June 24

As we prepared for our day of marathon writing, the morning started with a read aloud of Ideas Are All Around by Philip A. Stead.  

Fellows were asked to consider ways they might use this picture book with student writers as they listened to the read aloud. After a quick turn and talk, ideas were shared out with the whole group

• Pair with the launch of Writers Notebooks
• Take opportunities to write outside of the classroom
• Using text and pictures to tell the details of small moments
• Playing with blending real situations with imagination
• Craft Moves: sentence length, word choice, creating tension

You can read more about Philip's process for both the text and illustrations of this book here. 

Today was Writing Marathon Day! An opportunity to spend time writing, not with a focus on product, but rather on the process. Writing groups headed out to various locations in the South Portland community to find inspiration in "places" we often pass through, never taking time to notice the abundance of ideas just waiting to be discovered.

What memories these old track must hold.

Waiting

After some time to write when all writing groups returned, Brigid shared the National Writing Project Google Community. Writers at Work is a great place to share writing with the larger NWP community for those Fellows that might be interested.  The NWP website provides additional resources that you might peruse when you have time. 

Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling was our Closing Moment.

Today's Hosts: Susan Dee and Matt Halpern