Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested
teachers are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop
and other ideas about supporting young adolescent writers and
readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing teacher/coach in Long
Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Last year,
Juli kept a weekly journal from her Reading Workshop.
This year, Juli is continuing her journals, but this time she's
focusing on her Writing Workshop. Find out more about our project
at our Reading/Writing Workshop homepage.
You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues
are embedded in these journals. Most often, when you click on
them, a PDF file will begin to download. You'll find a list of
the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's
Journals, find out how here.
Michael Jordan said recently that he has failed over and over
and over again in his life and that is why he succeeds. To be
sure, we've had our share of failures. But right now, the successes
are deafening during Writing Workshop, perhaps because we're using
Poetry Partnerships.
It's the latest thing: surrounded by poems, a dozen or so poetry
partners from our class read together and discuss their responses.
Then they reread, "like writers" this time, talk more,
write some of their own poems, and share. A room full of poets
and a willing and eager audience are in attendance, whether they
know it or not.
Kathleen Tolan, from Teachers College Reading and Writing Project,
says that doing it this way helps kids improve their writing.
During Summer 2002, she taught "Group Structures in the Writing
Workshop" for the LBUSD Writing Institute. The six reasons
she gives to use Writing Partnerships during Writing Workshop
work well for our kids.
To have colleagues and support in the lonely business of writing
To strengthen the writer's sense of audience
To hold students accountable
To build up trust between writers
To make room for response which helps writers rethink what they have done
To help students progress as writers by having more conferences
Concentrating on poetry as a way to learn more about connections
between reading and writing in this unit of study, we're meeting
in poetry partnerships -- two kids working together to use poetry
to make their own reading and writing connections. (Journal #31) In our Writing Workshop, it looks something
like this:
They respond to the pieces in the Poetry Packet and other anthologies,
asking each other "what are the purposes for poets as they
weave their poems together?"
We read "Sun" by Myra Cohn Livingston (Journal #31),
then kids meet in poetry partnerships to discuss the purposes
for this poet as she wove her poem together. Here's what they
say about the poet's purposes:
Susan and Amanda: " just to talk about the sun and
to learn more about the sun"
Blanca and Maria: "to learn the things that it has
and to tell us more about the sun"
Richard and Astrick: "to tell us it was made of gas
and to show us what she knows about the sun"
Lorena and Marina: "she tells us a little about the
sun and she's showing how it looks"
Daishanae and Yesenia: "telling us about the sun and
what it does to know more about the sun"
Mary and Miguel: "to tell you how the sun evaporates
and moves and stuff and to teach us about the sun"
Johnnie and Jose: "to entertain"
We also read "Cultural Celebration" by Ruselle Cherry.
(at the end of this journal) Written by our school's office assistant,
this poem delights the kids because they know the poet. She left
it printed on our white board after she taught a computer class
in our room and also gave us a typed up version. Here's what they
say about her purposes for writing the poem:
Susan and Amanda: "to talk about her and her son"
Blanca and Maria: "to introduce herself and tell us
about how tall she is p; all about herself"
Richard and Astrick: "to show somebody even though
they are related they still have something different and to tell
us what she is doing"
Lorena and Sophana: "to see how it's different for
her son and her"
Daishanae and Maria: "She's telling us the difference
about her son; she's describing him. Even if they don't look they
same, they are still mother and son."
Mary and Manuel: "tells us about how her son feels
and how her son acts"
They watch to see how poets craft their work, asking each other,
"what do you notice that the writer did in this poem?",
talking about "how the authors wrote these texts", and
"how do poets make their writing decisions?"
Reading many different poems, the poetry partners focus their
discussions on: "What do you notice that the writer did in
this poem?"
Amanda and Susan: "not lots of rhyming words, words
are slanted (italics), a couple of words on each line, then a
long line, then back again; They centered their words. They curved
them to make them look like the subject; made it like a story.
They had a couple of rhyming words in it."
Maria and Blanca: "no periods; it sounds like a story
but looks like a poem. It has short sentences. Sometimes there's
a rhyme."
Divine and Manuel: "She used the same words over.
She repeated. She centered it. You have to be careful when you
read."
Daishanae and Yesenia: "Poems move words around. You
can move words around in a poem because it can help you understand
the poem better. But it could be confusing when you move the words
around."
Lorena and Sophana: "They're kind of giving us a little
bit of a drawing with words and pictures."
As Gerardo and Christian work in a partnership, each of them
writes their individual poems while they share the book, I
am puppy, hear me yap; The ages of dog by Roy Blount Jr.
I am puppy, hear me yap
No, I won't sit in your lap
I've got other things to do
For instance, bark at you.
They read their poems to each other, to the rest of us, and easily
remain engrossed in their work for an hour.
Poems by Gerardo
Please don't fall.
I can't catch you all.
You're too small.
You act like you're tall
But you're really small.
Poems by Christian
This one I guess will turn out
To be more or less.
Do you have the strangest fear?
I have the strangest atmosphere.
Salvador wanted to sit by himself as he wrote. "The other
kids are distracting me," he said. So he moved to a table
around a corner.
My Shoes by Salvador
I wear my shoes all the time
But when it's nighty night I want
My slippery slippers.
Poetry partners share poems with each other and with other
partnerships. Everyone reads and rereads the poems.
A few of our favorites:
Up! Up! Above the sky by Karol
Up above the sky,
Low from earth I imagine what's
Up the world so high
The Stars are bright as
The night. The night is dark
Full of wonders
And the stars appear
One by one a light comes
That takes to the night place.
I'm just a little girl full
Of wonders and I'm 11 years
Old, and to explore all
Of the wonderful things
That are up! Up! Above
The world so high, imagine
How wonderful it would be.
Follow your dream. If
I can I bet you can
Do it too.
Poem by Jose
It is hard to breathe without you
I can't believe you broke my heart
Again and left my feelings all broke.
My heart's on pain my heart sank
My life is boring without you
My heart is lonely too. Please
Come back to my sweet life,
All the memories that I have
Of you I can't let them go away.
It feels like floating in my
Stomach. It feels, it feels like butterflies
Are in my stomach. I love you, I love you
My darling.
It may be difficult for adults to see connections between reading
and writing, but it's easy for our kids.
Amanda: "I think that reading and writing have a connection
because reading can help you write better and to know more words.
And writing can help you read better and to know more words."
Susan: "If we wouldn't have reading, then we couldn't
write anything."
Yesenia: "I think they are connected - you could read
and at the same time write about the story. And if you don't have
something, how could you read or write?"
Daishanae: "Reading is like writing because you're
reading the story, and then it has writing in it. If it doesn't
have writing in it, you can't read it because there's nothing
on the paper. It would just be a blank page."
Maria: "When you write, you read it. Then you read
the words, and you are thinking about the writing. When you read,
there's words. And when you write, it has to make sense. So that's
why you have to read. YOU HAVE TO READ SO YOUR WRITING CAN MAKE
SENSE."
Blanca: "It's like the same because you use the same
words when you are reading and you are writing. IF YOU DIDN'T
HAVE BOOKS, WE COULDN'T HAVE IDEAS TO WRITE ON THE PAPER."
Besides, just because you struggle with reading and writing and
some people think you can't do the work, it doesn't necessarily
mean it's true. I'm reminded that in a book I recently read they
had a quote from Michael Jordan on the back cover: "I can
accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept
not trying."
My name is Ruselle.
His name is Antonio.
I am Jamaican
He is Colombian.
I have medium brown skin.
He has light brown skin.
My eyes are medium brown.
His eyes are hazel brown.
My hair goes to my shoulders and is original curly.
His hair goes to his back and he has more curls.
I am 5'5 1/2."
He is 5'10 1/2."
I am a lady.
He is a young man.
I work at an elementary school.
He goes to high school.
I'm going to attend Cal State Dominguez Hills.
He's going to attend Cerritos College.
I'm a Lakers fan.
He is a San Francisco 49ers' fan.
We may be different.
But we are still mother and son.
Read next week's journal
Read last week's journal
Read Juli's backgrounder about her work
Back to Juli's journal index
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