Desperate #SOL19

I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge.  
This year I decided to complete my slice of life challenge through the use of quickwrites.  By doing this, I hope to explore my own writing, identify problems my students may be experiencing with these quick bursts of writing, and show them authentic revisions in the writing process.

This week I have been writing "live" with my students and using that writing for my posts. In my ealirer quick writes, I knew the prompts. I had a little bit of time to sort through what I was going to write. When my students do quick writes, they don't get that luxury of knowing ahead of time.

Yesterday, I decided to not only write live, but write unaware of the prompt. Here is what we did.

I pulled a book from the shelf, and looked at how many pages were in it. I called on a student to give me number between one and the number of pages in the book. Then I did the same with the paragraph number and sentence number.  Finally, the word number.

And that word became our quick write.

Today's word was "desperate."  Isn't that a great word!  I wrote along with my students, and I felt that anxiety of not knowing what to write about and where this word would take me.

But today, I proudly share the writing from one of students.  This is from Raney!

Image from Pixaby

I was stranded on the streets, desperate for a home. I walked down every neighborhood just to find the right home. As I was was thinking about food, I look up to see a bright shiny gold and silver house that said, "Raney come on in." So I ran into the house to find, nothing but the streets, and flashing cars pass by me. Then I realized I knew I would never find a home. I would only live on a thick gray side walk.




This writing was done in six minutes with no time to edit or revise. This is raw. This is real. This is "desperation" at its best.

Fifty-Five #SOL19

I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge.  
This year I decided to complete my slice of life challenge through the use of quickwrites.  By doing this, I hope to explore my own writing, identify problems my students may be experiencing with these quick bursts of writing, and show them authentic revisions in the writing process.

Today's quick write is live.

Many times I write with my students, but it is in my notebook.  Today, I opened up my draft on my blog for today and wrote with them.  The only thing I changed were spelling errors.

We wrote for six minutes to a prompt from Linda Rief's book, The Quickwrite Handbook. The pompt was a poem titled "Fifteen" by Annika B.

Here we go:

This year I turned 55. I have never been one to not talk about my age.  For me, my age was just a number. Yes, the older I get, the more I feel like 55.  But I remember when I was much younger, I thought 50 sounded so old.  Now, it is just a number.

Often times I think about my age in years, not necessarily in numbers.  I think about how I have probably lived more years than I have left to live. This saddens me on some days. But I think about how I have lived my life.  I am proud of what I have become.  Oh yes, we all have made mistakes, and we have things that we would probably do differently if we had the chance.

A line from the movie Tuck Everlasting has been aging mantra.  It goes something like this:

"Don't be afraid of dying. Be afraid of the unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live.  And she did." 

Sandcastles #SOL19

I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge.  
This year I decided to complete my slice of life challenge through the use of quickwrites.  By doing this, I hope to explore my own writing, identify problems my students may be experiencing with these quick bursts of writing, and show them authentic revisions in the writing process.

Today's quick write comes from Paula Bourque's new book SPARK! Yesterday, on her blog, Lit Coach Lady, she encouraged us to use pictures to spark our writing. She provided a link to a Google photo album, filled with pictures. I chose a picture which led me to think about my mother and my grandmother and to today's quick write.

In true quick write form according to Kittle and Graves, my process began like this:

1. Choose a starter.
2. Write rapidly for ten minutes.
3. Change nothing.
4. Lower you standards. (This is hard to do when you are writing publicly!)
5. Let your own thinking guide you, not the prompt.

Here we go:

Sandcastles.

As children, we scramble with shovel and pail, digging deep to fill it with wet sand. We turn the pail over, carefully wishing that the packed sand doesn't collapse. We dig a moat around our castle to protect it from seaweed creatures and evil villains.

And the ocean from washing it away.

We squeal with delight as the waves inch closer and closer and our sandcastle remains strong.

As adults, we scramble with shovel and pail, digging deep to fill them with memories. Memories of family, and friends, and life. We turn the pail over with each year that we grow older, carefully wishing the packed sand doesn't collapse and leave us with emptiness. We dig a moat around our castle to protect it from burdening love ones,

And dementia from washing it away.

We sigh with relief as the waves inch closer and closer and our sandcastle remains strong.

For one more memory.

I wish my students knew...#SOL19

I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge.  
This year I decided to complete my slice of life challenge through the use of quickwrites.  By doing this, I hope to explore my own writing, identify problems my students may be experiencing with these quick bursts of writing, and show them authentic revisions in the writing process.

Today's quick write is a teacher version of the popular prompt, "I wish my teacher knew..."

In true quick write form according to Kittle and Graves, my process began like this:

1. Choose a starter.
2. Write rapidly for ten minutes.
3. Change nothing.
4. Lower you standards. (This is hard to do when you are writing publicly!)
5. Let your own thinking guide you, not the prompt.

Here we go:

I wish my students knew...

that I come from a not-so-perfect childhood. Sometimes I think they believe no one understands them. But I do. 

I had many nights where my parents fought, and I would put the pillow over my head, wishing them to stop.  My parents ended up in a divorce.  I remember vividly the night my mom came to tell me.  I was a sophomore in college.  Many people say that divorce is hard on young children, but I believe differently. When you are older, you know the reason; you understand the consequences. 

I made some bad choices, choices I wish I could change.  Sometimes those choices are the ones we learn the most from. I believe those mistakes have made me a better mother, a better wife, and certainly a better teacher.  

I understand heartache. I understand pain. 

I understand that sometimes things don't go the way we want them to go.

But I also know perseverance and determination. My mom was 40 with two kids in college and two more at home...and divorced. She made it.

I wish my students knew there is always a way out. Stand tall. Stand proud. Work hard. 

This is what I wish my students knew.

Childhood Chore #SOL19

I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge.  
This year I decided to complete my slice of life challenge through the use of quickwrites.  By doing this, I hope to explore my own writing, identify problems my students may be experiencing with these quick bursts of writing, and show them authentic revisions in the writing process.

Today's quick write comes from the "My Quick Writes" a notebook/source book from Inside Writing:  How to Teach the Details of Craft by Penny Kittle and Don Graves. In this book they talk about the difference between quick writes and traditional writing prompts, which is a common way many students are taught to write.  They describe quick writes as something that "nudge us to discover topics that matter, not to respond to a question that many have nothing to do with our experience."

They suggest the following process:

1. Choose a starter.
2. Write rapidly for ten minutes.
3. Change nothing.
4. Lower you standards. (This is hard to do when you are writing publicly!)
5. Let your own thinking guide you, not the prompt.

Here we go:

"When I was a kid I had certain chores I had to do. The first one was..." Write about that chore in all the details you can remember and show your feelings about doing it."

Growing up with three siblings brought many trials and tribulations. My older sister and I are a year apart, so we were nine and ten when my younger sister was born.  We used to wash dishes together, but fought a lot. My mom decided it was best to separate us.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I washed the dishes.  On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, my sister washed the dishes.  Sunday was Mom's day. On the opposite nights, we would have to walk our baby sister in the stroller.  

I really didn't mind either of those chores when I was younger.  But as we all got older, the one chore I hated was emptying the ice trays!  I grew up before automatic ice makers were a thing.  Or if they were around then, well, we didn't have one.  Instead, we had blue plastic ice trays.  A family of six used a lot of ice, so we had eight stack-able trays! There was nothing worse than going to get a glass of Kool-aid or Hawaiian Punch, and no ice!

As a solution to this problem, we created a list that went:  Mom, Dad, Janis, Leigh, Doug, Cris.  The list ran down the side of the paper and down the middle.  Each time we emptied the ice trays, we put the date beside our name. When the ice trays needed emptied, first name up had to do it.

Now, back then, I was not the procrastinator that I am now.  I would get ahead several turns.  I might of have been three or four ahead of anyone else.  So when the ice bin was empty, and the trays needed emptied...nope, it wasn't my turn!

Ways to Use this in My Classroom

This quick write could easily be revised into a narrative, building in small moments with rich details. I could capture a scene of finding the ice bin empty and write about those emotions, or I could create a scene where I proudly announce it wasn't my turn. 

How could you use this prompt for your writing or slice idea?

I'm From...#SOL19

I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge.  This year I decided to complete my slice of life challenge through the use of quickwrites.  By doing this, I hope to explore my own writing, identify problems my students may be experiencing with these quick bursts of writing, and show them authentic revisions in the writing process.

This quickwrite comes from Linda Rief's book and the poem, "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon.  I thought I would start the challenge by telling you a little bit about me. This is always a great quickwrite for students.

I’m From…

I'm from a dad who I disappointed
From the day I was born
And a mom who is one of the strongest women I know

I'm from Friday night trips to the library
And sharing bowls of popcorn
And butter-stained pages with my mom
She reading her book, and I reading mine

I'm from fried chicken Saturdays
And warm donut Sundays
Family vacations with my siblings all dressed alike
In Buster Brown stipes of green, yellow, red, and blue
No chance of us getting lost

I'm from a shared bedroom but separate sides
Divided by an imaginary line
She stays on hers, and I stay on mine
I'm from slipping on Pledge waxed floors
She calls it cleaning, and I call it sabotage

I'm from eight jelly donuts and innocent pranks
With the best friends ever
From paper routes and babysitting
And from behind the McDonald's counter
"Would you like fries with that?"
Saving money to buy clothes
And a way out of this small town

I'm from falling in love
and moving back home
Something I thought I would never do
Something I would never change


Welcome to a month of slicing. I look forward to sharing my space with all of you.