Anne Arundel County Public Schools, MD Parent's Corner, 12 Jul 2016

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: Parents Corner July 2016

Description

Description

A

I'm Kathy Schaefer, and this is parents corner on a CPS TV each month we talk about a topic of interest to parents like us. This month we focus on students and writing skills, whether it's a college application essay, a daily homework assignment or a future office memo. Students need to graduate high school and be prepared to write for some real-world situations. In fact, with the common core curriculum writing skills are standardized across grade levels and include words like exploratory texts, opinion pieces and relevant evidence.

A

We spoke with author Jennifer Keith's Curtis on how she helps students express themselves through writing and find their inner author inspirations. Do you do writing workshops and a student magazine? Can you tell us a little bit about those? Might.

B

Do a lot of presentations where I have a chance and go in and talk to groups of kids, both about the writing process and about the animals about which I right, it's a great way to explain the kids that you don't get in a whole book in your head at one time and then just write it down once that there is a whole process that goes with it, but I try to help them understand how exciting and fun it is to learn that information through the research and what you can gather through the research in order to write your stories and when I'm really lucky I get a chance to go in and do author residences and writing workshops where I get to work with groups of kids over several days, sometimes a week where we talk about the writing process.

B

In particular, we tend to work on details. I also do work on a middle school magazine online middle school magazine called my say, written by middle schoolers, for middle schoolers and in the past year just work with central middle school, the sixth graders there and they are working science and language arts combinations. In order to come up with realistic fiction. Some of them came up with full fiction as well as nonfiction, in order to express what they have learned in that STEM program and then to be able to have that published. So.

A

What do you think are the benefits of creative writing for students today, part.

B

Of the idea behind writing, at least for me, is a chance to learn that information and express it in different ways. It really helps you to learn about it, but especially for the creative writing where you can bind, perhaps something that you've seen or learned with your imagination. It may help you to express your emotions or understand your emotions better, to see the world in a different way and then perhaps have a chance to share that with other kids or other adults so that they can help see things in a different way as well.

B

I think it's really important to write in general, you.

A

Know there's a lot of inspiration in nature. Where do you talk to students about finding their writing inspiration? You.

B

Can look anywhere to find inspiration. Nature certainly is a wonderful way to do that. If you are a kid who likes nature and you have perhaps a nature journal where you draw a picture or you write down some notes about what is exciting to you and maybe at that time, you're just writing down a couple of notes, but you sit on that for a couple days and you start playing the what, if game- and perhaps you see a frog and you think, I wonder why that frog was there?

B

What if that frog, was trying to talk to me? What, if that frog wanted to be my friend and you could come up with with a creative expression that really started from that inspiration of just seeing one small frog in the wild?

B

Absolutely we have found with some of the teachers I've worked with in the past, that giving kids their own journal and letting them decorate it and letting them write what they want when they write when they want to by all means give them prompts give them ideas that they might want to write about, but don't don't stunt what they want to write about, and you know what they might want to draw and they might want to write a poem or a song, and that's fine.

B

It's just that they're getting those ideas out of their head and down onto paper is the most important part I'm.

A

Sure you hear this from parents everywhere my child just hates to write. Do you have any advice that you would give to parents who are saying that and feeling that about their kids? Don't.

B

Force it I had a daughter who didn't want to read out loud. She only wanted to be read to so. Perhaps you could write with your child I'm sure they have ideas that they may not want to do the writing themselves. The other thing that might help is to allow them to express themselves in another way. Maybe they'd like to take photographs, so maybe taking a photograph would help them and then perhaps they want to write, maybe a sentence about that.

B

Maybe they would prefer to draw something and that's fine, it's it will come, but I think if you force it it ends up being something that you don't want to do because everybody wants you to do it. I do think that it does that it does come and I do think that that passion is the key word. Once you have something that really engages them, then they are far more interested in writing about it, especially if they think there's something they can do about it. So.

A

For students who do love to write are there any resources you could suggest or anything you would say to them. I.

B

Hope they can find different ways to share, even if it's talking to their schools, maybe there's something that they could publish for their school newsletter or perhaps there's a writing group and they could get together and create their own books and donate them to the library, but any way that they can continue to write. That will encourage them to continue that writing and I think a lot of times with kids like that sharing is very important to them as well.

B

So if there's a way, even if there's like a reading group, so they have a chance to share what they have written with other students who are interested with groups that can really appreciate what they've done so.

A

So much of our school curriculum now is based on technology based learning and science and math. Do you think that that's impacting the way that kids are writing and or are there any ways to incorporate technology into spurring more reading and writing at school? That's.

B

Such a good question I think it's great I think that even for somebody like me who loves creative fiction as much as realistic fiction and nonfiction, you need that inkling to start your imagination in the first place and I love looking for that kind of science information because I feel like it really gets the creative juices going it's exciting.

B

So a lot of the kids to they have a chance to see that and whenever they get to add that to something that's hands on and then perhaps to express themselves, hopefully through writing, but through other ways as well. They really absorb that information and having that technology at their fingertips, I mean I, don't know what I did before Google, but it really helps to have all of that information right at your hand and then be able to go back and think about it and write about it.

B

Afterward, the one thing I would say is just to be careful. Is that you're not only relying on technology? I still think that observation is the key to some of the writing and if you've got your face and your handheld device the whole time you're missing a whole lot.

B

That's going on so on the on the opposite side of that is just to be careful that you're not relying on it so much that you're, not just using your your senses in order to take in what what is going on around you and I still take notes, I write them down and I have terrible handwriting. So when I'm done, I go back and I type it, but I find that I do not remember it as well.

B

If I just type it and there's been a whole host of research recently about even people who are in a college class and they're typing versus taking notes and comprehension is higher when you, when you are writing with your hand versus typing, and perhaps some of the reason is because you type a lot faster than you can write so you're, not thinking so much about, what's being said, you're just sort of taking it in verbatim, whereas if you have to write it down, you have to synthesize, what's being said, and then you're jotting your own notes, as opposed to just forbade them all the time.

B

So I do think that that is very important. Also so.

A

Today's school culture seems like so much is performance-based. What advice could you give to students and parents that are working with students on writing about the process of writing and not so focused on the perfectionism of it or the final performance? So.

B

When I teach the writing, when I teach the writing workshops, the first thing that we talked about is throwing up on paper, where you take all those ideas in your head and you throw them up and you get them all down and you are supposed to make a mess because it's your mess and nobody else has to ever see it but you're supposed to make a mess, because you are not going to be able to use everything that comes out of your head in your final product.

B

So then, once you have that mess you go back and you clean it up and you make those changes and for some people it might take them to time. Some people might take 10 times when I'm revising. I might do 40 revisions before I ever send that to the publisher, and then I know, there's more revisions coming we're not looking for gen work and I, don't and I think that's actually a bad choice of words with kids, because you will always go back and find something that you could have would have should have.

B

But you just want to be able to express yourself. Clearly and you're not going to be able to do that by trying to come up with something one time in your head and then getting it down, so I think permission to make a mess and then go back and clean it up as best you can might be a better way to to explain that. Looking.

A

Pair to purchase your books.

B

Actually, the books are available anywhere. Online amazon carries them. Barnes and noble carry them through the through the publishers as well, and they can always contact me if they have trouble finding those books.

A

Students at Hills, Mayor elementary school in Annapolis, recently demonstrated just how far right and can take you when they made a Guinness Book of World Records attempt for the largest creative writing lesson: 500 students in grades kindergarten through fifth right all year, long through an in-school publishing company that resulted in their Guinness Book application being accepted. Recently they gathered to write for the world record and their pride was contagious. Let's take a look. It.

C

Was very exciting because I'm, hardly any schools get on gives before our records, because um you have to do you like some. You have to do a very big challenge to get on and get.

D

In the book, I made sure I had all my ideas together. I worked really hard, I made sure I knew what I was supposed to do and I wish I everything on the checklist and I have faith in myself to me, breakin a world record means that you did something that a lot of people don't can't do, and people are impressed by you.

E

Doing it I feel writing it's really cool and it's fun, and you can make a lot of stuff happen with writing. I feel that is pretty cool to break a world record, because you know that you're capable of doing more things well.

F

It came up rigidly because we have this very organic thing. Called the hills bear publishing company where our parents and kids are involved and they make books every week and we just were making so many books. We thought what, if you kind of go for a world record and we thought at first we could do it just by publishing books, but talking to the Guinness people we found out, it was just better just to go with one lesson at a time, and so we got everyone together, and here we are going for the world record.

F

Obviously we want kids to have a positive attitude towards writing and this is really kind of taking it to a whole new level. Kids are very passionate excited and they get to use their imaginations and they get a lot of choice in what they do when they write, which is really good for kids as well. So we're very pleased to have this opportunity. I'm.

A

Cathy Shaffer- and this was parents corner email, us at parents, corner TV, @ gmail.com, with feedback or dates for upcoming events at your school and like our Facebook page, to stay up-to-date on show topics thanks for watching.

G

Coming this summer, on your mark, get set, read sponsored by anne arundel, county public library. All ages can sign up for the fun at any of our 15 library, branches online or even on your smartphone. You can sign up anytime between june sixth and august 38. Why should you sign up it's fun? It's educational and we give prizes and rewards for reading. Why is reading over the summer important reading helps you retain the skills you learn during the school year and prevents Summer Slide.

G

We have special performances at all of our branches: Joe Romano, the blue sky, puppet theater, Marian's, dynamic, duo, the bubble, lady and Spencer spinny Johnson. We have musical concerts at many of our branches magpie, the gambrills in Annapolis school of rock band, the US Army Field band, clarinet trio, the u.s. Navy Band country current and the Army Band federal brass. There are special concerts at marley station mall magpie and at the annapolis town center milkshake duo come in anytime and complete a scavenger hunt and win a prize.

G

There will be a random drawing of all who registered throughout the summer for tickets to Orioles games. The Maryland, Science Center's and medieval times read or be read to each week from July, eleventh through August thirteenth and be rewarded each week with a different coupon. If you read or are read to each of the five weeks of summer reading july, eleventh through August thirteenth, you will be entitled to a free book check out our website and come to the library branch of your choice to find out the details.

H

Hi I'm Jodie Russi when's, the last time you watch Food for Thought, make sure you tune in to a a CPS, TV and watch Food for Thought I have so many guests on the show. We talked about partnerships here in Anne, Arundel County, as well as across the state. We talked about breakfast lunch even dinner, and our summer program, fruits and vegetables are always a topic.

H

We want make sure that you're having fruits and vegetables at home, just like we have them here in school in Anne, Arundel County make sure you keep watching a a CPS TV and make sure you don't miss the next episode of food for thought.

I

I'm corporal gamble with an ax on the county police when approaching a crosswalk realize that pedestrians do have the right away. Please allow them ample time to get to the other side of the roadway.

I

I