Wednesday Writing Workout from Alexis O'Neill--and a Thanku!

.
Howdy, Campers!
Teaching Authors are in the middle of our annual Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving.  It began in 2011 with Esther’s post which launched her new form, the Thanku (with the same syllable count as a haiku--5-7-5, it thanks someone).  As JoAnn so nicely wrote, it "charted the path to Thanksgiving through poetry".

This year we’re each posting about someone who makes a difference in ensuring others receive a quality education. We invite you to join us by posting your own poems, which can take the form of a Thanku. We’ll include a round-up of links to participating blog posts on November 29.

It's my turn, and I'd like to thank the amazing teachers whose classes I've taken through UCLA Extension's Writers Program, where I now teach.  This is "the largest open-enrollment creative writing and screenwriting program in the nation." I appreciate all those TeachingAuthors who set aside their own work and made time to teach me in my writing infancy. Those teachers include Ruth Lercher Bornstein, Susan Rubin, Myra Cohn Livingston, Sonia Levitin, and many, many others.

Actually, I'd like to include all the TeachingAuthors who visit our blog, too--each of them takes more time then you may realize to answer our interview questions and offer writing exercises. Thank you to

Authors who hold a
light and slow their pace so we
may walk beside you.

from morguefile.com     http://mrg.bz/v2aE2o

And speaking of authors who light the way, it's time for our TeachingAuthors'...

Today's exercise is from author and energizer bunny Alexis O'Neill (whose newest book, The Kite That Bridged Two Nations was just launched to wide acclaim) and who sat down with me here for an interview recently.  Take it away, Alexis!
 

The Writer’s Edge--Wondering and Finding Evidence
© AlexisO’Neill. All rights reserved 

BACKGROUND: Writers begin as observers. Writers are curious about the world around them, both past and present. Photographs and paintings are gateways to information and emotion, two powerful tools in a writer’s toolbox for writing either fiction or nonfiction or creating other works of art.

GOAL: To give students practice in supporting their conclusions with evidence.

OBJECTIVE: Using a photograph or painting as a stimulus, students will generate a list of “wonder questions” (“I wonder who . . . what, when, where, why, how, if”) related to the image, express those questions to the group, and then attempt to answer as many of those questions using evidence found in the image. They will also express how the image makes them feel.

MATERIALS

• Paper
• Pen or pencil
• A projected photo or painting of a wild mammal, reptile or bird, or children from another era or culture in a setting (not just a portrait)
• Timer

PROCEDURE

• Ask the students for a list of words that can follow the phrase, “I wonder . . .” (i.e. who, what when where why, how, if) Have them write these words on paper as a guide.
• Ask students to put their pens down and look at an image for exactly one one minute.  Tell them that the only thing they have to do during that one minute is look at the image and “wonder” about it. Use a timer to keep this accurate.
• Make the image go dark. Tell the students to pick up their pens. Give them one minute to write at least one, but as many as possible, “wonder” questions that came to them when they looked at the image. Tell them that what they write is just for themselves and will not be collected.
• Bring the image back to the screen and begin timing.
• At the end of one minute, have them put pens down and share their wonder questions. When they share, they must begin with the phrase, “I wonder . . .”
• As each student expresses their “wonder” question out loud, just repeat it, but do not comment on it.
• After collecting “wonder” questions, begin having them find answers in the image itself.  For example, you might say, “Jamie said, ‘I wonder where this is?’” Then you might invite Jamie to take a guess, but say, “Be sure to tell me what you see that makes you say that.” Each time a student guesses an answer to his or her “wonder” question, say, “What do you see that makes you say that?”
• It might be helpful to make a Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, If chart and put their guesses and the evidence they see under appropriate columns.
• Give students a chance to express any feelings the image might generate.

Not all questions will be answered by the visual evidence alone. But the chart will provide an outline for questions that students can answer through further research.

I wonder what's up there...

EXTENSION: Writing begins with observations of real life and curiosity about unanswered questions. Students will use unanswered questions about the image in this exercise as a springboard for further research. After a period of research students can pool their answers and identify where they found the information. Discuss the kinds of writing decisions they can make to express what they have learned and what connection they make to it. They can do this through, for example, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, a persuasive letter, or a work of art or music.

Thank you, Alexis!  Readers, I wonder...what you and/or your students will write? And I wonder...will some of you send us your Thankus? 

We TeachingAuthors hope your Thanksgiving--large or small, formal or in flip-flops--is yummy and loving.

 from morguefile.com     http://mrg.bz/qZyl1r

Posted by April Halprin Wayland

Bullying...A Writing Prompt for our Wednesday Writing Workout

.
Breaking News:

April's poem, "When Mom Plays Just for Me" appears on Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt's homepage www.PoetryMinute.org:
http://www.poetryminute.org/when-mom-plays-just-for-me-by-april-halprin-wayland/

Howdy Campers!

Remember to enter our current giveaway of Alexis O'Neill's book, The Kite That Bridged Two Nations ~

Welcome to another edition of TeachingAuthors'...

Okay...raise your hand if you've never been bullied.

Yeah, me, too.

Mary Ann kicked off our discussion on bullying for National Bullying Month (who knew?) with a deeply affecting post, I Wonder What Happened to Todd: A Bully's Tale.

Bullies I've known remind me of turtles: mostly they stay in their civilized shells, and then, without warning, they stretch their heads out and snap off someone's finger.

I had to chair a meeting of a non-profit organization this weekend to decide what we were going to do about a member who is a bully.

I'll call our guy Bluto.  Bluto, like the turtle, was usually friendly--he'd come early to set-up chairs, help collect dues, etc.  Every once in a while, though, he'd explode at someone shy, someone weak, someone Not Important.  In the latest incident, the atmosphere in our meeting was so toxic, people felt afraid for their safety.  Things had clearly gone too far.

Attending a meeting to figure out how to handle Bluto was not on the top of my list of fun things to do on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  Ahead of this would have been eating a porcupine, finding out my father was a single-celled alga, and staying in bed all day.  

Staying in bed all day--
a great alternative to being a grown-up....

In preparation for this meeting, I spoke at length with an expert on disruptive behavior.  I learned:
1) Bullies pick on people who are weaker than they are.
2) You need to stand up to a bully.
3) Be empathetic.
4) Create clear boundaries.

I can always use a good script.  She gave me words to use (or not):

We need you to take a time out from our organization for six months. This is the natural consequence of your actions. We hope you understand. This is also hard for us.  We're saddened. We hope you will use the next six months to work on this.  At the end of six months, if you chose to come back (and we hope you do) we hope you'll have taken the opportunity to work on this.  We'll meet with you and talk with you before you come back to a meeting.  We hope you do work it out.  People are afraid of you and you need to look at that. If you cannot, boy, we're sure going to miss you.  This is a great loss for us. (Hug him.)

At the end of six months, here's what's expected: Civility. You can't yell. You can't create a threat. You need to listen.

Interestingly enough, during the meeting on what to do about Bluto, Mary Kate shot out an angry comment. At that moment I realized that I'm as afraid of Mary Kate as I am of Bluto.  I remembered what I had learned from the expert, took a deep breath and said, "Could you not speak so angrily to me?"

Mary Kate's response was dramatic.  She looked at me in surprise--almost as if I had awakened her from a dream.  She apologized. During the rest of the meeting she was kinder to all of us than she'd ever been.

Amazing how that works.  And that sense that I awakened a bully from a dream?  That's sometimes how I feel when I eat too much...suddenly I wake up and say, "Whoa!  I think we're finished with lunch!"

I wouldn't be surprised if bullying behavior was an addiction, like smoking, drinking, overeating, compulsive spending, hoarding, etc.  Hmm.

So, today's Wednesday Writing Workout focuses on 2013 National Bullying Month's theme, The end of bullying begins with me.

Here's your writing workout:

1) Who is a bully?  Choose Bluto (of the Popeye fame),someone who once bullied you, or someone who intimidates you today.

2) Pretend that bully is in front of you now.  Jot down how you feel or how you felt as a child facing that bully.  Include details of the place, smells, physical sensations (has your stomach turned to acid? Are your palms sweaty?).  Include weather, background noises you hear or can't hear because you're so frightened, what gives you courage or how you ate a box of cookies later to blot out the fear.

4) Now: make a boundary.  Write what you wish you could have said to the bully.  Scribble to your heart's content. Be annoyed.  Be angry.  Be clear.  Tell that bully to BACK OFF!

5) That's your raw material.  Now go ahead and write the bully story or poem you really, really really need to write.

P.S: I'm pleased that one of my poems appears in the terrific book, THE BULLY, THE BULLIED, THE BYSTANDER, THE BRAVE edited by David Booth and Larry Swartz (Rubicon Publishing)

Thank you for stopping by today! 

Remember to go to this blog post for the Book Giveaway details for The Kite That Bridged Two Nations.  And g'luck!Alexis, by the way, is also the author of a wonderful picture book about a bully, The Recess Queen.

~ posted by April Halprin Wayland who is no longer afraid of Tom P, from second grade.

A Book Giveaway, A Waterfall, an Author wearing a Crown and Poetry Friday!

.
Howdy Campers and happy Poetry Friday!

See the end of this post for a link to the Poetry Friday round-up at Amy LV's and for info on our Book Giveaway.

Today we're celebrating author Alexis O'Neill's newest book with Book Giveaway! Hark!  Here comes Alexis now:

Yes, that's Alexis wearing the crown--and she deserves it as the author of THE RECESS QUEEN (Scholastic), THE WORST BEST FRIEND (Scholastic), LOUD EMILY (Simon and Schuster), ESTELA'S SWAP (Lee & Low) and her newest offspring, THE KITE THAT BRIDGED TWO NATIONS: Homan Walsh And The First Niagara Suspension Bridge (Calkins Creek). She's also written fiction and nonfiction for Cricket, Spider, Cobblestone, Calliope, Faces, and Odyssey. 

I've known Alexis since Janet Wong founded the Children's Authors Network (CAN!) during the classical era of the children's literature movement.

 This is where the Children's Authors Network
meetings were held in the early days

Alexis is an absolutely amazing teacher.  In one memorable workshop, she taught CAN! authors how to create and present teacher inservices.  It was an extraordinary presentation and it formed how I respond and present to teachers to this day.

Alexis has golden credentials in the field of education: she's a former elementary teacher with a Ph.D. in teacher education, she's an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, a museum education consultant, a Regional Advisor for SCBWI in California, and a contributor to the SCBWI Bulletin, writing her column, “The Truth About School Visits.” Her blog, www.SchoolVisitExperts.com, offers practical advice to published authors and illustrators who are trying to navigate the world of public appearances.

This August, she was named SCBWI Member of the Year --and though it was a complete surprise to her (though to no one else), she sang a sea shanty as she accepted the award.

Because that's who Alexis is--generous, original and dramatic.  It's as if her goal is always to bring the classroom, the auditorium, fellow authors--whoever is around--together.  As if she is a shepherd and we are the community she's teaching and keeping safe.

 This is Alexis, keeping us safe.

Her new book, THE KITE THAT BRIDGED TWO NATIONS: HOMAN WALSH AND THE FIRST NIAGARA SUSPENSION BRIDGE (Calkins Creek, September 2013) tells the true, dramatic story of how an ordinary boy earned an extraordinary place in history, using his kite to lay the first line for the first suspension bridge at Niagara Falls in the winter of 1848.  Watch this 1:42 minute book trailer for a taste of the book:



So, Alexis, how did you become a TeachingAuthor?

I’ve been a TeachingAuthor all my life! As a kid, I convinced my dad to hang a blackboard in the garage and persuaded the neighborhood kids to sit in my “class.” After school, I wrote (and sold) a neighborhood newspaper which I composed on my mom’s portable typewriter. As a grown up, I’ve taught elementary school students, teacher education candidates, and, as a published author, writers.

What's a common problem/question that teachers or students have and how do you address it?

Students of all ages are so afraid of being “wrong.” My advice to them is to just play with words! Don’t worry about what other people think of your work. Can’t find a word? Make it up! Or make a mark to come back to that spot later. Just mess around, and in that mess, you might find the seed of an idea that can sprout into a full-blown piece of writing that you will want to share later on. To address this problem when we do writing exercises, I tell students up front that no one will collect their writing – and that they can decide when and what they will share with the group.

 Author Alexis O'Neill picking one lucky student ~

Was there a moment in your life when you knew you were a writer?

The moment I knew I was a writer was when my sixth grade teacher read my report on Ireland out loud to the class. Instead of a dry, factual presentation, I had “pretended,” in my narrative, to be a tour guide who was taking the whole class with her on a trip. First, I was surprised that he read it out loud, then I was really surprised when, at recess, my classmates came up to me and said how much they liked what I had written. That’s when a big light bulb went on over my head. “Wow! I can write for an audience, and not just for my teacher!” I thought.

From that moment on, I made all of my reports as creative as possible. For example, my report on the Alamo was told from the point of view of the only survivor (there were none in reality, but that didn’t stop me.) Now I know I was writing historical fiction. But I kept doing this, and teachers kept reading my work out loud in my classes. The birth of a writer – writing for an audience and not just for a grade from my teachers!

And finally, since it's Poetry Friday in the Kidlitosphere, do you have an original poem you'd like to share with our readers?

THE FALLS
by Alexis O'Neill

I am thunder and roar
I am rain and river
Green and white magnificence.
You try to tame me
and you fail.
In barrel and boat
I spin you,
plunge you
crush you,
drown you.
A filmy fairy curtain?
Not I!
A lacy veil?
Not I!
I gnaw at rock
bite through cliffs
claw the very bed
across which I race
oceanward.
Out of my way!
I am the great Niagara

poem © 2013 Alexis O’Neill.  All rights reserved

Wow--what a powerful waterfall of words! Thank you for stopping by and thank you for offering our readers a chance to win a copy of your new book (details below), Alexis!

Author Alexis O'Neill making magic

Here's a peek at Alexis's touring schedule for A Kite that Bridged Two Nations.  Be sure to visit her at  AlexisONeill.com, follow her on Twitter, and friend her on FaceBook.                                                   
And now, for the Book Giveaway details:

We use Rafflecopter. If you've never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, you may want to read their info on how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway and/or the difference between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address.

To enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of The Kite That Bridged Two Nations log into Rafflecopter below (via either Facebook or an email address). You'll see that we've provided three different options for entering the giveaway--you can pick one or up to all three. The more options you choose, the greater your chances of winning. While we haven't made it a requirement for entering, we hope that everyone will WANT to subscribe to the TeachingAuthors blog. We give you several ways of doing so in the sidebar, for example, via email, Facebook Networked Blogs, Jacketflap, Bloglovin', etc.

If you're already a TeachingAuthors subscriber, you need only click on the first option below and tell us how you follow our blog, which will give you THREE entries in the giveaway! (If you received this post via email, you can click on the Rafflecopter giveaway link below to enter.)

As it says in the "Terms and Conditions," this giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. You must be 18 or older to enter. And please note: email addresses will only be used to contact winners. The giveaway will run from now through October 9, 2013.

If you have any questions about the giveaway, feel free to email us at teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com. 
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you, happy Amy LV of the Poetry Farm, for hosting PF today.

Posted by April Halprin Wayland with help from the Link Fairy.