An Evening at the Beach

Retreat from the world -

We escaped to the beach this weekend, courtesy of Mary's friend. Weaving through DC, maneuvering around police barriers, it seemed that we would never get out of the maze. At last, New York Ave funneled us out of the city and carried us towards Ocean City and the Atlantic Ocean. Barrelling down Route 50, farmhouses, bridges, and small communities flashed by.

After a delicious afternoon meal at BJ's on the Bay and getting settled into the condo, we ventured to the grocery to find the ingredients for our dinner. I love grocery stores in different places. The freezer section in Ocean City had different kinds of ice cream, the fruit and vege section was pretty interesting, but shockingly, the seafood section was weak. We ended up with scallops and shrimp, strawberries and ice cream, and Tracey, fortunately for us, volunteered to create.

After some writing, walks on the beach, and photo shoots, we hunkered down to the serious business of preparing for dinner. Leah, Mary and I had the unique opportunity of watching Tracey cook - scallops and shrimp, thawed, were gently sauteed in the pan, rice steamed away, and etoufee sauce simmered. We surreptitiously wiped our drool while munching on Mary's vege dip and sipping a delicious Australian red.

After such a tantalizing prep show, we thoroughly enjoyed the meal and then pulled out our writing pieces. Comfortably ensconced on the L-shaped couch, we shared parts of our novels and research papers and celebrated each other's progress.

What joy.

Evening at the Beach Menu

Appetizer: Pretzel Thins, cucumber slices and Knorr Vegetable Dip

Wine:

Main Meal: Shrimp and Scallop Etoufee, Jasmine Rice
Salad: halved grape tomatoes, cucumbers, butter lettuce drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

I have to admit - I was exhausted by the time I arrived home on Sunday and not really able to verbalize why. In retrospect, I think that our discussions regarding teaching and writing were intense. It is hard work to talk about what we believe about student learning and the cultures that exist in our schools and in our worlds. I felt depressed once I got home because in so many ways we are powerless, able only to make a difference within the confines of our own classrooms.

This morning I awoke frustrated and tired, but in awe of the time that we have spent together over the last few years working on our writing and grappling with our pedagogy. The last almost three years have been incredible learning experiences - whether I finish my novel or not, I will have learned so much from "This writing thing we do." Thanks!

Please feel free to edit this post to fill in any missing gaps (ie wine, spelling...).

Pony Up, Ladies.

I'll start with my word count-- just get that right out of the way. Day 6: I have 3,874 words. I'm not worried, though. I've calculated that I could have zero words today and still finish on the 30th, if only I keep my daily average to 2,000 from here on out.

It's been slow going the last week, for sure. Many fun things to distract me in Maine, but somehow they had a way of circling around to remind me of what I want to do. Like the time when we were hiking Great Head, and we came across the ruins of a tea house that one of the robber baron's daughters built. Watching and listening to Josh and Treat explore it was like my novel idea come to life. Cool.

Then, my brother offered to read my writing out loud to me while I was cooking dinner. THAT was kind of a revelation. Hearing my words in someone else's voice was good. I understand now that I provide a lot of the voice in my own reading. What can I do to ensure it's in the writing, too? His comments were also interesting. He brought the perspective of an avid reader, and while complimentary, he had some editorial suggestions, as well.

Lastly, we climbed Sargent Mountain this year. It's a long, hard hike up and down is challenging, too. I love that mountain, though. It's the one I can see from the bedroom window of the house we've stayed in the last three summers. It's also the second highest on the island, and the highest one that is only accessible by foot. A few hundred feet below the summit, there is a pond, and you can swim there, if you want. Again, only those who have climbed the 900 feet to that point have the privilege to take that dip.

The route we chose goes around Jordan Pond and then starts up along a brook through the forest. It's steep and slippery on the rocks and roots that make up the trail. Oh, my legs and knees complained as we started climbing. It had been five years since I'd last done this hike, and I was feeling it. There is a point, though, in every climb, or ride, or paddle, or run, where, if you've kept at it, you realize that it's not so hard to keep going. Just one step after another, and before you know it, you're at the pond, and then you're striding across high granite ledges, where the hot sun and the warm rocks are a perfect balance to that cool ocean breeze, and the view would be worth twice the climb.

I'm hoping that the JuNo project will be like that, too. It sure has been slow and achy to begin with, but I want to stick with it.

How about you guys? Word count?

The JuNo Project

I've been thinking about ways to use our blog to support and encourage each other as we work on our July novel thing.

As I was cleaning up my room on Friday, I found the NaNoWriMo materials for middle school students. I remember thinking when I printed them last October that they looked promising, and I still think so. I also went back and re-read the e-mail exchange I had with Leah about trying to pull off some novel writing with our students.

From: Tracey 10/30/07 1:03 PM
Subject: NaNoWriMo

Hey Googler,

Do your thing and let me know what you think.

From: Leah 10/30/07 1:27 PM
Subject: OHMANNONO

Okay that's cool, but what type of craziness do you envision here?

From: Tracey 10/30/07 4:30 PM
Subject: Did you mean craziness in a good way?

Well, at first I was all in, but I must be getting old, because then I decided that two days was not enough time to pull it all together. I wish I had found the site two months or even two weeks ago, because I have great visions of all 185 of us writing for the whole month of November, churning out novels, posting excerpts and page counts on WHWN, workshopping, building fluency.

Did you see the young writers program, though?

http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/

The middle school materials look awesome. Isn't there some way we could pull it off?

From: Leah 10/30/07 10:13 PM
Subject: It’s a good IDEA

Really, it's awesome, but you're nuts. My excuse for not embracing this fully is that I just lost an evening to Halloween costume madness added on to the homework routine around here…

Listen, I LOVE the idea of kids writing like crazy for the next 30 days. If you think there's a way to launch it in the next day or so, I guess I'm open to ideas, but I haven't had a second to consider the practicality of it. Keep in mind that this would derail my Day in the Life fun, but whatever. Are you still actually keen on this? DID I mean craziness in a good way? I'm still thinking about that question.

Sometimes you need a good whack in the head...

Thinking about Tracey's funny situation...

During my Senior year of high school I was struggling with my fourth year of Russian in anticipation of a trip to the Soviet Union over Thanksgiving. Ed Miller, my teacher, spent a great amount of time that fall going over a variety of phrases that we might encounter during our visit. I sat in class each day, listening, practicing my Russian to English translation and learning. (Or so I thought).

Twelve weeks into the year I found myself on the Moscow subway system packed in like a sardine with a bunch of Soviet citizens who had differing opinions than myself on the use of deodorant. I felt lucky to get the last seat available. Sitting smugly, I smiled at my friends who were left standing. Suddenly my moment of glory was interrupted by a whack on my head. I looked up to see an elderly woman winding up her bag for one more blow as she yelled at me in Russian. Not surprisingly, my translation skills let me down but my common sense took over and I got up to give her the seat. It wasn't until I stood up that I read the words plastered over my former seat. They looked familiar. Where from? Oh yea, we had that in class the week before. "These seats reserved for elderly and disabled riders."

Moral of the story? Sometimes the learning is taking place...sometimes you need a good whack in the head to get the connection.

Funny

I told Ellen this story today, but I need to write it down, too. Yesterday marked the end of our three big days of testing this year. After taking the reading SOL on Monday and the math on Tuesday, we had the sixth graders do a writing sample on Wednesday that will be scored holistically according to the state rubric. We do one in the fall and another in the spring, hoping to document growth in our students as writers.

I'm not a big fan of standardized testing, as the four of us who might read this are aware. I try to communicate to the kids that it is a snapshot of their academic performance, a bit of data-- information to help us understand their strengths and weaknesses. I tell them to do their best so that our information is accurate. Sometime this week, more than one student asked why their work on assignments throughout the year wasn't enough to tell us what we needed to know. Clearly they sensed the politics of high stakes testing.

So I saw each of my five classes for thirty minutes yesterday before they were to do the writing sample. I made a little assignment sheet that asked them to brainstorm the qualities of "good" writing. I told them to start with what they know, but to use the table of contents of their handbook section, too. (Here is where they keep all the mini-lessons we've done on writing craft and conventions.) I gave them time to share their lists with one or two other students and add if they wanted, then we talked as a class about what we thought good writing was. They were full of ideas, and I was proud to hear them talk so confidently about much of what we have worked on this year. In each class, they mentioned writing a strong lead, and we reviewed some strategies for doing that. I reminded them that a strong lead is an easy way to get you and your reader off to a positive start. They agreed.

For the last part of the class, we went over the scoring rubric that we use to assess their writing. I explained each of the domains, and I asked them to say which they thought was their stength and which the most challenging. I gave each of them an individual compliment and suggestion to use as they composed that afternoon. At lunch, I was excited. I felt like my students were prepared to knock that assessment out of the ballpark. I couldn't wait to read what they wrote, especially those leads.

At our team meeting, the other teachers brought me the finished writing samples to turn in. The prompt had been to write about a time you were frightened. As I eagerly riffled through them, my eyes fell on the first line of the first piece: "I'm going to tell you a time when I was scared."

What!? I couldn't believe it. What a lame lead! I flipped to another, "A time when I was afraid was a while back..." and another, "One time I was scared." How disappointed was I, when I realized that very few of the students had applied what we have been working on all year AND that we had reviewed hours earlier? I went through all of them and sat back and had a good think. What to do?

I ended up typing the lead from every single piece and making it into a mini-lesson for my students today. I started out with, "What did we do yesterday?" A few blank looks as they searched the dim recesses of their memories gave way to hands waving eagerly to remind me that we had talked about good writing. "What did we say that was, again?" I asked. Oh the bounty of information they had-- strong leads, paragraphs, a so what, correct spelling, dialog, punctuation, strong vocabulary, etc, etc. "Yes, yes, yes," I told them. "Now... who used any of that in your writing piece yesterday?" There was stunned silence and raised hands dropped limply to their laps. "Why not?" I had to know.

"I was too busy just trying to do that test," one student told me. "I never thought about that stuff."


Below I'll include the list of 64 leads my students composed yesterday. They aren't all bad.

Write about a time you were frightened….
The Leads

1. I’m going to tell you a time when I was scared.

2. I drifted slowly to the bottom and opened my eyes and saw nothing but blue all around me.

3. We were getting ready to fall asleep when we all saw a green light toward the kitchen.

4. “Aahaa,” clutching my seat like the world was ending, I screamed at the top of my lungs.

5. Spiders are fine, but some people hate them.

6. As the lightning cut through the sky, I was awakened!

7. A time when I was afraid or frightened was awhile back when I got a phone call that terrified me.

8. Last year, during spring break, there was a huge thunder storm.

9. I went to the hospital to see my sister.

10. Lately my fear of spiders is getting to me.

11. “Save me, save me,” a lady screamed, but no one could hear her except the murderer.

12. I felt like the heat would never end.

13. One morning, me and my sister were cooking breakfast, because no one was home.

14. The alarm went off, “Beep beep beep.”

15. One afternoon, I went to my friend’s house.

16. I went to Universal Studios in Florida two years ago and went on my first roller coaster.

17. One frightening thing that happened is, I stepped on a snake.

18. AAAY cara plump I have fallen and I can’t get up.

19. “Oh no, Mom,” yelled my sister.

20. Have you ever seen a movie that scared you?

21. When I was a little boy, about 10 or 11, I was scared of the dark.

22. “Get down! The snake will kill you,” yelled my mom through the door.

23. A time I was frightened was I was chased by dogs.

24. It was cold outside, and I would say foggy.

25. One time I was scared.

26. One day, well, one night when I was outside with my sisters, it was so dark.

27. A time when I was frightened was when I went to a haunted house with just my two cousins.

28. “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary!” my friends and I said in the dark bathroom.

29. My uncle pulled up to the dark and shallow driveway; I stepped out of the gleaming silver car wondering where is everybody.

30. One time when I was nine, my mom brought me to the beach for my birthday.

31. One time when I was frightened, was when I was watching a movie called, “The Ring.”

32. On a late July night, I was reading a book I had recently gotten from the library.

33. It all started when my sister yelled, “Go get the mop!”

34. “Oh no! Turn the TV off; it’s too frightening.”

35. My breathing was shallow. “You first Nick!”

36. I’m walking with caution through a pitch black night.”

37. At first I thought someone had pushed the fire alarm button.

38. “AAAAAEEEEUUUGGH!” I screamed.

39. A time I was frightened was during a thunder storm, and we had a blackout right in the middle of dinner.

40. Rmmmmmm! Booooom!”AHHH what was that?” called a person the next room over.

41. It was the biggest one I’d taken in my entire equestrian career so far.

42. “What was that?” yelled my friend, who had already started running.

43. I remember that day as if it were yesterday.

44. I’m always frightened of everything, but the most fear I had was when I was 8.

45. It happened when I was five.

46. My mom was telling me how my oldest sister was having brain surgery, once again.

47. A long time ago, there was a day when I thought I was going to go crazy.

48. When I was going to my sister’s friend’s baby shower we were in the car.

49. I ran across the street, saw the car coming near me, and then BAM.

50. My rollercoaster was in King’s Dominion.

51. I was ten years old.

52. “You can’t make me,” I was saying in my head.

53. “Yikes!” I said when I saw a dog coming out of the alley, “looks like he’s looking for food.”

54. My mom and I went to Ikea, not realizing that this would be one of the scariest days of my life.

55. On March 15, 2008, my mother and I went to Washington Hospital Center.

56. I wake up on a Saturday morning.

57. A time when I was frightened was when I was nine.

58. One night I was coming from one of my grandmother’s parties.

59. One time when I was 15, I went to the basement to play with my doll.

60. My aunt was driving my mother and I home from North Carolina.

61. When I was at my cousin’s house, we were watching TV, which is actually pretty boring at the time because she only had the Disney channel and some other boring shows.

62. Oh my God, everything bad happens to me.

63. “Run!” Jason and I jumped on our bikes and rode to our friend’s house as fast as possible.

64. I was home alone one day.

So - I am procrastinating on so many things that I should be doing - but I sat down to write and I find myself writing...but not what I am supposed to be writing...

I was rereading our blog for some ideas - something to jump off on - and I reread Tracey's post from November about not feeling as successful this year, not having implemented Writer's Workshop, and the vignette about the student who was not engaged.

I would love to know how you are feeling now? We know your trip to Maine re-energized both of you (Tracey and Leah) in the workshop world - are you finding that your students are experiencing more engagement in writing?

Hmm - Can this be my writing piece?

Back to thinking about what I am going to write about.

Ellen

Imagine yourself at 16

My other favorite column in the Sunday Times is Modern Love. There is some intense writing in this one- she captures her teenaged self and experience- something we have each tried at one time or another in the writing we have brought to our group.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/fashion/11love.html


The section that starts "Imagine yourself at 16" and ends with "while you blunder about with your blasted heart and torn tissue" took my breath away.