Yesterday was Day 1 of the National Writing Project Summer Institute, a four-week long program exploring the connections between writing, education, and writing instruction. The first day was part-orientation, part-introductions. We began with one of the mentors delivering the Daily Log, a summary of the last meeting's events. He delivered it in the style of Stephen Colbert, using "The Word" segment. We then participated in our first Quick Write: a short burst of writing to get the creative juices flowing. Our prompt was a dialogue of who we might like to have dinner with, and I picked Tolkien (of course). We shared our dialogues, and Chris's was the funniest, a conversation with THE Cookie Monster. Cooookies!
We moved into some business and orientation and expectations, breaking up into our response groups. I think my response group is going to be awesome--they are a supportive audience who will offer great suggestions for each other's writing.
After lunch, we observed and participated in a lesson demonstration, one of our major products for the institute. The teacher gave an excellent and fun demonstration over revision (geared for a 4th-grade classroom). She has us write about our favorite space, a piece that I continued to play with throughout the afternoon and later into the evening.
The group of teachers is a fun*, friendly group, and I'm excited to be able participate.
*Favorite words/phrases: "diggin' like a dog in a hole" and "shoulding."
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