tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1848161342189012272024-02-07T01:30:15.747-08:00Taming the Octopus - The Many Arms of WritingTeaching Writing - A voice from the trenches, for People, Parents and TeachersKendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-46197872419918077332020-04-05T22:03:00.000-07:002020-04-05T22:03:28.713-07:00Corona Catch Up<br />
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<span style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13.5pt;">The octopus escaped! Metaphor out of the gate, which is a good trick when kids are stuck on creating a topic sentence. The blog vanished, and if you read the book, </span><i style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Soul of an Octopus</i><span style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13.5pt;">, you know their mad skills at squeezing through narrow openings to escape.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 20.7px;">I could invent creative and comedic reasons for the disappearance of this untamed octopus, but it distills down to a) insert favorite writerly excuse for not doing your practice, b) the political landscape and c) bigger career fish I tried to fry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 20.7px;">In the passive voice I would love to assign blame, and say the blog drifted away from me, but the turnaround of that is what’s true: I drifted away from the blog, the inner critic squealing at me, “You are repeating yourself!” and the inner cheerleader, “You need to put this all into a book.” While that proverbial book, plus my novel, and the essays and tattered poems are closer to done than ever, revision is one of my addictions, so I can’t exactly roll a publication date off my tongue. That leaves me still teaching, still writing, still avoiding submitting or getting an agent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 20.7px;"><br />The children are not all okay, sorry to have to say. Pre-pandemically and paragraphically. The puzzle pieces of a paragraph make it to the page, but they are tiny pieces, and not locked together with that satisfying click. Parents seek me out because their 6<sup>th</sup> grader writes essays like a rubrics cube, with all the parts constantly moving and not flowing in a sequence. Typically, these students <i>do</i> love math, sports or science statistics, Sudoku, rubrics cubes, and the like. Notice words aren’t in any of their hobbies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 20.7px;">Clearly the students are not any different than when I wrote this blog earlier. When they come to me they are unenthused about writing, having tantrums about it, or overwhelmed by being given tough assignments in school. I am still working at a granular level of skills and mindset tips to help them feel successful, or better yet, find writing to be a way into themselves. They leave with a tool kit, but I never promise that they will have a love affair with it. That is icing on the cake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "palatino"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 20.7px;">Coronavirus is woven amongst us and between us, a gossamer and invisible thread of global connectivity and infectivity, that is a complex concept for a child’s mind to grasp. But they are troopers, these kids I see remotely now, and the many I hear about from my friends who are teachers. Resilience is the word I keep hearing. Even the kindergarteners. Countless children living through an unknown we were not prepared for, and a set of caretakers/parents/adults over who are hiding their worry, or leaking their fears, or multitasking with an array of hats and identities. This homestay will etch itself into them for life, no matter how much routine their family has instilled or colored-coded daily schedules on the wall they check off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13.5pt;">And then there is writing. Teachers are scrambling for ways to get students to write, without assigning anything too daunting, or requiring research, because they can't oversee their web searches, and they can't lean over a kid's shoulder to coach their thinking and steer their writing in a sensible direction. Some are assigning literature responses, and finding a way to comment digitally, or create a video classroom discussion where writing is used in the classroom conversation. Others are being told by their districts that students aren't all able to access a computer and WIFI so teaching is banned completely. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13.5pt;">And districts have to find active emails for every parent, start a new email for the student in some cases, and rely on the family to remember the password and remember to log in at the same time every morning. Parents are calling me desperate for something their child can do for writing, that is independent, free, easy to navigate, guides the revision process, and checks their grammar. Well, I have a few of those, but each child needs something customized for them. More on that in the next blog. Questions welcome. I promise an answer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13.5pt;">And journals! Teachers are “encouraging” journals. More parent overwhelm at how to get their child to write something more than “I am in self-quarantine with my family.” Some teachers even have prompts each day, related to the school closures and global crisis, and spelling doesn't count, and the share it as a Google Doc and away they go. But mostly journals and free writes are a machinery part that is rusting, because the on a screen-based learning platform, moving images are the entrancing draw to kids - lockdown or no lockdown. The brain loves the fast movement of movies, TV, games, and Tik Tok clips. Writing moves to the very back row of the movie of homeschool. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13.5pt;">Like one 6th grade boy told me over video this week, " Writing is just SOOOO black and white." What to say to that? I mustered a response about how movies and video games start out as black and white scripts and scribbles (of characters, or scenes) and become colorful once on the screen. Same with book pages morphing into movies in our minds.<br /><br />My top ten list of books for 2019 included <a href="https://www.maryannewolf.com/reader-come-home-1" target="_blank">Reader, Come Home</a>, by Maryanne Wolf whom I have followed for years, sitting on the floor in the front of conference rooms just to be close to her voice while she presented. She hits a melodic midground note about the future of literacy, grieving the loss of letter-writing, while accepting the many ways the screen can help us communicate. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13.5pt;">More to come. </span></div>
Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-439699291112991872016-01-24T23:08:00.000-08:002016-01-24T23:09:41.337-08:00Workarounds Around Anxiety<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">School Phobia. It’s a thing. The newer, revised term
in the DSM V is School Refusal. Which
contains an active verb, plus it conjures up more imagery, so of course I that
works a little better for me. “You are a ‘strong verb machine,’” shrugged one
of my writing students. I discover School
Phobia as I look at page 16 of this jargon-ish medical report on a new
student where it lists the diagnosis: Written Expression Disorder, Anxiety, and
School Phobia. I am well-versed in reading reports on dyslexic profiles, or
ADD, but this was a little out of my league. I wondered why the doctor was not
up on the new term. But the parents were exasperated. Or…anxious. Hmmm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Stacks of
paperwork follow this kid around, with variant diagnoses. Picture a 13-year old
lanky boy frozen in the pre-dawn hours, while over-educated parents futilely
try to budge him to get out of bed to school. Or they succeed in getting him
out the door, but he won’t walk to the bus. Or get in the car. Every incentive
has been tried. The pre-teen is passive and stoic, not aggressive and forceful.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><a href="http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/school-refusal-anxiety-disorders-personal-stories/"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“School
refusal takes its toll on families as well: “I spend all my time worried and
stressed. The situation becomes your only focus, all you can do, all you can
think about. Everyone in the family is affected.” (spoken by a mother)<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">These parents
are at their wit’s end. Didn’t I already say that? I guess I am using this
repetition as a rhetorical literary device to pain a picture of the family. The
boy is in a gifted program and tests well, but doesn’t put forth much effort
when it comes to writing, which I where I come in. Grades are way down. He
resists putting words onto a page or a screen, even with an app, or a software
tool. And on top of that, counselors have to wrench him from the bus or car
sometimes to get him inside school. So the experts at school are at their wit’s
end also. He is a mystery, with an added side dish of having a twin who has
none of these issues! And a further oddity is that he actually does has a small
tribe of friends who bring out the ham in him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">My first step
is to step into to his inner world and imagine his emotional state if I envision
being forced to go to a football camp in the rain, that might be close. For me.
I have no interest in football and have never had a single success with it.
Like him with auditory input and writing. School – and especially middle school
- is all about both of these. At football camp I would be scared of the ball
smacking my skin - if I was lucky enough to catch it – and I would resist uncomfortable
gear and padding, the whole time feeling unsteady on my feet due to mud. I
would hide deep under the covers also. And then there are all those football
rules (like grammar) which I have never been able to keep track of. A recipe
for shut-down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So at our
first session, I connect without demanding eye contact, as his parents
introduce him. I simply make jokes and acknowledge that he is coming to work
with me on what is hardest for him. I have to do a body language move to sever
some of the glue between the parents and him, who answer for him or finish his
sentences. I ask if he can explain why he is here. “To help me with my writing.”
I have to say, “Let him finish” to his parents. But he doesn’t. Finish. I usher
all of them into my office. So much has been revealed already. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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I want to have the answer. The key. And sometimes the Disneyland part of me
wants a panacea, or happy ending. I have some inroads. I have some research. I
have some success stories. But if I had a way into the mind of a gifted kid who
puts a padlock around himself when words on the page are called for, I would be
a millionaire. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Parents and
special ed. teachers and learning specialists like myself have tried the gamut
of tricks. I interview this student a bit about what happens in his head when
writing assignments or prompts are given, and we uncover that he doesn’t like
the idea of rough and final drafts, and that he spends time thinking about how
to write something that won’t require any revision. Common. Stuck in the “if it
is perfect there will be only one draft” rabbit hole.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">With students
like this, the typical school procedures for teaching writing often fall flat.
Many of the whole language techniques teachers are accustomed to focus on harvesting
memories into writing journals. These are events from children’s lives,
collections of topics and activities that they enjoy, or nuggets of things that
have happened in school, to be used as starting points for writing. These
writing journals are filled with words and pictures and half-finished lists and
drafts that never got revisited. A scrapbook of ideas. Ideally. But not so for
my students. Teachers also excel at giving creative prompts, or practicing
brainstorming on topics. Then the drafting and revising process can begin, and
the choice of what to write about is vast. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why are these
methods unhelpful for our reluctant, anxious, school-phobic writers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Too many
choices. More anxiety. No parameters (about length, expectations for how many
sentences in each paragraph, how many transition words, what to do if you
forgot a detail of the field trip, etc.) This level of detail would make some
writers feel constricted, but too much freedom constricts certain kid writers. Fear
about getting it accurate undermines any joy they might have in expressing
themselves. Plus, we are asking for emotions in the characters, or in the
persuasive piece, and some students simply aren’t wired that way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is a
whole <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Autism-Discussion-Page-challenges-autism/dp/1849059942/ref=sr_1_2/188-0318223-5775841?ie=UTF8&qid=1452667829&sr=8-2&keywords=Bill+Nason">new truckload of research</a> on how certain “spectrum brains”
cannot simultaneously process sensory input while also giving language to it.
Two sections of the brain that don’t fire together naturally. So when recalling
personal experiences or events, these children reach by default for facts, since
language for emotions might not be readily available. This wreaks havoc in an
innocuous personal narrative assignment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They either list details with an aching exactitude, or stop mid-sentence
because they cannot recall what happened precisely. What is present is the monotonous
car ride, or the treehouse, or the bus stop crowd, but not the sensations or
emotions coupled with them. There is a sequenced micro list of events, but not
the thrill, or nervousness, or humor involved. So we have to reconfigure our
expectations. And meet them halfway. Add a single emotion, I might say, instead
of insisting on lacing the whole piece with feeling and mood. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back to my
anxious teen! I simply suggested Quick Writes, and dad thought it was a good
start, since this kid had never really been given any low-pressure writing or
brainstorming to do. He agreed to try, but his pen did not move. He agreed to
try – at home. (and he did do it, and we did another in our second session). He
had some prompts from me, but could also choose his own topic. He chose one of
mine. Rules: No punctuation. No stopping. Keep writing.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY2co8qeDXVN0QK9eznBbENXzbhyphenhyphenwpwF0mXb_mkRKhOjglPD3kLTj86btcWhIiP6h9RFZmEz1sCjR48cW84In67Lm2MoTVKpU8Z0VvuVO0eR4_1PQjsk_0bSybCBKmfoGYzC09DJU0f6i5/s1600/Picture3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY2co8qeDXVN0QK9eznBbENXzbhyphenhyphenwpwF0mXb_mkRKhOjglPD3kLTj86btcWhIiP6h9RFZmEz1sCjR48cW84In67Lm2MoTVKpU8Z0VvuVO0eR4_1PQjsk_0bSybCBKmfoGYzC09DJU0f6i5/s320/Picture3.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_4" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" style="height: 207pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 244pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was so
nervous about how to get this kid to respond with anything other than low
affect. Just zero emotion. And yet I could sense the deep grief under his long
hair and glazed-over look. Halfway through the longer-than-my-usual-hour
consult, I figured they were going to opt out of working with me, because I
could not get this kid to talk or write or move his brain or body an inch. It
was scary to imagine how his parents deal with this frozenness, and the “I
don’t want to go to school” issue. I asked what goes on in his head when he
says he cannot write, and he has too many, rather than not enough, thoughts. And
other kids it is the blank slate. But can we really have an empty mind? These
don’t seem like special enlightened gurus sitting in front of me at my tutoring
table. I mean, seeing nothing in your mind is pretty doubtful, but I always run
with it anyway. We put it on his goals list to be able to write those picture
or thoughts instead of sit and wait for the best thought to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So back to school phobia. These students
often thought they were really smart in grade school, when they were doing
well, and not as much writing nuance was required, but now they are frightened
that they are not smart, because, well, emotions, literary analysis, and excessive
revision enter the academic stage. They are scared that their writing difficulty
means that they are, in fact, not smart like they thought they were.
Furthermore, they worry that if they try hard and still do poorly, they really
prove there is something wrong with their brain. So instead of digging in and
doing what it takes to succeed, they start withdrawing from school and questioning
their abilities. <br />
<br />
I wanted to end on an UP note, but I will have to do it by picture, not words. </span><span style="font-family: "palatino linotype";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-59612366511375129462016-01-09T21:57:00.000-08:002016-01-09T22:40:06.717-08:00Geek is the New Black<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Except for the fact(s?) that parents in this tech mecca of
Seattle fight their way into private schools, hoping to spawn the next Steve
Jobs, the average home sale goes to the highest bidder with $400K in cash, and
the most stressful parking lot is the I-5 freeway, I love this town. And I get
the rarified honor of teaching the digital, I mean the NEXT, generation!
Digitized Giddy Geekdom is my latest term for the West Coast cities of chip and
software worship.</div>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Emerald City is touted as child-friendly, and is infused
with large city parks with newfangled play equipment. It is notably dog-friendly,
with plenty of cafes and bars that allow canines into the social milieu, and doggie
day cares that cost more than preschool. It attracts tourists with views of the
mountains and cuisine offerings from hole-in-the-walls to menus you can’t
pronounce. It also attracts Amazonitrons, or Micro-managed-softies, in droves, which
drive up prices of condos to half a million for a bread box with a view of the
water if you stand on tiptoe on one side of the skinny deck. Seattle is either
in its glory or its downfall. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">We love our bookstores, barista culture, and theater companies,
and anything that tourists do not do. Case-in-point: It is hip to have a friend
who LIVES on a houseboat, but not hip to to take the tour boat that drives by
the rows of them. We get to feel different, on the cutting edge, maverick-y and
mellow from all the negative ions, and, by-the-way, better than Portland
because we have more ferries, to islands where commuters or communists or
conservatives live, depending on the island and what news station you listen to
for demographic reports.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is fun to live in a city where intellectual humor reigns.
We see it in A-frame signs on the sidewalk, or at the side of the espresso
machine, on a chalkboard, with a daily trivia teaser. These are more than just
puns – they are serious, well-thought out brain teaser humor. Giddy geekdom at
its finest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">A not-so-Mensa sandwich board</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgacwubwZTr5osBDv1SDMS0618OsfI77EvSE7b_2iNQzsBfVa4LgY_LBenl1t9qfCnNVDv3cCfrIEED1kK_-9QkLB3fW_5AgoI_aH5qNWPNv7MtmAulYwd06EEkM89TCOasKrDQwaPVKrGY/s1600/Picture3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgacwubwZTr5osBDv1SDMS0618OsfI77EvSE7b_2iNQzsBfVa4LgY_LBenl1t9qfCnNVDv3cCfrIEED1kK_-9QkLB3fW_5AgoI_aH5qNWPNv7MtmAulYwd06EEkM89TCOasKrDQwaPVKrGY/s200/Picture3.png" width="150" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> And cinematic chuckles</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcM8KyEgQUtJKQTpp55syfMAZdGMX2QpD0j11RejlnmcDAr66lD7dL64a3aUe0eTAcGW-m_g4xbKc3yC0h21JdJyMmn2d3RFX4icPuIWz15sz0DzmHgGtGUVIdq5eI9CXeTLBvkkX875UM/s1600/Picture2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcM8KyEgQUtJKQTpp55syfMAZdGMX2QpD0j11RejlnmcDAr66lD7dL64a3aUe0eTAcGW-m_g4xbKc3yC0h21JdJyMmn2d3RFX4icPuIWz15sz0DzmHgGtGUVIdq5eI9CXeTLBvkkX875UM/s200/Picture2.png" width="140" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The kind of missive written on a makeshift chalkboard propped up at the counter where the barista shouts out your drink.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5hvzKhPVYt7nGkawhVqEA9joVoR0f6aARQhdQeRzR7jYlvxsayq0dIz18cxn3jWBK4XKG5_beQnsQ9Vxv1oNrNhM8u0G3c6CDOs21xM1930nOyB_Ll25gK5wryeuA0wXOm47cnoOxXYzS/s1600/Picture1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5hvzKhPVYt7nGkawhVqEA9joVoR0f6aARQhdQeRzR7jYlvxsayq0dIz18cxn3jWBK4XKG5_beQnsQ9Vxv1oNrNhM8u0G3c6CDOs21xM1930nOyB_Ll25gK5wryeuA0wXOm47cnoOxXYzS/s200/Picture1.png" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Steeped in this brainia arena, Seattle-ite adults easily
find intellectual stimulus, such as lecture series or book talks – even edgy
humor in the form of monologue-ish performance art. And their kids find solace in other friends
who think like them. With chess online, tournaments in backgammon, multi-player
video games, and the History Channel accessible on any device, I watch my
students geek-out about number statistics, winning stats of players in
countries they can’t pronounce, and date facts. This is the new kool, and while
not a piece of fully researched data, the trend of bullying of nerdy types is
down, and the coolness of brain power is up. Soft research stat: Costume stores
report increases in Nerd outfits for Halloween.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">I am not allowed to use the word Asperger’s, since it has been removed
from the DSM-V, but the highest per capita of spectrum-y kids (loose school
psychologist slang) live in Seattle and Silicon Valley. And many are the
strugglers and stragglers in writing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of my 5<sup>th</sup> graders <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was asked to describe his ideal day at middle
school, as part of an application process for a special “choice” school. (6<sup>th</sup>
– 8<sup>th</sup>) and he wrote this sentence:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“I do not have enough empirical evidence to write on this.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">And proceeded to sit for the rest of the 15 minutes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Another student of mine had an assignment to describe the
character’s hidden motivations in a classic novel. He “could not find any”, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crash</i>, by Jerry Spinelli, which is a
classic coming-of-age story and has many subplots about acceptance and taking a
stand for oneself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Writing a 2-paragraph
paper took hours and hours. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">If I had the key to unlocking the writer inside each of
these budding geeks, who take life oh-so-literally, argue their way out of writing
assignments, and make their parents bite their tongue so as not to scream, I
would be a mega-millionaire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-45864667852214270672015-04-03T14:30:00.002-07:002015-04-03T14:30:08.198-07:00Ease Email-Writing Stress: 7 Tips for Adults with ADHD<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #993300; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', sans-serif; font-size: 2.4rem; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.2;"><a href="http://adhdrollercoaster.org/the-basics/ease-email-writing-stress-7-tips-for-adults-with-adhd/" target="_blank">The Goldilocks Email – 5 Tips for Writing a Just-Right-Sized Email</a></span></h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', sans-serif; font-size: 2rem; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 2.4rem;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">By Kendra Wagner, MA</span></h3>
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Jason works in a real estate office, answering phones and greeting customers. When the office is slow, he hops online to finish a web-based course; that is the final hoop to jump through to become licensed as a realtor. He enjoys being able to log-in and do a little bit of reading and quizzing himself, and then do something else. A lot of his job, though, involves email.</div>
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Jason has ADHD.</div>
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Jason hasn’t told anyone that he dreads emails and would much prefer just to call people! Emailing creates an anxiety that has sent him home sweating over whether an email was too long, too strong, or too robotic. No one gave him a list of Do’s and Don’t’s when he started.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 2.6rem; padding: 0px;">
His work requires e-mailing to realtors about home sale updates, walk-in customers, or mortgage paperwork that finally arrived via FedEx. Sometimes agents will call him from their car and dictate an email for him to write. This takes laser focus, but he has an app that records the call so that he can replay it while typing.</div>
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Because many of his emails are received by realtors or mortgage brokers who are out in the field, they need an email that is concrete, detailed, and not too lengthy because they are likely reading it on their smart phone. Let’s call this the “just right” or “Goldilocks” email.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Why Is Email So Difficult For Many People with ADHD?</span></h3>
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Why is this difficult for Jason and many other people with ADHD? And, how can the process be made easier?</div>
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A brief history lesson first.</div>
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Electronic mail as we know it today began in 1982. It was limited to users with certain types of computers, who communicated with a narrow tribe of other professionals. It was later used by the general public in the 1990s as a way for co-workers to send short notices to each other without walking down an aisle of cubicles.</div>
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The evolution of e-mail’s use has expanded enormously. Now it is the preferred mode of communication for family, friends, potential employers, customer service reps. and even dog walkers. (By the way, it has lost its hyphen and is now written as email—shortened even further in “text speak” to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">e-m</em>.)</div>
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What started off as a time-saver has become a time warp. That is, many of us awaken to a full inbox and either avoid it altogether or lose track of time after telling ourselves, “I’ll just take a minute to respond to a couple of e-mails.” Minutes turn into hours, which vanish in a flash.</div>
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A whole host of strategies fly around the cybersphere regarding how to read, save, categorize, and time-manage e-mail. But how do you <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">write</em> an email in a way that makes it</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: decimal;">Easy to compose</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: decimal;">Certain to be read</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: decimal;">Convey your point</li>
</ol>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">People with ADHD Can Go to Extremes—No News There</span></h3>
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At one extreme, in the name of perfection, we pore over an email for hours—or save it to review days later and further revise. At the other extreme, we type furiously fast and don’t check it for precision of content, tone, grammar, and repetitiveness. Then we press “send” too soon.</div>
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Regarding the perfectionism scenario: A little grandiosity check might be order here. Remember that the recipient spends a fraction of the time reading your email as you did composing it. Most likely, the recipient <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">skims</em> your email rather than reading it like a novel.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Think: stacks of resumes.</em> No one reads every word of those. And, it is the same with “stacks” of e-mail.</div>
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Obviously, neither pattern (perfectionistic or slap-dash) will assist us in composing emails. Our email will not be awarded a zinger prize for being well executed and grammatically perfect, especially if it’s days or even weeks late. Nor will it be hung out to dry in a news headline as an example of impulsivity gone amok.</div>
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Instead of becoming preoccupied with how you will be “judged” on the e-mail, try to think only about the message you want to communicate.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Seven Tips To Ease Your E-mail Writing</span></h3>
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How then to ease your e-mail writing process?</div>
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Let’s go back to the resume analogy. The prevailing wisdom when penning a resume is to emphasize what you did at “1-2-3” Company, using strong verbs and specific nouns. That way, the human resources team can quickly pick out the essence of your strengths, without any story. This guideline applies to most emails in a workplace, or between contractors and clients, etc.</div>
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With that in mind, consider these seven tips:</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">1</span>. <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Before you write, talk it out – to yourself or someone else</span></div>
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This works for we ADHD folks, because it narrows our tendency to think wide and big. Emails need a narrow focus. You can even do a voice recording on an app first.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">2. Use a concrete subject line</span></div>
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A clear subject line helps further to focus your thoughts. It also tell the recipient that you’ll get to the point quickly.</div>
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Remember: Some of your e-mail recipients are busy people, full of responsibilities. They might receive hundreds of e-mails every day. They actually don’t open each one; instead, they scan the subject lines to see which ones might be important—or they simply open the ones from people they know. So an exact subject line is vital.</div>
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Nothing vague, such as, “Hello.”</div>
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Nothing overly solicitous, such as “May I ask you a question about ______?”</div>
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Instead, make it specific and inviting: “3 new design ideas for Summer Brochure”</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">3. Use strong verbs and clear “When and Where” statements</span></div>
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Using strong verbs makes it easier for the reader to quickly grab the gist of your communication. It also makes you sound more definitive and accountable—something we all aspire to!</div>
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With practice, this can improve your emails enormously. Careful not to go overboard. You risk sounding like a drill sergeant.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">NO: “We are done with the project today and are ready to get to the next one.”</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">YES: “We <span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: underline;">finished</span> project XYZ at 3 p.m. and are <span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: underline;">preparing</span> to work on the next one.</em></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">4. Get to the point quickly</span></div>
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Start out with “Hello” or simply reply with your written response. No need to write, “Dear Mrs. __________”. That is for formal letters.</div>
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Write in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">short</em> paragraphs, or bullet points.</div>
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No lengthy background information.</div>
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Appeal to our human nature of “What’s in this for me?” when possible.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">5. When making requests, ask politely but not for too much</span></div>
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Make any requests without apologizing, but be short and sweet. Offer something in return when possible.</div>
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Give a specific action and your specific ideal deadline. No stories and excessive background information.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Example:</em> (when asking for information, dates, or advice)</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: circle;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">I would like to leave early Friday, April 3rd, and stay later on Monday, April 5th.</em></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: circle;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Will you edit the attached letter and send it back by Tuesday at 5?</em></li>
</ul>
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Above all, be informal but courteous. Your tone and body language are missing in an email, so rely on crisp sentences and a fairly non-emotional style.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Remember:</em> Jokes can be easily misread. When you really know a co-worker or business contact, a bit of humor can be woven into emails, but only if you’ve spent time face-to-face. Otherwise, avoid.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">6. DON’T SHOUT!</span></div>
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Text written in ALL CAPS is extremely difficult to read. Moreover, some people regard it as unseemly and rude, like SHOUTING at someone close at hand.</div>
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Restrain your use of ALL CAPS in email to solitary words that need further emphasis (or, better yet, use <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">italics</em> or <span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: underline;">underlining</span> for that purpose, if your e-mail client provides for that treatment).</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">7. Find a writing coach</span></div>
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If simply reading this post about email composition makes you nervous, look for a writing coach. Sometimes, educational therapists or even professional organizers with an emphasis in business skills also can help streamline the process of writing e-mails, reports, and so forth.</div>
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For more e-mail writing strategies, check out this article at Fast Company, <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3041594/work-smart/the-unwritten-rules-of-writing-emails" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0091b2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">The Unwritten Rules of Writing Emails</a>.</div>
Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-40895731428579628552014-08-15T21:24:00.003-07:002014-08-15T21:24:23.986-07:00Homework Strategies for Making Life Easier for ADHD Kids (and their parents)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Guest Expert </b></div>
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<b>On </b></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.impactadhd.com/" target="_blank">IMPACT ADHD: Helping Parents Help Kids</a><br /></b></div>
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<o:p> H</o:p><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">ome
work. Those two words seem mismatched.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Home
is where you can chill, be yourself, and get a little break from “work.” And
yet h</span>omework is what every child dreads. And parents, too!</div>
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So who can blame kids<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a> for not wanting
to do their homework?</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6kwls0J-36NY2HswIRupvajyeKxTGS3KbdMqkyWJ1jvJj1WlwQncGxo5UI6lm1dqGQ-fSKPbNrrAsBdEbMansOOfHhEHDSPqGGU96wUOfKXGpJItpcx8TL6GAr-BdYDQSsvha1wNrHB3/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6kwls0J-36NY2HswIRupvajyeKxTGS3KbdMqkyWJ1jvJj1WlwQncGxo5UI6lm1dqGQ-fSKPbNrrAsBdEbMansOOfHhEHDSPqGGU96wUOfKXGpJItpcx8TL6GAr-BdYDQSsvha1wNrHB3/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div>
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As parents, we understand that homework reinforces lessons
learned from the school day. Revisiting material and practicing skills is
fruitful. However, if you’re reading this, you probably have stories that prove
otherwise. Attention-challenged children struggle because of problems unrelated
to the specific homework assignment:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>dis</b>traction
during the lesson, </div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>dis</b>enchantment
with the topic, </div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>dis</b>may
by how long it takes to answer a single question</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>dis</b>combobulation
by all the important information in front of them</div>
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Homework also assumes that all children have stay-at-home
moms who are “on call” to help – which is not exactly true in this day and age!</div>
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Since our smart but scattered children aren’t naturally
supplied with minds that can keep track of due dates and directions, here are
some pointers to ease their challenge. But remember – the most important thing
you can do to help your child,by far, is to notice what she or he does well,
and encourage it.</div>
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Here are 5 homework strategies to get you started:</div>
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<b>Choices<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Allow your children to help you establish their homework
routine.</div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]-->Right after school or later?</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Broken into time segments?</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->With or without music?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->At a desk or the kitchen counter? (or changing,
depending on the day)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Foster Independence<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Around 5<sup>th</sup> grade, a major goal can be
independence with homework. From start to finish, the parent should assist –
not nag to completion. You can gradually help your child less and less, and
still expect high quality work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Only help when your child wants it.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Remember that it’s their work – not yours.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Reward for independence, being organized,
sticking to a time schedule, etc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Visual Charts<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Large white boards are great, ideally one for each child. If
you don’t have room, substitute it with a white piece of paper inside a
transparency sheet (the dry-erase part is important). Designate a special place
on the wall for it. Use it to make charts that track homework topics or nightly
reading. Use abbreviations or humor to simplify and keep your child’s
attention.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Boxes on the chart can also list homework assignments and estimations
for how long they should take to finish. It’s beneficial to an ADD mind to
track time elapsing. After the work is done, write down how long it actually
took to track time management.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Physical Space <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">A
desk. The kitchen table. The treehouse. Which is best for learning and
focusing? Some children may need to do homework in the same place each night.
Some need novelty. While they all learn and respond to different stimuli, they
need consistency with the basics:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Comfortable, flat surface</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Well-lit from above</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Not too far from the printer, if a middle or
high schooler</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Quiet (except possible headphones)</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Free from distraction</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->No clutter</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Stocked with needed materials</div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Fidgets that help focus (not
distract)</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Paperwork – Breathe, and Scan
Everything!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Keeping track of the endless reading logs, rubrics, drafts,
and study sheets seems impossible! Maintaining their original condition is even
more difficult. This is where technology is your friend. Teachers who post
documents on their websites are saviors. Scan any blank reading logs or
assignments to keep on record at home. It also helps to color code folders and
notebooks.</div>
Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-28254749468603704692014-06-19T22:39:00.001-07:002014-06-19T22:39:13.988-07:00Taming the Octopus - The Many Arms of Writing: Common Core<a href="http://tamingtheoctopus-themanyarmsofwriting.blogspot.com/2014/06/common-core.html?spref=bl">Taming the Octopus - The Many Arms of Writing: Common Core</a>: Okay, outta the way with my accusatory statements about Common Core and then we can get on to other topics in another blog post. I co...Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-45411266049419682822014-06-15T23:45:00.002-07:002014-06-15T23:49:23.599-07:00Common Core<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMWwdcymXl5vV6U0_w_qa-u45v9Z6RBJJnRt9maYJoQkq31ympVgiQBnXjVdxUjxHiyelRvwPi7Hqc4OA8irfkwLBvyr8cbUoDUTLu2thRCgFQ06u-qEOo7bClltvOJ4R3tmqRA_EHyvx/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMWwdcymXl5vV6U0_w_qa-u45v9Z6RBJJnRt9maYJoQkq31ympVgiQBnXjVdxUjxHiyelRvwPi7Hqc4OA8irfkwLBvyr8cbUoDUTLu2thRCgFQ06u-qEOo7bClltvOJ4R3tmqRA_EHyvx/s1600/images.jpg" height="238" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Okay, outta the way with my accusatory statements about Common Core and then we can get on to other topics in another blog post.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I could actually argue FOR or AGAINST the CC, with my ammunition of evidence and citations, to use a little lingo from the well-known source itself. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>I am becoming - via the Internet - uh oh - some sort of expert on the <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/" target="_blank">Common Core Standards</a> because:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">a) I spend a lot of time translating and navigating convoluted assignments given to my students in approx. 4th - 10th grade. Which are based on the Common Core. While I can beat the drum of critical thinking just as much as the average administrator, I also know that developmentally <span style="color: #cc0000;">the writing brains of 11 year-olds are not ready for this level of argument.</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Talk about turning a kid OFF to writing!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> "Write and alternate ending to the short story, </span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <a href="http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/rue.pdf" target="_blank">Murders in the Rue Morgue</a> </span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> and analyze the two main character's motives in one paragraph, using textual evidence."</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">b) I like to find out what is on the minds of the majority of stressed-out teachers in the U.S., given that they are the unsung heroes and they don't really get their own form of Veteran's Day to honor their sacrifice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">c) I used to teach in a school where we had to turn in precise lesson plans to our principal, with the numerical listing of the Illinois State Standard right alongside them. It didn't make me a better teacher, but I learned to write tiny, and could spout some lingo in the standards to said principal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">d) I was initially excited years ago about the concept of standards being aligned between states. "Clear goals and confident, well-prepared students." It sounded so hopeful! Just like in this video!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://vimeo.com/51933492" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core State Standards</span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">e) Since some families move a lot, and teachers do too, it sounded promising. Plus, when I traveled and presented staff development I had to re-learn some particular differences between states. Confusing. Finally we could have the same oral reading fluency benchmarks, fractions taught in a hands-on way at about the same point in 4th grade, and history key points would not be sanitized of the Native American's impact on our country.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">f) I am assisting two homeschooling families in teaching using CC starting next year. We don't have a principal observing our lessons, but we have to turn in monthly reports proving we did academically worthy, Common Core stamped of approval-ness instruction.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am happy to find sources like this to pick and choose from. Phew. Lessons and example writings from actual kids, and a fairly easy-to-use website.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://achievethecore.org/dashboard/300/search/1/1/0/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12" target="_blank">ACHIEVE THE CORE</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And then there are those techie people who save the day with websites like this one, where we have a fashion runway of apps and software to make teaching life easier or more complicated, depending on how organized or techie the reader of the website is!</div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.newschooltechnology.org/2014/01/googleapps-ccss/" target="_blank">Reflections on Google Apps for Common Core ELA</a></span></h2>
<h1 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1em;"><br /></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1em;">I am going to rebelliously NOT wrap this up with a neat little conclusion, because this was not a "5-paragraph essay" and it is midnight. </span></h1>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-72365980388904857182014-04-24T23:47:00.001-07:002014-04-24T23:47:39.252-07:00Spray and Pray<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Teachers who work with struggling readers think that they need more choice, and more freedom, and more time. Actually, NON-struggling writers need those things. Let's revisit the "Spray and Pray" strategy that teachers execute without knowing the anxiety they might be causing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They tell a 5th grade class to write realistic fiction piece, with a certain amount of dialogue, and inner and outer character conflict. As a class they examine good models from well-known children's authors. ("Mentor Texts"). Then they are "free" to write. This is what <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na_ClWpcNYg" target="_blank">Anita Archer</a> calls "Spray and Pray."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So many times one of my students comes to my office and after much inquisitive wrangling from me admits that he has sat and "tried to think of something to write" for the last two days during writer's workshop time. I dig down to see if they had an idea but nixed it because it wasn't perfect, or had an idea for a story but didn't know how to start, or had a blank brain and couldn't find a thread of a story. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And then there are those students who have an idea, but they want the FIRST Draft to be perfect so no revising will be asked of them, so they freeze.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is where I pull out all the tools and practically decoupage my desk space with word lists, brainstorm guides, pre-write organizers, sentence starters, and so much more. And Color - Coding helps too with their first brainstorm or rough draft, for categories, or all of the W's and How.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xTE7Tbk_83c/U1oD4GA2iqI/AAAAAAAAB2c/cHnGSd-uEfw/s1600/images+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xTE7Tbk_83c/U1oD4GA2iqI/AAAAAAAAB2c/cHnGSd-uEfw/s1600/images+(1).jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">As for ME....</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">I have 5 writing projects going at once, and my mind is batty like my pin-ball machine students.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Let's see, taking my own advice, I would first tell a student to write them down and look at the list and decide what CAN be done, in the next day.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">So here is the dirty almost half dozen:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">(at least each of them are over halfway complete)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">1) My book on teaching writing to kids who struggle with writing. Working Title: "But I hate writing..." - Teaching a small step at a time to reluctant writers. Not very sexy. Not like, "Finding the joy in writing - Igniting the love of writing in all ages and stages."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">2) A Ted Talk that someone dared me to write about the extensive closure ceremony with my ex husband on January 1st, after 8 months of nudging it to occur.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">3) An article for a Twice Exceptional Newsletter for Parents, on teaching tips for written expression, for parents of Asperger-like kids.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">4) A tip sheet on ADHD kids and how to teach and parent them while keeping your sanity, for a Fall Support Group I am going to facilitate.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">5) My novel I haven't touched in 4 years and is forming cobwebs in my computer.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">I write a lot of emails.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">I write in my journal.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">I write in the margins of many kid's papers.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">YET</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">I don't write for extended periods of time in order to complete the above projects.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Do I hear an echo of irony in the tunnel of my professional trajectory?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On another note...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I have enjoyed watching some significant leaps in three of my resistant boy writers lately. They grasp the concept of "show don't tell" and it is no coincidence that all three of them are solid readers. This gives them that "ear" for language, and for elaboration.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I also heard from a former client. I worked with her daughter in 4th grade. Waldorf School. Loosey goosey about learning to read - so she needed decoding, and later she needed writing, since they presume that an exciting topic will launch deep writing. She needed to learn ways to write with coherence, using facts to back it up. Well, she has now won a mini award in high school for her composition. Well, that leaves a teensy weensy legacy in my corner of the universe.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-841427056265525562014-02-16T22:31:00.001-08:002014-02-16T22:35:54.342-08:00A New Species of Thesis: Delayed Thesis, Equation Thesis, and Anti-thesis <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BwNwQ7p2xto/UwGsXCbA3dI/AAAAAAAABX0/6WSkDY4wl2A/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BwNwQ7p2xto/UwGsXCbA3dI/AAAAAAAABX0/6WSkDY4wl2A/s1600/images.jpg" height="274" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #0000ee; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<u style="color: #0000ee; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://writerswhocare.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/uncertainty-as-an-opportunity/" target="_blank">Uncertainty as Opportunity</a></u><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0000ee; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, this phrase could be applied to a business strategy, philosophical treatise, spiritual discipline, or medical diagnosis. But in this case it was a blog post from this Valentine's weekend and stirred me to write on my blog for the first time since October. November was mom's health declining. December was her dying. January was the estate lawyer divining. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This high school girl in the blog post has a paper due that requires a "<span style="color: #cc0000;">delayed thesis</span>" - which simply means that she has to write some introductory gobbledy gook and then....drum roll: the final thesis statement in the first paragraph. Nothing new under the sun there, except that I have never heard that term.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Delayed has a slightly negative association with it. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And the phrase's fancy-ness makes it seem harder to master, in the mind of a high school sophomore.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The blog post is not particularly focused on the delayed thesis part, but rather on risk-taking, which I harp on as a teacher, and, in addition, that we should let students meander in the unknown of what it is to be a writer and not make them too attached to what the teacher wants.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Writing is an act of risk-taking on so many levels, emotionally, academically, personally, grammatically, artistically. You are on stage, improvising, constantly refining your craft, without any sense of the audience and how they are responding. And if I am going to follow Common Core Standards, then I absolutely must set-up and introduce this quote from the blog that I am referencing, lest the quote police drag me away to those dark and punitive essay catacombs. This is what the author wants us to grapple with in his writing on uncertainty:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"How might we create the conditions in our conversations with young people so that they see it’s okay to try something new, to feel like they have a legitimate stake in what they are trying so that the uncertainty and struggle is worth it?"</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And then there is the "<span style="color: red;">equation thesis</span>" where teachers literally take points off if your thesis does not wear the clothing of a math equation, where FACTS plus your ARGUMENT are woven eloquently together in a sentence that in my opinion ends up too long. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And the <span style="color: red;">antithesis</span> is when you are presenting a counter-argument.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here is the wording from my ballerina blonde very dyslexic high school junior's teacher:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Your essay is a deficient argument if it does not address antithetical evidence. You should anticipate the strongest objections to your argument, and expound their merits and limitations. Your antithesis should make clear how this idea would contradict or qualify your thesis. You should give evidence in favor of the antithesis, followed by analysis. You should always explain how this antithesis, if valid, impacts your overall thesis."</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Right now I have learned more about certain Civil War history and the Nazi sympathizer rocket scientists of the Cold War than I ever knew before. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Did every black person agree that slavery should be ended? How can we know? </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 22px;">Were most of the ground-breaking bomb makers and rocket scientists aware of what the Nazis were really up to, as they toiled in their laboratories with geeky but Hitler-loving fellow engineers?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 22px;">Thesis-itis. I tell students we write with thesis statements but we never talk with them.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And then I surprise them with a personal truth:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 22px;">I Did Not Learn All of This Until College.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-26648410887059975502013-10-01T22:54:00.002-07:002013-10-01T22:54:22.544-07:00Okay, so it was October instead of August when I finally wrote a blog post. Been reading a bunch of them, on everything from cancer to restoring our wildness, to learning to sing again, and yoga. I am living by the credo, though, of "Thou shalt not read blogs on divorce." It has been freeing not to do that, but instead do my own grieving, in my own living room, without expensive therapists, but a great journal and a whole lotta girlfriends on the phone.<br />
Where was I? Blogs. Oh yeah, and Anne Lamont, and anything about reading and writing and, UGH(!) the Common Core. Much in the blogosphere that is being talked about on that topic. Teachers generally feel a sense of feeling hemmed in, and having to get up to speed on new vernacular, and teach aspects of literacy that are way above their student's heads and truly don't spark boys.<br />
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<i>"Analyze <u>The Westing Game</u> and take notes on how the character's reveal their inner dialogue using the writer's inferred figurative language and write an essay from your notes on the theme of courage and speaking up for oneself."</i></div>
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Alright, I invented that one, but it was easy to blast out in writing because i have read many like it. The boys just yawn and get further turned off to reading and writing. (remember, Common Core authors, boys lag in development of cognition and emotional acuity, compared to girls, and they like more concrete things than inferences about character's moods and feelings!)<br />
So I continue to do the two-step dance:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Upp4Ochx3EY/UkuzN3p1dQI/AAAAAAAAArc/nN3bRe9euVk/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Upp4Ochx3EY/UkuzN3p1dQI/AAAAAAAAArc/nN3bRe9euVk/s1600/download.jpg" /></a></div>
Liking the more specific and "aligned-between-state-lines" aspect of the Common Core, and disliking the over-emphasis on argumentative writing, which is not developmentally appropriate for a 5th grader, who doesn't know how to stand their ground, much less do they have the life experience to write 2 whole pages about a topic that they are arguing in favor of, or against. Talk about an equation for turning kids off to writing.<br />
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I mean, I work with kids who experience a breakthrough when they can stick with a thought long enough to form it onto the paper in two sentences (even though their IQ is higher than mine). What are we to do with them, in an average classroom?<br />
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And these are kind of DUH, and I would add a lot of sub skills to the list. And cautionary notes about how Assistive Technology is not a panacea.<br />
I shortened each to the essential points (Common Core jargon there!)<br />
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<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #186593; font-weight: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/dysgraphia/seven-important-facts-about-supporting-students-with-writing-learning-disability" target="_blank">Seven Facts About Learning Disabilities and Written Expression</a></span></h1>
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<ol style="background-color: white; color: #2d434a; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 25px;">
<li style="vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How can parents tell if a school’s writing program is effective? In addition to providing accommodations and modifications for students with LD, it should include explicit teaching of critical writing skills, processes and knowledge as well as less formal techniques like teacher-student conferences and peer-to-peer editing.<br /></span></li>
<li style="vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One research-validated approach to teaching writing to students with LD is Self-Regulated Strategy Development for Writing (SRSD). Teachers using SRSD guide students through a process that includes:<br /></span><ul style="list-style: none outside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 675px;">
<li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.ncld.org/templates/ncld_2009/images/bullet.gif); background-position: 0px 7px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; list-style-image: none; padding: 0px 0px 5px 10px; vertical-align: middle; width: 675px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Developing and activating students’ background knowledge</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.ncld.org/templates/ncld_2009/images/bullet.gif); background-position: 0px 7px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; list-style-image: none; padding: 0px 0px 5px 10px; vertical-align: middle; width: 675px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Discussion of students’ current abilities and self-regulation ability</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.ncld.org/templates/ncld_2009/images/bullet.gif); background-position: 0px 7px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; list-style-image: none; padding: 0px 0px 5px 10px; vertical-align: middle; width: 675px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Explicit teaching and memorization of strategies</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.ncld.org/templates/ncld_2009/images/bullet.gif); background-position: 0px 7px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; list-style-image: none; padding: 0px 0px 5px 10px; vertical-align: middle; width: 675px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Closely working with the teacher for support at early stages of writing</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.ncld.org/templates/ncld_2009/images/bullet.gif); background-position: 0px 7px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; list-style-image: none; padding: 0px 0px 5px 10px; vertical-align: middle; width: 675px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Finally, independent performance with teacher support only as necessary</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></li>
<li style="vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A common stumbling block in writing for students with LD is organization: keeping track of materials (e.g., note cards, research books) and in structuring/organizing an argument to support a thesis.<br /></span></li>
<li style="vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It often takes a child with LD twice as long (or more) as other students to simply copy a piece of writing. Tasks like copying from the board may be less appropriate for students with writing LD. Also, when planning <a href="http://www.ncld.org/students-disabilities/accommodations-education/accommodations-techniques-aids-learning" style="border: 0px; color: #00889c; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">accommodations</a> like extended time for testing, keep a student’s handwriting speed in mind.<br /></span></li>
<li style="vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.ncld.org/students-disabilities/assistive-technology-education/overview-assistive-technology" style="border: 0px; color: #00889c; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">Assistive technology</a> is increasingly opening doors to fluent writing for students with LD. Access to simple word processing software may be helpful to students who struggle with handwriting. Software with word prediction and screen reading capabilities is a powerful tool for many students.<br /></span></li>
<li style="vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many students with LD lack self-confidence in writing. Parents and teachers can help rebuild young writers’ confidence by teaching and developing writing strategies and self-monitoring the use of these strategies.<br /></span></li>
<li style="vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As with other types of LD, early intervention for dysgraphia and dyslexia—LDs that especially impact writing—is important. Students who have speech and language difficulties are another group at-risk for writing problems. </span></li>
</ol>
Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-77056539256610693392013-07-18T23:46:00.001-07:002013-07-18T23:46:17.778-07:00Is there a Pause Button ?<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My Blog is Not Dead!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I had a pause button, aka a 3-month, <a href="http://www.adele.tv/home/" target="_blank">Adele-addicted</a>, divorce fog hiatus. (And I tell my students not to go overboard writing odd strings of adjectives!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">New life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">New Affirmations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Along with brand new students and a brand new home/work space and brand new ways of greeting the mornings solo sans husband, who, despite reading the iconic book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0684835398" target="_blank">"I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret of Male Depression"</a>, slid into a shadow of grief and shred of his former self in the last year and finally said he could not "engage" anymore.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For over a decade he was a pillar of, model of, paragon of support, affection and representation of what men were capable of being: vulnerable, yet he could also fix an electrical short or a roof. But after losing his parents, then other losses toppling over the multi-layered mountain, he closed his nerves, eyes, heart, and sensitivities and became like my rusty stereotyped view of men!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So... in my private practice, in a much smaller office but an extremely organized space with lots of baskets and a downsized collection of books, I change brains and habits.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I have those boys who would rather be doing anything but writing, girls who have magnificent ideas but forget what they were when they put pen to paper, and everything in between. I said no to summer clients who wanted their children to spell better in first drafts, be able to write essays like the Common Core Standards criteria in 3rd grade, and more. I explained that I am not that kind of learning specialist.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I keep coming back to the 5 W's, sentence-level work, Show Don't Tell drills, and just creating topic sentences and titles practice, to build the Main Idea concept, and learn the six formulas for Topic Sentences so well that they can then go on and make their own templates.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Joyed to hear one student say that he was reading to find good sentences instead of just reading for blood and guts, (tends to read graphic novels with graphic horror).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For your summer reading, here is my article on <a href="http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/10080.html" target="_blank">Handwriting Tips for Parents</a>, in the recent issue of ADDitude.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 18px;">Next BLOG will be meat-ier, in August.</span></span><br />
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Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-42364687127469357832013-04-09T01:22:00.001-07:002013-04-09T01:22:28.552-07:00Common Core Standards <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Teachers are already up to their ears in tweaking and re-designing curriculum, staying on top of legalese, not to mention paperwork extraordinaire, plus technology integration and all the inservices <b>that</b> gives rise to. Then along come the <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/" target="_blank">Common Core State Standards</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am ALL for streamlining our goals and outcomes and assessment tools, but there is still a lot of wiggle room for teachers to interpret them however they want to, which can mean creativity, or mushy instruction. Each grade level sounds too much ilke the other. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cookie Cutters, anyone?</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6bxCQ9Pok5o/UWPNWGhdCjI/AAAAAAAAAO8/C6hwxOq3etw/s1600/cookie-cutter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6bxCQ9Pok5o/UWPNWGhdCjI/AAAAAAAAAO8/C6hwxOq3etw/s320/cookie-cutter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is a lot of "What" and not a lot of "How", from what I have read through. And let me tell you, it is a LOT to read through.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />The new writing terminology, which I see leaking into my student's HW that they bring me, is:</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>CLAIM / EVIDENCE / SUPPORT</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Okay? So? Same wolf, just fancy sheep's clothing that sounds more like a courtroom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am feeling old-fashioned now, longing for the familiar:</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Thesis / Supporting Details / Elaboration and Explanation</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And this is used in the primary grades, too! Talk about developmentally inappropriate!</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AfTMPS8xyBM/UWPPYtYfqQI/AAAAAAAAAPM/ejKs8twYVpE/s1600/125x120_culham.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AfTMPS8xyBM/UWPPYtYfqQI/AAAAAAAAAPM/ejKs8twYVpE/s200/125x120_culham.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.culhamwriting.com/" target="_blank">Ruth Culham</a>, seasoned educator and author, known by all in the Writing World, </span><a href="http://www.reading.org/general/Publications/blog/engage/engage-single-post/engage/2013/02/12/when-giants-unite-the-ccss-meet-the-4ws-of-writing" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">pretty much tells it like it is:</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (which always goes a long way in my book)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Writing instruction has been slow to change, in some measure due to its inherent complexity. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is, after all, thinking aloud on paper, and there is nothing easy about that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What we’re doing in writing instruction now isn’t working. CCSS or not, changes need to be made. According to The Nation’s Report Card (NAEP, 2012), only <span style="color: red;">27 percent of eighth graders are proficient in writing</span> and, of those students, only 3 percent are advanced.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She goes on to put forth the "4 W's" (and she is one who loves lists):</span></span><br />
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<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Writing process: the recursive steps writers go through to generate text</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Writing traits: the language used to assess and teach writing</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Writing modes: the purposes for writing</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Writing workshop: the structure of the writing classroom</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">These are not covered deeply enough in the Common Core Standards. That leaves parents to fill in the gaps, or specialists like me, or for students to lean on some kind of inherent gift for language and written expression. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">And I go further with those 4 W's, like <a href="http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/" target="_blank">IEW</a> does. We need to teach kids how to master language, have an ear for good word use, break down sentences into their kernels, examine how to construct a weak and then a strong sentence, and teach one or two concepts at a time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I had an interview at a private school a couple of weeks ago, and they point blank asked me why I would consider giving up my private practice. I said I wanted to have my evenings free and I don't want to spend my 50's marketing myself. They said I should play a bigger game and go to D.C. and lobby for good literacy instruction. Anyone want to fund that little endeavor?</span></span></div>
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Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-23901585557191964912013-02-01T22:29:00.000-08:002013-02-01T22:29:10.689-08:00Reading Like a Writer; Writing Like a Reader?<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">2 months.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Mayan Calendar Prophecies did not destroy humanity. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Shock and Numbness and then a thawing into rage about the Connecticut shootings.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Fine-tuning my submission to the talented and determined moms at IMPACT ADD:</span><br />
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<a href="http://impactadhd.com/featured-expert/using-the-magic-of-3-to-enhance-writing-skills-for-kids/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Using “The Magic of 3” to Enhance Writing Skills for Kids</span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">They kept saying I have to winnow it down because the audience is overwhelmed parents.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So hard to sound like you know what you are talking about when it is in a format that, in perspective, is sort of like a Super Bowl commercial. Not to dis dear <a href="http://impactadhd.com/about/elaine-taylor-klaus/" target="_blank">Elaine</a>, who is a do-gooder extraordinaire. She readily admits the irony that I am promoting and purporting to teach young and old minds alike how to write more concretely, thoroughly, specifically, elaborately, and powerfully, yet my guest writing piece had to be a shaved down version of all of those. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What I have been thinking about lately, besides my new shelter miniature pinscher and the swift morphing of my rational Taurean self into a bona fide crazy dog lady, is that </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #073763;">Writing remains hard and multi-faceted in its scope. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I regularly read </span><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/authors/a205/Anne-Lamott/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Anne Lamott</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, who writes about how out of a whole morning she gets a few stellar, keep-able sentences. Yes, she writes with both slang and broken grammar, about relying on the Bible and her own bodily nuances, but she is full of the touch of human frailty, with a sprinkle of non-TV humor on the top. Trivia Fact: She has almost 98,000 friends on her </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/AnneLamott?fref=ts" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Facebook Page</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This makes me more certain that good writing is way, way, way beyond just the "6 Traits"</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">......and that true masters of the craft are fewer and farther between than my "pie in the sky" "save the world via literacy" educator aspirations would have me believe.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And aren't all the teachers I talk to lately lamenting or adrenalized by (hah!) the Common Core Standards? They might not be the knight in shining armor we oh so hoped them to be. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Don't get me wrong; I am psyched to finally witness some through lines being established in the wide spread of states that we live in (purposely omitted the word "united")</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">When I am asked for my opinion, I say that I think they are great overall, yet the explicit sub-skills of writing instruction are missing. And if I was a child right now and was suddenly told, "no more story writing" I would start to hate writing. I did not grasp the "voice" of an expository writer until college, and then it all came into my cells very quickly. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But there are two sides to every argument:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">David Coleman, president of the College Board, who helped design and promote the Common Core, says English classes today focus too much on self-expression. “It is rare in a working environment,” he’s argued, “that someone says, ‘Johnson, I need a market analysis by Friday but before that I need <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/what-should-children-read/?src=recg" target="_blank">a compelling account of your childhood</a>.’ ”</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In true ADHD fashion, I am going to mention a classic book that I recommend and love, but that my students would loathe. So when I figure out the motivational and engagement piece about writing and reading, I will do a bang-up documentary, be on Oprah, and solve parent's teen problems. In the meantime, here is a plagiarized review of the book:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">"</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Like-Writer-Guide-People/dp/0060777052" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;" target="_blank">Reading Like a Writer</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">" is not a handbook or a manual. It is a love letter to the mysterious alchemy, the magic that occurs when a reader encounters a book, poem, or story that not only entertains him, but also moves and transforms him. Francine Prose's favorite writers may not be our favorites, but all readers who love literature will appreciate her enthusiasm and respect for the written word. Her suggestions about how to read more effectively are useful not just for budding writers but for anyone who would like to come away from a book with a deeper appreciation of the author's craft. As Prose says, "Reading this way requires a certain amount of stamina, concentration, and patience."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-70739907076894351612012-12-07T22:44:00.001-08:002012-12-07T22:46:16.990-08:00Color Theory<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">This week I practiced writing essays for entry applications to private high schools. </span><br />
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<li><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">3 different 8th Graders </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">9 different schools between the 3 of them </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">11 different prompts</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">They were not grateful to be applying to expensive schools that are going to stretch their thinking and assign harder writing than the entry essays. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">How do I explain that tuition is equivalent or higher to the poverty level income of a family of 4? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">@ $24,000</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">One had written a piece on an incident they learned a lesson from, and another on how he will manage his time as a high school student. This one was not expository - it more like a dream world of imagination that sounded very believable, if I didn't know the author of it! He can't manage his time, assignments, papers, laptop, due dates, and PC files. But he has learned to back up his arguments or important points with examples and elaboration, and he did. But out came my <strong><span style="color: #741b47;">highlighters</span></strong> to find repeated words, and sure enough, he had the word "manage" 7 times. Whew! Easy fix. I find that using <strong><span style="color: #7f6000;">highlighters</span> </strong>and looking for what IS there, instead of the bloody surgery tool of a red pen of what is not keeps them more attuned. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dXwEZEUqMs0/UMLfKGJohnI/AAAAAAAAAMo/cClTXIc9Ow0/s1600/mycorrections00012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="290" nea="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dXwEZEUqMs0/UMLfKGJohnI/AAAAAAAAAMo/cClTXIc9Ow0/s400/mycorrections00012.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In less than 90 seconds </span><a href="http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/color-coding/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">this video</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> explains one of the tools in my tool kit: <span style="color: purple;"><strong>color coding</strong>.</span><span style="color: black;"> Although this is</span> during brainstorming , in order to categorize your good ideas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Of course, there are many other <span style="color: #38761d;"><strong>color-coding</strong></span> benefits. <span style="background-color: white; color: #e06666;"><strong>Highlighters </strong></span>or<strong> </strong><span style="color: #783f04;"><strong>colored</strong> </span>pencils can be used on a hard copy, during revision, to discover whether there are too many of one thing, like adjectives, or too little of another, like transition words. One student <span style="color: yellow;"><strong>highlighted</strong> </span>his "Just then..." phrases in an assigned mystery story and there were over eight. That is simply too many. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_BOWTEE5Ge4/UMLfpBeHHYI/AAAAAAAAAMw/wKjq7HYy_cw/s1600/MPUGVCA8LYPF0CA6QQ47WCA2WYF5TCA12HULKCAH3Q2F7CA8HM2HXCA602WDVCADC8WGNCA2BQJWQCAP8ZHMYCA06GALSCAIKTR42CAZA4L02CANK1EM5CAK9U3RXCASZU92DCA7UIMRCCA8HQIG7CA2X3RJB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" nea="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_BOWTEE5Ge4/UMLfpBeHHYI/AAAAAAAAAMw/wKjq7HYy_cw/s200/MPUGVCA8LYPF0CA6QQ47WCA2WYF5TCA12HULKCAH3Q2F7CA8HM2HXCA602WDVCADC8WGNCA2BQJWQCAP8ZHMYCA06GALSCAIKTR42CAZA4L02CANK1EM5CAK9U3RXCASZU92DCA7UIMRCCA8HQIG7CA2X3RJB.jpg" width="141" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Thankfully, a follow-up on the October 16th Blog I posted: </span><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/10/what-does-science-tell-us-about-teaching-kids-to-think/263055/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Teaching Writing explicitly improves Reading Comprehension and Thinking Skills! </span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">A meta-analysis (</span><a href="http://her.hepg.org/content/t2k0m13756113566/"><span style="color: #00598c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Graham & Hebert, 2011</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">) summarized dozens of studies examining the impact of writing instruction on reading comprehension. The authors concluded that there is a consistent, positive effect, and argued for three classroom practices:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">1) More Writing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">2) Write about the texts they read in analytical formats</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">3) Explicit teaching of the skills and processes that go into creating text. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The New Dorp School's results are likely replicable, but the students were doing much more than just #1 above. That is like having piano students just play more. No. They learned underlying analytical skills, at the sentence level (my song and dance in this blog). Plus, writing was implemented in every single subject area, which opened the door for critical thinking.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_eyML__Q0uU/UMLX9Pe6UiI/AAAAAAAAAMY/EghNOCds0Kw/s1600/girlwritingandthinking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" nea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_eyML__Q0uU/UMLX9Pe6UiI/AAAAAAAAAMY/EghNOCds0Kw/s200/girlwritingandthinking.jpg" width="133" /></span></a></div>
<a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/11/14/12cc-writing.h32.html?cmp=clp-edweek&intc=EW-CC1112-EWH&tkn=ORXFQMGIsgvLNZFUW6%2F+X+TOF2ZaKOkW4REC" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">And another recent article on this Writing Revolution:</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">"Teachers are focusing on writing instruction like never before. Several forces are bringing about that change. One is the Common Core State Standards, which tie reading and writing together by placing a heavy emphasis on writing in response to one or more texts. Another—echoed in the standards—is feedback from college professors and employers, who bemoan young people's weakness in the analytical writing most needed in college and training for good jobs."</span> <br />
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Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-14275304189626544932012-10-16T15:00:00.002-07:002012-10-16T15:00:37.928-07:00Atlantic Magazine - thoughts from a Pacific NW Gal<span style="font-size: large;">The October online issue of </span><i style="font-size: x-large;">Atlantic Magazine</i><span style="font-size: large;"> is teeming with 20-ish articles about Writing Instruction, with catchy titles, pragmatic solutions, dire predictions, and dogged opinions about grammar and public school.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/debates/education/" target="_blank">Why American Students Can't Write</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">So I dove in, and here is my takeaway: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">1) Writing is Thinking. Well, I could make a snarky political statement here, woven nicely into the headlines of the Election Season, but I will refrain. I named my business Reading*Writing*Thinking for this very reason. <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">There is logic to the idea that students become better critical thinkers by writing complex pieces. It forces them to recycle, and organize your thoughts. Writing encourages us to try different ideas and combinations of ideas. Writing encourages us to select our words carefully.</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">2) We are in the dark ages in many ways about how we teach writing, because we are trying to create "mini-adults" like in the Middle Ages or something. Sure, in the early grades, teach handwriting, to get the fluency of mechanics going, create poems, tiny stories, even plays, and micro reports for science. But don't do what so many school districts do: examine what expert adult writers do, then transfer that to, say, a middle class 2nd grade classroom: keeping a writer's notebook, creating rough, then next, then final drafts, training students to be good observers, and harvesting a collection of pieces "in the works". </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FKTJ-axT2Xk/UH3YM1GfnjI/AAAAAAAAALk/nwcr2MGYY2U/s1600/k-14th-week-021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FKTJ-axT2Xk/UH3YM1GfnjI/AAAAAAAAALk/nwcr2MGYY2U/s320/k-14th-week-021.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Um, Hello? Second graders are thinking about recess and are not known to be the best keepers of various pieces of paper and drafts of their ideas from last week, which in their 8-year old brain is a century ago.It is just not developmentally appropriate. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">3) On the other hand, I say a big, "YES" to writing everyday, but careful of the two extremes: teaching to the test, and emphasizing the importance of indenting paragraphs and perfect punctuation, or, on the other end of the spectrum, writing with little regard for grammar, and composing mostly personal narratives all the way up until Middle School and not giving weight to expository "voice." Adults who come to work with me, or mention their struggles at work with writing, do not want coaching in their novel, but, rather, their ability to string sentences together and be taken seriously. Power emails. Articulate letters. Convincing Reports. Succinct Written Requests. Opinionated Responses to News Reporters. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">4)Teachers are afraid to introduce academic writing, because they think they will create yawns and resistance. Just like with decoding, I hear teachers say that teaching it will turn kids off to reading. Well, if that is true, then why do I have so many students in my private practice who cannot decode well, or pull sentences together clearly. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">5) At <a href="http://www.thewindwardschool.org/home/home.asp" target="_blank">The Windward Schoo</a>l Judith Hochman challenged this notion that preparing students to master expository writing stifles their creativity: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>" We've reared a generation of students on this diet and we see the outcome of that misguided thinking in test scores throughout the country. [Our] program does focus on the fundamentals of writing, but it doesn't do so in a dull, creativity-killing way. Assignments that ask students to explain a process, justify a position, describe a room, or trace the history of an event can be extremely engaging (depending on the topic, of course, and provided they are taught the skills needed to complete them). It is insulting to students to assume that the topic has to be about their own lives in order for the assignment to be interesting."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There is more, but I have been told my blogs are too long-winded. Am trying to cut myself off. Not that I take anything personally anymore, because I am SO healed of my ADHD tendencies towards that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Looking forward to presenting this weekend, on WRITING DESPITE YOUR DISTRACTIONS at the annual <a href="http://addresources.org/?q=node/2234" target="_blank">ADD Conference</a>. </span></div>
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<br />Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-48499515181328242772012-09-18T23:51:00.000-07:002012-09-18T23:51:23.676-07:00Boys Writing, or Trying to Write<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/09/14/04naep.h32.html?cmp=clp-sb-teacher&tkn=PYCC91y%2FkA8QAL3rRyIFRWxDDCUb7pnj%2Fehs"><span style="font-size: x-large;">NAEP Shows Most Students Lack Writing Proficiency</span></a></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">24,100 8th graders and 28,100 12th graders responded in 2011 to two 30-minute writing prompts that asked them to persuade, explain, or convey experiences. <br /><br />Overall, only 27% scored at or above the proficient level.<br /><br />Females outperformed males at both grade levels. <br /><br />In 8th grade, 37% of girls scored proficient or above, compared with 18% of boys.</span><div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I am sad, but not surprised. Boys are wired for more instant feedback and gratification, plus a distaste for over-flowery language, or descriptive, stylistic prose. I know, that is a sweeping generalization and would never hold up in a journalistic venue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I would have to say, "In my experience..." or "From my perspective.." But this is my blog, a cross between a textbook on teaching and a journal on innovative but very messy learning curves put to paper. <br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So boys often say that they can "talk to the prompt" but not respond to it in writing. They think it is because it takes longer, grammar is looming, and spelling leaps out to be addressed. While those are all true, what is also roadblocking them is formal register, which I have written about here before. <a href="http://dyslexia.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/teach-students-code-switching-skills-how-to-speak-in-a-formal-register/">Both school and work operate at two levels: the consultative and formal.</a> Consultative is a mix of formal and casual register. Example: “I can’t accept the assignment the way it is.” I love <a href="http://www.ahaprocess.com/">Ruby Payne's</a> work on this, in her research on poverty. I was helped greatly by studying her books and hearing her speak when I was doing staff development in rural farmlands of CA.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br />No simple answers. [But I have many answers! - as those of you who know me are aware of]<br /><br />Many frustrated parents. Homework is a nightmare for these boys who resist writing, and need coaching about communicating in print in the formal register. In my sessions with such boys, we have to talk it out in their own comfortable oral language, then transfer it to paper, putting faith in their powers of working memory, and THEN spice it up with transition words and synonyms for what just came out of their mouth.<br /><br />"Describe what your math group did to come up with their answer today, in one paragraph." Actual assignment of a 7th grade boy today. And how is this, from yesterday: "Give three reasons why the cultural system of Mesopotamia experienced periodic breakdowns. Explain how geographic features contributed to these." Geez.<br /><br />Many of my kids think good writers are those who sit down and write a novel in a day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Many analogies are made, every night, by exhausted parents, to their 9-17 year old sons, about long-term gratification in sports, or electric guitar, or even gaming. They are trying to prevent power struggles. Or portray the amount of work and revision that goes into a piece of art, mastering an athletic skill, or fine-tuning a career path. Best analogy to writing assignments? Composing a song. </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I haven't decided what I think of this new book, and this author who claims to have the switch that turns boys onto writing. A colleague went to his seminar this summer, and said it was all very over-simplified, touting giving boys permission to write gross, violent, fantasy pieces, and that will magically make them skilled at writing other genres. OH! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Really! If that worked, then why teach any genres at all?</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Writers-Reclaiming-Their-Voices/dp/1571104259" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">BOY WRITERS: Reclaiming Their Voices</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(from an interview with Ralph Fletcher, the author)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">According to my research, many boys yearn to write what they read--fantasy. Yet for various reasons many teachers are</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">hesitant to allow them to do so.That's too bad. Teachers often say to me: "But the writing they do isn't very good!" I reply:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"So what? Let them take a crack at it. At least they're engaged."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I think we could find lots of other genres that would appeal to boys including:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">--humor especially spoofs and parodies</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">--sports commentary</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">--scary stories or horror</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">--graphic novels or comics</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well, that doesn't seem like it would prepare them to write a paper in college on the history of architecture, or an interpretation of a tort in pre-law. Or even get a decent score on the NAEP test, above.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hmmmm.</span></div>
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Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-39991778205264411722012-09-09T23:19:00.002-07:002012-09-09T23:19:39.993-07:00Alphabet Soup<span style="background-color: white; color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what does all that alphabet soup mean in a neuropsychologist report? </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">I get that question a lot from parents, as they attempt to decipher the recent stapled diatribe on their child's brain processes. </span><span style="background-color: white;">I forget how overwhelming it can be to see all that information about your child, and how badly a parent would want to cling to "fixing" it all. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">I tell them to talk to other parents, get online to get definitions of the acronyms, but don't spend too much time online, or you will find yourself sucked into the vortex of mommy blogs of special needs kids. Great reading, but too many pieces of advice about kids you have never met, so it feels thrice removed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Essentially a report is a document that can help you get your child some help at school, confirm the intuitions you have had all along, and pave a road to reasonable goal-setting. A child with slow processing and RAN Scores (Rapid Automatic Naming) should not spend a time trying to get good at timed tests, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">for example. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Also used for an IEE - Independent Educational Evaluation - when the school refuses to do testing on a student for special education. Districts have to pay for these if indeed a learning disability is found. Most importantly [insert self-promotional statement here], a good teacher or learning specialist will be able to unravel the jargon of a report into an intervention plan. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Receptive and Expressive Language are what I look closely for when demystifying a child's writing struggles. And, of course, attention and working memory. This is where the "L" of SLP comes in. A good </span><i style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Speech and Language Therapist</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> can be an excellent resource for writing instruction, if they have attended numerous conferences on their own, harvesting nitty-gritty tricks outside of their formal training. Written expression is not in the coursework of the average program. Good SLPs understand that writing instruction is multi-layered, have read research for fun, and touch deeply into kids who need more than a Socratic approach to writing, aka public school writer's workshop. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lots of journaling and ideation and breaking open creative pathways is a perfect journey for adults needing that boost, and feedback on their writing. But children need that, AND so much more. They need sentence drills, almost the equivalent of the fluency drills in well-known Multi-Sensory Curriculums.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Just yesterday I worked on having a student create sentences over and over that had certain parameters set by me, and he has come a long way in our summer work but has a long way to go. So many more things there are to "automatize" in writing mastery than in reading proficiency. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Alphabet soup to me means getting kids excited about the fact that out of 26 letters we can create a million words.</span></span><br />
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Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-70161453265504436202012-08-11T22:58:00.002-07:002012-09-08T23:40:41.289-07:00The Pendulum of Parenting<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Parenting</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> is a subject which I think I know a lot about, yet I have no direct biological experience of. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">[Just steparenting. And being a nanny in my 20's. It so happens that the little girl in my charge has grown up now and tracked her nanny down. She still lives in Seattle and we are connected. Okay time for an "Awwww!"]</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The reality is that I work with students, but the true "client" is the <span style="color: #660000;">parent</span>, and I have a lot of communication with them. Many times i find myself on hot coals, dishing out tips delicately, on hot topics like preventing power struggles, not pushing too hard, not giving in too much, how to discuss learning disabilities with kids, or their brain, and then there are sleep patterns, social skills, and nutrition. Like I said: Tender Topics. With some parents, I feel they are on their best behavior with me, but my intuition screams about what is most likely the reality at home:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The touchy <span style="color: #660000;">parenting</span> topic comes up in our </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Learning Specialists</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Consulting</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Group, (which is supposedly quarterly, but...well...). We end up delivering all sorts of tips to our clients for how to be a <span style="color: #660000;">parent</span>, a teacher, a coach, and a cheerleader to their child. And it only works if the </span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">parents</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> are curious about how to improve as people, </span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">parents</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, and family members, and are curious about their child. (as opposed to having an agenda). </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At our professional gatherings, we end up swapping </span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">parent </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">stories, since they are so much a part of the </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">results equation</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, then espousing quippy suggestions about how to interact with anxious </span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">parents</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, marshmallow </span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">parents</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, or disorganized </span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">parents</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When all goes well, in the tutoring situation, we are on the same page about what the child needs, the <span style="color: #660000;">parents</span> establish warm and humorous rapport with me, and fine-tunes it with their child, so that they use their time wisely in between sessions. And then there are times when it does not go so well. That is when I bring out articles, handouts, or quickie memorable gems, like "When the outcome isn't important, give your child the power to choose. When it IS, make yourself clear, and decide, and don't waver. No apologies. No negotiation." </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I get some of this from my gut, and a lot of it from <a href="http://www.loveandlogic.com/" target="_blank">LOVE & LOGIC</a>. Their premise is about preventing battles using choices and natural consequences. Their marketing materials make it seem, of course, that harmony will reign and that every waking moment will look like this photo, but I DO love the humble nature of the creators of the program: a father and son team who did not always collaborate!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I see all kinds of parenting in my private practice, and sometimes I broach the subject of suggesting they do something concrete to prevent power struggles, establish a "tone" in the home for learning, motivate without candy, and be engaged without being overbearing. That brings me to the pendulum. I steer parents into the center as much as I can, with compassion and humor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The pendulum is what I observe, and <span style="color: #660000;">parents</span> are sometimes blind to, and most teachers talk about. <span style="color: #660000;">Parents </span>at one extreme end approach kids with a "They will find their way" mentality, often coupled with "I don't want to label them," and, at its worst, "I don't use any negative consequences." These are what I call <b>Marshmallows</b>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A version of this is the <span style="color: #660000;">parents </span>who simply have their kids run the show, and they insist on not interfering. They are trying so hard not to raise their voices, or be stern or punitive, that the children run the household. These are what I call <b>Rotweiler</b> Owners, because I have been in households where the dogs run the place. It is apparent the minute I arrive. In this case it is the kids. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And finally, the <b>Hover-ers</b>. I don't use the term, "helicopter" because that implies that the <span style="color: #660000;">parent</span> is pressuring their child to succeed, or micromanaging them, but that is not always part of the mix. Sometimes they are simply so intertwined, anf blur the boundary between them and their child, that they apologize on behalf of their child, prompt them while they are speaking, help them so much with HW that the child does not get the satisfaction of independence, and oh, they worry. These <span style="color: #660000;">parents</span> are professional anxiety-ers. And remember that ADHD morphs into Anxiety, so genetic apples falling from trees are at play here. Drill Sergeant <span style="color: #660000;">parents</span> is what the media calls one sub-category of these.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So.....either I have a healthy distance from the maternal (and often genetic) tug, and am using that bird's eye view of the parent-child fabric of emotions so as to offer deep wisdom, or I am pompous, off-base, and would be better off keeping my mouth shut. The plethora of articles in the past year about these pendulums (with differing names and nuances) is a testament that I am not so far off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-19682844988031337572012-08-10T19:18:00.000-07:002012-08-10T19:18:11.342-07:00In the Ideal World...Teaching like Homeschoolers<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">We should suspend the regular English curriculum for a semester and teach “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/junking-old-way-of-teaching-writing/2012/08/01/gJQAqsgaQX_blog.html" target="_blank">Reading and Writing</a>.” Every student would produce an essay each week and spend time at the teacher’s desk being edited. We would hire or train teachers to do what my first editors did: Cross out cute phrases, ask what I was trying to say, break overlong sentences into pieces, ask for specific examples, replace inactive verbs with active ones, and so on.</span>
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<br />Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-14802646201274178152012-07-20T17:33:00.000-07:002012-07-20T17:33:14.361-07:00Deep Feedback and Deep Word Use<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">....Was reading a </span><a href="http://mpricemitchell.visibli.com/share/JXllvy" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Mother Jones article</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> about private vs. public universities and how well they teach writing, critical thinking, and the like. Of course there is the familiar argument about how we can't really teach sophistication, and the differences in how your papers are attended to, and by who (professor or TA), but what pranced out at me was mention of how paltry the actual deep feedback is, for written assigments, with budget cutbacks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That is what is sorely needed - a mentor, a teacher, a trusted adult, with whom to talk about your writing with. Sigh!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pity the middle school Language Arts teachers, who subscribe to <a href="http://www.ncte.org/journals/vm/issues/v19-3" target="_blank">Educational Journals</a>, read the articles that their guest in-service providers hand out, take summer intensives in how to better teach writing to hormonal media-soaked pre-teens, and YET, they don't have the time to really spend with them, one-on-one, discussing the revisions needed in their writing, create deep goals for their writing improvement, and simply have time to READ all those papers! Okay run-on sentence award there, for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Someday there will be a way to tape record comments of a teacher while they skim a paper, with some futuristic mind-reading software, and the student then uses those to create a revision, which then gets read by a Grad Student who is doing an in-service project as part of their teacher certification. In the meantime we need smaller classes and great teachers and bigger budgets and (refrain of song repeats here)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">And how I wish this Scrabble sentence were true!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This summer I am also awash in reflections on the Vocabulary Deficit. For BOTH the students whose families have "means", as well as the foster kids who I am overseeing the interventions for this summer, I see serious gaps in vocabulary, as we read fiction, non-fiction, and everything in between. I am shocked at the limits of their understanding of <a href="http://www.englishvocabularyexercises.com/" target="_blank">academic language</a> (aka "book words" or the ability to draw from sophisticated lists of synonyms for what they are reading - or what they are writing).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I mean, I don't spend time with them on a word like "cabaret" or "arid" but when a soon-to-be 7th grader doesn't know what "finite" or "prohibitive" means, we may be headed for a roadblock or two in assigned readings in 7th or 8th grade. Duh. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Oh, if I am in a thunderstorm kind of day, July mood, with fewer clients than I would like to have this month, and cleaning even the tops of door jambs to pass the time, forgive my melancholy. But the vocabulary gap is real. As is the dearth of adult feedback to our budding next generation of writers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As one of my <a href="http://studentsgrow.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">favorite bloggers </a>says, "Today I don't have any upbeat tips, just words strung together to make you think, and smile."</span><br />
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<br />Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-37380654743660845712012-07-08T23:03:00.003-07:002012-07-08T23:03:59.903-07:00WORD PRECISION<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;">I have harped on my students about strong verbs until I feel like a repetitive robot. I have practiced choosing the precise noun, and they roll their eyes when I look at their writing and ask, "What KIND....(?)" of bug, or desk, or dog or game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">And then there are </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">adjectives</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">. Not so harpy about those, but they do have their place. Tons of blogs about writing warn, "Not too many </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">adjectives</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">; no one will take you seriously" and other such platitudes. Well, I think kids need to learn that when you are short of verbs in a couple of paragraphs, you had better have some </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">adjectives</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">. I have done my own research in children's novels, with a sample of 16, and it is true that J.K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket, Rick Riordan, and others use this rough math equation.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">Adjectives</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;"> are the words that create the most hilarity in Mad Libs. They are what make-up about 1/4 of our English Language. They are what make poetry leap off the page. They are also what sports reporters use well. Or overuse. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;">"The <b>flimsy </b>pitch reeled through the<b> suspenseful</b> air."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"There were even hints of their <b>lethargic</b> 118-108 victory Sunday against an <b>undermanned</b> and<b> injured </b><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:city></st1:place> team."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #303030; font-size: large; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">"Wimbledon, the <b>oldest </b>of the Grand Slam events, remains beautifully suited to Federer's <b>Swiss army knife of a</b> skill set."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Use?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Overuse?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">You decide.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">Adjectives</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;"> are what kids can struggle with because they know they want to say, "The Waterpark was awesome," but their teacher - or someone like me - has told them that "awesome" is a tired word. So they reach into their lexicon of words and can't quite find a synonym. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;">Time for the Thesaurus? Maybe. Remember, that is not a tool to be used without adult supervision, because just dunking a fishing rod into there and retrieving the first word encountered results in sentences like this, from one of my students, an almost 6th grader:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;">The slides at the Waterpark were <b>majestic</b> and we had a <b>jocular </b>day.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;">The cost of trying to avoid <u>awesome</u> and <u>fun</u>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Using the <a href="http://www.visualthesaurus.com/" target="_blank">Visual Thesarus</a> is a great strategy, and so much more motivating (!) yet still it needs a tag attached to it: "Do not use without Adult Supervision." Caveat: $19.95 a year.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">So....what do the new </span><a href="http://www.corestandards.org/" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Common CORE Standards</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> say?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;">Here is a snippet from Grade 6-8:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;"><i>Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;">My kid-friendly version of that is "Show Don't Tell" and "...use words that will make your readers see what is in your imaginative mind."</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And, of course, I show them how their favorite authors use precise words.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><u style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Wimpy Kid</u><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">doesn't count as a model, though. Wimpy words. Imprecise. Okay, okay, not every page. I am such a curmudgeon about that series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Ooops. I was supposed to be talking about Word Precision and <span style="color: #cc0000;">Adjective</span> Use.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I am sticking with my rough equation.</span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Paragraphs need either solid strong verbs, OR precise adjectives, but not both.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>And precise nouns are <i>always</i> called for. </b></span>Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-16442371558080122512012-06-07T22:32:00.002-07:002012-06-07T23:32:46.474-07:00Brain Stickiness<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">There is no teflon in the house, but there is teflon in the brains that come here to work with me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">My friend told me this week, while I gushed over new strategies on the forefront of the marriage of pharmacology, and alternative modalities, I learned at an ADD Conference last Saturday, that I need to come back in the next lifetime as a brain researcher. I have come to trust medication more than I would have ever predicted, yet I grow more MIStrustful of "Big Pharma."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"But I don't trust the AMA,", I responded, "because doctors only have, like 16 hours of credits on nutrition, and maybe 12 on stress and the body-mind connection, PLUS they have not healed me as much as my own brain and bodywork have." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"Well", she said, "that is why they need you."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I have been watching TED Talks lately, because they have short time frames for my short sometimes attention span, uber smart people, yet not ones who live in a laboratory and never see daylight or controversial conversations, plus TED is the place I would speak about ADHD, brain health, schools for LD kids, academic skill-building in the ideal setting, and how to coach a kid who hates reading and writing, if I only knew the right "TED" people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I tried the Seattle area TED Talks with no response. I am fighting my beliefs that I do not have enough degrees, or that I have too many wrinkles, to keep pursuing this goal. I seems you must present some newfangled idea, creative, original, and life-changing, to qualify. Nothing like a high bar to reduce me to inertia. Just like my kids I tutor! So I will practice what I preach, not give up, and keep searching for what it takes to present. I probably need to <i>really </i>practice what I teach, and "narrow my topic."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I said today to one of my 8-year-olds, "Maybe we could create a scrapbook of your summer trip and you could write little captions." Oh No. That did not go over like it did with my 11-year old girl who did that last summer. She took it and ran with it, practicing starting sentences with interesting beginnings. Instead, for him, it was like presenting a "high bar."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Or</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Let's aim for writing great 5-paragraph essays this school year!" Students are eavesdropping on this goal-setting brainstorm in my living room, while I talk to their parent, usually a mom, and meanwhile, their handwriting, grammar, spelling, keyboarding, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">thesaurus</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> use, sentence length, and sense of organization is paltry. I calmly reassure them, in my most Glenda the Good Witch voice, that we will work just on sentences for a long time and then only when they are ready, <b>essays</b>. Gosh, I know of NO child or teen who lights up when that word is spoken. And then I deliver the hypocritical news, when they tell of some daunting assignment, like writing about why their school is the best, and give THREE reasons grade, that 5-paragraph essays are not how most magazines or newspapers are actually written.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Speaking of entrenched beliefs, I listened to a talk tonight by Joe Dispenzia, who is an articulate geek who makes sense of the chemicals in the brain, and motivation, learning, and habits. Nothing trivial there. The limbic brain, or mammalian brain, or emotional brain, regulates "internal chemical order." Of course, if the frontal cortex is compromised, as in anxiety-ridden, ADHD-ers, or traumatized people or children, there is less of a dance step integration possible. I just could not help think of my struggling writers, and whether changing their thinking could incur tangible changes in their output and flow. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">My current belief is that the "stickiness' of one's brain is directly related to how healthy the nutrients you put in are, plus the dopamine, plus the amount of explicit instruction you get, and much more. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rCxo9GwbP_8" target="_blank">Changing Your Brain: The 3 Brains that Allow us to go from Thinking, to Doing, to Being</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Oh Yeah! I am supposed to place bullet points in my post in order to follow the rules of BLOGGING! </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I always forget.</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Nerve cells that fire together wire together. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">If learning is making new synaptic connections, then remembering is maintaining and sustaining those connections. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Warning: Many moving images of dendrites and synapses in the youtube video. Kidding.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.drjoedispenza.com/">http://www.drjoedispenza.com/</a>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Love the resources on his website. Who can argue with the Meditation called, <i>"Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself?"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-29919876959773339802012-05-17T23:18:00.001-07:002012-06-07T20:52:59.692-07:00Remedial Reading and Writing for incoming College Students<div id="entryhead" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: purple; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;"><span class="timestamp" style="margin: 0px;">Okay, I cannot stand to read blogs that simply cut and paste what other people have written, and tack on a single sentence response of their own. Talk about lacking personal voice!</span><span class="timestamp" style="margin: 0px;">So here I will fitfully, boldly, and guiltily do the same. I do know one of the authors, William Tierney, from my years at Cal State. I abridged the post so as to prevent concentration dilution on your part. The parts in bold are what I am always beating my drum about. </span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-four-ways-to-teach-students-to-write/2011/11/01/gIQARk8mfM_blog.html" target="_blank">Remediation in College</a></span></span></h3>
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<i style="line-height: 18px;">Remediation is a massive bottleneck in higher education. Half of the students who show up at community colleges are not college-ready and must complete one or more <a data-xslt="_http" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/11/AR2011021104924_5.html#eight" style="color: #0c4790;" target="_blank">catch-up courses</a> before they can enter college-level study. </i></div>
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Every summer for the past decade, we have conducted a writing program for college-bound, low-income minority students. <b>More than 80 percent of them have never written a formal five-page paper. Instead, they’ve churned out short essay after short essay after short essay.</b> When asked to develop an idea or argument beyond two or three pages, they look dumbfounded.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I</span><span style="background-color: white;">The Education Commission of the States reports that only 17 percent of students enrolled in remedial English nationally go on to earn a college degree. That’s a shameful return on what the Gates Foundation estimates to be a $2.3 billion annual investment in remedial programs nationally.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">What works? Our 10 years of teaching remedial writing, as well as other research, points to four ways to get students to write better.</span></div>
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• <b>Set specific and understandable goals.</b> Abstract test scores – “You score in the 85th percentile” -- don’t help students, especially first-generation learners, know if they are underprepared to write in college. If students somehow discover they are not good writers, they have no idea what they need to do to improve. </div>
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• <b>Teach students how to revise</b>. What students need to understand is how to make the essay they just wrote better. A teacher’s general comments at the end of an essay, the usual practice, are like an autopsy report: They may tell the student why the paper is weak, but they do not help the writer fix the problem. </div>
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• <b>Teach summarizing, not analyzing</b>: Critical thinking in and of itself is not a precursor of good writing. Putting thinking into words, sentences and paragraphs is the endgame, and that crucially involves the ability to summarize material, a more concrete and therefore teachable skill. If students are able to summarize what they have read, they can better grasp how to put together their own arguments.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">These sorts of solutions are not rocket science, but they are, unfortunately, controversial. Adopting them would mean focusing on writing as process rather than as product, an unsettling break for those accustomed to exams and assignments without revision opportunities. But the current remedial writing programs have the dubious distinction of being the first stop on the way to dropping out of college. </span></div>
</div>Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-77734394306808291562012-04-19T00:23:00.005-07:002012-04-19T01:00:28.659-07:00Teaching Boys Who Would Rather Build Forts All Day<div style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: georgia; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">This weekend I head north to Vancouver to give a presentation to 115 specialists, as part of the</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: center; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: georgia; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: center; "><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><span><b>Canadian Academy of Therapeutic</b></span></span><b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-family: georgia; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto; "> Tutors.</b></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: georgia; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">They expect me to illuminate them on the latest and greatest in magic tricks for teaching writing. Not that I am anxious, or nervous. (Hah!)</span></div><div><div style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: georgia; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">One of my students (age 7) asked how I was going to do a presentation when I didn't know how to speak Canadian.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B2PKb5S0nhs/T4-8AWW1exI/AAAAAAAAAGY/DI-syK36110/s320/canada_what_its_all_aboot_bumper_sticker-p128485719730346695z74sk_400.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733007564853312274" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 86px; " /></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 16px; "><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px; "><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Since my last BLOG I started a new little contract-y job, with a Foster <b>Care</b> Agency, and they really do that middle word: CARE. Social Workers who use every ounce of their compassionate bloodstream, and their graduate school smarts, to help these kids feel an anchor. Ahem, a small detail, however, is that these kids struggle with reading. So I come in with my virtual Super Woman cape and assess them, even though the school has supposedly done so, only to find that (surprise!) schools aren't doing the best interventions, or dong much at all. So my pen and my sword pursue best interventions, with elaborate write-ups, and grave predictions about their future, and the schools do not exactly call me up to attend any of their parties or potlucks. I will also be doing mini trainings for the foster parents on how to help their kids in a more pointed way than having them read People magazine over and over.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="text-align: left; "><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="text-align: left; ">Lately, while not burning data CDs for my Vancouver-ites, lumber</span><span style="text-align: left; ">ing to Pilates class in the rain, writing long e-mails to parents of the kids I tutor, and stressing about whether I am eating enough greens, or worrying about the futures of foster children...I am....</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><div style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; "><span><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "></span></div></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px; "><span style="font-weight: normal; ">....Listening to Andrew Pudewa (don't ask me to pronounce his name, but I have exchanged many emails with him over the years) talk about </span><i style="font-weight: normal; ">Boys and Writing</i><span style="font-weight: normal; "> - an audio of one of his presentations, which are for sale on his website. I am too cheap to spend the hundreds on his </span><span>curriculum, but I have pored over the <b>Institute for Excellence in Writing</b> materials at conferences, heard powerful stories from homeschoolers, and scratched my head about why I haven't seen the curriculum in classrooms, or on special ed. teachers shelves. </span><span style="font-weight: normal; ">Here is a 2 minute clip of him, to get a sense of his wisdom.</span></div><div style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; text-align: center; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; "><div style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzaFZ2CRQZU&feature=related" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Teaching Boys and Other Children who Would Rather Make Forts All Day</a></div><div style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "></span></div></span></div></div><div style="font-size: 16px; "><div>What a relief to hear that he is promoting the same strategies that I have fallen upon through my own trial and error, with fort-making boys, over the years. He is BIG ON VERBS.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VlmcZF2OgM0/T4_FH4hnSVI/AAAAAAAAAHI/QJaHbwYBrho/s320/timthumb.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733017589889059154" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 152px; " /><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "></div></span></div></span></div></div><div></div></div><div><a href="http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/">Here is his website, and the page with some freebies is under Downloads</a>.</div></div><div style="font-size: 16px; "><br /></div><div style="font-size: 16px; ">I am making tiny progress with the six boys, ages 10-13, who would rather have dental surgery than write.</div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><ul style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><li><span>One has Inspiration, and a new MAC, and that makes his willingness dial move up to "10."</span></li></ul><ul style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><li><span>Another has new medication, so now he actually uses my 25 pages of writing tools instead of forgetting they are there in his binder, on his desk at home. One of these pages is a reminder about using strong verbs, of course.</span></li></ul><ul style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><li><span>Yet another has taken on my "Think like a reporter" mantra and asks himself often whether he has the 5 W's and H in his writing for school, or for me.</span></li></ul><ul style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><li><span>The Step-Up-to-Writing summary equation is what one 5th grader is hanging his hat on, because it gives such clear parameters for the many summaries that I assign, since we also work on finding the Main Idea.</span></li></ul><div><h3 style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span></span><span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; "> Identify the item. THEN Use a verb and a bit more. THEN Finish your thought.<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3><table class="MsoNormalTable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="font-size: medium; font-family: Georgia, serif; margin-left: 5.4pt; border-collapse: collapse; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; "><tbody><tr style="height: 42.6pt; "><td width="220" valign="top" style="width: 165.15pt; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: rgb(255, 102, 0); border-top-width: 1.5pt; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-right-style: double; border-right-color: rgb(255, 102, 0); border-right-width: 1.5pt; padding-top: 0in; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; height: 42.6pt; "><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-align: left; ">The article on sharks</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p></td><td width="220" valign="top" style="width: 165.2pt; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: rgb(255, 102, 0); border-top-width: 1.5pt; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-right-style: double; border-right-color: rgb(255, 102, 0); border-right-width: 1.5pt; padding-top: 0in; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; height: 42.6pt; "><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0); "></span><span style="text-align: left; "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-align: left; ">describes the reasons</span></p></td><td width="220" valign="top" style="width: 165.2pt; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: rgb(255, 102, 0); border-top-width: 1.5pt; padding-top: 0in; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; height: 42.6pt; "><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-align: left; ">why there are more attacks today</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-align: left; "><br /></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span ><span style="text-align: left; font-family: Sylfaen, serif; color: rgb(255, 204, 0); "></span><span style="text-align: left; font-family: Sylfaen, serif; "></span><span style="text-align: left; font-family: Sylfaen, serif; ">Verbs for summaries:</span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin-left: -18.7pt; text-indent: 54.7pt; "><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; " >explains <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>describes <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>gives <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>compares <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>tells<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; margin-left: -18.7pt; text-indent: 54.7pt; "><span ><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; "></span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; ">shows</span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; "> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; ">lists</span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; "> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; ">provides</span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; "> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span><span style="text-indent: 54.7pt;"><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; "></span></span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; ">presents</span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; "> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Sylfaen, serif; text-indent: 54.7pt; ">demonstrates</span></span></p></div></div><div style="font-size: 16px; ">_________________________________________________________________________</div><div style="font-size: 16px; ">And a little humor, or spice, or I am not sure - help me out here!</div><div style="font-size: 16px; "><br /></div><div style="font-size: 16px; "><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykOtgK2sKy0">Why Johnny Can't Write</a><div>Video that revisits the Newsweek Cover Story December 8, 1975</div></div><div style="font-size: 16px; ">If this were a student's paper, I would ask, "Where is your thesis?" It is 7 minutes of garbled reporter speak, and while the essence of the video isn't clear, to me it spoke to how this "alarm" is not new, and we cannot simply blame it on the digital age, or our texting teenagers, but a whole host of things.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; ">If anyone can decipher the "Main Idea", let me know.</div></div></div></div></div>Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184816134218901227.post-90264659895921125242012-03-07T23:44:00.001-08:002012-03-08T01:08:49.461-08:00Writing Tantrums<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-38VAlaItz-0/T1hR8PM4G7I/AAAAAAAAAFo/oWktpxvf9_Y/s1600/quiet-toddlers-tantrums-riding-car-200x200.jpg" style="font-style: normal; "><span><span style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-38VAlaItz-0/T1hR8PM4G7I/AAAAAAAAAFo/oWktpxvf9_Y/s320/quiet-toddlers-tantrums-riding-car-200x200.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717409822261386162" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px; " /></span></span><div style="text-align: center; "><span><br /></span></div></a><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify; "><span style="text-align: left; ">It hurts to hear of the battles that can occur in the car on the way here.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; ">The short descriptor, from mom, usually, upon entering my living room/waiting room, in earshot of the student, goes something like this:</div><div style="font-style: normal; "></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><span><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; ">"Now, it is nothing personal, Kendra, but _______ just whines or comes down with a psychosomatic illness before coming to his session. I tell him that he needs to learn some strategies to help him write, since he can't go through life hoping pe<span style="font-size: 100%; ">ople with just read his mind." (she borrowed this from me)</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Sorry, guys, I just don't hear about meltdowns with my girls, or at least they whine more directly, <i>with</i> me one-on-one, and with eye contact!</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><div></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span><u><br /></u></span></div><span><span>So when I drill down with the boys, once we have sequestered ourselves in my office, I discover that their "self-talk" (that was about 9 blogs ago) is dragging its voice along the rungs of the sewers (are there rungs in sewers?), and speaking severely limiting lies about their creativity, talent, expression, skill, and future success to the inhabitant of this inner voice, aka my student.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><div style="text-align: center; "><span><u><br /></u></span></div><span><span>Ah...self-talk. Steven Graham, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">consumate</span> researcher on writing, says that changing self-talk via checklists and charts gives rise to self-regulation, and, "voila!" writing fluency. He makes it sound so easy.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span>I have read his articles and books, but got up the courage to call him this month and after many VMs, the famous guy was available for a 7-minute window! May I never be THAT popular or disorganized that I can't find a slot of 15 minutes to speak, learn, and teach, thus leave a tiny legacy. He did not give advice about the tantrums.</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span>Back to the "I don't want to go to Kendra's, where I have to do that thing I am least proficient at...."</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span><span>I am between a rock and a hard place, now. Who wants to hear some buttering-up lecture about self-worth and their progress made, when the truth is that it just feels hard to keep all the components of writing in their brain psyche? I am powerless, even with all my research-based factoids and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">curriculums</span> dripping off my shelves. I despise that cheerleader "I Can"<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">paraphenalia</span>, but there is actually some research that points to results from the use of it. Something like:</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-38VAlaItz-0/T1hR8PM4G7I/AAAAAAAAAFo/oWktpxvf9_Y/s1600/quiet-toddlers-tantrums-riding-car-200x200.jpg"><br /></a></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><div><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mnYW60h9vWs/T1hMUPkZDoI/AAAAAAAAAFc/1Dnp11TjrXk/s320/I%2BCAN%2Bchecklists%2Bfor%2B1st%2B-%2B3rd.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717403637607108226" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-decoration: underline; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 273px; " /></div></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><span>I wish I could tell a story about when it was like that for me, but I </span><i>loved</i><span> writing as a kid, and the more I wrote, the more I was motivated to find tricks of the trade, and reasons for using commas, and ways to describe my incestuous, insincere uncle in words fit for my diary, and in ones fit for a school assignment.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; "><div style="text-align: center; "><br /></div></div><div style="font-style: normal; ">So I tell a story about something I know THEY struggled with at one time. Today, it was Lacrosse. My tiny, but quite athletic, 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">th</span> grade boy - who I have worked with for a year - and whose dyslexia has improved greatly, has become quite the reader. He forgets how hard reading used to be. He also forgets that he did not want to try Lacrosse at this time last year. Now he is<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">gung</span>-ho to start up the season and has a rare confidence for a 10-year old who is smaller than every other boy on his team.</div><div style="font-style: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; ">What else helps is that I point out EACH session, the small and incremental things they have done well. I have to pinch myself to remember.</div><div style="font-style: normal; "><div style="text-align: center; "><br /></div></div><div style="font-style: normal; ">TIP OF THE MONTH:</div><div style="font-style: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; ">Regarding Research Papers:</div><div style="font-style: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; ">I told two 5th graders this month, who tend to "SURF" instead of take notes, and read images, instead of read text, and forget that they are forming the foundation of a research paper, that THEY got to choose the topic of, to get a timer, and:</div><div style="font-style: normal; "><br /><div style="text-align: center; "><span>Surf and Read for 10 minutes</span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span><div style="text-align: left; "><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-38VAlaItz-0/T1hR8PM4G7I/AAAAAAAAAFo/oWktpxvf9_Y/s1600/quiet-toddlers-tantrums-riding-car-200x200.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-28dTHZZ2RpI/T1hYa46SLaI/AAAAAAAAAF0/FjyzsCx4phs/s320/time%2Btimer.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717416945923534242" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div><span>Write and Take Notes for 10 Minutes</span></div></span></div></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; text-align: center; "><br /></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Kendra Wagnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14482850811450981959noreply@blogger.com0