7VWP Summer Institute History of Monday, July 15, 2013 in 3 Acts
Act 1: Monologue
The morning started out like every other morning has. Quiet start, people trickling in with computers being powered on, plugged in, searching for the power squid nearest you. The slight hum of strong coffee brewing in the background. Christine brought in lots and lots of natural sugar for us to consume. Bananas, berries, yogurt and granola with no clothes on it lined the back table. Slowly we got up to consume plates of sugar and ease into the morning. We start, as we always do, with writing. Kathryn read from “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg encouraging us to go for the jugular, and expose our souls. Which, we did. Thinking and reflecting on the weekend, our tired fingers began to type. We stopped to share, once, and then twice in a form that was not rigid, but fluid. Most of us shared poetry, there was an advertisement and one commercial thrown in. The intensity of ideas splattered across pages, and we needed an additional 15 minutes just to decompress. Well, Danielle did at least. We also learned, and may rush to buy T-shirts of, BTFU.
Act 2: UBD Demo, a short play, performed by one person
Danielle: Hi everyone, I would like to present this really great demo, and have you write about a bunch of stuff.
(everyone looks at her puzzled)
Kathryn: What Danielle is trying to say, is that you will write these amazing things, and you will understand and answer all of the world’s questions, today!
(collective, ahhhhhh)
Danielle: Write and share, write and share, three steps, blah blah blah
Kelley: This is pretty cool, although I’m not sure I understand it.
Christine: I love that I’m getting a chance to tease out problems in my classroom
Ellie: I’m really frustrated and want to improve the relationship with my co-teacher
Bird: I have so much to think about, this is magical
Haley: What the hell is she talking about, I will try to write something down
Marissa: So many ideas, what to choose
Kathryn: I have my idea, how can I make it better?
Danielle: I have no idea where to start, my brain is filled to the brim
(everyone was really great and participated)
Danielle: How is the notebook passing going?
Kelley: I love it! Let’s keep going!
Danielle: No one wants to shoot themselves in the face yet?
(Haley looks up, about to agree, then just smiles and goes back to writing)
Marissa: I loved that notebook share, thanks for the great ideas.
Kathryn: It was great, and long, and wonderful, and long
Act 3: Song, to the tune of “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” Cyndy Lauper
We started promptly at 9:00 am. Danielle gave us a run down of the day and she brought in breakfast. Haley gave us the history for Thursday.
Kathryn did a Demo in which we wrote a love letter. We wrote about all the things we are appreciative of for 3 minutes. After reading what we wrote we circled one to pursue. This took 1 minute. She then gave us 5 minutes to write a love letter to a person, idea, or whatever we wanted to write to in whatever form. For publishing, we started out with 7 minutes but we needed more time so it ended up more like 10 minutes. Kelley and Kathryn thought it would be cool if we randomly read someone else's love letter. some of the things that we love are our writing group, washed dishes, future possibilities, failures, Devon, Lisa, Bob, land, and coffee.
At 10:00 we had time to meet with our writing groups or personal writing or reading time. There were conversations all around about writing, life, love, crying, dreaming, typing, and coffee drinking.
During our workshop time we also worked on different things. People wrote or perfected a piece of writing for open mic, shared burning questions, commented on others' writing, and met with Kathryn or Danielle.
Everyone was excited about what they accomplished. Danielle wrote creatively and talked with me for a while. Haley shared her open mic piece with her group and as a group decided what happens in their group stays in their group. Bird had a conversation identity, people's perceptions, labels, read poems and blog posts, commented on them, and is reading to revamp curriculum. Marissa said that she enjoys writing group and worked on her open mic piece. Jen had a conference with Kathryn, reworked her burning question, plan for English class, and responded to blogs, Ellie read and helped Christine with her poem about poison ivy, and worked very intensely on her literary bio. Kelley tied up loose ends and read a poem about Marie Curie. Kathryn worked on piece for open mic, conferenced with Jen, and revised last year's plan.
At 12:00 Danielle put up funny youtube videos which we watched while eating or working. Afterwards, Kathryn gave us an update for next week. The required readings are no longer required because we have already been thinking about them and discussing them. They are optional if anyone would like to read them. Over the weekend we need to read over and choose one of the three categories from the list of readings, to present as a demo with a partner on Wednesday.
At 1:00 pm, we went over to the Blue Frog and all read short stories, real and fictional, and poems. Everyone did a really great job. Yea Seven Valleys Writing Group!
Kelley gave us a very thorough description of Wednesday’s
events.
We then had a 7 minute free write in which we wrote about
the previous 24 hours, and we shared our stories aloud with the group.
Next we had some time dedicated to revising our literacy
autobiographies.We then met with our
groups to do another round of Writing Group Procedure.People seemed to get a lot of their
meetings.And it was decided that what
happens in writing group, stays in writing group.
It seemed everyone had a relatively quick lunch and some
people seemed to be speed reading in attempt to prepare themselves for the Historical
Consideration discussion.
Sarah lead us in a very thought provoking conversation.We began by reading our burning questions
aloud with the group.After giving our
reactions to the article, we got into groups of 3 to determine the definition
and provide an example of the 3 main concepts of the article: literacy as
skill, literacy as school-knowledge, and literacy as a social and cultural
construct.
We had detailed conversation about political musings,
multicultural conversations, and what our literacy practices are.Sarah sent out extremely detailed notes for
further exploration.
After our discussion with Sarah, we were given the
assignment to write a research reflection piece.We were given the option to either stay and
write or write at home.We recapped the
day and were on our way.
Joy, questions, and fish... a good time was had by all.
1.End of the Year Reflections: write 2-minute bursts, using the
following starters: I learned… I was
stretched by… I’m excited about… I’m beginning to realize…
2.On Joy:
a.Joy in your life – write for 3 minutes;
Choose a word or phrase,
and take turns sharing; put them all together to create a Love Collage: “freedom,
play, deconstructing, cheered on, God, nature, appreciation, love, learning, laying
on rocks…”
b.Joy in your teaching – write for 3
minutes; share with partner, then come together
3.Burning
Question Demo: write for 3 minutes about a
professional struggle; summarize it in the form of a question; publish
questions on sentence strips and hang them on the walls; everyone takes a
walking tour of the sentence strips and writes comments/suggestions on sticky
notes under each sentence strip. Debrief – mixed reviews;
some liked the anonymity of the sentence strips, some wanted more context
within which to comment
4.Open work session: Time
and space to work on various assignments, and discussions with peers; feedback
was positive
5.Close Reading Demo: Discussion of teacher
research articles, Let’s Take Another
Look at the Fish: The Writing Process of Discovery by Bob Tierney, Everyone Sits at the Big Desk by Nancie
Atwell, and Everything I Know About Teaching
Language Arts, I Learned at the Office Supply Store by Kathleen O’Shaughnessy
a.Reread and find evidence of the author’s struggle
and its solution, 10 minutes
b.Write what you deduce as the author’s burning
question, 2 minutes
c.In groups, use “Cornell Notes” organized
note-taking model to create a poster representing the author’s struggles,
solution, and burning question
d.Present the poster in groups
6.Use one of the end products of Tierney’s burning
question research : use a 4-square
paper, label it “Teacher Research”, and for 1-minute each, write in each of the
four squares – 1) Describe 2) Resources3) Format 4) simile or metaphor;
share
7.Wrap up/reminders:
a.Read “Focus on Research: Historical Considerations”
History for 7-9-13: Its the End of the Literacy World As We Know It.
After enjoying a lovely breakfast by Jen and her history from the previous day, we warmed up our writing minds through an assignment: write an outrageous story about yourself. It could be fictional. After writing, we each shared our stories and Kathryn asked whose was based on a true story and whose was fictional. It was split pretty evenly. People took risks and tried new things. Go Summer Institute 2013!!!!!
Kathryn led a demo on character development. We explored creating a character based upon ourselves, from a fictional perspective. First, we wrote our personal traits that we present to the general public and then wrote the traits that were private. Afterwards, we shared three of those traits, from either list.Then, we selected one trait from the private list and wrote a seven minute fast write with the goal of showing the element of the private persona. Afterwards, we read the stories aloud while each member of the class wrote feedback on a post-it note that was then passed to the reader. Taking the feedback from the note, we revised these drafts for fifteen minutes and then shared two sentences.
This brought us to 11:15 am, when we wrote or worked on whatever we wanted for a whole hour. Thank you Writing Goddesses that planned the day. We also had a reminder that we would be reading our work on Friday at the Blue Frog cafe. A few people panicked, myself included.
LUNCH BREAK- good conversation and some even ventured outside of our den, taking short walk around the block
After lunch, Sarah Hobson led a thought-provoking discussion on the article on Situated Literacy. For me, it was the end of literacy as I knew it. Sarah asked us to write about what our reactions to the article were, what stood out to us, and what questions did the article raise. We spent about ten minutes working on this. Next came the discussion. We paired off and annotated the article, shared the information with Sarah, and she guided us (with a chart) through the important terms and our reactions to the article. Sarah gave us a question to think about over the next few days- If literacy practice and events are situated in social contexts, how so we make sense of the differences in resources for different communities? How can we account for the different types of resources? She also requested that we start coding out Literacy Autobiographies to reflect the different domains in our lives. Some heads hurt after this discussion, especially mine. It was spinning.
3:15- adjustment of the daily agenda and reassessment of tomorrow’s plan. We each selected a piece of reading we would present tomorrow and decided that we were on our own for breakfast tomorrow.
4pm- asked Kathryn about doing these notes. She mentioned that she tried to write them in ways she had never tried before. Having spent my class time writing these notes, I didn’t want to scrap them, but am planning on putting a creative spin to my next go around.
Personal Reflections about our literacy events (I just had to work that in) of the day- I saw so many people take risks, step out of their comfort zone, and really begin to talk about what it is that we do and what we want. Thank you so much ladies for being such excellent models.
Bird- I love the different types of literacy. It reminded me of Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. My burning question is what are we doing in our schools to address the different literacies, K-12 and on. How are we creating a learning environment that allows film, acting, computer, etc. types of literacy? Also, how do we we foster the cultural aspects in such a large nation?
·Kathryn led us through a demo on doing a
History, in which we reviewed, read, discussed, wrote about, and shared our
insights concerning identity using the notes from the Pre-Institute.
·After a break at 10 am, we learned how to engage
in a Writing Group effectively, using the specific model explained by Kathryn.
We practiced using an excerpt from Jen’s literacy identity autiobiography. Then
we moved into small groups of four to thoroughly apply the process to each of our
autobiographies.
·After lunch from 12:15 – 1:15, David Franke took
us through a demo called Exploding a Poem, in which he showed us how to deeply
read a text in an engaged, collaborative manner. There was a lot of interaction
and every member of the room was an active participant.
·After David’s enjoyable demo, we deconstructed
it, examining its elements and how his presentation was similar to/different
from other professional development experiences we’ve had. We took notes on our
thoughts and created a document with these ideas.
·We moved into some free writing time for an
hour, from 2:40 – 3:40, during which we were encouraged to work on whatever we
needed to: blog post, comment post, autobiography, etc. We were made aware of
the space to head to if we wanted to collaborate or if we wanted to work alone
in silence.
·We ended the day first by wrapping up today,
writing about one thing we really wanted to remember or take with us from
today. We reconnected with what we did today and had ample time to write and
process these ideas, and Kathryn asked us to share two sentences from this
freewriting.
·Finally, we prepared for the next day by
establishing who was doing today’s History and tomorrow’s breakfast. Kathryn
made us aware of what assignments were impending and suggested different ways
to use our time to prepare for those.
One of the traditions of the Summer Institute is to start each day with a history of the previous day. Each history is created by one member of the group in whatever format they would like. As a result the history becomes a way to showcase yourself as a writer and to try out new ideas, genres, and formats. The history is intended to be a fun way to reconnect with the learning we have done.
We write histories for a variety of reasons: they help us to remember what we have been thinking about, they entertain, inform, or challenge us, they help the writer to synthesize a day's worth of learning into a short presentation, and they allow us to explore different ways to present information. By sharing our histories on the blog we create an archive of our experience and help those who are not in the room connect with the work we are doing.
For the history of Pre-institute I chose to develop a demo that focuses on close reading strategies. We used our notes about identity as the text for this demo. We read and annotated the text, shared our thinking on the text, and then synthesized that thinking in the form of a poem. The poems we wrote are shared in the comments below. I hope you enjoy reading them!
