War Eagle Writing Studio Poetry Chat: 8th Graders Share Their Poems and Writing Processes

We recently started an extended writing study/inquiry on poetry.  So far, my 8th graders have learned these poetry writing strategies:

• Color Poems (a strategy I learned while a student at the University of Georgia)
• Writing Poems Off Photographs
• Writing a Poem Off a List
• “Old/New” Poems

Poetic writing techniques we’ve focused on so far include word choice, alliteration, similes, and line breaks.  I’ll do a separate post soon on these poem writing strategies, but I wanted to share some insights from my students on how they approached their color poems.

Yesterday two of my 8th grade writers graciously agreed to share their thoughts on how they wrote their first poems in our course and how they approached their poetry writing.  I hope you enjoy the chat and their poems as much as I did!

Midyear Media Center Report Fall 2015

For the last few weeks, I have contemplated doing a midyear/end of semester report.  While I have done monthly and yearly reports in the past, I have never done one at this point in the academic year.  However, I thought it would be a great reflective exercise for me as a school librarian in a new school and new district as well as a great way to share what has been happening with my administrative team.  My friend and former NHS colleague Jennifer Lund inspired me to use Piktochart after showing me her fabulous midyear report.  Here is my own rendition, which you can view by scrolling or in presentation view by clicking on the presentation icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Hooch Learning Studio Fall 2015 Semester Report

Conversation 3: Student Reflections on Inquiry, Choice, Participatory Learning, Information, and Digital Literacy

Last week, we held a large group share/think/brain dump/reflect session with our Media 21 students over a series of four days after students completed initial written self-assessment and summative reflections.  This video is the first of a series of conversations in which students share their summative reflections about their experiences in a collaboratively taught English course by Susan Lester, English teacher, and Buffy Hamilton, school librarian in 2011-2012.    I’d like to thank our students for their willingness and permission to share with a global audience as well as their participation in these conversations.   While these are lengthy conversations, I hope the thoughts and insights they share will be helpful to other teachers, librarians, students, administrators, and community members in thinking about the possibilities of learning and libraries and the potential of the collaborative partnerships we can forge.  I’ll be following up this series of video conversations with a written post highlighting the insights, reflections, and self-assessments shared by our students.

In this discussion, Ella and Cynda discuss information literacy standards they’ve mastered, how participatory learning has built their confidence as students, and the decisions behind their multigenre, transmedia learning products.   You can see Ella and Cynda’s work by clicking  here.

Resources:

• Spring 2012 Project LibGuides 
• Student Learning Portfolios (includes research topic and three major research questions, research design proposals, project shaping sheet or mindmap, final bibliography, information dashboard, and final composition (digital, text, or multigenre).

Conversation 2: Student Reflections on Inquiry, Choice, Participatory Learning, Information, and Digital Literacy

Last week, we held a large group share/think/brain dump/reflect session with our Media 21 students over a series of four days after students completed initial written self-assessment and summative reflections.  This video is the second of a series of conversations in which students share their summative reflections about their experiences in a collaboratively taught English course by Susan Lester, English teacher, and Buffy Hamilton, school librarian in 2011-2012.    I’d like to thank our students for their willingness and permission to share with a global audience as well as their participation in these conversations.   While these are lengthy conversations, I hope the thoughts and insights they share will be helpful to other teachers, librarians, students, administrators, and community members in thinking about the possibilities of learning and libraries and the potential of the collaborative partnerships we can forge.  I’ll be following up this series of video conversations with a written post highlighting the insights, reflections, and self-assessments shared by our students.

We also appreciate your patience in the viewing of this video as we had some interruptions from the PA system, and one student had to exit early because of a state mandated end of course test.  Thank you to our students for their patience and humor in dealing with the interruptions!

Resources:

• Spring 2012 Project LibGuides 
• Student Learning Portfolios (includes research topic and three major research questions, research design proposals, project shaping sheet or mindmap, final bibliography, information dashboard, and final composition (digital, text, or multigenre).