Thanks Sophia

Sophia,

Thanks for the link to the graphic organizers it looks like a great tool.

Marc

Read Write Think Web

Hi everyone,

In searching the Read Write Think website of NCTE, I found a few good resources on genre studies that the rest of you might want to use:

A handout on characteristics of each genre:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson270/genre_sheet.pdf

Lesson Plan: Genre Study - A Collaborative Approach:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=270

A Genre Study Book List
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson270/genre_books.pdf

A List of Lesson Plans that Teach Genre Writing
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson1013/rwt-genre-lessons.html

:) The Read Write Think website is really quite good........What would we do without it? Sofia

Graphic Organizers

It seems as if graphic organizers are all I've been hearing about lately! While I never used them as a student, I have seen many students in my observation school depend on them to compose essays and reports. Here is a link to a site that offers free templates and ideas on graphic organizers. Have a look! I found this through the Read-Write-Think website....Sofia R.
http://www.makeworksheets.com/graphicorg.html

Julia in Person

What a great experience to see and talk to Julia Scheeres! I was thoroughly moved by her candor and spirit. She artfully responded like a ballerina, poignant yet concise. She answered difficult questions with conviction and dodged others with grace. Her speaking voice and personality were mirror images of her written word in Jesus Land. I felt honored that the University brought her to speak to us, cheers to SUNY Cortland!

Marc

Memoir Revision

After I rewrote my memoir today I was driving down the highway and like a flash.... I relived a moment from twenty years in my past. It is a beautiful day and I was day-dreaming (probably shouldn't while driving) and the vision came to me as clear as day. I remembered details from my memoir I left out of my writing, but visions of that day flowed through mind. It was surreal! Intricate things that I thought I could never pull out of my repressed thoughts. WOW! Maybe something in the beauty of the day inspired me but I was relieved. Writing this memoir was a gratifying project and I could probably revise it ten more times and still feel I left something out. I hope you all have similar experiences if not carpe diem, there will not be too many days like today left this fall.

Cheers,
Marc

Julia S.'s talk next week

Hi everyone,
Since there was so much interest in the Julia Scheeres talk on campus this coming week, I wanted to give everyone the link for more information:
http://www.cortland.edu/news/article.asp?ID=653

If you don't have time to read the article, here is the most important part, pasted below:
Scheeres will discuss her book, the writing process, life and aspects of writing a memoir in an informal setting at 7:30 p.m. in Sperry Center, Room 105.

Hope everyone had a good weekend! -Sofia

Details, too

There's so much...

One place I really could imagine was on page 173.

"As we rattle down the dirt road leaving the airport, I clutch the window ledge with my fingertips and peer through the dusty glass at the Dominican Republic. Images blaze in the van's headlights then disappear. Clapboard shanties gussied up in jewel colors, pink, purple, green. Solitary figures with baskets and bundles of sticks on their heads...."

So moving-

the "clutching" with fingertips- it's desperate and futile. The "gussied up" shanties: a mix of rural pride and economic hardship. Scheeres say so much in just a few words.