1. Invitational Summer Institute
July 6, 2016

3. The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit-detector.
--Ernest Hemingway

4. Agenda Time Event 9:00-9:15 Daily Log, Author’s Chair 9:15-10:30
Demo Lesson # 10: Denise Segal
10:30-10:45
BREAK
10:45-11:15
Demonstration Lesson Response
11:15-12:00
Writing Time
12:00-1:00
Lunch Reflection: Demo Lessons 1-9
1:00-2:15
Demo Lesson # 11: Edgar Muñoz
2:15-2:45
2:45-3:25
Inquiry Groups
3:25-3:30
Wrap–up

5. Daily Log

7. T-shirt orders by Thursday afternoon
Luncheon Invitations
Housekeeping

8. Your Comments: What You Learned
Our writing is affected by the influence of others, both in a negative and positive way. They can help us grow or stunt our growth.
Refresher on literary interpretation
Integration/ application of Moffett’s Ladder of Abstraction. Lived it in AM session exercises.
I learned about interpretation in reading.
Loved the discussion about the Roethke poem!

9. Your Comments: What You Learned
Sheridan Blau is a fountain of knowledge and jokes!
The power of reflecting on my own writing
The need to allow and develop multiple ideas, often conflicting, about poetry
Interpretations can be open or closed.
Context is important for understanding.
Poetry can be precise and ambiguous at the same time.

10. Your Comments: What You Learned
My history as a writer—needs to be stolen & applied along with my reading timeline.
 + & - Brilliant! Will take some modeling on doc cam.
That there are ways to add “volume” and credibility to an interpretation of poetry.
Authorial meaning
Context matters!
So many things!

11. Your Comments: What You Learned
Students who read a lot of literature become more empathetic.
A writer’s intention doesn’t necessarily govern meaning.
Some poems are more closed than others because of the context or for some other reason.
If you’re going to ask a kid to analyze or do something else abstract, be sure to provide a familiar audience.

12. Your Comments: What You Learned
Rehearsal process for drama is the best learning strategy.
A teacher doesn’t know everything.
Literature/ poetry is open to interpretation.
Teachers can get in the way of students’ learning IF they are too controlling and negative which doesn’t mean everybody gets a gold star, either.
Value and authority

13. Your Comments: What You Learned
Poetry readings are as intimidating today as they were in K-12. “I’m not going to get it!”
My interpretation has value.
It’s okay to interpret poems differently.
There is no “wrong way” to interpret.
Moffett is a prophet!

14. Your Comments: What You Learned
As a teacher, I hate sharpening pencils, grouping students for group work & seating charts. As a student, I realize their value. Can we have a seating chart? I’m annoyed with my elbow partner.

15. What Surprised You? What Questions Do You Have?
How much negative experience affected me as a writer and the self doubt that it created.
How do I ensure that I am not stunting the growth of my students as writers? I want to make sure I am not the person that negatively affects them.
I was surprised about how knowing the source of the Dunbar poem made a world of difference in understanding the poem (I was letter A).
I actually enjoyed analyzing a poem.

16. What Surprised You? What Questions Do You Have?
The writing experiment before lunch—it became quite easy to write an authoritative piece following the previous tasks.
Moffett’s Oh yeah!
The different interpretations of Roethke’s poem
The complexity of writing tasks based on audience.
If great literature extends time and space, should I not spend (too much) time building context for the texts I use?

17. What Surprised You? What Questions Do You Have?
Good reminders:
Misinterpretation is a way of life
A changing culture makes it possible for different interpretations to evolve.
Memories of childhood writing…I transported...I actually remembered the name of my elementary school magazine.
My prior knowledge and experiences brought authority to my readings and understandings. “+ - got it”

18. What Surprised You? What Questions Do You Have?
Writing to learn is a method used today.
Would have liked to write a poem. 
How much I could predict about “We Wear the Mask” from the title only.
The amount of C.S.U.N. Writing Project* teachers and there insights! Where did these writing gurus come from?!?
*Cal State Northridge Writing Project

19. What Do You Want To Know More About?
Interpretations of poetry and how context & background information affects your interpretation of the poem.
Literary interpretation at youngest grades.
Any specific student work fro Friday?
Does anyone know a good source to find writing contests for kids? Andy inspired me!
Can’t be tickled by a stranger? (insert thinking emoji).

20. What Do You Want To Know More About?
Jessica Blau’s novels. I want to read them all.
Elementary level poetry suggestions—with heft!
The hermeneutic circle.

21. Demo Lesson 10: Denise

23. Demonstration Lesson Response

24. Writing Time

25. Lunch (Demo Lessons 1-9 Reflection)

26. A writer’s problem does not change
A writer’s problem does not change. He himself changes and the world he lives in changes, but his problem remains the same. It is always how to write truly and, having found out what is true, to project it in such as way that it becomes part of the experience of the person who reads it. --Ernest Hemingway

28. Demo Lesson: Edgar

29. Demonstration Lesson Response

30. Inquiry Groups