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Victoria Chance
Pickens High School
Pickens, SC

Create your own Spiritual Medicine Bundle. This is a collection of items you put together for yourself that have special significance for you. Pretend you're going to be away from the place and people that you love for a long time. What mementos would you take? The contents of mine are the following: (These all fit in a small bag.) Photos of my children in a fold-up frame, peppermint tea, a small bag of herbs for the bath, Zen Companion book, a favorite pen, a blank book, and a tiny clay pot made for me by my husband. Each of these items would give me comfort or solace in a special way. You may have many other items. You will share these with the class.

OPTION: Next you will compile a list of the contents of your spiritual medicine bundle and a brief description. These lists and descriptions we will exchange with another class (via Internet). We will use these lists from the senders to write poetry based on the descriptions of their spiritual medicine bundles. Then we will exchange our poems. Have fun.

Grade Report

Jo Etta Chewning
Wilson High School
Florence, SC

WHY? The report will

1. Force the individual student to analyze, reflect upon, and "take ownership" of his/her own grades.
2. Eliminate questions such as, "Why did you GIVE me a 72?"
3. Teach the business report concept.

PURPOSE STATEMENT: Explain the goal of this report and identify the grading period being presented.

1. TESTS AND GRADES: List each graded assignment—these , of course, will be listed under "A," "B," etc. Write a description of the assignment and an analysis of the results. Write the grade in number and letter form.

2. ATTENDANCE: List each date of absence and provide the reason. If no days were missed, make a statement saying so.

3. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES: Under "A," list the area of strengths. Do NOT write the assignment on which the highest grade was made; instead, determine the type of work that shows the greatest academic strength, such as "assignments based upon group work which does not involve writing." Under "B," list areas of weakness, such as "assignments which required the meeting of a deadline."

4. AVERAGES: Do the math work required to determine your average. Label this and list it under "A." If you have a previous semester, find your new cumulative average; label this and list it under "B." Determine the grade that will be required during the subsequent grading period to make the desired year average; label this and list it correctly.

CONCLUSION: Within the conclusion paragraph, address three points: habits to start, habits to stop, and habits to continue.

You Don't Know What This Means

Joe Hathaway
Crestwood High School
Sumter, SC

When Crestwood High School opened this year, all of our faculty gave enthusiastic support to continuing the award winning Exemplary Writing Program which we inherited from Hall of Fame School Hillcrest High School of Sumter District Two. However, quality requires continual revision and innovation. One area of concern for all schools on block scheduling is to insure that quality writing development continues even when students do not have English. This is especially true for our tenth graders who may have had English in the first semester, but who will be taking the writing Exit Exam this spring.

I got an idea for a period by period school-wide Writing Process Day. The first block would do prewriting in all classes. The second block would do first drafts. The third block would do proofreading. The fourth block would do final drafts. The students would hold onto their essays and the four teachers would have an opportunity to read and assess each essay on the following day. Our concern was for evaluating needs, not giving grades. The aim was to see that each teacher had a knowledge of each students writing needs for future instruction.

Of course it did not go perfectly; whatever does? Some teachers were absent and substitutes did not understand the process. Some students from the Career Center and the Academic Center are not there the entire day. Nevertheless, the program was a great success. We had an overwhelmingly positive response from the faculty. In April, we will do a school-wide science writing day. The first period block will do the experiment planning and hypothesis. The second block will conduct a common basic experiment. The third block will discuss results, and the fourth block will write up the results.

We want to continue the success from the Process Writing Day. It was one more noble step in building not only a writing community but also a human community. Ms. Mayo-White, a special education teacher for self-contained students came up to me and told me to stop by her room and collect a couple of the papers her students did. I still have them. They are treasures. I went to the principal, and we conducted an impromptu award ceremony by giving out school shirts to two of her very special students. The next day all the students in the class wore their own shirts as a tribute to the two winners. When they see me, they still applaud.

The morning of the writing day, I explained the program on the public address system. I told the students that we would really be united as a school community. I said, "Look around you when you walk down the hall. Each student that you see will be doing the same thing that you are doing this day. We will all be part of the same writing program." We don't know what it means for some kids to be a part of things. When we plan for innovation, when we plan for quality educational programs, some of the benefits can be anticipated, some may be assessed. But every once in a while a teacher, student, or parent will give us a look or word of appreciation. We may not know the details of what it means, but we can read the passion in their eyes.

Joe Hathaway is a Writing Project consultant and director of the cross-curriculum writing program at Crestwood High School (formerly Hillcrest) in Sumter District Two. He is the recipient of the 1995 SCCTE "Best Practice Award."

Conferencing

Beverly J. Jackson
The Writing Improvement Network
Columbia, SC

Content conferences are used to help a writer understand and clarify his feelings and ideas about his topic and to find some ideas about what to do with the writing next. Conferences can also be used for other purposes, such as finding a topic, working on organization, and editing. However, each conference should focus on a single issue. Editing issues should always be considered last, after the content and the form of the writing are set.

Here is a format that works well for content conferences:

1. The writer shares his work.
2. The responder retells what was in the writing, reflecting what came across in the piece.
3. The responder reacts to what she likes in the writing.
4. The responder asks questions on issues that are not clear and on areas that interest her.
5. The writer should leave the conference ready to work on the writing and with specific ideas about what to do next.

The writer should do most of the talking during the conference. The role of the responder is mainly to ask questions that will help the writer clarify his intentions.

Easy Directions for Initiating Portfolio Assessment

Melissa Kalinowsky
Jasper County Schools

PORTFOLIO PURPOSE
The district purpose this year is to enable students to demonstrate growth over time in performance, understanding and attitudes. This purpose should also be clearly understood by the student. There are certainly other valuable uses for portfolios that may or may not be used by teachers, but the focus of this district this year will be on helping teachers use the portfolio to demonstrate growth and mastery in goals and standards that cannot be addressed by objective testing.

PORTFOLIO HOUSING
Portfolios should be maintained at school all year. They should be available for parent conferencing during each nine weeks. A simple two pocket folder is sufficient for the year. Each nine weeks the work can be stapled together and moved to the left pocket to make room for active entries.

Students should be given opportunities every two to three weeks to work on portfolios.

QUALITY
There is no set quantity of entries. This will vary from subject to subject and nine weeks to nine weeks.

RESOURCES FOR ASSISTANCE
Conferencing with Building Curriculum Associate
Staff Development Films
California Teacher Created Materials on assessment
(These books are available in your library grouped by subject an grade level. An example title would be Social Studies Assessment, Grades 3 &4. These books are rich in teacher developed performance tasks and forms you are free to copy and use in your portfolios.)

Blue booklets put out by University of South Carolina Center for Excellence

SIMPLIFIED PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT SYSTEM: KEY ELEMENTS

I. A table of contents for each nine weeks that explains the Guidelines for Selection and makes selection purposeful. Examples:

• A comparison of two characters.
• An expository essay with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
• A persuasive letter.
• A newspaper article using a graph to display information.
• An example of "How Well I Can Cut Out Shapes" (Kindergarten).
• A copy of a rough draft along with a finished paper.
• An example of timed writing.
• A timed multiplication test.
• A picture of me reading aloud to first graders.
• A diary of what I ate all week and the nutritional groups represented.
• A list of recreational reading and record of time spent reading.

"What I enjoyed most . . ."

"What I had the most difficulty with this nine weeks . . ." etc.

III. Evidence of Self Reflection. Younger students might simply place a star on the papers they like best. The teacher will record the student's orally expressed reasons for selecting this piece of work. This might also take the form of an actual self evaluation on a Likert scale against criteria such as editing checklist. A reading survey can be used.

IV. Evidence of Parent Involvement. Some evidence of parent involvement needs to be included each nine weeks. It can be a checklist sent home to parents, a conferencing form or simply the parental signed testimony that the student presented the portfolio to them. Parental involvement techniques should vary each nine weeks and not be reduced to parent signing the folder.

Group Projects

Sue Matthews
Hartsville High School
Hartsville, SC

PROJECTS:

1. News Story--fairy tale rewritten as a news story
2. Skit--done in mime and presented to the class; all members must be in the skit; must be ready to present to the class by ________.
3. Book--the fairy tale will be rewritten in everyday language, illustrated, and made into a book

GROUP PROJECT GRADING SCALE

GROUP NUMBER _______________

NAMES: _______________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

SKIT GRADING SCALE:
1. Content Preparation	20 pts.____
2. Organization	20 pts.____
3. Class Presentation (execution, accuracy of story, entertainment)	40 pts.____
4. Visual Aid Project (relevance, creativity, effort)	10 pts.____
5. Enthusiasm (Was class entertained?)	10 pts.____
Total = 100pts.	__________
BOOK GRADING SCALE:
1. Content	40 pts.____
2. Creativity/originality	30 pts.____
3. SWE	20 pts.____
4. Neatness	10 pts.____
Total = 100 pts.	__________
NEWS STORY GRADING SCALE:
1. Content	30 pts.____
2. Quotations	20 pts.____
3. Unity of Story	10 pts.____
4. SWE	15 pts.____
5. Neatness	10 pts.____
6. Journalistic Style	15 pts.____
Total = 100 pts.	__________

Daily Warm-Up

Marty Piepenbring
Waccamaw High
Pawley's Island, SC

Students enjoy this focusing activity. My students pay more attention when I tell them that this will help them on the SAT (verbal part) and it will help them in all their other classes, as well.

Bringing American Romanticism and the Historical Period Alive

Hope Spillane
Spring Valley High School
Columbia, SC

WHAT YOU WILL FIND:

1. Project Description—which I handed out to the students. It outlines the types of activities they will be doing over the two week period of time. (I have not included the in-common readings from the literature book which accompany the study).

2. A list of the historical movers and shakers of the 1800-1860's in America--some political figures, some literary figures, some social activists, some artists (a good place to show the relationship of art and literature and culture). The list is categorized according to common themes, threads, or classifications found in the various texts. Also included is a list of important movements of the time and types of publications. Names may be added as groups of students discover new figures who make interesting research and form connections to the whole group and the time period.

3. Directions for the group oral presentations and the rubric I have used for evaluation.

1. Introduce project to students. Have students, as much as possible, choose a personality to investigate and role play. Each student must have his/her own identity (males and females have played opposite roles quite successfully, I might add). Provide a general definition of Romanticism--key characteristics and ideas before students begin their search, and assure them they will understand it better as they research their persons.

2. Arrange for students to go to the Media Center to begin their search. I have also brought selected books into the classroom. We are fortunate enough to have CD-ROM disks that give good introductory information--many with accompanying pictures. The Internet also is a rich resource of information on these people. Choose a browser (Yahoo, for example) and enter the name. You will be surprised with what is there for you and your students to glean.

3. Set your deadlines. Do not allow too much time for research. The pressure of time makes them stick to their task. I usually ask them to search at least three sources for the oral report. The written biographical sketch counts as the research paper--a help in block scheduling when every minute counts. It is good when time spent in one activity can roll into another and pay benefits. (The students like that.) Pedagogically, this works also because, in this project, oral presentation precedes written presentation. In comparison with my previous traditional research paper approach ("Okay, today we will begin the research paper," I have found that students, using this process, work much more comfortably with writing the paper itself because they know much of the information already. I also find less copying too closely from a text, less unintended plagiarism. The bibliography has already been done for the oral presentation, though some students add additional sources to their papers. Overall, students' writing becomes more natural. The paper is usually due two weeks after the oral presentation. We move on from the presentations to read selected writers of that period. Students are less resistant to the writing and become more involved with finding the Romantic elements of a selection. I hope you will find this helpful. The first time I did this, I played the role of Oprah Winfrey and questioned the students myself, giving them an outline of topics I might discuss. Since then, I let students create their own presentations and enjoyed the variety.

The object of the project is to teach you more about the writers, artists, and important people and causes of the 1800-1860's—the Romantic Period. It is also designed to help you practice and build your skills in researching, writing, presenting information, and documenting sources. There is a degree of individuality involved here—you have some choice in the focus of your research project. There is an opportunity for you to also express yourself creatively and make use of your creative energies. How appropriate for the Romantic Period!

Select the group of your interest. Select one of the individuals in that group to become an expert on. Working with your group, learn all you can about your person and how that person was connected to the other members of the group. Learn whether your person had ties or connections to any other people in other groups. With your group, prepare a presentation which will tell about your group members and your concerns about issues of your day. The presentation is up to the creativity of your group as far as format. You might present in a panel discussion, or be part of a talk show (interviewed by Oprah, maybe). It might be that you will present a skit or short play that will reveal the important information. You might speak to the class assuming the persona of your person--even dressing the part maybe. Put your collective imaginations to work.

IN WRITING:

• Create a bibliography of all the sources you consult in your search for information.
• Write a "Thumbnail Biographical Sketch" of your person using proper documentation and a works cited page—a (counts as your research paper-but it is short.)
• Write a "bio poem" of your person. I will give you the form for that later--or check Writer's Inc.
• Include a picture of your person. (Xerox is all right—but we do have access to a scanner for the computer.)
• Include an excerpt of a piece of your person's actual writing and write an introduction to that piece that lets your reader know about the piece and why you selected it.
• Create a large note card of key information about your person to include in a class file. (Later you may use this to create a Hyperstudio card on the computer.)

THE ROMANTIC PERIOD: Important People/Writers/Artists

The Knickerbocker Writers Washington Irving James Fenimore Cooper William Cullen Bryant Hudson River Painters Thomas Cole Asher Durand Albert Bierstadt Frederick Church The Fireside Poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Oliver Wendell Holmes James Russell Lowell John Greenleaf Whittier Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Bronson Alcott Brooding Romantics Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville Edgar Allen Poe Feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton Margaret Fuller Sophia Peabody Sarah and Angelina Grimke Lydia Maria Childs Louisa May Alcott Catherine Maria Sedgwick Susan B. Anthony Frances Anne Kimble

Abolitionists Frederick Douglass William Lloyd Garrison Elizabeth Margaret Chandler Harriet Beecher Stowe Sojourner Truth Literary Trends Short Stories Novels Poetry Magazines/Newspapers Atlantic Harpers The Liberator Social/Literary Tracts Causes Abolitionist Movement Women's Movement Temperance Movement Lyceums Great Revival Trail of Tears

ORAL PRESENTATION EVALUATION AND GUIDELINES—AMERICAN ROMANTICISM PROJECT

Reminders: Groups should have a clear idea of what they intend to do. Each group should have a Contingency Plan for what to do if key people don't show up. The show must go on. You owe responsibility to the whole group to do your share and to make arrangements so that, should you be absent, the group will not suffer in its overall presentation.

Have a Name Tag!
Know what information you wish to impart.
Remember oral presentation skills--speak clearly, audibly, distinctly
   —make eye-contact and stand so audience can hear you.
   —be respectful of group members when they present.
Rehearse—as a group or at home in your own room, or in the car driving to school, or while washing dishes, etc.
Relax--as much as possible. Remember, each time you do this speaking before a group will get easier and easier.
Remember to use the personal "I".
Consider ways to get the "boring facts" out before the group and leave yourself the interesting aspects of your person's life to share.

Evaluation of Oral Presentation

Name:___________________________________

A. Delivery _______________

clear, audible, well-paced
good eye contact as appropriate
proper stance and demeanor

B. Content _______________

shows research
shows consideration for audience
accurate and interesting
organized or has a clear plan or purpose

C. Creativity _______________

name tag
type of presentation, etc.

D. Group Participation _______________

seems to have worked together well
knows what members are doing
ones "not on stage" are helpful and attentive to others

E. Individual Effort _______________

Holly Westcott
Greenwood High School
Greenwood, SC

The attached fairy tale poem assignment is one I have used successfully with students in both English II and English III at Wilson High School in Florence, where I taught before coming to Greenwood High School in the fall of 1997. The poems included as examples are all by ninth or tenth graders taking English II. Here's one version that may amuse you. It was written by a Wilson junior in English III:

RAPUNZEL
by Antonio Shaw

I should have known it wasn't real.
I could have been killed
By that hootchie mama and her cheap weave-in.
I was riding through the woods when this begins.
I heard a female voice coming down the way—
I hadn't had love in a while, this would make my day—
So I rode to the tower, when what should I see?
A fine little strag staring down at me!
She said "Come up" as she let down her hair—
So much hair waving in the air!
The curly locks were so jet black;
I should have known they were fake 'cause I saw the tracks.
I was half-way up, when what should I hear?
A ripping sound that filled me with fear!
I heard her scream like she was ten feet tall.
Next thing I knew, I started to fall.
I fell to the ground and cracked my back—
She yelled, "That weave wasn't cheap—You better pay me back!"

As explained below, the assignment was a follow-up to a reading of Robert Frost's poetry and the first of a series written by students. The assignment also works well when discussing point of view in fiction.

POEM #1

As you know Robert Frost's poems often featured people and used actual conversation, sometimes monologue, sometimes dialogue. For this assignment, you will write a poem that has at least one character in it---a character from a fairy tale---and the poem will be written in the voice of that character.

Robert Frost's poetry sometimes used rhyme and always used meter. You need not use either for this assignment, although you may use them if you want to. Free verse is perfectly acceptable, however.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Jot down fairy tale characters that come to your mind.
2. Try to get inside the head of one of them.
3. Tell that character's version of the story (or a part of the story).
4. Listen to the sound of what you have written. Listen to what the words say.
5. Revise! Revise! Revise!
6. Proofread carefully and copy over neatly on a new page.

Some examples follow. Both were written by Wilson authors.

THE THIRD LITTLE PIG
by Jennifer Sinclair

See here, Mr. Wolf,
I'm not afraid of you.
You can't blow down my house
With me in it too.

You see, I'm smart--
No country hick.
I went to Lowe's
And bought some bricks.

So stand there, Mr. Wolf,
And huff and puff--
But, like M.C. Hammer,
Can't touch this stuff!

THE WOLF'S TALE
by Ashlee Moore

I tried and tried
But I couldn't blow it down.
The others were so easy.
As they fell to the ground,
They squealed and ran to this house made of brick.
I've blown so much, I think I'll be sick!

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