Sunday, April 10, 2016

Abydos Conference 2016: Day 2

General Session: Sharon Draper (how am I so lucky?!?)
So many awesome affirmations and motivations,

  • In regards to Out of My Mind: "I was writing something from my heart."
  • Stella by Starlight is a tribute to Draper's grandmother, the "first writer (who couldn't write) in the family"
  • Pro tip from Draper: One page first chapters are an excellent way to get kids hooked on a book. Convince the kid to read the first chapter because it's only a page.
  • Mrs. Draper travels all over the world. On a trip to Africa, an African man came up to Draper to talk about America over testing. He explained, "In my country if we wish an elephant to grow, we feed him; we don't measure him."
Session E: Isabel Corona "Organization and Progression or Is This the Best Way to Organize My Essay"
  • I chart
  • Using what students know - their personal experiences - as support for reasons

Session F: Michelle Johnson "Welcome to the 21st Century Classroom"
Some of the free goodies available for tech
  • Symbaloo
  • Story Board That
  • Blendspace
  • Powtoons
  • Google Docs Add-on "Draft Back" - creates a video of the construction. Could watch a student typing 
  • rattle- poems created inspired by current events
Session G: Valerie Maclin "Shaping the Color of Our Learning: Using Mulicultural Literature to Unlock the Stories within Us"
Great book options:
Session H: Michael Guevara "Writing SHort: Beyond Elements - the Atoms of Style
Love, love, love this. It reminds me of how when working on a poem every word and structural element is more closely considered and considered for a greater period of time because there are fewer words. Guevara too micro messages - Chipotle bags, the inside lid of a a yogurt cup, a fortune cookie, etc. and challenged students to create their own micro messages. The journey of writing balanced, unbalanced, and change of pace micro messages over the same subjects is a wonderful lesson in writing style and instantly make me consider syntactical decisions, focus, and thesis. Powerful stuff that can be done as mini-lessons.

I also deeply appreciate how he pointed out the long essay came from a time where a student's writing was mainly kept within the classroom and for that audience, but today, students are writing for a much broader audience using social media, but the messages are much shorter.

Session I: Emily Newton "Brene Brown, Shame, and the Writing Classroom: How Does Shame Impact Us and Our Writers?"
Emily Newton is phenomenal. I feel like I was just in therapy and made a breakthrough. Through defining and determine the difference between shame and guilt and then relating that to our lives, our students' lives, and then having us take on the voice of a child experiencing shame or guilt at a essay in which red has been bled all over it and marked with an F? Brilliance! Also, made me go out and buy the last two copies of Rising Strong by Brene Brown. One for me and one for others I love.

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