Notes from the first days

What do we make of this experience as a writer and/or as a teacher or writing?

*Consider Because Writing Matters possible

Michael said—snake-eating its tail
For us it was difficult, randomly putting together notes, we both need a starting point, this process was painful

Kelly said we are our students, we are the reflection of our students as we stand before the mirror, we need to be sensitive to the same feelings our students have

Barb and Teri, surroundings and atmosphere are just critical—soft music, aware of how fast everyone else is writing

Thomas and Caroline—various stages of our writing—three pages of good story with paragraphs, Thomas has bullets, the differentiated instruction of eighth graders—fear that I will lose more than I will gain—effectiveness—putting out fires—too many questions—not sure it’s a struggle that I want to deal with—15 on track, 15 struggling—how do you control the needy factor?

7th grade MAP—all map prep, no free thought—when you give them freedom, they flounder—I want to give them freedom, but previous training makes that tough.

Can’t you—give them it a little bit of a time

Zach and Julie—importance of modeling—fear that they will copy exactly what you’ve done

We couldn’t possibly have copied Keri’s.
If you give them a little bit, model your thought process for them, they can’t possible have the same thought processes-the see the struggle

Kelly—won’t some of them take them away from focusing on product? First draft. Done. Negotiate with them and get rid of product.

What grade is it right now?

Notion of abolishing product, how frustrating this was for me to do, did something today that I tell them not to do—I wrote something I didn’t have the words for—forced myself to write more and I wasn’t ready.

Kelly, found myself apologizing for being all over the place.
Never got to the root of why I was writing—tried to force it

Accomplishment—recognizing I wasn’t ready to write about it

Go ahead because it was already on the paper—first thing that came to my mind

We’re so product driven—there is always that end game.

What would be the definition of product?
I’ve got lots of sentences and I was having a teenage angst type of moment. I have to know the end result.

Shelly and Janet—everything I wrote about was connecting—just the connecting—what was negative? One thing was when I was writing I noticed, even though I was writing to myself, I kept making little side comments to you all.

Shelly—connecting personal beliefs with children—seeing connections and associations—watching the visual process—doing the list—showing how random things are and seem to be and see how you can make something of it—starting on that basic level, they look at it so gigantic—doing a list, one short exercise, leave it, keep it in your notebook

Larry and Liz—the list helped me, how can I apply this to teaching? Where I teach. “I don’t know what to write about.” Instead of giving a topic that usually hate. Start with a list. Modeling part of it being very important.

Showing them lots of different ways to approach it. Showing different ways to look it and look at perspectives, giving them those choices in the beginning helps them incredibly, helps all levels

Modeling can be more guided—we’re more sophisticated writers—I would have my list already prepared.

I like showing them the process of how long it takes me to think through—want them to do the same things and take the stupid topics.

When you come in with a prepared list

Several people worried about management