For the month of March, each day I am writing and posting a slice of my life, hosted by Two Writing Teachers.
Slice of Life #22: Day 2:
Writing from a Photo
Each Tuesday morning I co-lead a student literary club at the high school I teach at. This is my first year co-advising Literary Club. It has been a gift to be a part of Literary Club.
Each student shows up at 7:20 in the morning, ready for our weekly literary club meeting before the busy school day begins. Some have a thirty minute icy bike ride to get to school for Literary Club. Other students trudge through the snow or beg their parents or siblings to drop them off early.
On Tuesday we wrote about an image on our phone. First, I asked a writer to select a random number between one and five. The writer selected a three. Next, writers took out their phones and found the last third photo from their camera roll. For writers who did not have a phone or did not like their third photo, I projected an image of the day from the Internet. Students were invited to write in whatever form they wanted. Some writers wrote poems, others wrote prose, while others wrote dialogue. When everyone found a photo, I set a timer for five minutes.
I wrote with my students. Mary, my co-advisor, wrote as well.
My third photo happened to be a photo from a recent early morning walk:
Based on this photo, I penned this Haiku:
Pink hues emerge now/
Darkness slowly fades. Early/
morning beauty walk.
Writers always have the option to share. Anytime a writer shares their work aloud, the group snaps. Writers often comment which lines stand out. They give each other suggestions.
No matter what we write about, their words and deep insights often blow me away. These writers inspire ME to write more. They are my people.
I adore this small community of writers.
What a cool idea! I love the idea of a literary club...but the 7:20 in the morning part would be hard for me. haha :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you are cultivating a love of writing in your school.
7:20 is sometimes hard! This was the time that the club established!
DeleteLove this!! And so happy to see you and spend time with you through our writing. I just started this month a writing club wiht my students. My book clubs were flopping. We are going to meet and share via Schoology. I love the prompt idea. I think I might start using prompts to get them going each day! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI am happy to see you again too. That's wonderful that you are doing a writing club.
DeleteI almost always have a prompt ready. We lift lines from poems. Sometimes we write from images.
Riding a bike to school on icy roads shows deep dedication. I advised our school’s lit magazine three years, but it was not well supported. After I quit, the program died. I wish I’d figured out how to make it work. As always, your photo and haiku are lovely.
ReplyDeleteThank you! The other co-advisor is retiring at the end of this year. It makes me feel so sad. She has been running our literary magazine for a while.
DeleteI love this and I will try it out with my students!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your Haiku with us.
Thank you! This was also a great way to build community with our writers.
DeleteWhat an amazing experience--teenagers getting up so early to be sure they can make it to their Literary Club. I love it! And I like the prompt a lot too. There is a 99% chance that the 3rd photo on my phone is a cat!
ReplyDelete