Note: Copy and paste images into a Word document, then make the images larger to be able to read all of the content.
Writing Jobs
Use graphic for its suggestions regarding writing jobs/careers.
Note: This is not necessarily an endorsement of this website:
http://www.thewritelifemagazine.com/
Story Elements
Note: You will need to make the graphic larger in order to read all the content.
The words under Problem are:
Question
Opportunity
Challenge
Goal
The words under Solution are:
Question answered
Opportunity met
Challenge met
Goal met
An abandoned Walmart in McAllen, Texas, is now the largest single-floor public library in America.
From the Paris Review:
An abandoned Walmart in McAllen, Texas, is now the largest single-floor public library in America.
Big Box
August 1, 2013 | by Sadie Stein
An abandoned Walmart in McAllen, Texas, is now the largest single-floor public library in America. The 124,500 square foot space contains sixty-four computer labs—three for teenagers, ten for children, two specifically devoted to genealogy—an art gallery, a used bookstore, and a café. (Oh, and an “acoustically separated” lounge for teens. The planners either love or hate teenagers, perhaps both.) Check out the whole space here.
Pew Study: Technology Aids Students’ Writing Skills Though Challenges Remain
Pew Study: Technology Aids Students’ Writing Skills Though Challenges Remain
Digital technologies are impacting American middle and high school students’ writing in many ways, both good and bad, a new national report from the Pew Research Center shows. According to the survey of teachers who instruct American middle and high school students, tech tools provide significant advantages to learning—although students are still having trouble with informal grammar and navigating the issues of plagiarism, citation, and fair use.
The report, “The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools” find that 78 percent of the 2,462 advanced placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) teachers surveyed by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project say digital tools such as the internet, social media, and cell phones “encourage student creativity and personal expression.” In addition, 96 percent say digital technologies “allow students to share their work with a wider and more varied audience” and 79 percent agree that these tools “encourage greater collaboration among students.”
According to teachers, students’ exposure to a broader audience for their work and more feedback from peers encourages greater student investment in what they write and in the writing process as a whole.
“These results challenge in many ways the notion that students’ writing skills are being undermined by their increasing engagement with digital tools and platforms,” says Kristen Purcell, associate director for research at the Pew Internet Project. “Teachers do have concerns that digital tools are blurring the lines between formal and informal writing and see writing skills that need improvement, but they also see the benefit of students having more people respond to their writing and the increased opportunities for expression these digital tools offer.”
Half of these surveyed teachers say digital tools make it easier to teach writing, with just 18 percent saying digital tools make the process more difficult. In particular, teachers value interactive platforms, which allow them to work alongside a student on a piece of writing and allow students to edit and view each other’s work. Among this group of teachers:
- 52 percent say they or their students use interactive whiteboards in their classes
- 40 percent have students share their work on wikis, websites or blogs
- 36 percent have students edit or revise their own work and 29 percent have students edit others’ work using collaborative web-based tools such as GoogleDocs
The “creep” of informal grammar and style into “formal” writing, as well as students’ impatience with the writing process and their difficulty navigating the complex issues of plagiarism, citation and fair use, are still a concern. Specifically:
- 68 percent of teachers say digital tools make students more likely—as opposed to less likely or having no impact—to take shortcuts and not put effort into their writing
- 46 percent say these tools make students more likely to “write too fast and be careless”
- Just 8 percent describe their students as “excellent” or “very good” when it comes to navigating issues of fair use and copyright—30% gpercent ive their students the lowest rating of “poor”
- Just 15 percent rate students as “excellent” or “very good” when it comes to appropriately citing content, with the majority rating students “fair” (37 percent) or “poor” (20 percent)
Reflecting these latter concerns, a majority of these teachers spend class time “discussing with students the concepts of citation and plagiarism” (88 percent) and “discussing with students the concepts of fair use and copyright” (75 percent).
Interestingly, while the survey includes teachers of all subjects, English/language arts teachers in the sample consistently express more positive views of the impact of digital tools on student writing and the potential of these tools to help them teach writing. Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of English/language arts teachers surveyed say digital tools make teaching writing easier, compared with 32 percent of math teachers, 38 percent of science teachers, and 45 percent of history/social studies teachers.
English teachers are the most likely to use collaborative online platforms with their students, and are more likely than teachers of other subjects to say digital tools increase the likelihood students will revise and edit their work. They are the least likely of all teachers to say digital tools make students careless in their writing or undermine grammatical and spelling skills.
“Teachers, writing teachers especially, do not view good writing and the use of digital tools as being at war with each other,” adds Judy Buchanan, deputy director of the National Writing Project and a co-author of the report. “When educators have opportunities to integrate new technologies into teaching and learning, they are the most optimistic about the impact of digital tools on student writing and their value in teaching the art of writing. They gave countless examples of the creative ways they use emerging digital tools to impart writing skills to today’s students.”
These findings emerge from an online survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project in collaboration with the College Board and the National Writing Project. It is a non-probability sample of 2,462 middle and high school teachers currently teaching in the U.S. and its territories, conducted between March 7 and April 23, 2012. Some 1,750 of the teachers are drawn from a sample of advanced placement (AP) high school teachers, while the remaining 712 are from a sample of National Writing Project teachers.
By Karyn M. Peterson on July 16, 2013 School Library Journal
Blogging for Reluctant Writers
Blogging for Reluctant Writers: Have students share their ideas using sound and video
For students who love to write, composing blog entries is a natural—and effective—way to share their stories and ideas with a wider audience. Reluctant writers can have great ideas, too—they just don’t want to write them down. Fortunately, there’s more than one way to tell a story. Here, we’ll examine some excellent video and audio tools and how they can be used to help students craft dynamic content for classroom blogs.
EDITED VIDEO WITH SOUND
Free tool Wideo.co lets you make short, animated videos in your Web browser. Simply choose from the provided digital cut-outs and drag and drop them onto a canvas to illustrate your video. After arranging the scenes, upload an audio recording to your project—pre-recorded music, a spoken track, or something else.
Students can make their own audio recordings using SoundCloud. Available on the Web and in mobile versions for Android and iOS, SoundCloud includes simple editing tools that remove dead air at the beginning and end of a file. Finished recordings can be saved to a SoundCloud account online, where you can grab an embed code to insert the recording into a blog post.
SoundCloud apps come in handy for a variety of projects. Kids can capture interviews, for example, using the app on their devices. Or they can record classroom presentations or student debates. SoundCloud recordings are downloadable, so the application is ideal for creating those voice-overs for Wideo projects.
AUDIO SLIDESHOWS
Animoto is of the best-known tools for making audio slideshows and has long been a classroom favorite. That’s because students quickly create great-looking videos with it. You can make Animoto videos in a Web browser, or on Android and IOS devices. My students have used Animoto to showcase research projects, and the mobile apps are great for highlighting favorite parts of a field trip. All Animoto projects can be embedded into blog posts.
Narrable (pictured above), launched earlier this year, is another audio slideshow application. It’s different from Animoto and here’s how. After your pictures are uploaded in Narrable, you can record narration for each image through your computer’s microphone, or by calling a Narrable access phone number. You can also upload an audio recording stored on your computer. Narrable projects can be shared via email or Facebook, or embedded into a blog.
UNEDITED VIDEO
Editing video is an important exercise, but don’t overlook the value of raw clips. Give a prompt to your students and they can quickly share their thoughts through informal video capture. One I often use is “share your high and low experience from class this week.” In this kind of exercise, the production quality isn’t important. Getting students to express their ideas is what matters.
They can do just that by recording quick YouTube videos using the webcams in their laptops. YouTube apps for Android and iOS enable students to record and post clips on the fly. They can grab the embed codes from YouTube and post the videos on a classroom blog.
This fall, think beyond writing—and give these alternative blogging methods a try.
Text for Body Language Cheat Sheet
© ArchetypeWriting.com – Got psychology/writing questions? Visit The Fiction Writer’s Guide to Psychology
May be reproduced freely for personal and educational purposes only
Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers
All body language must be considered in context, but if you’ve set your scene and established your characters, a little body language can help!
Anger
Anger is one expression of fight-or-flight mode — an automatic, instinctive reaction to a threat. In many cases, there is an underlying fear of being harmed. Thanks to autonomic nervous system arousal, the heart rate increases, pupils dilate, and the face may flush. Other signs of anger:
Balling the fists
Crossing the arms tightly
Clenching the fists once arms are crossed
Tight-lipped smile
Clenched teeth
Shaking a finger like a club
Stabbing a finger at someone
Attraction
Pupils dilate
Women will cross and uncross legs to draw attention to them
Mirroring – (usually unconsciously) mimicking the other person’s body language
Closed to Conversation
Keeping the hands in the pockets (esp. men)
Arms and legs crossed
Sitting back
Folding the hands together on a table (creates a barrier)
The “figure-four” leg cross (setting the ankle of one leg on the knee of the other) and then grabbing the lower half of the top leg with both hands.
Opennesss and Honesty
Exposure of the palms
Arms and legs unfolded
Leaning forward
Submissive Signals
Smiling – that’s why some people smile when they’re upset or afraid
Slumping the shoulders
Doing anything to appear smaller
Distress
Men in particular have a tendency to stroke or rub the nape of the neck when they’re upset. It acts as a self-soothing gesture to deal with a “pain in the neck.”
Crossed arms – arms act like a protective barrier
Self-hugging – arms are crossed, hands gripping upper arms
One-arm cross – one arm crosses the body to hold or touch the other arm – women keep a hand on a purse or bag strap to make this look more natural
Clutching a purse, briefcase, or bag with both arms
Adjusting cuffs or cuff-links (men’s version of the purse-strap grab)
Folding the hands together in front of the crotch (men)
Lying
Lying causes a subtle tingling in the face and neck, so the gestures below are attempts to eliminate that feeling
Covering the mouth – can be like a shh gesture, or they may cover the mouth completely – some people try to cover it by coughing
Touching or rubbing the nose or just below the nose – often a quick, small gesture, not a scratch
Rubbing the eyes (especially men)
Scratching the neck with the index finger
Superiority, Confidence, Power, Dominance
Steepling the fingers (aka setting the tips of the fingers together)
Folding the hands behind the back
Thumbs sticking out from pockets when hands are in pockets (can be front or back pockets)
Hands on hips
Straddling a chair
Hands folded behind the head while sitting up (in men; in women this thrusts the breasts out and becomes sexual)
Find the full descriptions/chart here: http://archetypewriting.com/resources/downloads/bodylanguagecheatsheet.pdf
Emily Dickinson – Take Your Poet to Work Day!
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, MA, in 1830, the daughter of state and federal politician Edward Dickinson. A prolific poet, Dickinson was known to draft poems on the backs of envelopes and chocolate wrappers. Nearly 1800 of her poems were discovered by her family following her death, many in 40 handbound volumes she had sewn together, written in her own hand with her famously unorthodox punctuation.
The enigmatic poet is remembered as a recluse, rarely leaving the Dickinson estate. While she did receive callers at her home, conversations were often held from opposite sides of a closed door. She lived with her sister, Lavinia, while her brother Austin and his wife, Susan Gilbert, lived down a narrow path on the property. Her writing reflects profound loneliness as well as a deep capacity for love and affection, much of which is believed to have been shared with Gilbert.
Her first collection of poems, Poems by Emily Dickinson, was published four years after her death, withPoems: Second Series and Poems: Third Series following in the next several years. Like Walt Whitman (who she reportedly never read), she is considered one of the most influential poets in the emergence of a distinctly American poetic voice.
Visitors to Emily Dickinson’s grave can witness a lasting image of her perspective on life. The etching on her stone marking the date of her death bears the words “Called Back.”
Now, while you’re on the other side of that office door, perhaps you might read a couple of Dickinson’s poems to a coworker:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers – (314)
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
Wild Nights – Wild Nights! (269)
Wild nights – Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah – the Sea!
Might I but moor – tonight –
In thee!
Post and illustrations by Lyla Willingham Lindquist.
http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2013/06/29/take-your-poet-to-work-emily-dickinson/
Take Your Poet to Work Day!
From the Paris Review:
Poets in the Workplace
July 17, 2013 | by Sadie Stein
Remember: today is Take Your Poet to Work Day. Full instructions for toting your preferred wordsmith can be found here; an excerpt is below. (Since a poster-size version of this pictureglowers over the Paris Review kitchen, I think we’ve got it covered.)
http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/category/take-your-poet-to-work-day/
Different Word Bubbles
ELA in the middle 