Scar Stories Allow Students To Create Personal Narratives

Essays for high stakes test assessment create fear in both students and teachers. Narrative writing can help alleviate that fear! One of my favorite teaching units, writing about scars, involves a personal experience that every child has had - an accident that left a mark somewhere on the body. Students enjoy writing their first draft, revising, and then having the opportunity to read the story to the class during Author's Chair.


We begin with class discussion about the Survivor Television Show.  What possible scars might participants bring away from the show?

Henry Fleming, the "hero" from The Red Badge of Courage is a topic which can be speculated about whether or not students are doing a novel study about the book. 

What is courage?  How do people display it? Does every person have courage? Might you find courage you did not think you had in the right circumstance where what you did could make a life-death difference in lives around you?

Students practice comparing and contrasting two poems about scars. They also listen to song lyrics on youtube for two songs relating to the theme of courage.

After the pre-writing activities, students write a personal 
survivor story based on a scar or "red badge of courage" that each student possess.

A copy of a human skeleton will allow students to indicate where they have scars or have had broken bones, accidents, or surgeries. Each student will decide on one scar to focus writing about from the personal diagram. (Emotional scars such as a broken heart due to a divorce, death, or personal relationship will be acceptable.)

Students work in small groups of four with a narrative writing rubric and will provide each other with constructive peer editing on their first drafts. A form for peer editing is provided.

Students will share the final draft in groups of four and will have the option to share the story with the class during Author's Chair or to display it on the class writing wall.

This lesson was used in a National Writing Project Winter Retreat Workshop and has been successful in my English 10 classroom.

Developing a Community of Writers!

The first day of the new school year is your first chance to begin building a community of writers in your classroom.  Since I teach in "chunks" there are three activities that I share with the students - video clip discussion, poetry writing, and writing fluency instruction.

I like to use short video clips from you tube for discussion, and Robin William's brilliant acting as an English teacher at a private school is my choice for the first day.  The first clip is "Carpe Diem - Cease The Day" (2:59). Our hallways at school hold graduation pictures from the class of 1964 onward which include some of the students' parents and grandparents. My graduation picture hangs there as well. We talk about the community of our school's past and present.

A second clip illustrates how students must use their imagination and creativity to become writers in spite of themselves.  In "Writing With Imagination and Creativity" (2:46) Williams helps Todd to create a poem on the spot which is what I am about to ask my sophomores to do with "Where I'm From". Todd has not done the homework assignment because thinks he is not capable of writing a poem, yet Williams proves him wrong.  I am hoping my new students will "get" the message presented that all students can write if they believe in themselves.

Why do we read and write poetry?  (1:31) Both Robin's performance in Dead Poet's Society and the popular i-pad commercial (1:30) take my breath away every time I watch them. Poetry has gotten a bad rep with many of the students and I intend to instill my passion for it during this year.  Students have already heard, "You'll do a lot of writing in English 10" and these clips validate that in the first fifteen minutes.  The popular i-Pad commercial uses the majesty of nature and life to illustrate Robin William's rendering of the poem. Throughout the year students will ask themselves what their contributions will be during our journey.  I want them to realize that poetry is not just something that dead white men have written, but embrace both modern poetry and learn to love writing it themselves.

Next, I give them an example of "Where I'm From", written by Kentucky's Poet Laureate George Ella Lyon and published on her website.  Immediately, there are the anticipated high school student responses. The writers in the class are excited. Students who have had older siblings in my class know this is going to be expected because their older brothers and sisters have come home with this first day assignment. Some students are convinced that they can never write poetry and don't want to share information about themselves with the other students in the class. I ask them to please give poetry a chance and share with them my own "Where I'm From" poem.

Where I’m From (outline)

by George Ella Lyon

I am from (specific ordinary item)

from (product name)

I am from the (home description)

(adjective, adjective, sensory detail)

I am from the (plant, flower, tree, natural item)

(description of the natural item).

I'm from (family tradition) and 

(family tradition)

from (name of family member)

and (another name of family member)

I'm from the (description of family tendency)

and (another description of family tendency)

from (quote of something you were told as a child)

and (quote of something else you were told as a child).

I'm from (representation of religion or lack of it, optional line)

(further description or optional)

I'm from (place of birth and family ancestry)

(two food items representing your family)

From the (specific family story about a specific person and a detail)

The (another detail of another family member).

Location of family pictures, mementos, memories,

and several more lines indicating their worth.

Conclusion of poem.

Where I’m From

by Writer’s Corner

I am from books,

From Quaker Oats and Bunny Bread,

I am from the rocking chair on the front porch,

White and tall, squeaking as it slowly rocks.

I am from the maple tree,

The peonies on the hill,

Whose bright colors in spring and fall,

Ignite the southern Indiana countryside.

I’m from fishing and brown hair,

From Glenn E. and Catherine.

I’m from the “hurry up and get it done,”

And the “you’ll be late to your own funeral.”

I’m from, “you can do anything you set your mind to do.”

And, “Ask not what your country can do for you,

But what you can do for your country.”

I’m from conservative Methodists,

Who attended church every Sunday.

From Bible School and Bible Study,

And singing in the church choir.

I’m from Terre Haute, Indiana and Bennett’s Knoll,

New York newpapers and Rockville grandparents,

Mama’s hamburgers and sweet potatoes,

From the math teacher my mother decided

She would be in grade three,

To my librarian daddy who quoted poetry

All his life.

At my grandmother’s house was a baby grand piano,

I spent summer days trying to learn to play.

And summer afternoons making pie dough

With granny, though I never got her magic touch,

I am from all the moments of the past,

Carrying them with me into the future,

And carving my own niche in memory.

The second day of class we have Author's Chair and students read their "Where I'm From" poem. Author's Chair is always voluntary, but most of the students will share. We talk about the lines they like the best and students use a yellow highlighter to choose two lines of their poem for the large group poem, "Where We're From".

I ask for a couple of volunteers from each class period to type the highlighted yellow lines from the individual poems into the group poem. Later in the week, they all receive a copy of the group poem and all group poems are posted on a classroom wall where they remain all year. Thus, my community building has moved from individual poems to a collective poem written by all class members. The students are excited about their poems and the writers community is starting to take shape.

We Are From

4^th period

We are from the hunting rifle, from bobby pins and make-up,

From Captain Crunch and Lipton tea,

We are from the brick home, the shaded back yard,

We are from the creek that runs through our field,

We are from soft blankets and fuzzy chairs, bright and colorful, that tip when two people sit,

We are from fresh cut grass, the Hickory tree, Walnut tree and Lilac bushes.

We are from fishing and reading, swimming and cheerleading,

Deer hunting and watching football together,

We are from silly arguments and going to church,

From sleeping in and making plans last minute.

We are from “Shut up” and “Bring me a beer.”

From “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” and “Setting down gets nothing done.”

From “Sharper than a tack” and “Slower than pond water.”

From “Be yourself” and “Great minds think alike.”

We are from mud and tires,

From mom’s tacos and granny’s lemon bars,

From fried chicken and tators,

From cornbread and beans,

From barbecued chicken and hamburger steaks.

From the four-wheeler my Uncle Shawn flipped,

The finger my grandpa smashed in the Navy,

From the Old Salt, ships, and tying knots,

The sermons preached and homemade turtle soup.

We’re from the cedar chest in my grandparent’s house

Packed with pictures of old family and baby pictures stowed away for good

An old cardboard box that hardly fits in the drawer,

Pictures I know and ones I don’t,

Family and friends, places we went,

Enough room for a couple more.

At my granny’s are stories I wrote,

Creative and spelled wrong,

Pictures spill from containers,
With all my memories.

In addition to the poetry writing, the class also writes the first of many quickwrites to improve their writing fluency. Like many of you, my state requires a fifty-five minute timed essay as one part of the graduation test which they take as sophomores. At the beginning of the year, many of the students need to greatly increase their writing fluency to be able to complete this task in May. One of my favorite first day topics is, "Explain three reasons why I should be impressed by you." I will get serious nerdy responses and flippant funny statements, but they are all expressing and communicating and letting their individual voices be heard.

On the first day of class, I give them a list of writing topics that they may choose to use when we do fifteen minute quickwrites in class. The topics are part of the "Writing Fluency: Fifteen Minute Quickwrites" unit that is the most popular seller in my store. As weeks pass, I increase the Quickwrites to 20 minutes, then 25, then 30.

In December, when they take the first semester final one day is dedicated to the 55 minute essay which indicates to me who will be able to pass the test in May and who still needs to work on writing fluency. Second semester begins with the 30 minute timed writing and continues to the 55 minute essays that compare and contrast to hone their best writing skills.

I learn more about the students through quickwrites than I ever would in class because they write about what is really bothering them.  They also share what is making them happy, although this month's boyfriend/girlfriend may be the subject of next month's broken heart poems. I write smiley faces or frowney faces in the margin, let them know that I love Taylor Swift's latest song as much as they do, suggest a restaurant in the area I've tried that specializes in food they express an interest in. It's really a tough call for me to judge whether I bond with them more over quickwrites or poems.

As I read through the quickwrites after the first day has ended, I take time to write, "We're going to have a great year" on each student's paper which plants the seed that failure in English 10 is not an option and they will write that 55 minute essay to earn the right to a diploma in two years. Believe they can, and they will.

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO THE CLASSROOM 2014

In what ways have you grown as a professional while taking this course? How can you use the knowledge gained to increase your leadership within the corporation?

I have increased my knowledge about technology while taking this course.  I will use this knowledge in my classroom, in my role as a member of the technology committee, and in providing professional development for the faculty.

Philosophy and theory of how to incorporate technology into the curriculum is one of the areas in which I learned the most in this class.  It was not one of the reasons I signed up for the class and some articles addressed issues I had not considered yet with 1:1 implementation.  Discussions about digital citizenship or digital reputation brought different insights into a problem that is very frustrating to me.  Responsible students who are well behaved in the real world display behavior in the digital world which is not consistent with their personalities.  They post things online and make up personalities or lie about their age to see if they can get by with it.  Internet safety rules don't seem to have much meaning or value to many of them.  Although digital education can offer new level 4 activities that involve higher level thinking skills and projects not possible prior to devices, what devices are actually being used for falls far short of those goals.  Digital worksheets are just expensive workbooks.

New websites and software opportunities were plentiful in this course.  I used Symbaloo, Mendaley, and Padlet in class activities.  I shared class articles with my personal PLC group and with writing consultants in my National Writing Project group.  My PLC group created their own Symbaloos and a science teacher tried a couple of the websites in her classes.  I took the class to learn more about current software and website trends and to learn what some of the latest developments are and I was not disappointed.

The third reason I took the course is to learn about 1:1 technology projects for my technology committee.  Our school corporation will probably go 1:1 in the 2015 to 2016 school year.  I am concerned about whether or not 1:1 will work.  Our greatest obstacle will be the lack of connectivity in the community due to dead zones.  Our second greatest obstacle will be our school network.  My fear is that when we buy the devices and spend a lot of money, they won't work.  The school has a history of technology projects that were planned, purchased, and did not work as hoped.  We have five i-Touch carts from a grant project.  The carts and the Wi-Fi worked well in some areas of the building, but did not work well in other areas.  My classroom is in a hall where Wi-Fi is not reliable.  It is hard to buy into a project that will die in the middle of class.  Although I love technology myself and go back to Apple IIe, I can list easily the well-intended projects that did not work because of interconnectivity or the school network blocking websites that needed to work for the webquests to be successful.  Our technology committee hopes to put several steps in place before we begin a 1:1 implementation.  Our first step this school year is a schoolwide survey of the staff to if people buy into the proposed project.  Buy-in from the students, parents, and community will follow.  Curriculum planning, studying devices, seeing what needs to be fixed in the network and infrastructure are other steps in the overall success. It has been helpful to read articles and discussions from people who have actually done 1:1.   I have enjoyed this class and happy that I had the opportunity to participate.

How “connected” is my classroom?

I took this technology class to learn about the latest cutting edge in technology and software.  I consider myself to be a “connected” teacher in that I have used technology in my classroom since the Apple IIe arrived and I’ve always been inspired by  new innovations.  But, this class has asked me to really look at how technology is being integrated.  Am I using the device to really teach higher level thinking skills, or am I just using technology to glorify technology without thinking about the results (SMAR model of substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition).  I now explore the impact of integrating technology on both teaching and learning.  I am teaching in a Blended or Flipped Classroom, not a 1:1 environment.  Therefore, learning takes place with and without technology.

Can’t I do Padlet on the blackboard using paper and tape?  Do I really need a computer?  Is it more engaging for the class to collaboratively participate in active learning the old-fashioned way?  Technology standards attempts to outline a progression that educators follow in their journey toward redefining teaching and learning with technology.  It’s more fun to do Padlet than to post pencil/paper replies on the real classroom wall or blackboard, but it’s not any higher level in Bloom’s taxonomy.  Students may be more motivated to engage in class discussion if they are typing their response in Padlet and seeing it project through the In-Focus projector, but what are they really learning?  

Kids can see through learning for the sake of using the devices daily and if the learning is not active and engaging, they will grow tired of the new shiny device.  Teachers feel pressure to show they are using the new technology in their lesson plans, but are we really modifying and redefining or just substituting?  These are hard questions and have made me stop and examine how really innovative my classroom is.

Some technology class members have expressed opinions about the digital natives (younger teachers and students) and the non-natives (the veterans who did not grow up with electronic devices).  I don’t really think age has anything to do with success in technology one way or the other.  Focus and intent are the most important variables.  A digital native can be totally unconnected to the environment around him and clueless about his digital reputation as he feels entitled to do or say whatever.  A non-digital native may have to try harder to be comfortable with the devices, but if the desire and interest is there, he/she should not be written off because of the generation in which he/she grew up.  The veteran set can be just as hip and because they have to try harder since it doesn’t come naturally to them, they may see faults in the implementation that the younger set doesn’t even think about.  I’ve seen both younger and veteran teachers become uncomfortable using devices or technology in the classroom.  Engaging students in technology with a specific purpose that rises above simply making paper/pencil worksheets into digital worksheets is certainly the first step.  Basic classroom management will also play a huge factor whether the environment is 1:1 or Blended. 

Since I teach English 10, a large focus of my job is preparing students to pass the End of Course Assessment (graduation test).  I encourage creative thinking.  Every unit covered has an essential question.  Sometimes students may discover “new” essential questions as there are many different ways to look at curriculum and no absolutely right answer.  I’m not teaching math, where 2 plus 2 always equals 4.  I’m teaching values, ethics, character development and obligation.  While some students may think that Brutus was noble when he listened to the conspirators and tried to save his city from Caesar, others think he should have seen them for what they were and saved his best friend.  Is it possible to teach students critical thinking and technology skills and still prepare them for the knowledge based state tests?  I think the SMAR model applies well.  I can ramp up the content by having the students analyze and evaluate.  When they do that and collaboratively create a final presentation for the class, the learning sticks.  Sometimes they create an amusement park flyer using Publisher that includes creative rides (the Fountain of Fire) and interesting restaurants.  Sometimes they write Shrink poems about the characters.  Occasionally, the Ghost of Caesar makes an appearance, but they are taking elements of the play and redefining them.  

The concept of collaborative learning, the grouping and pairing of students for the purpose of achieving an academic goal, may be accomplished using various Google Doc applications, but in a blended classroom such as mine sitting around the table and talking in small groups while putting together a class project does not require a computer.  Active learning occurs with or without the devices as the students are engaged in the learning.  The group includes students at various levels working together in small groups toward a common goal with each choosing a level of expertise suited to their chosen task.  The artistic student chooses to create something hands-on, the writer chooses to work on the speech or script, and the student gifted in speaking to the class takes on the task of bringing the project “to life” for the class presentation. The students are responsible for one another's learning as well as their own. Thus, the success of one student helps other students to be successful.

How can we teach students to demonstrate their mastery/understanding when they aren't given explicit requirements?  Although Ben Johnson and Lindsey Wright both advocate turning the classroom over to students and letting them decide what to teach and learn, my school is far from that philosophy.  I give them rubrics which are open-ended enough that they may collaborate, analyze, evaluate, and organize products or projects while following the state standards and the curriculum for my class.  As with Julius Caesar, there are many different options they may use to think critically and create, but they have stated parameters about what an exceptional product/project should contain.  It will be at least a year before my school system goes 1:1, or longer, but there will have to be a major shift in the management of schools and how education is implemented in Indiana before the classroom instruction is turned over to the students without explicit requirements.

Googling My Digital Footprint

Many people are named Patricia Keefe so Goggling myself often makes me smile.  Today the first result was a recent grave in Richmond, Kentucky.  Thankfully, that is not me - yet.

Only five of us live in Indiana.  I located myself and clicked.  Sleuths can find my address, phone number, probable relatives, and a map marker.  A Google Earth ariel view of my home may be zoomed out and in.  For $2.95, I may access eighteen public records in my profile that include birth certificate, property information, college degree, teaching license, and others.  Sometimes I am tempted to pay the fee to see if I might learn something I don't know about myself.  Data systems do make mistakes.

My name will come up for various websites.  I have a resume typed up on Linked In, which includes references and accomplishments of my career.  I have a blog of professional writing that includes articles about education, but does not share with the Internet what my religious or political viewpoints might be.  I have a "secure" account on Facebook that users are not supposed to be able to access unless I have accepted them as friends.  I am not stupid enough to believe that it is really secure and even know how you may easily hack into it.  I am careful about what I post to update my status and what pictures I share.  I'm sure that my profile could be evaluated as "boring" and Facebook is continually asking me where I live, where I went to high school, and other information that I have not added.  You can't even see my birthdate.

You could learn that my passions are pontooning on Patoka Lake and writing. There are pictures from writing retreats I have attended and a blog entry "Connect with your Inner Muse in North Carolina" that will appear.  I often post about how super wonderful the day at the lake was AFTER I return home from the lake.  The Extending Lilly Teacher Creativity Workshop picture from last July is my large profile picture.  These things I am not afraid to share with whomever might want to learn more about me.

I do not gossip in chatrooms or on Facebook.  I don't post that I'm going to be gone on the weekend, nor do I post anything negative about people or work.  As a journalism minor, I am well aware of libel and slander laws and I am shocked by what I see posted by others.  My philosophy is that the glass is always half full.  There are new challenges out there; I just need to find them.

Maintaining a positive footprint is not difficult.  Think about what you post and remember that even if you delete pictures or posts, the internet has a long memory and there are programs that can retrieve what was posted even if you think it is gone forever. 

Discussions in class about the current events and things that happen regarding the internet can encourage students to think about what image they are projecting.   If you would not say something face to face to another person, should you really post it online?  Who is going to see the picture of your friends and you drinking at Saturday night's party?  What kind of a message is it going to send to others about you?  Maybe you don't like a political figure, is making fun of him/her online a good idea?  Do you really want people to know you will be in Florida during spring break and no one will be at your house?

A former Assistant Principal included many of the students as Facebook friends and learned a great deal about what was happening at school and beyond from their posts.  Students did actually upload pictures from shopping trips they took when they were home "sick".  Sometimes they tried to bully others into fights at school, which gave him a forewarning of what might happen in the cafeteria during 6th period the next day.  Discussion about what happened on field trips or in classes also provided useful feedback.  Duh?

I have been filling out job recommendations for summer employment for students and have reminded them (again) that employers may Google their names and see what comes up online.  Negative posts about others, posts that include inappropriate language every other word, and horrible spelling or grammar may cost a student an interview for a job they would have been great at doing.  Online behavior often does not reflect classroom behavior or behavior that a student would be smart enough to use in a job setting.  Pictures, political views, inappropriate religious statements, and slams against "hating this stupid town and all the people in it" will not win friends.  

The best advice to give students is to think about what they are doing when creating their digital footprint and not posting things they will regret.