Reseeing the World

This week we were tasked to take Georgia Heard’s method of observational drawing and go out in nature and find an object to sketch and make observations of. And then turn those observations into a poem. Now, you already know my mixed feelings about writing poetry, but when it comes to writing about nature, I feel even more stuck.

Not because I don’t love what I am surrounded by, but because I feel inadequate when I try to capture what I am experiencing into words. And honestly, I don’t even know how to begin “observing” an object in nature in order to make it into poetry. But using Heard’s example and just letting the process flow and happen naturally (go figure, huh?), I found the experience much more enjoyable and productive than I expected.

I walked out of the library coffee shop on campus and didn’t know what to “choose”. Now, you’re probably thinking “you just said to go out in nature, but that doesn’t sound like nature”. You’re partially correct. But since this beautiful campus is full of nature and walking around it immerses you in a world of its own, I did go out in nature.

My first instinct was to look down at the small items on the grass and the trees and bushes that are scattered throughout. I also looked up and out at the mountains that surround the campus, and at the cloudless sky. But nothing really stuck out to me. Then as I was walking back up to the coffee shop, feeling a little defeated, I saw the barren space of what used to be one of my favorite trees on campus. I went to the top of the steps and peered over the railing to look down at this:

Right away I felt an emotional response to seeing it and knew I could and would write about it. As much as I wanted to closer to it to get a better image and a more up close look, I didn’t want to climb over the railing or try to maneuver around the plants that are newly growing in the lower part of the hill that it’s on…I also didn’t want to possibly get called out for doing so. But even from this image and from my naked-eye observations, I was able to come up with a decent list and an interesting sketch.

From this list, I began just writing down what came to mind based on the observations I made, mainly focusing on the idea of the stump looking like it had pincers. Actually, once I saw that image in my sketch and the stump itself, I couldn’t NOT see it, and it kept making me giggle because of my association with that word. [That association being from the sixth Harry Potter movie when Harry took the Felix Felicis and was at Aragog’s funeral with Hagrid and Slughorn and talked about the pincers of spiders and made hand gestures around his face to imitate them.]

With these poems, I actually wrote them “out of order” of how they’re arranged. I began with the first one and then turned the page to write the one in the second image. But then I was drawn back to the second stanza of my first one and experimented with a third one using my own poem as inspiration and a mentor.

During this writing, I wanted to challenge myself to change how I approach line breaks. And I actually found it to be a little fun in trying to figure out the best way to arrange the words on the page. I did find myself at a loss for words for some of the images I wanted to express and the emotions I felt, but that’s what drafts are for! I had a lot more fun experimenting with this than I thought I would, so I would definitely come back to this in a new space with new objects (and maybe more layers because it was a little chilly when I was out there) and see what else I can come up with.

---

Thinking about using this technique with future students, I would tell them about my first experience and how sometimes you go out in search of something, but the object will actually call to you. And you may feel inadequate or “not that great” in trying to express poetry around nature, but sketching it can bring to light many more ideas.

The sketch does NOT have to be realistic or “spot-on”. It’s just important to get your visualization of it on the page and then see where that takes you! I didn’t notice the pincers until I sketched it because my proportions distorted it to look that way, but then I was able to see it when I looked at the stump itself.

In order for students to have success in this exercise, it would probably be best to attempt a similar observational exercise in the classroom and building up how they observe the world around them. One way to do this, Heard explains (Awakening the Heart p. 74-76), is by making a chart with a line drawn down the middle with “ordinary” written at the top left and “poetry” written at the top right. With this chart on the board, have the class look outside the window at the nature they see (for this example, we will pretend you have a window with a view of nature, a tree to be exact). Have the students look at the tree and tell you what they see using the first words that come to mind. These words go on the left side (such as tall, leaves, bark, green). Read the list together and ask them if this is a poem. Then, explain “this is what poets do! They’ll begin with ordinary/anybody’s words and when they reread it, they sometimes see that they have to go back and ‘resee’ what they were looking at. Let’s look at the tree again with an even closer look.” As they are looking back at it, guide their observations with questions such as “What kind of green is it? The green of spinach? The green of a turtle?” Write down their responses on the right side of your chart. Read both sides of the chart and discuss why the right side sounds and feels more like poetry. Then have them experiment with the ordinary and poetry writing observations on their own (or can collaborate if they are ready).

This scaffold is to help students “resee” what they are looking at the the power of revision in their words. We can use our generic and ordinary words to guide us in creating poetry around what we see.

---

Heard, G. (1999). Awakening the heart: Exploring poetry in elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Revised Poetry Reflection

I’m back!

And, after reading the first three chapters of Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School by Georgia Heard, and Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko, now have a refreshed mindset to revise my previous poetry reflection.

And for now, it will be organized similarly to the previous post and will use the same conversational language.

---

Personal feelings about READING Poetry

“The traditional way of introducing poetry is to begin by interpreting and analyzing a poem – dissecting its meaning and structure – which is meant to give insights into the heart of the poem. Unfortunately, it never does. Instead, it only alienates many people from the world of poetry.” (Heard, G., 1999, pp. 21) [Italics added by me].

THANK YOU! Thank you Georgia Heard. When I read this, I immediately said “boop!” [an exclamation I make when something hits the nail on the head…sort of acknowledging that I would ‘like’ or ‘retweet’ this statement if I had the opportunity to] while touching the word “alienates” as I realized that it wasn’t because of me that I felt this way, and I finally realized how exactly I felt. Alienated – isolated – looking at poetry through a very blurry iced window pane. But it wasn’t “my fault” like I had convinced myself of. It honestly wasn’t any one specific person’s “fault”, and there may not be any fault to place. But it’s because of how I was introduced and then forced into poetry.

And yet another moment of clarity and reflection came when reading the following: “There doesn’t necessarily have to be any deep discussion or interpretation of the poem” (Heard, G., 1999, pp. 30). At that moment, I was on FaceTime with my partner and said aloud “I wish I could post this to all of my old English teachers!” because, if only they had read 14 words and followed them, I would not have felt such alienation. I would not have spent line after line or every poem constantly and forever looking for something to reveal a deep meaning. Looking for something other than poetry.

After reading about Heard’s approaches to introducing poetry into a classroom and how to get students actively engaged in their reading of the words and the world for poetry, I felt somewhat robbed of such intimate experiences However, instead of dwelling on that feeling, I can now go forward with my relationship with poetry.

Will it be an immediate shift? Absolutely not. You can’t learn how read poetry overnight, and you can’t unlearn and shift your learning overnight either. I will still find myself looking for a deeper meaning, but can acknowledge that focus and shift back to reading the words and hearing and feeling the music. Welcome multiple readings and even be open to writing reflections on what I read. Trying to look at the poetry from various views across readings and find new insights. Maybe even look at it from an analytical point where I dissect the words and line-breaks.

It’s a time of newness and changes. A transitional period. Although I have not fallen in love with poetry, I hope to keep myself open to the possibility of finding that one key to ease open the lock on my mind and see where it takes me.

---

Personal feelings about WRITING Poetry

Sooo…although my feelings about reading poetry have not immediately changed, I have already felt a shift in my feelings about writing it. No longer wanting to vomit, unless you force/assign me to do so. But, I want to experiment now.

On my own time.
With my own prompts.
Without expectations or outside critique.

Before reading chapter 3, I already felt a thought forming about a new approach for my writing of poetry based on one of the poetry study centers (found in the final section of this post). And while reading pages 59-61, I found that thought confirmed as Heard explained how she created one of her poems.

For as long as I can remember, whenever I was told to write poetry, I went straight into writing it as a poem. As if what I finished with would be its final form. As if I had to make each line-break and stanza formation solidified and intentional. I had never even thought write how I normally do and then craft and mold my story into prose. Never knew that you didn’t have to write a poem to be a poem. It could come from anywhere and any makeup.

So, how do I want to experiment? I want to just write and see where it takes me. Write my dreams down again, my deja vu’s, my random train of thoughts, my memories, my immediate feelings and reactions, my reflections (old and new). All of these, and then some, have the endless possibilities to be molded into poetry.

I know I have a voice and I know that there is something in my words that reaches further than just inside of my notebooks. I just never really believed it. People would tell me how much they enjoyed and were impacted by my writing (whether entries, blogs, instagram posts, letters, or papers) but I only ever thought they were just trying to find something they could talk about from it.

But after reading about the seeds of poetry in our everyday, natural voice, and how those seeds can be in our previous writings, I realized: “yeah. I’ve got a pretty strong and moving voice. It may seem like I’m just rambling or talking just to talk, but I am always intentional with my words.” And there are plenty of seeds that have been planted that are simply waiting to be tilled and nurtured. That’s what I plan to do.

I can’t force poetry to happen, and I don’t plan on trying to anymore.

---

Personal feelings about TEACHING Poetry

I’m still nervous about it, but knowing that not only am I not the only one who has these same experiences and feelings towards reading and writing, but that those feelings and experiences I have are shared by students. And being able to connect to my students in that light makes the opportunity to teach poetry that much more meaningful.

When I think back, I only heard educators dote over poetry and how they have always loved it. How was that supposed to help me? A student who has never loved poetry. How am I supposed to connect to an educator who has never felt (or at least refuses to share) the frustrations and resentment towards it? I want to see a model of someone who has been through it and come out the other side. I want to hear about an authentic reflection of someone’s experience with poetry that isn’t all about the positives.

So with that in mind; knowing what I want to feel as a student learning about poetry, I feel comfortable opening up about my frustrations with it as well as my growth and continued journey with it. Just as I am authentic in sharing my story on my personal instagram, I want to be authentic in my teaching of topics that I have succeed and struggled with.

---

Your criteria for how you know you’ve read a really good poem…

I’m not sure if I still have much of a change in my criteria, but this poem…wow [CW: eating disorder]

In our assignment of finding potential “Self Portrait” poems, I set out to find poetry about some of the more difficult times in my life. I knew I wouldn’t find many (if any) published poems about those subjects, and I honestly wanted to read poems that were personal to the person who wrote them. Not just an umbrella statement. And man did I find that in that piece.

Why “wow”? Well (if you haven’t read it yet, please spend time doing so if you can) it hits so close to home for me. I see myself in it. Not all of it, and that’s ok. But I saw my younger self in it in a way that I had never spoken aloud or shared. I had to stop reading several times to keep myself from crying in the library. And I have never had a piece of poetry do that to me before: feel an emotional reaction not because of something happening to someone else, but because of something that I went through.

So although my criteria has not changed much, I have found a poem that I can say I know is a “really good” poem.

---

How could you create a “Poetry Environment” in your classroom?

Ok, so this is the first section that I am revising after reading because this was the very first chapter in Awakening the Heart. After having read it, it makes total sense that ways in which I can create a Poetry Environment in my future classroom! Of course! Make everyone and their ideas feel safe, encouraged, accepted, and honored; honestly believe that every student that comes through my door has the potential to be a poet; don’t wait until after testing is finished to introduce it; celebrate their unique views and approaches to the world.

But there were some things that had never crossed my mind:
– “Include your students in the larger world of poetry and poets” (pp. 4)
– “find the seeds of poems in their natural, everyday voices” (pp. 3)
-“learn to listen deeply to our own images, thoughts, and feelings – and to our students'” (pp. 3)

And the first of those interests me the most. Not just be ensuring to refer to my students as poets, but by including them in larger world of poetry. Not just reading them poetry, but by reading them what POETS have to say about poetry and writing poetry. Show them what these poets look like so they have a face to connect to the words the read, and then compare their work to professional poetry!

All of these amazing ideas that seem so simple on the surface, but when I begin to think about each of them, I can’t recall any of them being used or implemented in my 13 years of English/Language Arts classes. In all honesty, I don’t think I can fully recall a period of time spent dedicated to poetry that wasn’t just reading it out of a textbook in high school. I remember learning about Haikus and the number of syllables necessary to complete it, but when did that happen? Was it just a day? For a specific unit? Was it connected with another topic?

But even after those reading about those ways to create a poetry environment, my mouth fell open when reading about poetry study centers. Now, those, piqued my interest! Not just as a future teacher of writing, but as a learner of writing who has felt forever deprived of rich poetry instruction. Hearing the description of a second-grade teacher’s classroom full of these centers made me so envious of those students but also inspired to create a similar experience and environment in my classroom.

These centers are not just tables where students circulate and read or write poetry. It’s where they get hands-on with one aspect of poetry – not tackling it all at once. Where they can take charge of their interaction and learning of poetry, and they find the inspiration and endless possibilities of the art. And where students can experience and come to realize that poetry can be fun and meaningful.

*Centers that focus on language in published works as well as how they can create their own pieces from a collection of jumbled words.
*A center that brings poetry into its lyrical form by hearing it be read and even recording themselves reading their work with various approaches to express.
*Discovery centers that connect science and poetry and engage the students’ senses and questioning to build reflections that they can compose from.
*Even another form of discovery where they can sit in front of the window and take in a narrowed view of the outside world to observe and describe; strengthening their use of language and description to build new works.
*Centers where they can bring the poetry to life using their own bodies to perform it, or instruments to /evoke/ [unsure of the exact word I’m looking for] the feelings and music of the words on the page.
*A center that brings the outside world and current events into the classroom and respects students’ feelings and worries about the world they live in through discussion and reflection.
*A cozy place where students can just sit and read poetry. Where, if they feel compelled to, they can find inspiration for their later works and share their thoughts with their peers.
*And (a new favorite idea of mine) a center that removes the fear around revision by having students “revise” published works by experimenting with line-breaks, cutting out what they see as excessive, and condensing a work. [Reading about this center made my abdomen feel like it was glowing and had me wanting to try this out on published works myself]

All in all, creating a Poetry Environment in my future classroom will be about creating a safe place where students are heard and seen as poets. Where their ideas and voices are important in everyday conversations and can be seen as poetry. An environment that is built around the idea that everyone has the potential to be a poet. And through hands-on and meaningful student-directed learning of aspects of poetry can ignite inspiration time and time again and should be displayed for everyone to see from the beginning of the school year, not just after “the important stuff” has been covered and tested.

Initial Poetry Reflection

Alright…so I’ll probably step on some toes in this post, especially coming from the mind and fingertips of a future teacher of writing. However, this is an honest and authentic reflection that is NOT set in stone. Through experience and building confidence, I KNOW my responses will change. ***And there will be a revised reflection that I will upload after reading two texts***

In this post I will share my personal feelings about reading poetry, writing poetry, and teaching poetry, my criteria for how I know when I’ve read a really good poem, and how I could could create a “Poetry Environment” in my classroom. And, as with many of my posts, this is a way for me to talk to you and anyone else. So my language is going to be just like that.

For now, this is where I stand on these topics as of Sunday February 24, 2019.

---

Personal feelings about READING Poetry

You know…I can’t really think of one positive experience I’ve had with reading poetry. Not even sure I can think of one distinct poem that I’ve read that has stuck with me. Actually, I take that back. There was one poem in Brown Girl Dreaming that I read this semester that I still think of. But other than that, nothing.

For me, reading poetry is a chore and usually a bore. I sit there and read the words over and over again thinking “there has to be some sort of big underlying meaning, just keep reading and you’ll see it! It’ll make you say ‘wow!’, you’ll feel the tug on your heart and you’ll really know.” but it never happens.

I would have to say that there is certainly a defining moment for me in my relationship with poetry and that was during my 10th grade English class. We were reading a piece about a room that was locked and the narrator was discussing the inside of the room. Was the narrator inside? Were they outside? I can’t remember. I remember something about a yellow chair…or maybe it was the curtains or wallpaper. Truly, I’m not sure. All I can distinctly remember is when we were discussing what we thought it was about and I had absolutely zero idea aside from the fact that it sounded like a decent room, and someone was locked out of it, trying to get in.

Then the “true meaning” behind it was revealed: a woman had locked herself in the room so that she could kill herself and the person trying to get in was doing so to try to stop her.

Ummm, excuse me? You’re telling me ALL of that was happening and all I could focus on was the description of the room? Wow. I must really suck at interpreting all of this. Maybe if I go back and read it again, it’ll make sense…nope. But everyone else gets it! They’re all nodding their heads and giving evidence that supports that, and I’m still sitting in my seat mad at myself for not understanding it at all, and I’m supposed to be a great student, in an honors class.

Yeah, that was probably the nail in the coffin of my relationship with poetry. From then on, I kept looking for any and every huge meaning in poetry. Always looking for it to be so hidden and dark, that it was exhausting trying to reason through it all. I have never sought out to read poetry on my own. Never got excited over the thought of someone writing me a piece of poetry.

I believe the closest I got to reading poetry for leisure was when I read Crank by Ellen Hopkins. But because it was a novel in verse (didn’t know that at the time, I was just reading it because it looked cool and I liked how the words were arranged differently throughout the book), and the topic was pretty dark, I read it and enjoyed it. I even remember crying when I finished it! However, I cannot remember why I did or even what happened in the story.

See? Even after reading something that brought me to tears that I chose to read for leisure outside of school assignments, I cannot remember a single thing about it. Now, is that because I choose not to remember it? Was it really not that good of a read? No, I don’t believe it’s either of those. I think it’s because of that defining moment in 10th grade when I felt stupid for being the only person who didn’t “get” the meaning. Because the possible fun of reading poetry was vacuum sucked out of me and after I read anything in verse (whether I had a reaction to it or not), I just tossed it out of my head.

Oh! But not that I think about it, I guess I have had a positive experience with poetry: Shell Silverstein. Yeah, his works always brought me joy all through my childhood, and even now. I loved and still love to read his poems and be mesmerized by the illustrations. When I’m not expected to derive meaning from it, I definitely enjoy it. And because my mom gave me the books, telling me how much she loved them, I found that same joy. She didn’t (and still doesn’t) like to read because it’s hard for her and was never given help when she was in school. She loves audio books. But when I think back to the books she gave me while expressing her love for them and her joy in reading them, I understand why they have still stuck with me.

So, after saying all of that, my personal feelings about reading poetry are very conflicted. More often than not, I will read it just to read it and complete assignments. But, I have honestly enjoyed reading Brown Girl Dreaming but am still conflicted internally if I should have been moved to something more. If I should have reflected and resonated with it more. If I should have had an emotional response that flowed out of me aside from the warmth and empowerment that I felt. There was certainly a defining moment that “ruined” poetry for me, but there was also a person who brought joyful poetry into my life before then that I still love to ingest over and over again.

Maybe I just prefer prose written for younger audiences. Maybe I prefer to read prose that is engaging in its layout and/or illustrations. Maybe I don’t have the same reactions or connections to prose as others because I don’t have to…

---

Personal feelings about WRITING Poetry

Hah! Ok, this should be fun.

Personally, it makes me want to vomit (sorry Dr. Frye…).

Tell me to just write, and I will give you pages filled with anything you want.
Tell me to compose poetry? My eyes widen, my throat tightens, my stomach knots, and all I can think is “please no…”.

A lot of the time, I will FORCE myself to write something and will always make it seem like there is some big personal connection to it. Have it be subtly dramatic or deep. But does it actually mean anything to me? Usually, no.

I believe there has been one piece of poetry that I truly love and am proud of. That was a persona poem that I wrote last semester for this blog. I can’t even express why it is, but that is probably one of my favorite pieces of writing…ever. I actually wrote two persona poems in that blog post, but the one titled Old Ren is the one. The one that I still smile to myself about with how easy it came to me. I thought I was going to write about another character, but writing his name sparked something in me to where I just had to get to writing. And that has never happened before.

Other than that, I can’t remember the last piece of poetry that I wrote and enjoyed. Nothing in free-verse…no haiku from elementary school…no high school assignment…nothing. I know I have a close friend who writes poetry for fun, and that thought truly makes no sense to me. Writing for fun for me looks like me just writing whatever comes to my mind down on a piece of paper, writing a letter to my partner about anything I want, typing up my experiences about my mental/emotional/physical transformations over the past years.

And I’m sure someone could reflect on those in the form of prose, but that has never interested me. I have never felt a connection to the idea of writing poetry. Maybe it’s because I have this unchanging idea of what it is supposed to look like. Maybe it’s because of that defining moment that affected my feelings about reading poetry. Maybe it’s because I never had any genuinely positive responses to poetry that I wrote (before last semester). Or, maybe I’ve built up such a resistance to it internally that I won’t allow myself to find a connection. I’m not sure. But I am sure that I do have at least that one piece that I’m proud of and felt like a real writer when I finished it.

---

Personal feelings about TEACHING Poetry

Well, I guess I would have to say I feel pretty nervous and self-conscious about teaching poetry. How am I supposed to teach something I don’t have much of a positive relationship with it? I don’t know where to start. And I am intimidated to present poetry and force a classroom of students to think that there is only one meaning, when I don’t personally believe that.

Teachers in the past only ever focused on one interpretation of it. Some would say how they thought it was one thing but when they looked up the “real”/”true” meaning of it, they saw where they got it wrong. Really? Wrong? IT’S AN INTERPRETATION! There isn’t right or wrong. And how do you even know what’s “right”? How do you know that is precisely what the author meant?

To teach poetry, I would want to also focus on the personal belief that I have about it (and honestly just un-earthed in this conversation with you, reader): the meaning is always changing. Not only for you as a reader of the poem, but for the author. Yeah, it can be written during one specific moment in time and originally for one purpose…but when you read it later on, something changes. A new word or phrase sticks out. Something you didn’t even register earlier because the whole focus.

But how do I teach that authentically when I have such a pessimistic view of poetry? Do I have to reveal the “meaning”? How do you teach someone to enjoy reading a collection of words that are meant to convey a full story in a condensed form? How do you teach someone to write poetry when you yourself don’t even know?

So yeah, I feel pretty intimidated at the thought of teaching poetry. Nervous and self-conscious at the thought of being in front of a room of students who may have no pre-conceived notions about poetry, and I don’t want to negatively influence their ideas.

---

Your criteria for how you know you’ve read a really good poem…

This is a really good question/prompt…I don’t.

Even the poem from Brown Girl Dreaming that continues to send chills down my arms, I can’t tell you why it does. Maybe that is my criteria: give me chills, make me stop and say “wow” in a soft voice, be left speechless by it when I wasn’t saying anything to begin with. But is that really a criteria?

Maybe because I haven’t felt as though I’ve read many “really good” poems in my life, but I think that when words on a page/screen can continue to send chills up my arms or the back of my neck every time I read them, then that’s a damn good poem.

I hope to read more of those one day…

---

How could you create a “Poetry Environment” in your classroom?

Another great question! I believe it’s going to have to start with me and shifting my views and thoughts around poetry. Hopefully after reading the two texts will help to fuel me with that way to shift my thinking. But one important thing I want to implement is that every interpretation is valid. Other than that, I do not know how to answer this as I still have a hostile approach to poetry that I don’t know how to break down my own barriers to create a poetry environment for myself…yet. As I break through those barriers, I will have a clearer image and idea as to how to create the same environment in my future classroom.

---

 

The Power of Details

In our lesson plan (draft) this week, we focused on using illustrations as a way to get students to add details to their writing.

We chose picture books from our childhood that we continue to remember of the illustrations of because they not only enhanced the text, but they provided details that were not stated in the text. When we use texts like these, and the other choices mentioned in the lesson plan, we have a physical way to demonstrate to our writers the power of details.

Overall, you want to get them to pull out as much information as they can from the illustrations. An example I give in the lesson plan is to think of it as if you are explaining the event to an illustrator who is going to draw what you are saying. Give all the details you can so they can make the picture look exactly like it does in your head.

If you wanted to have a fun activity to incorporate later in the day (outside of writing time more than likely) you could have the students describe an object to a partner who does not know what the object it. They have to give all the details they can think of to their partner, and the partner has to draw the object to the best of their ability. Then they have to guess what they think the object is! After they guess, they turn around/have the object revealed to them and compare and then switch roles. It can be quite a fun bonding activity and usually has some pretty interesting results. You can choose to reflect afterwards asking what other details would have helped? If you were to describe the object, what would you say?

Six-Word Memoir

*draft*

Honestly, It’s Bigger Than Writing Topics

This week I am looking at different ways in which I plan to help my future students find writing topics that will move them toward discovering their personal stories that will lead them towards narrative writing! This is certainly not an end-all be-all list as I will continue to add to it as I learn more strategies and lessons.

What strategies or lessons do you have in your arsenal? How have they helped you and your students?

---

One way to help students find writing topics is by using pictures and images. But not to write directly about what is happening in that snapshot of time, but to use those images as starting points to build from. To think of the possibilities that could have happened before, during, and after the image. Maybe something that wasn’t even directly photographed.

An excellent mentor text for this strategy is Looking Back: A Book of Memories by Lois Lowry. In it, she has a collection of images from her life and entries for each. The writing about the images goes beyond what is captured in the black-and-white photos. In one image of herself (pp. 80-81) she doesn’t talk about what happened during the moment the picture was taken, but instead focuses on the flannel shirt she is wearing. The history behind it and how she remembers it in her life.

We use pictures to help us tell the story behind the pictures. To ask questions about and expand further on the who, what, where, when, and why behind it. And the pictures do not have to be personal pictures to them. Finding pictures from magazines, newspapers, or online can help to spark fictionalized stories for students. And they can also be used to bridge connections between what they see in the images and personal experiences they’ve had. They may find something that sparks a memory related to something in the image, or related to an idea that a classmate shared about the image.

We want to get students writing about what they are interested in. To use what they have in their minds to create a picture told through their words. Using pictures from their life or resembling their life can help to spark those connections.

This strategy can especially come in handy for students with high intensity needs. Why? Imagine a rolodex filled with pictures from the student’s daily life, memories, past experiences, their favorite animals, places they’ve gone to, places they want to go to, people they interact with at home/school/extracurriculars/therapies, sports, TV shows, movies, and anything else you can think of. These are all fuel for the student to find a writing topic without having to read an elongated list of topics or ideas. They can be labeled by category (people, places, animals, school, etc.) and the student can choose from there.

Here is a draft of a lesson plan to help students to learn how to use pictures to tell a story with models of a fictionalized story from a newspaper image, and a personal narrative story from a polaroid.

Using this strategy and lesson plan, students have a visual way to generate possible writing topics. These topics can be fictionalized or personal narratives. Providing a mentor text and model utilizing this strategy demonstrates to students the variety of ways to approach finding writing topics and can be inspired to be on the look out for images in their daily life that they could pull future topics from.

---

Another way to help students find writing topics that move them towards writing personal narrative stories is to broaden their view of topics. To get them listing writing territories that they can write multiple things about. These territories are the individual chests in our minds where we store our memories of people, places, events, and objects.

Territories are the chests and our topics are the memories placed inside.

After students are familiar with the idea of writing territories (see pages 52 and 53 in Mentor Texts), you demonstrate writing your list of writing territories while showing your brainstorming process.

If I were to make a list of territories mine may look like this:
Pets
Brother
Jeffrey
Uncle Bug
Competitions
Dance class
Governor’s School
Duke TIP
School stories
Best friends
Momma
Funny stories
Teachers
Youth Group
Trips

I would then ask my students what they believe they could write about and see where they find connections and/or where they come up with further territories that I did not include. It’s important to say that the same story can come from multiple territories. But the point of having territories is to have them be trigger words that spark memories associated with them that lead them to writing personal/inside stories.

When writing about stories from these territories, they are singular stories. One of my territories is named “Jeffrey” because I have many memories that I could write about me and him. But I do not have to write all of them in one story. They each have their own topic but are collected and stored under one territory.

To narrow down a territory, it helps to think aloud to your students about how you are singling in on the topic using an inverted triangle. At the top of the inverted triangle, you have your territory (Jeffrey). Then you narrow in on a subject within that territory (Music – I have many memories of the two of us enjoying music together). In the next section of your inverted triangle, you are getting at a more specific subject (sing alongs – we only ever sing along when alone with each other). And then zoom in on a singular event that is written as one complete thought (New Year’s Eve 2018 singing along with a loud speaker).

Another important thing for students to understand is that a writing topic in itself is much too large to tackle. Typically, it takes several steps to get a specific writing topic from a large territory. The writing topic itself should be one complete thought that can be focused on for writing, whereas territories can be expressed in one or two words.

Using writing territories to focus on writing topics enables students to produce large areas of interest they can write multiple stories about and then narrow their focus to a singular event/memory. This broad strategy is great to get students listing out ideas in the beginning of the year for future writing ideas that they can go back to and pull memories from.

---

Going from broad to “simple” now, but their responses will be far from such.

100 Things I Love

You can’t get anymore personal for writing ideas than literally listing out 100 different things that you love. This list can start out as a draft of just collecting ideas of people, places, events, songs, foods, smells, animals, flowers, books, movies, characters, etc. and can blossom into a collective collage of ideas in the writer’s notebook.

This can also take the form of a heart map where students fill the heart with things they love (doesn’t have to be 100) using words and/or drawings. Using the heart map is a great tool for younger students or anyone who doesn’t want the pressure of needing ‘100’ of something. Heart maps can be as broad or as narrow as you want.

A tool that provides a visual display for a student’s important people, places, and memories. Heart maps help them write with depth and feeling as they pull out details to fill their maps and then transfer them into writing stories. Stories that stem from their own experiences and bloom into personal narratives.

Students can create their own hearts to fill in as they see fit, or you can provide a heart template with or without separated spaces. Sometimes starting at an open heart on a piece of paper can be daunting for students as they don’t know where to begin (at least, that’s how it would feel to me). 8-10 predrawn “compartments” of the heart is a great starting place for students to begin filling out with their ideas. After they’ve filled it in, they may be inspired to keep going and can then make a new heart map, or begin making a list however they seem fit.

Using these strategies to get students to discover writing topics that brings them to writing personal narratives is all about them. They choose what they list based on what they enjoy and love. No one’s list is going to look like anyone else’s and it shouldn’t be forced to be. You can model and share with your own list of things or heart maps of things you love.

A heart map that I made was focused around one small moment that I look back to in my mind for happy memories and to make me smile. This is another way to fill in a heart map: small moments. You choose one small moment and use words and pictures to represent that moment that you could write about. I even ended up going outside of my heart map because I found that I had even more to write and reflect on than I initially thought.

It can be scary to write down a list of 100 things. Start out doing one just for you. You can list whatever you want on it without fearing that you’ll have to share it with anyone else. Just get listing, you’ll find ideas small and big start to flow forth. After you’ve experienced your first list, you can begin a new one, or formulate the original into a collage on a new page. There are always new things to add to a list so don’t worry about “repeating” yourself or worrying if something is “too small”. Never. If it’s something that you love, it is not small.

---

These are just three (or maybe five depending on how you want to count them) strategies that I plan on using for my future students in helping them find writing topics that move them towards writing their personal stories, their personal narratives.

Through being open and honest with our students about our personal stories. Not trying to show off every amazing moment. Sharing our embarrassing memories or small moments that we hold dear to our hearts, that’s how we connect with our students even more. We provide them with a model of how we approach these personal stories and how important they are to us.

Through these strategies, you’ll find more than just your students opening up. You’ll find yourself reflecting on memories and small moments in your life even more. Wanting to write down key words and phrases that will spark new trigger words for topics or another item to add to your never-ending list of things you love. It’s a way to get to know ourselves better. And it’s a way for our student’s to understand themselves better. And of course, to help them to find writing topics that lead them to writing personal narratives.

My Small Moment

Small Moment Narrative Story

This week I wanted to split up my blog posts to better reflect each topic covered. One of our assignments was to draft and create a small moment narrative story that we would share with our future students. My mind immediately went to the story that I have drafted and shared multiple times with students and peers.

Throughout the years, I have added small details here and there as I remember the even clearer. But after reading chapter 4 of Mentor Texts and seeing the number of different examples that showed how to expand a small moment story even more, I found myself added in details that I usually glossed over. Found myself absorbed in that moment again. Reflecting deeper to my seven-year-old self and that fateful final day of Spring Break.

As writers and teachers of writers, it is important to never be complacent. To want to always push for more and to dig deeper. To magnify those small moments that capture the totality of what was happening in those few seconds/minutes/hours. And we share and model how to bring out that magnifying glass to those small moments to teach our writers how to apply it themselves. We can’t teach it if we haven’t even attempted it ourselves.

So here is your challenge, think of a small moment that you love to tell and retell to those around you. How much more can you bring out of it. What if you were to put a magnifying glass over that moment and observe even deeper. Would you capture the senses, the dialogue, the emotions? Could you add details to help you write in slow motion? Experiment with it! Get in there and dig around and share it!

---

What An Ending

Planning:

First draft:

Second draft:

 

Third draft:

This is my most current revision, typed in google docs. I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback on it! Comment privileges are turned on for anyone with the link, so feel free to leave comments, suggestions, questions, clarifications, etc. where you see fit. Thank you!!

“Final” draft:
*coming soon*

Words Don’t Matter in Those Moments

Along with being more stressed, pressed, and exhausted in life this week, I was also more focused and intentional with my readings. Not going into any of the texts with expectations of anything other than to let the words speak to me as they always have, and also to speak to me as a writer, and ignite a fresh fire or spark a new inspiration.

I definitely spent a lot of time digging into Brown Girl Dreaming this week. Reading and rereading as many times as I needed and wanted to. Stopping when I got frustrated, and then coming back to it with a relaxed breath. Finding a way to take notes while reading that unpacked and highlighted what was in front of me and keeping it all in one place. I was able to reflect further on part 1 and updated my post from last week.

Spent some more time in Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal (TAKR) and taking down ideas and inspirations that poured from those pages. Found myself thinking of more and more memories and small moments that I could add to my writer’s notebooks and possible prompts to use for my future students.

Took a trip with Donald Crews and his friends as they took a shortcut back home that made me think of one of my favorite movies from my childhood. And dug into Mentor Texts to think through “what are you really writing about?”.

Writing wise, I could have done more. No shame in saying that. I had some low days where I was more intent on focusing on healing myself, and had some high days where I just wanted to live in and enjoy those newly energized moments. However, I did have a spark of inspiration come Thursday as I was working (I’m a figure study model for the art department) and experimented with my writer’s notebook. And from those experiments, I found myself able to write about something beautiful in my life.

---

In reading Brown Girl Dreaming, there were several words, stories, passages, phrases, and moments that stood out to me. One in particular that still rings in my ears is found on page 68. Jacqueline recounts the first time her brother says “ain’t” and what happens afterwards.

Even from the second line on that page my spine shivered and my cheeks clinched. Not from personal experience, but from vivid retellings of family members picking their own switch from the haunting willow tree nearby.

But that is not what leaves me thinking about this page and story. No. What leaves me fidgeting in my seat is the internal staccato of the mother’s words in the second to last stanza on the page. It is not written, but I hear it. It may not even be there in the story, but it is for me. Jacqueline brought me into this moment in time of her brother and at the end of every line of dialogue from her mother, I hear the switch make contact. I feel the whip engrave her words on Hope as she says each line.

Amazing, isn’t it. How four lines of dialogue can hold so much without even including the entirety of the situation. How our past experiences can influence our reading and interpretation of what we consume. And how easily we can be transported into the past of someone else through their stories.

Another time Jacqueline transported me with her words was on page 97. I’m not sure I can fully encompass what I felt as I read it and reflected on it, but I know that I read it over and over again. Absorbing and digesting the words on the page. Walking through the rows of crops with her and feeling the magic and warmth of the autumn beneath my feet.

From this page, you also come across the name that Jacqueline calls her grandfather: Daddy. This reminds me of the reflection I mentioned in my last post about family and how roles are fluid. There is a lot of power in a name, and especially an intentional naming of someone. Jacqueline does switch between “grandfather” and “daddy” when referring to him, but mainly uses the later.

It reminds me of when I will sometimes switch between “daddy” and “dad” for my father and I wonder if there is an underlying reason as to why I switch. Is there more endearment and fondness of him when I say “daddy”? Do I feel more comfortable and like old times? When I’ve been away from him for long periods of time?

Looking at this section of the book, I am forced to look more closely at the language that I use in my writing and in my life. How I use it to label those around me. The emotion and details that I bring into my stories that can either help or hinder my telling. Should I give all the details as I remember them vividly, or should I work around them to paint a smoother picture? Do I want other people to be transported into my stories?

It certainly takes a huge level of vulnerability to open yourself and your experiences up to “outsiders”, and with that vulnerability comes strength and empowerment. It may be easy to write it all down in a writer’s notebook because that is for you and your eyes. But then thinking about posting/sharing those entries for someone else to read almost feels like an unspoken censor. I don’t want my words to be up for interpretation if they were not intended to be. But I also don’t want to lay everything out there for the world to see.

Using Brown Girl Dreaming as a mentor text for me to share past experiences through verse that provides details but also space for the reader is a revelation I just had. Although my comfort zone is in free verse and narratives (that don’t have much structure or order to them), I also want to expand myself as a writer and especially as a teacher of writing. So, here is my commitment to myself to practice telling my stories in ways mentored by Jacqueline Woodson’s examples in Brown Girl Dreaming.

---

In finishing the Social Studies chapter from TAKR, I found myself writing down inspirations, anecdotes, relations, shared moments, and expansions based on Amy’s writing. This text is such a wonderful example of a writer’s notebook compiled and then organized into a novel. There is no progression because it is just as she wrote it. It is her writer’s notebook, only set up in a variety of chapters that reflect school subjects.

These social studies are ones that I find myself connecting to as a reader and writer because they flow through her daily life that help to inspire me to think back on similar experiences and then expand them into broader (or maybe more narrowed) genres and events.

Amy defines the word “small” on pages 106-109 in seven different tellings. She defines the word in herself and her life and how the word has played a role all throughout. Now, when I see that word and her “definitions”, I have a mix of emotions.

I have felt both small and large at the same moment in time.

I am 5’2″, the shortest in my immediate family by an inch. I used to always be the tallest in elementary school, but obviously that didn’t last long when everyone hit their growth spurts soon after (hit mine the summer before fifth grade…thanks to all those yummy hormones in the foods and drinks I consumed as a child). And I have always been “big”.

“Big” in the sense that for as long as I can remember, I was always in that dark grey zone on the BMI charts and labeled as “overweight”. Never taking into account that I danced 5-7 days a week (varied throughout my competitive dance career based on when classes were) at an arts school and a dance studio.

Whenever we would line up shortest to tallest, I saw myself continue to progress towards the “shortest” side of the line as everyone else grew past me. And when it came time to do partner work, or to practice lifts with others, there I was. The base. Always.

I can still remember the one time we had to have both people be bases and my partner looked at me with an expression that I had to force myself to fake a smile so I wouldn’t seem too hurt by it. I think I got maybe two inches off the ground before they gave up.

I was smaller than them. But I was larger than them.

It was fun to be in the front of the group because I was small and they usually tried to arrange us by height when we were all clumped together. It was not fun to always be chosen as a base and never given a second thought to be lifted into the air, supported by the weak arms and spirits of my peers.

Thankfully my teachers at my school saw more than that in me and I was given an opportunity to not only be paired up with someone, but she let me choose my partner so that I felt comfortable and confident in doing so. She knew I had had such terrible experiences in my past that affected my interactions with partners, and she helped me to see the strength that I had that many people don’t.

So, it isn’t an entirely sad story.

When given the chance to perform, and to perform with someone who is confident in themselves and in me as someone who is so much more than small and large, those words no longer need to be defined. Words don’t matter in those moments.

---

One last thing I want to reflect on from last week is one of my entries in my writer’s notebook. We were given the task of writing about our “something beautiful” and I laughed internally because I didn’t think I ever really could. But after a spark of inspiration from a small spot of crushed charcoal on the title floor of the drawing room calling my name, three minutes of unapologetic joy took over me and I could feel my whole body buzzing and wanting more.

While modeling, I begin the class with one-minute gesture poses and then move into a three-minute continuous movement period where I simply move and dance around the room while the students capture my movement and dynamics of the movements. After I finish the three minutes I usually laugh at the charcoal that I’ve acquired on the bottoms of my feet.

Out of nowhere one day, I decided to bring my writer’s notebook with me and stamped my feet onto the pages. Seeing the faint imprint of my feet and the details of my toe-prints ignited something small inside of me. After that day I found my inspiration for my something beautiful, and the words came flowing out of me.

 

The next day I go into the drawing studio and see the small piece of broken charcoal and the powder that has encircled it and feel a smirk growing on my face and a smile forming in my soul. As we get ready for my three-minutes, something tells me to point out the pile to the instructor.

I say: “that pile of broken charcoal is calling my name”
Without hesitation he responds: “yes! If you have an extra pieces of charcoal, throw them on the ground!”

He then gets an even greater spark of inspiration and comes out of his office with an empty peanut butter jar filled with graphite powder. Looking at me with a mischievous smirk, he asks “where do you want me to put it?”. Feeling myself bouncing inside of my body I tell him to surprise me as I mentally prepare myself for the fun that is sure to ensue. I truly wish I could have a video of those three-minutes.

I didn’t want to stop moving.

I found myself audibly laughing and giggling as I was sliding and slipping around on the tile. Stomping into the piles of graphite and slashing through them. Jumping on the pieces of charcoal and dragging them along with me.

Turning and spinning.
Running.
Stopping.
Living.

Who cares about the clean-up when the magic that happened can last a lifetime! The instructor and I are currently thinking through ways to capture this again on a medium that doesn’t have to be cleaned up afterwards. Something that can be a product of my art on its own.

Another moment where words don’t matter.

---

References

Crews, D. (1992). Shortcut. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Dorfman, L. R., Cappelli, R., & Hoyt, L. (2017). Mentor texts: Teaching writing through children’s literature, k-6 (2nd ed.). Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Rosenthal, A. K. (2016). Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal: Not exactly a memoir. New York, NY: Dutton.

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. New York: Puffin Books.

The Cycle Continues

Just to start off, I will say that I am going into this reflection completely unaware as to what I am going to say. After my readings this week I truly do not know what to say or how to respond to what I took in. That is not saying that what I read did not engage me or illicit a response from me, but I do not know what there is to say in a written blog post about all of it.

Well, maybe I am more confused as to how to respond to Brown Girl Dreaming because it was a text that challenged me as a reader. Whenever I read poetry or verse I find myself stuck in my confused high school approach of constantly looking for meaning in everything I read and how it is presented, although I never believed any of that when I was in school (which is what resulted in my confused state of mind). I feel that I “missed” something even though I know what was happening in the story thus far (have read up to the end of part 1).

I found myself reading Jacqueline Woodson’s words as a novel instead of in verses. I took pauses when they fit, but wasn’t sure if they enhanced my reading of the text or not. She spoke of her birth, her name and the name(s) behind hers, of her family before during and after her birth, her home/s, and the world that was moving as she was growing. Beautiful words and segments of her life portrayed in short snippets and glimpses of time through chapters/verses.

As a reader, I believe I struggled  because I went in to the text knowing only that it was a novel in verse and that a middle school English teacher friend of mine used it in the Fall and her students loved it. I didn’t have much of any introduction to the text or the author or how I was to go about reading it. Now, I doubt if any of those things would have helped me in my reading, but even while writing this I feel as though I need to reread it all several more times to accurately read what Woodson was telling.

As a writer, I enjoyed the flow of the words across the page as they filed into the next and did not interrupt thoughts mid-line. How she interspersed lyrics from songs playing during a memory into the text. It made me try to think back to memories of my own and if I can remember the background of what was happening or if my focus was only ever on what was in front of me. Music certainly can trigger memories, but I wonder if exploring memories can trigger deeper recollection of what happened.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if I were to scroll through music that I listened to or heard from my youth, if I would remember a small memory that has since faded. Actually yes, I will add that to my writer’s notebook as something to explore further. I know there are certainly smells that evoke memories, but some of those would be hard to explain to anyone except for my own mind…good thing it’s my writer’s notebook.

***I will come back to further reflect on this reading experience (and writing experience) after I have read part 1 again and fully understand my reading of it***
UPDATED (2/5/19)

Well I am very happy that I came back to reread part 1 of this text because, wow. Not only was I more focused on Jacqueline’s words, but the history and power embedded in what she was sharing. The authenticity and honesty. And the history not just from her personal life story, but the history of her family, and the history of the world that she was born into and grew up in.

While reading I decided to take notes in my writer’s notebook so I will always have a record of my in-the-moment thoughts, reactions, and connections while reading, as well as quotes, stanzas, words that stuck with me. This is how I attempted to approach the novels I was reading during the Fall, but it became too overwhelming. However, with a text such as this (novel in verse) that is not dense in its word count but rather in the stories within the words, these notes are most compatible for me.

My connection to pg. 33 still remained in my second reading, but a new one also appeared: the role of grandparents. In my first reading, I don’t remember much about Jacqueline talking about her grandparents outside of a brief mention during the pages of when her grandmother was talking about the time of the day she was born. But again, because I was more focused and intentional in my reading, I experienced new connections.

I have never had the typical relationship with grandparents that so many people talk about or share through memes/social media threads. Both of my daddy’s parents passed away before my brother was born, so neither of us got to meet them. And my momma’s parents have been divorced since she was a kid; Pawpaw married twice more since then and Memi never remarried (he was her third husband and Momma always says that Memi said three was plenty).

I never experienced the “when mom says no, go ask grandma because she always says yes” or “when you go to your grandma’s house, she’ll shower you in food even if you’ve already eaten”. Yeah, no. My brother and I never got to stay at her house when we were younger if my Aunt wasn’t there because (and this is not a tearing down of my Memi because I love her SO much and her upbringing and third marriage had large impacts on her) Momma wanted to ensure that there was someone to remember to feed us.

However I am getting to experience a similar relationship with my Great Aunt and Uncle. They treat my momma as if she was their own, and my brother and I as if we are their grandkids. Family relations, whether blood or not, can change and morph over time. They come to fit the needs that you have and fill the roles you didn’t know you didn’t have.

I do wonder what my daddy’s parents would have been like, though. Jesse is named after our paternal grandfather, and when comparing some pictures of him to Nancy when she was younger, there are some strong resemblances (not much of a strong resemblance with me and either of them; I more resemble family on my momma’s side — now that would be a fun entry to make: family resemblances and inherited traits). Daddy doesn’t talk about his parents much, but when I go back home in March, I would love to sit down and ask him about them a bit. He was really close to mom, so I’m sure there will be many emotions, and I feel like she would have been an amazing woman to meet and have as my grandmother.

###Never be afraid or nervous to admit that you weren’t paying attention what you were reading. And certainly don’t lie about it. Be honest with yourself and learn and grow from it. I could have simply left part 1 after my initial reading like I used to do in similar situations. But something about the text kept calling back to me to come back and read it again. And it’s ok to be upfront about not knowing how to reflect or respond. Confusion can lead you to new discoveries and starting points. It can unearth revelations about ideas and can even clear up parts of confusion. But it starts with being honest with yourself. It’s not wrong or a mistake. It is a never ending learning process that grows and develops with you if you allow it to.###

---

This week I continued reading in Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal (TAKR). What was different this time was instead of responding to the text on paper as I was reading, I started a list in my writer’s notebook of inspiration/ideas I got from the section (pages 60-101).

Some are directly related to what she had written, and some were expansions of my thought process as I was reading. One that I immediately started to write was the food associations, but I didn’t even take it the way that I had written on this list. Instead, I made a candy association list of my family and my partner (and myself). I had realized that there were candy associations that I knew were wrong but didn’t know what the real choice was [was listing each person’s favorite candy], and there was one that I honestly had no clue about.

But after making my list of what I thought/once knew was their favorite candy (excluding my partner because I already knew that correction) I texted them and asked them what their favorite candy actually was. And what’s really funny is how they all responded.

My dad just flat out told me his answer and then inquired as to why I wanted to know.

My brother sent three separate texts: “Probably reese’s nowadays”, “Or mr goodbar”, “Honestly anything that has peanuts and chocolate”. And then immediately followed it with a change of topic of his cat (one of three cats at home, but Peel is very attached to him).

And my mom, which is how I know I truly know I’m her daughter, said “Turtles…chocolate…anything…” because she and I both will have a main favorite, then a large category, but honestly we love it all.

{in case you wondering, and even if you weren’t, I add emojis to the names of people close to me in my phone. Daddy has a hammer because he works in construction, Jesse has both whale emojis because he loves them and has even drawn himself as one (lots of stories and inside jokes about him and whales), and Momma has a crown because…she’s the queen of queens and is everything to me.}

Now, my original idea/inspiration was to talk about how not only do people associate you with something that they think you love, but they also associate you with something they think you don’t like. And my initial example was how for the longest time (and sometimes she still does), my mom thought I didn’t like Peanut M&M’s so she would always buy a pack of plain or me or something else when she got the Peanut brand. Now, I’m not saying I was mad at this, because she has always gone out of her way to treat my brother and I fairly and equitably. It showed me that she was thinking of me and wanted to find something I would enjoy. Only thing is…I love Peanut M&M’s (they’re not my favorite candy though…I will take a bag of gummy worms any day over them), and I can’t remember when she had the idea that I didn’t, or what I may have said to make her think that. It’s just interesting how she came to associate that with me and how she would go out of her way to still include me in candy runs.

From this list, I also expanded upon what I had initially written with reasons as to why I had those associations with them.

And just from this exercise I found out even more how mentor texts can be mentors that sprout memories and ideas that were once “forgotten”. Pulling from an author’s ideas and memories and finding even the smallest connection to bloom into a tangent of my own really does fill my cup. Just now I was thinking of a memory that always fills my cup when I think of it. And it’s one of those memories where you had to be there in it to get the full scope of it. Because all it was was laughter. Laughing in the car with my mom and brother after we stuffed ourselves silly at Friendly’s in Myrtle Beach. Laughing because we stuffed ourselves silly and we could not believe how much we had ate. Laughing over everything we ate and then laughing some more because we realized that momma had started slowing down while driving because we all had tears in our eyes and could barely see anything through the slitted openings where all there was was the fuzzy outlines of the street lights that night. Now that is a memory that I wonder about someone’s connection to. And when I say “connection” it doesn’t have to be directly related to anything that was in that memory.

Do you have any food or candy associations with people in your life? Are they likes? Dislikes? Obsessions? If you do, go out and see if you’re right. If not, try to think back to why you have that association and see if you can follow a memory through that association.

---

From a teacher of writing stand point, a couple of things stood out to me in my reading of Mentor Texts this week. In the chapter, Rose and Lynne discussed how we can help students discover personal stories by connecting them with the literature in our classroom. Now, of course that’s what we aim for and have planned for in our instruction. But the ways in which it can be done stretched farther than I thought.

First point was this statement

“Read-alouds do not always have to be whole books. They can be one or several passages from a chapter of a more lengthy text, including those intended for older audiences, as well as excerpts from magazines, newspapers, catalogs, and travel guides.” (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017, p. 24)

Which had me thinking about all of the literature that I enjoy but never thought I would be able to share with a class because it was written for older audiences. But when the writing speaks to you and evokes emotions that draw from personal connections, that’s when you want to share it! And you can easily introduce the texts to your class by working to build the connections they have in their lives to the lives and experiences of the characters in the text. Just as you would with any other text. You are bringing them in with the purpose of connecting them to help them understand and to dig for their writing treasures (their personal connections, observations, anecdotes, and discoveries that they put in their writer’s notebooks).

And the second point that stood out to me from a personal standpoint was this:

When using photos as a vehicle for finding writing topics, it is important to model for students that the story must be theirs, not one told to them by someone else such as their parents or grandparents. (Dorman & Cappelli, 2017, p. 33)

And this probably makes complete sense to anyone else who reads this. But for me, I grew up hearing all of the stories that my parents told me and my brother as they showed us pictures on the walls and from boxes. These stories were told over and over again and they were ingrained in my brain. I always wanted to share the stories but knew I could never do them justice. And not because I wasn’t there when they happened, but because they weren’t my stories.

However, the stories that I do have to share are those of sitting there listening to their stories, looking through the pictures and comparing them through the years. Finding the slightest bit of resemblance from generation to generation. From one side of the family to the other. And noticing how sometimes the retelling of certain stories change ever so slightly with more detail or even new details. How I don’t get tired of hearing the same stories over and over because I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to hear them be told to me.

And that is something I plan on sharing with my students in addition to modeling that the story must be theirs. That they are constantly gathering stories to remember and write (and maybe share) and to enjoy the storytelling while they do, no matter how many times they hear it. Maybe even reflect on the storytelling experience and how the person telling the story feels when they talk about those memories. Even finding the connections with those emotions and experiences to something they may have felt similarly.

We gather stories forever. We share them sometimes. And we listen while we still can. The cycle continues because we are full of stories that inspire and empower others. That evoke emotions and feelings that may not have been intended. We make connections through our experiences and continue to fill our treasure chest (our writer’s notebooks) with the treasures in our lives.

---

References

Dorfman, L. R., Cappelli, R., & Hoyt, L. (2017). Mentor texts: Teaching writing through childrens literature, k-6 (2nd ed.). Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Rosenthal, A. K. (2016). Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal: Not exactly a memoir. New Tork, NY: Dutton.

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. New York: Puffin Books.

Freedom, bound only by covers in which the pages are held

My first time being introduced to a writer’s notebook was this past fall at an elementary school. Before being formally introduced to the teacher’s writer’s notebook that had been filled with her observations, works, lists, goals, dreams, and everything else she found important to add to it, I had no idea what a writer’s notebook was. I had heard the term thrown around several times in the days leading up to the big reveal, but had assumed it was just another spiral-bound single subject notebook that would be passed around for students to record their writing for class.

I couldn’t have been further from wrong.

On the day when one classroom of fourth graders were gifted their notebooks, a celebration was thrown! A birthday even. In the back of the classroom were cupcakes (and allergy friendly options for students who couldn’t partake in the cupcakes) and balloons. On a table at the side of the room was a pile of gift-wrapped books. And sitting at their desks were learners eager to be handed these gift-wrapped books (and also to get their hands on a cupcake of their choosing).

But before they get dig into either, the teacher stood at the front of the classroom and pulled out a notebook of her own. She shared the types of entries she made, she passed it around for the class to feel and even smell it. She told them how special it was to her and how it made her want to write. Some of the entries were funny, some serious, some were just drawings, and there was even a ziplock back with a dried leaf. She invited them into her own writer’s notebook and how there are no rules for what you want to write in it.

The birthday party ensued as she exclaimed that today was the birth day of each of their very own writer’s notebooks. They all excitedly ripped off the wrapping paper and looked upon their new writing vessels. Of course many were still bouncing in their seats to indulge in the cupcakes at the back, so they continued celebrating with their sweets. And while they were enjoying their snacks, they were invited to personalize their notebooks to make them individual to themselves.

Before class the teacher had told them to bring in pictures or images of themselves, things that are important to them, or things that represent them. Many had baby pictures of themselves, group pictures of family, images of pets, and favorite teams. There were also piles of magazines for the writers to choose from to personalize with images and words/phrases. Walking around the classroom I really began to see the personality and passion of each learner and the things that they hold precious.

During all of this, not only was I excited to see the expressions of everyone in the rom, but also felt a twinge of jealousy that I, myself, did not have a notebook of my own to personalize and have a birthday for. I then realized how little this type of writing was embraced and promoted during my years in public school. We were not given the opportunity to write whatever we wanted inside a journal of our own that we didn’t have to turn in to the teacher for a grade. Writing was always about following a prompt, being correct in spelling/grammar/punctuation, fulfilling a page length or word count, or just as a way to keep us quiet while the teacher did other work.

I began to wonder how I would have personalized my own writer’s notebook at this age and the types of entries I would have made. How much more confident in my writing (and myself) would I have been if I was given such freedom and encouraged to be myself in my writing if I had this opportunity? What genres, topics, styles, and formats would I have explored and tried to make my own through the years if this practice was encouraged throughout my english/language arts classes for 13 years?

Although I did not have this invitation and encouragement during those years, I have found that it is never too late to accept such an invitation. I now have my own writer’s notebook. One that makes my heart smile whenever I look at the leather bound covers. Where I feel safe and secure to pour my heart out through words that I am not concerned about being “correct” or “good enough”. Not only because it’s my choice whether someone reads what I’ve put into it, but because of the small elastic clasp on the front that gives me a small sense of security for the life that I pour out on the pages.

Ralph Fletcher (2001) discusses how a writer’s notebook is more than just a place to write, but that it invites writers to live like writers do, to react the world around them, to experiment with “with ideas, words, images, phrases”, to record their experiences, to make mistakes, and most importantly, a place to make their own. It is freedom bound only by the covers in which the pages are held.

In the same article, Fletcher (2001) includes teacher stories of introducing and implementing writer’s notebooks in their classrooms. After reading the ways that some of these teachers introduced the notebooks and my own personal observation of the celebratory introduction in the fourth grade classroom, I have grown quite the excitement and anticipation for introducing writer’s notebooks to my future students. Not only in throwing a birthday celebration for them (to get them excited about the notebook) but also in confidently sharing my own notebook to them to show them how I am also a writer like they are. That I collect my experiences, memories, experiments, works, and life in a variety of ways that inspire me to continue to add to my collection. How it is unique because I am unique and made it as a reflection and extension of myself. By the time I share my notebook with my future students, I hope to have filled my first one and grown to filling a second one. I also want to show them that it’s ok to not share some pieces; that sometimes you write them down just to get them down and move on from them.

One piece of information that I learned from a professor who introduced me (and our class) to one of her own writer’s notebooks that is not outlined in that article is that you want to find a notebook that speaks to you; a notebook that makes you want to grab it and write in it. Now although I wish I could find a individualized notebook for each of my future students, that is something they will have to seek out to do. Providing them with a “basic” notebook and then allowing them to personalize it to where they have the desire to write in it is a starting place for every writer. It doesn’t have to be bound in leather or made of recycled paper materials, it just has to speak to you, and continue to invite and welcome you to open it up and write or draw whatever is speaking to you at the time without fear of critique.

-.-.-.-.-.-

When adding to my writer’s notebook, I found a large source of inspiration to just write while reading Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal (TAKR). I was instructed to keep my notebook by me while I was reading, but honestly, I don’t think I would have needed that specified because I found myself drawn to writing in response to her words and her writing style. I reacted her questions, elaborated on what she said, reflected on my own experiences, and found inspiration in a diagram of hers to make one of my own.

So what’s so special about me saying this? Because this text is now a mentor text for me and my writer’s notebook. A text that my professor knows inside and out, forward and backwards, and is well loved by her. Which is exactly how Dorfman and Cappelli describe a mentor text (2017). And it is one that shows me how to write in ways that are different than my own.

These texts “help students and teachers continually reinvent themselves as writers” (Dorman, Cappelli, & Hoyt, 2017, p. 7). I have never truly seen myself as a “writer” outside of a person who writes papers or responses for classes. However, upon creating this blog in August, I found a new voice for which I realized I am a writer and have always been one. Even if my style and choice of wording differs from traditional methods of writing (and sometimes goes on for extended periods of time), I am a writer because I write.

Just as I wish I had been invited to write in a writer’s notebook during public school, I also wish I had been embraced as a writer in my own style instead of being crammed inside of a standardized box that made me resent writing. I wish I had had texts that were not only written by white men from decades and centuries ago. I wanted to see myself in texts for school, and not just texts that I read for leisure. Bringing in mentor texts that are from different authors, in different styles, more recent eras, and texts that are truly cherished by teachers in and out of the classroom.

To cultivate these texts for our classrooms, we have to expand our own personal library. It’s challenging, yes. But it’s also challenging for students to read the same story, with the same standardized plots and plot “twists”. How many more times are we going to have to discuss Animal Farm, The Giver, The Catcher in the Rye, and endless amounts of Shakespeare before we realize that we are forcing students to find meaning without them caring about what they are reading? When are we going to incorporate texts that moved and spoke to us in ways we never expected? Texts that challenged us as readers and/or inspired us to pick up own writing utensils and create something in response.

For me, I know I need to expand my own sights of literature that I consume. Not just sticking to same authors or themes and topics. I am going to challenge myself to step out of what is comfortable because that is when change happens. I want to change to help myself grow and to help my future students grow as both readers and writers. One thing I know I need to do is to broaden my scope of types of texts. I love fiction and fantasy novels and honestly, hate reading poetry. However, I know that the world is not solely comprised of those novels and not everyone enjoys them (especially the horror ones that I prefer). But there are novels in verse, and that is a step for me to take to expand my own sights and ease me into a new world of literature. And I am choosing to ease myself into it because forcing myself to read poetry that doesn’t speak to me or one that I have to force myself to find meaning in will only hinder my growth. Small progress is still progress, and as a learner and (future) teacher of reading writing, that progress will help me grow for myself and my future students.

-.-.-.-.-.-

SERENDIPITY: the occurrence or development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way (dictionary.com).

In her book, Amy Krouse Rosenthal explains several serendipitous occurrences from her life and how she actively looks for them. For me, I truly cannot remember a moment of serendipity in my life. I’m not sure if I just ignore them if they happen, rationalize them as simple coincidences, or simply don’t recognize them (or I may have had one or more and honestly cannot recall or remember it). However, there has been a recent incident that was “predicted” months earlier.

Back in October I went the the Carolina Renaissance Fair and visited an astrology reader with my mom. He charted my birthday with the celestial bodies and their location at that precise day and time and began discussing the houses in which they lived and how they may impact and affect my life. One of which being that come December/January I would have to reassess my relationship (with my partner). And wouldn’t you know it, but by the end of the Fall semester my partner had come up to visit me for the weekend and at 6 o’clock in the morning on December 1st he had a grand mal seizure while sleeping (and he has never had a seizure before).

After calling 911, waiting for responders to arrive, spending hours next to him in the emergency room, watching over him while he rested the following days, and going to his follow-up neurology appointment, I unknowingly reassessed our relationship at how important he is to me. I had completely forgotten about what the man at the Renaissance Fair had told me until days after my partner went back home. Well, now that I’m writing it out, I suppose this was somewhat serendipitous. It certainly wasn’t happy, but it has benefited us in the weeks following the event. We have gotten closer on a whole new level, and it truly reaffirmed our relationship to each of us.

Serendipity may not always be happy or evident at first glance, but these moments do happen. Some moments you can seek out by speaking them into the universe and opening yourself to expect them. And others happen on you without you remembering the origin of the connection. As I am working on visualizations of my future self, I will also be working on keeping myself open and willing to receive the signs and signals from the universe that what I’m putting out into it is coming back to me.

References

Dorfman, L. R., Cappelli, R., & Hoyt, L. (2017). Mentor texts: Teaching writing through childrens literature, k-6 (2nd ed.). Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Fletcher, R. (2001). The Writer’s Notebook, School Talk, NCTE, 6(4), 1-6

Rosenthal, A. K. (2016). Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal: Not exactly a memoir. New York, NY: Dutton.