[writeclub] Quote Cards for #nanowrimo Writers

As part part #nanowrimo I have been regularly creating quote cards for my students. I guess I am hoping that the quote cards inspire them to write a bit more. Collectively they have written over 20,000 words so far, I think that it is a fabulous effort.

Here is what I created using Canva and gathered the quotes from various quoting sources online.

[writeclub] Day 12 NaNoWriMo breaking though writers block

It is nearly half way through the NaNoWriMo challenge and several of the students have hit the writers block wall.

So lots of talk at Write Club today about how to punch through that wall:

• Building good writing habits, 
• using the kitchen timer to drop everything and just write for 20 minute,
• giving yourself permission to jump around the story rather than write from start to end in chronological order.

The students have so far written over 20 thousand words combined with an average of 1800 words per story. I think that it is a great effort!

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I've been keeping them motivated by providing gummy snakes and/or bears and every few day I put our another motivational quote card for the kids to collect and decorate their writing space with.

[writeclub] Day 6 #NaNoWriMo

Today was Day 6 for NaNoWriMo today and we set-up one of the big tables in the Learning Commons with a "reserved" sign for students participating in the month-long writing program. 

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When National Novel Writing Month was mentioned we had three students interested in it, today at lunchtime we had eight students sitting around the table typing away. The students seem to be liking the little quote cards that I have been making in Canva; printed in 280 gsm card.

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I have '1k', '2k' and '3k' badges for students that have made it past these milestones. The badges are not my idea, I have just adapted them for our kids.

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The next write-in session will be on Friday with treats and more quote cards, I can't wait to read what the students have written.

[writeclub] Day 1 #Nanowrimo in the Learning Commons

Day 1 NaNoWriMo and we originally had three girls interested in doing the writing competition.
Something happened and we now have 8.

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A sign in sheet, some gummy bears, quote card and button badges for all. An old typewriter was also set up for students to tinker on; I think that it added to the ambiance!

The lunchtime was spent writing the first section of their 3,000 stories. Here is a summary of the ones that I read at the end of the teaching day:

• A World War III spy thriller with a fortune teller.
• A girl who lives in a bland world discovers colour.
• A girl falls down a portal and travels back in time to meet her grandmother.

In Australia we have a four day long weekend, which coincides with a horse race on Tuesday. I am hoping that many of the students will find the time to do some writing over the weekend and I will have some more entertaining stories to read on Wednesday of next week.

#freebookmarks for your #schoollibrary - Halloween

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Using the frames in Canva, we imported some Halloween Colouring in sheets into the frames. The result was some Halloween colouring in bookmarks. Something different for 2019. The black border makes them very easy to splice in our guillotine.

Card was 280gsm through our photocopier.

[click to download a large copy]

Enjoy!

Reading Circle Bookmarks

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The bookmarks are a result of unpacking Dr Margaret Merga’s book “Reading Engagement for Tweens and Teens”.

Early in the book she talks about the types of influences that impact on teen reading engagement or the “will to read”. The Reading Circle format at our school is part of encouraging a shared social habit in reading and encouraging students to talk about what they do and don't like in a novel. But that can only happen when we model good social engagement habits.

We hold our Reading Circles twice a term and in between reading circles we do reading conversations/observations to find out what students are reading and how they are tracking.

Bookmarks were made in Canva to try and focus the students when we do Reading Circles.

[write club] Using Music to get into the mood for NaNoWriMo

I've been playing with the idea of a playlist or song to get me into the NaNowriMo "mood". 

When I was young and did annual dancing concerts, the dance school would play a song as a lead in to the start of the concert. Back then it was Neil Diamond "Crunchy Granola Suite", quite a long song. Everyone back stage knew that once that song started they would have 4 minutes to get onto the stage for the first performance. Every time I listen to Crunchy Granola I have flashbacks to leotards and tap shoes.

When I started thinking of songs for NaNoWriMo, I automatically thought of Elvis Costello's "Everyday I write the book" or The Beatles "Paperback Writer".

The song has to be uplifting or perhaps well suited to the genre that you are writing about.
For example: If you were writing a Murder Mystery you might have "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" on your playlist.  I love this remake of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" by Mona Lisa Twins.

Dive down the rabbit hole and find a song that gives you a pep in your step for NaNoWriMo!

[write club] NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month

November is nearly here, which means that NaNoWriMo is nearly upon us (National Novel Writing Month). 

I've tried this a few times with writing clubs over the years. Sometimes the kids embrace the concept, other times they don't. This year with the aid of Canva, I decided to make a NaNoWriMo Calendar for our writers. 

Printed off in A3, they can pin it up on their writing desk and at the end of each day record their progress each day.

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Here is a downloadable copy of the calendar.

[click image to download]

Our first task next week is to have a think about characters and plot, so that we can start writing on the 1st of November!

Why is reading important for your brain?

We know that reading is important and it is a good habit for our students engage in.

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Readers Digest put out a short sharp article on this topic with links to articles to let you dive deeply into the cognitive benefits of reading regularly.

This report into the "shadow activity' following regular reading founded the basis of our "Drop Everything and Read" campaign. 10-15 minutes a day of reading a novel with a storyline, characters and conundrums provides the cognitive load needed to generate this "Shadow activity".

So where as a fortnightly wider reading time might be good at providing feedback to the teacher librarians and gathering student voice data on where students are with their reading, 10 minutes reading at the start of every English class (or every day) will provide a greater cognitive benefit.

For English teachers and Teacher Librarians it is about striking that balance in the classroom and putting together a program that meet the needs of the reading group.


Reference

Peyser, M. (2019). This Is Why Reading Is So Important for Your Brain. [online] Reader’s Digest. Available at: https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/why-reading-is-important/ [Accessed 18 Jul. 2019].

Executive function skills and the motivation to read

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Some of the comments that are coming back from the Year 7 cohort about reading is that the 'Drop Everything and Read' wider reading campaign is giving them permission to read.

To me that sounds funny; why would you need permission to read? Why can't you just enjoy the process?

Intrinsic motivation is an interesting concept. For many of us, getting up in the morning isn't driven by the intrinsic motivation to start the day at a decent time. It is driven by the fact that we have work to go to, or kids to get up or animals to feed. The routine of our life is the motivating factor. For many of us, when those factors are removed, the morning routine falls apart. As adults we have developed those executive function skills to get up and get the jobs done that need to be done.

But for teenagers, many are still developing their executive function skills that drive them to set independent goals, meet self-set deadlines and also keep themselves organised.

For many years I have noticed a decline in the development of executive function skills amongst students. The school diary was often the mechanism to teach them these skills. Assignment dates would be set, tasks would be broken apart, times would be set to study for tests. Once upon a time we would help students create homework timetables and meet with them weekly to talk about their homework habits. Yes it was hard work by the pastoral teachers and parents, but you are not born with organisational skills; systems have to be developed that work for you. Part of this process was also learning to talk to teachers about completing tasks on time, such as 'role playing' how to ask for an extension on a piece of work.

With the large scale integration of Learning Management Systems into our schools, this skill is being super-seeded by looking at an electronic calendar that your teacher has populated for you with due dates. There is no processing or negotiation involved, the dates are just there ...

Online tasks are automatically given due dates and often the system doesn't allow for students to break down these tasks over a series of dates to suit their learning needs. Most electronic calendars do not allow for notes or reflections to be inserted. Perhaps the simple physical act of recording homework offline in a handwritten diary might have more benefits than meets the eye.

So is there a correlation between executive function skill and the motivation to read?

We have been recording our Drop everything and read data for 7 weeks now. We can see that the kids who under-achieve in many subjects are not good at reading regularly and those that are good at reading regularly achieve higher marks in their classroom tasks. Perhaps we didn't need 7 weeks of data to tell us this ...

But what about their executive function skills? Is there a link?

Does the simple act of learning how to plan, increase the likelihood of finding time to read recreationally?

Perhaps this is the next research project for me!