Launching into First Trimester

The systems we have set up so far:

Poetry Folder (teal): the shared literature for the class is the daily poem. The poem is read to students, they have quiet time to mark it up (using the questions on the back of the folder as a prompt if required) and the students drive the discussion – commenting on lines that stood out to them, the use of rhetorical devices, the use of diction, form, interesting lines, questions if they are unsure of something or possibly how an aspect of the poem fits in with the rest. At the end of the discussion, students rate the poem out of ten and file it in their folder. Once a semester they compile their top five poems. 

I was astonished when reading the class’ Reading and Writing Surveys at how well each student articulated what they like to read, and also, the list of their favourite poets. The students are in grades 7 & 8 – their ages range from 11-14, and they have favourite poets! I think this is incredible and a testament to rich literary worlds they inhabit supported by a range of engaging and enriching poems provided by their teachers and peers.

Writing In-Process Folder (light blue): containing each student’s Proofreading List, Editing symbols (including ‘STET’ – let it stand), plus the ‘Acorns’ Style Guide so everything can be compiled easily into the quarterly publication. This also helps when compiling shorter anthologies over the course of a trimester.

It is astonishing to see student engage in a rigorous writing process. They are empowered and accomplished writers who work their drafts through to be the best version of their piece. It is exciting to join them as they grapple with a line, a word, a title, or a ‘so what?’ as they construct and revise a piece. 

Homework Folder (yellow): this folder keeps all homework items together (except Math which has its own sheet in the student’s Math Binders).

Spelling Folder (white): In this folder students have a spelling master list where they add words they have had difficulty spelling across their subjects. They also have a few lists of ‘Commonly Misspelled Words’ to be used as a reference if they are haven’t identified any words from their work. For an outstanding student, there is also a ‘Most difficult words’ type of list. When their writing has been checked mispelled words may be added to the Editing Sheet for students to add to their spelling master list. Every time I read a piece - such as their Reading and Writing Survey, or a Letter-Essay, I also write any mispelled words on a sticky note to be added to the students' master list. Every Tuesday students bring five words written on a Word Study sheet for the teacher to check to ensure that they are not studying incorrect spelling. On Thursdays students partner check and then update their master spelling list with an asterisk if they have successfully shown they know the spelling of their words. 

Reading-Writing Handbook: This is a 100-page notebook where students record their Writing Territories, and potential topics for Odes and I also had them write down a few ideas for an anti-Ode as several have already penned an ode. The Reading-Writing Handbook also contains all of the mini lesson notes that are trimmed before class, lists about aspects of a particular genre (such as the Letter Essays).

There are also two permanent folders:

Writing (dark blue): the permanent writing record is where each student files the journey of every piece of writing they do from their W.O.P. (Writing off the Page), Draft 1 with revisions in Blue Pen, Draft 2 with edits in Red Pen (students attach an Editing Sheet to this copy and leave it in the tray), and then teacher edits in Black Pen. Draft 3 is usually a final check just for any grammar, punctuation type things (students leave drafts at this stage on the chair), but if more work is needed there may be another draft and that is okay – it is all part of the process. The final copy is changed to single space and formatted according to the ‘Acorns’ Style Guide. The final copy is paper clipped on top of all of the drafts and then stored in the permanent Writing folder in the cabinet at the front of the classroom. The student records the title of the piece, when they finished it, as well as the genre – a really quick glance shows them (and me) how often they are publishing their writing and what genres they have written in so far. 

 

I have noticed, so far, that students love experimenting with a range of genres, and they have ideas for their next piece whilst they are engaged in writing their current one. There is one student who has set herself a challenge of completing a piece per week. I think this is admirable and her poetry sings a result of a writing process that is considered and thorough.

Reading (light green): the permanent reading record is where students record the books they have read or abandoned. Students record the date when they finished reading a title as well as the genre. This record allows them to interrogate their reading habits and determine future directions for their reading.

This is really just a brief overview to reflect and consolidate my understanding of how everything operates at CTL. I have consulted 'In the Middle' and 'The Reading Zone' as well as 'Lessons that Change Writers' and 'Naming the World' extensively. If you are after mini-lesson ideas, check out 'Lessons that Change Writers.'

Picture 1. CTL

Picture 2. Supplies in the Humanities Room

Picture 3. The Writing Room

Picture 4. Folders with two pockets (Staples)

Picture 5. Folders with two pockets and fasteners (Staples)

#teachingadventuresinmaine

By the end of the second week of Trimester 1 just about all of the routines for Reading and Writing Workshop are in place - it was an incredible learning curve but one that was helped by the unbelievably detailed notes AAM left me and ‘In the Middle,’ and ‘The Reading Zone,’ as reference guides to review processes and procedures.

What I’ve found is the Reading and Writing Workshop systems really give me something to lean against - what’s the saying – ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’? When something is not working it is possible to go back to the records to check what has gone awry. My records reflect the student’s records, and everything moves forward. It is possible to see who has engaged in the hour of writing homework over the weekend and who hasn’t read because there is a note right there from the previous day. I can see whether there is a pattern of behaviour  emerging that I need to address or whether there is a good reason such as a new book is more difficult than a previous title and the reading rate has slowed a little.

Now that I’m working in the school I’m aware of the bigger picture - how the staff work together to lay the foundations for their colleagues who will take the students after them. The teachers know the students and the students know the teachers and that’s one thing I’m very grateful for as someone in a relieving position. It’s also something that I reiterated to parents at Parent Night - there’s a community at the school and I’m operating as part of the team. Several of the grade 7 and 8 students have been at CTL since kindergarten and their peers have joined them along the way so the community has a shared history, too.

It is a little sad to consider tomorrow begins Week 7. The time has just flown which I think is a combination of learning the ropes, planning and preparing, giving feedback on student writing, and also squeezing in some sight-seeing over the weekends. I have also tried to meal prep (not super hard when working Monday to Thursday), keep up to date with the subject I am taking at university, and I have watched many episodes of 'Dawson's Creek.'

Picture 1. The view from my apartment. 

Picture 2. CTL

Picture 3. Standstill traffic before reaching Wiscasset due to the many visitors after a lobster roll or lobster dinner from Red's Eats.

#adventuresinmaine

Ten Things I have learnt since being in Maine:

1. The wild turkeys move around in family groups - there were about a dozen gigantic ones feeding in someone’s field this afternoon as I drove home and a family of two hens and eight babies on the way to work this morning.

2. Coyotes sound frightening. I thought I could hear a bunch of people shouting and having a good time on Labour Day and then I listened some more, and it sounded a lot like screaming and crying – it was actually coyotes.

3. I am known as someone from ‘away.’ 

4.  Squirrels are awesome, and I never get sick of watching them scurrying, jumping off the rooves of buildings, and scavenging. I do wish they wouldn’t run out into traffic quite so much

5. Red squirrels are so tiny and adorable.

6.  Ground hogs are just so cute.

7. The spiders run faster than they do in Australia.

8. Everything in Maine is far but the scenery is absolutely divine so it isn’t a chore to drive places.

9. There are several varieties of seagulls and two of them are enormous – the Great Black Backed Gull, Herring Gull, and the Ring-billed Gull. I think, from doing a little internet research, that I have seen mostly Herring Gulls of different ages. More information here: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Herring_Gull/id

10. Four way stop signs are a horror story equal those written by Stephen King.

Writing Teachers Meet-up at Penrith Regional Gallery

I recently held a Writing Teachers meeting out of Penrith Regional Gallery and wanted to provide some gallery related activities to inspire the writing on the day. Thanks to the Creative Penn I put collated a series of activities just to provide a little inspiration on the day. Penrith Regional Gallery is a beautiful space with provocative exhibitions and an extensive garden which also provides fodder for the writer in the planning stages.

Local art galleries are a wonderful resource and often to welcoming to school groups. I was lucky enough to receive some resources including booklets and DVDs from past exhibitions which was very generous of the education program organiser.

You can access the prompts here: Gallery Writing Prompts

The Writing Teacher – Maintaining a Writing Life

When consciously thinking of our health and possibly how much exercise we are getting we often think of incidental exercise - parking the car a little further from the office or grocery store, walking to the local shops instead of driving, digging out the bike from the garage... when thinking about creative pursuits though, it is evident that many do not have the same strategies for 'incidental writing,' or 'incidental art.' 

I have given some time to thinking about how I can be more tactical in ensuring I spend some time on creative pursuits that bring joy into my life.

1. Paper

Take a journal with you to jot down ideas. An A6 journal will fit into your pocket and so will a little pencil or pen. If you use a paper diary or organiser for work or life perhaps you could pop a few blank pages into the back and these will serve as your 'on the go' place to record ideas.

2. Notes (now, I mean, electronic Notes... don't you love how we name electronic things after their analogue variety?)

If you use Apple devices it is possible to set up a Notes page in your iPhone and attach it to cloud storage and this is when things get a lot easier. Linked Notes accounts allow almost instantaneous syncing between iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, etc. so regardless of what you are doing you can write down a quick note or continue to work on a piece you started at an earlier time. Your limerick will be across all devices before you have even had a chance to finish editing!

3. Shower Notes 

In a media rich world, quiet time to reflect is hard to come by. Many creatives state openly that inspiration comes to them whilst showering but it is not great for your notebook or smart phone to be smashing out ideas whilst dripping wet. My partner bought me Aqua Notes a few years ago and they wait patiently in the shower cubicle until genius strikes. Also handy for grocery lists.

4. Writing Goals

I set a personal challenge this year to write a poem a day (I am having varying degrees of success with this commitment). I figure that even if they are short or remain perpetually in draft form (very draughty draft form) it is still work that I would not have if I didn't set myself a challenge and hey, you can't edit a blank page.

5. Don't Make it into Work

I often set projects that soon become another thing on my to do list and instead of being a source of joy they become work. If time limits, word counts, and other such restrictions make your creative pursuits into work, leave them!

6. Morning Pages

Angela Cameron’s The Artist’s Way is a very well-known text that provides a range of ideas and provocations to nurture and revitalise your creative approach. One of these is Morning Pages – three A4 pages of writing first thing in the morning. I got my husband onto this bandwagon as well and each morning for several months we made cereal and began writing. After about 25 minutes our pages were done, we would file them in an envelope and continue getting ready for work. I attribute the ability to move through some very difficult situations in my life to the catharsis of Cameron’s Morning Pages. I need to tweak my morning routine somewhat to get them back into my life. 

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Writing Strategies for Stages 3 and 4

Corporate life has been quite a change after almost a decade in the classroom and it was quite a steep learning curve for a time. Now, after a year in the role I have learnt a great deal and I am sure this will continue as the role moves and changes to ensure better support for schools.

I have had the opportunity to develop some presentations for conferences and networks and of course with a great deal of presenting, I think I am more confident in delivering material. I worked with a colleague last year to develop a session on Writing Strategies which meant I could draw on strategies I have utilised with my own students but also, it gave me an opportunity to research the teaching of writing and I have uncovered many resources that will guide me when I return to the classroom.

Here is a copy of the Writing Strategies for Stages 3 and 4 slides, participant booklet, and the resources (also found in the participant booklet).

'Through the Woods' by Emily Carroll

Initially it seems like there are monsters lurking in every shadow throughout Emily Carroll’s graphic novel Through the Woods (2014) but in actuality, it is the human capacity to be monstrous that is the most thrilling aspect of this compilation of short stories. The tales begin as all scary stories do, with the possibility of a monster under the bed and the audience knows, by the end, that safety is not to be taken for granted. Carroll plays homage to well-known fairy tales such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ but her stories are not nostalgic forays into the delights of childhood, but instead are an amalgamation of gothic tropes and folklore. The stories are presented as a series of comics, with rosy cheeked characters who descend into darkness, the circles around their eyes growing with the turn of every page. Carroll’s gothic leanings are also evident in the faraway settings of forests, isolated farmhouses, lonely old manors, and deep caves harbouring all kinds of terrors. The stories included in Through the Woods range from orphaned children left to fend for themselves, jealous fratricide in the woods, and shapeshifting, supernatural beings. The tales are macabre and hark back to when fairy tales and folklore explored the darker side of humanity. 

'Through the Woods' will keep your heart in your throat and will appeal to those who find dark fairy tales so horrifyingly compelling. 

Here is the Book Trailer I made.

Check out Emily Carroll's website for more information.

Simon and Schuster

Playing With Poetry with A.F. Harrold

I went to the 'Playing With Poetry' session with A.F. Harrold at the Sydney Writers Festival last weekend and had a fabulous morning banging out some poetry in response to the provided prompts. The other joy, of course, was hearing the writing of the other attendees - one of whom was just 17 years old - what a talent!

I happily scooped the hours up for my Maintenance of Accreditation at Proficient (thank you SWF!) and thought some of the activities would be great in the classroom! If you see A.F. Harrold out and about in Australia - try to get your students to his workshops as he writes for young people and runs school workshops, in England.

Nursery Rhyme Lipograms
Writing an entire novel without the letter 'E' as Ernest Vincent Wright did with 'Gadsby,' would be quite a task, but a Nursery Rhyme? Way more feasible! Nursery Rhymes are not exactly common childhood fodder these days, so mind that not every student will be able to recall one - in the session we couldn't either so we did a quick brainstorm and shared ideas. Several of us ended up writing the same Nursery Rhyme but this was fun when it came to reading out our verse.  This got me thinking about why the Nursery Rhyme worked for this activity - they're short, have a simple rhyme scheme, and utilise techniques like repetition. Students could possibly use the chorus from a favourite song.

1. Choose a Nursery Rhyme.
2. Decide which letter or vowel could be removed. Encourage students to challenge themselves - if there is only one 'U' in the entire Nursery Rhyme, for example, well that's no fun!
3. Write the Nursery Rhyme - give students the option of sticking closely to the original in rhyme and rhythm or keep some aspects if possible.

The Proverbial 
Having fun with words can come from engaging with well known proverbs.

1. Choose a proverb.
2. Change one of the words.
3. Consider the impact of this change - perhaps laugh or consider the profoundness of the new 'proverb.'
4. Remember, don't put all of your enemies in the one basket.

'An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in...'
 An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London is described as part documentary, part poetry, part catalogue recording the events of a weekend in Hackney. The focus of 'An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London' is to capture the small details of the moment. Recording, memorialising, appreciating what we would probably not notice.

1. Choose a location for a 15-minute writing sprint.
2. Give students the option of writing free verse or perhaps begin with a list poem to locate students in the concrete detail before they move to abstraction. It maybe that they begin with a list, then edit with a focus on adding a simile and a metaphor or another rhetorical device.

The Story of a Button
The last activity in the workshop involved an object. We all closed our eyes and were handed an object. It was amazing just how much story was inspired by a little, tiny button.

1. To begin, hand each student a button. Ask them to consider how it feels, what it looks like, where it may have originated.
2. Zoom in on the button, describe it in one sentence.
3. Where is the button located? Move from concrete to the imagination. Write about what the button is attached to in three sentences.
4. Zoom out again, consider who is wearing the item or where the item is located. Write six sentences.

It was a fabulous morning all in all. It never ceases to amaze me how a blank page becomes a piece of creative work in just moments (first draft, obviously!). If you are interested in seeing A.F. Harrold's wonderful work, visit his website here.

Being an Intern at the Center for Teaching and Learning

Heart Mapping is a component of Atwell’s Writing Workshop Procedure that it just beautiful and seeing student heart maps on the walls at the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) was really powerful. At CTL, Atwell’s methods are utilised day in and day out, and they work. Students write confidently, they edit rigorously, and they confer regularly with their teachers and peers. 

 

I borrowed a few texts, including Georgia Heard's Heart Maps, at the end of my first day at CTL, just to truly inhabit my persona as ‘edugeek’ – I flew halfway around the world to learn from the students and teachers at the school so why not have a look at the Professional Library – these teachers are masters – I needed to know what they read!

Six Reasons for Heart Mapping: 

1.    Authentic writing comes from the heart. It gives writers a chance to connect with what is important to them, what they feel, think, and care deeply about.

2.    Heart mapping opens the door to literacy for all writers – including reluctant, struggling, and blocked writers. Those who feel unable to engage with conventional forms of writing, feel they haven’t the time, or confidence can reconnect through heart mapping.

3.    Heart maps can function as a practical touchstone for writers. A heart map provides the way back to what is essential in a writer’s life, breaking down blocks, and providing a concrete place to work from.

4.    Heart mapping taps into the power of visual learning. Visuals sing to the brain and the heart shape connects the writer to what is important to them on an emotional level.

5.    Heart mapping gives writers the freedom to explore and allows an idea or image room to grow. Using heart maps steers writers away from reductive and restrictive school genres (such as the five-paragraph essay). The map is about sparking joy in the writing process.

6.    Heart mapping connects us to our feelings and helps us empathise with others. Through writing our stories we learn that humans share experiences and ultimately our joys, pain, fear, and elation can be felt by those around us.

So how does Heard begin the process? By sharing her own. Thinking aloud whilst writing down what is most significant in the centre and then filling the heart with other things whilst sharing the stories with the writers about to go on their own heart mapping journey. 

‘Finding home is crucial to the act of writing. Begin here. With what you know. With the tales you’ve told a dozen times to friends or a spouse... With the map you’ve already made in your heart.’ Georgia Heard, 1995

A few extra ideas:

-      Use heart maps at the start of a genre study.

-      Writers can go back to their maps routinely to add extra topics, revise.

Heart Mapping Considerations:

What will the heart look like?

Where will the most significant inclusions be positioned?

What size font will be used and does this symbolise anything?

Will you draw, write, collage (letters/photographs/images etc.)?

What colours will be used and what do these symbolise?

Is one heart sufficient?

Will you include a key?

The book is filled with a range of templates for heart mapping exercises. See the 'Heart Mapping and Writing Presented by Georgia Heard' for an overview or visit Heinemann for a sample chapter. 

Further Reading:

Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School - Georgia Heard, 1999.

Publisher: Heinemann, Portsmouth

ISBN: 978-0-325-00093-0

My Map Book - Sara Fanelli, 2001

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, New York

ISBN: 978-0-060-26455-0

Investigating Ideology - Exploring Representation in Texts (Unit and Resources!)

Several years ago I wrote a unit of work and accompanying resources to support the implementation of the new NSW Stage 4 and Stage 5 English Syllabuses.  The unit, 'Investigating Ideology - Exploring Representation in Texts' was created for a Stage 4 class and utilises a range of texts including Anthony Browne's 'Voices in the Park,' Hayao Miyazaki's 'Howl's Moving Castle,' and the 'Papunya School Book of Country and History (Nadia Wheatley and Ken Searle).

Here is the rationale:

This unit is structured to elicit student success and to ensure these activities are scaffolded and models are provided. The concepts introduced throughout the course of study are demanding but in the spirit of providing opportunities for students to excel and ultimately engage with each of the texts explored. It is expected that students investigate the ideology and henceforth the politics of each text and grasp the power of composition to challenge and reinforce popular ideals. The key questions, “How are composers’ beliefs and values represented in texts?” and “How are texts used to represent the beliefs and values of the composer?” drive the unit.

The unit of work has been created to support and enrich a range of learners in the Stage 4 English classroom and give them an opportunity to work individually and in groups to develop autonomy and the ability to communicate effectively.

The material presented in this unit may be organised in numerous ways to suit a range of time frames and contexts. There is an abundance of activities provided to allow for teacher choice and each learning sequence can be adapted to suit a range of students. All three texts chosen for study give students an opportunity to develop their skills in analysing visual texts whilst exploring context, perspective and ideologies.

Here is the Unit Overview and Resources:
Investigating Ideology - Exploring Representation in Texts Unit Overview
Investigating Ideology - Exploring Representation in Texts Resources
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