BWC at the Shryock's Corn Maze

This past Monday, the Boy's Writer's Club set off on a big adventure to the Shryock's Corn Maze to take their Samurai training to the next level. We set up a number of writing exercises to help inspire the young writers to take new steps in their development. The idea behind taking them to the corn maze was to place them in an environment that would stimulate their minds and spark new ideas just as the VTS strategy has back in the classroom. We were able to set up a number of writing prompts for them within the maze and as they watched the giant gumball machine operate inside the barn. The boys seemed very engaged and focused on the reason for the trip to the maze/barn. The activities they were involved in seemed to enhance their creative receptors and the result was a collection of sketch books overflowing with colorful drawings of machines and stories of their adventure through the maze.

While the boys sat and watched the two-story gumball machine in process, they were challenged to begin to imagine their own machine and what types of things it would be able to do. They were then challenged to make a drawing and and write about their machine, how it was made, what it was made of, and what it could do. While they drew, I gave each one of them a gumball to chew on. I was AMAZED at how quite the room became as they drew and wrote about their own machine. The only thing I could hear was the slurping sound of gumballs being chomped. I think that the gumballs absorbed the sounds that they would typically be tempted to make, talking across the room to each other. They were focused, occupied, and inspired to put their ideas on paper. The act of placing them in front of something that consumed them visually helped them excel in the battle to focus and produce new ideas. I think that this is what makes the Visual Teaching Strategy so successful and if we can continue to find new and inspiring things for our students to focus on, we will succeed as teachers looking to expand their minds.

The big idea that we are focusing on with these boys has to do with Samurai Warriors and what they represent. We were able to teach the boys about honor, respect, tradition, and the power of the ability to write. As they made their way through the maze, they were faced with challenges to write and to express their feelings. Once they arrived at the destination point in the maze, which was the bridge located at the center of the maze with a sprawling view, the boys were presented with a pen in the shape of a samurai sword. They were reminded once again how important that the skills that they are learning in the BWC are to their future. The message that " The pen is mightier than the sword " is at the heart of the big idea of the Samurai Warrior.

VTS#1 (Fall 2011)

We are a couple of weeks into our time with the BOYS WRITER'S CLUB this fall. I truly look forward to this time each week as I have the opportunity to spend some time with these hilarious little guys. I know the program is set up for us to go into the school to help them but I feel like I am probably getting more out of our time together than they are. I am also spending time in a High School classroom this semester which is good but the enthusiasm and involvement from the students is much lower than what the BWC brings! I am energized and excited to spend my days with kids as a career after hanging out with these guys. And for that, I am very thankful.

At the heart of our Boys Writer's Club is the teaching strategy known as VTS. The Visual Teaching Strategy is a tool that helps teachers facilitate conversation and observation in students as they look at images of various artworks. The strategy works very well when students are engaged and are able to build new ideas of their own off of others thoughts and comments. Our goal with the BWC is to help the boys improve their writing by allowing them to use their artwork to inspire, entice and produce new thoughts and descriptions of things that excite them. This tool has been something that I have seen work very well first hand with our group and I am excited to utilize in my own classroom in the future. Last semester we spent a great deal of time utilizing the VTS strategy in a classroom and then we finished off the semester by taking these boys to an Art museum. When we made it to the museum, the boys were making such amazing comments and observations that the docent in charge of leading our group said that he was realizing things about certain pieces of art that he had never seen before. The amount of comments and observations that these boys were making was remarkable. It was very clear that their eyes had been opened to the things that were going on around them and they had been empowered to make statements and develop conclusions on the things that they were seeing.

Last week I was able to lead our BWC group in a VTS session and once again I was excited about the results. VTS is built on the foundation of simple questions such as "What is going on in this image?" By allowing the boys to observe and then share their findings one by one with the group, new ideas are formed as the VTS leader summarizes each students statements. The leader is not to make any leading comments or treat any response different from the others. This can be very tough when kids tend to make the same statements over and over that someone else has already made just for the sake of making a comment. Sometimes I am not sure if students are just saying the same thing for the sake of being noticed, OR if this new thought is triggering in their head and they are not aware that it has already been stated and their way of processing this new thought is by sharing it. I think that if the same idea is being repeated, this is a sign that a new idea is being shared and understood by others and the collective idea construction process is working.

Another thing that I noticed in a VTS session that we held this week, is that students respond very well to seeing their ideas posted on some type of public board. We decided to write any descriptive words that we heard from them on a big piece of paper next to the image we were discussing to promote a richer vocabulary in their writing. As the boys saw words being written where everyone could see, they began to shout out all of the words they could think of to see theirs written on the board. The incentive to explore their vocabulary was increased and the words that they were able to share was exciting. From my perspective, a bit of competition is always a good thing to get boys in to an activity. In the context of VTS, this competition is able to be controlled and allow everyone to experience success as long as the facilitator is treating each response consistently.

The VTS strategy brings a number of beneficial scenarios into the classroom. Collaborative learning in this context is interesting for all and allows students to develop ideas at their own rate as the group spends time observing a common image. Everyone is challenged, given freedom to express their opinions, and develop communication skills in addition to the benefits of exposure to new pieces of art.