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A Writer is…. Start the story: narrative (real or imagined): You have a choice of perspectives: 1 st person, monkey 1 st person, puppy 1 st person, photographer 1 st person, tsunami. Write It Down, Make It Happen.
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Start the story: narrative (real or imagined): • You have a choice of perspectives: • 1st person, monkey • 1st person, puppy • 1st person, photographer • 1st person, tsunami
Write It Down, Make It Happen You’ve been at it for a few days now. Enough time – maybe – to get your bearings. So now, compose your list of goals for your work with EKUWP. Don’t censor yourself: just create a healthy, long list. If you think a goal is too big or far-fetched, write it anyway. Don’t be afraid of wanting too much or of not knowing how to get there. Just get it down.
Choose one part or tackle it all. Argue, inform, explain or narrate. Don’t feel like you have to do math, but use the math as a starting point for a piece.
Love--Hate You might pick something from your heart map for today’s exercise or you might think of something new. Either way, identify something that you feel strongly about, whether positively or negatively and write about it for five minutes as if you love it. Then, write about it again for five minutes as if you hate it.
I Remember… Many novelists say the best way to find your story and voice is to simply start recording everything – Every. Single. Thing. – you can remember. After hours, or days, or weeks, of recording memories, you’ll find the story you need to tell. We don’t have hours right now – but you have 10 minutes to get started. So remember. Start a list. Your memories may be random, and go back as far as you can; or they may be focused on a theme – birthdays, holidays, friends, vacations, etc. The point is to get memories down, in as much or as little detail as you want.
Writing about Classrooms Draft a scene for a narrative or a report that is set in your classroom. Don’t name any emotional state, feeling, or interpretation, but reveal something beyond the images you compose. For example, describe a scene during testing, just after recess, when the kids have just left for the day, etc. Be specific!
Make the Familiar Intriguing Write for five minutes listing things that happen regularly in a city – traffic, pedestrians walking, shopping, selling, sitting on steps, etc. Then, connect one or more of them with as many how, why, what, when, where, what if questions as you can think of.As you walk and write today – look for answers, generate more questions, and write about it all. And somewhere in today’s perambulations, focus on energy for a photo and an opportunity to write.
Stretch Yourself Since we’re checking it tomorrow, you’re probably thinking about your checklist quite a bit. Which piece haunts you? What area worries you? Arguments, informational text, narratives? Your unit? Your CALTF piece? Something digital…..? Force yourself out of your comfort zone: Write your own Writing into the Day prompt that will get you writing in that direction you’re avoiding. It might not be easy; that’s why these are called exercises. Then, in the time that remains, start the piece you’ve prompted. You have today and tomorrow to develop it….
Focus on the Outcome Describe some specific writing event, activity, product, instruction, etc. that you want to happen in your classroom. Write it exactly the way you see it happening. Then explain why you want this outcome.
Create a Scene To get you thinking: Who are they? Where are they going? Where are they coming from? What are they feeling? What are they thinking? Why are they together? Who is behind them? Create their storyline.
To and From Metaphors –The Practice of Poetry The following words are concepts, or ideas. At first glance, pick one word from each list. • rage, order, justice, solitude • mercy, pain, hunger, God • peace, war, history, angel For 5 minutes, write all of the images that you think of for each word chosen. Not synonyms, but images, concrete things that your words help you visualize. Then, connect ideas to images by writing the images into lines.
Choose one of the two following words and write about that word in whatever direction (creative, definitional, personal, etc.) you wish: Fate Hate
Draft your bucket list. Be as specific as you can be. Include items as far-reaching as you’d like to. Then choose one of the items on your bucket list and draft an itinerary or map plans for completing the item. After all, we only have one more week here – why not start on your list next Friday?
What did you do this summer…. …. that is making a difference to what you’re going to do this year in your classroom? What ideas or plans stuck with you, or developed, and what shape have they taken now that you’re seeing, or soon will see, your students again?
In This One… (p. 36, Schneider) Call up from memory a mental snapshot or actual photograph of someone important to you. Take the first one that comes to mind. When you have the image clearly focused, write to the person in the photograph beginning with these words: “In this one, you…”
Immigration/Ellis Island http://www.shmoop.com/ellis-island-immigration/photo-ellis-island.html
Experimenting with Form (Schneider, pp 80) Write about something you did this morning in each of the three forms modeled below. • The autobiographical note: I went to the post office this morning, got distracted, ate a bagel, and read the NY Times. Should have been writing. • Third Person, Past Tense: The woman started to the post office. Her intentions were good, but there was a bagel shop on the corner, and the door opened just as she approached. The smell that wafted out was fresh cinnamon-raisin… • Second Person, Present Tense: You pick up the mail from your desk, check the postage on three letters and one wrapped birthday gift for Paul. Yep. All okay. You put on your gray sweater, grab your billfold, and head out. It’s a perfect day. You’ll come right back and write. But—there’s the bagel shop….”
Writing about Students (p. 77 Schneider) Make a list of student characteristics such as nervous, happy, bored. Then write to embody those characteristics in words that do not name the characteristic. Instead, use description and show the characteristic in the character’s body posture, gesture, and action.
Industrial Revolution http://educators.mfa.org/galleries/slideshow/4430
Keep the cards you’ve been handed face down. You should have 3 “character” cards. You should have 3 “action” cards. Without looking at them, pass one character card counterclockwise. Without looking at them, pass two action cards clockwise. Turn your cards over and create a short scene by combining at least one character and at least one action.
Fearing… A character (or you, if you want to write memoir) thinks about a fear. This could be something practical, like the upcoming results of a medical test, or something vague and indefinite...
Now that you are nearing completion of the EKUWP Summer Institute, create a parallel list of your teaching strategies using the stems: “I used to… “Now I…”
SBUS Revision How do you plan to implement the 3 types of writing into a Standards Based Unit of Study (SBUS) for the fall? Be as specific as possible regarding content and writing assignments, prompts and assessments.
REACH OUT AND WRITE!In just a little while you will write (at least) two letters. At least one will be to an administrator who has made your participation in the Summer Institute possible. At least one will be to someone who you think should consider applying for the Summer Institute next year. In your letters you will let administrators know you appreciate their support for the writing project. You’ll let the recruit know why the SI would benefit them. Tell both about what you did and your plans for next year. You’ll give them a glimpse of your summer institute that will make a difference to your teaching. You’ll want to be brief, but as specific as you can be, tailored to them.Make notes now – a map, an outline, a start – to share with your table and add to before we move to the lab to write.
