In this last week of summer vacation before school starts, my writing students and I turned our attention to the beach. As Jersey girls, we know the shore well and can draw on our rich experiences to create vivid descriptive images.  For our final assignment of the summer, I thought I’d slow Maddie and Violet down and have them delve deeper into descriptive storytelling. Elementary writers tend to rush through the most exciting parts of their stories. They sum up big events in a single sentence. I wanted the girls to focus on exploding a small moment by using sensory details, strong verbs, and showing, not telling, the characters’ actions and emotions.
Creating Calm: Mindful 8 Poems Inspired by Maine
Since I know August is the calm before the Back-to-School storm, I thought I’d select some of my favorite Maine photographs and write Mindful 8 poems to accompany them. As I wrote them, I was struck by how peaceful I became. I concentrated on nature and tried to distill the essence of its beauty with spare words. This is becoming an important practice for me, and it also helps to alleviate writer’s block.
Empowering Girls Through Poetry
This week, the girls and I return to poetry for a respite. We are still revising our fantasy stories, but needed a little spark of energy. Since the school where I teach is a school for girls, in fact it is the oldest girls’ school in New Jersey, I am keenly aware of the need for raising confident and resilient girls. Â
Something Magical: Three Elements of Fantasy Writing With Children
Children love fantasy. Their minds are young and open to outrageous ideas and imaginative wonderings. Fantasy also helps them deal with stressful situations and allows them to feel empowered. This week with my summer students, I focused on three core elements of writing fantasy stories: portal transitions, living statues, and magic rules.
Sparking Vivid Language and Poetry with Visual Prompts
Because students often struggle to create vivid imagery out of thin air, they frequently fall back on clichés or stare blankly at a white page. However, using a concrete visual prompt, such as a photograph of a girl splashing under a backyard sprinkler, can instantly unlock their imagination. This image helps student to tap into their own memories, stretch their vocabulary, and express themselves through poetry.
Visual Prompts to Teach Plot Structure: Ocean Bubble
This week’s teacher-student collaborative writing went to the beach. I shared an image of a giant translucent bubble sitting on the edge of the shoreline. The photo serves as launchpad for another creative writing journey designed by my third and fourth-grade students. I was hoping to engage these reluctant writers with a magical image that they could use as a blueprint for storytelling. My intention was for students to learn to see narrative structure not as a rigid set of rules, but as an expanding world of possibilities.
Visual Prompts to Enhance Student Writing
To help students keep up their writing skills, I often create a collection of visual prompts to spark their imaginations and help them write. I create stories with them, and we share what we have created back and forth all summer long. Besides giving students practice writing, they also get practice reading and critiquing what I have written. This summer writing project becomes an important collaboration where both student and teacher take risks, think creatively, and revise their work based on mutual feedback.
Finding Fútbol and Fireworks
I have never been a sports fan, not really. There was a time in high school when I cheered on our football team on Friday nights. And I was an avid basketball fan for a short time in college, but I am not the type to tailgate and have a team to follow, whether that be football, baseball, basketball, or hockey. However, this summer changed all that. At first, I wasn’t even sure what FIFA was and thought soccer was something kids played in the park. A few short weeks in June and July, and I’m now an avid fútbol fan.Â
Revolutionary Spirit: Poet, Phillis Wheatley
This week, as we look forward to the 250th birthday of America, I want to reflect on an unlikely Revolutionary heroine, Phillis Wheatley. Her history is remarkable. Born in West Africa in 1753, she was brought on a slave ship, The Phillis, for which she was named. She was sold to the Wheatley family of Boston, who raised and educated her. Phillis learned English, Latin, and Greek and wrote her first poem at the age of fourteen. She published a collection of poetry called Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773, making her the first enslaved person to publish a book.
Inner Peace at the Garden Shop
While trying to recover and relax, I took a short journey to a local garden shop. I love this place; it always brings me solace. I forgot to take my camera with me, so I took pictures with my little flip phone. I just snapped images that appealed to me. I love that they arrange pots and flowers by color. It was such a good way to unwind without worrying about my tummy troubles. There are rows and rows of flowering plants outside, and rows and rows of garden pots inside.
Word Dancer: Literature, the Arts, & Education 