2 for 1 Giveaway: A Set of Metaphor Dice and a copy of the Poetry by Chance Anthology

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? See this page for info.) 

Today we have a special treat for all our followers who are fans of metaphor and/or poetry, and especially for those of you who teach writing.

I mentioned in my June 16 post that we'd be hosting a giveaway of Poetry by Chance: An Anthology of Poems Powered by Metaphor Dice edited by Taylor Mali (Button Poetry). Well, Taylor surprised me by sending not only a copy of the book autographed to "a fan of TeachingAuthors" but by also including a set of Metaphor Dice for the giveaway.

I include instructions on how to enter the giveaway for this fun prize duo at the end of this post. But first, I want to share a bit about the anthology and give you a sneak preview of my poem that appears in it.

As it says in the book's description: "Poetry By Chance is the first collection of poems that were all prompted by different rolls of Metaphor Dice, featuring submitters from the inaugural Golden Die Contest." But that description fails to note that the anthology includes poems from young people, ages 10 and up, as well as adults. The book also contains a section devoted to Lesson Plans using Metaphor Dice to inspire writers of all ages. 

Poetry by Chance will be released Tuesday, July 11, 2023. Taylor Mali will be celebrating with a free book launch the following Friday, July 14, at Brooklyn Poets, 144 Montague St, Brooklyn, NY. If you're in Brooklyn, I hope you'll attend in person. If not, you can participate virtually instead. But either way, you must register in advance to attend, which you can do so here. 

Even though the book isn't officially out till next week, I have received permission to share my poem with you today. As I mentioned last time, the poem was inspired by these dice:

 Here's the poem:

     WHAT IT MEANS TO FORGET

      For some,
      forgetting is a gentle blessing
      providing absolution
      and forgiveness of sins.

      For me,
      forgetting is a harbinger of death,
      bearing the image of my grandmother—
      her brown eyes blank, blinking—
      unable to remember my name.

© 2023 Carmela A. Martino, Published in Poetry by Chance: An Anthology of Poems Powered by Metaphor Dice edited by Taylor Mali (Button Poetry). All rights reserved.  

In my last post, I mentioned that I first learned of the anthology from a Poetry Friday post by Heidi Mordhorst, and that my poem follows one of two of Heidi's that appear in the book. I neglected to say that the Lesson Plan section in the back of Poetry by Chance includes a contribution by Margaret Simon, another Poetry Friday regular. Margaret shares a fun way she uses Metaphor Dice to teach students about figurative language. It's lovely to have my poem in such great company!

Speaking of Poetry Friday, after you enter our giveaway below, be sure to visit this week's Poetry Friday round up hosted by Marcie Flinchum Atkins. 

And now for our giveaway!

. . . . . .

To enter the drawing to win a copy of Poetry by Chance: An Anthology of Poems Powered by Metaphor Dice edited by Taylor Mali (Button Poetry) AND a set of Metaphor Dice, use the Rafflecopter widget below. (Note: if the widget doesn't appear, click on the link at the end of this post that says "a Rafflecopter giveaway" to enter.)

You may enter via up to 5 options. The more options you choose, the better your odds!

If you choose option 4, you MUST leave a comment on TODAY’S blog post or on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. If you haven’t already “liked” our Facebook page, please do so today!

If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to: teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com.

Note: if you submit your comments via email or Facebook, YOU MUST STILL ENTER THE DRAWING VIA RAFFLECOPTER BELOW.  The giveaway ends July 15, 2023 and is open to U.S. Residents only.

If you’ve never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, here’s info on how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway.  And a second article explains the difference between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address.

Good luck!

Carmela

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday Writing Workout: Six Brilliant Words

Today I'm happy to share a guest Wednesday Writing Workout from Illinois author Melanie Weiss that's perfect for National Poetry Month, which begins today.

Melanie and I connected last fall after attending an SCBWI-IL Food for Thought meeting. Melanie is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and worked as a journalist for newspapers and magazines for 20 years. She began writing her debut novel, Spoken, shortly after she became an “empty nester.”

Spoken received the Bronze Medal for Young Adult-Social Issues in the 2019 Readers' Favorite International Book Award Contest. Here's a one-sentence summary of the novel:

When high school freshman Roman Santi discovers the Spoken Word Club, it leads him on a journey of new friendships and finding the dad he never knew.

You can read more about Melanie at her website and follow her on Facebook.

Today, Melanie shares a Wednesday Writing Workout on using six-word stories/poems in the classroom, but the exercise is appropriate for writers of all ages.

Wednesday Writing Workout:
Six Brilliant Words
By Melanie Weiss

Flash fiction is a genre of fiction that involves telling a story using between 5 and 1,500 words. Today, we are going to focus on the smaller side of that scale, the six-word story:

Flat tire.
New job.
No job?

This example is just six short words but it says everything you need to know. Writing a six-word story can be fun for every age and makes an excellent creative writing assignment that encourages students to use precise, concise language. It's wonderful, isn't it, how six little words can be strung together to say something so much BIGGER?

Six-word stories are a great way to help students (and adult writers) get more comfortable with writing short stories and poems. Since April is National Poetry Month, this is the perfect time to work on six-word stories. They can be a starting point before moving into haikus and other forms of free verse poetry, such as spoken word poetry. Prompts for six-word stories are endless. You can find countless sources online, including these at Page Flutter and these art-themed prompts.

In the classroom, adding the six-word story to your curriculum offers students an interactive exercise in thinking creatively as they share these stories with their classmates. The stories are often goofy, usually fun, sometimes serious or head-scratching, but always entertaining.

I knew I had to work the six-word story into my young-adult novel, Spoken, because the novel takes place partly at a fictionalized version of Oak Park and River Forest High School in Illinois. Not only does the school have a robust Spoken Word Club, it's the high school Ernest Hemingway attended and graduated from in 1917. Hemingway has been credited with writing the first six-word story, though this is one of those myths that continues to live despite being debunked.

The weight of connecting six well-thought-out words cannot be denied. We ALL have it within us to unleash that power and create our own six-word masterpieces.

I thought it may be easiest to borrow from Spoken and allow the novel's Spoken Word Club Teacher Patrick Collins to explain:

     Mr. Collins walks in the room and strides up to the white board at the front of the classroom. He turns to us and bows slightly. “Today we will be writing flash fiction. Does anybody know what that means?”
     Mr. Collins points to a student in one of the front rows who has her hand straight up in the air.
     “It’s telling a story but with not a lot of words.”
     “Yes, that’s pretty much it, Gina,” says Mr. Collins.
     He turns to the whiteboard and writes:

     For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn.

     “This has been attributed to Ernest Hemingway. One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. It’s an extreme example of a story packed into just six words.
     “Your mission today is to write just six brilliant words that tell a story. Think about the message you want to convey and what imagery you want to represent.”
. . .

     “Now let’s spend about ten minutes and I want each of you to write your own six-word story,” he says. “Make each of your six words shimmer, like a brilliant piece of art.”
     “No pressure, right Mr. Collins?” jokes Jordan.
     We bend over our desks, pens in hand, diving down into our thoughts. The room is pure silence except for the scribbling, the scratching out of phrases, a few toes taping.
     After the ten minutes, students start sharing their stories with Mr. Collins as he captures the musings on the whiteboard.

There are ways to stretch this assignment further. Students could illustrate their short stories. A student could pass the story to another classmate and that classmate could draw what the story is telling them. Take a look back on Carmela Martino's popular TeachingAuthors' post Getting to Know Me--Six-Word Memoirs, which offers students the opportunity to find a concise way to share who they are with their teacher and classmates.

The beauty of the six-word story is simple: One classroom, countless stories, students soar.

_____
 

Thank you, Melanie, for today's Wednesday Writing Workout. Readers, I hope you'll try this exercise on your own or with your students. If you do, please let us know how it works for you.

Posted by Carmela

5 ways to use poetry in class RIGHT NOW

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Howdy, Campers! Happy Poetry Friday! (the PF link is at the end)

Authors-anthologists-publishers Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell have written an article well-worth reading (it's brief!) for National Poetry Month in the online magazine Bookology which begins:

"We are pressed for time, so we multitask. You might be eating breakfast while you’re reading Bookology, or doing laundry, or both. “Killing two birds with one stone” or “hatching two birds from the same egg”—integrated teaching—is the best way to fit everything in, especially in the K-5 classroom." (read the whole article here)

Janet and Sylvia's Poetry Friday Anthology series does a LOT of heavy lifting including:

1) helping pressed-for-time teachers and librarians teach poetry while meeting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and the Texas TEKS for English Language Arts (ELA)/Poetry and Science & Technology,

and

2) including a “Take 5!” mini-lesson with every poem in their collection for librarians, teachers, and parents with instructions for sharing, picture book pairings, and curriculum connections.

And in their NEW collection Janet and Sylvia have added another bonus: each of the 156 poems in this newest book appears in both English and Spanish--WOWEE!

JoAnn's recent post sang out about this book (which includes JoAnn's terrific Graduation Day poem), and Esther's post continued, including an interview of these two visionaries and Esther's very green Saint Pat's Day poem.

As JoAnn writes:
I’m thrilled to be one of 115 poets (and 3 Teaching Authors!) whose poems are featured in the brand-new Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations! 

I'm thrilled that they've included two of my poems. This one's for National Thrift Shop Day (who knew?)

(Click to enlarge )

Have a fabulous Poetry Friday...and consider donating to a thrift shop today and then shopping in one, too ~

Remember to enter our Book Giveaway to win an autographed copy of Paul Janeczko’s 50th book, DEATH OF A HAT, illustrated by Chris Raschka.  You can enter between now and April 22 (which just happens to be our SIXTH TeachingAuthors Blogiversary!).

And...please stop by my poetry blog where all Poetry Month long I'm posting PPPs--Previously Published Poems--from anthologies, Cricket Magazine and my novel in poems.

Thank you, dear Robyn Hood Black for hosting PF today!

And thanks, too, to Jama Kim Rattigan for posting the 2015 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup. 

posted with love by April Halprin Wayland with help from Monkey and Eli ~

Guest Post by Award-Winning Poet and Novelist Helen Frost

Before I introduce today's special guest post by Helen Frost, my apologies to our subscribers. I discovered yesterday that, due to a problem with our blog feed, you never received April's post from last Friday. That means you missed her terrific interview with poet Janet Wong. After you read today's post, I hope you'll go back to read the interview and enter for a chance to win one of THREE autographed copies of Janet Wong's book, Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year.  I also encourage you to visit Sylvia Vardell's blog, Poetry for Children, to read an interview with the editors of And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems, the forthcoming anthology that will include one of my poems.

Now, for today's post: In honor of National Poetry Month and Poetry Friday, we've invited Helen Frost as a guest TeachingAuthor blogger today. I am a HUGE fan of Helen's work, especially Diamond Willow (Frances Foster Books, FSG), and I had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time at the 2012 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Chicago in March. When I asked Helen for a short bio to introduce her post, here's what she sent:

"Helen Frost worked for about twenty years as a poet before publishing her first poetry collection, supporting herself with work she also loves, that of a teacher--in elementary schools, as a poet-in-the-schools, and at the college level. Her books include six novels-in-poems for children and young adults, two collections of poetry for adults, two plays, a book about teaching young people to write about difficult issues, two picture books for younger readers, and two anthologies. Though she continues her work with children and at-risk teens through school author visits, she is now a full-time writer, living in Fort Wayne, Indiana."  

Helen's credentials are impressive, but she neglects to mention the numerous awards her books have won, including a Michael Printz Honor Award for Keesha's House (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Her most recent novel, Hidden (Frances Foster Books/FSG, for ages 12-16), has already received much acclaim, including being named a 2012 ALA Notable Book and 2012 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor book.

And here's a brief description of her wonderful new picture book Step Gently Out (Candlewick Press), which features photographs by Rick Lieder:

  "Stunning close-up photography and a lyrical text implore children to look more closely at the world around them."

The book is a terrific tribute to both Earth Day and Poetry Month. No wonder it has received multiple starred reviews!

Now, finally, for Helen Frost's post. I asked Helen to begin by telling us how she became a TeachingAuthor, and then to share a poetry-writing exercise, poem, teaching tips/ideas, and an interesting anecdote about her life as a writer.

Teaching and writing are both important to me, and each informs the other. I’ve taught children and adults of all ages; I’ve written for pre-schoolers, beginning readers, elementary and middle school children; teens; and adults--and I’ve taught teachers about teaching writing.

Teaching poetry is especially joyful for me. I love seeing students approach poetry with fascination and enthusiasm, and perhaps a touch of caution because they know it can open people up to one another in ways that can be a little scary. I take time to create an atmosphere of safety and respect, simply by asking each student to raise their hand in agreement to my two rules: You can’t write anything that will hurt someone’s feelings. You can’t tease anyone about a poem they share, either here in the classroom or later on, outside of class. (No one is ever required to share, but always, at least half of the students want to.) I make eye contact with each student as I confirm that they agree to these two rules, and after that the respect is self-enforcing. 

* * *

Here’s a classroom activity I call “Poetry Sticks.”

1.    Make a collection of interesting titles of poetry collections.
      I’ve cut titles out of catalogs that arrive in the mail, but you could as easily use Internet websites of poetry presses. Here are a few: Pecan Grove Press, Ahsahta Press, Truman State University Press, Copper Canyon Press, Red Hen Press, and Tupelo Press.

2.    Using heavy-duty, clear tape, tape the poetry titles onto Popsicle (craft) sticks. Or you could write the titles on the sticks with a sharpie. Make 100 or so to begin with, and then add more as you have time.

3.    Spread all the poetry sticks on a desk (or on the floor) and invite students to choose one. The process of choosing is important; it can be chaotic, but there’s something in the activity of choosing that makes this work.

4.    Ask students to :

• Place the stick in the middle of a blank sheet of paper and read it a few times until it suggests something--some language. Then write as many words and phrases as you can in 2 or 3 minutes.
• Circle your favorite words--up to ten of them.
• On a clean sheet of paper, write a poem that uses at least three of your circled words.

I think of this exercise as being something like those compressed sponges that expand when placed in water. A title of a poetry book is “compressed language,” and this process allows it to expand in surprising and interesting ways.

* * *

For Poetry Friday today, I'll share a poem from Spinning Through the Universe: A Novel in Poems from Room 214 (Frances Foster Books/FSG). Each poem in this book is written in a different form, in the voice of one of the students in Mrs. Williams’ 5th grade class. The form of “Friend” is a “Rondelet.” (Definitions of all forms can be found in an appendix to Spinning Through the Universe.)

           Friend
              Sharrell

           What should I do? Maria told me not to tell.
           What should I do?
           Her arms are bruised. She has these two
           red hand prints on her back. I fell,
           she says, but then she asks, Sharrell,
           what should I do?

Teachers in the audience may find it interesting to know that teachers have used Spinning Through the Universe  in many ways, in classrooms from 3rd through 11th grade. (I taught for three years in a one-teacher school in Alaska, so I’ve always appreciated resources that can be used at different grade levels.) Third graders might learn that the acrostic form can be more sophisticated than writing one word for each letter of your name; 5th graders might do a readers’ theater, with each student reading one of the voices, and then creating a “section 3” of the book, imagining what happens next; high school students might try some of the more complex forms and create new characters of their own.  [Carmela here. Teachers take note: Helen has a whole page of "Teaching Ideas" on her website.]

* * *

To close, I’ll share a story about the first school visit after the publication of Diamond Willow (Frances Foster Books, FSG, 2008). In Diamond Willow, part of the story is told by animals who have ancestral relationships to Willow and the other characters. There’s a little mouse who listens from under a table and then warns Willow of something the mouse (and the reader) wants her to know. When I was spending a day with a very excited group of 5th graders who had just read Diamond Willow, a mouse came into the classroom! According to the teacher and the custodian, this had never happened before in this school. We were all convinced that the mouse wanted to share in the fun and remind us of the important part that a mouse had played in the story.

Thanks for inviting me to TeachingAuthors. Happy Poetry Month, everyone!
 
Thank YOU, Helen! I especially love the mouse story. And I know our readers who are teachers will appreciate the activities you suggest. I'm going to try the "Poetry Sticks" idea the first chance I get.

Readers, now you can head on over to read April's interview with Janet Wong and enter for a chance to win one of THREE autographed copies of Janet book, Declaration of Interdependence: Poems for an Election Year.  Then, check out the great Poetry Friday roundup at the Booktalking blog .

Happy writing, and happy Poetry Friday!
Carmela

Announcing Our Book Giveaway Winner, a Writing Exercise, and Poetry Friday!

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Howdy, Campers!  Author and illustrator Barney Saltzberg is a generous soul, and in his Friday the 13th interview, he offered an autographed copy of his fun and amazing book, BEAUTIFUL OOPS to one of our readers.

And the lucky, randomly chosen winner is...

Sarah Albee--yay, Sarah (who's an amazing author--check out her website)!
Here's Sarah's Beautiful Oops:
My oops moment happened when I was a very junior editor at Sesame Street. I was editing my first big book, a SS songbook (because I was the only editor in my dept who could read music and play piano). I went over to Jeff Moss's house (composer of Rubber Duckie) to show him some song arrangements, and when we got to People In Your Neighborhood (his song) we both stared at the composer credit, which read Joe Raposo (his long-time rival and writer of Bein' Green, among many others). Jeff was notoriously curmudgeonly, and I knew there was a good chance he would flip, even though of course it was just galleys and there would be plenty of opportunity to change it. So I quickly made a joke about it (along the lines of how interchangeable he and Joe were, whatevs). After five tense seconds, he grinned broadly. And we became fast friends.

So...drawing the winning name, watching the exciting announcements of the ALA awards (I felt as if I were in the audience!) and reading Carmela's, Mary Ann's, JoAnn's, Esther's, and Jeanne Marie's fabulous and thought-provoking posts about awards, got me to thinking about winning...

photo courtesy morguefile.com

...which inspired this poem for Poetry Friday, graciously hosted today by Jim at HeyJimHill!

WINNING
by April Halprin Wayland


I sit under this tree
to sit under this tree.


Not to win anything.
Just me and tree.


If the wind happens to drop
a sweet plum in my lap, though,


I would never say no
to a plum.

Today's Writing Workout: WINNING AND LOSING

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1) Take a few minutes to think about how do you feel about winning and losing. About tests and competitions. About gold stars, trophies and medals.

2) On paper, brainstorm your childhood winning and losing memories. Think back to the night before a competition...or the day of. Or the day after.

3) Circle the memory that calls to you.

4) Write a poem or story using this memory as the seed.

5) And remember to write with joy!  Write as if you're finger painting!

(ALL Teaching Authors' Readers are winners.

This tiara's for you.)

poem and drawing (c) 2012 April Halprin Wayland

A Play Doh Poem for Poetry Friday (and a Play Doh writing exercise, too)

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Howdy, Campers!  Happy Poetry Friday!

Poetry Friday is hosted by Karen Edmisten this week.

Thank you, Karen!

I was fiddling around with dactyls and double dactyls this week.  A dactyl contains three syllables: one stressed followed by two unstressed (/ - - ). So, for example, the word marmalade (MAR-ma-lade), which we say with a stress on the first syllable, is a dactylic word.  The phrase, "Talk to me!" is also a dactyl.

The rhythm of a dactyl makes you want to dance.  It's light and suits playful topics.

Dactyls remind me of pterodactyls.  But that's not where I went.  Instead, I took out a handy can of Play Doh and opened it. WOWZA!

photo from Morgue Files

I read a bit about Play Doh's inventor and history and then, in honor of National Play Doh Day, (September 18th), I wrote this poem:

AN ODE TO DOH
by April Halprin Wayland

Play Doh, invented by Joseph McVicker,
is putty that's squishy and spongy and soft
and supple and yielding and malleable colors--
its bouquet bewitches, it lingers, it wafts

across much of our planet--
over two billion sold!
There's even a fragrance (and who wouldn't want it?)
a perfume in honor (it's fifty years old!)

The recipe's classified--
water and flour, and a sprinkling of salt?
I can fiddle with Play Doh for hour after hour
and if I'm not writing, it's McVicker's fault!

poem (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

For today's WRITING WORKOUT, let's think out of the box.

You'll need:

• twice as many small cans of Play Doh as you have students
• plastic forks, knives and spoons
• writing materials

1) Let each student choose one can of their favorite color Play Doh...then scatter other cans on everyone's desk so they can share.  Make plastic forks, knives and spoons available, too.
2) Give them five minutes (or more) to make a person, animal or other creature.
3) If there's time, let everyone walk around the class to look at each creation.
4) Now tell each student to move to the next desk and make one radical change in the figure there.
5) Have them return to their desks and let the class walk around again, looking at the changes.
6) Discuss.  How did it feel when someone changed your art?  Do you like what it looks like now?  Which do you like better?

OCTOBER 2021 UPDATE: When teaching this exercise Virtually, I tell students the week before to bring a paper plate and 2 different colors of the smallest cans available of Play-Doh, the popular soft clay for children. It doesn't matter what color.

They can purchase it or use ANY kind of pliable clay they have...or make their own. Here's a 3-minute video on how to make your own (minus the wonderful Play-Doh smell):

In the class on rewriting, I take them through the grand slog of publishing NEW YEAR AT THE PIER. 

And once they're completely depressed, they take out their Play-Doh.

PLAY-DOH exercise part 1:

1)  Each student has two colors of Play-Doh and a paper plate.

2)  Working silently (most choose to mute), each makes a character. It can be a child, an animal, a fantasy character, a tree...whatever.

3)  Each takes a photo of her character. 

Then I talk about rewriting MORE THAN ENOUGH, with which I had a completely different experience from rewriting NEW YEAR AT THE PIER.

PLAYDOH exercise part 2:
1) Each student shows us their character.

2) I move them into BREAKOUT ROOMS (2 people per room).  Each person in turn becomes the other's editor, suggesting one "edit" of the character (such as adding clothing onto the hippo or turning the horse into a dragon...or something super simple, like adding polka dots).

3) Tell them to take a photo of their character after the edit.

4) Back in class, we share how our characters changed and discuss how it felt to be edited. Was it difficult? Did they resist it or feel defensive? Did it make their work better? Different? 

In one of the classes I teach through UCLA Extension Writers' Program, most of my adult students are surprised that they like the changed creature best.  One woman admitted that she liked the changes...but also missed her own creation and felt slightly violated.

Yes...that's exactly how I feel when an editor or my critique group wants to edit (gasp!) my work.  Hurt, resentful, violated.  Sometimes, if I sit with the suggestions, I end up liking them.  I can see how it can take a village to create a vision bigger than my own.  Sometimes, though, I reject the changes.

If you'd like to make this more of a writing exercise, you can have your students write a story or poem during the process.  You might decide to have them write as soon as they've made their creature, before it is changed.  If you have time, you can also have them write after the changes--either about the changed creature or about how they feel now that it's different.

So--dive into Play Doh!  Let your room fill with its delicious perfume!

And remember to write with joy!

poem and drawing (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Put on your mask: I've found the KEY to Poetry Friday!

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Happy Poetry Friday--see my poem and poetry exercise below!  

Today's Poetry Friday is hosted by Kate Coombs at Book Aunt 

~ thanks, Kate!

I am writing this as we wait in the airport for our return flight from our summer vacation in...Fiji!  The best part of this time away from our real lives was the incredible beauty...and slooooowing down.  No internet. No texting.  No telephone.  No multitasking.  I woke up and made my bed without turning on NPR.  I poured hot water over ground coffee beans without simultaneously calling my mother to see how she was feeling.

I'm embarrassed to say that at first it was hard to have fun, even though, intellectually, I knew that lying on the deck of Bruce Balan's trimaran was fun...snorkeling was fun, being with my family was fun.

It took a few days to wipe the seriousness, the purposefulness, the To-Do list from my brain.  And then, one day, I was there.  I was snorkeling in turquoise water over neon tetras and parrot fish and all the fish you see in those wonder-filled tanks at the pet store. I was hiking to the waterfall slides on a red dirt trail.  I was biting into an orange paw paw (papaya), or a passion fruit, or a soursop (which looks like a prickly green dinosaur egg and tastes heavenly--sort of strawberry-pineapple-sour-citrus-creamy-banana-y.)

A man biting into a yummy soursop.

I devoured a mystery series, gobbling each book like potato chips.  I wrote a poem each day, as always.

So let's keep summer's sense of fun in our writing.  Let's pass it on to our students.  I'm teaching my summer class at UCLA Extension again.  It's the one I call my no-homework-for-the-students-no-homework-for-the-teacher class...but its official title is: The Children's Picture Book Writers' Bag of Tricks: A Six-Week Workshop.  The key to this class is to create writing games and prompts which get these adult students out of their chairs, doing spirited hands-on activities before they settle down to write.

WRITING WORKOUT ~ Here's an ice-breaker writing exercise I use in the first class.

• Collect keys.  Keys of all kinds—house keys, hotel card keys, skeleton keys, car keys, skate keys (remember those?), boat keys, storage shed keys, jewelry box and diary keys.
• If you're a teacher and don't have a stash of keys, ask each student to bring in at least one key they are willing to give away.
• Make sure you bring more keys than there are students in your class so that they have a wide selection.
• Before the students come into the room, lay out all the keys on a table, then cover them with a cloth.
• When the students are at their desks, ask them to take out paper and pens or pencils. Then tell them that writers often need to settle down before they write.  I call this “circling the chair” time. Some people might clean out a desk drawer or answer email. Some meditate or exercise or pay bills.  Have your students do this simple breathing exercise:

Close your eyes.  Take a deep breath.  Let it out.  Relax your forehead. Breathe. Relax your eyebrows. Relax your jaw. Relax your neck. Relax your shoulders. Relax your arms. Relax your wrists. Relax each finger. Relax your spine, one vertebrae at a time. Relax your stomach.  Relax your legs. Relax your ankles. Relax your feet. Relax each toe.  Breathe. Slowly come back to awareness.

• Now, let them come up to the table and choose one key to bring back to their desk.
• Say: Hold your key in your hand.  Feel its weight.  Look closely at it, turning it over, feeling the edges and ends.  Holding the key in your hands, close your eyes.   Ask this key to tell you its story. What did it open?  An old house?  A treasure chest? The door of a room?  A boat?  A car?  A hotel?  What's inside? Whose key was it? An adult? A child? An animal? Someone who lives under water? Someone from another country? From another planet?
•  Slowly open your eyes.  Pick up your pen and begin a story or a poem about this key.

Here's a poem I wrote about a key, from the key's point of view.  Myra Cohn Livingston, in her terrific book, Poem-Making, writes:  "This aspect of the dramatic voice is what I think of as mask or persona.  It is a though we put on the face or body of someone or something else and tell about ourselves through our words.  Lilian Moore puts on a mask--or a persona--to write "Message to a Caterpillar." (For an absolutely fabulous post on mask poems with great examples, see Elaine Magliaro's Wild Rose Reader.)



JUST WHAT DO I OPEN?
by April Halprin Wayland

I'll give you a clue:
Do you like seafood stew?
From your home do you yearn
to be starboard or stern?

Are your parents concerned
that you always return
to the song of the sea?
Are you searching for me?

With a crew and two sails
and the help of a breeze
we will pass humpback whales
we will sail seven seas!

I will go where I please
I'm the king of all keys—
I'm a sailboat key
come and journey with me!

Note: I emailed Bruce (he's actually uses something called "sailmail") asking if he uses any keys in his trimaran.  I mean, if you think about it, on a windy day why would you need a key?  His wife, Alene, answered, saying, "Yes, we have all kinds of keys on the boat. One to start the diesel engine, one for the outboard, and keys to lock our doors.  Bruce also has keys on his concertina, even!"  Ha ha, Alene.

Bruce on his trimaran, Migration, named after his picture book, 

The Cherry Migration.  Note the cherries.

And one more wonderfu, summery thing: Be sure to enter our latest book giveaway--for Allan Woodrow's debut novel, The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless!  You can make-up your villain name and comment on the interview (URL below) or email your comments by August 3rd.  Details:

http://www.teachingauthors.com/2011/07/student-success-story-interview-with.html

poem and trimaran photo (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Looking for Lesson Plans? Online Resources for Teaching Young Authors

As Mary Ann mentioned on Monday, today we're sharing part 2 of our answer to an Ask the TeachingAuthors question posted by Sandra Stiles regarding resources for teaching young writers. But first, I'd like to congratulate all the writers who tackled NaNoWriMo in November. Whether or not you managed to produce 50,000 words, I commend you for attempting the Herculean feat. I'm still in the midst of the pseudo-NaNoWriMo project that I blogged about last month. So far, I've added about 23,000 words to my work-in-progress. That's 3,000 words short of where I'd hoped to be by now, but I still have a couple of weeks until my December 15 deadline. Wish me luck!

Now, back to answering Sandra Stiles's Ask the TeachingAuthors question. She asked for help in planning her after-school writing class. On Monday, Mary Ann mentioned some books with activities to inspire young writers. Today I'd like to share websites with lesson plans and other resources. Here are six, in no particular order:

• ReadWriteThink contains lots of classroom resources, including lesson plans by grade level and interactive activities. 
• National Writing Project has a list of 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing  as well as writing prompts and other resources on their site. 
• TeachPoetryK12 has its own lesson plans for teaching poetry and also links to other sites with poetry lesson plans. 
• EducationWorld offers free lesson plans, including these specifically for language arts. 
• Discovery Education provides free lesson plans as well as puzzle making tools. Their site also includes Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators, which has additional lesson plans and tools. 
• Teachers.net features teacher-submitted lesson plans along with other resources.

Many children's book publishers also provide teacher resources and lesson plans on their sites, including:
Candlewick Press, Scholastic, and Sleeping Bear Press.

In particular, I'd like to recommend Sleeping Bear Press's 25-page Teacher's Guide to our own Esther Hershenhorn's S is for Story: A Writer's Alphabet. Esther's book is a wonderful teaching resource for writers of all ages, and you don't have to take my word for it: Among its other accolades, S is for Story was recently named a 2011 Annual Teachers' Choice Awards Children's Book Winner.

Congratulations, Esther!

Finally, if you're working with young writers who are looking for places to publish their work, see the "For Writers" page of my website.

And if you know of other sites featuring lesson plans to use with young writers, please share them in the comments.

Happy writing!
Carmela

Win a Skype Author Visit with this Back-to-School Writing Activity

Whether your school year started weeks ago or only yesterday (as in the Chicago Public School system), we thought this would be a good time to kick off a series of posts featuring back-to-school getting-to-know-you writing activities especially for teachers, librarians, and homeschooling parents. And, as an added incentive to try our Writing Workouts with your students, we're offering a special giveaway contest exclusively for teachers, librarians, and homeschooling groups.  (If you're not qualified to enter yourself, please tell all the teachers, librarians, and homeschoolers you know about this great opportunity!)

The prize? Your choice of:

A) a 30-minute Skype author visit from one of the TeachingAuthors  OR
B) a prize package containing six autographed TeachingAuthor books.

Not sure you want to host a Skype author visit for your book club or classroom? Then read teacher and author Kate Messner's blog post,  Virtual Author Visits: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, & the Awesome or check out Skype an Author Network.
 
What do you have to do to win? Below, you'll find a Writing Workout on using six-word memoirs as a getting-to-know-you activity. To enter our contest, you need to try the Workout with your students some time in the next few weeks. Then come back and post a comment to this blog entry by 11 pm (CST) Monday, Oct. 4, 2010.  We've extended the deadline 24 hours! You now have until 11 pm (CST) Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. Be sure to also read through to the end of this post for complete entry rules and instructions on how to qualify for a second, bonus entry. (If you've never posted a comment to a blog before and need some help, you can email me via my website.) 

About the activity: I first wrote about using six-word memoirs in the classroom a year ago. It's an activity students enjoy that can be adapted for all ages. I tried it over the summer with my writing camp students, and they had so much fun, they didn't want to stop--they wrote one memoir after another!  I hope you'll give the following lesson a try and then enter our contest. And if you're not a teacher or librarian, why not write some six-word memoirs for yourself? You can visit the Six-Word Memoirs website for inspiration. The site even provides a box where you can type in your memoir and the computer automatically counts your words!

Writing Workout
Getting to Know Me Back-to-School Activity:
Writing Six-Word Memoirs 

Objective: To engage students in thinking about their lives and to show them how to write concisely. Secondary objective: as a beginning-of-the-school-year activity, sharing these memoirs can serve as a way for students to get to know one another, and for the teacher to get to know the students. This is also a fun activity for a librarian to do with a student book club.

Lesson: Begin by talking about the word "memoir," and how it has the same root as the word "memory." Then share examples of six-word memoirs. Note: I'd planned to post examples written by my summer camp students, but now I can't find them. Argghh! So here's my six-word memoir for today:

Although organized, I still lose things.

Anyway, here's a link to some six-word memoirs written by eight- and nine-year-olds, and another to a blog post listing some by fourth-graders. One third-grade class even created their own six-word storybook. You can see it here. And if you're working with older students, be sure to read this post about a teacher who had her ninth-graders not only write six-word memoirs but also publish them with visual pieces on their own blog. 

Lesson Instructions: Have students make lists of facts about themselves. For example: Where do they live? How many siblings do they have? What are their favorite things to do, favorite foods, etc.? Depending on the students' ages, you may want to let them work on this with a partner.

Then have the students choose six words to summarize some aspect of who they are or what they like. Encourage them to use mainly nouns and verbs.

When the students have finished their memoirs, they can read them aloud to the class. Or if they have worked with partners, one partner may introduce the other to the class via the six-word memoir. You may also have the students post the memoirs on a bulletin board or create a class book like the third-grade project mentioned above.

Now, for the contest details:
The winner will receive his or her choice of:
A) a 30-minute SKYPE author visit from one of three TeachingAuthors:

April Halprin Wayland, Esther Hershenhorn, OR JoAnn Early Macken

OR 

B) a prize package containing the following TeachingAuthor books:

• Girl Coming in for a Landing by April Halprin Wayland
• S is for Story: A Writer's Alphabet by Esther Hershenhorn
• Mind Games by Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford
• Waiting out the Storm by JoAnn Early Macken
• A Tree for Emmy by Mary Ann Rodman
• I Fooled You: Ten Stories of Tricks, Jokes, and Switcheroos, edited by Johanna Hurwitz and featuring a story by Carmela Martino (with a printout of the corresponding Teacher's Guide)

 Contest Entry Requirements:

1. After you've completed the Writing Workout with your students, you must post a comment below telling us how the lesson went. (Clarification added 9/12/10: Your comment needn't be long, just a few words saying whether the activity was a success or not.) If it was a success, we encourage you to include one or more of your students' six-word memoirs in your comment.
2. You can receive a bonus entry by helping to spread the word about this giveaway via a blog post, Tweet, or Facebook link. As proof, you must post a second comment containing a link to your blog post, Twitter address, or Facebook wall. [You can post this comment before you actually try the Writing Workout, but the entry won't be valid unless you also tell us about your experience with the exercise.]
3. You must include contact information in your comment. If you are not a blogger, or your email address is not accessible from your online profile, you must provide a valid email address in your comment. Entries without contact information will be disqualified. Note: the TeachingAuthors  cannot prevent spammers from accessing email addresses posted within comments, so feel free to disguise your address by spelling out portions, such as the [at] and [dot]. (We will NOT add your email address to any mailing lists.)
4.  You must post your comment by 11 pm (CST) Monday, Oct. 4, 2010. We've extended the deadline 24 hours! You now have until 11 pm (CST) Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010! The winner will be chosen at random from valid entries and announced on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
5. You must have a mailing address in the United States.
6. If you win, you automatically grant us permission to identify you as a winner on our TeachingAuthors website. 

I think that's it, but if I've left something out, feel free to post your questions in the comments.
Good luck, and happy writing!
Carmela

Happy Random Acts of Kindness Day!

No matter how you came to this blog post today, by chance,

by intention,

or simply by Good Luck,

may I be the first to wish you Happy Random Acts of Kindness Day!

Yes, you read that right: February 17 is Random Acts of Kindness Day.

Not to worry if you didn’t know this fact.

I know I didn’t, until I turned to today’s date in my copy of Eileen and Jerry Spinelli’s newest book, today I will (Knopf, 2009).

I’d been savoring the moment (translate: assigned blog posting date and subject matter) to kindly share this newly-published small but useful and inspiring book with TeachingAuthors readers and writers.

Today’s post became that random moment.

How perfect is that!

I ardently believe in Paying Kindness Forward.

I practice it daily.

I believe in Good Karma.

So consider this introduction to the Spinellis’ book my February 17 Act of Kindness.

FYI: February 15 through 20 has been designated Random Acts of Kindness Week!
Googling left me thinking the Acts of Kindness Foundation was behind the designation.
No matter the Who, though, or even the How. I’m smiling and paying kindness forward to you.

I’d purchased the Spinellis’ book fully intending to use it as a journal-writing tool with my Young Writers.
The review blurb highlighted the book’s simplicity. In a single page entry for each day of the year, the Spinellis
(1) share a quote from a children’s book, referencing the title and author;
(2) reflect meaningfully on the quote;
(3) make a “today I will….” promise that relates to that reflection.
The February 17th quote?

“Kindness comes with no price” from Tongues of Jade by Laurence Yep.

The Spinellis’ reflection?
Talk is cheap but kindness is free. Why isn’t there more of it?!
Their promise?

"I’ll make sure February 17th lives up to its name. And it won’t cost me a penny!”

I love that the Spinellis used children’s books as their source of thought-provoking, heart-grabbing journal prompts.
The middle-page responses make perfect practice for students boning up for the reflective reading passages in any and all state achievement tests.
The “today I will…” promise makes the reader sit up straight, indeed stand up tall, to claim his reflection and translate it into action.

The quotes offer a wide sample of titles, from Alice Dalgliesh’s The Courage of Sarah Noble and Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting to Sarah Dessen’s Keep the Moon and Carolyn Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things.

The Big and Small topics range from Fear and Failure and Thinking about Others to Hope and Choices and Asking for Help.

The book’s turquoise back cover says it all:
“…look inside. Turn to today. And make a promise to yourself.”

Being kind to yourself is now downright doable, daily if not randomly, thanks to this small book.

And passing word of this Important Truth on to you, our readers?
I’m simply paying it forward…hoping you will do the same.

Happy Random Acts of Kindness Day!
Esther Hershenhorn

Writing Workout

Copying is the supreme compliment, yes?
So, why not create your own book of quotes, notes and promises to yourself!
Any book or writing vessel will do: a commercially-sold composition book or a purchased blank journal or diary, books with folded and gathered, pull-out or accordion-style pages. Leaf books. Shape books. Scroll books.

• At the top of each page, copy a favorite quote from a children’s book. Include the title, author, perhaps the character who spoke the words.
• In the middle of the page, respond thoughtfully to the quote. Why did it touch you? How did it speak to you? What do the words mean to who you are now? Do they inspire, encourage, comfort, acknowledge, advise, recommend, illuminate, give hope. You choose the verb and the accompanying emotion and memory.
• At the bottom of the page, make a real-and-doable promise based on your reflection. Now I will….
• Decorate front and back covers and/or personalize each page with an image or symbol.
• Gift yourself. Or gift another.

          Either way, it’s an act of kindness.