Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Online Journal Seeks Manuscripts and Issue Proposals


Online journal seeks manuscripts and issue proposals
WOW Stories: Connections from the Classroom is the refereed journal of the Worlds of Words, an organization dedicated to creating an international network of people who share the vision of bringing books and children together, thereby opening windows on the world. WOW encourages thoughtful dialogue around literature so that children and adolescents can reflect on their own cultural experiences and connect to the experiences of others across the globe.
You can submit to the journal in two different formats.  We publish 1-2 issues a year that contain individual manuscripts and 2 issues a year that are submitted by a specific literacy community.

Submit an individual manuscript as a vignette/classroom story:
·       Describe classroom or library practice (K-12) that connects children and literature in ways that promote intercultural understanding.
·       Take the form of a story or vignette that one educator might tell to another to share the responses of students to literature.
·       Include student voices where appropriate through quotes of student talk, examples of student work, audio clips, or video clips.
·       Include charts, graphs, student artifacts, bulleted points, and/or figures wherever possible to vary the format and enhance the content of the article.
·       Be less than 2000 words.
·       These manuscripts will be sent out for review by our editorial board, with decisions made within four months.
·       Visit www.wowlit.org to see examples of individual manuscripts in Volume 2, WOW Stories

Submit a proposal as a literacy community for an issue of the journal:
·      A group of educators from a school, library, project, writing group, or university course can submit a proposal to put together an issue of the journal.
·      Determine a theme/topic from the community’s work together related to using multicultural or global literature with students to create intercultural understanding.
·      Submit a 2-3 page proposal that describes the topic and provides a schedule for developing the vignettes along with the names of the authors who will contribute and the name of the contact person.
·      Issue begins with a short introduction of the focus for the issue and introduces the literacy community,
·       Issue contains 5 or more vignettes around the theme.
·       Visit www.wowlit.org to see examples of a community-based journal issue in Volume 1, WOW Stories

Submit all manuscripts and proposals electronically to wow@email.arizona.edu. See wowlit.org for specific submission guidelines. 
Manuscripts and issue proposals are accepted at any time.
For specific questions or inquiries, contact Dr. Janine M. Schall at jschall@utpa.edu. 

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Free K-5 Literacy Workshop with Kathy Collins

Save the Date!
You are invited to a Literacy Workshop with Kathy Collins, author of Growing Readers: Units of Study in the Primary Classroom


When: Saturday, February 25, 2012
             9:00 AM - NOON

Where: UH Hilo, UCB 100
Rates: 
  • LWP Alum - FREE
  • Teachers - $35.00 [includes membership to BICTE]
  • Education students - $10.00
RSVP: by February 15, 2012 (limited to first 100 participants)
to Avis Masuda (ammasuda@hawaii.edu) OR Michele Ebersole (mebersol@hawaii.edu)


This workshop is sponsored by the Lehua Writing Project, the Big Island Council of Teachers of English and the UH Hilo education department.




Thursday, January 12, 2012

January Continuity: Non-Fiction Writing and Reading Comprehension through Drama

Ha'uoli makahiki hou! Some LWP members spent a fabulous Saturday at Kealakehe with our gracious hostess Shawna Fischer.

SI 2011 alum Jessie Garcia and SI 2009 alum Cathy Riehle did the demo lessons and our hostess (SI 09) did the invitation to write.

Using Lucy Calkins' nonfiction writing book as a resource (from the Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Curriculum), Jessie went over the packet she uses with her primary students to get them to create nonfiction books.




With her young students, they start with topics that they already know about, like caring for a dog, but older students can use this same format to create non-fiction books based on their research.


Cathy warmed us up by having us use our bodies to exemplify certain vocabulary words like droop, stomp, etc.

She then read an excerpt to us from Chicken Soup for Little Souls: Best Night Out with Dad
Our groups were tasked with dramatizing certain key words/concepts - like loneliness and disdain as a way to kinesthetically understand the reading.
Did you miss something wonderful? Yes, but stay tuned. There's an opportunity for more professional development in February and it's manuahi for LWP alum.