Archive for the ‘Students’ Category

Brave Writer spotlight: Tom

MINECRAFT! ZOMBIES!The following fragment poem was inspired by a Daily Writing Tip (see below).

 

Minecraft
by Tom (age 13)

As zombies gather.
Blocky and cubular*.
While I craft.
When I build.
Awaiting me.

 

*Cubular: to have a very cubeish nature; to be cubey.

Also, for the few who may not know what Minecraft is: “Minecraft is a game about breaking and placing blocks. At first, people built structures to protect against nocturnal monsters, but as the game grew players worked together to create wonderful, imaginative things.” ~from the official website

Image by crdotx

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Brave Writer spotlight: Hannah

Hens in the Sunshine by Heidi Malott“Hens in the Sunshine” by Heidi Malott

From Brave Writer mom, Joanna:

Julie,

I thought I would share this with you because “Since Hanna Moved Away” is one of your favorite poems. Using your poetry guide, my 10-year-old daughter Hannah wrote this about her beloved chickens that were lost to predators. We usually try to stay away from the verb “went,” but in this case it was perfect; her most honest choice for the title because it allowed her a little emotional separation in its vagueness.

Enjoy!
Joanna

Since the Chickens Went Away

by Hannah (age 10)

Mommy’s pie smells like bad breath
The piano keys won’t play
My favorite song moans like death
Since the chickens went away

Apples taste like rotten fish
Halloween’s called off today
Santa kept my Christmas wish
Since the chickens went away

The chicken coop’s an old mouse trap
On the dirt dead flowers lay
In my heart there is a gap
Since the chickens went away

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Brave Writer spotlight: Claire

Brave Writer spotlight Claire

From Brave Writer mom, Jennifer:

Dear Julie,

This is bound to become lengthy, but I am so excited about our day, that I feel compelled to share it with you! My daughter is 6.5 and my son is almost 4. My daughter has always been “verbally precocious” with a vocabulary of well over 300 words at 2, reading at 4, and at a roughly 5th grade reading level now. I have subscribed to your blog, Facebook feed, Yahoo group, etc. for perhaps a year now. I find your words inspiring and your philosophies resonate with me. I haven’t been sure about where to begin BraveWriter-style writing instruction with my daughter. We don’t do any explicit reading instruction any more – just spelling. She gets handwriting through copy work, she reads voraciously, and I read aloud several times daily. Her writing has been largely lists, love notes, thank-you cards, and occasionally she writes her own “Thankful Thought” in a daily journal we keep – though she typically prefers me to write for her. She did spontaneously write a story during her quiet time one day, and I was thrilled!

I began Poetry Tea Times with my children this summer. The first time I used a fancy table cloth, fresh cut flowers, a candle, fancy tea cups, and fresh, home-baked treats. They LOVED it! We read mostly Shel Silverstein – my daughter read her own selections, and I read those that my son chose. He asks for “Bear in There” regularly. I found that level of preparation a bit much for weekly commitment. It seems that the tea, baked goods, and poetry are enough for them to find magic in it. When we bake, I put the cookies, muffins, or quick bread in the freezer, so I can just pull some out when I need it. I put the tea kettle on while they gather the books, and we enjoy it even with the dirty daily table cloth and mugs. We have branched out a bit with the poetry, but they still prefer humorous selections. As someone who has never found the appeal in poetry, it is funny to me that they enjoy this so much, but it does seem to be a magical time.

Last month, I bought my daughter a journal for writing, with the intention of doing Friday Freewriting with her, but I only ever manage to get a sentence or two. I am thinking I should write in my own journal at the same time. I thought maybe Jot It Down would be too simple for where my daughter is at, but got some feed back from another user that it might be good fit after all, so I purchased it.

I told her we were going to do a fairy tale project, and since “The Emperor’s New Clothes happened to fit in with something else we were doing, I got a bunch of versions of that tale from the library. Over the last week and a half she read several versions on her own, and I read a few to her as well. She completed her illustration last week, (choosing to work on it during her brother’s doctor appointment!) After math and our literature read-aloud (we are reading Pippi Longstocking in preparation for seeing the play on Friday), I sat down to take her dictation today. She gave me the first sentence, and then squirmed a little bit and declared she didn’t know what to call the characters who pretend to weave fabric. She said, “They are sort of like burglars, but that doesn’t seem right.” So I showed her my thesaurus, and we looked up “burglar.” It had a few options, but only one was sort of close to what she wanted, so we looked that word up, and found a host of options that would work. She settled on “swindler.” From there, the words just poured out. I was typing as quickly as I could, making a bunch of spelling mistakes – which she noticed. I assured her that the important part was that we capture all her wonderful thoughts – we can always go back to correct spelling and punctuation or make changes if she wants to. She finished her retelling, and we made the easy spelling and punctuation corrections, and talked about paragraph breaks. We plan to read it over again tomorrow and make sure she is satisfied (my experience with her tells me that she will not choose to make any structural changes, additions, etc.) I am so pleased with her story, and she was pretty pleased with the whole experience too. It did feel like we were partners – or at least that I was simply coaching and facilitating when she needed it. Once or twice I thought about asking a clarifying question, or asking her to elaborate on something, but I decided against it. I think there is time for that a little later. I want her to solidly feel ownership and joy in this for now. I can’t wait to do the next tale in a week or two!

After we finished writing, we went to the library, out to lunch, and to swimming lessons. During her quiet time after swimming, she listened to Tchaikovsky and read the third book in “The Roman Mysteries” series for an hour and a half. (My son listened to “House At Pooh Corner” on audio book.) Then we had a poetry tea with Vanilla Rooibos and apple muffins. It was a great day! Thank you so much for letting people know that it is the writer’s voice that should be nourished – all the boring mechanics can easily be learned later. No sense in drumming the joy out of writing for children!

Thank you!
Jennifer

The Emperor’s New Clothes

by Claire (age 6)

Once upon a time, there lived an emperor who liked lots and lots and lots of new clothes. One day some swindlers came long and said that they were the best weavers in the land. The emperor said, “I must have the cloth they make!” So the swindlers came and pretended to work on looms all day and all night.

The emperor sent a servant to check on how the swindlers were doing. When he saw the swindlers working at the empty looms, he said to himself, “I can’t believe that there is nothing at the looms! I must not let anyone know that I saw nothing on the loom!’ The swindlers pretended to hold silk out to him, asking “Isn’t it marvelous?” When he went back to the emperor he said, “It is marvelous, the silk!”

After a few months the emperor became impatient and sent a servant to check on how the swindlers were doing again. When that servant saw nothing on the looms he though to himself, “I must not let anyone know that I saw nothing on the looms!” When he went back to the emperor, he said. “It is magnificent, your majesty!”

After a few more months the emperor became even more impatient and sent another servant to check on how the swindlers were doing. When he saw nothing on the looms, he said to himself.”Well, there is nothing on the looms, but I must not let the emperor himself know that there is nothing on the loom.” When he went back to the emperor he said, “It is so beautiful, Emperor!” Then the emperor sent him back to see when the swindlers would be done. The swindlers said, “We will be done tomorrow night.” He rushed back to the emperor and said, “They said they will be done by tomorrow night.” The emperor said, “Then I shall hold a great celebration on the day after tomorrow night!”

When that day came, the swindlers brought the cloth before his majesty and pretended to dress him in it. When he walked out everyone crowded to see him and they said, “How marvelous the emperor looks in his new clothes!” Then a little boy said, “But the emperor has no clothes on!” and all of the villagers started whispering to each other, “But the emperor has no clothes on!” Soon they were shouting, “The emperor has no clothes on!” But the emperor, foolish enough to think that he did, just waved and walked on.

The End

Posted in Brave Writer Lifestyle, Students | 3 Comments »

Brave Writer spotlight: Kayleigh

Grosso_Silhouettes

From Brave Writer mom, Mary:

Julie,

I read your Daily Writing Tip daily and while I can’t even attempt to implement them all (kids ages 11, 9, 6, and 4), I enjoy your thoughts and ideas and we attempt them when we can.

I have noticed that they change my way of thinking – they are “tools” in the back of my mind. I see everything as a writing opportunity – a chance to teach them that THEIR thoughts are valuable and we don’t have to edit them to death either. (Not that I make them write all of the time – but I look more for natural opportunities.)

Well, we just moved from MD to NC and it has been tough emotionally on my 11 year old because she missed her BFF from our street. She sent her a letter the other day and came in tears to tell me that it was hard to write the address because it made her so sad…the streets are different now (used to be on the same street) it was hard to write our old street.

As we talked, I mentioned what a beautiful way that was to capture her emotion, the way a poet might…an everyday moment that signifies something so important and emotional. Anyway, I encouraged her to write a poem about it if she wanted. (As I still have my poem from 9th grade when my BFF moved and have shared it with her before.)

We are also at the end of Inside Out and Back Again (which we love) and here is what she wrote that night:

Missing My Friend

by Kayleigh (age 11)

My friend is left behind
forever
gone
I wish we were still together

She was across the street

Now across the state of Virginia

Long and
Far Away

I miss her much
And I can’t get over

her
being
gone.

THANK YOU for all of your tips and encouragement. I loved this poem, especially the line when she parallels the street and state…BRILLIANT if I do say so myself.

I hope this all makes sense. It’s a busy morning and I have been meaning to make time to email you. But I must get back to the muffins in the oven that are baking for Tea Time Tuesday! So excuse the typos and jumpy thoughts!

Mary

Cross-posted on facebook.

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Brave Writer Spotlight: Dahlia Winders

Brave Writer spotlight DahliaFrom Brave Writer mom, Mara:

Yesterday, my daughter [Dahlia, pictured] and I finally finished transcribing her epic “Jot it Down” that she dictated into her iPod voice memos last year at age 8. I am sending it to you so you can get a sense of how freeing it was for her to be able to just talk into her recorder and tell her story without having to wait for me to type or write it as she said it. We have not done any editing, and in transcribing I often didn’t have correct punctuation or capitalization so I could just get it in the computer for her to begin editing. It has taken us a long time to type it, with her playing and pausing the recording for me as I typed. I am not very proficient at keyboarding! As we worked together, she started to notice that she overused certain words or phrases, and that part of her ideas of timeline were very boring to listen to (First she did this, then that, then etc.). I know that in hearing that for herself, she will make many changes that I would have suggested, but they are coming from her own noticing which is so much more valuable to her learning process.

She plans on continuing to edit and revise it, and she has done artwork for the cover. We will make a nice book out of it for her, and perhaps an ebook to share with family and friends as well.

I have also made myself a CD of her voice memos. I have three older children that have grown out of their child voices, and I know how much I will treasure being able to hear her 8 year old voice when she is older.

Dahlia’s story is eight chapters long and even includes an epilogue! Here is the first chapter, to give you a taste of her wonderful writing:

The Winter’s Head

by Dahlia Winders

Chapter 1: The Move

It was cold outside because it was winter. Anna didn’t like moving, but she knew she had to. Her mother called from outside, “Anna, it’s time.” She really didn’t want to. She loved her old house. But she knew she had to anyway. She got up, she put her jacket on, she put her boots on and she grabbed her stuff and she went outside. The car was already running. Her mom and dad were in the car just like she had expected.

She had an older brother, a younger brother and an older sister. They were on the road, and something felt wrong. They were going the wrong way; at least that’s what it felt like.

To Anna, it felt different, because it looked different. She’d gone to NY before to visit family, but it didn’t look the same. There were different buildings, different cars, different everything. It was weird to Anna, and she didn’t know what to do. Her mom and dad were up front. They were both listening to the radio while she was watching a movie. She looked up, still in confusion. She didn’t know what to do; how to tell. She wanted to tell her mom and dad, but she didn’t know how to tell them or if they’d understand or not.

Anna fell asleep that night. It was a long drive. It was about three days drive. They had to go by car, because they didn’t have enough money to go by plane or anything. So, she dreamt of angels – beautiful flying angels. She liked them so much, but then they stopped. It was weird. She woke up.

They were somewhere. She didn’t know where. It looked like Grandma Lou’s, but she didn’t think it was, but it could be. Because they might have taken a short cut, maybe that’s why it looked different. Maybe they took a shortcut. Then it clicked in her head. Then it might be have been a short cut…

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