My Writing: Six-Week Roundup

Following the path of procrastination, instead of finishing the edit on the lesson plan I’ve been working on, I’ve been catching up on some blog entries. I’ve sent out a number of pieces, and it seems like a summary is in order (if only to prove to myself that I really have accomplished something recently). Here goes.

• “Rosetta Stones” published in the October 2006 Classroom Notes Plus in the “Focus on Language” section. The article describes an activity I’ve used to invite students to craft their own Rosetta Stones to show off their abilities with different language and dialects. It’s a great activity for ELL/ESL students.
• “Effective Writing Assignments in the Age of Standardized Writing Assessment” was rejected by English Journal. I completely restructured and revised it, turning it into Chapter 5 of the book manuscript.
• “Write Like You Talk” accepted for the Snapshots column of English Journal, to be published in the March 2007 issue. The article describes an wonderful experience I had when I urged students to use their own language, rather than the language of the academy in a writing assignment.
• “Bridging Television and Literature: Literacy Practices that Matter In and Out of the Classroom” accepted for the Fall 2006 issue of California English. The article lists ten activities that explore television and literature with today’s media-savvy students.
• “Judged by Language” tentatively accepted for the January 2007 issue of Classroom Notes Plus. The article describes a first-person narrative assignment that introduces some of the political and cultural ways that language affects who we are and how others react to us.
• Proposed an article on YA novels that deal specifically with e-mail, text messages, and blogs for the Bold Books column of English Journal. Proposal accepted. Need to have the piece written by early to mid December.
• AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, submitted the six-chapter book manuscript, which has only taken me three years to write. More accurately, it took me 2 years to research and focus my ideas. It was primarily written from June 1 to Nov 1. Now I’m in the waiting stage to see if the reviewers respond positively and it gets accepted.