Showing posts with label Writing Process. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing Process. Show all posts
Poetry App: PoetryMagnets
I recently tried out a free app called PoetryMagnets. It simulates using little magnet words to create a poem. Words for your poem can be selected from a stream of magnets that can be scrolled through at the bottom of the screen. Words come in several categories. Once a magnet is chosen, it can be moved around or discarded back into the stream.
I enjoyed the spontaneity of choosing from the river of words and playing around with spacing. My favorite part was that I could save my poem as an image right to my camera roll. Then I decided to play with the image further with a free photo editing app called PhotoPen.
I think older students would have a lot of fun using PoetryMagnets. It would be a great way to get students talking and reflecting about their writing process. Sometimes I struggled to move the magnets exactly where I wanted them and at one point I couldn't get one magnet to move at all. Also, there is only one background but for a free app, I still think it worth playing with.
Posted with BlogsyA Little Story
Yesterday I had fun creating a story with the Little Story Maker app. Young writers can make books several pages long with an image and sentence on each page. An audio recording can also be added to each page so as the text is read it is highlighted. I can't wait to try this with kindergarteners and first graders. My guess is they would absolutely love the audio feature and would find it very motivating. Students could make books of sight words, how-to books, or books about themselves. They could draw their own illustrations then take a picture of their work and upload the image into their story. I feel this app has so much potential. Silvia Tolisano wrote a very informative post on her blog about the specific features of Little Story Maker as well as some of the drawbacks such as not being able to upload the finished book as an epub file.
Update: When I returned to the app today to review my book, all the audio recordings were erased with the exception of the last page. After reading the reviews on the iTunes page, it appears that this is a common problem along with other bugs. This makes me very sad. This app has so much potential. I hope the developers fix it.
Update: When I returned to the app today to review my book, all the audio recordings were erased with the exception of the last page. After reading the reviews on the iTunes page, it appears that this is a common problem along with other bugs. This makes me very sad. This app has so much potential. I hope the developers fix it.
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| This is a screenshot of the book I made. |
More Healing, More Writing
I think my son is about to turn the corner in his healing process. The original golf ball size pilonidal cyst cavity (warning: pictures from Wikipedia link are not for the squeamish) has almost closed. It started at approximately 2.9 cm deep and has reduced in size to .7 cm deep. He also has a 9 cm incision running the length of his butt crack that once contained additional channels caused by the cyst. This area is also healing nicely. Right now I want this entire nightmare to be over. Daily packing of his wound and monitoring his medication, pain, and signs of infection have been all consuming. I seldom leave the house unless I'm getting groceries or medical supplies. I relinquished control of my lap top so my son would have something to do while on the couch or in bed.
Even though I haven't written any posts in several days, I have been writing, mostly journal entries and lists. I knew I would eventually write about this pilonidal cyst thing but I wasn't sure what that would look like. And since I primarily use my lap top to compose and post, not having easy access to it was a convenient excuse. I have used my iPad and the Blogsy app to post before but I was so slow at using the iPad's internal keyboard that it took forever and I became frustrated. I decided to spring for an Apple wireless keyboard with my birthday Amazon gift cards. The keyboard is super lightweight and portable. Directions for using it with an iPad are not included in the tiny instruction book but one two-minute YouTube video is all it took to get things up and running. It wasn't cheap, almost $70.00, but I absolutely love it and I'm now enjoying posting with my iPad.
Even though I haven't written any posts in several days, I have been writing, mostly journal entries and lists. I knew I would eventually write about this pilonidal cyst thing but I wasn't sure what that would look like. And since I primarily use my lap top to compose and post, not having easy access to it was a convenient excuse. I have used my iPad and the Blogsy app to post before but I was so slow at using the iPad's internal keyboard that it took forever and I became frustrated. I decided to spring for an Apple wireless keyboard with my birthday Amazon gift cards. The keyboard is super lightweight and portable. Directions for using it with an iPad are not included in the tiny instruction book but one two-minute YouTube video is all it took to get things up and running. It wasn't cheap, almost $70.00, but I absolutely love it and I'm now enjoying posting with my iPad.
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| My Apple wireless keyboard was so easy to set up and works like a charm. |
Keep on Writing
Blog Neglect
Thinking in Color and Images
Liking My Lino It
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| SOL Ideas |
One Little Word Wednesday: Thread
Wednesday.
Brain empty. Thread. I guess I’m just going to have to do what I tell the kids
to do and just barf what is in my head onto the paper. I’m going to trust that
somehow it will connect to thread. I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole
resume thing. And I’m proud to say, that I have made a tiny bit of progress. I
decided to get myself going by making lists of all the things I’ve done
professionally for the last 25 years. Since I know that most of what I write on
the paper won’t end up in my final piece, I’m not fussing over every item on
the list. The important details will emerge as I continue writing. As I write
my lists, I am beginning to think about the format of the piece. This will become
clearer when I figure out the audience and purpose. I’m also on the hunt for
mentor texts. No matter the end result, going through this process, threading
together these bits and pieces of my life might be a good thing. Maybe it will
help calm the waters so I don’t feel like such bobbing cork.
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| Twisted Threads |
One Little Word Wednesday: Thread
Kids really say the most amazing things. Yesterday in a third grade class, I introduced the students to writing snapshots. I used Barry Lane's ideas about how details are like boxes inside boxes and writers zoom in with their words like photographers zoom in with their cameras. I read aloud samples from wonderful authors and shared some of my own writing. Using a slide show of images on the smart board as inspiration, the kids made their first attempts at writing their own snapshots. It wasn't easy for them. I didn't expect it be. I told them that they had to try to push through their struggle, like lifting a heavy weight or running a long distance. They had to try. All the students shared one sentence from their snapshot. I heard similes, great hooks, and complex sentences. Then they shared their whole snapshot with someone near them. After the lesson, two excited boys came up to me before heading out to lunch recess. The first one said, "I know what I could do! I could go back to my book I'm making and add a snapshot and put a simile in it." I was stunned. This young writer was beginning to weave together all the threads of the lessons we had done together throughout the trimester. The other little boy plum blew me away. He said, "Writing is fun. I used to like gym but now I like writing better." He actually thought that writing was more fun than gym. I couldn't agree more.
Needing a Pep Talk
I am woefully behind on my 500 words per day challenge. I’ve been avoiding. I’ve been blogging and playing around on Pinterest, which is addicting by the way. I’ve been working at mothering, sistering, daughtering, spousing, and teaching. Lots of shopping and wrapping, too. But I haven’t been writing as much as I want, as much as I need. I am reminded of Lindsey Grant’s pep talk about sick cats. Toward the end of NaNoWriMo, I received an email from Lindsey, and with her permission, I have reprinted it below:
Hi Wrimos,
One wordy week remains in this literary marathon, and I am in the weeds. Nothing I can’t recover from, but I feel chagrined all the same. I don’t much like being behind, and the 23,000 words I have left to write are weighing on me.
I could make excuses for this. I have a really sick cat, for example. Yep, Mufasa K. Grant-Bowen is having a really rough November. (To be honest, he’s having a pretty rough life.)
You know what, though? We all have sick cats. Maybe your “sick cat” is a term paper; it could be a business trip smack in the middle of this already-intense month; perhaps it’s a sick parent or child. Or a sick you!
The point is, we all lead lives that are outrageously packed with obstacles, obligations, surprise catastrophes, (or, in my case, cat-astrophes). But we keep at it, because what we’re doing is important.
How much time in a day, or a week, or a month do we usually set aside to work on a project that is important to us? A project that allows us to create and explore and tell the story we’ve been carrying around in our head or heart for ages?
I know I spend most of my spare time on maintenance: exercising, doing laundry, buying the groceries, cleaning the dishes, making the bed, getting the car serviced, going to the dentist. And lately, going to the vet. A lot.
This is our time! This is our moment! Think of all that we can accomplish in the remaining week.
From where I stand in these word-count weeds, I am so heartened to know that we are all in this together. You, me, my sick cat, and everything else that keeps us away from our novels. Let’s steer this boat toward November 30 and make the very most of what time we’ve got. (And hope that my cat doesn’t barf on us.)
Packing extra paper towels,
Lindsey
Even though Lindsey’s pep talk was meant to encourage novel writers, her words are encouraging for writers in general. The idea is to just keep going. Don’t stop. Keep writing. Creating conditions for young writers to learn how to stick to it even though it is hard is a powerful experience. This is more than a writing skill. It is a life skill. Lindsey's pep talk impacted me because I knew she was in the writing boat right along with me. Our students need to know we are in the writing boat with them.
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| Inspired by Amber Dusick's Crappy Pictures. |
Does This Count as a Celebration? Yes!
A few weeks ago, just before Thanksgiving vacation, I finished a coaching cycle in a third grade classroom. Together, the classroom teacher and I worked to help the students increase their stamina and see themselves as writers. One reluctant writer, Brendan, went from putting little on the page to discussing with me that he wanted to become a professional writer. Chris, a struggling writer, started out avoiding writing and ended the trimester taking his books with him on the playground to work on them during recess. Another student, Calla, a self-professed writing hater, ended up creating lengthy stories with characters suffering the trials and tribulations of third grade friendships. A day before the end of the trimester, their teacher read aloud a letter I had written to the class. I wasn’t present for the reading or discussion but the teacher said the children were very thoughtful about who they were becoming as writers.
I’ve decided that the letter and the reflective discussion that followed counted as a very simple writing celebration. It wasn't a celebration of writing but rather a celebration of writers. I didn’t really think about it as a writing celebration at all until I read Ruth’s post about celebrations and the transcript of her interview with Choice Literacy.
On my last day in the class, at the end of writing workshop, the kids were on their way out the door for lunch recess when Logan approached me and said, “I was thinking 'bout writing and I think we are all like airplanes going down the runway cuz we are just takin' off!”
Did you ever notice how brilliant third graders are?
Blog Envy
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| Lately, Roxy seems to find my pencils more interesting than my blog. |
Every month or so, I feel like I want to revise my blog. To me, my blog is an ongoing piece of writing. The purpose of my blog, as a piece of writing, remains the same: I want to take risks with my writing and connect with other teachers. I’ve considered starting a second blog as a container for SOL’s and using One Literacy Coach as more of a place for teaching ideas and lessons. I have some dummy blogs I started but then I get overwhelmed and just end up changing some things around on the old blog and calling it good. I guess maybe I am struggling with audience. Blogging is about comments and page views. Knowing who is reading your posts and whether they comment or not is interesting. Blogger has great stats and I’ve never had spam comments or unwanted advertisements pop up on my blog. But ever since I started my blog, I have been frustrated with Blogger’s commenting system. I like threaded commenting systems, such as Discus, but I’ve been wary of using them. I’ve read post after post on other blogs touting the pros and cons. I’ve considered switching to Wordpress but I am not convinced it is worth it. And then I think sometimes, maybe Blogger’s bulky commenting system is a positive thing. Commenting takes effort. And that is good, especially when you want to be part of a community.
Trying to Press On
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| Sometimes, even when the road ahead may be challenging to navigate, you just have to press on, even if you have to slow down. |
I started off this month with a new writing challenge. I joined the 500 Words Per Day Challenge and I planned on posting to my blog daily. So far, the 500 words have flowed fairly well. I’ve commented a lot more, but the daily posting fell apart last week. I haven't given up though. When I was in the midst of the NaNoWriMo challenge, I received a pep talk email from Lindsey Grant from the Office of Letters and Light that I still reread and think about. Lindsey wrote about the obstacles and obligations that all writers face but that pressing on is important work. I think all writers need pep talks, whether you’re a third grader or a 50-year-old. Maybe I will write a pep talk of my own.
Friday Morning Weigh In: Writing Challenges
I’ve been thinking a lot about Stacey’s post yesterday about creating writing goals and challenging oneself as a writer. This coming February will mark my one year anniversary of starting my One Literacy Coach blog. If I hadn’t of stumbled upon TWT, I would never have started a blog. I didn’t believe I had anything important to say. At least not important enough that anyone else would be interested. I was too afraid to even post a comment on the TWT blog. I’ve come a long way. And it is exciting to feel that I can continue to develop as a writer. But I should know this. I teach young writers every day. They know that I believe in them and think their words are important. But the believing in myself thing comes harder. Not sure why that is.
I think making goals and writing them down is important. Stacey wrote a list of ideas from her NCTE presentation that I keep mulling over. For me, I want to take this next year and work at my writing. I want to identify writers I love and study their craft. I’ve been thinking about setting some reading goals to mesh with my writing goals. And I want to write a lot. So far, my goals are to study, risk, trust, and work hard. And because I spent so many years teaching special education, I will probably feel compelled to create measurable objectives to go with my big ideas. And I need to drop ten pounds. Just thought I would throw that last one in there.
Going From Sentences to Paragraphs
Over the weekend, I posted about using Jeff Anderson’s concept of imitating great sentences from favorite authors as a way to improve the complexity and coherence of student writing. After seeing positive results from young writers at school, I wanted to try it myself. I chose one of my generated sentences that I liked and tried to imitate the pattern and structure of the paragraphs of the mentor text. Below are Eve Bunting's words and then after that are the paragraphs I created using her writing as a model.
Eve Bunting’s words from p. 16 of Fly Away Home:
Once a little brown bird got into the main terminal and it couldn’t get out. It fluttered in the high, hollow spaces. It threw itself at the glass, fell panting on the floor, flew to a tall, metal girder, and perched there, exhausted.
“Don’t stop trying,” I told it silently. “Don’t! You can get out!”
For days the bird flew around, dragging one wing. And then it found the instant when a sliding door was open and slipped through. I watched it rise. Its wing seemed OK.
“Fly, bird,” I whispered. “Fly away home!”
Though I couldn’t hear it, I knew it was singing. Nothing made me as happy as that bird.
My words using Bunting’s sentences as patterns:
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| Roxy wasn't particularly thrilled to be cast as the villain in my story. |
Once a small brown mouse got into the basement and couldn’t get out. It scurried into a corner, hopping and clawing at the wall. It found the shabby sofa, got a grip on the upholstery, and climbed to the arm, where it perched. Waiting. Nose twitching.
“Don’t stop running,” I told it silently. “Don’t! You can outsmart Roxy the cat!”
For days the mouse scuttled around, successfully hiding from Roxy. And then, thwack went the trap! I feared the worst. In an instant I saw a flash of brown run under the sofa. The mouse was okay.
“Run mouse,” I whispered. “You are indeed brave.”
Though I couldn’t see it, I knew it was hiding, twitching, waiting to respond to the next hazard.
The next step is to take the paragraphs and use them to produce more writing, possibly a story. I’m going to let the words take me wherever they want to go. And if my internal editor gets too loud and begins to prevent me from getting my words on the paper, I will shush it because it is time to write.
Using Mentor Texts: Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting
From, Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting (p. 16)
Once a little brown bird got into the main terminal and it couldn’t get out. It fluttered in the high, hollow spaces. It threw itself at the glass, fell panting on the floor, flew to a tall, metal girder, and perched there, exhausted.
“Don’t stop trying,” I told it silently. “Don’t! You can get out!”
For days the bird flew around, dragging one wing. And then it found the instant when a sliding door was open and slipped through. I watched it rise. Its wing seemed OK.
“Fly, bird,” I whispered. “Fly away home!”
Though I couldn’t hear it, I knew it was singing. Nothing made me as happy as that bird.
Below is some of my work using Bunting's writing as a mentor text:
Though I couldn’t see her, I knew she was dancing. Nothing made me as happy as hearing the sound the Tele Tone taps made against the wood floor.
Though I couldn’t see her, I knew she was scared. Nothing made me as miserable as knowing her hand was just out of reach.
Though she didn’t seem to know my name, her eyes said she remembered my face.
Reflections on Using Word Counts
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| Hmmm . . . let's see, that makes one word, two words, wait . . . what's a word? |
The whole NaNoWriMo thing has had sort of a weird impact on me. Not at all what I expected. The biggest thing I learned is so simple I feel dorky writing it. Writers need to write a lot to get better at writing. Duh. I knew that, didn’t I? And writing fiction is very different from composing a blog post. But I was able to use many of the ideas that I played with in SOL’s in numerous scenes throughout the book. I still snort and chuckle when I write that. A book. I wrote a book. And I don’t care if anyone but me ever reads it. It is a piece of me. And with writing the previous sentence, I’ve gone from chuckling to blubbering like a bawl baby. Maybe I’m just tired or menopausal. I’m telling you, this thing has really changed me. By the way, I just wrote two-hundred-ninety-three words.
NaNoWriMo Update: Done (sort of)
Done. 13 chapters.
142 pages.
50,144 words. I am not going to think about the reworking, rewriting, revising just yet. I probably won’t even look at it again for another month. I learned a ton about my writing process and how the people I live with view my writing. At least I think I did. I just need to step away from the whole thing for a time to gain some perspective.
NaNoWriMo Newbie Update: I'm a Plantser
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| Check it out! |
As I write this post late Monday evening, I have 37,000 words down and 13,000 words to go. My purpose in participating in the NaNoWriMo challenge wasn’t to become a published author, although who wouldn’t like that? I wanted to try on the feeling of being an author of a book. And right now it feels like a full-time job. Trying to balance family and school and book writing is much harder than getting the words on the paper. I think it helps that I’m more of a pantser than a planner. I think I am a plantser. I am a planner in that I have an overall road map of where I’m going and a general destination. But I do fly by the seat of my pants and let characters lead me. I also try to hit the suggested daily word count goal. The NaNoWriMo site allows you to create a profile and add your daily word count and graph your progress. For me, this has been motivating and essential in helping me to manage my time. And I'm learning a ton about what it takes to write long and strong. One of the best parts of the challenge has been to receive pep talks from other writers about writing. I found Chris Cleave’s to be particularly inspiring.
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| My writing buddy is sleeping on the job. :) |
NaNoWriMo Newbie Update: Ignorance
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| Check it out! |
NaNo Poem
Day 8
13,342 words
Losing some steam
Day 9
15,004 words
Doubting my characters
Day 10
16,628 words
Lots of interruptions
Day 11
16,628 words
Don’t wanna write
Day 12
18,184 words
Still plodding along
Day 13
21,106 words
Grinding it out
Day 14
23,475 words
Almost half way
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