Wow, that three weeks whizzed right on by but I consider our little jaunt just an appetizer. Please continue to write. I will continue to respond.
  

   Our author's night at Bonanza Books was outstanding! The audience was upstanding or, should I say, standing up.

The place was packed! Five of our young author's boldly read their wonderful pieces that night.

    I hope students are continuing to add to their white books. I saw some exciting artwork within the few days they had them. 
  
Well, if any of you post new stories, I'll see them, but I won't be able to respond until I return from my trip to Washington D.C. In fact, I'm on my out the door now. Write On!!!

Michelle

Thursday, July 10th at 7:00p.m. (not 7:30) our public reading is scheduled at Bonanza Books in Walnut Creek. (click link for directions)

Friday will be our last day together and we would like to have some treats at the end of the day. Each child can bring something to share and I will provide the paper products. We have 12 students.
3rd graders- snack items that are somewhat healthy
4th graders- drinks
5th graders- desserts/sweet treats

Thank you.
Michelle

WE ARE PUBLISHED AUTHORS!!! This week we dove into web logging, otherwise known as blogging, and Walnut Creek writers are swimming through waves of newly published work. Steady streams of stories, snippets, poetry and prose are posted daily at http://www.bayareawritingproject.org/bawp77 so please come and check out the Student Stories in their various stages of completion. Comments are welcome. Just click on Discuss below the piece and you may give feedback on the work (please limit your comments to either positive feedback or clarifying questions).

    To back up a little, on Friday, our entire Walnut Creek YWC, seventy students who range from 3rd through 11th grade, joined together for a community Author's Chair. One of our own, a third grader, braved the chair, blazing a path for the youngest group to speak amongst the oldest.  

 On Monday, I was able to display the remaining squares in our memory quilt. Now the SecondQuilt.jpg hangs completed below the FirstQuilt.jpg at the entrance of our classroom with all twelve students artistically displayed between memories or metaphors.

 Kids continued to develop and the character they are creating. I reiterate that authors show character's traits through actions, descriptions, dialogue and thoughts. We talked about their characters having a flaw they must overcome and logical reasons for doing what they do. Favorite phrases, gestures or mannerisms are excellent ways to reinforce the personality of a character. We also worked outside for a while and kids practiced using personification in their writing. See Me. They later used their descriptions to turn into riddles. I read more color poems and many kids got inspired to write their own. Some used the idea to turn into metaphor poems describing themselves. The fact that they can take ideas and individualize their application is refreshing. Brown is the color of life.  Blue the color of waves crashing down on a sunny day at the beach. (check them out). Monday I also gathered e-mailed addresses in order to set up a blogging page for each student to store, edit and showcase their writing.

Tuesday my group worked on incorporating imagery into their writing.  I read examples of good literature we discussed and practiced methods using tools from our Writer's Toolbox: strong verbs, length of passage, similes, metaphors, personification, the senses. For example, Michael M., a student from a previous class, transformed "I was tossed by a huge wave." into  "The tremendous force of the wave overpowered me. I was a puppet. the strings were held by the wreckless and unforgiving hands of nature." I look forward to reading, or rather, seeing, the images this imaginative group creates.  

Yesterday, students found lines in their writing that they could magnify (the magnified moment or slow motion writing). The purpose is to bring the reader into the writing, helping him/her to see/hear/feel exactly what you want them to. Authors do this by concentrating on the senses "sight, smell, touch, sound and feelings. Some students are taking their journals home to transfer work onto their web log. Please encourage and assist where needed. They're on a roll and next week on Thursday, July 10th at 7:00 p.m. our public reading is scheduled at Bonanza Books in Walnut Creek. (click link for directions) Of course it is voluntary to read that night but I encourage kids to come out and support their community of writers whether or not they choose to read. ,

Recess is always a big highlight of the day (hey what do you expect from 3rd-5th graders?)

We've ended every day with author's chair (except Tuesday when the computer novelty ruled our world). Today we will again join the older kids for a shared community author's chair since it is the last day of camp for this week. Remember, no school on Friday. Enjoy your Fourth of July holiday Weekend.

Michelle ,   

Our First Week of YWC 2003

by Michelle McAfee

The youngest group of young writer's at the Walnut Creek site spent their first few days getting to know each other through memories and images from home.

Monday I read the poem, "Where I'm From," by George Ella Lyon.  We talked about images in our own environments: foods, relatives, neighborhood, home, yard, parental proverbs (i.e."If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all!"), etc. Then, in their journals, students created "I Am From Grids" from which they pulled threads to include in their memory quilt    (memoryquilta.jpg) illustrations. They wrote poems called I Am From and some students used excerpts to accompany their quilt squares. 

Tuesday I read, "I Remember," by Edward Montez and students dipped into the well of their experiences, scooped out images, and wrote their own "I Remember" poems and passages. 

Wednesday we examined metaphor and simile before they wrote metaphor poems about themselves. We wrote what we would be as: a favorite color, an animal, a type of weather, a piece of clothing, a piece of furniture, a toy, and a type of food. For example... Joanne is dolphin baby blue. She's a playful panda eating bamboo leaves. She's a sunny day with a touch of smiles...

Thursday we looked at selected paragraphs from four different books to discuss setting. They heard (several times) that: "Nothing creates a picture in someone's mind like sensory images - how something smells, or looks, tastes, feels or sounds" because "You need to create an image in your readers' minds, or all your hard work will be in vain." Students were then given skeletons for a revision exercise. They chose from eight short starter outlines and expanded the bare bones scene by adding action, dialogue, environment and/or thoughts.  

During our first four days, besides all of the above, we read several poems, solved word riddles, wrote quick-writes, highlighted Golden Lines, played with color poems, peer edited, snooped out snippets for our "snippet" journals (tiny take-anywhere note pads for recording sudden inspirations, images, words, etc.), and performed in authors' chair (daily!).

On Friday, we'll begin with a treat to toast our first week together as a community of writers. Then, we'll dive into character development and continue to create, examine, explore and explode with ideas!

Wait, I must be leaving something out...