Dog Days June 10, 2008

Dog

Days of

My summer

Slowly evolve

With lazy escapes

Under the sunny skies

Sun-kissed skin glistening bright

Afternoons quickly rush evenings

Of buzzing, chirping, and nightly sounds

Bringing contentment close to you daily

 

I wrote this etheree today at our annual writing marathon for The West Tennessee Writing Project. It was fun getting into groups and writing. I got to meet new people and it was invigoratingto my writing needs. I just love writing etherees because they force you to use good, concise words. They also make you edit and revise. I think students writing etherees would be a good first step to editing and revising their work because they have to choose what works best for them. My first draft of this poem wasn’t perfect the first time writing it. If my scanner was working, I would show you my revisions. I plan on doing more modeling of revision and editing for my students.

The End for Now May 27, 2008

The 2007-2008 school year is over! Last Friday was the last day of school. It went by so fast this year, but I am glad it’s over. I am ready for some R & R. The only thing about the end of the year is the process of packing up everything. At my school we have to take everything off of the walls and store it. It’s a daunting task, but I guess it’s a good thing because you start the next year off fresh.

This summer I am looking forward to reading literature about writer’s notebooks and how to implement them better. I will be attending an advanced institute where I’ll be researching more of my inquiries. Right now I am thinking of the following questions:

How can I better implement a writer’s notebook into my writer’s workshop?

How can I use a writer’s notebook to model and teach revision and editing?

If you have any ideas, I would love to hear about them on either topic… 

Pure Comfort February 10, 2008

What better food to give you pure comfort—mac-n-cheese & a Coke.

 

I wrote a description of my pure comfort and tomorrow I plan on teaching a mini-lesson on editing. (PURE COMFORT DESCRIPTION) I have errors because I want my students to pick up on them. I notice they have problems indenting, so I am going to discuss that too. They will be given a rubric and we are going to discuss each component on the rubric to see if I met them. (of course I didn’t) My students don’t like to revise, so I am going to model revising as well. I hope it goes well.