7/18 Reflecting on Summer Institute aka 3 Weeks of Bliss!

An Homage to my Daybooks

For my last “assigned” blog post for Summer Institute—but not my final blog post—I decided to go on a dig through my Daybooks.  Yeah, that’s right.  Daybooks.  Plural.  I have two of them, having filled one up on July 15^th—with four days still to go in SI.  Before I go on my dig, I think a word of reverence for my Daybooks, as well as visual aids, is in order.  I lovelovelovelovelovelove my Daybooks.  I have used them before, but not with such purpose and diligence.  I’m hooked.  

Daybook I (filled July 15th)

A happy writer with Daybooks I and II (Yeah, that's right.

 You see John, Paul, George, & Ringo.  A girl needs some inspiration.)  

Daybooks Dig or, What I Want to be Sure to Do, Learn, Implement, 

Practice, etc., etc.

Following is a list of (a) ideas I want to remember to incorporate this fall, and (b)other totally cool things I learned during SI.  

Inquiry: Revision/Re-seeing.

Opening up how I see Revision!!! 

Revision is forgiveness (Bomer).

Use Daybooks Intentionally: personalize them.

Get Glue Sticks!

Lots of Post Its.

Writer's Timeline or Literacy Timeline. 

Murray Cards!!! (oh YEAH!!!)

Blog and keep bloggggggggggginggggggggg.

Crowd sourcing as a brainstorming/development activity.

Elbow's Writing without Teachers.

"What's the movie in your head?"

Adiche's Danger of a Single Story (TED Talk)*** rocked my world***

Digital Project: My Writing Autobiography (which is so good, may I just say???)

Practices I'll keep and practices I'll let go (bye bye.  y'all don't come back, now, y'hear?)

"Using Literature to Uncover Memories for Memoir Writing" with Jashonai.

"What is Good Writing?" with Kendra.

"Exploring the Role of Creativity and Visuals in the Writing and Revising Process" with Mary Ellen.

Infographics!! Pictochart.com. 

Digital Gallery Crawl.

All the lovely post-it note comments I received on my digital project (Thank you!!)

My 6-word Memoir: Read. Write. Love. Learn. Laugh. Always.

Find Five.

A Day in the Life (and it's not the Beatles' song, either!)

Improvs!!!!!

Google Plus.

Google Docs/Sharing/Circles.

Body Biography with Lil. 

Socratic Seminar with Sally and Sir Francis Bacon.

Not Your Mama's Grammar Lesson with Lacy.

"Marks" by Linda Pastan.

"Is Technology a Good Thing?" with Ashley.

"Story Writing" with Jenny, Jenny, Jenny.

"Ben's Awesome Demo," with Ben, of course.

One Sentence Stories (thanks, Ben!)

"Exploring Big Ideas: Exposing Students to More Than One Story," with Kim.

#clmooc meetups at the Wine Vault 

Mapping an essay.

Creative Reading from Ron Padgett.

Blogger.

Twitter.

Photos.

Facebook.

Texting.

Skype.

"Back Channeling." 

"Drop It Like It's Hot," with Wendy.

"Journal Day: Creating Your Pot of Gold," with Tiffany.

Sacred Writing Time.

MY WRITING GROUP: Naked Writers (shout out to Tiffany, Jashonai, Meredith, and SallyG!!)

Flocking.

Jung is Retrograde??? #RethinkingwhatIlearned30yearsago.

New Holocaust poems I wrote or began drafting: "Twenty Minutes," "Up and Down Friedrichstrasse," "The Linden Tree," and "Red Sandals."

"Exploring Writing through the Use of Multi-Genre Papers," with Erika.

"Pictures, Persuasion, and Purpose: Thinking about Audience in Writing," with Sarah D.

"Where Good Ideas Come From," by Steve Johnson (video).

Inquiry Revision Map.

Revision + Response.

Artifacts of my Inquiry Learning.

Collaborative Inquiry Documentary with the Naked Writers! 

"Music Inspiration in Playwriting," with Meredith.

"School Writing vs. Free Writing," with Sarah S.

"Revolution for the Tested," by Kate Messner.

Writing 3 Opening Scenes for Plays!

Wobbling!

Robin's Wonderful Demo (with Robin, of course!)

"Patty's Charcoal Drive-In," by Barbara Crooker.

Two-Voiced poems. 

"Grrrrrrrammar with Jessica," (with Jessica, of course!)

"Figured Worlds and the Self: What Comprises Your Identity as an Educator?" with Nick. 

justice by w.r. rodriguez. . . .

. . . . what have I left out????

7/17 Tonya's Demo Day: Revision

The day is finally here!! My Demo on Revision.  In this photo, Kim holds a taped-together draft that her partner worked on for her.  My assignment asks writing partners to organize or arrange a piece of writing that has been cut apart, paragraph by paragraph.  It also invites readers to add three things that they want to know more about, based on this current draft.  It's a great strategy for reseeing one's own work.

I think my colleagues enjoyed this demo -- at least, I hope that they did!! My own students love doing this because they have difficulty shifting around paragraphs or even deleting sections of their papers that don't really belong or are woefully off track once they are written and embedded in the body of the paper.  This exercise helps students see their writing in a new way . . . and isn't that what we want them to do?

 

7 16 Rethinking Revision (my inquiry topic)

Wow, has my thinking shifted about revision since beginning my inquiry work at SI.  Originally I wondered about whether or not revision was "good" for student writers.  (I won't even clutter the blogesphere with how/why I now see this as a silly statement. It doesn't matter anyway-- it's inquiry, and it's my initial thinking on the way to somewhere else.)

What I have come to now, over these past 3 weeks of thinking and writing and sharing with The Naked Writers (my Writing Group) is that I want to investigate different ways of thinking about -- and teaching -- revision. It is not a linear process-- so we don't revise when we are nearly "done" with the paper.  We are writing and adding to and refiguring our ideas all along, all through the writing of a piece.

My challenge now is to figure out a way to help my students re-see revision: what it means for us as writers, how it works in a very real sense as we are doing our writing work.

Thoughts?  Ideas?

7/11 Heroes aren't Hard to Find in SI

I am loving SI.  May I just pause a moment and state this publically?  As my friend Jan often says, "My brain is full."  My brain is full . . . and it does not stop working.  Even when I go to sleep at night.  I really liked what Kim Keith did with the Heroes Demo: and her emphasis on exposing students to more than one story.  I did want to see some heroes, though, who were women.  So I was a wee bit disappointed that there were no Power Puff Girls or no Wonder Woman.  Hey---even the highly sexualized Charlie's Angels from the 70s!  (Well, maybe not them.)

Ben's demo with the one-sentence story was great.  I really loved some of my sentences. Here are some favorites: 

"Mushrooms aren't just for eating," exclaimed Wanda.
Feeling clammy, Clem the oyster burped up a pearl.
Sexting was how Anna got through the night.
The spider coursed down the drain, spinning and twirling in the rushing water. 

I also loved the "Bad Writing" exercise! 

7 15 SI Democracy’s Demise

15 July 2013                                                                    The Charlotte Observer             10B

Today’s Obituaries

Democracy

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA—Democracy, born in the United States of American on 4 July 1776, died today after nearly 50 years of declining influence.  Originally born to be for the people and by the people, Democracy had become, over the past several decades, slowly corrupted by capitalistic, money-grubbling fat-cats who infiltrated its ideals and acted on them much like a slow growing but no less serious, fatal cancer. 

Democracy saw many triumphs during its lifetime: the abolition of slavery, the legalization of voting rights for women, and the creation of Civil Rights chief among them. At the time of its death, Democracy was actively engaged in LGBT rights, and was showing some success in this area, when it died. 

Survivors of Democracy include everyone who values love, acceptance, and equality.  Memorial gifts may be made to any library, where it is hoped that future generations may read and learn about Democracy.          

(Inspired by Erika’s Demo today and our discussion of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson’s ideas of democracy.) 

7 12 Universal Themes and Jung

Today was the most important learning moment for me so far.  It might be the most important learning moment for me for 2013. This happened during Wendy’s demo when the issue arose of whether or not universal themes exist.  I mentioned Jung’s collective unconscious and universal archetypes.  Lil really problematized this for me, saying that there really are not any universal themes, and what is more, Jung just ain’t all that anymore (and has not been for decades). 

This made me stop and think about my knowledge base.  Mentioning Jung was pulling on a knowledge reservoir from my college days (circa 1978-1982).  That’s a long time ago.  What new knowledge have I added to this reservoir? None.  Yet I am pulling on this like it’s topical and relevant and – most importantly – unquestioned.   What else am I failing to question?

We have to constantly interrogate what we know, what we think we know, what we believe, what we think we believe, and WHY.  Do I believe this because someone I respect said it?  Is that enough of a reason to believe it?  How do I take in knowledge and beliefs, turn them inside out and wring them out to squeeze out those underlying assumptions?  What is informing what I believe and know???

7/11 SI "Bad" Writing

Great takeaway idea today --- I really want my students to interrogate the notion of good and bad writing.  I believe freshmen come to college with a lot of ideas about this.  If they self-identify at all as a writer, it’s as a “bad writer.” They will say this, and then cite evidence to support this, ranging from poor grades in “English” in high school to their SAT scores.  So how they are valuing themselves, seeing themselves as writers has everything to do with external measures of “good writing.”  What I enjoyed today in class was thinking about an adaptation of Ben’s Demo, wherein I could ask students to bring in a sample of their “bad writing” and then delete names, shuffle, and distribute to a different class. That class would be asked to provide feedback, which then would work its way back to the original writer.  Just thinking on the page here . . . wondering how to upset my students’ self-assessments as “bad” writers.     

7/10 SI: "Marks" and Technology and Technology

This is a blog in two parts.

Part I:  "Marks" by Linda Pastan

"Marks"

My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I'm average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass.  Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out.


First, why are women constantly assessed by everyone in their lives?  We are or are not good mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, grandmothers.  We are or are not good drivers, dressers, dessert makers.  We are or are not too thin, too fat, too cranky, too bitchy, too silly, too straight-laced, too wild.  Are men judged like this?  Are they?  I just don't think so. (And I want to know what she did to get the "plus" in bed?)

The other thing this poem raises for me is the way my students must feel.  My students have five or six evaluaters -- and all of us are valuing different things.  It's very likely that my students feel overwhelmed too and just want to quit. DON'T QUIT!!!

Part II: Technology Demo from Ashley

I could have talked all day about Ashley's demo on technology and its effects on society.  In my daybook, I explored ideas about alienation and loneliness as they connect (no pun intended) to technology.  I agree with something that Nicholas Dearmas said today, about how everyone wants to think that their generation is the most . . . whatever (fill in the blank). While we may think our generation is alienated due to an over- dependence on technology, consider that  Eliot's The Wasteland, written in 1922, is all about alienation.  And think how untechnological the world was in the 20s, especially compared to now. Alienation and loneliness are a central aspect of the human experience and that those very feelings are what drive us to do all sorts of things in an effort to avoid the abyss. . . so we engage in communities, we marry, we have children, we do what we can to feel connected.  And before instant chat and Facebook we wrote letters, we visited people for weeks at a time, we belonged to churches and other social communities.

I think of my great-grandmother Wertz who lived on a farm in Saluda, S. C.  They had hundreds of acres and also ran a saw mill on their property.  There were 12 children in that family, all of whom worked the land along with the hired help.  They lived out in the middle of nowhere -- seeing folks when they attended Trinity Lutheran Church on Sundays -- and maybe on Wednesday evenings as well. But they certainly were alienated from society.  Now, they probably were not lonely because they had such a large family, and no doubt steady saw mill customers.  But my point here is that life before technology was not necessarily more connected or less lonely.      
  

7 9 Socratic Seminar

The Socratic Seminar is something I've heard my colleagues talk about but I did not know or understand. So I was glad to have a chance to participate in it.  I like the idea a lot and can see places where it would work well in a First-Year Writing class.  We could do it to unpack a difficult essay we're reading . . . I also wonder if I could adapt it somehow and use it to comment on students' writing? Not sure how/if that would work . . . but I am just thinking on paper here and want to mention now so I don't forget about it.

I am writing this late -- it is the post that was due on Tuesday but I had to rush out and be in my life.  Cousins in town for one night only --- home late and too tired to bloggggggg last night.

I also loved the writing about lit that Lil led us through. The body biography assignment about "Envy" (Bebe Moore Campbell) was really an insightful assignment for me.  It complicated the kind of easy usual group work of just "illustrating" key points from a story. It also was hard for me to equate body parts/places with ideas/actions from the text.   Working in groups to determine what we included on our illustration called for   collaboration and negotiation.

  

7 8 SI: Revision & Digital Presentations!!!!!

RETHINKING REVISION

Revision Day!  Today we worked on our institute piece and of course, I worked on The Opal Bracelet.  What I really appreciated was thinking about revision in a new way.  I am becoming more and more suspect of my own extremely narrow and unhelpful views about revision . . . which connects to why I want to inqurie into it . . . because I don't think I teach it well.  I think it's like I've been thinking about revision like someone who thinks that to play means only to skip rope when in fact there are lots of ways to play--jumping rope being just one of them.  What I liked doing today especially during our revision writing time was being able to "add."  This worked well for me.  And I have to say, that I have not really thought of this as an act of revision.  But of course it is.  I also noticed that I get bogged down in my writing with research data interruptions --- in today's case, I wanted to write Zippy's entry about the first time she learns that Jews are being gassed.  And to do that, of course, I had to know the date when such info was first written about in the paper or reported on the BBC.

DIGITAL PRESENTATIONS AND FEEDBAAAAACK!!!!!!!

 I am so happy that I finally got my digital piece all put together in a movie format.  I paid $4.99 for the iMovie app and it was money well spent.  Steve helped me try to figure out Doceri . . . I still had trouble making it work even when he found a way.  In the end, iMovie saved the day.  And now I know how to do iMovie, so big YAY for me!!! I am NOT digitally inclined so I am really proud of myself for persevering!!!

Meanwhile, what was so cool was doing the digital gallery crawl and checking out what others did.  I learned so much about so many people. . . it's amazing how revealing we are in our writing autobiographies.  It's a great way to get so know someone.  I may try to use this assignment early in the semester in my writing class.  I also appreciated the chance to write feedback for each of the DPs I viewed.  The post-it note is a great idea --- another one to keep doing in class.  

I loved today. Really glad my project worked, at long last.  Really glad that I did not freak out about it not working and trusted that the Digital Gods would smile upon me.  

Looking forward to being with my writing group tomorrow!!   

Digital Frustration

OK. I am officially annoyed.  Today, mid-afternoon, I continued to calmly try to figure out Doceri, the platform I am using for my digital presentation.  I think the right term for what I'm doing here is called doing a screencast.   Still could not figure out how to upload it to You Tube so people can see it.  Decided to switch to a different platform altogether--and did that, moving to WeVideo.  Ok, fine.  Uploaded all of my photos.  Then could not figure out how to do a voice over.  It seems only to do video, and I don't want to do video.  I have all of these writerly artifacts that I've gone to great trouble to photograph and comment on--I want to use those.

So now I have to move from my place of denying frustration to fully embracing it.  I am frustrated!  Dave offered to help me do a video on a program he knows, but I don't want to to that. It's like cheating--I need to be able to figure this out on my own, not have someone "fix" it for me.  So I declined his well-meaning offer, and I am just going to school tomorrow with my "evidence" of two projects, and hope that it does affect my grade too badly.

I will also say this: what a good learning experience for me.  I mean, I assign digital things to my students all the time and then turn them loose to figure it out.  Of course, I am very lenient about how far they may actually get, acknowledging that students digital masteies vary widely.  I know what it feels like to be a student who isn't quite sure how to do something and now isn't going to be quite prepared for class.

And PS:  This is the thanks I get for starting work on this project on FRIDAY!!!! I am a master procrastinator, so I'm especially annoyed that my goody-two-shoedness did not pay off.    

Wed., 7/3 SI: Demos

So glad that Demos are part of SI.  It's great to learn from each other--I got so much out of Jashonai's and Kendra's demos today. I'm thinking that Jashonai's demo about brainstorming memoir topics will work great as a slightly refigured literacy narrative assignment.  I like this idea from her demo about focusing on one idea--one important moment.  I would like to use her ideas and remediate them for literacy narrative work to help students focus on the one idea rather than write their life stories, which are usually pretty much the same and very boring.  I think the students are bored too, when they write them.  So new idea for that!!

Kendra's demo about "good writing" was amazing.  I am so stealing this.  Like Kendra, I want to do this exercise early in the semester to help us open up discussions about writing, about their experiences and expectations, and about my expectations for them as writers in my class.

In other news, feeling a bit under the gun about my digital presentation. I know what I am doing as far as what I'm covering.  I storyboarded my ideas, which are going to center on a lifetime of writing or a lifelong writer.  I want to use this site called Doceri, which is on my iPad.  I am not the greatest digital person so this assignment is a challenge for me.  But I am going to figure it out and do it!!! And then I will be proud!!! 

Tues., 7/2 SI Oral History & Writing Group

Now I know how my students feel when I ask them to videotape themselves for their auto-ethnographies.  I felt inarticulate and unoriginal in my videotaped oral history.  It is also possible I'm being too hard on myself . . . but it was cool to hear what Sarah and Kendra had to say about themselves. Our group talked a lot about how we define "writer" -- we have different ideas about what it means to self-identify as a writer.  I think anyone who writes is a writer--but I do think that our own definitions are somehow compromised by cultural definitions and expectations.  I mean, if you tell someone you are a writer the first question they ask you is what you've had published. How "the world" defines a writer and how those of us who write in various genres, either regularly or occasionally, define a writer are not necessarily the same.

The writing group experience was so good! We have a great group but I feel bad that two of our group members did not have time to share:  Jashonai and Meredith.  We need to be better time managers.  I kind of looked to Sally to kick it off since she is Madame SI but I could have spoken up myself and gotten the ball rolling. On the other hand, the kind of chit chat our group engaged in while we were eating helps to build community---so you don't necessarily want to shut it down.  Regardless, though, what we need to do is take the time we have available and evenly divide it among the group members so that everyone has time.  Also, I wish we had written down our reactions.  Maybe we can do that next time.

Finally, I want to comment about the feedback I got about my book. It was the best thing I could have heard.  If I had held up a card that read, "Please say this" it could not have been better!!!  My group said that that they can really hear Zippy's "voice."  This is great.  I'm trying to write from a 12-year-old's point of view and I really need to know if it's working. I need my readers to buy into these journal entries--they have to ring true.  So I was so glad to hear that this entry works!! Zippy has a voice, and it's authentic!!!          

Monday, July 1 SI. Writer's Timeline, Inquiry Question "Yes, And," & Murray Cards.

I loved doing the writer's timeline!

   This is part of mine.  What I noticed after I drew this is how I've really written all of my life--since the age of 6--and how much validation I've received. Not that this is why I write--not at all. But I've really been identified as "The Writer" so often that it's just part of who I am.  I think that's why it's was so hard for me when I wasn't writing.  I am just so thankful for Jan Rieman,who was the one who spoke the truth to me and told me to start writing again.  (Not sure why I needed to be "told" but I did.)   There is someting, though, about being seen and heard as a writer.  I don't write just for myself--I want that audience.  Some people write and never show what they've written to others--I cannot imagine doing that.  I think from a very early age I became used to sharing my writing so that it's just part of my writing process now.
* * *
Also want to talk about how exciting it was to see my inquiry question as one that was chosen by a group to work on.  I have not had time to unpack what they said, but I will make notes on it today (before it's erased.) 

 
As I quickly look over their comments, I wonder if I'm not already doing some revision work--just not calling it by that name?  This is definitely an issue for me and I want to continue to think about it. 
***
Murray Cards
OK: this was a really cool thing to do.  You start to detail and write about whatever you like, going deeper with each card.  I wrote about my Kindertransport novel, of course.  When we were being coached through each card by Lil, at one point I thought, "I don't have anything else to say."  Then, BAM!!!!! I absolutely wrote down two fantastic ideas for the book. Here's what I wrote on card 4 (purple), when we were to change the POV: "I can have Olive write about the time Zippy comes to breakfast wearing her Jewish star on a sweater. That could evoke Olive's hatred of the Nazis--she can write about that.  Could also have Olive reflect on Zippy's reticence to enter or a shop or go to the cinema.  Zippy can educate Olive on the Nuremburg and other laws that denied rights to Jews."  The other idea I got was to have the English people try to Anglecize Zippy's name.  Her name is Tzipporah, and her nickname in Germany is Zippy.  Maybe they call her Tiffany? 
Love, love, love SI!!!
That's it for now.     

Thoughts about Summer Institute Orientation

Energy. Excitement. Engagement. Those are my "Three E's" about Orientation. The energy in the room was palpable. Lots of teachers who have lots to say. I am looking forward to learning from them. I really need this time to get focused on my teaching again, after working in Admin for 4 years. (I can't believe I did that job for so long.) I know that my classes suffered --- it's inevitable, I think, when your head is so focused on administrative day-to-day. But now I'm shifting back into what I love to do . . . teach. And I cannot wait until the Fall. I'm looking forward to revamping my teacherly identity. What excited me about SI is my research focus, which is on Revision. It is no secret that I am ambivalent (that's putting it nicely) about revision. I hate it. I don't think our students really have time to do it. By that I mean in a semester we don't have the luxury of time to set a piece of writing aside and go back into it later. Maybe the issue for me is how I am defining revision? Maybe I am thinking about it too narrowly?