Week 6 - Writing Portfolio

I hope that this is easy to understand.  I have been keeping my writer's notebook posts on this blog, and thought it would be easier to simply put the first three pockets in one area.  I will separate each of them with heading labels.  (Unfortunately, I do not know how to set it up for comments to be made on this site; so, pocket four will remain on the wiki page.)

Alicia Laughery - Personal Narrative

Through Prose and Poetry

Pocket 1:  Prewriting and Writer's Notes

Example One:  Prose

Writer's Notes:  My prose piece developed from the original lists we were asked to create during week one.  It was a good experience for me because I ask my students to create lists as a part of prewriting all the time.  I chose this topic from the list entitled, "5 Things About Me that Need Explanation (which I rarely give because...hey, let people think what they want!)

Example Two:  Poetry

Writer's Notes:  During week three we were tasked with putting the rubber to the road and actually working with a lesson from Fletcher and Portalupi's (2007) Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8.  I started out deciding to write using one of my favorite literary devices, IRONY.  Over the last 17 years, I have used different methods for teaching irony with my students.  I started by reading though the craft lesson "Experimenting with Irony" on page 117.  I then turned to the back and read the poem in Appendix 28.  Manning's poem, Another Night, was well written and succinct.  I appreciated the short phrase style, the matching stanzas, and the lack of popular poetry traps, but it was dark.  Though it was certainly realistic, and unfortunately something that many of our students face in silence, I wanted to create humor with my irony.  I decided to work with a situational irony story I have told students in the past that usually got a few laughs.

Pocket 2: Target Skills Sheets, Drafts, and Writer's Notes

Example One:  Prose

Writer's Notes:  During week four we were asked to do a little work with revision in our Writer's Notebooks.  I had created this longer assignment as my writing from week one.

Writer's Notes:  After deciding which entry to work on, I went through the texts we had been using for the class and decided to use a few things from Lehman's Reviving Disengaged Writers, and Fletcher and Portalupi's Craft Lessons.  After making these decisions, I filled in the Planning and Target Skills Worksheet.

Writer's Notes:  I wanted to try out Lehman's ideas for "Revising Revision" by making notes right on the writing.  This is a strategy that I want to work on using with my students.  I also wanted to use more dialogue and try to add some interior monologue in my writing.  I took a packet of yellow sticky notes and cut some in half.  I made notes on ways I could add both of these things into my writing.  I also wanted to make sure that the reader got a feeling about my personality as he/she read my piece.

Writer's Notes:  After figuring out ways I wanted to enhance my writing, I decided that I wanted to make my corrections on a typed version of my piece.  This is another thing that I am working on doing with my students.  I still have many students who think that every work they write is perfect the first time.  I am working on teaching them the art of revision and ways to make their pieces even better.  Additionally, I worked to make sure that the writing was clear and the tenses were consistent.

Example Two:  Poetry

Writer's Notes:  After writing my notes, I decided that I wanted to try and make this into a poem.  I don't see myself as a poet, but I often encourage my students to write their ideas in poetic form.  I thought this could possibly be the start of my own mentor text.  I put pencil to paper, and here is what I got...

Writer's Notes:  It was ok, and I could have stopped there, but I went back to what I liked about Manning's poem.  I decided that I had used too many words.  I was telling the reader instead of showing him.  I wanted to try and be more succinct, so, after much thought and contemplation, I rewrote the poem.

Writer's Notes:  I think it's better, but it's still not finished.  I didn't realize that I had left out my favorite line from the original until I was taking the picture for this blog.  I have to find a way of adding "Crap" back into this.  :)

Pocket 3: Published Work

Example One:  Prose

Writer's Notes:  With the publishing of these two pieces, I wanted to create a more finished look.  I would have liked to have put a family picture with the first one, but I couldn't quite make it work and look the way I wanted it to look.  Instead, I found this picture of a woman at a hairdressers.  This fits the background of my story and is therefore fitting to be in the background of my published work.  My problem with it is that it really isn't the point of my piece.  

Image from:  http://blog.timesunion.com/ontheedge//files/2007/09/hairdresser.jpg

Example Two:  Poetry

Writer's Notes:  I actually really like this published piece.  The coloring of text and picture work well together.  It took me quite a while to figure out how to get the picture into the background and fade it down until the writing could be read over the picture.  

 Image from:  http://cgpatimes.com/student-life/2012/10/27/dont-stress-out/#prettyPhoto

TL 525 - Week 4

This week we were assigned to do a little work with revision in our Writer's notebooks.  After looking through my notebook, I decided to do a little work on the first long entry I wrote in it.

After deciding which entry to work on, I went through the texts we have been using for the class.  I decided to use a few things from Lehman's Reviving Disengaged Writers, and Fletcher and Portalupi's Craft Lessons.  After making these decisions, I filled in the Planning and Target Skills Worksheet:

I wanted to try out Lehman's ideas for "Revising Revision" by making notes right on the writing.  I also wanted to use more dialogue and try to add some interior monologue in my writing.  I took a packet of yellow sticky notes and cut some in half.  I made notes on ways I could add both of these things into my writing.  I also wanted to make sure that the reader got a feeling about my personality as he/she read my piece.

After figuring out ways I wanted to enhance my writing, I decided that I wanted to make my corrections on a typed version of my piece.  I decided to type the original as written in my notebook, so I would have a copy of the original.

Then I used similar techniques to those described by Dr. Barrentine to make my desired corrections on my text.  I actually found myself making more changes than were originally in my notes.

I am going to admit that I really enjoyed this process.  I found it interesting to make my corrections directly on the piece while leaving the original writing there.  This allowed me a good visual of the changes I was making.  

Finally, I made my changes and came up with a new draft of my writing.

There are a few things I could see changing in another draft.  First of all, I am not really sold on the title...it's a little harsher than the quip at the end of the piece.  Secondly, I would like to consider changing the end and adding a continuation of the conversation from the beginning.  Finally, I still want to work more with interior monologue.  It just didn't work as well in this piece as I thought it would.

TL 525 - Week 3

This week we were tasked with putting the rubber to the road and actually working with a lesson from Fletcher and Portalupi's (2007) Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8.  I started out deciding to write using one of my favorite literary devices, IRONY.  Over the last 17 years, I have used different methods for teaching irony with my students.  I started by reading though the craft lesson "Experimenting with Irony" on page 117.  I then turned to the back and read the poem in Appendix 28.  Manning's poem, Another Night, was well written and succinct.  I appreciated the short phrase style, the matching stanzas, and the lack of popular poetry traps, but it was dark.  Though it was certainly realistic, and unfortunately something that many of our students face in silence, I wanted to create humor with my irony.  I decided to work with a situational irony story I have told students in the past that usually got a few laughs.

After writing my notes, I decided that I wanted to try and make this into a poem.  I don't see myself as a poet, but I often encourage my students to write their ideas into poetic form.  I thought this could possibly be the start of my own mentor text.  I put pencil to paper, and here is what I got...

It was ok, and I could have stopped there, but I went back to what I liked about Manning's poem.  I decided that I had used too many words.  I was telling the reader instead of showing him.  I wanted to try and be more succinct, so, after much thought and contemplation, I rewrote the poem.

I think it's better, but it's still not finished.  I didn't realize that I had left out my favorite line from the original until I was taking the picture for this blog.  I have to find a way of adding "Crap" back into this.  :)

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Speaking of irony, it is ironic that I wasn't comfortable simply doing the previous poem and considering it my entry for this week.  What if it wasn't good enough?  In Lehman's (2007) book he spoke of the fact that ANYONE can be a disengaged writer.  He also mentioned that some students feel the need to make sure that they are doing everything RIGHT.  I guess I am one of those kids.  I went back to Dr. Barrentine's assignment for this week, and looked at the examples she had given us.  Hmmmm...I hadn't chosen one of those.  Maybe I should give one a try.

I then turned to page 62 of Craft Lessons and read through the lesson on "Using Sensory Details."  I love the use of imagery in writing, and try to encourage my students to do this as much as possible.  I decided to write about my favorite pizza shop.  Here are my notes...

I don't know how many times I have drawn a similar diagram to this on the board and asked students to describe things using imagery, but I really think this might be the first time I had done it on my own.  They're right, it is harder than it seems!  I then decided to take my description ideas and create a short narrative based solely on entering the shop up until ordering.

Obviously this is unfinished, and I couldn't help myself from making some editing corrections.  (Tense shifts and repeated phrases drive me NUTS!  I should have kept the original and showed it to my comp kids.  I could have used it to explain that we all do it in drafts, but we need to make the corrections before publishing our work.  I hope to try some of the revising techniques Lehman suggests.

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This final writing simply made me smile.  Just check it out...it really doesn't need much more explanation.