Tag Archives: writing

Working from the Why

Everyone loves a field trip…right? Or maybe not… As a teacher I like the way that field trips give my students a shared experience and helps to make abstract science or social studies concepts more concrete. I also like to give my students access to experts in the field and help them imagine professions where this content learning is applied. But…to get these outcomes, teachers have to plan carefully and connect classroom learning to the resources of the field trip destination.

The San Diego Area Writing Project (SDAWP), along with the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM) and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center (Fleet) are partnering in a National Writing Project (NWP) and Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) initiative investigating the intersections of science (or STEM) and literacy (with an emphasis on writing). Yesterday we launched our work with ten formal educators (who work in public schools) and ten informal educators (who work in the museums mentioned above), with a particular focus on field trips.

The facilitation team (of which I am a part) decided to launch our work by focusing on the why of the work. Why is it important to re-examine field trips and consider ways to improve the experience for students and to create supportive structures for teachers and other adults who accompany young people to museums and other field trip sites?

Inspired by a TED Talk by Simon Sinek entitled How Great Leaders Inspire Action, we spent our first (of 5) sessions focused not on the what or how of our project. We sent teams of educators out into the museums to observe and experience an exhibit through a set of prompts that invited them to look and try through a variety of different lenses, and write about their experiences. They critiqued the exhibit–not to find fault with it–but as a way to consider what structures might support learners’ interest, inquiry, and pique curiosity.

Our short, but intense day left us with a desire to take action…to figure out how to make field trips amazing learning experiences, with students at the center. One comment from the end of the day reflections is still bouncing in my head,

…the “why”has the power to transform educational practices. From field trips to worksheets to projects, I wonder how many educators push past the “what.”

Our goal with this project is to do just that–to push past the what and consider the why. The why is where the action sits…and we want to take action toward improving field trip experiences for students by supporting the adults who facilitate them: teachers, museums educators, chaperones, and parents.

I can’t wait to see where this project takes us… If only I had a window into the future to get a hint at just what the possibilities might be!

What do you love about field trips? What does your ideal experience look like, feel like, leave you thinking about?

Outside

3 Replies

I spied this gorgeous hawk sitting in a tree not far from me as I was walking today. I slowed and carefully positioned my camera, trying to capture this image.

And as I watched and then continued my walk, a short 25 word story (or maybe the beginning of something more) was brewing in my head.

Tucked in behind the gas station and across the street from the McDonalds, hawk oversees wild space…what is left of what used to be.

I took a minute at the stop light and jotted notes down in my phone to remember this thought when I got back home. Thinking about what used to be interests me. What caused developers to leave this wild space untouched?

Last week a parent in our class sent us this article about going outside to write when you feel stuck or uninspired with your writing, saying that it reminded her of us and our classroom. (Such a great compliment!) I’ve shared it with many others…and was thinking about it this morning as I headed outside for a long walk.

I knew I had lots of writing to do today (beyond my blog post) and told myself I needed to get outside and be active before settling down to work. To make the prospect more appealing, I planned my walk with a mid-walk stop at the local Starbucks and had my iPhone handy for any interesting photo opportunities.

As I started my walk I noticed that my “monkey mind,” as Natalie Goldberg calls it, took over. I could feel my attention pulled in a million directions as I noticed sounds (cars, birds, breeze, leaves crunching, bicycles whizzing by…), smells (the smell of water in the curb drains, car exhaust, the damp of foggy air…), sights (the lone purple flower in a sea of ground cover, scraps of paper interwoven in the brush, leaves blowing…), and physical feelings (the sheen of sweat building on my shoulders, the push of air as cars rushed past, the uneven sidewalk under my feet…). Before I started my walk, I had thought I might continue on a theme of water photos started yesterday with a walk on the beach, but the first half of my walk didn’t offer any interesting possibilities.

And then I noticed the hawk. It literally stopped me in my tracks as I looked closely, noticing the beauty of this bird. Crows and pigeons are pretty commonplace on my walks…and hawks are mostly noticed from a distance, flying high above. I loved the opportunity to look closely as I angled my lens. He watched me as I watched him. And then he spread his magnificent wings and took to the sky. I only wish I could describe the sound of those large, powerful wings as they lifted the bird from the branch.

As much as people complain about “screen time” and lament that devices are keeping our young people indoors, inactive, and uninspired, I find that it is my device that gets me moving, heading outdoors, and paying attention to my surroundings. As always, we need balance in our lives. Opportunities for solitude and times to interact. Playtime and sustained work. Time in nature to notice and question and wonder and time with our screens to produce, write and connect. It doesn’t have to be either/or…can’t it be both?

How does your device (or devices) impact the ways you interact with the outdoors?

Structures

6 Replies

I treated myself to a walk on the beach today after a writing project meeting at the university. So instead of walking on the beach near where I live, I walked on the beach down the hill from the university. It was foggy and cool, a perfect day for thinking and reflecting.

As I was walking I was thinking about the meeting…a follow up to the Invitational Summer Institute (a 4-week intensive leadership institute in the teaching of writing)…and the structures that we need as learners to move along the continuum from novice to expert (with the endpoint constantly moving) and from follower to leader.

The structure of the Summer Institute (SI) is designed to immerse teachers in writing, researching, reflecting on their practice, and critical conversations about teaching and learning. The structure is strong and well built, based on the 40-year-old model developed by National Writing Project founder, Jim Gray.

This pier is also a carefully designed, well built structure made to withstand the battering waves of the Pacific Ocean and the relentless wind and sun. I love the way when you look through the pier it narrows and provides a window through the corridor of surf out to sea just like the SI helps teachers look carefully at policy and practice and then focus on instruction that best supports the students in front of them.

And some of the structures we depend on are organic like these cliffs.

They are shaped by the natural environment. I watched our SI participants create their own structures as well. They gathered this morning, organically, catching up with each other as we, as facilitators, finalized our last minute plans.

And then there are structures that are light and flexible, like this feather on the beach.

It makes me think of our Twitter Fellow of the Week. This playful use of social media supports more weight than you might imagine. While we originally saw this program as a way to connect to one another within our project by giving each other a glimpse into a week in the life of an SDAWP educator, it has proven to do more. When teachers use Twitter as a professional learning network, their interactions begin to impact their practice. Suddenly they are reading more professional articles about education, “listening in” to debates about policy and practice, getting and sharing ideas from others (within our site and beyond our site), and making their own classroom practice more visible.

Today we asked our SI 2013 cohort to sign up as Twitter Fellows…and starting tomorrow we will begin to get a glimpse into their lives. (You can follow @SDAWP_Fellow on Twitter) Those who are more confident on Twitter signed up first…but others are willing to dip a toe into this unfamiliar world of tweets and hashtags and mentions. And they have the rest of the SDAWP community who are happy to help…and the others in their cohort will also be “listening” on Twitter, ready to respond and retweet and favorite…so they won’t be hollering into the dark.

My beach walk today was quiet and introspective as I thought about all the structures I noticed…and those we use to support learners. Structures can help us stretch and reach and connect as we learn and grow. What structures support you? What structures support your students?

I Am a Connected Educator! (writetheworld.me)
SDAWP Reunion (judymko.wordpress.com)

Making…and Learning

A Writing Kind of Day

1 Reply

Today was a writing kind of day.

On Friday we began celebrating the National Day on Writing with a field trip and a puzzle piece that I wrote about here.

But today was the cherry on top of the writing sundae.

Our morning began with a version of a chalk talk. My teaching partner taped white butcher paper to the wall ball court and posted a few questions for students at our school to respond to: How do you use writing to connect? Where do you like to write? and Who are your favorite authors or what are you favorite books?

With markers in hand, our students started writing.

They wrote about places they love to write: writing on couches, on the beach, and in libraries. They love Shel Silverstein, Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, and J.K. Rowling. They write letters, texts, emails, books, notes and more.

They wrote and wrote and wrote. And when they weren’t writing, they were reading the writing of their classmates on the wall.

Our school-wide puzzle was also on display in the wall ball court today.

And students enjoyed reading what other classes at our school wrote for their puzzle piece (and finding their own and reading it again!).

And then we went on with our regular classroom activities…and more writing! Our students have been drafting a just-for-fun piece of writing about an animal of their choice. And they were applying what they have been learning about using figurative language (similes), specific and interesting verbs, and sensory imagery (sound, movement) to write a “moment” featuring their animal. Today they took some time to give their writing a “check up” (you know like the doctor does to make sure you are healthy). They reread their writing and looked for the features mentioned above…and then went back to their writing to make it even better.

And the best part of the day was that these writers enjoyed writing, sharing writing about their writing on Twitter, and even revising their writing…because they are writers. And today was all about writing.

Write2Connect!

4 Replies

People all over the nation are celebrating the power of writing this week and next. October 20th is the National Day on Writing…and with it falling on a Sunday, there are even more days to celebrate writing.

We’ve planned for multiple parts to our celebration of writing…in our classroom, at our school, in our district…and beyond. And with the theme, write2connect, we’ve focused on how writing connects.

In our district every class has worked to create a puzzle piece highlighting student writing…that interconnects with the other puzzle pieces to create a collage of writing at each school site. For our pieces (we have two since our class has two teachers and twice as many students) each student has a puzzle piece that interconnects to create the larger puzzle piece. In their individual puzzle piece each student answers the question, how does writing connect us? They included answers like writing letters to grandparents, sending emails, writing books and notes, and connecting with teachers in their Homework Writer’s Notebooks.

Our school-wide puzzle will be unveiled on Monday…stay tuned!

Today we also physically connected with older students at our other school to write together. Nearly 100 students in grades one through five spent the morning playing with writing. Using the Common Core text types as broad categories, they explored writing about the same topic in three different ways. This whirlwind of writing was such fun…and successful. Students wrote an amazing amount–and such variety, they wrote about soccer and horses and books and clubs and so much more. In our last few minutes at the end of our allotted time, a few students read their writing aloud while the others guessed whether the writing was primarily narrative, informational, or opinion in nature.

I love watching writers at work! They were so focused and engaged as they scribbled ideas into their writer’s notebooks. They all wrote and wrote and wrote…and we didn’t have nearly enough time to hear all who wanted to share!

And we have more in store on Monday! We will be participating in a large-scale “chalk talk” posted in our wall ball courts…and admiring our puzzles of connected writing. We also plan to initiate our class twitter account and share some of the amazing and thoughtful ideas students are writing! Check out the #write2connect hashtag on twitter!

How are you celebrating the National Day on Writing?

Remixing and the Cardiff Kook

Celebrating 100 Posts!

5 Replies

I never would have believed when I started this blog way back in July that I would get to 100 posts…and except for one day a week or so ago, all those posts were consecutive days! So to celebrate, here are some thoughts on the value of blogging…and writing every day. (And a silly picture of a balloon I saw at the grocery store)

1. Writing every day gives me authenticity as a writer. I’m not just talking about the value of writing–I am “walking the walk” of a writer. As my friend Janis stated in her blog post yesterday,

We must write when we are inspired, and we must write when we are not. We need to feel the joy and the pain of the process in order to understand what our students experience.

I work through my own blocks and figure out ways to find topics to write about and put words on the page. I am also more aware of the writing of others and notice how they put words together.

2. As a blogger, I have joined a community of other writers. I would never have believed that I would have 99 followers to my blog…most of whom I have never met. And yet these new friends encourage my writing and my photography by their mere presence. And I’ve come to realize that people read my blog even when they don’t make their presence known. I get little hints now and then from an unexpected reader and I realize again that my audience stretches beyond me.

3. Blogging has taught me the value of commenting on other people’s blog posts. I have definitely been guilty of reading blog post after blog post…and never commenting. As a blogger myself, I know that comments can push my thinking and increase my motivation to write. I now take the time to comment on a regular basis and I read blogs differently–always looking for the ways bloggers make connections and create energy around their posts.

4. Blogging pushes me as a writer and as a photographer. My photography inspires my writing and my writing inspires my photography. Both practices encourage me to look closely at my world and pay attention to the little things. And both have become regular practices in my life…habits! (The good kind!)

5. Blogging connects me. I am producing content on the web as well as consuming content. I am more connected to other educators…all over the world, and more conscious of sharing ideas and resources. I join in with challenges that other bloggers post, linking my blog posts to theirs…and inspiring some different kinds of writing that I might not undertake on my own. I continue to look for ways to connect, to learn from others, and to share with others. That is the heart of being a connected educator.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect. I am celebrating my 100th blog post in the middle of Connected Educator’s month!

Are you thinking about blogging? Start small…and keep at it. I’d love to know what you find valuable about blogging.

Ordinary

3 Replies

Today, out of necessity, I had to scrap a plan and invent another without notice. For teachers, this is something that happens with some regularity and most of us pride ourselves on our flexibility. And I love it when that spontaneous plan blossoms into a wonderful learning moment.

We always have picture books at the ready to read to our class. Some are set aside for specific purposes and lessons, others we know we want to read but are waiting for the perfect time to present itself. Last year we read Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal–a book that our students loved. We revisited it a number of times throughout the school year for different purposes…from mentor sentences to a situation for opinion writing.

At the end of the year, I came across a new book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal: Exclamation Point. So today, in that moment when I needed a plan at a moment’s notice, I picked up Exclamation Point, reminded my returning students (two thirds of them) that this was the author of Spoon, and started to read. I love those moments when each student’s attention is fully engaged…and they were hooked by the bright yellow cover and the whimsical smiling exclamation point. They noticed right away that there wasn’t a title…at least not written in words. The exclamation point itself stood as the title.

We read and discussed and noticed and connected all the way through the book. We delighted in the words and the pictures and the message. And we were inspired to write our own stories about punctuation.

And then later in the day we managed to get packed up and ready to go home with enough time for a book before the dismissal bell. Overwhelmingly, students wanted me to read Spoon. It was sitting near Exclamation Point…and suddenly today became the day for a mini author study. The second and third graders were treated to an old friend, and the first graders were anxious to get acquainted!

After reading, students volunteered their observations, connections, reactions, reflections. They had so many thoughtful comments and ideas for their own writing. And one student pointed out that Amy Krouse Rosenthal wrote about ordinary things…in wonderful ways. We started thinking about all the ordinary things we might write about and how our writing could transform them beyond the ordinary. They were excited to write as the dismissal bell rang today…I hope they sustain that excitement long enough to actually get to the writing.

I’ve also been noticing the power of the ordinary. Yesterday’s post was about the transformation of an ordinary photo into something I was willing to name as art. And today on five minute friday the prompt is ordinary. Today in the classroom the ordinary business of reading a book because an extraordinary opportunity to notice the magic of writers and writing…and turned students into active learners making meaning for themselves. Today I was reminded that ordinary is a state of mind, and each of us has the power to re-look and re-see the ordinary in new ways. I love when that wonderful learning moment in the classroom means that I learn too!

Planting Seeds

2 Replies

We planted seeds today…in the garden and in our writer’s notebooks. There are many garden metaphors about learning and students–especially at the elementary level and as I watched my students today, I can understand why.

The beet seeds were small and for some of my students, hard to hang onto. Some seeds slipped to the ground, blending in with the earth. Those students needed another seed to plant in our garden bed. Other students delighted in the tiny seeds and noticed every detail. They were able to keep track and carefully nestled the seed into the soil.

During our writing lesson a bit later, I noticed that some of my students took the lesson on similes and easily “planted” their ideas in their writer’s notebooks. A few stretched even further and played with language and the technique of simile to create fresh and interesting images. Others had dropped their “seeds” and needed some extra support to “plant” a seed or two in their notebooks.

In the garden, after planting our seeds, students carefully watered the soil to create an environment to support the seeds’ germination. They managed the heavy watering cans and negotiated turn taking as fledgeling gardeners.

In the classroom, we left our writing seeds to germinate too after carefully sowing them in our notebooks. Time was short and ideas were flowing…students can’t wait to come back to share their writing and extend their ideas. This is an environment ripe for more writing tomorrow! Today we used Stubborn as a Mule and Other Silly Similes by Nancy Loewen to “prime the pump” and get us thinking about similes and how we might use them in our writing.

We planted beets, peas, arugula, spinach, beans, kale, and sunflowers today. As our gardening teacher reminded the kids, we plant all the time because we want to eat all the time. And as writers and learners, we need to write and play with language and writing so our ideas and stamina and capacity for writing and learning will also grow. We celebrate the National Day on Writing in October each year as a reminder of the importance of writing in our lives and learning. But just as we don’t only plant our gardens in October, we can’t just plant our writing in October. We have to write all year long, in lots of ways for lots of reasons to nurture our writing…and our writers so they too will grow strong and tall.

How do you nurture writers and learners? What seeds did you plant today?

Related articles