Monday, February 7, 2011

CWP Connections 2/5/11

This was my first California Writing Project Connections meeting. It was a great day with great people. I hope I can attend these meetings from now on. The room was filled with dynamic teachers who care about writing and having their students progress in writing. I love being in a room full of committed teachers.

One of the teaching demonstration lessons was called "Teaching for Joy and Justice". We were introduced to the website CoalBlackVoices.com .The lesson began by listening to Kelly Norman Ellis' poem "Raised by Women" coalblackvoices.com/poets/kelly/index.html. After listening examples from a 6th grade student was shown. A digital story telling example was also shown. We were then encouraged to write our own "Raised By" poems.
My example:

Raised by the Hot Street

Raised by,
A mama who said, "Get out of this house!
I can't take you for one more minute."
Raised by the Hot, Hot asphalt street.
Feet burning,
Bike riding,
Tag playing,
Street.

"Stay out!"
Raised by,
The hot dusty field
Mud slinging,
Hide and seek,
Grape stealing,
Fields.

Raised by,
The cool water from the hose. . .

And so goes the rest of the story. There is only so much time in a day filled with so many great ideas.