Blog Post #2- Reflection on Who I am as a Writer? and Kittle 1-5!

Reflection on Who I am as a Writer Project

Working on my Animoto video, Who I am as a Writer? brought out my inner eighth grader-  staying up late to do homework and "get it right".  Upon reflection, I wish that I had placed captions over the pictures in order to improve the pacing.  I also should have included an image of my favorite book, Go Ask Alice.  It has influenced me tremendously both as a writer, and as a person who works with adolescents.  As a writer, I felt that I was taking a huge risk by showing the movie "without explanation".  I was nervous for my classmates to see it, but relieved by positive feedback and a comfortable classroom environment in which to view everyone's video.  I hope my classmates don't think I'm too weird-  but I felt that my movie really showed what goes on in this wacky mind of mine. I was generally happy with the project.  It was more about me than about my students, but I think that is okay.

As an ESOL teacher, I have always used and valued the combination of words and images to tell a story.  This project really spoke to that.  I feel that my words had a greater impact when backed up by vivid, and often autobiographical, images.   I felt less pressure in the writing, as I used my found poem as a springboard of ideas.  For English Language Learners, this creates a much lower stakes project.  My students are big "picture takers", and that would lend itself nicely to this work.

I enjoyed many things about my classmates' movies.  Seeing images of student work and parts of people's classrooms was great.  We spend so much time carefully deciding what to display, and it's very special to share it with those outside of the school.  I also was captured by those who included images of being "handcuffed" or "trapped" by writing; the image of rows of students in desks and "running from academic writing" were powerful and true.  As a public school teacher, I often don't have the liberty to just be creative: there are so many things that we "have to do".  As a teacher of ELLs, my students often feel trapped by the writing process and not being able to express their deepest thoughts in English.  I liked this process most because it helped me to learn my classmates' names and have, literally, a snapshot into their lives.

Reflection on Course Readings 

Kittle's writing about the Quick Write and Writer's Notebook is fascinating.  I started my own just to try out some of the techniques that she describes.  This year I have a group of strong 8th grade ELL students who can do/ and would enjoy much of what she describes.  It's so hard to get the kids started sometimes- particularly 6th and  7th graders.  It's even hard to get them to write about what they like.  One thing I will try is the "Tell & Show" (page 43) Quick Write where students can first tell about something, and then go back and edit their work by "showing" what happened- as if their story was being told in a movie.  This is a big leap for students to make, but important in making their writing more sophisticated.

I'd also like to try Kittle's "interest journal" (page 47) because I like the idea of students using each others work on similar topics to inspire the next.  They are so used to commenting and "liking" each others ideas on social media.  I feel that this the interest notebooks are a more academic way of doing that.  I would also keep and use students' work from past years- written on a similar topic. 

Bomer (120/121) is very thorough in covering all genres in his curriculum design.  In my teaching world, I haven't had the time to cover so many genres in a year- even for my highest level students.  In many cases, we are working on simply responding to a picture or a prompt and trying to craft a paragraph.  I struggle with making writing too formulaic, but for students with interrupted education/ little to no academic writing experience, structure and scaffolding are often needed.

Hicks (page 4) writes about using the writing process to help students to write.  He warns against the process being to formulaic and not authentic.  In my district, we are encouraged to tap into students' "felt need" to do classroom tasks, solve problems, and choose their activities.  While I think there is value in this authenticity, I also feel that students must first "know the rules before they can break them."  So many of my students are learning to be students and succeed in an academic setting.  Sometimes I feel they need all the structure they can get.

My biggest wondering, after all of this reading, is about how to incorporate vocabulary development into the writing.  How can I continue to help students develop their academic vocabulary and take their writing to the next level while still fostering their growth as independent thinkers and free writers? 

Rita's Found Poem

corny teacher sounding

from putting W O R D S

into a tired, cranky block

my metal box

Teach me as much

short of M A G I C A L

who am I?  

watching Sports Center

cried and traded books

playwriting, and countless poetry

neglected in my closet

in ripped notebooks

corny teacher sounding

short of M A G I C A L

scraps of paper

into a tired, cranky block

watching Sports Center

edit my college

from putting W O R D S

playwriting, and countless poetry

who am I?  

neglected in my closet

Teach me as much

into a tired, cranky block

a nuisance to stub my toes on

Blog Post #1 Rita's a writa'

When I was thirteen I decided I wanted to become a sports journalist.  I spent hours reading The Sporting News, watching Sports Center, and reading stats in the newspaper every day.  I joined the school newspaper, eventually became editor, and wrote sports articles for a local free newspaper.  I wanted to go to journalism school, edit my college newspaper, and follow my favorite sports teams to random cities.

Then I discovered poetry.

In addition to reading whatever I could get my hands on, I'd get together with friends and we'd have poetry readings.  We gave each other feedback, and laughed, cried, and traded books.  I locked my poems, often written in ripped notebooks, backs of envelopes, and scraps of paper, in a broken metal box.  (Who am I- Emily Dickinson? ) I left a note for my best friends- just in case somebody found it.

In college I majored in English and Theatre.  I took playwriting, and countless poetry workshops.  I filled notebooks and computer drives.  I shared with others and gave and received awesome feedback.  I loved it.  Even graduating from college wouldn't stop me from putting words on a page and sharing with others. 

Then I stopped.  I just stopped.  Jobs, a career in theatre, other life changes, and pursuing my Master's Degree turned this energetic and eager writer's brain into a tired, cranky, block .  My metal box, left neglected in my closet, was nothing more than a nuisance to stub my toes on, and the only writing I did was emails.

Summer 2015 was a dark time for me.  I was going through some changes in my life, and was far away from my best friend.  Through Google Drive, we created a writing portfolio and began exchanging our work.  It has been nothing short of magical.   We have shared everything from gratitude lists, random essays, and poems.  Some days I felt like it saved my sanity.  It also created a record of this time- which I appreciate now that things have markedly improved.

As a middle school teacher,  I love writing with my students, helping them learn to edit their work, and listening to them read. They teach me as much as I teach them.   Even as I write this, with its corny teacher sounding ending, I'm thinking of how much I need to edit before it's right.

Maybe later.