Final Reflection

Part #1

NYC
(First Piece)- Poetry

This was one of the very first pieces I chose to write. It came from an early poetry activity where we wrote words associated with pictures. The photograph I selected was of a city. It may or may not have been New York City, but that was the first thought that came to my mind. I was trying to capture the striking features the city had to offer, the instant emotions and memories it elicits. I didn’t want to put too much or I felt it would ruin the simplicity of the piece. I learned to use word association from a main topic, and then description from each of the associations. I know I like this poem, because every time I read it I get a chill remembering the components I described.

One Day
(Second Piece)- Prose

This is a work in progress that I will continue to tweak. I especially want to talk with my parents to sort out more of the details of the event. My mother has been going through cancer diagnosis, however, so I’ve decided to wait until later. If there was ever a story inside of me waiting to be told, this was it. I’ve revised twice and really tried to incorporate word choice with each revision and will continue to do so. While writing the piece I learned about point of view. I’ve also been tweaking dialogue as I go, because this is foreign territory for me. I used Kris Turner’s technique of writing a sequenced list and selecting another starting point. I incorporated flashback, something my students work on in fifth grade, so I really feel the piece is a compilation of several techniques. When people talk about why they write, I hear so many different reasons. My reason for writing this was two-fold. It is a story that I don’t want to be forgotten because it truly changed us and shaped the rest of our lives (especially in the sense that we discovered faith in Christ- a truly life-altering event). I also love the idea that I could share the story someday with others. It is encouraging to me every time I think of it, and I’d love for it to encourage others as well.

Courage
(Third Piece)- Poetry

In this piece I used Dawn’s strategy of taking an emotive noun and writing a poem to go with it. I incorporated tactile nouns to symbolize the word courage. I made a list of words and images that came to mind when I thought of the word courage. I selected the word courage because of a sight I saw the day before. When I was driving home from the UWP I saw flags lined all the way down the road. Patriotism and courage go hand in hand in my mind, and this is the reason I selected courage.


SCCTE Conference Proposal
(Fourth Piece)- Professional

This is a conference proposal based on the demonstration I used for the Upstate Writing Project. I was trying to grab the attention of the reader while communicating the purpose of the demonstration. I wrote the proposal based on a model/example written by another person. Modeling is a powerful technique that creates instant understanding in the person writing the piece.

Connections Among Pieces
Prewriting was the common thread that strung throughout my writing this summer. I’ve come a long way since my high school and even college days of putting pen to paper without prior thought. I really learned the value of matching a prewriting technique to the mode of writing/genre. I found that the ideas my prewriting elicited could be much more poignant when paired.

Three Writing Craft Techniques
The three writing craft techniques I found most helpful were utilized in the writing pieces above:

Emotive Nouns- This strategy resulted in my courage poem. Dawn challenged us to take one of these nouns and write a poem based on concrete word associations were made from this. I selected courage and had a lot of images that came to mind. I think this would be a great way to challenge my students to write with imagery.

Starting in the Middle- This technique was presented by Kris. We made a list of the sequence of events we wanted to share and picked a starting point other than the beginning. I thought this was a great way to pick the most interesting point, resulting in a good hook, while being able to tell the rest of the story through flashbacks and other techniques.

Photograph Inspiration- This strategy was presented by Dawn as well. She had several photographs that we could select from to be our topic. We then created a list of words that fit with our senses, but still fit with the photograph. We ended up with a great group of ideas covering all of the senses. This resulted in a vivid poem.

Part #2

NYC
(First Piece)- Poetry
Link to Final Piece
Link to Original Piece and Comments

In this piece I made some changes to the stanza breaks. One of the comments related to one of my comments about seeing my aunt perform on Broadway. I moved the stanza break so the line about Broadway was joined with the phrase about my aunt. I thought this would create the connection, and help the reader see that I had a very personal connection to NYC as well. Jane Gardner was the one on the E-anthology that made the recommendation. I tried not to change other features of the poem since many of the other comments about the imagery were supportive.


One Day
(Second Piece)- Prose
* Link to Final Piece
* Link to First Draft and Comments
* Link to Second Draft and Comments

This piece was my passion during the UWP Summer Institute and will continue to be my passion. There is a lot more that I would like to do, but I feel that the piece has come a long way with the revisions I’ve made. The majority of the changes we adding content later in the piece. I made the changes that individuals on the E-anthology recommended. The first time I submitted the piece, I took Wendy Warren’s suggestion about adding content to clarify the role of myself with the role of the other people in the story. I did some tweaking, which helped to clarify this. I also worked one on one with members from my writing group to tweak the introduction. I was worried about the amount of information I was trying to share, while maintaining the flow. We tweaked the scene where the surgeon sees Julie and vice-versa.
I added content to the piece after seeing this feedback and made several changes to syntax. When I resubmitted it I got some additional, and very helpful feedback…Tracy Butler helped my see some of the lines were I had omitted a word or two. I really appreciated Mike Rush’s comments about the line, “I mean, she hadn’t needed God before.” It belayed my role as the narrator before I wanted the reader to know. That is really something I wanted to capture, so I was very grateful to Mike.



Courage
(Third Piece)- Poetry
* Link to Final Piece
* Link to Original Piece and Comments

This was yet another poem where I struggles with how much to include, and how to fit the pieces together. Cathy Murphy suggested I add in some of my explanation concerning why I chose the piece, flag day etc… which I did. I also took Claudia Swisher’s suggestion about the imagery. I actually had this in my rough, rough draft before I ever submitted the piece. I went back to that draft and pasted in some of the ideas I had originally.


SCCTE Conference Proposal
(Fourth Piece)- Professional
* Link to Final Piece
* Link to Original Piece and Comments

The major change to this piece came from suggestions about the hook. I was trying to use a question to grab my reader, and both Brian Slusher, and Claudia Swisher picked up on the same thing. I chose to take Brian’s suggestions about rephrasing the question and the following line to… "How do you motivate your students to write across the curriculum? Simple: Cross-Curricular Comic Strips!" To get in the cartooning angle, I suggest you add to the final lines of each "Before you know it, unmotivated students will be writing (and drawing) across the curriculum." Their comments were especially helpful because the hook was the most important component of the piece.


Part #3

Three Things to Remember
Humor- When reading through the blogs of other people I am struck by the humor many writers are able to weave into their stories. The humor is mixed, some of it is situational, some of it is dry (as in some people think it is funny and others mix the point completely), and some of it is overt and blatant. I enjoyed seeing the humor of Laurie and Angie, as well as hearing them read their pieces out loud. This gave me a voice in my own head when I read some of their other pieces. I also enjoyed seeing humor woven into so many types and genres of writing; poetry, prose, and even professional pieces. This is something I want to remember and incorporate into my writing in the future. I think this is important to remember because humor breaks up serious writing and gives it life. I think a good writer should be able to incorporate and balance this.

Prewriting- Through the blogs of our UWP writers I was able to see the impact of prewriting on good writing. I enjoyed seeing how people took the same prewriting strategy and created such beautiful, but different pieces. I looked at Angie’s piece with the photograph of the woman and compared the differences to my own. Prewriting can be so powerful in eliciting ideas and creativity.

Writing, Writing, and More Writing- This may seem ridiculous, but I loved seeing how much everyone wrote. Just like reading, the more you write the better a writer you become. I could see the breadth of styles as well when I looked at everyone. You can’t just want to be a better writer; you have to do something about it. I think we all wanted to develop our writing skills, just one of the many reasons we all joined the UWP Summer Institute. I loved reading everyone’s reflections and seeing what they learned because we are all going through the same experience.

Classmate Inspiration
Laurie- I learned a lot from the voice and word choice Laurie used in her writing. I loved phrases like, “She was my inspiration make it up the mountain.” In her piece Making Carl proud. Laurie always had a way of capturing the thoughts that were in my mind as well, she does a great job of capturing real feelings on paper.

Erica- I loved Erica’s piece Typical Me. She got your attention with a great hook. “Oh God, how am I going to do this?” It made you want to keep reading, and surprised you when she put a twist into the story. She puts you right into her stories with initial lines like… “Here we were again, set off the annual Sander’s family Christmas.”

Kris- What vivid description! I knew when Kris got up to share that I’d have an image instantly and that she’d find the perfect word or phrase to capture a moment. “Tina and her sixteen year old daughter Chloe crooned along with latest hit as they drove away from their lives in Asheville, North Carolina towards their new one in Jefferson, Georgia.” Words like crooned and concepts like driving away from your life really grabbed my attention. My favorite pieces from Kris were probably her poems, such as Despair. The last line, which she has shaded in a different color on her blog, really gets you. “We are the poster children of society’s failures.” I love the concept she selected and went with here. The title alone is vivid.


Cheers to a great summer of writing!