Magic Rocks and a Wrap Up

My last post was two weeks ago. Last time, I wrote that we were revamping the world of Harry Potter. Alas, that never came to pass. You see, the story cubes took off and the boys wanted to continue with it. So for the last classes for all the time slots, Rory and his story cubes ruled the day. I am finding that it's a great tool and must shout out to the mom who suggested it to me. Thank You, Elizabeth, for the recommendation. It's been a hit.   Last week, I used the cubes as a story telling tool, and I wrote down the kids', ideas and read them back. This week, we didn't write the stories, instead, we turned into story tellers. Last week, 27 kids collaborated and used the teacher as a ghostwriter. This week teacher and students told individual stories. That is, until the entrance of the little brother. Little brother entered the scene early on in the marathon class, earlier today. He was playing with some stones that he blithely informed us were magic rocks. 

Magic rocks, you say? Magic rocks. It's one of those ideas that, once taken hold, refuses to go away. We all decided to write a story about magic rocks. My students wrote complete stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end. I, however, had so many ideas I feel the beginning of a longer story. We will see what comes of that in the next few weeks.

And speaking of, Inkreadable Kids is taking a hiatus. There are no group classes for the next few weeks. Instead I am going to teach individual students that I promised to tutor once school ends. Then in the third week of June, Inkreadable Kids goes to summer camp. That's right following in the success of the camp day on May 2, we are going to teach the campers on a longer term basis. As I know more you will as well. That's all for this inkreadable installment. Stay tuned, as always, there's more to come.

Story Cubes Steal the Scene

This week at Inkreadable has been fairly quiet. Soccer season is in full swing at WIS and so two of my students have had to shuffle all of our schedules around. It wasn't just them, circumstances in my own life conspired to take away one Friday class, and a veritable comedy of techno errors conspired last Friday the 25th April, so that there was no class. In the first place, I could't receive email at the community center so I never received the emails from their mom asking if we were on. In the second place it poured cats and dogs and the boys didn't want to come out. I can't say that I blame them, It rained cats and dogs.

In the meantime, in Thursday Scene Stealers we finished up Cinderella's makeover and began reworking Harry Potter's world. Sorry, Ms. Rowling.  In our world, Harry and his aunt and uncle have a good relationship and his aunt is a witch herself. We will see how it develops next week.

Undisputedly, the best day at Inkreadable Kids, was  Friday afternoon. I had been talking to the facility manager at the community center about adding an Inkreadable session to their summer camp. I was asked to do a class as part of the camp day the center had on May 2. Accordingly, I ran to Child's Play, aka the best toy store in the world, and bought Rory's Story Cubes. The game has nine dice with a different picture one each face. You roll the dice and make up a story using the pictures that come up. I wanted to see if the game would work for children under seven years old whose reading skills have not yet developed. I walked into the community center early and found to my trepidation there were not fifteen kids to teach, the number was twenty seven. Turns out, there was nothing to worry about, the kids were fun and receptive. We did three stories in an hour. They are too random to recount, and also I can't really remember what the stories were.  I know that the kids and I had a blast and I might see some of them over the summer. The experiment was so successful, that I used it with my soccer laden WIS brothers today. No writing was done, but we became impromptu storytellers so that we could include the youngest child of the household. Here too, a fun time was had by all. Well, that's all for this installment of Inkreadable Kids. Stay tuned, as always, there is more to come.

Cinderella 2.0 and a Field Trip

Last week, Cinderella got a makeover. I know, I know.  Her whole story is about a makeover. Actually, we gave Cinderella's stepsisters makeovers. Actually, the world's two most spoiled brats went to see the wizard and got hearts. Yes, that's right, we wrote the girls nice.  We focused on dialogue, and we are slowly changing the three girls' relationship. It's challenging to take something so well known and turn it around. I am finding that both I and my students are having a hard time letting go of our preconceptions. We will see what happens later today.

Last Saturday, armed with brochures, bookmarks, and banner, Inkreadable Kids went on a field trip. Look, Ma, I can alliterate!  We peddled our wares at the 2014 Tots to Teens expo, where the response to us has been fantastic. Course, it may have been the chocolate. We talked to Do the Write thing, the National Campaign To End Violence's writing challenge, and may partner with them later this summer. We also talked to the YMCA and are looking for ways to partner with them. We gave away lots of brochures and bookmarks. I even got an email from a parent interested in the classes. All in all it was a good experience. I found that not only can I write, I also have the gift of the gab. I am looking forward to doing more of these types of events.

Right, that's all for this ink readable installment. Stay tuned, as always, there is more to come. 

Alphabet Soup

Last week's classes at Scene Stealers were a veritable alphabet soup. Please pardon our use of shortened names, but well, sometimes it must be done. You think you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH)? Trust me, you don't. At Inkreadable, Hood is quite technologically advanced. The girl has an X Box. And internet. She's a teenager, so not so little. But surprisingly, she has no attitude. She still does what her mama asks and takes a basket of food to granny. She also helps her mom turn on the computer. Which particularly amused me, because I can relate.  I asked the kids to write the conversation between LRRH and her mom. What's interesting is that the conversation is quite banal and follows the line of the original story, but the boys took liberties with the life that LRRH lives. She's been moved into the modern age.  I can't say that I was surprised at the turn in LRRH's circumstances, just the execution of them. 

The big bad wolf (BBW) was also reinvented. In one boy's scene, LRRH is off to give granny her basket, but while listening to pop music. Which is where we meet the BBW. Who dances. And lays eggs. Yup you heard me. Lays eggs. This caused much hilarity for myself and his brother. Following on the heels of his "Mostly the Lion" ending, I realize that the humor is no fluke and I might have the next Stephen Fry or Christopher Brookmyre in my class.  Exciting stuff, indeed. As the class drew to a close we discussed further ideas for the BBW. We invented and alternative ending in which BBW has a dad. BBW's dad appears after his son has eaten both grandma and LRRH. Dad gives BBW a medication to make BBW throw up. That's one way we revised the story. In a second revisionist ending, grandma and LRRH are imprisoned by both the BBW and his dad. The women escape on their own, while the dad is asleep. They are chased by BBW, but come upon a hunter who kills BBW. They back track to the house and kill BBW's dad while he sleeps. It' all a bit blood thirsty, really.

In other News, Inkreadable is taking a field trip. We are off to the 2014 Tots to Teens expo on Saturday from 10-4 pm. Come visit! There will be treats! I'll have more on that in a separate blogpost. That's all for this Inkreadable installment. Stay tuned, as always, there is more to come!

Mostly The Lion

Inkreadable Kids' second session ended last week, but not without a few minor glitches. On Thursday, my 4:15 Scene Stealers class had to be postponed until April 17th because there was too much going on in the student's scholastic world. As a fellow WISer, I could well understand the stress associated with the WIS world. Although, I must say, I wasn't a fifth grader there, so I didn't realize the level of expectation for primary schoolers. I didn't get there until the seventh grade, and the pressure to belong was also tied up with the pressures of being twelve. Which, many parents will tell you, is the start of something wicked.  Not mine, of course, I was a perfect angel of a pre-teen, (Brooklyn bridge, anyone?)

Moving over to the 5:15 Short Story Class, I had typed up the story that my student wrote and we presented it to mom and little sister, to much applause and fanfare. My student took the story home and read to other family members, where it was pronounced "gripping in parts" and "quite awesome". I was quite pleased with that result. It turns out that this student is back with me for a Scene Stealers installment, which I am quite pleased about. I was also asked advice about my student entering a writing contest. My response was that I though it was a great idea. Except that I think I may have spoken too soon. Writing contests are great if the young person wants to do it, and there are some great ones out there. But I also think they can cause someone to hate writing, especially if writing is not a passion of theirs. When I first started blogging about Inkreadable Kids, and the vision that I have, I said that I'd come late to writing. I was an adult writer, I know myself enough to know that if I'd been pressured into it, I would never have started. The passion for writing has to come organically, or not at all. In my case, neither of my parents had a facility for writing. I discovered it on my own. 

Friday brought surprises galore. The boys actually wrote multiple stories. Actually, it'd be more accurate to say that multiple store were started. We started off this Short Story Module with the boys writing one set of stories, and then in the second class changing stories altogether. They are brothers and they started out writing similar stories. The older brother started out writing a story about a boy who becomes an engineer and invents a new kind of train. It was left unfinished. I hope he goes back to it some day. His brother wrote a story loosely based on Wolverine from XMen that involved the invention of a new war plane. While not set in that universe, there was apparently a lot of violence going on. You may remember from an earlier post that there were ten nuclear bombs dropped on New York City. That's all I know from that story because he didn't want to read it. He did say that he had completed that story. The story he ultimately read was a story of a hungry lion who finds a magic talking tree that grants him any wish he wants. The lion, being an enterprising sort of lion, wishes of course, for candy and soda. And gold. There has to be gold, of course. How else is a poor lion going to keep himself fed? The story took an interesting turn because the lion went to his friends and told them about the tree. They all went to find it, but it had disappeared. It  reappears in the story, but doesn't seem to grant any other wishes. The lion ends up disappearing, presumably to a soda and candy filled world. Everyone lives happily ever after. But mostly the lion. That has to be the best ending to a story. EVER.  The surprises didn't stop there, however. My third student read his story of a boy's daring escape from an evening spent at the zoo. Through a snake pit. This young man has a little brother, who must be about four. While we were reading, he "wrote" his own story, and then read it out loud to us. It was the story of the Scrapey Scraper. It was just awesome.

I mailed the Saturday student's story to her. Her mom and I are going to have a conference tomorrow, but it seems that she wants to write two more Annabeth and Emma adventures. That's one who is staying. The two brothers are also staying with me. As are my thursday students. I have two new students starting as well one on Friday at 4:15, and one on Saturdays starting at the end of the month.

Well, that's it for this Inkreadable installment. Stay tuned, as always, there is more to come.

Bossy By Nature and Other News

Last week, was a week like any other at Inkreadable. By which I mean that I not only taught, but learned as well. I am sorry for the long radio silence, I've been a bit busy. Last Thursday, 27 March, marked the second to last of my classes. In my second penultimate position, I found myself wondering whether I would get any new students in the session that starts on 10 April. Not to worry, I did. I am also hopeful that I will get some returns from the current session. Anyhoo, back to last week's  classes.

Over at Scene Stealers we focused on writing a description of a location in our chosen series that the original author doesn't give the reader.  I told my student that I wanted it to be as wordy as possible. She was having a hard time and then started telling me about her nemesis. Apparently, a boy in her class is treating her with shameful disrespect. Far from being torn down by this foolish young man she's taken the high road. They happen to be in a group project together and he is "bossy by nature". It seems he has taken over the whole project and the other kids are not sure how to deal with it. He's a bit of a silly head as she politely put it. The righteous anger she displayed when talking about this boy was fantastic to behold. Machiavalian person that I am, I decided to tap that emotion. I told her to forget describing a room. I asked her to invent a new character in her favorite series that resembled the bane of her 5th grade existence. She did. With great success and much venom. Next time I see her, I am going to have her write a scene incorporating Bossy into the story.

Meanwhile, Thursday's short story module proceeded with adventure, and just a little bit of danger. We followed two cousins as they went to Mexico, rented a canoe, and got caught in a tidal wave. They found a hidden Aztec temple, met a village king (named Arturo, of course, because well, what else is a king to be named?), and were finally reunited with their parents. The fun didn't stop there however, the cousins got a free plane ride home, and scholarships. In Archaeology. At Harvard. Talk about thinking big.

Last Friday, was mysterious. The boys kept their stories to themselves. That was ok, however. One of them brought in a fable that they are working on at school and we critiqued that instead. It remains to be seen whether he uses our suggestions in his school assignment. I am hoping that he will let us know tonight when we have our last class. On Saturday, we finished up our second Emma and Annabeth Adventure, where we learned about oil spills and how to clean them up. I hope that student will stay with me and write another couple of stories. We talked about the idea of publishing an omnibus and where to find book covers online. We looked around and found on that published bulk for hundreds of dollars but we also found a website that could do a book cover for $3.99. A much better deal.

The 19 April Inkreadable Kids is going to be at the Washington Convention Center at the Tots to Teens expo from 10-4 pm. If you are in the DC area, come by and say hi.

That's all the news that's fit to print for this inkreadable installment. At least, until next week.

Struggles

Last week was a bit of a struggle. In the first place, I have to come to terms with the fact that kids don't work at the same speed. While the 11 year old may have a 6 or seven page story, the 8 or 9 year old may only have a two or three page story. If the kids are ok with that, then it has to be ok with me. And by extension, their parents. In an after school program, we can't expect the same output as a school can. Plus, who says that a short story has to be 5,000 words?  Mine aren't.

In fact, on Thursdays, we don't even have a page limit. In Scene Stealers, we have just finished working on a scene that focuses on dialogue, and gives the back story for two characters that the original author doesn't give readers. The difficulty there was trying to convey anger in a character who doesn't really show anger. As my student explained, the character gets angry, but it's a cold anger that simmers underneath the surface. I know from my own writing, that's hard to do. For the last two classes of Scene Stealers, I am having my student explore expository writing. Wait, expository writing you say? Why are you focusing where writers generally dislike to tread, you ask? Writing is no different than any other art. In painting, Picasso started out drawing the human figure "the right way" before he could move on to the works of his later periods. I saw an exhibit at the East Wing of the National gallery of his pencil and charcoal drawings that he did  as a teenager, and they bore no resemblance to his adult work at all. Writing is the same. You can't break the rules until you know how to use them correctly.

Meanwhile, back at the Thursday Short Story Class, as with my last session, I have taken over the writing, as I find that saves time and it allows the student to come up with the ideas faster. But I anly do that if it's one kid. In that class, we have gone on vacation with two cousins to Mexico, and gotten lost in a canoe. I've had to suspend my disbelief a bit as our protagonists have been caught by a major wave, and washed onto a sandbar. Ah, the imagination has been running wild, indeed.

On Fridays, the boys have been positively prolific. The brothers from WIS are going to treat us to two stories a piece, it seems. One has finished both stories and the other may treat us to to a story outline as well as the story that I am going to publish. Here too it has been a struggle. Here, I have been anxious that the boys aren't working at the right pace. But, who am I to judge. As long as they are having fun, I have to come to terms that it's their story and whether they finish it or not is not the issue. I have been assured that I will get the stories this week.

On Saturday, we are going to clean up an oil spill off the coast of Thailand and fix the damage from an earthquake and tsunami. As soon as I figure out how to do that. Ah, Wikipedia, sometimes you are erroneous, but sometimes, you are just the resource to get to the fact of the matter. Well, that's all she wrote. Stay tuned for our next inkreadable installment, where in we wrap up the current session and start the next.

Purple Panic

The boys of Friday, like the boys of summer are turning into a fun bunch. I don't have kids, myself so I am being surprised all the time. This past Friday, the boys walked into my class, and I asked them, as I always do, if they had written. From two of the boys, I got the expected, "I didn't finish, I had too much homework." To my surprise, however, one  of the  two decided to change his story from a train engineer based drama, to a child prodigy Sax player who wins a major music competition and a lot of money. I am a bit concerned that he will not have time to finish the story, but I'm going to try and roll with what happens, and hopefully he will finish on time. Otherwise, I will publish what he's written as is and hope the parents aren't too upset. 

My writer of the zoo story is faithfully plugging along with his story and I am waiting to see the results. In the meantime, I had a surprise guest, Zoo boys four year old brother came and hung out with us for a bit, as their mum had to retrieve my other students. I gave him the washable markers that I keep in case the kids want to illustrate their stories, and some paper. He decided he was going to illustrate some snakes for big bro's story. Which he did with great success. They look like my sister's Taty's attempts at drawing a bit, so maybe I'll start a class for little ones called Scribble Stories. After a bit, instead of using paper he started to draw all over is hand. Here's what I learned from that:

WASHABLE MARKERS ARE A LIE. THEY DON'T WASH OFF SKIN WITH SOAP AND WATER ALONE.

I don't know what they wash off with because mum came back and took him home so I could start the class. She SAID she could get washable marker of skin, but I am not convinced. I think he's spent the last five days running around with faded purple all over his hands. Still, I made a new friend.

My biggest surprise of the day was my third student, he walked into class and announced "I.m finished with my story." 

"Finished? What do you mean finished?"I asked. "What are you going to do for the next two classes."

Picture me very calmly speaking while inwardly panicking. At this point I am nervous that none of the kids are going to finish on time and that I will have some very irate parents on my hands. But again, I am dealing with kids so I have to expect the unexpected. So we decided that he would write another story, this one to publish, but he was very secretive about the details, so I'll have to let you know as soon as I do, what that's about.

Well, that brings us to the end of another incredible installment. Stay tuned, as always more to come.

So Much Fun

I am amazed at how much I am learning by teaching these classes. In my second Scene Stealers class, writing a scene for a two and a half year time period that the original author doesn't deal with is proving a challenge. For both student and teacher.  For my student, it isn't a matter of not having something to imagine, it's more that there is too much that she can imagine and she is having a tough time picking something. So it falls to me to guide her through the continuity of the story. It is a challenge for any writer not to introduce too much. It is for most of my adult writers, from the poets whose images don't quite coalesce to a novel writer who is writing a series of books and has a spreadsheet to keep her characters straight, even if they don't ultimately make it into the books at all. It causes a problem for readers because the unseen characters are portentous, they weigh down the story. It's also difficult, because I haven't read the series of books that this scene is based on. Thus I am finding that I can only advise in generalities. Even with all these challenges, I must be doing something right teaching-wise because my student kept muttering "This is so much fun". Complete with gleeful squeal and everything.

Now, on to my second Thursday student. His story is about two smart cousins who go an vacation and travel by canoe. Since in this day and age, unless you live on Lake Titicaca, there are faster ways of traveling, we agreed that the canoe travel would be one of the modes of transportation on the vacation, not the main one. This student wants the kids to decide all the vacation fun, and I've had to explain that people reading the story aren't going to be able to suspend their disbelief to the extent that the kids rule the vacation. (Although, in my other job managing a restaurant, they seem to do exactly that.) In order to write the story, which is set in Mexico, I found a picture of a hotel in Mexico that is super kid friendly, and we are describing it from the picture. I find that will kids, giving them something to look at works wonders. Grounding the story in real time and place, helps with focus and the flow of the story as well. That is true of the adults as well as the kids. And of me. My current project is set in the present in Edinburgh, and I rely heavily on my memories of my time there, but sometimes I need pictures of my time there to remind me of exact details. In this class, the challenge is keeping the student on schedule with the story, and I find it is very easy to fall behind.

Well, that's all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. Stay tuned, as always, there is more to come.

Bring on the Boys...

This session of Inkreadable Kids promises to be very interesting indeed. I have six students, four boys and two of my returning girls from last session. I am offering two different classes this time around. The four boys are taking my short story module, and so is my nine year old girl. The other girl has opted for my Scene Stealer class. 

I've known for a while that the genders write very differently. I've seen it time and again in the adult groups. I saw it, very clearly, in the Friday evening session, where I am teaching three boys. Instead of using the story starters prompt machine from Scholastic, two of them have opted to make up their stories on their own. They are brothers as well, and it makes for an interesting dichotomy. One brother is writing a story that focuses on a young man who invents a new sort of train system. The other brother has opted to blow up the world using warplanes and nuclear bombs. I am a little leery of the violence but am likewise leery of stifling creativity. Apparently, this will come right in the end. I am going to have to seat them separately because they seem to want to copy each other's story, and that simply won't do.

My third young man opted for a Story Starters prompt and is writing a story about a young boy who spends the night in the zoo. What was interesting here is that the prompt asked us to humanize an animal and that proved difficult for this young man. So, I had him switch the animal to a human boy and off he went. While less violent, he promised plenty of danger as the only escape route is  through a cage of snakes. I'm glad it's fiction as I am already shuddering. Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes? As for my last boy, he is doing a story starter prompt, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is. I'll have to get back

to you on that.

In the meantime, my girls are prolific as well. On Thursday, my student has chosen her favorite book, and we are working on creating dailogue. Specifically, we are working on giving them a two and a half year backstory that the author leaves to the imagination. It promises to be an interesting few weeks. Also, this particular student likes my writing, and has asked that I read to her as well. Which I love as it allows me to fix the issues in my novel with my target audience.

Lastly, my other returning student, aka the girl who fixed Haiti, is now writing a series of stories. Her main characters are off to Thailand, and planning on rebuilding tsunami damaged places there. On a ship. I am finding that suspending disbelief is proving difficult. But as always, I will persevere. That's all she wrote. Stay tuned for the next Inkreadable installment.

Girl Power

Thursday and Saturday this week marked the end of the first of my Short Story classes at Inkreadable Kids. I have mixed feelings about the closure of my first session. I am glad that, contrary to a few opinions, I started the sessions in January, instead of waiting until the spring. If I had waited for the perfect time to start this project, I wouldn't have. There is no perfect time. Or rather, it's always the perfect time. I am sad that I am losing, temporarily, I hope, two of my girls, but it's the start of Spring sports. I am ecstatic that my WIS girls are coming back on Thursday afternoons to take my Scene Stealers class. I have decided to make this a bit more focused on the tools of the craft. So while the kids will be writing scenes from well known stories, I am going to ask them to write the scene while concentrating on a particular writing concept. I was excited that everyone's parents showed up to hear their children read the stories. I am sorry that the one person's story got cut off in the scanning process. Luckily, they and their parents are so laid back it ended up being alright.

I learned several things  about myself as well. I read the girls bits of my novel and it was empowering. They were on the edge of their seats wanting to know what happens next. It was gratifying to me that I write with enough panache that kids like it. Since that's the age range I am targeting, it galvanized me to write more. It also put to rest all the mental nay saying that I do with regard to both teaching and writing. I know that I can write. I now know that I can instill love of writing in children. I am amazed at the power of the girl writer. And I know that yes, i can do this.

 In the Thursday class, we saved a mom who was a genie, we dealt with the stress of being a girl who loves science and vanquished that stress, plus we won the science fair, and we got a humble musician to take three risks, and avoid his critical wife, to go to a masquerade. On Saturday, in true WIS style, we wrote a story about a cheerful Captain and two young women, who find a secret waterfall, and in the process rebuild earthquake ravaged Haiti.  The power of these young girls' imaginations was astounding. Their intellects are big, their imaginations are bigger, and their hearts contain immense courage to stand up and bare their souls, to their parents, to me, and most importantly, to each other. I am in awe.

The next Short Story module holds its own appeal. It takes place on Fridays at 5:15, and is "About a boy". Actually, it's about three. Stay tuned for the next inkreadable installment.

Penultimate Position

Last Thursday marked the penultimate class of my current session. I know that the girls loved my class, well, because they told me so. But also, I got adult validation as well. Their parents really seemed to like what I taught and the way in which I did it. I think the key to writing, for anyone, is positive validation. The caveat is, that one isn't going to improve their writing until they know what to fix to make it better. For me as the haphazard writer that I currently am, it means looking at work and thinking about what relationships stick out or resonate with the reader, and which do not. The problem is that most writers aren't objective about their work, because to them,  it is perfectly clear what they were trying to say. After all, they wrote it. As a writer, it is all too easy to get defensive when receiving critique. Writers, and artists in general, need to have a thick skin. The key is taking that crucial step back and looking at your own work as though you are reading it for the first time.

I think it is even harder when trying to convey these ideas to kids. Remember the childhood axiom "sticks and stones may break my bones. but words will never hurt me?" I can't tell you how many times I myself heard it as a kid. Unfortunately, while the sentiment is meant to empower, it doesn't. Words have incredible magic, and that magic can be quite dark. So in talking to my students, I find out that the phrases "Here's what's working" and "here's what's not" work just as well for them as they do for the adults in my two critique groups.  The structure of the class doesn't allow for as much critique as positive reinforcement, but that's to be expected in a class that lasts an hour. Kids are also more likely to  write if they are mostly encouraged. That was the case for me, anyway.

I also found that the kids got inspired to write more while I was reading to them from either my own work or a children's book of some kind. It was very gratifying that my own work had the kids on the edges of their seats. I frustrated one of them whenever I stopped reading to answer a question from one of the others. I found that while my literal reading skills are very good indeed, my kid reading skills are somewhere in the remedial range. I couldn't figure out if one of the students was having a good time in the class because well, she's rather like me, very quiet, very reserved, and holds her cards very close to the vest. It turns out that I needn't have worried. He parents contacted me and asked if I had plans for classes for returning students. So I put my thinking cap on. Their daughter made a comment that she has notebooks filled with new scenes for stories that have already been written. In the writing world we know this as fan fiction. So I offered a choice: we do a course called scene stealers. In that course we take popular children's stories and write all new scenes or we take a scene she's already written and devise an all new story around the scene. All the while building on the concepts that I taught in the Short Story class. So for instance we'd write a scene from a fairy tale focusing on character description. Or add a scene in Little Red Riding Hood that examines the relationship between Little Red Riding Hood and her grand mother, or the mother that is only briefly mentioned in the story.

Today and saturday mark the last classes of the current session. Today, we stand up and read our work to our families. It will be an eye opener for me as well. Now, I must dash off, and get the stories from the printer, as they have bound the stories for me, and go write. Because, well, that's how I have fun. Next up: At the last class ad what we found there.

Saturday Shenanigans

As you all may remember, (people living in DC are hardly likely to forget), it snowed last Thursday. Everything was shut down, including the Community Center where we run the workshop. The bus unfortunately, didn't run, so when I wrote that I was stranded in my last post that was the literal truth. I don't drive, and couldn't get around. There isn't anything remarkable about that, really, except that I live just off Connecticut Avenue, which is, 1) a major artery in and out of DC, and 2) a snow route. Thus it is unacceptable that the route was not sufficiently clean so buses could run. Upside: When my other work called me to come in I was able to say absolutely not. Anyhoo, I'll step down from my soap box now. I had to extend the workshops another week so that they could be made up.  Thursday's sessions extended by a week, but Friday's sessions were a bit more difficult.

My Friday student wasn't able to attend class three a couple of weeks ago. In order to make up the classes, I had to get a little bit creative. Collectively, and by that I mean parent and teacher, we decided that I would come to the house and teach the last two classes over two hours on Saturday  February 15th. It worked out surprisingly well. And we managed to finish the srory. I was a bit surprised because my student asked me if I'd be willing to type the story out for her. Because, "I can't really read grown up writing all that well." I hope that wasn't a comment on my penmanship, otherwise Aquinas Montessori, I think you better give my parents their money back. So, just as I agreed to hand write the story for her, I also agreed to type it out for her as well. I think you all will agree that I'd better not make a habit of either writing long hand or typing out the story. But just this once...what's the harm?

The story is an amazing tale of the power of the human spirit and the triumph of man against his greedier instincts. It's not really all that highbrow, but I'm the grown up and can attach a deeper meaning if I want to.  If my students give me their permission, maybe I'll post the stories to the blog. Right, next up, we are back in session with the thursdays, hijinks and hilarity abound in our next inkreadable installment. Stay tuned.

Snow Day

Whoever said that Friday the Thirteenth was bad luck got it wrong. By a day. It's Thursday and while I am writing from the coziness of my home, I'll have to venture out in a little while. We are snowed in in Washington, though those of you in snowier climes are probably laughing hysterically, we are not. Inkreadable Kids has been cancelled until Saturday, when the first of my make up classes will take place. The Thursday Classes will resume next week and extend this round of classes. My thursday class next session has no takers, so it's easy enough to extend. In other Inkreadable news, the website is up and running. Check out the fun at:

www.inkreadablekids.org

I'm quite pleased with the result.

I am off to work on my own writing. We will see you next week with another inkreadable installment.

Friday Fun

Although this will be a shorter post, I wanted to deliver on my promise of Tuesday, which was to regale you with Friday's high jinks. Rising action may have gotten a reality check from my Friday student.  Remember last week's "Stuck"? Well, it was a fluke apparently. This nine year old thinks faster than she can write. So being the super supportive person that I am, I offered to write for her. I assure you the ideas are all her own. I am just her personal dictation device, with the added benefit that I know how to spell. She sent me to Haiti on a ship with two sets of parents, two bffs (don't worry this abbreviation will get into the OED soon enough I am sure), and one cheerful captain, aka Emma the sidekick's grandpa. Then she sent the protagonist's Dad to work, the other parents to a hotel to get settled, and our dynamic duo to explore the island with Gramps. That took forty minutes of furious writing. The last 20 minutes were spent compiling ideas for finishing up the story. At the end of the hour, I also had to contend with a pretty serious hand cramp, and one parent that I had to assure that yes, it was all the daughter's ideas. Mom and daughter left happy because they've already asked me about future classes. They've also asked me to change the time they come to 4:15 pm and that actually works better for me as I can go have a bit of fun after. Well, that's all she wrote in this Inkreadable installment.

Writing Rainbow

Many of you will remember the Children's program Reading Rainbow, that starred Geordi La Forge, I mean, Lavar Burton. I beg your pardon, my inner geek had to come out. We had our own version of the show, that I like to call Writing Rainbow. Last Thursday's class was all about the rising action of a story. The events that get the reader to the main event. I talked about the definition of rising action and what it does, the theme, aka the deeper meaning to a story, got more detailed about the plot of a story, and introduced the idea of pacing. It ended up getting pretty interesting as my fourth student came to the second class.  She'd missed the first because she'd been ill. As I lead them through the concepts, I saw that the kids were starting to form connections. Our newest edition fit right in, and picked up the story in the middle very easily. I also tried something different for this go round. As they wrote, they asked me to read a story that I had checked out of the library. I originally intended to read the story and have them identify the parts. But they were so adamant that they wanted to get writing, that I just read it. Leaving the climax for the following week. Their own writing did not suffer in the least. In fact, it seemed that they became inspired to write faster and that the ideas flowed naturally. Hence the writing rainbow idea.

Like any good teacher, and I've known plenty, I decided to teach the third student the beginning of the story after the class ended. In my one on one with her, I was surprised to see the same traits that I had growing up. She's super smart, very funny, and very talented. And she's got a rather dark sense of the absurd. She is writing a story about a humble musician who takes three risks to go to a masquerade ball.  It's turning into quite an adventure and has subterfuge in it. It's very exciting. Next up: Friday fun!

Stuck

Last Friday was more of a tutoring session than a class as I only have one student. She is nine, and as precocious as you can imagine. I taught her the same material as the two older kids the day before. She also was quick on the draw and understood the concepts for starting a story. She is an adventurous young lady, but really, I expected nothing less from a fellow WIS kid. When given the option for a prompt, she chose the Scrambler option from Story Starters. It was a learning experience for me as well, as I hadn't chosen the Scrambler option while I researched. So, we did it together. What emerged was so nonsensical, we looked at each other and simultaneously chorused "Next!".  So we spun the wheel again, so to speak, and we are now engaged in an adventure about a girl who sails on a ship with a cheerful captain, who discovers a secret waterfall. A bit complicated, no? But intrepid she is so she decided to stick with it. 

For this student, I became more involved in the writing process, as almost immediately, she said "I'm kinda stuck." So I started by asking her questions about her main character, who it turned out was named Annabeth. My young budding writer has a love of all things Rick Riordan, hence the character name. Since I do as well, we were off to a good start. Through question and answer, we gave her a best friend sidekick, a dad who was sailing for work to Haiti, and set up the problem. It turns out that our heroine is afraid of storms and losing her dad. Kids come up with some very grown up ideas.

The hardest thing about Friday's class was letting her write the story she wants to write. Not the one that I think she should. I hope I got around this successfully by giving her two or three different ideas for each question she asked. This week's lesson is rising action, but you'll just have to wait for my next blogpost to hear what fun I have planned for that class. 

The Hook

As you all know, last Thursday marked the beginning of the Inkreadable Kids writing workshops. I had two students for that particular session. I happened to have come down the stairs from my classroom and met them in the lobby. I was expecting three students for that time slot, but alas, it was not to be. The third student was a no-show. It's ok, because the two students I had more than compensated for the lack of the third thursday student. I came up with a small lesson plan for the beginning of a story, which I vetted with Maddie, who assured me that all the concepts made sense. I talked about introducing the characters and giving them a personality and a back story, setting up other characters in their world. Next up was introduction of the conflict, where I talked about the protagonist and the antagonist. Of course, kids aren't going to understand that concept, until you call them good guy and bad guy. That particular lesson caused a bit of incredulity on the students part, when I started talking about Harry Potter/Voldemort, and Percy Jackson and just about everyone. "You've read them? You're old." was the general consensus. I read them, and between you and me, they are way more fun than books for grown ups. I talked about point of view, and the general consensus was that third person was the easiest to write.  Next came how to start a story and we went through action, dialogue, narration, and description. The last concept was the Hook. That thing that grabs the reader, pulls them into your story, and makes them want to read more. It can be a question, use of descriptive words, or leaving the story a mystery. I asked if anything was confusing and whether there were questions. Apparently, I was pretty clear and all the kids were on the same page, because they piped up and said, "No questions, we got it.  You want us to write a hook to a story. What story?"

 Clearly, they are faster on the uptake than the grown-up.  The prompts were intriguing. I found an amazing website, www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/. The page offers the choice of adventure, fantasy, Sci-Fi and Scrambler. You are asked to pick a genre, then enter your name and grade, then directed to a slot machine. When you pull the arm, a random story is generated. One of my kids chose to use the scholastic prompt, and the story she is working on involves a confused plumber who sets fire to a science fair. The other student is writing a story based on the prompt:

Imagine you met a genie and he gave you three wishes. What do you wish for and why?

Both of them jumped in with action and dialogue.  They took their stories and ran. It was an amazing experience for me as well. What would have happened if someone had encouraged me at that age to translate my love of reading into a love of writing?  I can't wait to see what happens over the next few weeks.

The Four

Firstly, I am so sorry for the terribly long radio silence. It has been a busy month and a half with Nanowrimo (I didn't finish), the holidays (they are finished), and finalizing the classes for Inkreadable Kids (hopefully, they will never finish). It is the 23rd of January and it's here! That's right, I have my first class today. I have three students in this first class. It is going to be a riotous exercise in the power of the girl writer. I have been talking to the girls' parents through email and they are so excited to get started. They can't be as excited as I am. I have been looking at tons of online resources and gathering material to teach. Not only is it the beginning of the classes, I am teaching the beginning of a story. I am teaching several things today, among them what the beginning does, how to write a beginning, and the hook. What is a hook, you ask? Why it's that thing that you catch s fish, or a reader with. It that interesting question, that makes you go, hmm, I want to learn more. It can be a question, dialogue, or a great piece of action. My favorites always contain something noire to them:

He looked, rather pleasantly, like a blonde satan.

That's from my favorite of all the hardboiled writers, Dashiel Hammett in The Maltese Falcon.

Literature has great lines too:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Mr. Dickens, I think you're sentences are a bit long, but I after I waded through the above, attempting not to edit, I agreed.

Writing that makes you go hmm.

Anyhoo, to back  Inkreadable. So I have three students today, and one tomorrow. One plus three equals four. Phew, I learned something in math. Thank you, Tom O'Mara and Sam Smith. 

Here they are, the four. They come from Murch and WIS and are in for a great time. They also made my life a bit easier because they've been bitten by the writing bug already. I can't wait to see what they come up with. 

Finally, before I go, major shout outs to my inspiration, you all know her as the Monkeybread Musings girl, Madeline, but to me, she is Maddie, without whom, I've have been more of a nervous wreck than I already am, and to my awesome sister Alex, whose support with marketing, and tips on art materials, made this project fun, even before it started. Lastly, thank you, Tina Thuermer, for making the WIS community supportive of its alumnae and our "make a difference".

Right, that's all she wrote. For now. Stay tuned, as I regale you with "It happened on Thursday".