writing project | Thinking Through My Lens

Many of my afternoons are filled with meetings since writing project work is hard to squish into typical work hours. This afternoon on the National Writing Project (NWP) Connecting the Network Call, as is typical, we had a writing prompt to write our way into the meeting. Since #writeout is now in full swing, our prompt was a poetry in the parks invitation of Lucille Clifton’s The Earth is a Living Thing read by poet laureate Ada Limon.

I don’t love to write on demand–I often feel stumped in that compressed moment, pressured to create in what I already know will be too little time. But today felt different. I loved the structure of Clifton’s poem as each stanza began with “is a…” followed by some action.

My mind began near the sea–a place I love and often find inspiration. And then I found myself in my classroom, inspired by the small children I spend so much time with.

Here’s my first draft written in five minutes at the beginning of this afternoon’s meeting. (And is currently untitled so I’m borrowing Lucille Clifton’s title)

The Earth is a Living Thing: Riffing off Lucille Clifton

is a great blue heron

wings spread

blotting the gray skies

with the wonder of birds

is a child poet

words tumbled

letters scrambled

ideas piercing your heart

is playground balls

in rainbow colors

bouncing, rolling

here, there, everywhere

in the play that is essential

to learning and growth

And of course, I have to add a photo that was also a part of my inspiration.

How will you #writeout today?

When life gives you acorns…turn it into a #writeout inspiration!

On Saturday I found myself at UC Davis meeting with an incredible group of writing project teachers from all over the state as we launched year 2 of our CWP Environmental Literacy and Justice Collaborative. In that space we imagined all the ways to support our students as they learn about the earth and its systems, grow their appreciation of the natural world and resources we share, and use writing to think, to reflect, to question, and to advocate for the world we need and want for ourselves and for our future.

My colleague Carol brought some wonderful acorns she found in her neighborhood as inspiration for a making project…and lucky me, I ended up taking the extras home with me to use in my classroom. These acorns are bigger than the ones I am familiar with…and so beautiful!

And they were perfect for the book I had already borrowed from the library to read this week–Because of an Acorn by Lola Schaefer. After reading and studying this deceptively simple text, we talked about what they noticed in the book. They were quick to notice that it included aspects of life cycles…and they loved the cutouts on the first and last pages. Serendipitously the NWP Write Out newsletter included a link to a video about acorns by a park ranger at the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. My students loved learning more about acorns–and the ways that trees communicate with each other.

Then it was time to pull out our #writeout pencils and notebooks. We took time to look carefully at the acorns and sketch them in detail. Students were encouraged to use numbers and words in addition to their sketch to capture information about their acorn.

After a break for their music class and recess, we returned to our notebooks for some writing. To push students’ thinking, we used the prompts: I noticed…, I wonder…, and It reminds me of to describe the acorn we had studied and sketched. These first graders had no hesitation. They had plenty to write about and were eager to get started! To keep the words flowing, students were encouraged to use their best “kid writing” (or phonetic spelling), prioritizing ideas over correctness.

Best of all, my students are paying attention to the environment and appreciating all that it has to offer. It is my goal that this immersion in nature will lead us toward advocacy as we consider the ways all of us, as community members–young and old(er), can be a catalyst for change to make the world a better place.