Going to Chautauqua to the Highlight's Foundation Children's Writer's Workhop can be summed up in three words: chocolate overload cake.
Chocolate - How sweet it is! Chocolate is a treat, a sinful indulgence. This experience is like getting all of the chocolate you want. We are in the candy store of writing.
Overload - We've learned so much that at times we feel on overload. Our little neurons are beginning to fry. We are ready to go home, process, write, and teach.
Cake - This experience is like having your cake and eating it too. This week of digging deep into writing has been rich and filling. We have grown as writers and as teachers. We have learned so much more than we ever anticipated to take back to our classroom.
Eat more cake!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Day 6 - Networking in Chautauqua
Chautauqua is camp for grown ups. We've spent this week meeting people from all walks of life from all over the world. Our networking has offered us future opportunities such as:
1. Writing a proposal to present together at a professional teacher's conference. We have a team, a plan, and a proposal to write.
2. Connecting our classrooms via video and skype with children's authors and editors next school year.
3. Finding critique partners to work with on our own writing via the Internet.
4. Opening doors to send our manuscripts to editors in the future.
5. Creating relationships with an author who has rich material for teachers and helping to provide an outlet for sharing.
These are the building blocks of future opportunities and experiences to enrich our writing lives and our classrooms.
1. Writing a proposal to present together at a professional teacher's conference. We have a team, a plan, and a proposal to write.
2. Connecting our classrooms via video and skype with children's authors and editors next school year.
3. Finding critique partners to work with on our own writing via the Internet.
4. Opening doors to send our manuscripts to editors in the future.
5. Creating relationships with an author who has rich material for teachers and helping to provide an outlet for sharing.
These are the building blocks of future opportunities and experiences to enrich our writing lives and our classrooms.
Day 5 - Nonfiction
As teachers and writers we spend a great deal of time reading, writing, and analyzing fiction. What about nonfiction? We've taught kids to read text features and understand text structure. We've taught kids to find research and reguritate information. Now it's time to teach kids how to write nonfiction.
The first thing we learned is that nonfiction has a story. There is characters, plot, and setting. There is drama and tension. We've learned to reshape our own nonfiction pieces to reflect story. This turn in the tide of how we write nonfiction takes us from the encyclopedia article to creative nonfiction. And now it's time to teach this to kids.
We are excited to have new tools in our toolbox to teach kids how to create a nonfiction story. Children love to write stories. We think they will enjoy a creative nonfiction approach much more than a dumping facts approach. We have an exciting challenge ahead.
The first thing we learned is that nonfiction has a story. There is characters, plot, and setting. There is drama and tension. We've learned to reshape our own nonfiction pieces to reflect story. This turn in the tide of how we write nonfiction takes us from the encyclopedia article to creative nonfiction. And now it's time to teach this to kids.
We are excited to have new tools in our toolbox to teach kids how to create a nonfiction story. Children love to write stories. We think they will enjoy a creative nonfiction approach much more than a dumping facts approach. We have an exciting challenge ahead.
Day 4 - Learning About Teaching & Writing
Things We've Learned About Writing:
1. A writer writes.
2. Seat and time. It takes time to make your writing all it could be. In order to do that you must sit in your seat and write.
3. Let go and find the story inside of you.
4. Choose a story you can feel passionate about.
5. You must go far enough in your writing.
6. A lead is whatever it takes to get a story underway.
7. Writing and revising is about finding your voice and shaping your story.
8. Plot is an increasing movement of a series of recognition.
9. Hook your reader with a catalyst.
10. Scenes are the building blocks of stories.
Things We've Learned About Teaching:
1. A writer writes. Children are writers. Let them write.
2. Give children the time to write.
3. Help students find their own stories.
4. Let students write about what is important to them.
5. Teach students about leads and hooks.
6. Teach kids to shape their stories.
7. Teach kids to find their own voices.
8. Teach kids that plot is a series of action / reaction units.
9. Teach kids how to hook their readers with a catalyst.
10. Teach students to recognize and write in scenes.
1. A writer writes.
2. Seat and time. It takes time to make your writing all it could be. In order to do that you must sit in your seat and write.
3. Let go and find the story inside of you.
4. Choose a story you can feel passionate about.
5. You must go far enough in your writing.
6. A lead is whatever it takes to get a story underway.
7. Writing and revising is about finding your voice and shaping your story.
8. Plot is an increasing movement of a series of recognition.
9. Hook your reader with a catalyst.
10. Scenes are the building blocks of stories.
Things We've Learned About Teaching:
1. A writer writes. Children are writers. Let them write.
2. Give children the time to write.
3. Help students find their own stories.
4. Let students write about what is important to them.
5. Teach students about leads and hooks.
6. Teach kids to shape their stories.
7. Teach kids to find their own voices.
8. Teach kids that plot is a series of action / reaction units.
9. Teach kids how to hook their readers with a catalyst.
10. Teach students to recognize and write in scenes.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Day 3 - Beginnings
Our day began with retired journalist Peter Jacobi. He inspired us with music from Chopin (reminding us to play music in our classrooms) and through readings of great prose. He taught us to write something readers remember using the flesh, mind, and spirit. He taught us to flesh out our writing with focus, language, emphasis, substance, and honesty. He told us to put our minds to meaning, intelligence, nuance, and direction. And finally we learned that the spirit of writing comes in song, personality, imagination, resonance & relevance, inspiration, and transparency. We hope to find a way to transfer what we learn here this week into our writing and into our teaching.
In a session on tension and conflict we picked up a few ideas to take back to our young writers. We will use a rubberband to demonstrate the narrative structure as it pulls, comes down, twists, and goes again. This is a lesson in the writing process that clarifies that the writer is the director. We like concrete examples to show kids how writers work. We picked up a few notions about using short sentences to build tension and some examples from children's literature to share with our students.
We learned about point of view today as well from author Sandy Ascher. One activity we gleamed from this session is to give students different points of view the same window. Sandy wrote a fabulous resource for writers that is applicable to writing teachers. It's called Writing it Write! We are so excited about this book (we were given copies). It has examples of real drafts and final copies along with revision notes of children's writing. This is a great book to show kids how to revise. We can't wait to use it in the classroom.
In a session on historical fiction and history we learned about the importance of research, and the powerof story telling in nonfiction. We are just now scratching the surface after our own discussions with our mentors over our writing. Never before did we see nonfiction as a dramatic story with a plot, setting, and characters. This is a new way of thinking for us and one that will apply to teaching nonfiction and research writing next year.
Our heads are full and our bodies are tired. We stayed up late revising our own writing after conferences with our mentors. We look forward to another day after a good night's sleep.
In a session on tension and conflict we picked up a few ideas to take back to our young writers. We will use a rubberband to demonstrate the narrative structure as it pulls, comes down, twists, and goes again. This is a lesson in the writing process that clarifies that the writer is the director. We like concrete examples to show kids how writers work. We picked up a few notions about using short sentences to build tension and some examples from children's literature to share with our students.
We learned about point of view today as well from author Sandy Ascher. One activity we gleamed from this session is to give students different points of view the same window. Sandy wrote a fabulous resource for writers that is applicable to writing teachers. It's called Writing it Write! We are so excited about this book (we were given copies). It has examples of real drafts and final copies along with revision notes of children's writing. This is a great book to show kids how to revise. We can't wait to use it in the classroom.
In a session on historical fiction and history we learned about the importance of research, and the powerof story telling in nonfiction. We are just now scratching the surface after our own discussions with our mentors over our writing. Never before did we see nonfiction as a dramatic story with a plot, setting, and characters. This is a new way of thinking for us and one that will apply to teaching nonfiction and research writing next year.
Our heads are full and our bodies are tired. We stayed up late revising our own writing after conferences with our mentors. We look forward to another day after a good night's sleep.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Day 2
We started the day with a casual buffet breakfast sponsored by the foundation. We spent the morning meeting and talking to the other participants at the conference, including several authors. The first session was spent learning about Highlights magazine. We discovered that they publish student writing once a year, and are specifically looking for poetry by boys. This is exciting since we teach poetry writing and feel that some our students would be candidates for submitting their pieces.
This afternoon we rode on school buses to Westfield for a picnic bar-b-que. The guest speakers were award winning authors Jerry and Eileen Spinelli. They answered some great questions that writers and children ask them on a regular basis. The quote of the day comes from Eileen who said, "Reading is incredibly important to me as a writer. I learned to write through reading. It just seeped through my bones." This is something we can share with our young readers and writers. We also spent some time talking to Eileen about one of her picture books that we use to teach reading and writing. She shared where the idea came from and her thinking behind the book. We plan to share this with our students next year when we read the book in class.
During the evening we met an author who is also a retired university professor in education. We talked about teaming up to possibly do some teleconferencing and blogging with our students, as well as presenting together at a teacher's conference. We plan to get together and discuss this more during the week. The possibilities are exciting.
Tomorrow is our first real day of curriculum where we meet with our mentors and attend specific workshops. We are looking forward to another day of learning.
This afternoon we rode on school buses to Westfield for a picnic bar-b-que. The guest speakers were award winning authors Jerry and Eileen Spinelli. They answered some great questions that writers and children ask them on a regular basis. The quote of the day comes from Eileen who said, "Reading is incredibly important to me as a writer. I learned to write through reading. It just seeped through my bones." This is something we can share with our young readers and writers. We also spent some time talking to Eileen about one of her picture books that we use to teach reading and writing. She shared where the idea came from and her thinking behind the book. We plan to share this with our students next year when we read the book in class.
During the evening we met an author who is also a retired university professor in education. We talked about teaming up to possibly do some teleconferencing and blogging with our students, as well as presenting together at a teacher's conference. We plan to get together and discuss this more during the week. The possibilities are exciting.
Tomorrow is our first real day of curriculum where we meet with our mentors and attend specific workshops. We are looking forward to another day of learning.
Day 1 - To Chautauqua We Go
We left Houston at 6:45 a.m., and after a layover in Baltimore we landed in Buffalo at 1:30 in the afternoon. The Highlights Foundation met us with a stretch limousine to transport us to Chautauqua. We confess that we were a bit excited about the limo ride. We were accompanied by other writers. The hour ride through a lovely hill country was quite pleasant. We had the opportunity to meet and talk to writers and authors in the limo.
When we arrived at Chautauqua, we were given a bag of children and young adult books and sat through a friendly orientation before heading to our hotel room. We are staying at the Antheneum Hotel -a beautiful Victorian hotel built in the 1800's visited by Presidents and famous Americans such as Thomas Edison. The area is filled with lovely Victorian homes overlooking Chautauqua Lake. You walk everywhere in this historic utopia, surrounded by the cultural arts and learning.
Children's author Donna Jo Napoli was the keynote speaker at the evening opening banquet. The learning gem that we carried away from this session to bring back to our students is to impress upon to write about something they care about, to write about something that is important to them. She said that perfection is an illusion. We both understand that as writers who have perfectionist tendencies. We can relate to students, in particular, our gifted and talented students who also tend towards perfection the first time. She talked writing a draft, putting it aside, requesting feedback, and then completely writing it again. The first draft is just that -a first draft. The second draft is where the hard work happens.
During dinner we had the opportunity to visit with authors at our table, including a five time Emmy award nominee who wrote for Reading Rainbow. The overall opening experience was exciting and thought provoking. We are looking forward to a great week!
When we arrived at Chautauqua, we were given a bag of children and young adult books and sat through a friendly orientation before heading to our hotel room. We are staying at the Antheneum Hotel -a beautiful Victorian hotel built in the 1800's visited by Presidents and famous Americans such as Thomas Edison. The area is filled with lovely Victorian homes overlooking Chautauqua Lake. You walk everywhere in this historic utopia, surrounded by the cultural arts and learning.
Children's author Donna Jo Napoli was the keynote speaker at the evening opening banquet. The learning gem that we carried away from this session to bring back to our students is to impress upon to write about something they care about, to write about something that is important to them. She said that perfection is an illusion. We both understand that as writers who have perfectionist tendencies. We can relate to students, in particular, our gifted and talented students who also tend towards perfection the first time. She talked writing a draft, putting it aside, requesting feedback, and then completely writing it again. The first draft is just that -a first draft. The second draft is where the hard work happens.
During dinner we had the opportunity to visit with authors at our table, including a five time Emmy award nominee who wrote for Reading Rainbow. The overall opening experience was exciting and thought provoking. We are looking forward to a great week!
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