life of the same person.
· After a quick history lesson on the process approach, Ron shared some explanation of meta-analysis and what the research revealed about how teachers were teaching writing
· To conclude, we watched a short video of Peter Elbow explaining his struggles as a student of writing. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDUn1c4uxUE . Elbow almost failed out of undergrad and did drop out of graduate school before observing his own writing process and then writing about it.
Tomorrow Heather and Wendy begin our day with a presentation titled “Taking it Apart to Put it Together,” and Leigh Ann will wrap it up with “I Hope You Dance: Working with Song Lyrics.” In the middle of the day, Ruie, Donna, and Megan will help us begin on our position paper, and Ron will explain the seven rhetorical paradigms for the teaching of writing.
I tried to cover it all, but I’m sure I missed something. Please share your funniest moment of the day or your own Aha!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Wednesday, 7/15
Katie emerged for her final leg of her triathlon ready to go, taking us along on for her presentation in Reader Response Journals. The handouts on the need for guiding our students through notetaking and listening skills rang true, particularly in light of the info Katie found connecting cheating with note-taking ignorance. I especially enjoyed the list of the 10 Bad Listening Habits (talking about you, Luis). Ronnie's suggestion from last week of found-poetry-from-boring-speakers and Katie's anecdote of the strategies of a minister's wife's strategies entertained. More good information to know and to pass along to my English and my Study Skills students, in particular. I'll also try to keep in mind Ruie's comment of an audience's tendency to "focus to the light" (the overhead, LCD), although it will make me think of my students as deer.
Paige reminded us of our moral obligation to limit OUR talk before filling us in on new personality categories: the teddy bear, the magnifying glass, the slinky, and the paper clip. Discussion of Louise Rosenblatt's reader response theory led to Ron's clarification between efferent (for the info) and aesthetic (past the facts to the emotions) reading.
Katie then led us into a look into the the lyrics of Pink Floyd's song "Wish You Were Here". Her student's performance of the song for his deployed father must have been quite an emotional moment. Our interpretations grew after picking apart key words, growing into a dialogue within our daybooks. I thought of using these lyrics while discussing the role of nostalgia in One Hundred Years of Solitude with my seniors. My search for cheap daybooks is on now!
New words so far:
4-Panel Thingy (scientific name, dialecta responsus)
SLANT (Sit up, Lean forward, and Not Talk)
Anchor chart
After the break, Ruie guided us toward time to begin writing our personal narratives, making distinction between a memory piece and a personal narrative. Our personal narratives will cover larger spans of time and consider some point/moral/epiphany/insight. Reminding us that it certainly need not be somber, Ruie read a former fellow's amusing narrative of the humbling realization of a daughter (and bad driver).
Other notes for our narrative:
think of an era 1st (post-12 yrs old, probably)
then--consider moments of
trial & tribulation
deep forgiveness
innocence
loss
There need not be a big, profound theme--it can be quiet, a sudden insight into the nature of our own character.
And so, we were off to write (and struggle) and lunch.
Upon our return, Jessica presented her look into involving combining literacy activities through a visual arts perspective.
Two points of interest early--
After examining a portion of a 1930 Time article discussing Picasso's career, we wrote a letter to Time's editor in response to his painting Bull Skull, Fruit, Pitcher to judge whether it is good or bad art, providing reasons and support. Tanya's letter called into question the receipt tapestry's artistic merits as well. The cereal box sketchbook ideas and instruction-writing activity were more great materials included in her handouts. Others chiming in included Ronnie's vocabulary grid with a new word, Similar words/roots identified, Definition, and Picture of the word sounded useful, as did Ron's one-pager description of a quadrant in which 4 scenes of a narrative add to an analysis of how each scene (with quotes) contribute to setting, tone, character, etc.
http://www.clemusart.com/exhibcef/barcelona/html/5036514.html
The interpretation here seems to have been taken verbatim from my letter...
After Jessica's presentation, Ruie poured on the learning, taking us through a collocation exercise. Some were able to whip up connections easily to nouns in our early drafts; others strained. I kneaded a break.
After it, I remember thinking I was sad that Heather, Karen, Catherine, and Tanya weren't around for Ronnie's Roundtable Chat. I had no idea our afternoon would offer the opportunity to hear a discussion from the likes of Annie Dillard, Annie Lamott, Georgia Heard, and Stephen King. They came to examine up the apprehension that writer's often feel, highlighting the courage writing takes, the detriment of requiring control in knowing where you're going with your writing, and the requirement to just write. They shared hanging onto rituals, letting go of fears, and releasing something in your writing to which you're clinging. The CAWPers returned just after our celebrities left to lead a discussion into the implications of writing apprehension in the classroom using an article from English Journal. Very entertaining and effective.
After getting spiffied up, many CAWPers met at Jibarra for a fantastic meal and insights from Australian literacy luminary Brian Cambourne. The Malbec was tasty, the fajitas yummy, the company fun.
Paige reminded us of our moral obligation to limit OUR talk before filling us in on new personality categories: the teddy bear, the magnifying glass, the slinky, and the paper clip. Discussion of Louise Rosenblatt's reader response theory led to Ron's clarification between efferent (for the info) and aesthetic (past the facts to the emotions) reading.
Katie then led us into a look into the the lyrics of Pink Floyd's song "Wish You Were Here". Her student's performance of the song for his deployed father must have been quite an emotional moment. Our interpretations grew after picking apart key words, growing into a dialogue within our daybooks. I thought of using these lyrics while discussing the role of nostalgia in One Hundred Years of Solitude with my seniors. My search for cheap daybooks is on now!
New words so far:
4-Panel Thingy (scientific name, dialecta responsus)
SLANT (Sit up, Lean forward, and Not Talk)
Anchor chart
After the break, Ruie guided us toward time to begin writing our personal narratives, making distinction between a memory piece and a personal narrative. Our personal narratives will cover larger spans of time and consider some point/moral/epiphany/insight. Reminding us that it certainly need not be somber, Ruie read a former fellow's amusing narrative of the humbling realization of a daughter (and bad driver).
Other notes for our narrative:
think of an era 1st (post-12 yrs old, probably)
then--consider moments of
trial & tribulation
deep forgiveness
innocence
loss
There need not be a big, profound theme--it can be quiet, a sudden insight into the nature of our own character.
And so, we were off to write (and struggle) and lunch.
Upon our return, Jessica presented her look into involving combining literacy activities through a visual arts perspective.
Two points of interest early--
- The use of the term composition in considering each creative act
- Her presentation's title, "the itch to make dark marks on white paper," taken from a Picasso quote, of the urge artists (and via Jessica) and writers take part in through the creative process
After examining a portion of a 1930 Time article discussing Picasso's career, we wrote a letter to Time's editor in response to his painting Bull Skull, Fruit, Pitcher to judge whether it is good or bad art, providing reasons and support. Tanya's letter called into question the receipt tapestry's artistic merits as well. The cereal box sketchbook ideas and instruction-writing activity were more great materials included in her handouts. Others chiming in included Ronnie's vocabulary grid with a new word, Similar words/roots identified, Definition, and Picture of the word sounded useful, as did Ron's one-pager description of a quadrant in which 4 scenes of a narrative add to an analysis of how each scene (with quotes) contribute to setting, tone, character, etc.
http://www.clemusart.com/exhibcef/barcelona/html/5036514.html
The interpretation here seems to have been taken verbatim from my letter...
After Jessica's presentation, Ruie poured on the learning, taking us through a collocation exercise. Some were able to whip up connections easily to nouns in our early drafts; others strained. I kneaded a break.
After it, I remember thinking I was sad that Heather, Karen, Catherine, and Tanya weren't around for Ronnie's Roundtable Chat. I had no idea our afternoon would offer the opportunity to hear a discussion from the likes of Annie Dillard, Annie Lamott, Georgia Heard, and Stephen King. They came to examine up the apprehension that writer's often feel, highlighting the courage writing takes, the detriment of requiring control in knowing where you're going with your writing, and the requirement to just write. They shared hanging onto rituals, letting go of fears, and releasing something in your writing to which you're clinging. The CAWPers returned just after our celebrities left to lead a discussion into the implications of writing apprehension in the classroom using an article from English Journal. Very entertaining and effective.
After getting spiffied up, many CAWPers met at Jibarra for a fantastic meal and insights from Australian literacy luminary Brian Cambourne. The Malbec was tasty, the fajitas yummy, the company fun.
Tuesday, July 14 from Cathy Horne
The day began with Ruie modeling how to make group poems. Using the sentence starter below we each wrote a long sentence to answer the starter.
I remember…
This frame works well for students because they start with long sentences and then learn to revise. Ronnie volunteered to take our lines about memories and edit into a group poem.
Research about feedback and evaluation-using rubrics was presented by Ruie next.
We discussed how teachers use computers with comment features to respond more and more personally, and not mess up their copy as Paige explained. (Make tracking marks also.)
Comments by teachers have a powerful impact on writing development.
Other things that influence writers and feedback:
• Unattractive names receive lower marks. More common names receive higher marks. Used same papers and changed the names to do this research.
• Studies show that we should: Be specific. Start with a complete sentence that begins positively.
• In a 51 teacher study, in elementary, social behavior influenced grading more than content.
• What errors bother teachers the most: not content but conventions and sentence structure.
• Don’t punish for invented spellings.
• When you make a comment you are creating fears, so students figure out what the teacher values or dislikes, and may not try new features in their writing. Error free writing is not necessarily good.
• Evaluation should be a learning tool, so that teacher’s instruction helps with improving writing.
• Best to keep pointing out the good. Teachers mostly do deductive: have the rule, correct the incorrect ones. Inductive is better such that you look at words and have students give the rule.
• Official “Crib” sheet…questions to be asked plus Ruie’s questions. Then work in groups to study the answers to the questions
• Study what do teachers value when grading papers: content, organization first and the conventions.
• Intensive marking is no better than moderate marking in grading for eventual outcomes.
• 6 yr study scoring papers that only were different in style, not content. Flowery language received better scores than clear, direct simple sentences.
• Effects of feedback: 2/3 of comments are negative; 7 from 1000 comments were positive.
• Don’t wait until the end of the assignment to give feedback, but have students email you a paragraph with which they are struggling and ask a question about it.
5 Goals for evaluating using rubrics:
1. Teachers need to protect themselves against their own ibases.
2. Teachers need to make their internal criteria overt so that students don’t have to second-guess;
3. teachers need to use language that children understand.Criteria should fit the task and genre of writing
4.Teachers need to help students internalize evaluation criteria so that they become peer and self-valuators.
5. Need to create a public record so that students are accountable for their own growth.
Handouts of rubrics given by Ruie with variety of purposes.
Characteristics of 5 passages:
#1 voice, descriptive language, looks like a clown, all inadequate in narrative, specificity of language, opportunity to elaborate, made me laugh, organization does not have a topic sentence. Last sentence has comparison and best sentence structure of the paragraph.
#5 voice, more sophisticated, more of a story, is elaborated in second paragraph about a family story. Has narrative as example, has most sophisticated sentence structure
#2 Gets off tract and needs to tell more about family. Last sentence is his most sophisticated sentence structure.
Expert listeners:
1. What does the research say about how teachers do mark papers, as compared t what they know to do?
Bias based on names, if a student has experience similar to teacher may get better grade. Also social behavior, if like the student better, get better grade. If topic is unpleasant to teacher, there could be bias.
2. What are the effects of names on students? Names carry meaning for the teacher and bias. Be fair and use criteria.
3. What are some data from research about the kinds and numbers of teacher markings on student papers? 2/3 from negative point of view. Start with positive. Makes it easier to ftake the negative.
4. What suggestions do you have for making comments on papers?
5. What does research say is/are the most effective ways to evaluate student writing?
Technology discussion:
See notes
Interact site: blog used to interact with parents
Margaret Price: The Huddle Game
Recorder, writer, manager, and speaker…only speaker can talk to teacher
Writer records responses, recorder writes on the board.
The game continued through multiple rounds as we developed super sentences. Margaret presented several other ideas for engaging students in writing.
Sharing of Childhood Memories
Katie’s cat
Darius’ team selection
Julie- Saving Cathy swimming story
Amy Kay-Broken Conspiracy broken finger story
I remember…
This frame works well for students because they start with long sentences and then learn to revise. Ronnie volunteered to take our lines about memories and edit into a group poem.
Research about feedback and evaluation-using rubrics was presented by Ruie next.
We discussed how teachers use computers with comment features to respond more and more personally, and not mess up their copy as Paige explained. (Make tracking marks also.)
Comments by teachers have a powerful impact on writing development.
Other things that influence writers and feedback:
• Unattractive names receive lower marks. More common names receive higher marks. Used same papers and changed the names to do this research.
• Studies show that we should: Be specific. Start with a complete sentence that begins positively.
• In a 51 teacher study, in elementary, social behavior influenced grading more than content.
• What errors bother teachers the most: not content but conventions and sentence structure.
• Don’t punish for invented spellings.
• When you make a comment you are creating fears, so students figure out what the teacher values or dislikes, and may not try new features in their writing. Error free writing is not necessarily good.
• Evaluation should be a learning tool, so that teacher’s instruction helps with improving writing.
• Best to keep pointing out the good. Teachers mostly do deductive: have the rule, correct the incorrect ones. Inductive is better such that you look at words and have students give the rule.
• Official “Crib” sheet…questions to be asked plus Ruie’s questions. Then work in groups to study the answers to the questions
• Study what do teachers value when grading papers: content, organization first and the conventions.
• Intensive marking is no better than moderate marking in grading for eventual outcomes.
• 6 yr study scoring papers that only were different in style, not content. Flowery language received better scores than clear, direct simple sentences.
• Effects of feedback: 2/3 of comments are negative; 7 from 1000 comments were positive.
• Don’t wait until the end of the assignment to give feedback, but have students email you a paragraph with which they are struggling and ask a question about it.
5 Goals for evaluating using rubrics:
1. Teachers need to protect themselves against their own ibases.
2. Teachers need to make their internal criteria overt so that students don’t have to second-guess;
3. teachers need to use language that children understand.Criteria should fit the task and genre of writing
4.Teachers need to help students internalize evaluation criteria so that they become peer and self-valuators.
5. Need to create a public record so that students are accountable for their own growth.
Handouts of rubrics given by Ruie with variety of purposes.
Characteristics of 5 passages:
#1 voice, descriptive language, looks like a clown, all inadequate in narrative, specificity of language, opportunity to elaborate, made me laugh, organization does not have a topic sentence. Last sentence has comparison and best sentence structure of the paragraph.
#5 voice, more sophisticated, more of a story, is elaborated in second paragraph about a family story. Has narrative as example, has most sophisticated sentence structure
#2 Gets off tract and needs to tell more about family. Last sentence is his most sophisticated sentence structure.
Expert listeners:
1. What does the research say about how teachers do mark papers, as compared t what they know to do?
Bias based on names, if a student has experience similar to teacher may get better grade. Also social behavior, if like the student better, get better grade. If topic is unpleasant to teacher, there could be bias.
2. What are the effects of names on students? Names carry meaning for the teacher and bias. Be fair and use criteria.
3. What are some data from research about the kinds and numbers of teacher markings on student papers? 2/3 from negative point of view. Start with positive. Makes it easier to ftake the negative.
4. What suggestions do you have for making comments on papers?
5. What does research say is/are the most effective ways to evaluate student writing?
Technology discussion:
See notes
Interact site: blog used to interact with parents
Margaret Price: The Huddle Game
Recorder, writer, manager, and speaker…only speaker can talk to teacher
Writer records responses, recorder writes on the board.
The game continued through multiple rounds as we developed super sentences. Margaret presented several other ideas for engaging students in writing.
Sharing of Childhood Memories
Katie’s cat
Darius’ team selection
Julie- Saving Cathy swimming story
Amy Kay-Broken Conspiracy broken finger story
Monday, July 13, 2009
Week one - one sentence summaries
One Sentence Summaries of CAWP 09 - Week One
Beginning with first-day-of-school eagerness, the CAWP participants & instructors jumped into a week full of genuine inquisitiveness and camaraderie immersed in various writing exercises, ending with an intention to feel just as eager to come next Monday night to begin week 2. Melissa Hamm
Beginning with childhood memory drafts the Capital Area Writing Project spent time using web 2.0 technology tools, writing new found poetry structures, and ended by learning more about revised writing assessments in North Carolina. Darius Horton
Beginning with Tuesday and building through Friday, the CAWP participants performed a myriad of activities including, presenting lessons on writing, posting getting-to-know-you activities, bio-ing our lives, daybooking, maneuvering through tech sites, researching writing types, penciling in expectations, diving into poetry, wordle-ing, Wiggs-ing, Buckner-ing, Bell-ing, eating homemade goodies in between, and ultimately, for my personal purposes, learning to fall in love with writing all over again. Tanya Watson
During the first week of CAWP participates learned about various technology tools, wrote and shared childhood memories while various speakers doted the week with a smorgasbord of poetry, presentations, and an international perspective on writing. Margaret Price
Beginning with alliterative adjectives Tuesday morning, the CAWP wrote, revised, and responded to various types of writing, poetry, and technology, and ended the week with a reflection of our very intense, yet satisfying efforts.
Leigh Ann Lane
Beginning with alliterations on Tuesday morning, the CAWP plumbed childhood memories, challenged our knowledge of instructional technology, consumed vast quantities of caffeine and calories, revised our understanding of revision, waxed poetic on poetry, and studied curriculum Kiwi-style; all while learning from each other through presentation and fellowship.
Heather Lowry
Beginning with first-day-of-school eagerness, the CAWP participants & instructors jumped into a week full of genuine inquisitiveness and camaraderie immersed in various writing exercises, ending with an intention to feel just as eager to come next Monday night to begin week 2. Melissa Hamm
Beginning with childhood memory drafts the Capital Area Writing Project spent time using web 2.0 technology tools, writing new found poetry structures, and ended by learning more about revised writing assessments in North Carolina. Darius Horton
Beginning with Tuesday and building through Friday, the CAWP participants performed a myriad of activities including, presenting lessons on writing, posting getting-to-know-you activities, bio-ing our lives, daybooking, maneuvering through tech sites, researching writing types, penciling in expectations, diving into poetry, wordle-ing, Wiggs-ing, Buckner-ing, Bell-ing, eating homemade goodies in between, and ultimately, for my personal purposes, learning to fall in love with writing all over again. Tanya Watson
During the first week of CAWP participates learned about various technology tools, wrote and shared childhood memories while various speakers doted the week with a smorgasbord of poetry, presentations, and an international perspective on writing. Margaret Price
Beginning with alliterative adjectives Tuesday morning, the CAWP wrote, revised, and responded to various types of writing, poetry, and technology, and ended the week with a reflection of our very intense, yet satisfying efforts.
Leigh Ann Lane
Beginning with alliterations on Tuesday morning, the CAWP plumbed childhood memories, challenged our knowledge of instructional technology, consumed vast quantities of caffeine and calories, revised our understanding of revision, waxed poetic on poetry, and studied curriculum Kiwi-style; all while learning from each other through presentation and fellowship.
Heather Lowry
July 10, 2009 CAWP
July 10, 2009 CAWP
At the bottom of my day book page I see in big letters “BLOG – JULY 10th!” as if the gargantuan letters will somehow leap forth to pound this reminder into my head. It is Friday, and a scrambled brain washed down with a large coffee is my breakfast. The morning begins with an hour of practice on Voice-thread and Photo Story. I decide to use a scaffold poem from the day before set to images borrowed, with proper credit given, from Google. The sound of my voice is strange as I check my seventeen second clips for reasons to be embarrassed. All words are pronounced correctly, all images accounted for; even if the dancing guy tenderly caressing the Bud Light could’ve chosen a better dance partner.
I notice Justine and Tanya flitting from table to laptop cart. From this and their matching purple and black outfits I zone back in to prepare mentally for their presentation on Found Poetry. At this point Justine is telling us they in fact did not coordinate their outfits. Tanya slings a shawl about her shoulders, strutting, sashaying with her hips and words, telling us that we must see beyond our preconceptions. The shawl can be just a shawl, or an exotic veil, an African queen’s coronet, or a sassy waitress’ apron. Her New Orleans charm is thick and inviting like hot chocolate made from cream. Katrina never stood a chance.
In Found Poetry, Justine picks up to say, selecting poignant words or phrases from existing and relevant texts enables the students to slide into a poetry unit with confidence. They are gleaning from an already existent text and need not produce any words, ideas, or themes on their own. This enables the student to learn the structure of poetry without becoming intimidated. I see a clip of the Simpsons pop up and grow increasingly excited. Justine makes mixed medium art, believes education is the new civil rights movement, and likes the Simpsons! We may have to forgive her Yankeedom.
The steps of Found Poetry include reading an entire excerpt, marking the words or phrases that stand out in some way to the reader, and using only those selections in a new poem. A true found poem uses the found words in order from the first found to the last. The poet does not need to use all the found words, just the ones that make sense in an order. Listing the found words on a separate sheet may help some learners organize but is not necessary. Also, the new found poem does not need to refer back thematically to the original piece. Excerpts for found poetry can include articles, poems, speeches, graffiti, letters, or even street signs. Found poetry can ease a student’s reservations about poetry and creating an original work, can be used as a hook into a new poetry unit, as a summary tool, or even given to show theme in a particular work. Ronnie suggested that found poetry is reminiscent of Dada poems, named after the Dada movement in art, in which words are cut out individually, jumbled about in an envelope, and pulled out one by one with a limit of how many are pulled. The student then makes sense of the words pulled by arranging those words into a new poem.
Dr. Ron allowed us to embrace our inner child by participating in a tracing and coloring activity with a “get-to-know-you” spin. After tracing one hand, we added our goals, concerns, things we are proud of, accomplishments, objectives, and talents inside the hand. On each of the five fingers we placed one of our life roles. I am jealous of the Meredith sisterhood at my table, all of whom trace their black Meredith rings on their hands.
Melissa’s presentation rounds out our day. She begins by making us jealous and woozy by her use of the document camera. Inconspicuously I add “document camera” to my “things to beg principal for” list. The presentation centered on an incident Melissa had encountered with her elementary school in regards to the 4th grade writing assessment. The butterfly prompt we were shown was her school’s initial practice prompt, but it was incredibly vague. Melissa laughed as she recalled the hundred different ways the children wrote from the prompt and how unprepared the teachers felt to properly and concisely grade this assessment. Though it took four days of incredibly hard work and focus, the school produced a new prompt through collaborative effort. Even the PE teacher helped! The new prompt and rubric were more focused, written in more child friendly language, and more enforceable. More importantly than knowing the rubric guidelines, students must understand those guidelines. Once understood, the teacher should model a writing assignment using the prompt and rubric; only then should teachers ask the students to write to a prompt. This progression proved successful in Melissa’s school.
Happy weekend y’all!! - from Katie
At the bottom of my day book page I see in big letters “BLOG – JULY 10th!” as if the gargantuan letters will somehow leap forth to pound this reminder into my head. It is Friday, and a scrambled brain washed down with a large coffee is my breakfast. The morning begins with an hour of practice on Voice-thread and Photo Story. I decide to use a scaffold poem from the day before set to images borrowed, with proper credit given, from Google. The sound of my voice is strange as I check my seventeen second clips for reasons to be embarrassed. All words are pronounced correctly, all images accounted for; even if the dancing guy tenderly caressing the Bud Light could’ve chosen a better dance partner.
I notice Justine and Tanya flitting from table to laptop cart. From this and their matching purple and black outfits I zone back in to prepare mentally for their presentation on Found Poetry. At this point Justine is telling us they in fact did not coordinate their outfits. Tanya slings a shawl about her shoulders, strutting, sashaying with her hips and words, telling us that we must see beyond our preconceptions. The shawl can be just a shawl, or an exotic veil, an African queen’s coronet, or a sassy waitress’ apron. Her New Orleans charm is thick and inviting like hot chocolate made from cream. Katrina never stood a chance.
In Found Poetry, Justine picks up to say, selecting poignant words or phrases from existing and relevant texts enables the students to slide into a poetry unit with confidence. They are gleaning from an already existent text and need not produce any words, ideas, or themes on their own. This enables the student to learn the structure of poetry without becoming intimidated. I see a clip of the Simpsons pop up and grow increasingly excited. Justine makes mixed medium art, believes education is the new civil rights movement, and likes the Simpsons! We may have to forgive her Yankeedom.
The steps of Found Poetry include reading an entire excerpt, marking the words or phrases that stand out in some way to the reader, and using only those selections in a new poem. A true found poem uses the found words in order from the first found to the last. The poet does not need to use all the found words, just the ones that make sense in an order. Listing the found words on a separate sheet may help some learners organize but is not necessary. Also, the new found poem does not need to refer back thematically to the original piece. Excerpts for found poetry can include articles, poems, speeches, graffiti, letters, or even street signs. Found poetry can ease a student’s reservations about poetry and creating an original work, can be used as a hook into a new poetry unit, as a summary tool, or even given to show theme in a particular work. Ronnie suggested that found poetry is reminiscent of Dada poems, named after the Dada movement in art, in which words are cut out individually, jumbled about in an envelope, and pulled out one by one with a limit of how many are pulled. The student then makes sense of the words pulled by arranging those words into a new poem.
Dr. Ron allowed us to embrace our inner child by participating in a tracing and coloring activity with a “get-to-know-you” spin. After tracing one hand, we added our goals, concerns, things we are proud of, accomplishments, objectives, and talents inside the hand. On each of the five fingers we placed one of our life roles. I am jealous of the Meredith sisterhood at my table, all of whom trace their black Meredith rings on their hands.
Melissa’s presentation rounds out our day. She begins by making us jealous and woozy by her use of the document camera. Inconspicuously I add “document camera” to my “things to beg principal for” list. The presentation centered on an incident Melissa had encountered with her elementary school in regards to the 4th grade writing assessment. The butterfly prompt we were shown was her school’s initial practice prompt, but it was incredibly vague. Melissa laughed as she recalled the hundred different ways the children wrote from the prompt and how unprepared the teachers felt to properly and concisely grade this assessment. Though it took four days of incredibly hard work and focus, the school produced a new prompt through collaborative effort. Even the PE teacher helped! The new prompt and rubric were more focused, written in more child friendly language, and more enforceable. More importantly than knowing the rubric guidelines, students must understand those guidelines. Once understood, the teacher should model a writing assignment using the prompt and rubric; only then should teachers ask the students to write to a prompt. This progression proved successful in Melissa’s school.
Happy weekend y’all!! - from Katie
Thursday @ CAWP 7.9.2009
Along with their laptops & writing materials, the 2009 CAWP participants & presenters came to class bearing gifts. While the room was not completely, everyone was busy working in some way – engaging conversations about when assignments are due, if things are actually assignments, how much more time there is to procrastinate, & of course plenty of “shop talk.” While we did not start the day off following the agenda, participants were very productive; this is a huge difference in adult learners & early childhood learners.
Small groups scattered around Poe Hall when Ruie realized that we were getting started late. The budding authors read aloud their pieces about childhood memories as others listened intensely to offer their own opinions.
A short few moments later, the whole group reconvened in our humble abode to listen to a guest speaker. Dr. Sally Buckner presented many wonderful ideas about poetry instruction in her talk, A Smörgåsbord of Poetry Writing Activities. As any great teacher, Dr. Buckner came to class ready to teach us, while we sat eager to learn. She challenged us to write several different types of poems from frames & even enticed several participants to share their poems. Dr. Buckner was a true southern delight!
After a round of applause, the community of educators joined in fellowship over a potluck lunch shared with Dr. Buckner, as well as Ms. Vinetta Bell, an ELA consultant at DPI.
After everyone loosened their belts a notch, CAWPers participated in a presentation by our kiwi-friend, Ronnie Davey. Wearing a lovely pair of jandel earrings, Ronnie got our attention with information about the literacy curriculum & assessments approved by the national Ministry of Education of New Zealand. Between presenter & the audience members many comparisons were made to writing instruction & assessment in North Carolina public schools.
To end our first Thursday of the summer sessions, participants of CAWP continued their collaborative efforts within their small groups to work out further plans for upcoming topic presentations. These are sure to give all participants a new perspective on writing, as each is working diligently to become more successful at the task &/or love of writing!
Small groups scattered around Poe Hall when Ruie realized that we were getting started late. The budding authors read aloud their pieces about childhood memories as others listened intensely to offer their own opinions.
A short few moments later, the whole group reconvened in our humble abode to listen to a guest speaker. Dr. Sally Buckner presented many wonderful ideas about poetry instruction in her talk, A Smörgåsbord of Poetry Writing Activities. As any great teacher, Dr. Buckner came to class ready to teach us, while we sat eager to learn. She challenged us to write several different types of poems from frames & even enticed several participants to share their poems. Dr. Buckner was a true southern delight!
After a round of applause, the community of educators joined in fellowship over a potluck lunch shared with Dr. Buckner, as well as Ms. Vinetta Bell, an ELA consultant at DPI.
After everyone loosened their belts a notch, CAWPers participated in a presentation by our kiwi-friend, Ronnie Davey. Wearing a lovely pair of jandel earrings, Ronnie got our attention with information about the literacy curriculum & assessments approved by the national Ministry of Education of New Zealand. Between presenter & the audience members many comparisons were made to writing instruction & assessment in North Carolina public schools.
To end our first Thursday of the summer sessions, participants of CAWP continued their collaborative efforts within their small groups to work out further plans for upcoming topic presentations. These are sure to give all participants a new perspective on writing, as each is working diligently to become more successful at the task &/or love of writing!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Reporting from the Revered Campus of NC State University
On July 8, the Capital Area Writing Project held an educational institute at Poe Hall. In attendance were more than 15 well-heeled participants, as well as distinguished professors and guests from as far away as New Zealand. The always popular event began with a delightful reception hour where coffee and chocolate chip coffee cake were served.
Ms. Catherine Wiggs, known among CAWP participants as Complicated Kate, kicked off the day’s activities with a “Starter” related to her previous lesson on Reader Response Journals. She used fabulous Post-it posters, a favorite tool, to demonstrate five types of starters. Ms. Wiggs, who was wearing a striking shade of purple, was caught blushing when Dr. Ruie Pritchard added “4 panel thingy” to the “Composing Vocabulary” list.
Following Ms. Wigg’s presentation, Dr. Donna Morrow of New Zealand, in green stripes and a matching green necklace, introduced the guests to Wordle. Everyone was charmed by the wordle of Pride and Prejudice, despite a slight snafu resulting in a mysteriously purple projection screen. Guests experimented with wordle and brainstormed potential classroom uses.
The guests dispersed to meet in groups concerning their topic presentations. Upon returning, Dr. Pritchard provided information about the process of revision. Her elegant remarks, not to mention her long necklace of pearly shell buttons, intrigued all in attendance. She noted the important distinction between revision and mere editing. Dr. Ron Honeycutt, one of the few gentlemen in attendance, contributed his “DARE to Revise” concept.
Guests lunched independently. Shortly after lunch, Dr. Morrow and Ms. Megan Poole began the final presentation of the day. Ms. Poole wore pink. The techno-savvy duo demonstrated two useful image and audio programs: Voicethread and Photo Story. As Dr. Morrow noted, anybody who is anybody uses “multimodal ways of communicating.” As the day drew to a close, the participants looked forward to the next day’s activities.
Ms. Catherine Wiggs, known among CAWP participants as Complicated Kate, kicked off the day’s activities with a “Starter” related to her previous lesson on Reader Response Journals. She used fabulous Post-it posters, a favorite tool, to demonstrate five types of starters. Ms. Wiggs, who was wearing a striking shade of purple, was caught blushing when Dr. Ruie Pritchard added “4 panel thingy” to the “Composing Vocabulary” list.
Following Ms. Wigg’s presentation, Dr. Donna Morrow of New Zealand, in green stripes and a matching green necklace, introduced the guests to Wordle. Everyone was charmed by the wordle of Pride and Prejudice, despite a slight snafu resulting in a mysteriously purple projection screen. Guests experimented with wordle and brainstormed potential classroom uses.
The guests dispersed to meet in groups concerning their topic presentations. Upon returning, Dr. Pritchard provided information about the process of revision. Her elegant remarks, not to mention her long necklace of pearly shell buttons, intrigued all in attendance. She noted the important distinction between revision and mere editing. Dr. Ron Honeycutt, one of the few gentlemen in attendance, contributed his “DARE to Revise” concept.
Guests lunched independently. Shortly after lunch, Dr. Morrow and Ms. Megan Poole began the final presentation of the day. Ms. Poole wore pink. The techno-savvy duo demonstrated two useful image and audio programs: Voicethread and Photo Story. As Dr. Morrow noted, anybody who is anybody uses “multimodal ways of communicating.” As the day drew to a close, the participants looked forward to the next day’s activities.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
July 7th Summary
CAWPers trickled in this morning to begin the day with coffee and conversation and found Room 102 changed. Instead of the familiar U-shaped configuration, the tables were split up and spread around the room for small group gathering.
Ronnie Davey & Donna Morrow introduced themselves and New Zealand with Ronnie’s performance of a traditional mehe (sp?) greeting in one of the country’s 3 languages, followed by anecdotes sprinkled with vocabulary and humor, and concluding with a wyata (sp?) duet. They also gave us gifts of Cadbury chocolate marshmallow fish and a shell apiece from the beach.
Using “Alliterative Adjectives,” we created a name web to help the newcomers (along with ourselves) remember our first names. See if you can match the following adjectives with their owners: resilient, rebellious, daring, resolved, hopeful, conscientious, death defying, just, crazy, teachable, jumbled, likable, complicated, attentive, relaxed R, wishful, joyful, magnificent forgetful, and pixilated.
Our first handout of the day asked us to rate ourselves according to the 5 topics that corresponded to the 5 charts on the wall. We placed orange dots on the charts to record our starting points; then used clickers and software that turned the results into a bar graph.
The next handout was a quiz that we privately scored to gauge our sensitivity to receiving criticism from our peer groups.
For our childhood memory piece, we received a “Write Stuff” handout of starter phrases with the direction to check a couple to get us thinking. Ruie told us not to forget to include smell in our descriptions and solicited ideas from the group about some family times we had been thinking about, reminding us that we can use “literary license” to condense these memories in a cohesive and coherent fashion. Ron pointed out that research on memoir writing shows that truth is perception and different people may have different views of the same event.
The handout on this “remembering childhood” assignment was accompanied by instructions to write hot today, which we did for at least an hour. There will be a guided revision exercise on Wednesday with sharing of first drafts in peer groups on Thursday. Focus should be on the peer response questions, which set up the rubric for this assignment.
The afternoon was devoted to technology. Donna’s presentation on “Education in the 21st Century” sparked a discussion of what students are experiencing inside and outside of school, particularly how they are processing information. The descriptor “digital” has been applied to various terms, including digital natives vs. digital immigrants, digital literacy vs. digital fluency. For a few moments our table groups considered Prinsky’s observation: "our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach" (2001). Among the points brought up were: 2nd & 3rd graders can do more than many adults, including their teachers; a creative environment is being done outside instead of inside school; and because we don't know what's coming, we have to teach our students how to learn, analyze, etc.
A circular diagram illustrated how speed/connectivity/intangibles (using & finding knowledge) are interrelated. And Donna made the distinction between the “read only” Web 1.0 and the “read/write” characteristic of today’s Web 2.0 and “cloud computing.” Examples of ways the Web is changing can be seen in the videos created by the PS22 kids on You Tube, the Early Childhood blog where parents can add comments, and the learning stories. For fun we should check out the JibJab program, and for creating and sharing understandings, there is VoiceThread, described as a visual podcast.
Some results of these emerging technologies are: students are authors and participants rather than observers, and expertise is distributed and shared rather than residing with a centralized expert and owned. Something to think about: how technology is changing what we do as educators.
Megan introduced us to the CAWP wiki under the Web 2.0 Info site so we could plan our Thursday brunch menu. There was a learning curve to surmount as only 1 person can edit a page at a time.
Then we were guided through setting up a Delicious account to save and share bookmarks. A handout supported this exercise, and we were shown the value of organization into tags as well as using bookmarklets with the various browsers.
Donna pointed out the daily blog, “Writing with Light,” and we were introduced to e-Writers to post the pieces we will write for class.
Finally, we were assigned and received the article “Unleashing Potential with Emerging Technologies” in a numbered folder to read for future discussion.
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