OWP06

10 Reasons to Participate in OWP

10 Reasons to Participate in OWP
Anita Nott

       I dedicate this piece of writing to Merrill Watrous who first introduced me to the Oregon Writing Project (OWP).  Her enthusiastic encouragement prompted me to enroll in this 4-week summer class.  Even though I am a homeschool teacher and primarily a science teacher, she saw promise in my participation in the workshop.  She believed I would benefit from this experience, and she also shared her conviction that the project would benefit from me.  That was very reassuring.  Thank you, Merrill.
      So now I come to the end of the class and in looking back I realize how grateful I am that OWP was available for me.  I would encourage other homeschool teachers as well as public classroom teachers to take advantage of this worthwhile program.  Following are ten reasons to enroll in the OWP.

Teaching Literature & Writing With Technology - Web Review

Teaching Literature & Writing With Technology

http://thwt.org/writingandlit.htm

reviewed by Anita Nott

 

I was looking for a website that would involve technology in the teaching of writing. “Teaching Literature & Writing With Technology” was very close to what I was looking for. It also had some bonuses. This website is designed to help English and Language Arts teachers incorporate technology into their courses. Although geared to middle school and high school teachers, there were many links that I found helpful for elementary teachers.

Reviser's Toolbox Book Review #3

Reviser’s Toolbox by

Barry Lane

Reviewed by Anita Nott

 

 Reviser’s Toolbox jumped out and grabbed me with its vibrant yellow cover. Plus, revising is not my favorite part of writing so I was hoping to get some good tips in helping students and myself with this aspect of the process. I tend to think that my writing is great the first time. Why mess with it? Also it seems like revising is putting a knife to my work. I therefore agree with Lane that revising should not “put to death the ideas.”

 Why I would not use this book. I will address this topic now since you might not read the rest of the review. Several of the exercises include name-calling “dumbhead” and “jerkface” (62), beating up people (67), a teacher’s exposed breast (55), and other subjects I don’t think are appropriate as we model writing for students. Also, there are several mistakes that should have been caught in the editing process (missing period on the bottom of p. 96, the first sentence on p. 105, incorrect placement of quotation marks p. 109). However we could take this as a comfort that even published writers make mistakes, so it’s okay if we have mistakes in our writing. If you can get over these two hurdles there is some valuable information in this book.

A Defense by BB

A Defense by BB
Anita Nott

        “All rise,” bellowed the bailiff.   “The court of the Honorable Judge Oak is now in session.”  There was a gentle shuffling as the audience rose. 
    The presiding judge raised his trowel like a gavel and firmly rapped on the oversized garden bench.  “We are present to hear the case of the Confederation of Multi-Grains versus Bachelor Buttons.  In this lawsuit, the plaintiff has accused Bachelor Buttons of trespassing and being a general nuisance. 

Bachelor Buttons

Bachelor Buttons

    During the invasion of Berlin by Napoleon, the Queen of Prussia was forced from the city.  She fled with her young children into the cornfields and hid them there.  To keep them quiet and busy, she had them weave wreaths from the cornflowers that were growing in the fields.  Later, her son Wilheim became the emperor of Germany.  In honor of his mother’s ingenuity and bravery, he made the cornflower the national symbol of unity. 
   

Picture Books by Ruth Culham

Anita Nott

Picture Books by Ruth Culham

 

 Picture books have found their way into many of my lesson plans, so I was eager to review Culham’s list of picture books and activities related to teaching writing. I was not disappointed. The annotated bibliography lists the books according to one of the traits in the six-trait model of writing. Recognizing that good books should demonstrate all the traits of the model, it is still helpful to have books that tend to feature one trait in an outstanding way.

 Culham organizes her book choices alphabetically in the following six traits – ideas and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and convention. Each book is briefly summarized and a suggestion is given for how it could be used to encourage writing for students. I enjoyed looking for the books that I own and seeing how Culham recommended its use. Modeling the six traits of writing through picture books would be an interesting way to teach writing to students.

 The second part of the book is dedicated to actual activities for each of the traits using picture books. I was disappointed with the activities in that they lacked variety. Most of the activities involved brainstorming lists, having discussions, working in pairs and sometimes drawing pictures. Occasionally drama, music or other motor activities was suggested. I was looking for a wider variety of activities that would engage the students in the book and in their own writing process.

 Still, this is a book that I might purchase, so that I could have it readily at my finger tips when planning lessons for writing. 

 

51 Wacky We-Search Reports by Barry Lane

51 Wacky We-Search Reports by Barry Lane

Anita Nott

    The subtitle of the book really caught my eye – Facing the Facts with Fun.  I am always looking for ways to present factual information in new and fun ways.  A more appropriate subtitle might be – Defacing Facts with Ridiculous Humor. 
    I will be the first to admit that I don’t have a great sense of humor.  But I couldn’t find very much that was funny about Barry Lane’s treatment of factual information.  I read over half the book and skimmed the last part, hoping to find some good ideas that I would use in the classroom. 
    There would be an enormous amount of time spent looking for the kind of specific facts Lane’s was suggesting in the Set-Up section.  How many times greater is a dog’s sense of smell than a human’s sense of smell?  How many sheets of copy paper does an office worker use a year?  How many languages did Cleopatra speak?  My response – who cares?
    It seems like more time and energy would be spent messing around with the facts than really understanding the facts and their relationship and connection to past, present and future knowledge and events.  There would be more emphasis on minute facts than on getting the ‘big picture’.  Would these exercises really foster writing – good writing?  What would the students really be learning?  Also, is humor the best technique to explore important issues like slavery
p. 48 & 137 and the evils of the Roman Empire p. 65, or to remember people who have done things to make our country great p. 77.  And why the fascination with the sexuality of an amoeba?
    Maybe I had trouble seeing the relevance of Wacky We-Search since I am basically a primary teacher.  Young children don’t really have a mastery of humor; have you heard their long list of knock-knock jokes?  So I will grant Mr. Lane some slack if he is intending this book for high school.
    However, humor and silliness in schoolwork probably is going to open more “cans of worms” than I would want, especially in middle school.  Pre-teens think just about anything is funny, even if it is gross, crude, insulting, and hurtful.  I think using these techniques would be asking for trouble.
    So what if a student can give eight reasons why he would want to be a grizzly bear?  Does that mean he can describe the characteristics of a grizzly bear, its habitat, its interdependency with nature, and our responsibility to preserve its existence?  I don’t think so.
    Okay, there are a few activities I liked – If They Took the Test (p. 111) has possibilities, Jeopardy (p.134) is always fun , The Evening News (p. 142) allows for creativity, and I was very impressed with “Freddy: A Day in the Life of a Neuron” p. 89. 
    This is not a book I would select for my classroom.  Mr. Lane would probably just say I don't have a sense of humor.  So I will keep one of his warnings in mind, “Never forget to have fun.”  I will try to foster the naturally funny things that happen every day when I teach a group of active learners.

   
   

A Night in Bombay

A Night in Bombay

Anita Nott

        Don’t drink the water.  Keep your money in your front pocket.  Always know where your passport is.  Anyone who travels internationally hears all these warnings, me included. 
    It was the summer of my junior year in college, a time in my life when I thought I could take care of myself.  I was independent.  I was bold.  I was confident.  I was also very naïve.
    My traveling companion, Garry, and I had hopped from London, to Athens and Rome, and on to Jerusalem.  As planned, we ended up in Ethiopia where we spent over two months with missionary families in the bush of Walaga province.  We had been through several airports, passed through customs, found lodging, transportation, and food.  We thought we were seasoned travelers.  Confidently we set out for our return trip home.
    The first stop was Bombay, India.  Actually, it was just an overnight stop arranged for by the airlines.  During the two months that we had been gone, the airlines had made some changes to our flight schedule and therefore graciously offered to make reservations for our hotel.
    Hot, humid air smothered us as we exited the plane onto the tarmac.  We moved toward the terminal with the slow, steady stream of passengers.  What a change from the cool weather we had left in the highlands of Ethiopia.  Everything seemed quite different, even strange.  However, to my relief, our passports were stamped and our health records were approved. 
        We were given vouchers for our hotel, and we proceeded to baggage claim.
There we gathered our suitcases, but one of mine was missing.  Fortunately, an airline attendant offered to escort me to the airplane to look for my lost piece of luggage.  He was very helpful, but the hold of the airplane was empty.  When I returned to the terminal, there was my suitcase, right by the customs counter.  Once again I felt a huge surge of relief. 
    Amazingly, we did not have to open our suitcases as we went through customs.  We filled out the necessary forms for the small amount of money we were carrying.  An official clarified the changes in our flight schedule, explaining that early the next morning we would have to return to the office for new boarding passes.  We went by taxi to our hotel.
        Our taxi pulled up in front of Sand-n-Sea Hotel.  Confused, I glanced again at my voucher.  It specified King’s Hotel.  How did we end up at this hotel?  Garry confidently stepped from the taxi and I followed.  My puzzlement increased when I noticed that Garry’s voucher referred to Sand-Sea.  We’d been booked at different hotels?  I hoped we could get this sorted out inside.
     At the hotel desk we were asked to show our passports.  I reached for mine.  It was gone!  I searched everywhere.  My mind retraced our steps.  Panic set it.  Franticly I raced out the front doors hoping to see the taxi we had taken.  Maybe I had left it there.  But no taxi was parked in front.  Here I was in a strange country, far from home, without a passport, and my flight was at 6:00 in the morning.
    All confidence left me.  I tried to think of what I should do next.  How could I have lost my passport?  Had someone taken it from me?  Where had I last seen it?  How was I going to get a new passport in the middle of the night?
    During these brief minutes of confusion the hotel manager called the airline to confirm our hotel reservations.  Upon hearing my name the airline officer notified him that my passport was at the airport.  He assumed we were going to King’s Hotel and had sent my passport there.  The Sand-n-Sea manager contacted the King’s Hotel and assured me that my passport would soon be delivered to me.  We got our room keys.  King-size beds!  Bath and shower!  The nicest rooms we had had in three months.  However, I could not relax and enjoy it without my passport.   
    The front desk rang my room.  I answered.  My passport had arrived.  He asked if I would like to pick it up in the morning.  As calmly as I could, I thanked him but told him I would be right down.  I couldn’t sleep until I had my passport in my hand. 
    At 4 am I was awakened so we could get to the airport to take care of details before our departing flight.  At the airport, as we approached the ticket counter, Garry reached for his passport.  It was gone.  This couldn’t be happening.  He remembered laying it on the seat of our taxi.  He left me at the counter and hurried to the line of taxis.  Nervously I waited in line, hoping we would not miss our flight.  There was already too much confusion and missing a flight would just make matters worse. 
    Finally Garry returned with his passport.  He had taken a taxi back to Sand-n-Sea in the hopes that our previous taxi would have returned there also.  It had.  He retrieved his passport.  Finally our tickets were endorsed.  We checked our luggage.  We got through immigration. Reluctantly we relinquished our passports to the customs officer who carried them into an office to be stamped.  After being briefly searched we boarded a bus to the plane.
    As I collapsed into my seat I looked out the window into the coming light.  What a night we had spent in Bombay.  I don’t remember a thing about the sites, sounds, or smells of India.  Only the oppressive humidity, a long night, and a traveler’s greatest fear – losing your passport.