St. Louis and Beyond

Greetings all! A new semester, a new . . .

Hayley, it was great seeing you at Panera's. Then, the next day, I saw Michael and Julia at Target. We all three discussed whether being in Target at 9:30 in the morning or being home cleaning house was the more worthwhile endeavor. I still have not decided.

Liz, congrats on your first successful Teacher Consultant gig. I thought of your demonstration last Thursday. I had assigned my students to have in hand, for the Tuesday before, their copy of Coming of Age in Mississippi. We are just beginning this autobiography. Well, we did not have school on Tuesday. And as my original instructions did not include Thursday, guess what. The upshot was that too many did not have a copy of their books. One suggested that I read aloud. And I did. Imagine a classroom of nineteen teenagers, fifteen of them male, four or five of them well over six feet and 200 pounds, sprawled quietly on the floor listening to Anne Moody's words that recount her earliest memories. A really cool experience for all of us. When another class protested that they had not been read to, I told them that when we start part two I will read to them also.

I also used the collaborative poem this week, in two different classes. One group, AP juniors, is studying poetry (Laura, I have incorporated some of the info you gave us this summer into their readings/understandings of the poems). The other group, AP seniors, will begin their multigenre projects soon, so I am introducing them to the idea, squeezing their creative juices. Both classes really enjoyed the exercise. My having to reformulate on a white board with dry erase markers is a bit of a stretch, but hey! I'm plucky!

Larry and I attended the NWP scoring conference in St. Louis. Quite an interesting two days. I am pretty sure that my experience in scoring student essays grew, but I am absolutely certain that my waist line grew even more!!! Larry was not even sure, at one point, that he would be able to eat dinner. Good thing he decided he could squeeze a bit more in as the meal was delicious (Oscar's Cafe by UMSL for anyone going to St. Louis).

The scoring scale we used was based somewhat on the 6 +1 writing traits model. But NWP has decided that this particular model is too reader based and fails to adequately address and thus assist the student writer within her or his process or product. So, NWP reformulated the six traits. As I have never used the original, I could not distinguish a difference. I did like the calibrations. And I did like the reading and scoring, first holistically and then analytically -- trait by trait. Sometimes the two meshed; other times they did not.

Our brains, Larry's and mine and those of the twenty three other teachers present, underwent calibration (NWP's term, not mine) on Friday and recalibration on Sat. a.m. Then we read middle schools essays from 9:00 to 1:30. A very unique experience for me as I am not a middle school teacher. But the NWP scale is very specific. I just had to, on occasion, remind myself that these writers were not high school or beyond. I did enjoy reading the essays -- most of them anyway. Reading the thoughts of these young writers was, in many ways, awesome. Thomas, I can see why you like teaching this age group (although I won't be joining you any time soon. I do not have the patience -- or energy.).

Well, I need to scoot along here. Hope all goes well for everyone. Look forward to seeing those of you who plan on attending the open house. If I remember, I'll bring some of my collaborative poems.

Have a great one (whatever that ONE might be), Susan