Using Visual Writing Prompts in the Catholic Classroom
It’s tough to get eighth graders to settle down for Language Arts right after lunch, but one thing that’s been successful for me is the use of visual writing prompts. Here’s how it works:
Before students come in from the lunch room I project an interesting image on the screen, like this:
They enter the classroom, sit down, and begin a free write based on the image.
I usually have them write for ten to fifteen minutes with a goal of producing one full handwritten page. As they write I circulate around the room making sure everyone is on task, and I hand out their writing folders.
As with a typical free-write, they are to keep their pen moving constantly, and if they get stuck they are to write the last word they wrote over and over until they get unblocked.
After ten or fifteen minutes, I signal that the free write is over. On the front of their folder they number the free write and label it.
The class is currently in the middle of a Digital Writing Workshop in which they blog each day on Kidblog.org. Their full page of writing acts as a “ticket” which they exchange for getting a laptop out from the mobile cart. Since starting this in the middle of November, students have written almost thirty pages of free writes.
The main purpose of the free write is to get students writing fluently and to bypass their inner critic. The activity has two advantageous side effects: first, it helps to create a quiet, calm environment just after the busyness of lunch; second, it gives students lots of material to work with when trying to find something to blog about.
It’s pretty easy to find images to use–I usually just type “visual writing prompt” into Google’s image search–but there are a few websites that produce visual prompts regularly:
Often, while students are writing, I will play instrumental music in the background as another way to stimulate creativity. For instance, when I used the picture of the shark in the forest I played the theme from Jaws.
If you use visual prompts or would like to know more, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Here are some of the students’ favorites so far:
Catholic School Students Get Experience Producing Videos, Commercials
Al.com reports on a Catholic school video journalism class:
Students in McGill-Toolen Catholic High School’s video journalism class are getting hands-on experience with real-time news: they produce segments which are aired daily on the school’s closed circuit television system.
The school channel has daily announcements as well as anti-drug commercials which the students produce. On Thursdays, students tape interviews with the school’s president, the Rev. Bry Shields, who said the segments foster better communication.
“Corporately, every organization thrives on frequent communication,” said Shields. “It is particularly helpful in a school community for both faculty and students to hear from the head of the school on a regular basis. For the students, it provides them the opportunity to become more confident in their ability to speak in public and to gain technical skills in producing a broadcast.”He said the questions from students concern “the life of the school, political and social questions, and questions about the Church and about the understanding of our faith.”
Read the rest on Al.com.
Holy Messiness: A Catholic Schools Week Reflection
The following reflection was written for Catholic Schools Week 2013 as part of a series for ACE Advocates for Catholic Schools.
An empty Catholic school is a lonely place, and when students go home for the summer the atmosphere changes drastically. It’s quieter, of course. There are no screaming kids at recess, no buzz of conversation down the halls, no tramping of feet before the beginning of daily Mass.
And it’s cleaner, too. The desks are empty, the lockers are bare. The remnants of the year get swept away into piles and then carried out to the trash–leftover tests, forgotten lunch boxes, old pens and pencils. The floors shine again, white boards sparkle, the bathroom walls glisten.
A parish, too, feels different. There’s a certain peace and quiet in a parish when school lets out for the summer. But there’s also a certain hollowness. When Catholic school is in session there’s an unmistakeable liveliness, an energy, a vibrancy in the parish. It’s as unpredictable as the Holy Spirit, this mass of children who descend upon a parish school each autumn. They come like a mighty wind, waking up the community, bringing new life.
Sometimes we like Church to be neat and tidy, but Church is a wonderfully messy reality. Church is the messiness of St. Francis of Assisi walking with the animals; it’s the messiness of St. Catherine of Siena wrangling Pope Gregory back to Rome from Avignon; it’s the messiness of Mother Teresa on the streets of Calcutta.
It’s also the messiness of finger painting, glitter, and spilled milk. It’s student lectors who don’t read loud enough, and servers who fiddle with their robes, and kids who poke at each other during Mass.
It’s the messiness of a young baby lying in a straw-filled manger; it’s the messiness of Christ carrying a bloody cross to Calvary.
Amid all the mess, noise, and chaos, the Holy Spirit is at work.
The quiet of summer is all well and good, but there’s a deep holiness in the tumult of watching children come alive in faith each day at a Catholic school.
Thank God for children, thank God for our messy Church, and thank God for Catholic schools.
Advent and Christmas Videos for the Catholic Classroom (and a Bonus Christmas Carol Puzzle)
On today’s #CatholicEdChat, I shared a few YouTube videos that I sometimes use with my students. Here they are in one convenient place for you to use, along with a special word puzzle, Translate that Christmas Carol.
(This post will update as I find more Advent/Christmas videos)
Advent Conspiracy
Advent in 2 Minutes
Bethlehemian Rhapsody
Christmas Food Court Flash Mob of Hallelujah Chorus
Fr. Jim Martin on Good King Wenceslas by The Roches
John Lewis Christmas Advert 2011
Sean Quigley – The Little Drummer Boy
Darth Vader Conducts Christmas Carol Flash Mob
Rudolph (You Don’t Have to Put on the Red Light)
Bonus Word Puzzle: Translate that Christmas Tune
For a fun Christmas/vocabulary activity try having your students translate these verbose Christmas carol titles back into their original form:
Example: Soundless Nocturnal Timespan (answer: Silent Night)
- Move Hitherward the Entire Assembly of Those Who Are Loyal in Their Belief
- Ornament the Enclosure with Large Sprigs of a Berry-Bearing Evergreen
- Vertically-Challenged Adolescent Percussionist
- First Person (Singular) Experiencing an Hallucinatory Phenomenon of a Natal Celebration Devoid of Color
- Soundless Nocturnal Timespan
- Majestic Triplet (First Person Plural)
- The Yuletide Occurrence Preceding All Others
- Precious Metal Musical Devices
- Omnipotent Supreme Being Elicits Respite to Ecstatic Distinguished Males
- Caribou Afflicted with Vermillion Olfactory Appendage
- Allow Crystalline Formation to Descend
- Jovial Yuletide Desired for the Second Person (Singular or Plural)
- Commence Auditory Reception, the Celestial Messengers Produce Harmonious Sounds
- Village Expectations of a Yuletide Emmisary
- Bipedal Travel through a Geographic State of Fantasy During the Season of Mother Nature’s Dormancy
- Arrival Occurred at Twelve O’clock During Clement Nocturnal Period
- Exclamatory Remark Concerning a Diminutive Municipality of Judea
- Ecstatic Experience Directed Toward Global Inhabitants
- First Person (Plural) Acoustic Awareness of Extra-Terrestrial Messengers at Great Altitude
- Obese Male Personification Consisting of Aggregate Compaction of Individual Water Crystals, with Appellation of Surface Crystalline Deposition of Water Vapor
- Tintinnabulation of Vacillating Pendulums in Metallic Resonant Spheres
- Improvised Infant Furniture in Remote Location
- Imperative Expedition for the Purpose of Proclaiming Upon a Specific Alpine Formation
- First Person’s Perplexed Contemplations Upon a Period of Aimless Meandering
- Wintertime Festivity Consisting of a Dozen Planetary Sidereal Rotations
- My Sole Desire for the Yuletide Season Is Receipt of a Pair of Central Incisors
- Are You Detecting the Same Aural Sensations as I Am?
- Who’s the Mystery Offspring?
- Testimony of Witness to Maternal Parent’s Infidelity with Kris Kringle
For the answers, click here.
Powerful Video Shows Students How a Dollar Can Change the World
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” So says Galadriel to Frodo in Peter Jackson’s film of Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring. The same sentiment could be applied to the money that gets donated in the following short film Change for a Dollar. Even the smallest amount of money can change the course of the future.
I am sorely tempted to list discussion points or viewing questions that you could use with this video after showing it your students, but I think this time I’ll just let the video speak for itself. I’d love to hear how you would use the video, or what you would focus on with your students. To share, leave your suggestions and thoughts in the comments section.
Thanks to CatholicTV for posting this video on its Facebook page.