7-16 Log

DAILY LOG FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2008 @ THE WNYWP

We began our day with a breakfast of cereal, milk, coffee, and Danish. Thank you, Katrina and Tom.
Kathy read our Read & Reflect passage. She chose a chapter from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love, about the narrator chanting in the New Year at an ashram in India. Jessica and Scott shared their writing.
After a quick break, Ellen presented The River of Content: R.A.F.T.S. to the Rescue. She demonstrated how to use R.A.F.T.S. style prompts to incorporate reading into all content areas. She did a wonderful job, and we were impressed with how widely applicable her lesson was. Thanks, Ellen.
Following lunch, (some of us took advantage of the weekly cook-out, while some of us soaked up the sun in the quad) we held a Socratic seminar on Because Writing Matters. Thanks to the prep work done by Keri and Greg, we were all ready with our talking sticks and a willing attitude. We began by examining how we could involve the it’s-not-my-job teachers in our buildings in writing. We moved on to meshing the writing process with students whose cultures/backgrounds might conflict with assignment requirements. We ended by examining what role business should have in education. In our final week, we will have a seminar on Early Morning.
We enjoyed some unstructured work time – demonstration lessons, inquiry projects, personal writing – whatever was most necessary got our attention.
We concluded our day with an I-Share. Jon answered questions about the research projects and digital videos, encouraged us to share our progress, and reassured us that all would be possible.
We left, anticipating our field trip to the art gallery tomorrow.