Author: Rachel Smith

Categories
Writerly Life

Happy Mother’s Day

always an adventure with mom

I am my Mother’s daughter.

I have never been ashamed of that.

In my writing I hear her writer’s voice sneaking in; when I read to my students I hear her inflection and her care in preserving character’s voices/personas. Daily I am amazed at the ways we are similar. Sometimes when I say things to my students I hear my Mother’s voice, and it’s in those moments that I know I am getting it right.

The first text she ever sent me (see two weeks ago) was, “There’s a little girl throwing stones in the creek with her red galoshes and her Mom. Ahh wanna go back in time?”

And last week I posted on her facebook wall, “Mom, tonight I think I need to snuggle up on your bed while you grade papers; let’s go back, just for tonight.”

I love my Mom. Lots. Always have. That weird teenage stage where girls hate their mom? Not here, never.

Of all the lessons I learned from my Mother, the one that sits closest to my heart is relationship. She taught me at an early age the value of being present with people, learning their stories, and walking with them as they grow. There is nothing I love more than to journey with people, investing my heart and my time.

I’ve watched my Mother invest in her students and in her friendships for the past twenty-six years of my life. She’s the best teacher I’ve ever seen, and if my teaching or my classroom feels different than others, it’s only because I’ve learned from her how to encourage and push at the same time.

When we generate ideas for writing poetry we often write lists. Here’s my Mother’s Day generating list for you.

Ten things I’m thankful my Mom taught me.

  1. Don’t be afraid to be a kid.
  2. Being distracted is sometimes really important.
  3. Don’t freak out in stressful situations.
  4. Drink tea to help you focus.
  5. Give specific feedback on writing and relationship.
  6. Go outside.
  7. Just because you’ve never done it, doesn’t mean you can’t.
  8. Set goals. Achieve Goals. Repeat.
  9. Forgive, forgive, forgive.
  10. There is a big God out there, who does big things; pay attention.
Categories
Classroom Writing

poetry & revision

I fell in love with poetry this summer, spending summer nights in the West Village Bowery Poetry Club listening to Carlos Andres Gomez bring the house down with spoken word.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdHWVlpBGiY]

Carlos wasn’t the first time I fell in love with poetry; in fact the first unit I was ever proud of as a teacher, was a poetry unit I did at Benchmark School using the book Bronx Masquerade. Drew McCorkell & I were quite the team, teaching kids to write with passion and encouraging them to take risks as writers.

Then there is now, in my classroom. I’ve been working with kids, watching them craft poetry in their journals. Sometimes they sit there, scribble down a few obviously unheartfelt lines, close up their journal and claim they are done. My blood begins to boil; I’ve taught them to revise, to reflect, to dialogue; why are they doing this to me?

And then I realize, poetry is different. It’s not always safe to share and revision happens differently. I would have to teach my kids how to spend time with a poem, revisit it, and clarify the poem to make their message clear and yet still have that foggy quality that only poetry can have. As I started thinking, I realized I don’t often do these things in my own poetry, and I wasn’t sure how authors did it either. So with the help of my kids and authors like Ralph Fletcher and Sarah Kay, along with Katie Wood Ray and maybe a little Barry Lane, we came up with this helpful list for revising.

Here is our wall chart of Poetry Revision Strategies:

  • Star your favorite line.
    • Move that line to the top of your poem
    • Craft a new stanza after that line
  • Add in Similes and Metaphors
    • It’s a poet’s love language
    • It lets people connect
  • Take out words
    • Take out as many words as you can
    • Poets leave room for people to think for themselves
  • Line/ Stanza Breaks
    • Create drama and set a mood
    • Breaks say to the reader—think about that
  • Use Repetition
    • Draw attention to the importance of a line or phrase
  • Craft strong conclusions
    • Leave the reader with a feeling, image, connection, or question

I’m thankful that my classroom is a learning community and that we can create these lists and journey together. Initially, I wasn’t sure that they would go for these strategies, but after spending a year together taking risks they seemed thankful that we could take the mystery out of the process—bring it back to the familiar writing routine we loved— and allow the risk to be within the content only . I was thankful that I wasn’t going crazy, and that we had all remembered to revise, to reflect, to dialogue.

Categories
Writerly Life

Happy Birthday Siena

New friends of mine had a baby tonight. When I say new friends, I want you to know that these are not the new kind of friends you move on from. No, these are the kind of friends you meet and wonder where they have been your whole life. These are the kind of friends that remind you that God is good and big and that he brings all things/people together in perfect timing.

So join me in welcoming little Siena girl to the world tonight. As I write this she is only twenty minutes old and I am getting text updates from a friend who is in the hospital waiting room in New York. The last update was “she came out chubby, that’s all we know.” And then I started to cry, right here in Starbucks.

My very next thought was how I wanted to hold her and how I really wanted to read to her, Mr.Brown Can Moo, Can You? Literacy, it runs in my veins.

I recently spent time with Liana, the child of another friend of mine, she is only a year old, but her first word was book. In fact when her mom took a book out of the bag her eyes lit up. Liana’s amazing mother told me that when she reads Hop on Pop to Liana, she’ll say “hop, hop” in her little Liana voice with inflection and excitement— just like her mom does as she reads. Insert melting heart here.

Then there is Jerus, he’s a pretty perfect gentleman that I’ve had the joy of watching grow over the past six years. I’ve spent plenty of time reading to him and doing all the voices. In fact when he was a baby and he would cry I used to just quote lines from Snuggle Puppy and he would stop crying to hear the familiar words. Last week I had the pleasure of listening to him read Little Bear to me. I practically had tears in my eyes as he read the first sentence to me; I was so proud of him.

I love the rich legacy of literacy that we pass on to our children. Some of my favorite memories of growing up involve reading books in bed with my Mom. On dark nights with a full moon, I can still hear my mom’s voice in my head reading aloud from Owl Moon.

In my classroom, I’ve recently been spending some time reading Bronx Masquerade to my kids. They’re fourteen. They don’t need to be read to. However, there is something about the sharing of written words that brings us together. I live for these moments; when I am not their teacher but the reader of a story that we journey through together.

To the Beautiful, Amazing Siena: Happy Birthday; I can’t wait to watch your eyes get wide as you hear the rhythms that written words bring to your ears; I can’t wait to hear you sound out your first words; I can’t wait to journey with you and discover all over again the mystery of written words.

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Categories
Writerly Life

What I’m Really Trying to Say . . .

I just spent an hour looking at the last days of the year; this happy teacher almost cried. It’s a good thing I have friends that understand me; my loving neighbor Courtney just reminded me I have the perfect amount of time. She knows the routine this time of year; she’s even seen the actual tears that come the week after the last days of school. Feel free to laugh at me; I recognize the strangeness of that last sentence.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m itching for summer and days without alarm clocks. I know the importance of summer and the refreshment it brings to my teaching. However, there is something in me around this time of year that doesn’t want to leave.

I fall in love with the kids in my classroom and the relationships we build. And for as much as I hate planning lessons and spending what seems like every free moment of my time reading journals— I miss it.

And so as I carefully plan these last 38 days of school I’m asking myself the questions I ask so often when I conference with my writers, “What’s really important here?” and “That matters because . . .” and “So what you’re really trying to say is . . . “

Here is my list of what matters in these last days of school.

  1. Celebrating their writing
  2. Treasuring language that moves us
  3. Recognizing and Pushing through difficult writing/reading

I’ll let you know how my mini-lessons go . . .

Categories
Hidden Gems Book Talk

Naming & Teaching

            When I first heard Katherine Bomer speak at Columbia University over a year ago, Hidden Gems was due to come out in a month. She spoke fast and with passion about how to talk to kids about their writing; she used up all of the hour allotted to her and allowed some of her time to trickle into the next session. Finding hidden gems in student writing was clearly something she believed in.

            Her energy caught me, and I preordered the book. In other words, I am a dork. This is probably my fourth time reading through the book; I will probably need to read chapter four a few more times before it actually flows naturally in my conferences.

            I am so thankful for the grey boxes she provided to help me talk to my writers. The more that I name and teach the skills I want my kids to have, the more I realize how vitally important it is to be more specific. Don’t get me wrong, I have conferences where I fall flat on my face in this area, almost everyday. I can’t tell you how many times I have been in Stacy’s office this year to talk about how to have an effective writing conference. I have been frustrated by kids who just stare at me when I ask them what goal they are working on; I have been unable to think of anything good to say about a piece.

            However, when I look back at this chapter I am reminded that if I just slow down, and name things specifically the kids will eventually get the hang of it. Don’t get me wrong I sometimes feel silly when I say to a kid, “Your writing feels tense and edgy,” but I have yet to have a student laugh at that feedback. In fact more often than not their eyes light up and they are confident they have done something right. It is from this place of confidence that I can teach and encourage revision.

            What quotes from the book do you think you might be able to weave into a writing conference?

Categories
Writerly Life

When the Bloodthirsty Attack

Below is a section of writing from one of the blogs I read: Eblogger Jason at Heartist

“I’m concerned with hidden love these days. I think we underestimate how many people are getting railed by critics out there. We assume that they know they’re loved and appreciated, but do they? I tend to think that the scoreboard is really lopsided in favor of the critics.

Bloodthirsty – 9

Friends – 1

We have to put some points on the board. If we lose at this level, we lose at every level.”

I have to agree with Jason. A goal of mine this year has been to speak these truths to the people in my life. All too often I’ve heard students say, “I’m just no good at this,” and thought in my head wow, you couldn’t be more wrong. All too often a friend has expressed their guilt at letting people down or not being able to do anything right, and again in my head, wow, you couldn’t be more wrong.

So I purpose to make sure people in my life know they’re loved an appreciated. I’m not very good at doing this in person and on the spot, when I do remember to say things this way it often feels awkward and forced. I’m so thankful for written words in times like these.

My student’s journals have been one safe place for me to practice my affirming techniques. I’ve found that the more you tell them they are good at something (and name it specifically) the more they believe it, the more their self-confidence grows, the better they become as a writers.

I am learning; it’s not just students that need this kind of affirmation. We all do. Because when the bloodthirsty attack and believe me, they will. It’s the words of trusted friends that will get you through.

So go ahead my blog reading friends, let people know with words that what they are doing is good.

Categories
Assessment

Yarrrr

My kids started the writing PSSA on Monday with a little love from our friend Evan. Here’s the e-mail he sent them.

Hey Rachel, can you pass on to the kids I’m throwing all my luck at them today.  It’s amazing to see how far they have come this year, and if they keep in mind everything we did this year and write from their hearts, there is no reason why they all won’t destroy this little test!

Can’t wait to come back in the bear future! Yarrrr.

-Evan

I read them the e-mail in the midst of testing silence. I glanced up while I was reading, and I could see a glimmer in their eyes. Then in a moment that seemed surreal, even to an 8th grade teacher, I read the last line and the kids shouted out in unison, “Yarrrr!!”

 

I felt as though I as was leading my team into the championships and we were huddled up close shouting some secret phrase only we knew. In truth they were spread out with state mandated tests and sharpened number two pencils, but it was a bonding moment all the same.

 

Regardless of how they do on the test, I’m so proud of them. And maybe I’m thinking, this isn’t the championships after all, maybe this is just a victory lap, because in my eyes (and I’m thinking theirs too) they’ve already won.

Categories
Professional

Again and Again

This summer I picked up Time for Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle & High School by Randy Bomer. I have successfully carried this book to and from work many days, it has been on vacations, it has even sat with me in waiting rooms. I would love to tell you that it has been with me all these places because of how dearly I loved the book, but that’s simply not true. I wanted to love it, but maybe I just wasn’t ready.

I think I had to walk the journey on my own for a bit. Fail and succeed. Be really frustrated and really proud. And I’ve certainly been there this year, taking risks in my classroom, doing my best to figure out how to grow a community of readers and writers. Maybe if I had picked up this book sooner I might have missed out of some of the frustration, but sometimes frustration is a key part of the journey.

As I was reading this morning, I was reminded of how I felt in the beginning of this year, introducing the concept of journal writing to my class. It was labor intensive, it required me to be at full brainpower—all the time. It took me awhile to learn that I couldn’t possibly teach them every skill I wanted them to know by the end of September.

“For now, I had to let go of my hyperactive concern with the excellence of the writing and be satisfied teaching a process. Learning the new technology of using a notebook to work on a piece of writing took up the writer’s energy and attention—and mine. Later, there would be time to pay the proper attention to learning from literature to write well. As I would again and again, I was learning to ask, What’s my exact purpose here? And then teach in a more focused way.”

So, now as we move into the last marking period, I’m not worried about the process; the kids get it. I’m not reading every word they write anymore, but I am relishing in the moments that they run to me with their words begging me to hear a line they have crafted just like their favorite author.

They don’t know it all. I’m still overwhelmed with the magnitude of what I want to teach them. But again and again, I am learning to ask, What’s my exact purpose here? And then teach in a more focused way.

Categories
Hidden Gems Book Talk

Convicted

The first time I read chapter 3 of Hidden Gems I felt convicted. I don’t read enough. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading, but I have no time for it. Between grading papers and creating lesson plans, sometimes I feel like I’m missing out on life itself. Yet, somehow I’ve shifted gears and started to make reading for me a priority. Thanks to the Kindle I got from my amazing Sister-In-law this Christmas, reading has reentered my life with high-tech style. And thanks to the Kindle’s fantastic “clipping feature” highlighting sections of great language in these books has become second nature to me.

So, I’ve been learning about myself and what I love about literature. I love lines that make me say, “Me too!” and words that force me to pause and think, “I’ve never thought of it that way,” or spots where the beauty of written words just seem to take my breath away. I’ve been bringing these snippets to my classroom since Christmas. I often share ones I’ve recently highlighted in writing conferences or mini-lessons; sometimes kids will copy the words down into their journals and together we discuss how to craft writing that moves people.

What I have noticed is that the more I do this with real authors the more inclined I am to do it with my kids writing too. Unfortunately, I can’t highlight in their journals with the click of a button but, I do savor their words. Sometimes I text them to my neighbor or I call my roommate in from the next room. Every now and then my mom gets an e-mail that contains sentences stolen from my kid’s journals. It’s my goal to bring these lines into the classroom more often to let the kids hear the authors rising among us.

Here are some great ones lines my kids are wanted to share with you…

My dinner last night was a furious killing of precooked teriyaki.

It was only me.

Laura came charging like a bull just when I had just gotten used to her being silent and hidden like a cat.

Not only was he yelling at me, he used my word, used it as trash, calling me a redonkulous fool.

I don’t know how I’m going tackle this massive beast of a dishmonster.

This is going to be harder than a monkey fighting a bulldog and that’s the truth.

This weekend was like a box of chocolates fallen from heaven.

What words are you reading?

Categories
Hidden Gems Book Talk

Words to Cling To

Probably one of the biggest catalysts to my personal identity as a writer was an e-mail I received on May 10, 2010. The quote below is a response to an e-mail that I sent to a close friend revealing my desires to write and teach others about writing. These are the words that I “cling to” when I’m not sure I have what it takes.

“Rach…this is beautiful, raw and gutsy…thank you for sharing it with me…Let’s get together and talk when you have a moment…let’s discover together what the plan is…”

Oh, how I needed to hear this response as a writer. Especially that first part, “beautiful, raw and gutsy.” I needed the time of trusted friend, someone to sit with me and process what I was too nervous to share with anyone else. There is the promise of time too, that she did live up to, time to sit reflect on the writing and what it meant.

As I read chapter two of Hidden Gems, I am realizing that perhaps one of my favorite pieces I have ever written has nothing to do with school or the academic world at all. Rather the piece I am most proud of is one I wrote because my heart told me I had to.

I can identify with the feeling that Katherine Bomer talks about in this chapter. . . how comments can help or hinder writers. I have experienced it myself. A small note from a friend, changed me as a writer forever.

Only now, at 26, have I started to feel okay with having others read my writing- from the safety of a blog that is.

What has shaped you as a writer?