At the Hospital Again - SOLC March 7

"Hospital Time" - whoever invented that phrase knew hospitals well.

It's a beautiful Friday afternoon (I know because I can see it out the window), and I'm sitting in a hospital again.  On this particular day, my mom is having a hip re-replacement, and my brother and I are in the surgical waiting room waiting to hear from Mom's surgeon.

As I sit here in the hospital yet again, I can't help but reflect on this past year and what a crazy roller coaster it's been.

May, the month where hospital waiting began

Hip replacement for Mom

Mechanically, a fairly simple surgery

Her rehab was close to us

Giving us many hours to reconnect

And talk about life and love

As she gained strength and mobility

Yet she was still excited to be going

Home 

A place that belonged to her

Pain set in shortly

Many doctors and specialists were consulted

More questions than answers

After months of waiting for answers

Finally, decisions made

An exploratory hip surgery scheduled

Infection probable

Hospital waiting again in December

Replacement removed

Temporary spacer and antibiotics inserted

More waiting at rehab

Learning to be strong with one leg

Can't bear weight on the other

Hospital waiting again in January

This time for Dad

Back surgery 

Where half-way through a 5 hour procedure

Power went out

Generators failed

They stitched him up in the dark

Opened him up and finished the next day

Two days of serious waiting

Now, here we are again

In the waiting room

waiting, waiting, waiting 

If you don't feel like waiting, head on over to Two Writing Teachers blog to check out all the other slices.  Thanks so much to this group that leads us through the month of March!!

Progress Reports - SOLC March 6

I just want to say this upfront -- "Hi, my name is Karen and I am addicted to Evernote."

It's that time again.  It is the end of the trimester, and progress reports need to be completed by this Monday.  I have had a love/hate relationship with progress reports my entire teaching career.

However, my feelings have shifted in the past two years, and I can thank Evernote for that.  I find myself documenting so much more learning now.  So when it comes time to write thoughtful comments that will benefit the student and the parent(s)/guardians, I get to look through a digital portfolio of all the learning and teaching moments I have captured.  I can see trends for my language arts students when it comes to reading, writing, and word study, and can annotate that so all can learn.

When I finished my last progress report comment tonight, I knew I had good data; information that would be meaningful to all.  Thanks Evernote.

And with that, I say good night.

Thanks so much to the ladies at Two Writing Teachers blog for hosting the Slice of Life Challenge!  I look forward to catching up on many lives this month.

Whoops! - SOLC, March 5

Real life -- if you can't laugh at yourself, who can?

I have been flying from meeting to meeting lately, and trying to tie up loose ends, such as progress reports and conference forms for next week before my mom's hip surgery this Friday.

To keep up with what I need to do each day, I originally plotted out all the deadlines on a monthly calendar.  Then each day, I create a daily "to do" list; one of the old fashioned paper and pencil kind.  It even says "To Do List" at the top in case I forget what the list is for.

But I digress...

So, today I:

• worked on progress report comments
• finished grading the last stack of papers
• sent out our weekly parent update email
• stayed very organized at the end of the day, so that I could immediately leave for my 4:30 meeting on the east side of town
• drove to that meeting

However, when I got there, I was the only car in the parking lot.  Being the problem solver that I am, when I saw the empty parking lot, I got out my registration slip, and upon closer inspection of my workshop confirmation, it appears that the 2 hour workshop is tomorrow, March 6, not today, March 5.  Whoops.

As I drove the half hour back to my house in rush hour traffic, knowing all the pre-planning I've done to stay on top of things, thinking of all the "to do" items I could have accomplished, trust me that the word I was saying out loud was not "whoops!"

Thanks so much to the ladies at Two Writing Teachers blog for hosting the Slice of Life Challenge!  I look forward to catching up on many lives this month.

The Power of Modeling Writing - SOLC March 4

 I have been thinking in these first few posts about how to elevate the quality of writing in our workshop.

At a language arts council meeting I attended recently, I had the good fortune to see a video clip of Tony Keefer doing a writing mini-lesson about "manipulating time."  He specifically modeled for students the writing strategies of speeding time up and slowing it down when appropriate.

What struck me immediately on watching the tape was that Tony actually had written, revised, and shared writing pieces with his class.  I have written many first drafts in front of my class, but had never gone the next step to actually revising and polishing a piece.  Sure, I did bits and pieces, but never really shared work from start to completion.

Layered into my thinking about Tony and his modeling was something Penny Kittle had shared at the Dublin Literacy Conference.  She oftentimes gives students a piece she has written, and then asks them to read the piece, marking on it as needed, so that they can analyze it and give her the specific feedback that she requests.

Tony's video clip + Penny's share about requesting feedback = an important moment for me as a writer and a writing teacher.

I began to dig through my writer's notebooks to see if I had a seed of an idea I might want to develop, and lo and behold, I stumbled across my 28 pages chronicling all the events that happened when I visited my daughter, Kate in 2007, when she studied abroad in Spain.  That trip was my first-ever time across the ocean, and I knew there were many stories I wanted to tell from that time period.

As I scanned through the 28 pages I had written, I realized that most of my notebook entries were filled with minuscule details of things I wanted to remember.   They were the very stories we warn our students about -- bed to bed.

My first draft, with students' feedback

The passage I chose to focus on was our weekend trip to Florence, Italy -- the arrival, the hotel, and going to dinner.  I typed this passage in a document and made a copy for each student.  The next day, I shared the piece, and then told the students that I was unhappy with the piece.  Specifically, the feedback I wanted from them was three-fold: 

1. Does this piece have a clear story line? 
2. How were the details of the piece -- too few or too many? 
3. Would dialogue help my piece?

My first revised draft, incorporating
students' feedback, as well as
technique of speeding up time

They had 5 minutes to mark up their copies of my piece, keeping my three questions in mind when thinking about suggestions for me.  Their feedback was amazing, and I jotted all over my copy what they had suggested.

I made revisions using their suggestions, and shared a part of the piece the next day.  I also made sure to "manipulate time" by speeding up the action in one part.  On that second day, we did a comparison of where my piece had been and where it was today.  I hadn't just substituted words or moved sentences, but rather I had truly rewritten the story for better flow.

I encouraged them to try speeding up the action in pieces where they were doing exactly what I had done; telling every single mundane detail.  We had a model of how improved a piece could be.

My second revised draft,
focusing on dialogue
and slowing time down

The third day, I came back with more writing; a continuation of the Florence piece, only now that I was in the restaurant scene, I wanted to slow down time.  When I shared this part, one of my students volunteered that I must have used the "show not tell" strategy when I slowed down time.  I didn't consciously, but he is correct when he noticed that had happened.

For writing teachers, you have heard this a million times before, but there is great power in being a writer with real writing problems in front of your students.  Having them see me struggle, ask for their feedback, and then use it becomes a wonderful teaching tool.

That's all for now.  Not because this post is polished the way I want, but I am exhausted and need to go to sleep, and I have 17 minutes to make the deadline for posting today.

Thanks so much to the ladies at Two Writing Teachers blog for hosting the Slice of Life Challenge!  I look forward to catching up on many lives this month.

Having an Audience Matters - SOLC March 3

I'm continuing my thinking about how to put energy and purpose into our writer's workshop.

My students recently completed a focus study on opinion writing.  We spent a great deal of time talking about how important it was to know who their audience is in order to find the best supports and evidence for their thinking.  In addition, knowing their audience allows the writer to choose the best "container" (thanks, Mary Lee for that great word) for their piece.

For their opinion pieces, many students did a slideshow presentation (Keynote or Explain Everything), other students made books to share with younger classes, while another group decided to write more formal essays.

Yet another group of students chose to write a letter directed to a specific person or institution.  A smattering of the topics and recipients:

• a letter to our local youth football league regarding the safety of helmets
• a letter to the Washington Redskins organization asking them to change their name
• a letter to all the 5th grade teachers in my building asking them to reinstate a specific field trip
• a letter to all the 5th grade teachers asking them to institute a second recess
• a letter to the principal and PTO requesting that swings be added to our playground
• a letter to the principal protesting our current use of eTextbooks in social studies

The list goes on, but the thing all these letters had in common was a strong belief that something needed to be changed, and these students wanted to go to the source with their cases.

When there was so much passion shown by the writers in the classroom, it was an absolute surprise and delight to find typed letters on school letterhead from our principal in my mailbox one day last week.  He had written to each and every student that had composed a letter for his eyes.  This action on his part literally brought me to tears, anticipating how excited the students would be that the principal not only read their opinion piece, but responded to the specific arguments they had made.

When I handed those letters out last week, there was a palpable excitement in the room.  "Let me see!  Let me see!" was a refrain in both classes.

Audience is important.  Audience matters to writers.  Take a second to read what my principal wrote to this student.  A response like this guarantees that this student will have purpose for every opinion/persuasive piece he writes in the future; he now knows he can make a difference. 

Thanks so much to the ladies at Two Writing Teachers blog for hosting the Slice of Life Challenge!  I look forward to catching up on many lives this month.

A New Way of Connecting with Students - SOLC March 2

On a recent #NCTE Twitter chat, the topic was formative assessment, such an important topic for all educators to be thinking about.  During the conversation, Kristine Mraz posted a picture of a chart in her room that helps her stay honest when it comes to conferring with students and meeting with them in specific strategy groups during writing workshop.

Kristine Mraz's brilliant idea

Kristine is a primary teacher, but I immediately saw implications of how I could use this system in my own writing workshop with 2 groups of 5th graders.  I set up a bulletin board that was divided so that both classes had a place to communicate their writing needs to me.  As a starting point, I divided the possible needs into 3 categories (very similar to Kristine's, just slightly different wording):

1. I need your feedback on a section of my piece
2. Our group would really like to work on a writing strategy with you (slow down time, speed time up, show not tell, effective dialogue, developing characters, taking good research notes, etc.)
3. I would like to share a short piece or a small section of my writing on Friday.

My version of Kristine's idea

The students were asked to put Post-it notes under one of the categories that would best help them as a writer when a need arose.  My initial thinking was about the autonomy this would give students; the power of having them ask for what they need as writers would be terrific.  This board went into place the day after the #NCTE Twitter chat, and in my humble opinion, has been a huge success.

While I still have strategy groups or conferences that are on my radar as a writing teacher, students are now asking for the assistance they need as writers to get them past a particular roadblock to which they may have come.  The focus and the industry of our writing workshop has changed dramatically, especially this last week, as this new routine became a more solid part of our workshop. Truth in advertising, this was also the first 5 day week I've worked since December (more on that in a later slice), but I think it's more than that.

I think this chart I borrowed and remixed from Kristine has allowed students a voice as writers that they might not have had before when I was the only one directing which students I would meet with each day.  Now, we have a more democratic way of helping writers, where everyone has a voice.

I expect that these categories might get tweaked as different needs arise, but for now I am cherishing the "work" time of our writing workshop.

Thanks so much to the ladies at Two Writing Teachers blog for hosting the Slice of Life Challenge!  I look forward to catching up on many lives this month.

Literacy Celebrations and Serendipity - SOLC March 1

My slice for today is a precursor to the slices of the next few days.  Several events have dovetailed in my professional life lately that make me strongly believe in serendipity, and have allowed me to become a more thoughtful writing teacher.

The events in no particular order:

1) A week ago today, I attended the Dublin Literacy Conference.  This is always one of my favorite conferences of the year.  The committee gets amazing thinkers and authors to headline this special day.  Year after year, the lineup never disappoints.  There were many amazing speakers, but the one I could have listened to all day was Penny Kittle.  Whether talking about reading workshop or writing workshop in a high school setting, Penny was so passionate about her work with students, and helping them to see themselves as readers and writers.

2) During a recent Twitter #nctechat on formative assessment, Kristine Mraz shared a picture from her classroom about a very public way she stays on a schedule with her writing conferences and strategy groups.

3) About a month ago, we finished a study of opinion writing.  Our emphasis was twofold: write for your audience and make sure you are able to support your position with many logical arguments and facts.  Some students had written persuasive letters and had mailed them to the person/organization they thought could best affect the change they were seeking.

4) A week or so ago, I was at a language arts council meeting for our district.  While there, during our reflection on workshop practice in the classroom, we watched a video of Tony modeling for students the art of manipulating time in a piece; knowing how to both slow time down as well as speed up time in a narrative.  His mini-lesson was brilliant.

These great nuggets of information about writing have been swirling around in my brain.  Stay tuned for the next few slices to see how these events have helped our writing workshop refine and evolve into a better version of itself.

In the meantime, you really need to head over to Two Writing Teachers blog to read the amazing Slices that others are writing.  The challenge of writing each and every day in March can be quite daunting, but what a great group of people with whom to tackle this event!