Morning Presentations
Autumn had a great activity this morning in which we were discussing bad writing which sparked a good conversation in our group about what really constitutes bad writing and how some of what is labeled as such might not be considered faulty based on the context it was written in. Found a great site with "bad' opening lines from novels. http://thoughtcatalog.com/nico-lang/2013/09/33-hilariously-terrible-novel-sentences-you-need-to-read/
She then pointed out that cliches tend to lend themselves to bad and lazy writing and to prove her point, she had us write a five line poem about ourselves that had to consist of cliches. Very funny exercise and one that I would do with students, though would have to find a site with cliches without adult ones. Here's my poem:
All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go
Every new lease on life is nipped in the bud
My best laid plans are upended when
My own worst enemy comes to town
Another broken dream is just a drop in the bucket
As I have shot myself in the foot once more…
I really need to loosen up.
She then pointed out that cliches tend to lend themselves to bad and lazy writing and to prove her point, she had us write a five line poem about ourselves that had to consist of cliches. Very funny exercise and one that I would do with students, though would have to find a site with cliches without adult ones. Here's my poem:
All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go
Every new lease on life is nipped in the bud
My best laid plans are upended when
My own worst enemy comes to town
Another broken dream is just a drop in the bucket
As I have shot myself in the foot once more…
I really need to loosen up.
Mikel had a great activity this morning that that he called Character Mapping. It is something that I think most of us will use not just in class but personally as well. We were put in groups of four and a large piece of butcher paper was laid in front of us. We were each told to create three characters in one corner of the paper. When we were done we told each other who our characters were and how they were connected. After this was done, we started to connect each others characters to the others as far as their relationships were concerned. While the final product looks like a bit of a mess what we ended up with was a thriving, fluid documents that could serve as the foundation of a sprawling narrative. Really cool and something that I think can really motivate the students in class who always complain they have nothing to write about. Neat stuff.
Jenna's presentation this morning was an interesting one in which she contended that often times, student's concerns or preferences are dismissed by adults who dismiss them out of hand because they are young and no nothing. She also felt that they're ways of expression had a place in the classroom and should be accepted as valid discourse. The gist of all of this is that we often have preconceptions about things and in taking ideas and people at face value, we aren't truly listening to them or validating them. To make her point, we did a text analysis in which we were take our favorite love song, look at the lyrics and state whether what was in the song was a reflection of what we think about love. She then connected that to "Romeo and Juliet" and how students often have their own preconceptions about the play, many of which end up being different than what the play was about.
Brian's presentation had some connections to Jenna's as his was focused on Discourse and how we and students communicate in different ways depending on the environment they find themselves in. He, too contended that we need to be open to how students communicate and not immediately dismissing their ideas simply because it may not be done in a traditional, formal manner. He had a neat writing activity for us to do as he put us in another's shoes and challenged us to produce a piece of writing in the guise of someone who was as far from our own personality as possible. I chose to be a banker who had to write a letter to a client of the bank who has not made their mortgage payment in six months. It ended up being a very short, direct piece but proved more difficult than I thought as I had to be very deliberate in the words I chose. This too, is one I will use in class. Tried to put in as many Dickens references as possible...
Dear Mr. Micawber,
Our records indicate that you have failed to meet the requirements of your mortgage agreement over the last six months. In failing to make the monthly payment of $986.24 during this period, your present balance with the bank is $5917.44. With additional late interest fees, coming to $1479.36, the overall amount in arrears is $7396.80
Immediate action must be taken to satisfy this balance or we will be forced to start the foreclosure process within the next month. While I personally regret informing you of this, this institution does have a responsibility to its shareholders to ensure that the venture they have invested their money and faith in is being run wisely.
I cannot urge you strongly enough to contact me or another representative of the bank so that we may reach an amicable solution to this situation.
Sincerely,
U. Heep
Senior Vice-President, Wickfield Savings and Loan
Dear Mr. Micawber,
Our records indicate that you have failed to meet the requirements of your mortgage agreement over the last six months. In failing to make the monthly payment of $986.24 during this period, your present balance with the bank is $5917.44. With additional late interest fees, coming to $1479.36, the overall amount in arrears is $7396.80
Immediate action must be taken to satisfy this balance or we will be forced to start the foreclosure process within the next month. While I personally regret informing you of this, this institution does have a responsibility to its shareholders to ensure that the venture they have invested their money and faith in is being run wisely.
I cannot urge you strongly enough to contact me or another representative of the bank so that we may reach an amicable solution to this situation.
Sincerely,
U. Heep
Senior Vice-President, Wickfield Savings and Loan
Maureen's presentation was very vibrant and vital this morning as she spoke about how to activate students and having them write for purpose. As she forcefully pointed out, students are very apssionate about issues that are important to them but they often don't know how to put that into positive action. She had a very helpful method in which to gather one's thoughts and discover topics that you value and can speak about passionately. I misunderstood her and the chart she gave us that I filled out below, I went in the wrong direction. Still, I think this is a good tool in order to get students excited about, if not writing, than at the very least expressing themselves.
Allison got things rolling today with her presentation on the RAFT writing process. This is a technique I had heard of but never employed so I was curious as to how I might use it. This would be a great tool for reluctant writers though I would have everyone use it whenever we do writing which is hopefully going to be more often during the upcoming year. It is a very simple breakdown in which we break down the person who is writing, the audience they are addressing, the format they are writing in and the topic they are covering. I can see this being used with reflective pieces for the novels we read and I did a sample of a couple of topics that could be used for Of Mice and Men and Animal Farm. This is good because any writer no matter what their skill should be able to utilize it as it can be used to provide a bare bones foundation or be done with great detail. I like it, I like it a lot.