An Attempt at Realistic Fiction...

As she stood on that same familiar corner, waiting for him once again, she almost got up to leave a hundred times. But in the end she knew she couldn’t, she wouldn’t.  So instead, she just sat there, contemplating how she ended up here once again.  How her life for the last three years had literally come full circle. 

As he turned the corner and started walking towards her all she could do was take a deep breath. Her head felt differently than her heart, which contradicted the feelings in her stomach and left her genuinely confused. It was just easier to be angry with him. She didn’t want him to know how much he hurt her and honestly she didn’t want to think about how much she hurt anymore.  So instead, she settled on angry.

Angry that he called.  Angry that he didn’t see how much this hurt her.  Angry that it didn’t hurt him more.  Just angry.

He approached with a careful smile and a shy “Hey Liv”, as a way to test her current mood.  Sticking with angry she replied with a low, yet sturdy, “hi”.  Picking up on her current mood he gestured to the park across the street, “shall we?”  Without another word she began to walk towards a bench, their bench.  Hidden between two willow trees, it would be very hard to spot to someone who didn’t know it was there.  They had come across it late one night on their way back to the dorms.

Olivia had just finished telling Sam that one of the reasons she chose Virginia was because of the beautiful willow trees scattered throughout the campus.  She had considered it to be a somewhat embarrassing truth and at the time, was rather surprised that she had decided to share the small secret with him.  After she finished her story, Sam walked off the path and into the park without a word.  She watched as he started jogging towards one of the trees.  Olivia was confused but she happily chased after him, all the way to the largest willow tree at the far end of the park. Once she got close enough, she saw Sam had taken out his pocketknife and was carving something into the tree.  A small smile came across her face as it occurred to what he was carving.

She wouldn’t dare check to see if their initials were still there. She had settled on angry and she wanted to stay like that.  Unfortunately, the thought of that night was making that task increasingly more difficult.   

To be continued....hopefully.

The Nerdy Book Club

 

I just spent some time exploring the Nerdy Book Club’s Blog. I have to say that the name is what originally drew me in and I’m so glad that it did. 

So far, I am very interested in reading the book, Infinityand Me, which discusses the concept of infinity.  I read a very inspiring article about a man that created a character and an entire story to get his son to love reading.  I now know that March 6^th is read a loud day, which I am very excited about.  That particular article also informed me that UNESCO estimates that one out of every five people in the world cannot read or write.  This is simply a terribly scary statistic.  Finally, I learned about some great mystery books, which just might be the genre that will inspire some of my reluctant readers! 

In a matter of maybe thirty minutes, I was exposed to ideas and suggestions, new books, inspiring stories, and scary statistics that make me very happy I get to help children learn how to read every day.  This is absolutely a blog that I will be visiting again.

Balancing Act

One of the aspects of writer’s workshop that I have always found challenging, is editing and revising during individual student conferences.  Deciding what to edit and what not to edit in a student’s writing piece has always felt like a balancing act for me.  How much is too much and how little is too little?

                          Too Little                                              Too Much

                             Not learning                                            Overwhelming

                             Still so many mistakes!                             Discouraging 

After reading for one of my graduate classes, there were a few ideas that I think will really help me balance on this tightrope.

• Dudley-Marling and Patricia Paugh believe in conducting a series of mini-conferences.  If students are given the opportunity to meet for about five minutes every day, that time will add up throughout the week.                                      
• On deciding what skills and strategies to address during a writing conference, Dudley-Marling and Patricia Paugh write, “the priority should be on the skills and strategies that will have the most impact on the piece of writing the student is currently working on” (p.56).  Teachers must respond to what each student is trying to accomplish in one piece of writing and work from there.  This certainly helps decide where the focus should be while editing a student’s work.                                                                           
• I also found it extremely important to recognize that all students engage in writing differently.  This is also true for the editing and revising aspect of writing as well.  A study published in 2006 found that students approach writing and revising in different ways” (Dix, p.566).  As a teacher, I believe we all need to be aware that our students may engage in the editing and revising process differently than we do.  Being aware of this will be helpful for both the teacher and student. 

Most importantly, conferencing was recognized as an art.  Something that takes experience, practice, and time to learn! 

Teachers of Writing

This week, I read the first chapter in Katie Ray’s book, What You Know By Heart.   Chapter one was dedicated to discussing how important it is for teachers of writing to write and experience the process first hand. It took me until fairly recently to realize just how important this is and this chapter helped reinforce that point for me.  Although I have writing experiences through research papers, reflections, and other daily activities, I do not have very much experience engaging in the type of writing I expect from my students.  Until fairly recently, I have had very little experience writing a personal narrative, a memoir, a poem, or even a piece of fiction.  Now, having some of those experiences, I am beginning to see the challenges that many students face and understand how the writing process differs for many people.

   Katie Ray brought up another important point though.  She believes that because we are teachers of writing, we need more than just the experience of writing.  We need to be able to think about and explain our writing experiences. These experiences need to transfer to our curriculum and our workshops.  We need to take our experiences and decide how and when to use them in our mini lessons or during our guided reading groups.  This was an AH HA moment for me.  While I am writing, I also need to start thinking about how I would explain my experiences or how and when they would be introduced.  This chapter definitely gave me a lot to think about!

The Amazing Effect of Using Tools and Materials!

-->After reading Chapter 2 in a Classroom Teacher’s Guide to Struggling Writers, a light bulb went on inside my brain as I read about the different environments that promote writing!  I have always loved the creative aspect of teaching but never thought to incorporate that into the writing workshop.  This chapter discusses the benefits of providing students with a variety of writing tools and materials that they can use to express themselves.  Sticky notes, card stock, notepads, sentence strips, pieces of recycled paper, and so many more possibilities for students to use to write.  Colored pencils, sharpies, markers, blue pens, pink pens, does it really matter what your students use to write with?  Providing students with easy access to a wide variety of writing tools and materials will have so many amazing rewards.  Check out my cause and effect graphic organizer below to see just what I mean!