Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Creative Coaching at Central Normal School Day 11

This is my second to last visit, and yay!!! We are seeing some things that are looking close to finished products. Tracye’s bollicking yesterday was terribly effective - I really wish I could do that with my kids, but it’s either something you learn at College of Ed or it’s genetic.

The Eric Carle tissue paper pictures are fabulous. When I saw what they would have to do at the beginning with those ones I thought they’d take forever, but once the sheets of paper had been glued it didn’t take them too long to cut out. They really make the characters stand out and are very child-appealing. And adult-appealing.

I helped a few of them with writing a blurb for the back (something I’ve never had success with with my own stories, so I need the practice) and we discussed some cover ideas. I went over some of the titles they’d used with them, and we came up with a few improvements – just tighter language and more specifically relating to the story. We’re still finding editing errors, we’re quite sure that the computer has a gremlin living in it that changes things after we’ve left the room.

They’re meant to have everything finished by Tuesday, and we’ll use that session for checking their work before the final print – we know that they won’t all be finished, but most of them will. There will be one or two that will be gently encouraged to do some homework.

One thing that I would do next time that I’m working with a group over a period of time is to take a photo of all the children and write a couple of notes and their names beside them – I’ve only now really got to grips with who is who, and I really don’t like not being able to use their names from the beginning.

Tracye says that if she was doing it again she would make her group smaller, or split the group into two different types – one very able, and the other that she would like to extend, to bring up to the very able level.


Diana Neild

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