Melding Creativity, Critical Thinking and Community

1. Commonplace Books: Melding Creativity, Critical Thinking and Community Presented by Kim Blevins Ozarks Writing Project Teacher-Consultant Mount Vernon High School

2. Welcome! • English 2/Journalism teacher at Mount Vernon High School • Married to my high school sweetheart • Mother of three- a daughter in the Journalism program at Mizzou, a daughter in my class at MVHS, and a 6th grade son who created the snowman • Ozarks Writing Project Teacher-Consultant

3. National Writing Project • Ozarks Writing Project Summer Institute ‘09 • Advanced Institute - Digital Storytelling • Presented at Missouri State University’s Heritage Days for Digital Storytelling • Presented at 2010 Write to Learn “The Shoes Project” • Published in School & Community “After the Bell” • Wrote a youth fiction novel over 77,000 words • Traveled to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. for National Writing Project conferences • Selected for National Writing Project Professional Writing Retreat • Served on the leadership team for OWP • Coordinator of Dinner and a Demo for OWP • Planning a Professional Writing Conference for OWP

4. Freewriting • Writing without stopping • Fluency- unsticks our writing muscles (training) • Get past that inner editor to be more creative. • “De-stress” Recent research showed students who freewrote for 10 minutes before high-stakes tests had higher scores.

5. Background • Greeks – Hypomnemata • Zibaldone (Hodgepodge Book) – Italian • Commonplace- England • Page 1 of handout

6. Other takes.... • How to start and maintain a commonplace book By Trent SeigfriedThey can be very chaotic, or very orderly. My first attempt at a commonplace book was a small Moleskine notebook I kept in my pocket, along with a pen. In it, I basically just wrote down any interesting thought I had throughout the day in a very haphazard fashion: it was filled with quotes and undefined words and random facts and such all scribbled together. Very chaotic. • But that chaos was what made it worthwhile. About once a week I'd leaf through the pages with a dictionary and some other scratch paper at hand, defining undefined words and expanding on fleeting thoughts, which would usually result in a trip to the library (remember, this was before the advent of the internet) and, if nothing else, an hour of very rich food for thought. • Page 3 of handout

7. Other Takes • The Glass Box and the Commonplace Book • “Unlike modern readers, who follow the flow of a narrative from beginning to end, early Modern Englishmen read in fits and starts and jumped from book to book... • Page 4 of handout

8. Other takes... • Choice of Quotations from literature • Commentaries • Writing • From Dr. Lucia Knoles, Assumption College, Worcester, MA • Page 5 of handout

9. First Commonplace: About Me Community-building: Gallery Walk Learning about self Critical Thinking – metaphors

10. Brain Pattern Graphics Writing: Sum up pattern

11. Lyrics/Graphic Writing: Connection to student’s life that quarter My life in a song…

12. Text quotations Student anecdote Connection To Kill a Mockingbird

13. Word theme 8 facts Admirable Qualities Biography

14. 1001 Journals http://1001journals.com/journals/3864

15. Commonplace Books • You will now have some time to work on a page for a commonplace book today- • It will be public.

16. In the dark? Confused? Worried? Don’t be worried about getting the “right” answer. This assignment is for exploration and thinking and there is no wrong answer except to not think. No growth happens without a stretch which is sometimes uncomfortable.

17. Your exploration today... • About me! • My Writing Life • My Teaching Life Theme Graphics Writing Metaphor You may write first. You may want to look for graphics first.

18. Gallery Walk • Put your page on a table with a blank sheet of paper beside it. • As you walk around and look at other’s books make a comment about something you see. • (Sophomore Gallery Walk)