Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Immersion Day!

On May 8, 2010, teachers from all over West and Middle Tennessee joined for the first time to kick off the 2010 West Tennessee Writing Project Summer Institute! Dr. David Carithers led the group of participants and SIFTers, including Michael Bentley, Douglas Billings, Jenny Brandon, Dana Craddock, Josephine Crenshaw, Tara Erwin, Patricia Evans, Lydia Freyburger, Deborah Jones, Julie  Langford, Jill McCaskill, Tiana Page, Melanie Sargent, Joanne A. Brown Stagner, Cynthia Taylor, Lana Warren, and Kamilah Whitley.

The morning began at 8:00 with bagels and coffee.


Yum!

Everyone present made paper name plates, which is harder than it looks, and got to know each other.


At 8:30, David led the group in writing about past experiences with his demonstration,        "The Pull of Memory." We thought back to our favorite childhood books and writing. We wrote about the books our parents read to us, the first books we remember reading, writing that is important to us, and other topics related to reading and writing.


David also asked us to write about our teaching, why we started teaching, and what we would like to write in a letter to school board members.


Jenny Brandon led us in reading a poem titled "To Be of Use" by Marge Piercy. From this eye-opening poem, we developed our own poetry and prose by pulling out our favorite phrases and lines. We later shared our writing by reading aloud. "The work of the world is common as mud...."





For lunch we ate delicious sandwich wraps and chips. Fortunately, the food didn't taste anything like mud.



After lunch, we met in groups to discuss titles for our upcoming demonstrations. Participants also chose days or approximate times when they would like to present: early, middle, or end of the month. David promised us he would be as accommodating as possible.



Shortly after 1:00, Jenny, David, and Lana met in a "fishbowl" to demonstrate writing groups.
Each of them began by stating what it was he or she wanted to know about his or her piece of writing. Then they took turns reading their original written work as the others listened. When each person finished, it was the job of the group members to respond with questions, suggestions, answers to questions, or accolades, depending on what the writer asked for in the beginning.  

Following the fishbowl writing response group activity, David led everyone in reflective writing, and the meeting was adjourned after reminders of our homework for the first day of Summer Institute, Monday, June 7.  



I can't wait to see everyone in June!



No comments:

Post a Comment