Memoirs

Note: All quotes and page numbers correlate to Nancie Atwell’s Second Edition of In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading and Learning.


“They get bored telling what happened to them and bored listening to stories about other kid’s experience” (370). The solution is a memoir. “Memoir is how writers look for the past and make sense of it. We figure out who we are, who we have become, and what it means to us and to the lives of others: a memoir puts the events of a life in perspective for the writer and for those who read it. It is a way to validate to others the events of our lives¬–out choices, perspectives, decisions, responses” (372). The memoir not only includes a detailed account of the event, but it reflects on the importance of the event. Why it was significant in the writer’s life and how it shaped them or changed them.
    In order to teach this, Atwell suggests modeling and studying specific memoirs while having students analyze what the author does and how the memoir works in mini lessons. She also gives a non example in which student are to create a list of “what doesn’t work.” Below is her non-example which could be adapted for your classroom:

MS. A’s BAAAAAAD MEMOIR

We were going ice-skating at Dieners’ pond.
“Will you wait for me?” Mom said.
“How come?” we asked.
“I want to go skating with you.”
“But you never go skating,” we replied.
“I have borrowed Rose’s skates,” she said.
Then we walked down to Dieners’ Pond. When we got there, we changed into our skates. When Mom skated, she was really good. She did figure eights backwards. We have never seen our mother skate before. It was a big surprise.
    After about two hours we went home and had hot chocolate. It was a great day.


Once students are given a bad example, they will make a list of why the above memoir is a bad example. Students should be able to recognize the following:

The memoir only gives the facts
There are no thoughts or feelings
The tense is not first person singular
A lot of the characters do not have names or what they are like
Description is missing
The setting isn’t clear
There is no reflection for the reader or writer. The story seems pointless.

Once studying a series of memoirs, students can come up with another list of “Qualities of Memoirs That Work For Us.”

Some Memoir to use for these lessons are listed below:

Sara's memoirs book montage

Sara King's favorite books »

Reading Conversations

Note: All quotes and page numbers correlate to Nancie Atwell’s Second Edition of In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading and Learning.

I wanted to take today to reflect on reading letter writing that Nancie Atwell uses and suggests. This procedure makes a lot for sense to me as a 7^th grade English teacher. This year I have had to teach letter writing and responding to reading. However, they have been isolated and as a result have not stuck with my kids. I am 300 pages into the book now, and will go back and reflect on some other important sections of the book, but wanted to make sure I took the time and reflected on how to create reading response journals and how I plan to use them next year.

I will be using Nancie’s model for her introductory letter for her student’s journals. She types out a letter that introduces the reading journal and the requirements and weekly expectations for the journal. This letter is attached to the inside of each student’s journal. She admits “Although I know it will take kids a while to get the hang of the system, its rules and regulations are in place from the beginning; so are my expectations” (297).

Upon receipt of their journals, students are to “number the pages because this data…[is reported] to their parents at the end of each grading period, along with the number of books and the range of genres represented”(297).

I also plan on using the same expectations as Nancie Atwell:

“Students write and answer letters both during the workshop and for homework. This means that at any given time in reading workshop some students will be reading, some will be writing letters in their own journals, some will be answering letters in others’ journals, and some will be retrieving or delivering notebooks. All of this happens silently. The twenty-four hour rule about writing back ensure that letters answered outside of the class are back in time for the next days’ workshop, and that students don’t loose track of each other’s journals” (297).

When I started teaching our department was using SSR logs in which student explained three details of the text they were reading and either made a prediction, or connection, or asked a question. However, the only accountability with this was that students got a grade for their work. I think the Journals would help students be more motivated as they are writing to their friends and the requirement is not to be writing every night about what they read.

Nancie also has a suggested weekly homework schedule in which students read for a half an hour each night. Ultimately their logs and their end of the quarter reading list they develop track their overall reading.

I will reflect more on Evaluation of the reading and Writing Workshop later. Until next time.

Modeling reading- What I am teaching my kids...

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Note: All quotes and page numbers correlate to Nancie Atwell’s Second Edition of In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading and Learning.

Oh Nancie Atwell! I am learning so much from you! I am continuing my reading of In the Middle and will continue to respond to my readings weekly because Nancie’s writing is inspirational to a teacher of English.

Within the second chapter of Nancie’s book are many quotes that got me thinking about my own practices as a reading teacher this year and what I would like to change for next year. The first thing that stood out to me was the following quote:

 “But we rarely make time in class for students to read or allow them any say in what they read. And Students almost never see their English teacher reading” (28).

I have found myself guilty of not allowing enough times for my students to read. I am supposed to be letting them read 20 minutes a day as it is, but rarely find time for that with the curriculum I have to cover, the many tests my students have to take, and the other initiatives that come my way throughout the year. And very rarely during students’ SSR time, do they see me reading. I have to use that time to work on lesson plans for the following week, and grade student essays, start ups, and quizzes. 

Upon further reading, Nancie points out “Twenty One Lessons Teachers Demonstrate About Reading” from which 3 stood out to me that I am sure I do.

#11. “It’s wrong to become so interested in a text that you read more than the fragment the teacher assigned” (29).

We finished Tangerine by Edward Bloor a month ago. A few of my students loved it! They loved it so much they read ahead! And what did I teach them?... That reading ahead was bad. I tried explaining, I was glad they thought the book was great, but I also said they needed to stop reading so they did not get ahead of the class. Reflecting on this, I now realize I should have let them devour that book up. It was my own lack of abilities and creativity as a teacher that made me not want them to finish before the unit was over. What would I have them do when they finished? What if they spoiled the ending for the rest of the class? What would I do then?

#14. “Rereading a book is cheating, so are skimming, skipping and looking ahead” (29).

Again, with Tangerine, this was our first and my first class novel. And guess what? It was not the first time some of my students had read this book… and what did I teach them? I did not encourage them to thoroughly reread the text. I did not explain the importance of rereading and the enjoyment one can get out of reading a book for the second or third time…

 #20. “There’s another kind of reading, an enjoyable, secret, satisfying kind you can do on your free time or outside of school” (29).

While I let my students pick their own books and they enjoy SSR time and it is not a secret endeavor, I don’t think I always portray the same enthusiasm in reading with the class our class novels and other readings. And so what am I teaching them? The school reading is boring and not fun

            Nancie’s solution to these woes is not only having the writing workshop I talked about a few weeks ago, but also a reading workshop. She creates these worshops by having “frequent book talks about new additions to the library as well as old favorites, and I schedule frequent ‘book shares’: times for readers to go around the circle and describe their books to classmates” (37). She also gives students a readers notebook to write letters to their friends and teacher about what they are reading. This create an authentic adult-like conversation about literature as students and teacher write back and respond about their books (41).

“I also guessed that a written exchange between two readers, a student and an adult, would move kids deeper inside written texts, with the give and take of the dialogue helping them consider and develop their thoughts about the writing they were reading” (41).

Other Blogs

In research to find great English Teacher blogs here is what I have found and would like to share:

Language Arts Corp

A world language arts site

Books for Boys

To help you find books that grab your male students' attention

Guys Read

And another one

Professional development

My professor's own LA blog

Gyasi Byng

A dear Friend of mine's witty experiences in life and teaching College English.

Great Ideas for Gfted Students

A teacher's ideas and own blog for differentiated instruction.

MORE COMING SOON

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

"Learning to Teach Writing" Part 2

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Continuing in my reading, I am becoming more inspired to give my students some of the reins to my classroom. Maybe I can call it a “free writing” workshop, where students can choose whatever they would like to write about and whatever format they would like to write in. This will be my own personal workshop test. While Atwell encourages the workshop, she also stresses the importance of still teaching directly the skills students need as writers such as “procedures, conventions, craft, genre, and topic development” (Atwell, 15). She also stresses the importance of giving students time to write in class. I am now convinced that the teacher needs to function as a guide: “a mentor of writing, a mediator of writing strategies, and a model of a writer at work” (Atwell, 21). To me this means that I am not only teaching my students directly, but that I am showing them how I write and I am participating in the workshop with them to demonstrate constructive criticism and revision and to learn from my students also.       

Some ways, Nancie instills structure in her classroom is by always having a mini lesson and by having certain guidelines for student workshop participation. She says, “I expect students to experiment with different genres, attempt professional publication, produce minimum pages of draft each week and finished pieces of writing each trimester, attend to conventions as they draft, take notes on mini lessons, be quiet, and work as hard in writing workshop as I do” (Atwell, 25). By the end of this chapter I have not been thoroughly convinced that I can do this workshop class with all of my current students. I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around how this will work for my most needy students and my students who consistently demonstrate disruptive behavior. As I continue through this book and venture into setting up a workshop classroom I hope to have these questions answered and worries resolved.

"Learning to Teach Writing"

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While I hope to read and reflect on multiple writings for my own professional development, I am intrigued by my beginning readings of In the Middle: New Understanding About Writing, Reading, and Learning by Nancie Atwell. I began the first chapter of this book today: Learning How to Teach Writing. At first, I felt her stories a little wordy and I just wanted to get to the answer: how do I better teach my students to write? Like Nancie did, I fear that using the workshop format for LA will cause utter chaos and severe classroom management problems with my 7^th graders. However, I know the ones who could handle less structure would excel greatly and love the chance to write what they want and explore the Art of Language. Her writing challenges me to trust my students and learn from them as a teacher, to let them write about things they care about, things they know and things they can share with others (Atwell, 14). While I am still a little leery with trying this with all students, I am intrigued that Atwell argues, “Freedom of choice does not undercut structure. Instead, students become accountable for learning about and using the structures available to writers to serve their purposes” (15). I have yet to finish the chapter, but am becoming convinced to at least try this workshop approach with at least one of my classes this year.  

A new way to teach Writing and Reading

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As a requirement for one of my Graduate courses at FGCU and as a profession development activity, I am going to read a book about teaching Language Arts to middle schoolers. The book I have chosen is In the Middle: New Understanding About Writing, Reading, and Learning by Nancie Atwell who oddly enough is a resident of my home state, Maine. I chose this book primarily because I would like to restructure my classroom to be the best “type” of classroom where my students participate in collaborative and real life writing and reading: a place where they can truly discover a love for reading and writing. So much of the instruction I currently do as a first year teacher is direct instruction on how to write a 5 paragraph essay for a prompt and how to use textual evidence when responding to a text. Many times I feel like I, as a teacher am beating my head against a wall; some of my students are excelling in this but others are not finding any inspiration or enjoyment out of class, let alone producing good writing. If I am feeling this way, I wonder how they are feeling. I am hoping to get some ideas from this book to re-inspire my teaching techniques and reach my students in a new and exciting way when it comes to writing and reading. Just from the table of contents, I believe I have found a book to help me accomplish this.

Precious Writings

We have been working really hard in my 7th grade class with using descriptive words and being extremely detailed. I have a few students who have been having a great time with these activities and seem to thoroughly enjoy playing around with their words. This particular student sought me down before school just to turn this paper in. She was incredibly proud of her hard work. The topic was why it was important to over come your fears and her final body paragraph reads as follows:

You can get inspired in many wonderful ways. It makes you proud because you have accomplished your goal or method. It's like walking up the mountain without resting or stopping and turning back to the past. If feels beautiful in many ways. It is like waking up from an enchanted sleep, then you step outside, feel the wind blowing on your face, birds singing and the shiny, yellow sun rising.

Tangerine Poems and letters



I have just started a unit on Tangerine by Edward Bloor with my 7th grade English Classes. Within the unit we are also covering metaphors and similes. Yesterday my students had the following choices after a lesson in which they each got to experiences describing the taste, feel, smell, and sight of a tangerine.

a)      Create a Poem about the Tangerine using 2 metaphors, 2 similes, descriptive language, and imagery.

b)      Write a letter to an alien who has never seen, smelled or tasted a tangerine to explain what they are missing out on. Be sure to use 2 metaphors, 2 similes, descriptive language and imagery that the alien might understand.

c)      Create a venn diagram comparing and contrasting an onion and a tangerine. Be sure to use 2 metaphors, 2 similes, descriptive language and imagery.

While a lot of my students chose the oh-so-borring Venn diagram assignment. Some chose the more creative options. I wanted to take a minute and share with you some of their work.

Tangerine Poem

What joy you bring me

Like the morning of Christmas Eve

Oh, how sweet you be

You are delicious to me

Rotten or bruised

A good life you grew

Sweet and Round

And only a pound

You are like my honey for a bee

I see you in a market

And money in my pocket

I don’t want to eat meat

You are now inside of me

Letter to an Alien

Dear Cornocopia,

            You are missing out on so much down here on earth. Especially, the tangerines! The tangerine is as rich as 1,000,000,000 dollars. The sweetness and the sourness explode in your mouth. Once you begin to peel it, the room as odor of citrus. Also eating a tangerine is like being in heaven. It’s marvelous! TO me a tangerine is my life. It will become yours too when you bite into one. A tangerine is the life here on earth. Come visit from you world and visit earth. You won’t be disappointed.

Poem

A orange color fruit

Makes my tongue whistle like a flute

The fruit I’m describing is a tangerine

Tangerine is as orange as an orange

Bright yellow as the sun

A nice fellow

Tangerine is king Kong in my mouth

Tangerine is explosive like a bomb

Poem

A tangerine is an orange

Except it tastes better

You can taste the sweet

And write it in a letter

The sweetness is like candy

Tasting so sweet

When you eat the fruit you do to a paradise with tweets

A tangerine is a gumball

Filled with lots of flavor

If you give someone the fruit you may get a favor

The tangerine is as bright as the sun

I’d rather eat this than gum

Letter

The tangerine is very tasty alien. It is as big as your plant. Healthier than a apple. It is even better looking than you. It is like gold as a token from God. That is how the tangerine is you disgusting alien. The tangerine for me is like a block of diamond.