July+20

Tuesday, July 20th at the Sioux City Iowa Writing Project began with a challenging task.Waiting for us on our tables were two pieces of lined paper and some crayons.Rod then asked everyone to picture ourselves as a child, doing something that we loved.We were then asked to draw that memory with the crayons while using only our non-dominant hand.After about five minutes of struggling to create bicycles, books, and brooks, we then wrote a short description of our pictures, once again using our non-dominant hand.When we were all finished, we went around the room and shared our works of art.We then discussed how our awkward drawings and writings, in a way, recreated that struggle that beginning writers have to endure. Rod then, generously, gave us some time to take a look at the growth and development articles, and we all went our ways to read and write.When we came back, we tried a new form or discussion/response.We each got out a piece of paper and drew a line down the middle.On one side, we recorded our individual responses and questions in regards to the growth and development articles we had read.When we had finished, we passed our papers to the left.After reading the responses of our partners, we responded by writing our thoughts regarding what they had said on the other side of the paper. After an hour lunch break, the group reconvened to do a little work on our IWP Writing Anthology.We discussed the information for the bios.Jane suggested that we each include a favorite quote.Everyone turned in a list of the titles and genres of their intended submissions to Erin.Jane brought her digital camera and took mug-shots for the bio page.Ted and Korey shared their draft of their cover, and after some tweaking, Rod “moved” to accept the draft. When we had finished hashing out some of the details for our book, Marty presented a new generating activity for us to try.We started by drawing a circle in the middle of a page.Marty then read //Those Winter Sundays// by Robert Hayden.While she read, we picked out important words/phrases and wrote them in our circle.After a second reading, we had developed circles full of Hayden’s descriptive language.Next, Marty gave us two minutes to use as many of those words/phrases as possible to compose our own poem.After an initial freak-out, we got to work, and two minutes later, shared our poetry.Even with the same model for our language, it was surprising to hear the many different poems we had created. After sharing our poems, Marty suggested three more generating activities we could use to help our students begin writing.She suggested that we have them look at photos or objects for inspiration, write based on an informative article, or write to music.To demonstrate the power of such generating activities, Marty shared a story with us about an over-seas vacation which was inspired by a picture of her (kindly taken by her husband) in which she had unknowingly posed beneath a “dead slow” sign. We ended the day with more of the Jarrell’s //The Bat-Poet// read by Marty.After the bat shared his poem with the mockingbird and resolved to write a poem about bats, we all went our separate ways and headed home for the day.