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.

More devoted to the spirit than the law

I read this piece in the NY Times magazine today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/magazine/04lives-t.html

It was the Lives of the Times column, called "Son of the South" by Robert LeLeux, and part of it reminded me of some of the things we talked about at our last meeting, specifically about the Catholic Church.

Another thing I saw today was a bumper sticker that said, "God Bless the Whole World- No Exceptions!"

Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday.

The Slippery Slope

Ellen and I had a conversation about writers workshop today. Usually we see eye to eye, but today, I sensed a little tension. It could have just been me, though; I'm feeling disappointed in myself and my execution of the workshop this year.

I have an article hanging on the wall by my desk about teaching after the summer institute, and what a let-down it can be after the intensity of that program. Honestly, I didn't experience that at all last year after my summer with the NVWP. The SI re-energized and re-focused my teaching, and last year was a really positive teaching experience- maybe the best year I've ever had.

In my position paper, I wrote about the slippery slope that moves us from student-centered to teacher-centered activities. I freely confessed to my own slide, and I resolved to stay up at the top now that I had climbed my way back. This year, though, I feel as if I'm careening downward yet again.

I had a student tell me today that what I was asking her to do was really hard- not because she didn't understand it, but because she wasn't interested in it. Nice kid, good writer, divergent thinker, and not one to always toe the line, (but it's my impression that she will when the stakes are high) and I lost her today. My assignment was not unreasonable, and it was designed with my students in mind, but, truth be told, I noticed yesterday that many of the weren't into it.

I was teaching what I considered to be a very engaging and useful mini-lesson on leads and introductions. I was all Kelly Gallagher with my blank rubric and my models. We successfully agreed on 2 qualities that a passable introduction to this writing piece should have, and then the students had time to revise their pieces to include those things, but they didn't do it.

Why? Long story short? They really didn't see the value of it. They thought that what they already had was fine. They weren't invested in this writing, (they were doing it for me and their grade), and so they weren't really willing to push themselves on it, much less internalize what I was trying to teach them. No- to them, their pieces were FINE, really, thanks for asking. Oh? I got a C? What do YOU want me to do to fix it, then? No one wanted to revise it because it sucked, or because it could be better writing and that was what they wanted- they only wanted a better grade, if that. They weren't writers; they were just going through the motions putting in their time.

If on one side is that slippery slope, on the other side of the path we walk each school year is a cliff. It's a leap of faith to jump into a true writers workshop, and it's a leap I've only taken twice in my career- the first year I taught, and last year. This year, I'm still hesitating, afraid I'm not organized enough, or it's not structured enough, or whatever. All I know is this, though, the longer I wait, the slipperier the other side.

Workshop

Ok - Thanks to Heidi for coming in and doing a writing territories lesson to really help us kick off our Writer's Workshop. Now, however, I am committed. So, I bought another book tonight...my normal response to feelings of panic and inadequecy (sp?) that helps with mechanics and grammar in writer's workshop. What it comes down to though, is what will I do with them tomorrow?

Tracey, I can see how the Writer's Workshop has been difficult to work into the formalized structure of "IB Unit Plans" and curriculum mapping. Although, I really like the idea from Nancie Atwell of working through genres as a structure to the lessons.

I think that we will set up our writer's notebooks and then do some writing - we'll see how that goes.

Ellen

Hmmm, just thinking - about community

Ok - what makes a community? I think most would agree that a common purpose and a sense of working together make for a valuable community - but how can you create a community without sense of purpose and the value of each other or the attributes that we each bring to the table.

After attending my first English meeting in about three years (as a member of the team rather than an outsider coming in to present) I was positively shocked by the negative feelings prevelant (sp?) in the group - never spoken - but definately, quietly there. How can community develop in such an unsafe environment?

Our community of writers is in-process of developing - I think pretty strongly, because we come with a purpose, a sense of safety to risk, and a value for what we each bring to the table. I felt like last weeks (was it only last week?) group was very strong - is it that I felt more comfortable having written to a topic ;) or is it that our community has taken a year to establish - or was this just a good experience for me?

And - how does this understanding of community transfer to my classroom? Today I was quite stern with my class and felt frustrated with this group of bright questioning students - I didn't want them to question me...just do what I ask. (Some didn't see the value in asking them to write to a contest topic which I was not going to force them to enter - I don't force them - that is their call, I just support them in being able to enter if they want. And, I reward the risktakers who do enter.) Henry wasn't happy with me. My community was a little unhappy - me too.

Ramblings...

Ellen

Politics, Religion or Sex?

A couple months ago, Mary and I had a conversation about when sex would come up in our writing group. We're the wagering kind, but we haven't put any money on that one yet.

Heidi's mom, Louise, is in town this weekend. Last night at dinner (we went to Tallulah's) Louise was catching Heidi up on all the family news; it seems one of her cousins is getting married to this guy who happens to be Lutheran, and he is rampantly anti-Catholic. Not just a little bit, he won't even allow the cousin, Katie, to invite her priest to the reception. She also happens to be pregnant, so there's a lot going on there. Anyway, I started thinking about what it means to "be Catholic", and it occurred to me that all of us in the writing group are on that spectrum, so to speak. What would you all think about all of us working on that as a topic sometime?

You know me- I don't even like to give my students topics, but I thought that it would be interesting for all of us to come at a common thing from our different perspectives.

Do you hate the idea?

Give more attention to "What next?"

Each time I get ready to bring a piece to the group, I lean toward starting something new as opposed to fine tuning something I've already written. Strangely enough, this is something that bugs me in my classroom workshop. As a teacher, I want the kids to have "finished" some pieces, and experience that part of the process. Obviously, I'm not holding myself the same standard. Not all pieces are worth revisiting, but I wonder if I would take more satisfaction in finding something to develop and bring to some sort of closure, with the group's help along the way.

Another Thursday Night

Thursday was our ninth meeting. A few minutes ago, I went through my folder and organized everyone's pieces. That's a lot of writing we've done- kind of impressive when you look at it all together. There's a lot of variety as well, and pieces in different stages of the process. I'm happy to have a reason to write, a deadline to produce, and a place to share my writing. It's still a big deal for me, accompanied by adrenaline and nerves; I always leave our group wired.

I want to be honest here. I always leave our group a little disappointed, too. Every month I try to figure out what I want that I'm not getting, and there's no blame on anyone but me. I understand that figuring out what kind of feedback I want as a writer is part of the value of participating in such a group, especially since the teacher and the writer are bound in me.

I wonder what you guys think. I started this blog to give me and you, if you're interested, a place to reflect and continue our conversation about our writing pieces, but also about our group: what we do, what we want to try, what works, what doesn't.

What do you think?