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I'm Tired!

3/31/2016

I’m tired.
Muscles throbbing,
Fingers aching,
Feet hurting,
Neck stiffening,
Eyes drooping,
Head dropping,
Mind thinking…
Time for napping,
Time for sleeping,
Time for reading,
Time for resting,
No more posting…
I’m tired!

Thanks so much for a truly wonderful month with the Slice of Life community! It was challenging, but I felt like I was doing what I expect my students to do – to live a writerly life and write in a notebook every day. To that end, I hope to join the SOL community on Tuesdays. I loved reading all the writing and visited many more than I was able to leave a response, but read and enjoyed, nonetheless – so many new ideas for scaffolds, interesting topics, glimpses into the lives of these wonderful educators from all over the country. I will miss all of you!

I’ll also write for www.mentortextswithlynneandrose.com to talk about classroom work, mentor texts, and writing workshop. Diane and I will blog on our site https://dianeandlynne.wordpress.com to write tips for embedding grammar and conventions as well as snippets of our work on formative assessment in writing workshop. The PA Writing & Literature Project has a retired writers’ group that meets once a month. We have about 35 members. I can’t wait to share my experiences with them. I’m sure some will try it next year. Many thanks to the twowritingteachers team. Brava!

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A Look at Revision

3/30/2016

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"If you think you’re better than a horned toad, you will never hear its voice.”
~Byrd Baylor, The Other Way to Listen

Revision responses should help the writer, not the writing, move forward. Allow your students to help you revise your own writing to model the process. Ask them these questions:

What stayed with you?
What did it make you think of?
What questions do you have?

Encourage students to write comments on sticky notes as you read their writing aloud to them. This practice of reading aloud is so useful to student writers. It helps them to develop a writer’s ear for the music of the words. The following list is filled with some suggestions to try out when engaged in revision. Happy writing to all!

Reread to discover the “inside story.”What are you really writing about?

Write a different beginning.

Write a different ending.

Write the piece in a different tense.

Use a multi-genre approach.

Write in the third person instead of the first person.

Write for a different audience.

Find your center of gravity and begin there.

Write the piece in a different format (a poem, letter, or feature article).

Look at your verbs and nouns – are they specific?

Try adding some dialogue.

Write descriptions that appeal to a sense you have not evoked in this piece.

Try to collaborate with a peer who is writing on the same theme or subject and rewrite.

Read it aloud to see if the voice is working. Listen to the rhythm of your words.

Check for unnecessary words (economy of expression).

Step away from your work for several hours or wait until the next day – even the next week – to tackle revision again.

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Yearning for Home

3/29/2016

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Ready to go home, we looked out across
Web Lake and saw the noisy, clumsy loons
drifting down as the sun sank
behind purpling mountains.

Loons, with haunting cries,
spilling over the sleepy lake,
their black and white feathers
fading into the evening twilight.

We stood there, still as statues,
feeling the heartbeat of the lake
and all its creatures beating as one,
our hearts beating as one.

Ready to go home, we stood at another lake,
drinking up unbridled beauty in long, slow gulps:
Tahoe, with inky blue waters,
surrounded by rugged mountains.

Unwilling to turn away, we stood there,
still as statues,
feeling our hearts press against each other’s T-shirts
as we said our good-byes.

And by the next year, we had drifted apart,
like the waters of two separate lakes with separate views:
our faces beginning to blur and
fade into evening’s twilight.

We stood alone on separate shores,
still as statues,
our hearts broken but still beating…
yearning for home.

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What Should I Write About?: What Makes a Memory

3/28/2016

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People often write memoirs thinking they need to write about the most meaningful, most dramatic or most life-changing moments in their life’s story. They choose snapshots from their lives like the joy they felt with the birth of their first child, the difficulties of going through treatment for a serious illness, or the delight of a special anniversary. But there are hundreds of moments in every life worth capturing in a memoir or autobiography.

They are the ordinary activities of life, made fascinating by the passage of time and the way the world changes around us. How you got to school or what you paid for coffee and a doughnut as a young person might not have seemed worth noting at the time, but today, your grandkids have a very different story to tell! The contrast between how you grew up and their lives today is really quite amazing. And imagine the differences possible in another generation! These are the sorts of details that bring a memoir to life and make it relevant to younger generations of readers. So you shouldn’t feel like every chapter in your life’s story needs to be monumental – it just needs to be full of little stories and reminiscences that speak about you and the times you lived in. Fireflies! By Julie Brinckloe is a wonderful example of an ordinary event captured in a picture book. Do you remember catching or watching fireflies on a warm June night?

Research is sometimes needed in order to write more, or at least, write accurately. My father always talked about my grandfather’s store on Wyoming Avenue in Philadelphia. If I wanted to include this memory in a piece of writing or as part of my family’s story, I would probably do some additional research. So, for example, I knew when the picture was taken – in the late 1920’s. I also knew my grandfather sold fresh fruits and vegetables. As you can see, the shelves are stacked high with canned goods. At that time there were no frozen food packages because that technology was not available yet. There is a sign that advertises cans of Norwegian sardines in olive oil for 15 cents a can. Today, a can of sardines costs about three dollars! A pound of cheese in 1924 was 38 cents, and a pound of coffee was 47 cents. Today, we would pay over four dollars on average, depending on the coffee brand. The floors in my grandfather’s store were wooden, so they were easy to sweep and clean. There is also a sign for Bond Bread. In 1929, the cost of Bond Bread dropped to 1 cent a loaf. The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939. My grandparents lived through hard times during this era. To write about the store and my father’s childhood, I need to better understand what it was like economically, culturally, and politically. That will help me write with a different lens than the one I use to view life in 2016.

Writers often need a “spark” or a question to answer to begin their journey down memory lane. Sometimes answering a simple question can get you thinking about a certain period in your life, and suddenly lots of memories you hadn’t thought of in ages are right at your fingertips. Now is the time to write them down. No need to write a fully-formed “chapter” right now – just jot down a few notes to store the memory for now. Fleshing out the chapter can come later. First, rely on your writer’s notebook to get you started. Then, if you are writing a book, it’s one chapter at a time. Eventually, if you carve out a little time for writing every day, an entire novel, picture book, or article is ready to send out into the world for reviews, and hopefully, publication!

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Right Outside My Window

3/27/2016

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(A seed of any idea from a mentor text, Right Outside My Window by Mary Ann Hoberman. Written Saturday afternoon after a glorious day of planting pansies and hyacinths in my garden.)

Today, I observe the thick greenness of the grass in my backyard and the tiny pink buds and red-purple leaves on the crab apple trees. Fat robins are everywhere, and my husband has dragged all the hoses from the garage to clean and fill the bird baths. I am almost certain a chickadee is building a nest in one of the tiny birdhouses. It is wonderful that it is so warm I am not even wearing a coat as I stand to survey the landscape. My two Welsh Corgis sprint back and forth by the fence that separates us from Sandy Run Park, probably because a squirrel has been spotted.

I hope this year I am here to notice the pink-petal beauty that fills my windowscapes. Sometimes, I have been away at a conference – just long enough to miss the big show! Usually, I wait until late April for this pageantry, but this year I think it may be quite early. How fleeting some things are – like the delicate petals that fall like pink rain shortly after they bloom! I’ve been waiting for Spring very patiently and only wish that she would stay a little longer. I always feel I have to say good-bye to her too soon. I sigh. This, I believe, is often true of so many things.

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America Embraces Diversity

3/26/2016

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America blends her many faces into one beautiful mural – diversity is what makes her
      smart, interesting, a great place to call home!
America builds ships, bridges like the Golden Gate, skyscrapers like Willis
     Tower, synagogues like Beth Sholom.
America sings of purple mountains majesty and blue suede shoes and dancing
       in the streets and good-bye Miss American pie.
America writes about Chicago and disappearing buffalo and Salem witches and a
       trail of tears and Los Angeles smog.
America celebrates Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve in
       in Times Square, Presidents’ Day, Martin Luther King, and Fourth of July.
America eats hot dogs, apple pie, corn-on-the-cob, peach cobbler, McDonald’s Big Mac,
       okra and grits, Southern fried chicken, and lots of salads.
America wears red, white, and blue enthusiastically, her favorite color combination.
America sprawls from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Canadian border to Mexico.
America entertains ideas from Democrats and Republicans, Tea Party members,
       the Constitution party, Libertarians, and Socialists.
America discovers that it is not always easy to keep everyone happy (as Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can please some of the people some of the time….”)
America explores possibilities and pushes the envelope to create scholars and pioneers.
America moves rockets to the moon and back, tractor trailers from New York to
       California, school children to school and home again.
America invents the truths she needs to keep afloat – not always willing to look at herself
       in the mirror and admit that some things need to change.
America laughs with comedians like Seinfeld, Fallon, Chris Rock, Letterman, Murphy,
      Fey, Kimmel, and Louis C. K.
America cries when she loses a soldier, a president, a firefighter, a police officer, a child.
America vacations at her seashores and in the mountains, in Europe, Canada, and South
      of the Border.
America says, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your
      country!”
America teaches us democratic principles, to love our neighbors, to question, to share, to
      serve.
America flows in great rivers like the Mississippi and Missouri and Colorado.
America tells tall tales of Paul Bunyan, Stormalong, Johnny Appleseed, and Pecos Bill.
America has comic book heroes: Superman, Spiderman, Wonderwoman, the Iron Giant, Deadpool.
America comes from a bloody, fierce revolution to claim her independence.
America protects rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
America speaks out against injustices and injuries to our planet – even through its movie
     stars (Thank you, Leo!).
America shares its food, its knowledge, and its national treasures.
America dances the square dance, the jitterbug, the stomp, the electric slide, the monkey.
America paints like Andrew Wyeth, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keeffe.
America plays baseball, soccer, football, hockey, lacrosse, and ice hockey.
America worships in synagogues, churches, mosques, meeting houses, and woodlands.
America blends her many faces into one beautiful mural – diversity is what makes her
      smart, interesting, a great place to call home!

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To Our Student Writers

3/25/2016

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Writing workshop is more than setting aside a period of time for writing. It also has to do with the environment we build together with our students. The social dimension of our classroom plays a crucial role in the successes our students will experience. The personal dimension does, too. It is important for each student to develop a writing identity. To that end, we should call our students “writers” as often as possible and raise them to that very conscious level of “I am a writer.” They are authors now, and they have important things to say. Indeed, it is part of what it means to be human to be able to share our stories with others in a more permanent way. Each day we write a new page in the story of our lives. We are all important. We are connected to everyone else on this planet. We are human beings. We are writers. This poem celebrates the writers in all our classrooms.

To Our Student Writers

They are all writers,
Each and every one.
They have found
Power in the written word.
They have discovered
How beautiful language can be –
That it can sing and skip and run
Across the page with big energy!
They are confident and fearless,
Proud to share and publish their words.
Their hearts spill over:
The stories of their lives,
The melodies of their poems,
The truths of songs yet to be sung,
For they are still quite young…
But they are all writers,
Each and every one.

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Chocolate-covered Cherries & George Washington's Birthday

3/24/2016

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I love chocolate-covered cherries, and so I wrote about it yesterday while I was in Shelly Keller’s kindergarten class. The students had just tried out a craft move – variation in print for onomatopoeia, after a demonstration with texts including Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!, Night Noises, and Chameleons are Cool. The students’ learning was documented on an anchor chart, and Shelly encouraged them to use the chart as they wrote in their books.

After independent writing and snacks, Shelly read from I Love Chocolate by Davide Cali. It was a half-day of school with parent conferences in the afternoon. I was amazed to watch these young writers eagerly go to their writer’s notebook after the read aloud to write. Many of them were writing about Easter and baskets filled with all kinds of chocolate, some chose to write about a favorite candy, and one student actually wrote about why he didn’t like chocolate. Shelly and I wrote, too.

I knew my topic – my love of chocolate-covered cherries! When I was in elementary school, we celebrated George Washington’s birthday and Lincoln’s birthday; Presidents’ Day did not exist. I can’t remember if we had a holiday for one of those birthdays or not, but I vaguely remember we had a holiday for George because we made a special trip to the bakery on Wadsworth Avenue on that day.

Now this particular bakery had a glorious selection of chocolate-covered cherries and even small and medium-sized chocolate hatchets. Of course, everyone knew the story about George Washington and the cherry tree. “I cannot tell a lie,” George solemnly told his father. It was a hard story for me to buy into, because if I had chopped down a tree on our property (or any other property, for that matter), I would have been facing a serious loss of privileges and a lot of time alone in my room. Anyway, I don’t know how the cherry tree story got started, but it had taken root across America and passed on from one generation to the next.

I do remember how disappointed I was when I discovered this story wasn’t true. Enter author Frank Murphy. He had researched a perfect story about George Washington and based his Step Into Reading Book about this research. At the end of George Washington and the General’s Dog, we find out that Washington had actually written a letter to General Howe (in the Smithsonian today) after Howe’s dog had wandered into Washington’s camp. Washington was a great animal lover, and when he discovered what had happened, he called a truce to return Howe’s dog to him. Now here is the story that America’s children should hear about our first president.

I still love chocolate-covered cherries. They are my favorite kind of candy in a candy box. But now, I mostly eat them on Valentine’s Day if my husband buys me a small box. They always remind me of George!

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Somewhere in Maine

3/23/2016

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Walking down a peaceful lane
In Acadia National Park in Maine,
We find a place to have our feast
And spread our blanket without the least
Care in the world or worriment
About how much money we have spent.

We took a vacation to have some fun
And hope to white-water raft before it’s done!
We open the wooden basket to look:
Of course, I’ve brought my favorite book!
And writer’s notebook, a sketchbook, too,
Some pencils and pencils – more than a few.

Wine, some chicken, fruit and cheese,
I’ll take some of this and that and these!
A plastic glass to fill with wine,
So relaxed and feeling fine!

While lying on the blanket munching,
Something starts my back to hunching.
Tiny visitors have joined our feast –
They’re little soldiers – they’re little beasts!

The ants come marching one by one
To ruin all our picnic fun.
And now the bees have joined the chase,
I fear we’ll have to leave this place…
And what just bit me? Could it be?
That mosquito is attacking me!

We cannot win this insect fight,
And I didn’t get a chance to write!
So next time ‘fore I think to roam,
I’ll think again…
and stay at home!

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In the Month of May

3/22/2016

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Look and you will find May babies everywhere:
Under a bush, under the porch, inside a den.
May urges magnificent, strong-withered beasts
To gallop through wide, rolling pastures.
Foals stand on stilt-like legs
And spread them wide to drink
Their mother’s milk or reach tender grass.

Trees don their leafy dresses of emerald
With birds’ nest crowns that tweet!
May sunshine spreads like warm butter
Over daisies and tulips,
Blue birds and bunnies,
Young and old hearts.
May is the Queen of Spring!

We celebrate my birthday with a beach walk.
Earthworms wriggle into the rich soil,
Lily of the Valley by my garden walk,
And a rebirth of wonder is felt
In our souls, renewing our spirits.
Earth shimmers with new lives,
Welcoming them in the month of May:

May, glorious and happy,
A month to make new memories
To last the whole year long!

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Lynne loves to write in the early morning hours, especially in warm weather when she can sit outside on the patio. After a walk with her three Welsh Corgis, her mind is cleared and her spirit is inspired by the choir of birds in nearby bushes and trrees.

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