Thursday, July 24, 2008

Prairie Lands II

Thanks for posting the pictures with me in them, Debbie! :-) Debbie did an excellent job of giving an overview of the PLWP, and I went through OWP withdrawals as we wrote in the morning. When we arrived, we also saw a demo about using artifacts to inspire stories. Sarah had WWI artifacts and a song to help students write stories from a soldier's point of view. There are many ways to use that idea in classes. We both noticed, too, the sense of community which made us miss our OWP even more. Interestingly, on the walls the fellows had pieces of paper with questions they hoped to have answered by the end of the PLWP, and the questions were many of the same things we had asked during our discussions. I also think the literary lunch idea appealed to some of them. Debbie and I joined in the discussion about assessing reading and writing. Debbie mentioned a conference about coalition schools (I think that's the name.) where they use goals and mastery instead of grades to assess students. Apparently Tom was also there. It was a great time, and Debbie's navigation skills are wonderful. She kept me in stitches with her stories. By the way, Joe, you should still bake the cookies, but write as you eat them. You never have to have a reason to eat AND write. If I don't write, I find that I miss it too. Sadly, I've been writing sans cookies.

No comments: