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:

• The Other Wes Moore - nonfiction; two boys with the same name and similar childhoods grow up to be completely different men
• The Secret Olivia Told Me - picture book
• Enrique's Journey - nonfiction
• Ball Don't Lie
• Simon vs. the Homo Sapien Agenda - kid being blackmailed with the threat of outing him
• Beyond Magenta - follows 4 trans kids
• Mexican Whiteboy
• Separate is Never Equal by Mendez - picture book
• The Big Box by Toni Morrison

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.

2016 Abydos Conference: Day 1

Opening General Session: Jeff Anderson

Anyone who has been so lucky as to sit in on a Jeff Anderson Abydos session knows he commands a room. His energy was absolutely brilliant for the large stage. Quick takeaways, connections, references:

• Jeff's entire introduction was organized in hero's journey. He examined his own tragic flaw, which I think is simply brilliant and has multiple classroom opportunities
• The Plot Whisperer - helped Jeff with his fiction writing
• "Manifesto of the Brave and Brokenhearted" by Brene Brown - what a powerful piece. I want to suggest it be read at the beginning of next year
• Ted Talk on Power Stances - want to make me instantly feel uncomfortable? Make me stand like Super Woman and repeat something en mass
•  Jeff Anderson quote of the day: "It isn't fake it 'til you make it. It's fake it until you become it."

Session A: Shanna Peeples...yes, that Shanna Peeples

There was so so so much in this session, but one of the biggest was I feel the Progress Principle from Harvard Business Review's Teresa Amabile paired with journaling (because, as Shanna says, "Writing is what is going to save us") to chunk what is her 10 minute reflection mentioned on her site. My favorite part? "Fear is cheap and easy, but what's hard is to be a creator, to take risks." and then she has us silence our inner critic and bring out our inner coach and write for 2 minutes about what went well.

Session B: Beth Egmon's Putting the "Draw" into Writing: Using Illustration Study to Nurture Young Writers

Beth is a-maz-ing! I was about to teacher my first institute with her. Even though the session was for primary, you can easily see how drawing as prewriting and studying illustrations to add details helps students create depth in their own writing. 

Session C: Malaika Easton's From Self to Story

Even though Malaika left our campus over the summer *sob sob* I was able to see this transformation of thought and reflection unfold and come full circle from last year until now. I simply loved how she took her role as a counselor to create a lunch bunch of 5 "bad boys" and through writing, examine their own stories and how they can be the authors of their own narratives. These boys will never forget Malaika and I have no doubt she changed their lives for the better. Insert plug for the three memoirs that were part of Malaika's reflection process and which are wonderful: Brown Girl Dreaming (READ THIS BOOK), Bad Boy, and Zlata's Diary. All three of those are musts if you ever want to do a memoir lit circle. 

Top 5 Reasons Listicles Might Be the Next Big Thing in ELA

I remember one year going to the Abydos Conference and there were five separate sessions about graphic novels and/or comics. A form of writing once thought lacking in legitimacy, became a new genre for English teachers and a new mode for students to write. Entire books were devoted to the use of comics to teach everything from inference to how to punctuate dialogue or sequencing.

I propose listicles will be the next big thing. Why?

5. Our brains like lists. This for of writing is prevalent because it gets clicked on. It gets clicked on because our brains enjoy the ease of instantly understanding how information is placed on the page. This means having students look at a listicle may help students quickly acquire new knowledge. Or having students transform an article into a listicle may help them breakdown and understand complex information. Not to mention the love affair with lists starts young by reading listing books like Green Eggs and Ham as well as being one of the first genres of writing for many children. (My daughter had just turned two when she started making our grocery list! Needless to say, while she wrote hers, I was also writing one that I could read. But still, listing!)

4. The popularity indicates this is a genre with longevity, so why wold we ignore preparing students for genres they will encounter in the future? While listicles may be a relatively new term and list-based articles have exploded recently, listing as a form of organization is not new. From poetry to satire to satirical lists about listing, listing spans many traditional literary forms. Why not blend the genres that rely on listing as a form of organization and include a listicle, a form they will be reading in the future?

3. Listing and journaling go hand-in-hand. Teachers have use listing as a brainstorming strategy for decades - if not longer - and those who journal for pleasure can easily find books on the subjects of journaling from lists. Instead of listing to come up with one idea, a listicle asks the writer to create an organization of the list and think of each point as a something to develop in a concise and focused manner.

2. Listicles are the perfect example of how to create a topical paragraph. If you are like me, you have students who just do not "get" the idea of a topic sentence. Each paragraph is actually several ideas mashed together like warping puzzle pieces to make them fit. The great thing about a listicle is it is based on reasons, not details. Most listicles have the first sentence for each point be the topical sentence. Having students thinking of their expository or persuasive essay as a listicle - after examining and mimicking listicles - is powerful. The essay becomes "3 Reasons How Working Alone is Better Than in Groups". The organization is clearer and instructions fits a very brain-friendly (see number 1) pattern. Add in and intro and conclusion, replace the numbers with transitions, and you can help students who would otherwise get poor marks because of lack of organization and focus, create a serviceable essay.

1. Ranking listicles ask for higher level blooms. There are three main types of listicles: ranked, thematic, and random. Asking students to write in the world of ranking is the evaluating level of blooms. In order to justify their responses, they have to provide evidence and reasoning. For example, while reading a whole class text like A Midsummer Night's Dream, students who have been exposed to a listicle can brainstorm whole class what ranking listicles could be created for the text: 3 Worst Mistakes in Midsummer Ranked, 3 Biggest Fools from Midsummer Ranked, 5 Best Characters in Midsummer Ranked. By having a smaller number than the students would want, students will be forced to decide who or what makes the cut. Add in requirements for textual evidence and students are writing a literary analysis.

While listicles would not replace formal process papers, they do offer additional opportunities to write as well as support in drafting stages. No self deprecating-humor or snarky comments required!

Digital Writing Roulette!

I am super stoked to tell you about how a teacher-friend and I used technology to re-imagine how Writing Roulette can be used in classrooms today.

My writing in black and Miss M's in red

I first did Writing Roulette when I took Abydos Three-Week institute about ten years before. It starts off with everyone having an image, typically I've seen The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and then begin writing a story inspired by that image. After a little time, the teacher tells the students to stop and pass the image and paper to the next person. Everyone gets a new image with a piece of paper that began a story. The task is to pick up where the writer left off and continue the story. Four or five minutes later, they pass again, and get another new image. At the end they have created this new story. It is fun, kids have to adapt to different writing styles, they have to think imaginatively, and it helps our kids who may be more "uptight" writers learn to let go.

How to do it:

Have I got a cool way to do writing roulette using video-conferencing equipment and Google Docs! Before I get into the steps, I'll just tell you how yesterday went: A teacher-pal on another campus and I coordinated to try this out on our 7th period kiddos. In each of our respective computer labs, we had the kids assigned numbers. When the logged onto the Google drive I set up, they opened up the document that had their corresponding number. On the first page, labeled Page A, Miss M's class began typing their story about their image. On Page B, my kiddos used their image to create a story. Every 4 minutes we switched. Her kids would scroll down to B, mine up to A. And then switch again. Miss M and I helped the kids along by going over what we would want to do in each section: establish character and setting, develop conflict, build up to a climatic event, climactic event should be working to resolve main problem, resolve loose ends. at the very end we had some of the kids talk via the video conferencing equipment answering questions like : What was most challenging? How did it go for you? Which of the two did you like the most and why? Why do you think we had you do this? It was AWESOME!

What my Google folder looks like when it is ready to go! 

Afterward, I'm changing the settings to read only so that way the kids can show their parents what they did and read each other's work without accidentally deleting it. My next goal is to try this out of district. Then I want to try doing this out of state. Imagine a student in Texas and a student in Colorado writing stories together at the same time? Awesome! 

Set up:

1. Find another teacher who wants to do it with you. My first time, I decided to just do 1 class period as a trial. Coordinate lab and video-conferencing equipment (no video conferencing equipment, see if you can skype, Facetime, or even just call over the phone!)
2. Pinterest pictures like a mad dog! Here is my collection. 
3. Create a Google Drive account. In the account create a folder with a sharing setting of whoever has the link can edit. That way you can just share 1 link to the folder instead of individual doc links.
4. Create a doc file in the folder labeled 01. MAKE SURE THE FILE HAS THE SAME SHARE SETTING! On the first page have it say "Page A" nice and big. This will allow you to see if kids are on the correct pages in the computer lab. Under "Page A" write: Writer A: Examine the photo and write for the time allotted. When time is called, switch to the second page. Start writing here:
5. Add image from Pinterest. Don't forget to wrap text and adjust size.
6. Where it says "Star writing here:" press the enter button a couple times. Then hold down "ctrl+enter" This will ensure your page 2 doesn't move as the person on page A types.
7. Set up your page B just like A but with a different picture.
8. In the folder, make copies of 01. I made 16 because we had a class of 32 and I wanted us to only repeat twice. 
9. Renumber these 01-16. Change out the pictures. I then have 16 unique docs.
10. Then I just copied all 16 of them and numbered 1-32.
11. Find the link for sharing the folder in the drive by pressing the share button. Copy that. Log out of Google and test the link. Test that you can select the docs and press the pop-out so you can edit.
12. If it works, send the link to your counterpart to share with her class day of the activity. 

While you do the lesson have one teacher be in charge of having a timer. Miss M used her cell as the alarm (Ghostbusters Theme!). She and I wrote one as well. I've color coded where we switched just to give you an idea.

Pro Tip: make a template folder of all your writing roulette docs and then just copy them into a folder for your class. That way you don;t have to keep recreating the files every time you do it. 

Enjoy!

Abydos Conference 2015

Top three highlights of Abydos Conference 2015:
3. Alana Morris of Vocabulary Unplugged fame in one chart explained what I've been trying to explain to non-ELA teachers since the adoption of the new TEKS: all those old comprehension strategies we used to teach: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. When you look at the STAAR test questions, minus a handful in summarization and comparing, the questions all pop in inferencial thinking. Big takeaway: Number 12 is never coming back. The question stem will probably never be seen again. We need to move past looking at number 12 from the released test and toward the type of thinking we need to train our students to become. In order for our scores to grow instead of stagnate, we have to train the kids to be inferential thinkers.

2. Anne Stone's Classical Evaluation. Brilliant! I created a quick video on it for absent students (I literally just put my iPhone on my document cam, hit record, and posted in my conference period. AKA I totally am guilty of the black blank sides of doom. I hold my head in shame.) It helps to address the issue of under-developed support paragraphs in expository writing.
1. Kaye Price-Hawkins referred to me as "My friend, Sara" when I answered a question. Granted she was just reading my nametag, but still, squee! She took us through Dialogue with the Text which she adapted and put on a nifty bookmark for kids right here. Her website is full of priceless goodies! Go, go!