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?