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.