[Mentor Text Monday] A Sunday Evening Sentence Search

It's Sunday evening. I want to post a mentor text, but my brain, she be empty. I tumble through my thoughts, flip through my mental card catalogue, scroll through my Twitter feed, and... nothing.

And then I remember--books! I read books, own books, and display said books in an easy-access shelving unit otherwise known as a book shelf. Books have words! Words have inspiration! I leap up from my slouchy-couch-typing position, semi-shut my eyes, pick a book, and settle back in (a little less slouchy, but not much).

What follows is my completely unstructured method for finding mentor-textian inspiration in a randomly-selected book.

The book, chosen mostly at random from my living room bookshelf:

The Book of Questions

by Pablo Neruda

Translated by William O'Daly

Published in 1974 by a small publishing house in Port Townsend, WA (near my home town!)

I've spent time with this book before--both in Spanish and English. I didn't read it cover to cover, but it's one of my familiars. It is not what I'd call an easy or accessible read, but it is undeniably gorgeous. The entire book is a series of unanswerable questions written as couplets. 

Unanswerable questions--I like that as a discussion and writing springboard. 

Couplets--I don't find teaching rhyming couplets overly inspiring, but I can see some interesting possibilities in a couplet conversation (rhyming vs. non-rhyming, open vs. closed, end-stop or run-on). 

I thumb through some of the passages:

XII

And at whom does rice smile

with infinitely many white teeth?

Why in the darkest ages 

do they write with invisible ink?

Does the beauty from Caracas know

how many skirts the river has?

Why do the fleas

and literary sergeants bite me?

Um... no. Even in my swirly-twirly brain, these words do not inspire a teachable moment for me. I find many more phrases that are interesting, but not "the one":

How large was the black octopus

that darkened the days peace?

No...

Who can convince the sea

to be reasonable?

Better, but I'm looking for a series...

If all rivers are sweet

where does the sea get its salt?

I like it, can I use the series?

If all rivers are sweet

where does the sea get its salt?

How do the seasons know

they must change their shirt?

Why so slowly in winter

and later with such a rapid shudder?

And how do the roots know

they must climb toward the light?

And then greet the air

with so many flowers and colors?

Is it always the same spring

who revives her role?

Yes, I think I can use this. A few of the lines are less clear than I'd like, but as a series, it has possibility. I see a few possible links:

• geography--rivers leading to the ocean, where DOES the salt come from?
• science--plants, roots, photosynthesis, how DO the plants know?
• literature--symbolism, figurative language, what is the personality of Spring?

I'd like to try a lesson with a good read of these couplets--individually, and as a series. Depending on the grade, I would dig a little deeper in to the idea that with these questions, Neruda shows a depth of learning about the topic--the idea that good questions can hold as much information as an answer. I would like to tie it in to a content area unit, and then use this series as a mentor text for showing learning about that content. 

My next step? Trying it on. I have to try to write one to see if it is possible, to watch the path of my thinking, so see if it supports the thinking I have in mind, and to use as an example if I do use this text. Sometimes I'll try this with a topic that is interesting to me personally, but often I use content that is appropriate to the grade level I'm teaching.

3rd Grade--Physical Science: Energy and Matter

Why does the fruit bowl not light up 

with the energy it stores?

Does the energy it creates 

travel in waves as well?

Are sunbeams sisters 

to soundwaves and oceans?

Well. That was harder than I thought. I tapped out at three. It took more content knowledge than I expected, and it was difficult to find a balance between poetic and factual. This mentor text would take some time, a class I knew well, and students with experience struggling through challenges in reading and writing. Considering all of that, I'd still like to use it. I'm tucking it away in my idea file!

So, that's my process when I try on a new mentor text. Do you have a process you use, a resource you prefer, or some favorite mentor texts you can use over and over?

[Mentor Text Monday] I Heart Wired Magazine

Those of you that talk to me on any kind of a regular basis know about my love for Wired Magazine. I love every issue that comes out, and I thank my engineer friend for getting me a subscription. It's online as well,  but I truly enjoy the hard copy each month. Of course it isn't a perfect magazine (what??? impossible!), but I'm accepting of a periodical's growth areas.

I have narrowed down my Wired love-fest to four Mentor-Text-Monday-worthy reasons: Titles, Academic Language, Whole Text Structure and Text Complexity.

Titles

The article titles themselves serve as mentor texts for writing headers, titles, and punctuation for effect. Check out these intriguing titles:

See How Cadbury Hatches 350 Million Goo-Filled Eggs a Year

Are Touch Screens Melting Your Kids Brain?

Ridiculous New UFO Poll Reveals … Nothing Important

This Ex-Astronaut is Stalking Asteroids to Save Civilization

How to Make Fake Brains and Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

Academic Language

Wired Magazine does not shy away from academic language. Using a super-cool tool called WordSift (thank you Kenji Hakuta and Greg Wientjes of Stanford University and the SDAWP Fellow that shared this with me), I was able to sift through the text for various kinds of academic lanaguge.

Whole Text Strucutres

There are also some fascinating mentors for whole text structures:

Bird flipbooks made from old clocks and bike parts

A photo study on the earth's relationship with water

Chased by a Zombie
A Physics problem using zombies. Need I say more?

Text Conmplexity

The text in Wired Magazine is of a high level. I took one text--the body of a short article accompanying a graphic--and ran it through some text analyzers. This text, Science Graphic of the Week: 5.3 Million Years of Sea Level Change on One Cliff Face, was especially high. There is a variety, but expect to find texts that push the limits for your students.

So there you have it. four excellent reasons to go online and spend some time reading Wired Magazine articles. You'll learn at leas tone interesting thing, I promise!

Linking up to Mentor Text Monday on SDAWP Voices.

[Lesson Ideas] Magically Delicious

Here is a presentation I made to help me introduce the concept of Magic Realism at Young Writers Camp.  Feel free to use it, and all images and links should either go directly to the source, or have enough information to identify the source. Please also give appropriate credit to sources if you use this--it's the right thing to do.

Link to Magic Realism Presentation online

See also:

Imagine a Place by Sarah L. Thompson with the art of Rob Gonzalves 

Imagine a Day by Sarah L. Thompson with the art of Rob Gonzalves 

Imagine a Place by Sarah L. Thompson with the art of Rob Gonzalves 

If... by Sarah Perry

[Friday Free-Day] Yo! Snaps

I'm puttering around this post trying to figure out how to describe what became, this Spring, a phenomenon in my classroom. It's quite near indescribable, but it's also amazing and worth sharing.

Where to begin...?

On a Tuesday I "threw a snap" to one of my students. It's something I used to do with my friends growing up.  It makes little sense in the real world, but every once in awhile I have a student that identifies with it.  In this game you pretend to throw, bounce, dribble, and catch a pretend object.  Each time the pretend object is caught, or thrown, or bounced, you make a snapping noise. I found a game called snapball on Urban Dictionary.  Maybe they explain it better? Or this YouTube Video.

Anyhoo, two of my turkey-butts became enthralled with it and threw snaps at each other for the rest of the day.  Their little fingers were all red from snapping all day.

Then I was out sick for day, and I came back to brand-new, highly-developed game called "Snaps." Fifteen to twenty of my twenty-five students are throwing snaps at each other in their spare time.  They are creating "designer snaps" on paper, and then "snapping" them into play through a complicated induction snap.

For the rest of the school year, the kiddos created snaps on paper, inducted them into play, and "tossed" them back and forth throughout the day.

Here is the original page of snaps form that day.  These were later revised and entered into a "Snap Notebook" (revision!!!  of a sort).  Below are the following snaps (left to right):

Row 1: Rasta Snap, Cracked Window Snap, Dr. Pepper Snap, Bacteria Snap 1, Bacteria Snap 2, Plaid Snap, Ribbon Snap, Smart Snap, Iron Man Snap, Row 2: Crying Tree Snap, Star Trek Snap, Boss Snap, Asterisk Snap, Yellow Snap, Rainbow Snap, Quest Snap, Ninja Snap (?), Teeth SnapRow 3: Tiger Snap, Firework Snap (?), Pizza Snap, Boss Snap #2, Striped Snap, Abstract Snap, Church Snap, Cat Snap, Two-tone Snap

 True, it became distracting at times.  Truer still, it was a wonderful learning opportunity that completely tickled my fancy.  When I sat back and looked at it from a different perspective (a la Monopoly with my favorite San Diego Area Writing Project Fellows), I found ways to incorporate all different things into what the muffin-heads were already highly motivated to do:

• learning, discussion and practice using implicit and explicit rules
• Naming, grouping, and defining snaps
• using Google Hangouts to share our snaps with a fellow teacher in a neighboring district (so much fun that was!)
• using planning tools and the classroom Ipod Touches to design an app to share our snaps
• understanding and dealing with our disappointment when time and technology interrupted our app-making plans
• art (drawing snaps takes effort!)
• imagination and creativity
• fine motor skills and gross motor skills
• PE (we had a rousing game of snaps outside one day--we were all exhausted)

So...  that is the Snap phenomenon.  It tickles my heart and my brain.  My turkey butts are amazing!

[Mentor Text Monday] Maniac Magee

Briefly, I define mentor texts as a piece of a writing used as a model.  There is more to it, but let's start there.  Eventually, I'll post a page with more of a definition or guide.

I'm not sure exactly how Mentor Text Mondays will go, but you can bet on your teaching patootie, that there will be Mentor Texts.  As for Mondays...   that's negotiable.

I recently started reading Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli with my young'uns.  Every page has something amazing.  EVERY SINGLE PAGE.  I'm not even being hyperbolic here.

Here is the first paragraph of the first chapter:

I read it out loud.  They read it again to themselves.  I asked one of my go-to guiding questions, "What do you think I noticed first thing?"  Here is what we found:

This says that the author uses Repetition for Effect, a hyphenated modifier, and some mix of hyperbole, figurative language, and mythology.  We spent some time talking about the differences and similarities, and how to use this in our writing.  There was a lot of discussion about heroes and myths associated with heroes.  Then, we wrote.  You'll see evidence of our discussion of heroes.  You will also see that these are not revised or edited pieces.  This was a practice in writing craft, not a practice in revising or editing.  I'll share that later (thanks to Jeff Anderson and 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know

 

[Student Work] Late

From a student journal today.  We've been writing 15 minutes a day all year.   This makes my heart smile.

Late start.

Barely made it.

Happy I'm not late.

The guy in the taco shop took forever,

Singing his songs and drinking coffee.

Irritated already

So please

Leave me alone

Stomachache

Foot cramps

Head ache.

                                                          -A.

[Mentor Texts] Leading up to Memoirs

Today we started to write memoirs. While I'm glad to share the steps leading up to these very-first-inkling drafts, I'd rather just show y'all what they came up with.

Here is the mentor text we used.  It's from Knots in My Yo-yo String by Jerry Spinelli.  We are using his memoirs as our mentor text throughout. We read a few excerpts, and then started in with this paragraph:

And here is our marked up version:

We've talked about a lot of these writer's tricks before have made symbols for some of them.  Here you see that we talked about (sort of in order as you read):

--How the author gives a location and then goes into detail using the sense of smell and sound
--The use of the hyphenated modifer high-pitched (H-M)
--The juxtaposition  of the two things we normally think of has high-pitched and hi mom's voice.  We also noticed that this puts a small piece of humor in.
--Figurative Language that extends in the next sentence (FL)
--Repetition for Effect (^^)
--An ellipse

Using this information, they started their own first paragraphs.  These are unedited paragraphs written in about 10 minutes at the end of our discussion.

 

So...  what we have here is a wide range of ability, reliance on the mentor author's words, and a HUGE range in skills. It is true, if you hold it up to what 7th and 8th graders have to do on command for assessments, it isn't going to cut it. You can take red pens to it, you can talk about how they should know how to capitalize, or how their handwriting is illegible. Technically, all of that is true.



I, however, am celebrating the fact that they are playing with words.  That they set right to work, were eager, were helping each other, and identified writer's craft with a high level of success.  that two of my kiddos with autism used figurative language successfully.  That my kiddos that read at the 3rd and 4th grade level are successfully mimicking a higher-level text.  That students with oppositional defiant disorder COMPLETED the assignment as given.  That my students who failed all of 6th and 7th grade for not turning in a single page of work, did this AND turned it in.

For my kiddos at this point in the year, I call this a win. My poodle-heads are writers. The rest will come.

[Teaching Writing] Many Good Things A.K.A Fresh is the New Cool.

More specifically, 100 Good Things.

I discovered a new magazine recently.  I was drawn in by the cover (see photo to the left).  True, the word GOOD screams out at you.  This may have been the first thing I saw.  Additionally, the cover is made from a matte-artsy-mod-hipster material and I wanted to pick it up.  Once I did, the articles and ads were equally fascinating.

Even better, I found my first-day-back-at-school-super-cool-lesson idea within the non-glossy-hip-and-cool pages.

Today we began our own 100 Good Things list using this interactive list as our mentor text.

Some examples from the list that caught our eye:

• Gaming is the new teaching tool.
• Glitterbombing is the new yarnbombing.
• Supper Club is the new restaurant
• Touch is the new click
• Twitter Spoiler is the new TV Recap
• Doing is the new Talking
• AIRBNB is the new Craigslist
• Pie is the new cupcake

Here are the rough ideas from our list:

• Modern Warfare is the new Halo
• Green Lantern is the new Superman
• Dubstep is the new Techno
• iPad is the new iPod
• Teased hair is the new Bump-it
• Google Earth is the new Google Maps
• "Smile Bracelets" are the new "Silly Bands"
• Facebook is the new MySpace
• Google+ is the new Facebook
• Texting is the new calling
• Sears is the new Kmart
• Fresh is the new cool
• Astin Kucker is the new Charlie Sheen
• Takis are the new Flamin' Hot Cheetos
• Blu-Ray is the new DVD 

Just a little window into the souls of our next generation.  Some hopeful, some scary, yes?

[Quote of the Week] Leaning Pizza

The Scene: Journal-writing time.  The schmoopies are all writing.  In fact, they all started writing early--before the bell rang (!!!).  Schmoopie T. has a question.  Typically, there is no question-asking or question-answering during writing time, but since they started early I oblige...

T: Um, does the Tower of Pisa lean?
Me: Well, yes.
T: Okay... so... is it called the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
Me: Yes it is.
T:  Thanks (starts writing)

Why does this make the Quote of the Week?  Let's break it down.  I infer from the question that T. is intending to use a reference to the Leaning Tower of Pisa in his writing.  I also know that T. knows parts of things, has heard things, and is trying to put it together. He doesn't have very much mental stimulation going on at home,* and has to figure these things out himself or at school.  My guess here is that he knew there was something with a name similar to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  He wasn't positive that the word was "leaning", so he organized his questions to check his facts.  I LOVE it.

I'm not going to be sad that in his writing he spelled it Leaning Tower of Pizza, because A).  That's cute, B). I know what he meant to do, and C). He used it SO well!  The line he used is excellent!  It's posted in his journal entries here, and quoted for your perusal below.

"...I was trying to run away but he ramed me and stood over me like the Leaning Tower of Pizza, grunting like a pig, and staring deep into my soul."

Rock on T.  Keep asking questions and getting the information you need!


*Note--In the most positive way I can say it, I was blessed with a family that was intelligent and valued literacy, conversation, and thought.  Many of my lovies don't have this in their lives.

[Student Writing] Journal Excerpts

I posted yesterday about my students and their journal writing.  I asked permission to share some of the entries.  I'll show a series for each author to show the change over the last four weeks of writing. I'll also transcribe exactly--including errors, run-ons, etc.:

T.

8/18

Yesterday when i got home I watched my brother pay his PS3 he was playing dead Rising 2 when he was done I played and of course I played blackops I was doing goog I had 4 kills and 28 deaths and I was sniping with the L9641 I played until I had to go to bed and when I went to bed I was watching deadliest warrior It was the IRA V.S. The Taliban The IRA won. 

8/25

Yesterday When I got home I stared at my Pet scoripon I still don't know what to name him Pablo? no maybe I need to think harder about my tannish brown scorpian. moving on I also thought about making a World of Warcraft account maybe I'll be able to play with A. and A. hm sounds like fun I also went to the beach around 8 and cought sand crabs or whatever those Things are called I go thome Around 2 or 3 I was dead tired I had a bunch of sand crabs.

9/2

[Location] [Date] [School Name]

The outbreak has already begun They've taken everybody I'd ever loved The only surviving are me, myself, and I I'm rumaging through the trash tryint to find useful tools Then I see a zombie down the road I automaticly turn in the stealth mode and hide and wait for him to pass. As soon as he passes I head down the road then I find a safe house I'm not taking any chances I keep heading forward I see a waepon shop I grab a baseball bat and spike it up Then I move on Then I hear a group of zombies scream but then again they see me and sprinting towards me like a pack of ravenous dogs...

9/12

Chapter 4: RAM

Theres a zombie that is wearing a straight jacket he sounds like a horse in dispair he tries to ram me but he misses I was trying to run away but he ramed me and stood over me like the Leaning Tower of Pizza, grunting like a pig, and staring deep into my soul. he turns around and I quicly get up and kill him he falls like the Twin Towers.

P.

8/18

My summer was Hot I was in mexicali

9/2

Me and my firends say a abandon house so we turn it to our club house. At nigh we heard a scream. we ran in to cheek but no body was their but a doll. My friend picked it up and someone is pulling a prank, we looke for a stereo, but nothing was theer but that doll...

9/6

Tic tock

Pit Pat

tic tock tick tock

I am bored so I will play with my dog pit pat pit pat

The rains starts, in my mind I think is time slow

the clock is still 8:15 am tic tock tic tock its still 8:15 am

A. 

8/19

I have a game called Star wars Knights of the Old republic its the same game as star wars the old republic just the first game in the saga so I sujest you play that game

9/2

This morning was crazy first I almost over sleep lucky my mom woke me up. Than i go to take a shower and theres a spider in there and I'm afaird of spiders so I half to use my mom's shower. Than I went to make hot choclate and It was the kind where you use milk instead of water. Yuck I used water instead. Than i went to make it with milk and i end up not putting enough choclate into my milk so i end up putting 6 teaspoons into my milk for it to be good.  Than I come to school and find out no badges or computers.

9/13

I am the spider in A.'s bathtub moohaha! He shall never take a shower and wills tink for eternity.  If he tries to walk in I will bite him and he will die. If he tries to step on me I will bite him and he will die. If he trys to shoot me with a bb gun I will dodge it. If he gets a family or friend to try to kill me I will get my spider friends outside to bite them.

I think you can see some of the growth.  There is some loosening up, some more advanced vocabulary.  Slightly fewer run-ons (we'll be working on that), and some imaginative thinking.  I'm loving reading these, and they're enjoying writing!

Yeay for the turkey-butts!

[Teaching Tips] What I Used to Know

I re-learned something I think I knew once. Journal-writing is good. Systematic sustained writing on a daily basis improves writing.  It just does.  I'm not going to look up the proof for this, * I'm just going to state it as a fact--in order to improve your writing you must write.

Over the last five years or so, I've let go of journal writing in my classroom. I became tired of fighting my kiddo's aversion to writing, tired of coming up with creative and thoughtful writing prompts, and, I'm sad to say, tired of reading the garbage that came out of  the writing I was assigning. It's a shame, to be sure, but I'm willing to admit it because I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one. My unnecessary and trite writing prompts were instigating unnecessary and trite writing responses.  They didn't want to write it, and I didn't want to read it. We were all miserable, and I let it slowly fall away.

This summer, at the SDAWP Summer Institute (that I have and will mention multitudinous times), we were required to write for 15 minutes at the beginning of each day. At 8:00 A.M. exactly ( I know this because I was spoken to about being late on a couple of occasions), the music was switched on and writing time commenced.  If someone talked, they were shushed, if someone was late to arrive they were expected to jump in and begin writing post-haste. EVERYONE wrote--leaders and students alike. And you know what?  My writing improved.  Yup.  It totally did.

Fast forward to the Super School Year of 2011. I've established the same procedure for my homeroom class.  They come in at 8:45 A.M., the music is on, and we all begin to write. We write for 10 or so minutes (I have a sneaky plan to increase this) and then one or two lovies share their writing. If the phone rings, or someone comes in, I ask them to wait--it's writing time. No matter how much I need to get done before class begins, I take out my journal and we all write. 

We've now been writing for four weeks. Here is my anecdotal evidence that it's working:

• Last Tuesday, after a long weekend, I couldn't get them to stop writing at the end of the 10 minutes. They felt like they had too much to "say" to stop writing after only 10  minutes.
• Their writing has gone from short narrative paragraphs to 1-2 page explorations of writing (for the most part).
• The lovies are using our new vocabulary words and writing tricks in their journals (more on those topics to come).
• A. came in on Monday morning and said "I had such a  great weekend, but I'm going to write about it today so I won't spoil it for you."
• Last week one of the lovies that is writing an on-going story (about a zombie apocalypse, mind you), didn't have time to share before they had to go get their breakfast.  When they got back with their breakfast pastries and juice he said "do you want me to share now?"  There was a chorus of yeahs and of-courses and they all sat quietly, eating their muffins, listening to him read. 
•  My students came in early for class today and started writing FIVE MINUTES BEFORE the bell.  

I'm tickled pink with their willingness, their growth, and their potential.  Who knew it was just a matter of writing every day? Oh... wait... I did.  But then I forgot.  Thank goodness for remembering!


*NOTE--Those of you that know me know that I DID try to look it up. I couldn't find what I wanted, so I am trying to let it be.  If you find anything, help a sister out and let me know!

[Tech Tip] The Storybirds Are Flying

Earlier this week I told you about something I was going to try in my classroom--Storybirds.

Well my caped friends, the birds they are a-flyin'. As the lovies finish their stories I'll add them to the Student Story Bird page on this blog. In the meantime, here are two that made me smile or laugh out loud--both from the author's humor and with joy at their learning. The writing mechanics are a little dicey, but remember that this is one week into the school year, and these are EXTREMELY reluctant writers. I am tickled lime green and purple that my lovies showed voice, used ideas from our mentor texts, and played around with text forms. They took pride in editing (although they had trouble staying focused on the task for ALL of their pages), and were even more excited to share their work with the class. Their classmates (remember--kids kicked out of other schools) clapped and cheered and pointed out the text devices the authors used.

"Hey that's a hyphenated whatchamacallit like we saw yesterday!"
"Did you see that figurative language?"
"I like the word nemesis!"
"He used an ellipse!"

To put it simply, I am sparkling proud of my little dumpling heads for their work.

Presenting... The Animals of the Forest by T.

The animals of the forest on Storybird

Presenting...Hide and Seek by A. 

Hide and Seek on Storybird

Wanta try it?  Go here!

[Teacher Prep] Super-rific

Earlier this summer I was struck by a piece of brilliance. No jokes please....

I was watching the new Green Lantern movie and learning, for the first time, about the story of the Green Lanterns. Have you heard it?  I will 'splain. No. There is too much. I will sum up...

There are tons of Green Lanterns in the universe. Maybe not tons, but the movie showed a lot of them. They each have a "power ring" that is feed by strength of will. In fact, in the place where the green lanterns hang out there was a big swirling pot of "will" to feed the rings.* The lanterns have something to do with it, too. The point is, the true power of the Green Lanterns is their own strength and will. Cool huh?

Now, in the movie, their greatest enemy is Parallax. This turns out to be extra cool because it is a math term that I barely understand. The villain Parallax, according to Wikipedia, is the 92nd Greatest Villain of All Time. A dubious distinction to say the least. Or the most. Parallax has a variety of stories to his name, but the movie focused on the fact that his power comes from fear--the mortal enemy of strength of will. Fear limits our strength. We have to fight it by understanding not only our strength, but the fear as well. Deep stuff.

Where's the brilliance, you ask? I realized during the movie that my little lovies need to be Green Lanterns, and that Parallax is their greatest enemy (not their 92nd). I realized how damn cool superheroes are, and I decided to go hog-wild with them this school year.  Different superheroes have been assigned as mascot to different areas of my classroom.  

Green Lantern--Writing

Rogue from X-Men--Reading (more on that later)

Superman--Super Tricks for writing

Wonder Woman--Wonder Words for vocabulary

Wolverine from X-Men--the time away area or the  I-need-a-break-because-I'm-pissy area.

Thor--Thor's Hammer of Grammar

Captain America--I'm not sure yet, but he may be riding along with The Man on the White Horse.

Ironman--I don't know yet, but he's cool.  

As I write this, it sounds like it's too young for my students, but it is actually manifesting quite nicely. On the first day of school we used the superhero emblems as our mentor texts.*  We created a list of what kinds of things we learned from the similarities and differences of the symbols. We talked about color, symbology (yes, a word), origins--lots of stuff.  Then we each made our own superhero symbols. Next we are going to use the characters themselves as our mentor "texts" and create superheroes. This will lead into a study of graphic novels and the writing of graphic novels.  See where this is going?  We also have a world of villains to learn about!

I needed a little boost of energy this year, and the superhero theme has done it. It goes quite nicely with my whole teachers-as-cape-wearing-superheroes thing, and the kiddos are totally buying into it.  I can just feel it.   This year is going to be... super.  Yeah, I went there.

*Note--I read up on it and it's called the Central Battery on the Planet Oa watched over by the Guardians of the Universe.  Link here if you'd like to get similarly geeky.

*Note--A mentor text is a text that is used as an example of quality writing.  I am using the term "text" loosely here.  For more information about mentor texts either click here or keep following this blog since I'll be bending your ear about it all year.  

[Writing] Where I've been

I made many promises (here and here) that I would be posting in full force this Spring and Summer.  I was wrong.  Flat out wrong.  This doesn’t happen very often in my super-hero imagination, so take note.  While I have been conspicuously absent from Wear the Cape, and similarly absent from social outings and planned events, I do have something to show for it. 

I, my caped friends, have been writing up a storm.

You see, I finally had a chance to take part in a National Writing Project Summer Institute.  I’ve been stalking the NWP sites in each state and city I’ve lived in for the past 10 years.  The Northwest Inland Writing Project, the Oregon Writing Project at EOU, and now, the San Diego Area Writing Project.  This Summer,  at last, I put aside my Summer-School-Principal hat, ignored pleas to take that Summer vacation I always promise, and grabbed the opportunity to take part in the SDAWP Summer Institute. 

As you may have read in previous posts (you HAVE read them, haven’t you?), I had a long Spring.  I was “in the weeds” and kept telling myself that if I made it to the end of the school year, I could relax and enjoy the Summer Institute.  Those of you that have taken part in an NWP Summer Institute may already be laughing at me.  Enjoy?  Yes.  Relax?  Um…. No.  Not even the tiniest little bit. 

It took me a good week to get going, and by the then the SI was a quarter of the way finished, I had been spoken to twice about my participation (lateness and risk-taking were the topics), and was feeling a day late and a dollar short. 

I spent the second week moving double-time to catch up.  I was on-point in every discussion, I shared my writing and my thoughts at every opportunity.  And then… more feedback.  I had gone too far the other way.  I had burst on to the SI scene a week late with too much energy. My processing time was too quick. Other participants weren’t able to form their thoughts because mine kept popping out too quickly.  I was chagrined.  Coming from a family of socially quiet people, being told I talk too much felt like a body slam. I understood, I agreed, but I was... embarrassed. In my eagerness and wonder at learning so many new things, I had made a social faux paux.  I hate making mistakes in front of people.  BUT, I am grateful for the learning.

I entered the third week having banked the fire of participation to a dull roar.  I paid attention to the group, measured my own responses to make sure the more quiet members had a chance to speak up, and shared less.  That week I wrote more, and talked less. I presented my demo and took part in the Author's Chair.  I suppose I actually spoke as much, but more thoughtfully.   It was a better week as far as social faux pauxs (faux pauxes?) go, and  the incredible amount of learning and writing continued. 

Now I am finishing the fourth and final week.  Today I turned in a bumper-load of writing.  Fifteen pages or so of writing I actually care about.  I wrote more than that for my NBPTS renewal this Spring, but these fifteen pages are more a part of me than what I had to turn in to the National Board this Spring. Don't get me wrong, the reflection NBPTS renewal is healthy and good.  I recommend it.  But this writing, this is from ME.  From my heart and my mind sitting right out on a limb.

So, while my blog has been dismal and lonely, my brain is chock full of things--learning, thoughts, things to share. Get ready my caped friends, I think this may be a big year.

Folk-a-licious

In our recent discussion of folktales, we listed the following components:

1.  A powerful person
2.  A not-so-powerful person
3. Twists and turns
4. A beautiful character
5. A problem or  riddle
6. A Moral
7. The End

After some practice the Sugar Pies were assigned the following task, and we created a rubric* for how it would be graded:

Write a folktale of any length that includes all seven components. Make sure to identify each component in your final draft. 

The following is my very favorite-ist folk tale. Of course I can't deny I like the role I play in the story, but mostly I am just tickled with his imagination.  The numbers correspond with the component numbers above. 

Once in school, there was a powerful teacher, Ms. M., who had asked the class to write a folk tale (1).  So there at that school there was a boy named J. (2).   The teacher had asked the boy to write a folk tale, but the boy didn't have any literature experience (3).  The boy had to ask many friends, family, and relatives to help him on how to write a folk tale.  The parents and friends couldn't help him, but they all knew he had a brain.  A brain is exactly what he had and he needed to put it to work (4).

He had three days to complete the assignment.  Each night he would read seven folk tale stories.  Until the final day, and he had only an hour left to complete the folk tale (5).  He had to put all of his brain skills to the top.  His brain had been fully loaded, ready, and already working.  When the boy finished, Ms. M was impressed and gave J. a passing grade.  Since that day, the boy knew that studying, listening, and leaning will get you any grade you want (6).


The End (7)

*Note--More on rubrics later.  These are wildly interesting creatures and should be discussed more thoroughly.

Stop, Elaborate, and Listen!

The lesson of the day was "elaboration."  We talked for a while about the difference between elaboration, exaggeration, and lies.  We talked about when elaboration is a good idea, and when it might not be ("when the police ask you questions?").  We then dug into my collection of interesting magazine photos (fifteen years in the making), listened to some Vanilla Ice*, and did some elaboration. These kiddos have some wacky ideas!

Simple description:

This is a little girl in a white dress.

Elaboration:

This little girl is in the news because she the one survivor to live from a plane crash.

 

Simple description:

A nice house/beautiful view.

Elaboration:

In 1955 there was a war, but Albert Einstein was so smart he wanted to see this was so he built a nice house in the middle of the war and watched the was and he watched his teacher get knocked out.

Simple description:

Trees moving side to side

It is raining and the wind is blowing hard.

Elaboration:

The world is coming and end and people are running for their lives.

There is a tsunami and everyone is hiding in bushes and the wind is blowing so hard that it blew down all of the trees and everyone grew wings and flew away.

Simple description:

A lady holding a fat dog

Elaboration:

The lady is a cannibal and she ate her husband and her neighbors and gave the dog the fat and the bones.  That is why the dog is fat.

The dog is fat because it ate the other person holding it and they lady is comforting it because the dog is sad.

This fat dog was at her house and he came up to 'Lil Billy the toddler and swallowed him.  Then he came up tot Timmy the Baby and swallowed him.  Then the lady had to carry him to the hospital, but the dog never learned his lesson because after that he ate a cat and a cow.

 

Simple description:

People at the beach.

Elaboration:

People are staring out into the water while a man was being eaten by a whale.

All of the people are there because Moby Dick told them to come and be mermaids and have a party.  Then they will become whales.

They are there because they say Shamu jumping over a new-found island.

 

Simple description:

Penguins in a field.

Elaboration:

The penguins are in a field because they flew there on a giant dog.  The dog gave them a ride because they helped him get a doggie girlfriend.

These 3 penguins thought they could get a vacation from their children, so they went to the tundra.  Then this huge penguin said "Oh.  Hey.  There's a volcano up there."

*Note--If you don't know why we listened to Vanilla Ice, you should probably figure it out, as it is one of my new most favoritist jokes.

More Wreckage

Do not fear!  This is the good kind of wreckage!  I promised you, way back in the olden days of yore, that I would share more from the Wreck this Journal.

Here they is.