Slice of Life Tuesday: Awkward Conferring Moments

"I don't read. I don't do reading. I don't do books." 

A fourteen-year-old student, *Ellen, shared these three strong phrases with me today while I was conferring with her. 

I have been observing Ellen's reading behavior during our daily independent reading time for the last few days. She selected a thick book. She's quiet as we read. She turns pages every few minutes. She even uses a book mark. It looks like she is reading and enjoying it. 

Yet in the first few moments of our conversation, she couldn't tell me what her book was about. At all. She couldn't provide me with any predictions or even a superficial connection. She did not have anything to share that she thought was worthy to talk about.

"How did you select this book?" I asked Ellen.
"It looked cool, " Ellen replied.
"Tell me more about what you are thinking. What made it look cool?" I prompted.
"Um. I liked the cover?" She responded.
"Oh, sometimes looking at the cover is a great way to pick out books. I am often attracted to great covers too. What did you like about the cover?"
"I don't know....oh, I liked the lettering," She said. I nodded.
"Did you read the back to see if it looked like a book you might enjoy?"
She shook her head no.
"Did you page through the book?"
Another head nod of no.
"Hmm...Maybe it isn't a good reading fit for you if you cannot think if anything to talk about." I wondered out loud. 
Ellen nodded.  
"Would you want to take a look at a book about design?" I was thinking of introducing her with a design book like Chip Kidd's Go. 
"Nah. I'm good. This book is okay." 
"Maybe I could help you find a book that you like to read. What are you interested in?"
Ellen simply stared at me. 

I let a few moments of uncomfortable silence pass between us. 

"Ellen, can you remember a book that you read in the past that you really liked?" I asked.
"Not really."
"Is there a title you remember reading last year or in seventh grade?" I asked.
"No."
"What about from elementary school?"
"I told you. I don't do books."
I tried to hold my heavy sigh inside. 

Finally, I asked if Ellen if she had ever tried reading a graphic novel. She hadn't. Although not all students like reading graphic novels, I have found that many of my most reluctant readers are willing to read a few pages of a graphic novel. I gave a few book talks of two  graphic novels: Raina Telgemeier's Drama and Terri Libenson's Invisible Emmie. Reluctantly, she said that she would try Drama. 

My conferring session with Ellen ended up lasting nearly ten minutes, almost the entire time that I had to confer with students in class today. By the time I handed her Drama, our reading time was over, and I did not get the chance to confer with anyone else. 

Fellow readers, this was an awkward conferring session.These are the kind of conferring sessions that make me cringe and fill me with anxiety. I want each conferring session to run smoothly and efficiently, but this didn't happen today.

However, I know more about Ellen as a reader than I did yesterday. In addition, I have a better sense of what some next steps may be with Ellen.

Not so long ago (maybe six years ago) I wasn't conferring. I told myself (and colleagues) that I didn't think that older students (middle school and up) really needed it. In reality, I was intimidated. I felt so unprepared as a teacher, and I didn't know how to confer well. However, I have learned that the more I confer with my students, the more comfortable I am with awkward conversations like the one with Ellen today. It makes me strive to become ever better at conferring. 

*A pseudonym 

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Slice of Life Tuesday: Writing Group Wonderings

Recently, a local artist (and former student), asked me to consider submitting a piece of writing for an upcoming art show in support of women's issues. Of course I was honored, thanked her, and I assured her that I would immediately begin working on a piece.

Then I privately panicked.

Me sharing my writing with a larger, public audience? Aye. Just the thought fills me with so much angst. Yes, that's me, the English/Reading teacher who is always encouraging her students to submit writing for publication. 

What a hypocrite. 

Each time I have carved out some time to work on a piece for this show I get stuck. Here are a few questions that have rolled through my brain:

• What is worth writing about? 
• Once I figure out my topic, which details do I include? Which details do I omit? 
• How will I craft my work in such a way that is compelling? 
• What form should I write in? A poem? An essay? 

This weekend I found myself combing through past writer's notebooks. I culled my favorite lines and topics. I made lists. I created Heart Maps. I wrote Haiku. I even turned to works from my favorite writers for inspiration. No luck. 

Finally, I reached out to a far away writerly friend for some advice. She inquired if I belonged to a writing group and shared that she would be lost without her writing group. 

Hmm. A writing group might give me suggestions, help me get unstuck, and at least help me silence some of those self-defeating voices in my mind. If I had a community of writers, I might hold myself more accountable to writing and publishing. A community of writers might provide me with feedback. A community of writers might provide me with more inspiration. A community of writers may be working through some of the same struggles about writing that I am. 

On Sunday night I finally decided on a topic to write about for submission to the local art show - my unhealthy body image and how I fear that I have passed this on to my daughter.

Now that I have determined my topic, I have some serious writing work ahead of me. 

In the meantime, I am wondering about writing groups. To my writing friends, do you belong in a writing group? If so, how often do you meet? For how long? What does it look like? Sound like? Has being in a writing group helped you as a writer? What smart suggestions do you have for me? 

Thank you in advance for any insights! 

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Slice of Life Tuesday: Notebook Seeds

My last blog post was written nearly a month ago. 

A month. 

Back when I first started blogging, it was my goal to publish a post at least once a week. For the most part I succeeded in publishing a post each week. In fact, I surprised myself when I posted each day during the month of March for the Slice of Life Challenge. 

Following the March Slice of Life Challenge, I could seem to get my groove back into regularly blogging. I have published posts but not with as much confidence or fervor as I was when I was posting daily. 

Now I find that I keep wrestling with my inner writing critic. And I have not found passion in what I want to publish in a blog or publishing in another format. 

I am grateful that I didn't stop writing, at least in my notebook. A few weeks ago I came across a powerful quote from Ralph Fletcher's Breathing In, Breathing Out. I wrote it and taped it in the inside of my current Writer's Notebook as a reminder to myself to keep going: "Keeping a notebook is the single best way I know to survive as a writer. It encourages you to pay attention to your world, inside and out. It serves as a container to keep together all of the seeds you gather until you are ready to plant them. It gives you a quiet place to catch your breath and begin to write" (Heinemann, 1996). 

A reminder from my notebook

I have lots of seeds in my notebooks. Fortunately, I never got out of the habit of writing every day. But I am not pushing myself as a writer like I yearn to. I know I need to cultivate my work, but I cannot help but feel a little lost.

Fellow bloggers and writer, what gives you purpose to fill your writing heart? 


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Tuesday Slice of Life: Written Conversations in Music

Last week I spent teaching a graduate level course on Disciplinary Literacy to a small group of local teachers. I've instructed a few adjunct courses before, but by far, Disciplinary Literacy is my favorite course to teach.

One of the requirements for my course is for each student to lead a demonstration lesson using literacy in their content area to their peers. First, each student explains the strategy or mini lesson, how it works, and its purpose. As a large group, students participate in the strategy or lesson and then reflect on how the strategy/lesson could be applied to their content area or grade level. After leading the strategy lesson, each student writes a reflection of how the lesson went with colleagues, the purpose of using this strategy, and how the teacher plans to use it with his or her students.

I was fortunate to have three students who instruct music in my Disciplinary Literacy course last week. This led to some fascinating discussions of how we approach text as musicians and how literacy could be applied in music class. One of my students - I'll call him Eric - was interested in how to use a strategy from Harvey Daniels and Steven Zemelman's Subject's Matter, Second Edition (Heinemann, 2014) called Written Conversations. Written Conversations is a strategy that can be used with students after they have read a text or participated in an experience or activity. Below are a few steps for how to use Written Conversations with students:

1. Students can be placed in pairs or in small groups.
2. Explain the activity to students. Students will write notes back and forth to each other about the text or experience/activity on a piece of paper. For most of this activity, there is no talking (this may be the most challenging part of this activity). All students write at the same time. During Written Conversations, students should not focus on spelling or grammar.
3. The teacher can invite students to write to a specific prompt or students could leave the topic open. Each student must write something on his or her paper. (Note: Many students benefit from sentence starters or a model, especially using this strategy for the first time.) Students should write for about two or three minutes. 
4. Next, each student switches his or her paper with his or her partner or within the small group. That student responds in writing to what another student wrote. Students should respond in writing for about two or three minutes.
5. If working with a partner, that student hands his or her paper back to the original author and the written conversation continues. If working in a group, a new person reads the writing and responds to the conversation. It is recommended for students to exchange papers at least two to three times.
6. Following about two or three exchanges, invite students to talk (instead of write) about the topic in the partnership or small group.
7. Finally, ask students to highlight an important line or two based on the Written Conversation and share out with the whole group for discussion.

Eric brought in acoustic guitars for each member in our class. He taught us how to properly hold a guitar. In addition, Eric taught us how to play two chords on the guitar. For most of us, it was our first time holding and guitar and strumming a chord. Immediately after, we wrote about our experience of holding and playing a guitar using Written Conversations. 

Our class learns how to hold and play guitars!

Eric plans to use Written Conversations with his eighth grade students this year. His music colleagues plan to use this strategy in their music classes as well (#win). One of our art teachers shared about how she thought Written Conversations could be used after studying a piece or artwork or after trying a technique. In addition, I was reminded that my students can also use short writing activities like this to reflect from an experience, not always about a text. 

I have used Written Conversations with middle and high school students before in English Language Arts and in adjunct classes with adult learners. I have found it to be an effective and easy way to build writing fluency; I like how it helps all students participate in a conversation. You can read more about Written Conversations in The Best-Kept Teaching Secret (Corwin, 2013).   

At the end of the course we had rich conversations about how effective instruction is not simply about using strategies. Yes, strategies are helpful to use and can enhance student learning. However, teacher expertise is what is the most important - this means determining what each student needs when and making the right match of which strategy best helps that learner. 

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Slice of Life Tuesday: Taking Flight

As I wrote about in my last post, we recently rescued a caterpillar from a milkweed leaf. Yesterday we had the honor to release a monarch butterfly in our backyard, and I decided to write about it using a 100 Word story:

Taking Flight

“Mom! The butterfly!”

Our caterpillar had emerged from the translucent chrysalis.

Still dangling by spindly legs from the shell, the monarch moved one wing. Then the other.

All afternoon we observed, enamored as she tentatively explored her surroundings.

I recalled butterfly release directions: take outside; gently reach in cage and allow butterfly to latch on; and slowly release. My ten-year-old volunteered. Mesmerized, I watched her somehow invite the butterfly to ride on her index finger.

“See if she will land on your nose!” My brave girl did. The butterfly lingered, insect legs gently grasping her skin before she flew away.

*********

These are simple moments that will remain with me long past the sweltering days of summer.

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Slice of Life Tuesday: Caterpillar Curiosity

So far, this summer has been slower than most. Although I am still doing a lot of reading (personally and professionally), I am not as involved as I usually am in leading professional development for my school district. However, I am full of gratitude for what this slower pace has enabled me to notice, such as a seeing a caterpillar on a milkweed plant in our backyard and having the time to write about it and talk about it with my kids. 

Below is a poem I penned about the caterpillar I spotted in our backyard last week and how based on my daughter's passionate insistence, we rescued it. My children and I hope this caterpillar will achieve complete metamorphosis under our care so that we can release it back into the world. 

Caterpillar Curiosity

by Trina Haase

Watering flowers

I spy black, yellow, white stripes.

Caterpillar crawls.

"Look!" I bellow. "Come!"

Children gather at milkweed.

"We must rescue him!"

Our butterfly house 

emerges - protection from 

wild bird predators.

"Daily milkweed leaf.

Don't disturb or shake or pet. 

We must have patience."

Each day we observe

our caterpillar grow, climb.

Curiosity. 

This post was a little slice of my life this week. Join Two Writing Teachers and share a slice of your life. Everyone is welcome! 

Slice of Life Tuesday: Daily Engagements through Quickwrites

Last Saturday morning I listened to The Quickwrite Handbook with Linda Rief and Penny Kittle, a podcast episode on Heinemann's Teacher Podcasts. In this podcast, extraordinary teacher-writer Penny Kittle shares an experience she had listening to legendary, beloved teacher-writer Linda Rief speak at a conference (twenty years ago!) when she initially heard about Quickwrites and the powerful effect Quickwrites could have, "... these carefully planned engagements, could unlock the voice and ideas that lead to confidence and an interest in writing..." Penny Kittle also comments that Quickwrites, "...not only leads students to find writing and not only pay attention to the moves of writers, but it establishes a routine where students collect what matters to them in a safe place where they are allowed to stumble, to wobble, to fall..." 

It made me stop to wonder why I did not use more Quickwrites in my daily writing. I have plenty of compelling texts all around me, but sometimes I forget to utilize them as a writing tool. Maybe writing with mentor texts would help me have less writing moments like these. 

As I sat down to write that day, I glanced at my library copy of Naomi Shihab Nye's Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners. I devoured her beautiful and powerful introduction. Thinking as a writer, I found so many worthy entry points from her work that I could emulate. To begin, I wrote a few powerful passages and recorded a quote she referenced from poet Galway Kinnell, "To me, poetry is someone standing up, so to speak, and saying, with as little concealment as possible, what is it for him or her to be on earth at this moment?"

This passage led me to ponder this question, What is it like for me to be on this earth right now? 

And then I wrote. 
And I wrote. 
And I wrote.

Here's a peek from my notebook writing that morning:

Coffee residue sticks to my teeth, tongue -
Brush me.
Wash away my grimy residue,
I yearn to feel clean.

Snuggling under my light weight hand-stitched quilt,
I am safely sheltered with
air-controlled temperature while
outside swells in heat,
barely a breeze for leaf sways.
I watch morning doves swoop for
sunflower seeds and
dogs saunter past
our bay window.

In silence I sit (mostly in silence) -
the hum of the nearby one-fish aquarium,
steady clock ticks,
air forced from vents -
stealing still moments before
children emerge -bedhead beauties-
and shatter
precious
quiet.

Writing with a compelling text beside me made a huge difference. The above writing wasn't profound or beautiful, but it got me writing and I kept going. As Penny referenced, I had the chance to play with words and ideas in a safe way in my notebook. In addition, it provided me with something worthy to consider. And since last Saturday, I have continued to dip into Voices in the Air as a source of daily writing engagement. 

Join me in writing a slice of your life and sharing it with the Two Writing Teachers Community. Everyone is welcome!