UNTIL LATER

Thanks to all of you for enlightening me to academic, administrative and teaching issues that I was not aware of. Also thanks for your input and for a writing and teaching experience that will influence my writing and teaching in the future. Good luck to all of you and have a great summer!!!

final thoughts

What an amazing experience it was sharing our narratives. So many of us came through some major obstacles to get where we are. So much talent and so much passion. It was my pleasure to spend my summer with you all. This has changed who I am.

I am once again a writer.

See ya!

What a whirlwind we have been on but I could not have chosen a better group of travelers to journey with. Thank you for the support and encouragement you have given to me.

Final Day

I experienced one of the best courses/classes/professional and personal writing groups ever found in America. Thank you for starting AWP in Athens, Ohio. Teachers in south-east Ohio are some of the best to be found! I plan to be in a reading group, people, so join up!

Link to National Writing Project Evaluations

Here's the link to the NWP evaluations. Have fun!

Inverness

The password is "writer" without the quotation marks.

Chad's lesson for Google Docs!

I have already begun to experiment with Chad's advice that he freely parted to me earlier in the course. I have learned much and have new questions to ask my tech man. I agree with Don; tech guys are useful and nice, so be nice to them.

Chad's Demo

Fantastic and really informative presentation. Google and Chad Rocks

!!!

Chad's Demo

Please add a comment here to say something about Chad's Demo.  Feel free to ask questions as well.

SUMMER INSTITUTE by Lisa Grays

Ohio University A W P

Summer Institute was the place to be

Teachers from all over, teaching one another

Sherrie,Deb, Talinn and Don, our brother

Parking drama and walking up 'the hill'

ID cards, oh what a thrill

Donald Murray, Qualley, and Bean

Teaching Demos and Journaling

Reflexivity and Inquiry

Computer Lab and Alden Library

A personal visit from the author of Cion

Reading Circles and Gloria Steinham

Biography Commonalities

Annotated Bibliographies

Art Museum on Writing Instruction

Conferences and Group Discussion

Laurie, Eileen, Beth and Lisa

Karen, Sylvia, Chad and Tina

Shannon and Sandra, Kaye, Brenda, Scott

Angel and Lori, we all learned a lot

We are writers, we have something to say

Listen to our Narratives on Visitor's Day

We love to write, we love to teach

We'll never become a Starberry Sneech!

So thank you all, it's been WAY COOL

We'll be better teachers back at our school.

the art of teaching writing

I feel this book is very much worth reading. As I said earlier, it is for elementary teachers. I don't think high school teachers would get a lot out of it. The first 15 chapters were the best, but all had something to offer. An easy read, with great examples.

The Art of Teaching Writing

I have really enjoyed reading this book aimed at elementary school teachers. It was very usable and had many adaptable ideas for my classroom. I especially received help looking at the chapters for other grade levels and knowing a bit more of the way writing workshops can be set up there also. The first part of the book interested all of us, even though we were educators from Preschool through 6th grade. The last of the book was a little harder to get involved in because of time restraints and individualized themes. I'm definitely going to go back and reread some of the chapters that we "skimmed" as a group. I give this book a "thumbs up!"

Grade Level Books

I felt THE ART OF TEACHING WRITING was a jewel. I definitely plan to reread it with more focus after our time here is finished. Calkin did a great job of presenting ways to engage children in authentic writing experiences and helping students to see themselves as authors. The text provided much detailed information on how to enrich writing tasks for young children.

On the other hand, it is a lengthy text and our group felt we were rushing too much to try to get through it. It would have been more beneficial to spend more time on the beginning chapters of the book. Most teachers would see the value of the information and complete the later chapters on their own.

book club review

I was part of the Lucy Caulkins book group. This book is a real gem. Lot of ideas of how it works, how it looks, what to expect, and trouble shooting mixed with experiences from classes she has worked with. As a group, we felt the need to get through the book, and it was a thick one. We chose to split up the book, chapter by chapter with each person picking the chapter they thought they might like to read and report on. The rush to complete meant that we didn't spend as much time on the key ideas and chapters as was needed. The first few chapters really are the most important and the rest get into details that not everyone felt were pertinent. I think that if we had been given more guidance going in, then we would have gotten more out of it as a group. This was a book I think you should use again, but with some direction before hand.

The Art of Teaching Writing

Lucy McCormick Calkin's book for elementary educators is an excellent resource. Of particular note are chapters 1-5. Chapters 6-10 focus on PreK - upper elementary. Chapters 11-20 focus on the ongoing structures in the writing workshop. Any easy read with many examples.

Inquiry As A Stance

I feel the book is a lot of theory to absorb in a very short amount of time. I suggest giving the book early with some guides prior to SI. I think it would be better to read some theory and some case studies--back and forth. The discussion groups help to break it down. It is a great resource for my professional library. I feel the case studies are beneficial. I would totally leave out the last chapter as required reading. If you want to read it sometime when you have nothing else to do... The section on NCLB is interesting and will benefit my inquiry search. I am sick of evidence presented by "Those who can do and those who can't teach" mentality.

Inquiry as Stance

The chapter that I found most interesting in this book was chapter 3 which deals with NCLB and high stakes testing. Particularly, I found the discussion of how the law is changing the way teaching is done as interesting.

A bit of an eye-opener, was the discussion of politicians attacking the teachers' union and teachers as a whole.

Perhaps I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but I believe NCLB was intended to weaken and/or break the teachers' union and this was backed up by some of the comments in the text.

Inquiry as Stance

Our high school/college reading level book - Inquiry as Stance Practitioner Research for a New Generation - opened up the practical issues of conducting research by those who are actually in the classroom. Though an educator's life is busy and full, it is so important that we take the time to document the challenges facing us and conduct formal research based on representative models that can be used in various venues, especially for the purpose of educating non-educators, administrators, and legislators about those issues. The first part of the book provided theoretical evidence about the benefit of this research and the last part of the book provided case studies that were valuable in context. As discussed in class, the information was very dense for the quick read assignment in the S.I., and a complete restructuring of the book in terms of organization could have been more conducive for a more comprehensive study.

Middle School Book

The Glascow book was really helpful!! I loved the unit ideas and writing activities she presents!! I will absolutely use this book....out of all of the books we were assigned to read, I feel that this one was the most practical!!

Glascow

This book provided excellent examples of how to incorporate reading and writing strategies into a language arts or a social studies class. It gave detailed information in a lesson plan format that a teacher could use if teaching that particular topic. As a mathematics teacher, I would have preferred to read a book that was designed toward reading and writing across the curriculum.

The Art of Teaching Writing

I thought that this was an interesting book. It's an easy read, but at over 500 pages it takes awhile to get through. I thought that the first part of the book was the best. When it begins to break into the different genres in Section 4, I began to lose interest. I really liked the chapters on setting up a writing workshop, but would have liked to see a schedule of how it could work in a classroom. Overall, I recommend this book.

Reading Recommendations from Class Discussion

Yesterday in the AM discussion, several people discussed recommendations for summer reading.  Here are a few that were mentioned:

• The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews
• The Shack by William P. Young
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
• River of Earth by James Still
• The "Kinsey Millhone" series (A is for Alibi) by Sue Grafton
• The "Stephanie Plum" series (One for the Money) by Janet Evanovich
• The "Lincoln Rhyme" series (The Burning Wire) by Jeffery Deaver
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• Layla and Majnun by Nizami
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
• The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert

Here's How To Attach a Picture and a Link

Right above in the posting box is a toolbar.  Use those to tools to add pictures and links.

Here is a link to the National Writing Project Website.