Teachers as Writers: My Five Weeks with the Writing Project

This summer, I had the most transformative professional development experience of my career. My work with the Writing Project was intense, engrossing, and very productive. Five weeks spending each weekday working closely with 22 other colleagues to develop our own writing repertoire and our teaching practices turned me into a thinking writer-teacher machine. It lifted me out of my unemployment murk and up into the world of ideas. I remembered why I love writing and why I love teaching. It’s all about creating and studying and making a change in this world. It’s also about scholarly inquiry and research. I did plenty of each.

The Writing Project gave me the opportunity to really consider my own practice as an English educator, to reflect on what works and why. It also gave me countless pathways to discover how I can make my teaching more engaging, effective, and fitting for the 21^st century learner. It made me recommit to conducting a classroom that acknowledges social justice concerns. I learned about dozens of new technology tools and applications. I gained a powerhouse arsenal of teaching resources as each new day brought new things to discover.

The greatest resource of all, though, were my fellow teacher consultants. Each participant had to present a 90-minute teaching inquiry workshop, in which he or she would present the origins and process of research, findings, and practical classroom applications through a hands-on workshop. Through these presentations, I learned fresh new ideas about a wide variety of topics: how the writing process differs between individuals, teaching grammar in new ways, using spoken language in writing instruction, gender differences in writing instruction, use of non-standard dialects, creating rubrics, writing workshop, teaching self-revision, infusing writing with imagery, bookmaking, writing conferences, and blogging just to name a few!  Being able to present in front of the cohort was also one of many leadership opportunities that affiliation with the writing project can provide.

Meanwhile, we were also working tirelessly on our own independent writing products. The final portfolio included 3-4 original pieces in different genres and a polished piece of professional writing in addition to the research document and bibliography for the teacher inquiry workshop. We wrote like fiends for five straight weeks—starting, reworking, abandoning, twisting language in ways that were scintillating, serpentine, or surprising. The sheer joy that I got out of this luxurious time to write freely was one of the biggest payoffs of all the hard work. The supportive network I had of other teacher-writers (not just here but also around the country via the Internet) was also instrumental in creating my original written pieces.

I am certain that my brain gained an additional fold during the five weeks of the Writing Project. My deepest thanks to the facilitators and all the teacher consultants who made my summer into something that will improve my teaching and writing all year long.

Writing Project Work-  My best accomplishments from the summer experience are detailed below. Please comment if you are interested in any of the detailed pieces, and I’ll be happy to speak with you about sharing them with a wider audience.

Teacher Inquiry Workshop

Writing With a Camera: Teaching Student Authors to Compose Both in Words and Images

This hands-on workshop leads participants to investigate parallels between composing photographs and composing the written word. Explore the world of 21^st century texts and come away with ideas for utilizing images and words side by side during writing instruction. This presentation honors the complexities of the technology-savvy student writers that make up our classrooms.

Professional Writing

“Take Compassion out of the Closet.” This social justice activist piece was submitted for consideration to the “Speaking my Mind” section of NCTE’s English Journal.

“Social Justice Teaching: Everything we have Power to Do.”  I collaborated with my reading group to create this color trifold pamphlet on what teachers can do to promote socially just pedagogy. It is a resource ready to distribute.

Original Writing in Four Genres

“Threshold.” This short fiction piece explores the concept of the inner world and what risks we take to find it, ignore it, or embrace it. As the natural and psychological landscapes converge, a misunderstood woman comes face to face with her own unrealized power.

“Grand.” A piece about sibling love and opposition, this personal narrative shows a humorous but profound snapshot of a summer vacation mishap with my younger brother.

“Memory as Time Travel.” This piece is an intellectual essay questioning the influence, origin, and reality of our own memories. What purpose does memory serve in a world of data instantly catalogued by machines?

“Juxtaposition.” Inspired by side-by-side images of a nebula and a couple’s initials on a piece of wood, this poem compares the infinity of the universe to the depth of the human heart.

Writing Project (Back to School, Teacher Edition)

I’ve been given the great honor of being selected as a National Writing Project fellow, as part of the UW-Milwaukee Writing Project site.

My Writing Project work will start this summer, and I couldn’t be more excited to explore this chance for graduate credit, professional development, reflection, and my own evolution as a writer as well as a teacher of writing. I’ll be working with a select team of other educator-writers, with a wide range of teaching experience and writing strengths.

Here’s the research proposal I’ll be working on, along with a brief reflection on myself as a teacher-writer:

I am fascinated by the often overlooked connection between student image-making and written composition. It is my belief that creating visual art can prompt, guide, and enrich student writing, and I’ve experimented with this idea in many ways in my own classrooms, from illustrating grammatical constructions to using drawings as an alternative notetaking technique. However, one type of visual art hasn’t been used in my lessons very frequently—photography. I have the feeling it has potential to explode (in a good way) the possibilities of my writing-lesson repertoire, if only I can figure out how to use it!

Formalized, my question is this: How can photography be used in tandem with writing of various genres? The composition of image and the composition of writing share many traits—focal point, contrast, imagery, symbolism, mood, perspective, purpose… I feel that illuminating and working with these similarities would make students stronger, more mindful writers. Other possible uses might involve students composing visual essays with a companion written portion, using photography at the idea-generating stages of writing, documenting evidence of research with photos, or even using reactions to the images of others as a pathway to writing. Also, beyond just generating ideas for methods, I’d like to investigate this: How are these methods beneficial in learning, motivation, community building, and preparing students for our visually demanding cybersociety? Adolescents live in photographs. They are constantly taking, sharing, and posting digital pictures—this is how they record their lives. If implemented well, translating this tendency into classroom work may help students become impressive, image-savvy writers of today… and tomorrow.

As a writer, I am voracious. I write to understand myself. I write to communicate. I write to create. I write to get things from my brain out into the world in permanent form.

Being an author was definitely a consideration in my search for the ultimate career. I’ve been blessed with an easy grasp of grammar and mechanics from an early age, which freed me to use my time entirely to refine my ideas during revision. I’ve had a few pieces of fiction published in literary magazines, and I have a creative writing binder that’s thicker than a phone book. I love writing, plain and simple. When I worked as a college writing tutor during my undergraduate work, I realized that I loved tutoring and teaching writing almost as much as I loved doing it. My current writing class for 10^th-12^th graders, too, is my gem of the day. It’s a joy to teach.

My flaws as a writer also spring from my personal connection to the task of writing—my words can tend to become self-involved. I sometimes get so caught up in trying to express exactly what I’m thinking that I miss explaining clearly what I mean. For some reason, when I write, I sometimes turn into that too-mysterious movie that nobody truly understands, even when the credits roll. So my main challenge lies in making sure that my writing makes my thoughts clear to my readers. This carries directly into my writing instruction as well. The students who are authors-to-be get all dreamy-eyed when I wax poetic about, for instance, sensory imagery. However, that other 90% of my students may not be receiving the message. I need to make writing accessible for my students, and let them find their own reasons to love it, rather than expecting them to absorb mine by osmosis. None of us is alone in this world; nor should our writing be.

I am so looking forward to summer, anticipating the fresh new ideas that will come with rest and study, and knowing that I’ll find things to translate into my teaching. Year One is going great, but I’m already looking forward to Year Two, because I can’t wait to start building on the (still small!) base of techniques and curriculum that I have at the moment. I’m ready to work hard, and–again–I’m so grateful for the chance to become part of this academic community!

For more information on the National Writing Project, visit their website HERE.

How Contemporary!

Even though I’m on week five of the new semester already, it seems like it just kicked off yesterday. I’ve had many new transitions during this period, including a brand new room arrangement, new class decor, and a new committment to both giving the best and expecting the best from my students. While it’s been a transition, including the gaining, losing, and rearranging of students in my classes, I feel like it’s been a really great first five weeks.

One of the most major changes curriculum-wise has been the shifting of theme in my senior literature class. While semester one was British Authors, semester two is entitled Contemporary Authors. I’m lucky enough to teach at a school where I have a considerable amount of curricular flexibility, as long as I’m giving quality teaching that addresses state standards, so I decided to design an introductory unit that was writing-heavy rather than literature focused. If you follow this blog, you know that teaching writing is my first love; however, that’s actually not the main reason behind this switch. The reason was Reader Burnout. To put it simply, my seniors were exhausted from reading old, British texts that took several run-throughs to make sense of. After back to back texts like Pride and Prejudice, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and some John Donne thrown in for good measure, English can start to look and feel like a foreign language for the average adolescent reader. By the end of semester one, I still had them with me… but barely. I was fighting hard to keep interest  alive, to take a metaphorical windshield wiper to those glazing eyes, but (fight as I may) I was not winning too many fans for the classical literature team.

As the new semester–Contemporary Literature–rolled around, I wondered, ‘Okay, these kids have dutifully read classics with me all year long. When do they get to read and write about things that they find interesting?’  After asking that question in my head, I found myself answering, “Tomorrow.”

I ended up revisiting a unit that I did last summer, about Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, and transforming it for the senior level. As it happened, this was the ideal transitional move. Monomyth–a term coined by Campbell to describe the Hero’s Journey process of calling, struggle, and transformation–can be used to examine the form and characters that appear in texts across time, across cultures, and across genres. As we started talking about the structure, it gave the students a chance to showcase what they had learned in semester one, citing examples from classical texts we had already read. But the fun part was seeing the lightbulbs go on as they began to realize that similar plotlines and characters are featured in today’s books and films, relatively unchanged from their ancient roots. We had some phenomenal class discussion about the idea of the Collective Unconscious, and how humanity tends to share common nightmares, desires, and dreams. “There’s only one story, and we all know it by heart” became our motto to prove or disprove as we looked at varied examples from The Odyssey to Avatar.

Using that knowledge as a stepping stone, I set out to examine the most contemporary authors possible–my students. Over the course of the unit, my kids completed a rigorous creative writing assignment, which required them to implement the all stages of monomyth within an original plot, create a story setting and worldview, design archetypal characters, and showcase the effective writing skills that we had workshopped in class. And they worked hard. Even the slobbish slacker that always sits in back handed in a paper over ten pages long, smiling a goofy, proud smile as he handed it in (just one day late). Other kids created novellas that would have a freelancer with writer’s block simply salivating. Students that struggled to squeeze out ten sentences about The Exeter Book were now creating complex masterpieces. “Finally,” the class atmosphere seemed to say, “I get to make something cool on my own terms.”

Today’s high school students still need classical literature. The skills, cultural knowledge, and academic maturity gained by interpreting these texts are important, without a doubt. But let’s remember that reading and writing can be–and at times should be–purposefully new, exciting, and relatively free of prescriptive requirements. My first priority for my seniors is getting them college-ready. Still, a close second is getting them to understand that reading and writing are not only vital, but life-giving as well.

(Besides, even when creating something new, they can’t ever totally escape the incorporation of classical story structure. Little do they know, the same tools used by every canonical writer are already lurking in their young, unsuspecting brains. *Wink*)

Project: Screenplay

I just finished a successful, intriguing, enjoyable unit with my writing lab class, and I’m just busting to share a little bit about the experience, how and why we did it, and the results.

It all began near the end of the persuasive essay unit, when I was glancing ahead to see what else I had scheduled for my writing lab kids. As I perused the syllabus, my eyes swept over the answer: expository writing. I groaned a little inside. We were just wrapping up a research-heavy, academic jargon-heavy, crisp logic-heavy writing project. The thought of assigning some boring, report-like paper about facts seemed just a little too dull for this particular group. [Background: My writing lab kids are my absolute favorite class. They're a mixture of English fail-outs, aspiring authors, English language learners, and "I just took this class for the heck of it" misfits. Coming from grades 10-12, they are a peaceful, curious group who will follow me pretty much wherever I ask them to go as writers. And many of them have major talent. I knew something else was in order.]

So, I created a Writer-Interest Survey with loads of different options for them to pick from for their next unit. We discussed, debated, voted, and debated some more. In the end, screenplay writing (you know, writing scripts for movies) was the clear winner. They really wanted to write their own short film scripts. So I said, “Ok. On Monday, we’ll start learning how to write screenplays.”  Having absolutely no idea how to teach screenplay writing, I knew I had a weekend of research ahead of me. I was blessed enough to stumble upon three fantastic teaching resources for screenplay writing. Using them as my scaffold, I went to town on planning a five-week screenplay unit.

RESOURCE ONE: Good ol’ Google. As it turns out, if you simply type the title of your favorite major motion picture along with the word “screenplay” after it, you can find the full script for most movies out there. [My search query was "Jurassic Park screenplay.] There are many online databases devoted wholly to collecting and making available screenplays that have seen success. Of course, you have to wade through these to find quality samples, since many of these screenplays are reproduced by amateurs. However, when you find a good one, it’s an invaluable resource, especially if you can pair it with the actual film clip.

RESOURCE TWO: Script Frenzy Young Writer’s Program. I discovered something wonderful in my quest for screenplay tips, and that’s Script Frenzy. Apparently, this program is open to all who wish to participate–it’s a challenge to write a complete, 100 page screenplay in the month of April. This is a challenge for adults (more specifically, crazy adults), but there also happens to be a modified program for students that’s accessible all year round, including a complete workbook with really nice teaching supplements. I can’t say enough about how awesome this completely free resource is. Here are two links to get you started:

Click for SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

Click for SCREENPLAY WORKBOOK (HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL)

RESOURCE THREE: Make your own Movie Poster! I also happened upon a fantastic movie poster generator on the web that allowed my kids to create super-cool, authentic looking promotional posters for their screenplays. You have to fiddle around a little bit to get the best results, and only .jpg files can be loaded as the main image, but once those two things are out of the way, students can come up with amazing results. Particularly when they take their own photo with a digital camera or scan in original artwork, the final result looks great. Here’s a sample poster I’ve made for your viewing pleasure… Click on the image for full-view.

Cool, huh? Try it by clicking HERE for the movie poster generator.

As the unit went on, we did all kinds of cool things: character development, realistic dialogue, avoiding cliches, identifying and blending genres, using media skills, applying a specific formatting style, how to construct a satisfying plot, time management, mimicking masters, finding inspiration, and action writing. And the students loved it. Whether they were penning comedies or psychological thrillers, they were all quite “into” their stories. Last weekend I had literally an armful of pages to take home–almost every student had met my daunting ten-page requirement. One boy even made a full-length, amazingly artistic trailer for his film. Some of my favorite film concepts were:

*A crochety old man, denied a discount at McDonald’s, seeks revenge by patronizing other various fast food establishments.

*An imprisoned man develops a close relationship with a fellow inmate as they attempt to make a jailbreak.

*The ghost of a teenager tries to come back to the living world, but only one friend can see him.

*A man struggling with mental illness decides to live his life through the identity of a deceased friend from childhood.

*An exchange student simply can’t handle the irritating antics of his host family.

Once again, I have had proven to me the fact that when students are doing something that they are interested in, they outperform even the highest expectations. During this unit, I wished I was in my own class so that I could do the project. It was so touching to watch them excitedly buzz around each other’s writing, asking “What are you gonna put next?” or “You know what I can picture here? Let me tell you…”  Next time I teach this unit, I might work in an actual film component as well. I highly, highly recommend trying out some screenplay writing. It may not be a very traditional thing to teach, but it makes reaching the state language arts standards as easy and light as a song.

P.s. If you’re in the Milwaukee area, Collaborative Cinema is another cool opportunity related to screenwriting. We had a guest speaker come in from this program, and he was great.

The Art of the Semi-Colon: Using Grammar to Enrich Writing

This morning, I had the honor of presenting a sectional at the 2009 Wisconsin Council of Teacher of English Convention in Milwaukee, WI.

Please click to view the following resources from the session:

Handout with lesson directions and notes

Powerpoint Presentation

My presentation included discussion about two bits of pedagogical theory–(1) teaching grammar in the context of writing and (2) using visual arts in the teaching of writing. For me, finding practical applications of these theories can sometimes be challenging, so I demonstrated a lesson that I use in my persuasive writing unit which integrates both of these theories into actual practice. It’s a really great lesson that middle school AND high school students enjoy and that is exciting to teach. It makes grammar fun! But even better, it produces sophisticated student writing in the end. The participants in my workshop had a chance to try out the activity for themselves, and then to discuss the experience and offer ideas about how this lesson (or those similar to it) can work in the classroom. Some of the cool suggestions generated by this discussion included:

-Using a picture as a starting point for a follow-up lesson, where students view the image and generate an accompanying sentence.

-Displaying posters side by side with formal persuasive essays.

-Tying visual elements into descriptive writing, asking students to describe a photo or illustrate a written description.

-Creating a unit around punctuation, with the unifying idea of a punctuation “map” that could be displayed in the room with “paths to good writing” that would feature various punctuation marks as X-marks-the-spot symbols on the map.

I was so excited to have this chance to present one of my ideas and to hear those of others. My room was pleasantly overflowing with knowledge: there were pre-service educators, other first-year teachers, experienced and veteran teachers, and post-secondary teachers in attendance.  It was my absolute pleasure to serve as the leader for a great activity and discussion. Many thanks to all that were there! It was an incredible day for me–I was recognized as the WCTE 2009 Outstanding Student Teacher and gave a successful workshop for my colleagues! It doesn’t get much better than that.

Do you need more ideas about how to utilize grammar in context, visual arts, or BOTH into real life teaching? Check out the last two slides of my Powerpoint for my list, and share your own by leaving a comment and continuing the conversation!

Please share by leaving a comment.

Way With Words

“You’ve lost your way with words,
Or at least that’s what I’ve heard.
You’ve lost your way with words,
And to me, what could be worse?”

~The Starting Line, “Way With Words”

Having a way with words—being able to express things with intelligence and eloquence—is an important thing. Of course, words have always been the beloved tool of poets, authors, and bloggers, but they certainly do not reach their limit there.

Everyone can use a way with words. It conveys a sense of credibility and confidence. It helps scientists publish their findings. It helps leaders deliver moving speeches. It helps historians decode antiquated written sources. It helps web designers create clean layouts that still convey maximum information. It helps teachers express a foreign idea to students in a relatable way.

But not just in the professional sense does our use of language help us. It is our way with words that allows us to calm a panicked friend or intrigue a lover. It is how we introduce ourselves and explain apologies. It is how we contextualize the stories of our own lives.

The better we can use words, the better we can say what we mean.

What’s more important than that?