Using Photographs To Inspire Writing

Comparison and Contrast

Most students probably don’t realize that they exercise the mental processes of comparison and/or contrast every day. For example, each morning they may compare two choices of clothing. Or they may contrast two kinds of breakfast cereals. Or they may even compare or contrast you to other people who influence their lives.

But when it comes to using comparison and contrast in their expository writing, students don’t seem to make the connections as easily as they do at other times. Fortunately, some photo-graphs can easily help students develop compositions and/or contrasts using these two patterns of organization.

Using the photographs shown here, students could develop papers that are organized in terms of the differences between the two women. In their compositions, the students could discuss the differences in clothing, hairstyles, facial expressions, lighting, and even the jewelry the women are wearing. They could also speculate as to the period of time during which the photos were taken. And they could speculate as to where the photos were created.

But that's not all. The same two photos could also inspire stu-
dents to create stories or poems.

The Addsion Gallery of American Art

The Addison Gallery of American Art is a department of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, http://chat.andover.edu/addison/education/education_PWP.htm. When you visit this website, you’ll discover more about this organization’s Photography and Writing Program, which is “designed to enable and inspire students to express themselves in words and photographs.” Definitely worth a visit.

Call for Submissions

I’ve been writing a series of articles titled “Using Photography To Inspire Writing” for publication at http://www.creativity-portal.com/ and www.teachers.net/gazette. Please visit those two websites to read the articles published to date.
As in the book Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing (Cottonwood Press, 2009), each article contains samples of photo-writing activities educators have used in classrooms at many levels nationwide.
If you have used photos to stimulate writing in your classroom, and if you would like to share an activity that’s been successful, I’d love to hear from you. Please send approximately 100 words describing your activity to me. Don’t forget to include your name, title, school or college, city, state, and a brief statement granting permission to use your submission in my articles. Thank you.

A Marriage Made in Writers’ Heaven

Mary Borg’s Writing Your Life presents hundreds of ideas and suggestions that can help to inspire writers at all levels. Together with Write What You See, this book will form a perfect union for teachers who want to offer their students almost limitless opportunities to write. Cottonwood Press publishes two versions of this fine book, one for grades 6-12 and one for adults.

Book Description

Many readers of my mailings, articles, and blog have written to ask for more information about Write What You See. That’s why I’m including a book description in this blog entry. If you still have questions, please contact me.
Write What You See is a collection of photographs and accompanying prompts that belongs in every classroom in which the teaching of English composition plays an important role.
Written by a retired teacher of English, this work presents 99 dramatic black and white photographs accompanied by insightful prompts that are certain to captivate and motivate students of writing at many levels.
Ranging in subject matter from people to places to animals to things, the photographs in this work depict a wide variety of locations, activities, and moods. Students who view the photos are sure to respond positively as they tap their inner resources and create prose and poetry they never thought they would create.
In addition to the photos and prompts, Write What You See contains two special sections that are especially noteworthy. One section cites ten creative ways to use photographs to inspire writing. Another section reveals how more than two dozen master teachers nationwide stimulate their students’ imaginations with photographs.
Although brief written prompts accompany each photograph in Write What You See, students are not required to use them. If they wish to do so, aspiring writers may simply view the photographs and allow their imaginations to guide them in their writing. This feature makes the work suitable for use at many different levels of instruction.

In Write What You See students at many levels will be:

• motivated to write compositions more easily than ever before.
• encouraged to use their imaginations and creativity as powerful stimuli.
• encouraged to express their feelings and ideas in writing.
• offered opportunities to exchange ideas with their peers.
• permitted to express their thoughts in writing without fear of negative
  feedback
• offered the opportunity to display their works in a variety of ways.
• exposed to a variety of approaches and techniques that will improve their
  writing.

Write What You See is a must not only for instructors who want to offer their students a fresh, creative approach to the writing process, but also for anyone who wants to broaden his or her writing horizons.

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Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner. Includes supplementary CD with photos and writing prompts. Original Edition. Cottonwood Press. 8 ½ x11, 120 pages, perfect binding, ISBN 978-1-877-673-83-2. $24.95. Write What You See will be available from Cottonwood Press at http://www.cottonwoodpress.com/ in late January, 2009.

Using Photographs To Inspire Writing


Go Google!

If you Google the phrase “photographs and writing,” you’ll discover an astounding 23,400,000 entries for that topic. That’s enough to keep you busy for the rest of your life and beyond—if that were possible.

But 23,400,000 entries are just a few drops in a teacup when they’re compared to the mind-boggling 77,100,000 entries Google cites when you enter “photography and writing” instead of “photographs and writing.”

Obviously, I couldn’t sample more than just a few of the websites cited in Google, but I did find one that's especially helpful to anyone who's interested in using photographs to inspire writing in the classroom: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/collections/environ/langarts.html.

According to the unnamed author of this “Learning Page” from the Library of Congress, some photographs can help to launch “projects that will develop visual literacy and creative writing skills,” while others “lend themselves to expository writing.”

In the section of the article that deals with creative writing, the author presents a photograph of five students who are on a field trip, directs the students to select one of the students shown in the photographs, and then asks such questions as: (1) How old is the student? (2) Has the person you chose been on an adventure like this before? (3) What unexpected events occur on the trip? (4) Are friends along on the trip? (5) Is there someone in the group the student dislikes?

In the expository section of the article, the author presents a simple, uncluttered photograph of a sand dune and points out that “…in writing about a sand dune, an essay might include the definition of a dune, an account of where dunes exist in the world, the kinds of animals and plants that live among the dunes, and an assessment of the human impact on sand dunes.”

Every Photograph Tells a Story

On a more personal level, today almost everyone owns a digital camera. Except for a few diehards, gone are the days when people waited anxiously for rolls of film to be developed and prints to be made. Now, as if by magic, images appear instantly to be downloaded, stored on hard discs, and printed at the drop of a sombrero.

This means that most students probably have collections of hundreds, if not thousands, of digital images that can trigger writing assignments. Consider these two photos, for example. A student at almost every level could have created them. And the photos could easily trigger any number of questions designed to inspire writing. For example: (1) What were the conditions under which the student photographer created the photos? (2) What were the reasons for creating them? (3) What was happening while the student photographer snapped the photos? (4) In what way are the people in the photographs related?

Indeed, the number of questions you can ask is limited only by your imagination and by the imaginations of your students.

Alternatively, you could simply show the two photographs without comments or questions and ask the students to respond to them based on their unspoken thoughts and their feelings before they write their compositions.

This photo is a good example of a photo that reveals little but says a lot. Almost in silhouette, a uniformed police officer wearing a helmet stands near a display window. Part of a shadow appears behind the officer. A headless mannequin clothed in white stands framed in the window to the officer’s left.

Some students will want to discuss the contrasts between the officer and the mannequin; the similarities between the positions in which the two are presented; and the helmeted officer as opposed to the headless mannequin. Other students will want to create narratives featuring the two figures. For example, what would happen if the headless mannequin somehow morphed into a living person? How would the officer respond to such a startling event?

Photographs that feature people involved in some form of activity always elicit interesting verbal and written responses from students. In this photograph, a woman leans forward at what appears to be the shore of a lake or river as she trains her camera on something or someone we cannot see. On each side of the frame, several canoes rest on the shore.

Who is the woman? How old is she? Is she married or single? Does she have a companion who’s waiting outside of the scene? Who or what is she photographing? Is she a professional photographer or an amateur?

How Some Master Teachers Use Photographs

After having students respond to several photos in terms of the five senses, Lehigh Valley Writing Project Co-Director Kristy M. Weidner-Gonzalez has the students write short poems in which each line reveals one of the senses. Then the students take a walking tour of the school and surrounding neighborhood during which they photograph their favorite places. Using the images they produced, the students revisit the idea of senses as they write about what they had experienced when they created the photos. “The second time around has much more meaning for the students,” writes Weidner-Gonzalez, “because the places they photographed were much more personal and held certain memories for them.”

As a Teacher Consultant for the Illinois State Writing Project and an English teacher at Central Catholic High School in Bloomington, Ann Cox uses photos to teach characterization. After giving her students a magazine photo of a person, she asks them to write a character sketch of the person. Then she provides a scenario and directs the students to describe how their characters would react and why. Finally, students share their writing with the class and discuss their motivation.

At the Prairie Lands Writing Project, Technology Liaison Mary Lee Meyer conducts workshops for teachers at which she emphasizes the use of images to inspire writing. “About 15% of the student population has low verbal skills,” she wrote in a recent workshop handout. “Using images to invoke responses helps that population.” Meyer pointed out, also, that images “…require students to use their powers of critical analysis when writing.”

Among other things, in her workshops Meyer urges teachers to help students (1) write dialogue by using comic characters; (2) discover details by analyzing images; and (3) expand the use of imagery words by studying photos and paintings. You can read one of her workshop handouts, “Images: Their Impact on Learning” at the following website. http://www.missouriwestern.edu/plwp/08saturdayseminar/info.html

Copyright © 2008 by Hank Kellner Photos by the author

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Hank Kellner is a retired educator and the author of Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing. Although the official publication date for the book is April 1, 2009, it should be available directly from Cottonwood Press earlier than that--most likely in late January, 2009.

Contact the author at hankpix@gmail.com.

Visit Cottonwood Press at http://www.cottonwoodpress.com/.

Using Photographs To Inspire Writing

Less is more. There's really nothing complicated about the photograph shown below. A figure stands silhouetted against a gray-to-black background. In the far distance, a bright circle hovers above the horizon.

One fist appears to be clenched as the figure stands with its feet apart. Is the figure male or female? Is it facing the horizon, or is it facing the camera? Does its posture suggest anger, rage, or hostility? Why is the subject standing alone in a space that's delineated by shades of gray?

If you showed this photograph to your students to inspire them to write stories or poems, you might ask them the questions cited above. Alternatively, you might simply show the photograph and allow your students' imaginations to kick in and guide them as they create their compositions.

By the way, if you're a photography buff, you'll probably want to know that this photograph was created using a Leica M-3 and Plus-X film back in the days when silver-based images were king and digital imaging wasn't even on the drawing board yet.

Photographs can also lend themselves to teaching specific skills. At Columbus State Community College, for example, Sheila Dickson uses graphic images to focus on point of view as a writing technique. She writes: "Being a 'flower child', I show images of the Kent State shootings in 1970." First, Dickson asks students to write a descriptive paragraph from the points of view of a participating student, a National Guardsman, or an observing student. Then she directs them to write another paragraph from a different point of view. Finally, she tells the students to develop one of their choices into an essay. "Using this technique," she concludes, "I've received some of the best student writing I've ever received at the high school and college level during my thirty-six years of teaching English."

At Independence High School in San Jose, California, English teacher Martin Brandt shows his students side-by-side photos of two women and asks them to respond in writing to the following five questions: (1) What does each photograph show? (2) How is each woman dressed? (3) What do you notice about the environment surrounding each woman? (4) What do you notice about the condition of each woman? (5) What do the two women have in common? In this way, he helps the students develop papers based on comparisons and contrasts.

From the Boston Writing Project, Peter Golden reports that in one of several photo-related exercises he uses with students at South Boston High School he projects a photo of Marilyn Monroe (a Norma Jean photo) and asks the students to write down their responses and share them. After the students arrive at a general description of the subject, as in shy or sophisticated,
Golden presses them for details. Then he directs them to write descriptions of Norma that convey their conclusion (shy or sophisticated) without using that word. “In other words,” he writes, “the readers should come to the same conclusion just by reading the description.”

“One of the projects my students and parents are most proud of is a project I do with my high school freshmen,” writes Jennifer Sluss, Tech Liaison for the Mountain Writing Project. To help teach purpose and audience in writing, Sluss’s students create visual personal narratives/memoirs that she fondly refers to as the Me Mini Movie. In this exercise, students compile photos that tell a story or present an aspect of their lives that they value. “We then add a song to the photos in Movie Maker or Power Point. When we do this, the students must focus on matching the music to their message. We also talk about tone, audience, and the purpose of the Me Mini Movies.” Sluss also uses representations of abstract art to help her junior English students relate to the themes and plots of novels.

Photographs are wonderful teaching aids. They can be used to elicit responses from the most reluctant students. They can be used to trigger the imaginations of students from elementary school through college. They can be used to inspire either expository or creative pieces. When you use them to encourage writing in the classroom, never again will students complain that they have nothing to write about.

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Hank Kellner is a retired teacher of English and freelance writer-photographer. He is the author of many articles that have appeared in publications nationwide. His upcoming book, Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing, 120 pages, ISBN 978-1-877-673-83-2, $24.95, perfect binding, 8 1/2 x 11 will include a supplementary CD with photos. Although the official publication date for Write What You See is April 1, 2009, it should be available directly from Cottonwood Press earlier than that--most likely in late January, 2009. Visit Cottonwood Press at http://www.cottonwoodpress.com/. Contact the author at hankpix@gmail.com.

Using Photography To Inspire Writing
by Hank Kellner

“Words and pictures can work together to communicate more powerfully than either alone.”
William Albert Allar
American Photographer

If “One picture is worth a thousand words,” can one picture also inspire a thousand words? Of course it can. That’s why educators are becoming increasingly aware of the power photographs have to unlock students’ imaginations and help them express themselves through written language.
Whether you want to teach specific writing skills or simply to help students overcome their reluctance to write, you’ll find that photographs are powerful teaching aids that can inspire students at all levels to create both expository and creative compositions. What’s more, when you use photographs in your classroom, you can be as directive—or as non-directive—as you choose to be.
For example, you could show this photograph to a group of students and ask them to let their imaginations guide them as they respond to it in writing. But if you want to be more directive, you could ask them such leading questions as: What is the woman in the photo thinking? Why is she standing alone in this scene? What does it feel like to wait for someone who is late? What kind of a family does this woman have?
You could even use short poems to complement photos that help to initiate responses from students. Here’s an example of one such poem that worked well with this photograph at the middle school, high school, and community college levels.

Memories
What are you thinking
As you stand, unsmiling,
Alone on a deserted street?

Another time?
Another place?
A moment when your world
Was bright and cheerful
And you didn’t have to stand
Alone on a deserted street.

Many educators who have used photographs successfully in the classroom are eager to share their photowriting experiences with other professionals. At Piedmont Virginia Community College, former Adjunct Assistant Professor Justin Van Kleeck showed his students a photo of a baby macaque and a pigeon who had “adopted” each other as friends. “I asked the students to freewrite after showing them the photo and giving them information about how the animals came together,” he writes. You can see the photo at http://primatology.net/2007/09/13/baby-macaque-and-white-pigeon-make-friends/ “The students wrote about everything from how different species can get along so easily while humans cannot, to the human behaviors that stress animals, such as poaching,” he concludes.
At the Prairie Lands Writing Project, St. Joseph, Missouri, Teacher Consultant Mary Lee Meyer asks her high school students to write “I am From” poems based on photos that are significant to them in terms of their lives. To support this activity, she asks such questions as Where are you from? Who are/were your grandparents? What occupations did your ancestors have? Meyer has also used this exercise at a writing institute for teachers. You can see samples at http://missouriwestern.edu/plwp/wtca/examples.htm under “I Am From…Example 1 Michelle.” See also Meyers' interesting blog at http://writingwithtechnology.edublogs.org/.
How creative can you get with photographs of bridges? Ask Diane Sekeres, who conducted a workshop for teachers at the University of Alabama’s Longleaf Writing Project Summer Institue for Teachers. “I found about 20 pictures of different kinds of bridges: rope, draw, suspension, destroyed, over gorges, over highways, over water,” she writes. “Then I asked the teachers to study the photos and select one that was a metaphor for their teaching.” At the conclusion to the exercise, the teacher-students wrote about their choices and their reasons for making them.
Another outstanding example of how a teacher uses photographs to inspire writing comes from Iowa Writing Project Director James Davis. First, Davis asks his students to recall a photograph of some significance to them. Then he directs them to describe the photograph as they remember it. “Who is in the photograph?” he asks. “What are their expressions and stances? What are the important details of the setting?” To conclude this assignment, Davis asks the students to find the photograph they described and study it carefully before writing about any discrepancies between the photo as it exists and their memories of it. “Why might these discrepancies exist?” he asks. “Which version has more to do with truth?”
When he’s not busy editing Star Teaching, Frank Holes, Jr. teaches at Inland Lakes Middle School, Indian River, Michigan. Holes shows his students photographs of children performing daily activities and asks them such questions as Who is the child? What is his/her name? What is the subject’s family like? How old is the subject? What is he or she feeling? “I also ask the students to give a full description of the setting that includes sense impressions,” writes Holes. Then he asks questions related to a possible plot before he directs the students to write a story that places the child in the setting.
“To spur on students who are afraid to write, or intimidated by the writing process,” writes Derri Scarlett, “I have them take pictures (or bring in pictures) that they like. An English instructor at Bismarck (N. D.) State College and a columnist for The Bismarck Tribune, Scarlett then encourages those students to talk about why they like the photos, or what the photos mean to them. Then she directs the students to “brainstorm” on paper. That’s when they jot down the words they first spoke of when they discussed the photographs. From that exercise come sentences, then an essay. “Because the students have invested themselves in the subject matter,” concludes Scarlett, “this is a great way of easing into the writing process.”
Often maligned but never out of sight, visual images surround and captivate us without letup. Show a photograph to a child, and the youngster will point to it, trace its image, and respond with a variety of emotions. Show another to an adult, and you get a frown, a smile, or a gesture—rarely will you draw a blank. Show a photograph, or a series of photographs, to students at any level, and you’ll generate more responses than you can handle. Soon your students will be creating stories, poems, and essays that will make you wonder why you hadn’t used this simple and obvious technique years earlier for stimulating the creative process.
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Hank Kellner is a retired educator and the author of WRITE WHAT YOU SEE: 99 PHOTOGRAPHS TO INSPIRE WRITING. Although the official publication date for the book is April 1, 2009, it should be available directly from Cottonwood Press earlier than that--most likely in late January, 2009.

Contact author: hankpix@gmail.com.
Visit Cottonwood Press: http://www.cottonwoodpress.com
Photo by the author. Poem by Jerry Kato.

Shameless Self-Promotion
I was seventy-one years old when I began work on Write What You See: 99 PhotosTo Inspire Writing. Now I'm seventy-three, and the book is finally at the publisher where it's being fine tuned and made ready for the printer.
I've been delighted by the many positive comments I've received from educators who have read the unedited manuscript. Here's an excerpt from Diane Carver Sekeres' contribution. "Kellner's juxtaposition of his and others' photography with quotes, poetry, and prompts in WRITE WHAT YOU SEE is a feast of wonderment, inspiration, provocation, and stimulation."
Diane is a member of the Literacy Program Faculty at the College of Education, University of Alabama. Thank you, Diane!

The Case of the Thieving Seagull
Of all the writing activities that use images to inspire writing that have crossed my desk, Justin Van Kleeck’s “Thieving Seagull” assignment is among the most creative and original. “I show my students a video of a seagull that steals a bag of Doritos from a store in Scotland every day,” writes Van Kleeck. In the first part of the assignment, he directs the students to write a process paper in which they instruct their fellow seagulls on how to steal, open, and eat the Doritos. In the second part of the assignment, he tells the students to write from the point of view of a shopkeeper who is telling other shopkeepers how to prevent the seagull from stealing Doritos in a creative, non-violent way. "The key to the exercise,” concludes Van Kleeck, “ is for students to utilize the process approach while also employing their imaginations. They should be encouraged to create easy to follow, step-by-step instructions without skimping on style."

Does This Person Have a Toothache?
Well, we really don't know, do we? But whatever the problem may be, the image shown against an interesting and enigmatic background certainly is provocative.
Some students may simply study the photograph and allow their imaginations to guide them in their writing. Others may wish to discuss such questions as : (1) Is the person in the photograph a man or a woman? ((2) What is the meaning of the cryptic statement painted on the background? (3) Is the subject of the photograph in pain? If so, what is the cause of the pain? (4) If you could interview the subject of the photo, what would you want to find out about him or her?In any case, this photograph is just one example of thousands--maybe even millions--of others that can trigger ideas in the minds of students at all levels.

Nitwit of the Month Award
If Bill O'Reilly can have a "Pinhead" Award, why can't I have a "Nitwit" Award? Here's my first one. According to the London Daily Mail, a former British glamour model named Jayne Bennington spends the equivalent of $600 a month in an attempt to make her 11-year-old daughter into a beauty queen. Congratulations from across the pond, Jane. We look forward to the appearance of your unlucky daughter on a reality show very soon.

Spare the Gun and Spoil the Child
Writing for the Universal Press Syndicate in July of this year, Chuck Shepherd reported that in May a 30-year-old man was arrested “…after his 8-year-old son told police that his dad routinely shoots him and his brother in the leg with a BB gun if they misbehave.” And in Medford, Oregon a 46-year-old man was arrested in June because he allegedly hit his teenage daughter in the ankle to feign a skating injury. After a doctor prescribed pain medication for the girl, this paragon of fatherhood used it to feed his habit.
Don’t you wonder if there will ever be an end to the ways in which some parents mistreat their children?

Using a Significant Photograph To Inspire Writing
Iowa Writing Project Director James Davis asks his students to recall a photograph of some significance to them. Then he asks them to describe the photograph as they remember it. “Who is in the photograph?” he asks. “What are their expressions and stances? What are the important details of the setting?” Davis then asks the students to find the photograph they described and study it carefully before writing about any discrepancies between the photograph as it exists and their memory of it. “Why might these discrepancies exist?” he concludes. “Which version has more to do with truth?”

Hogs Rally To Get Split
Yes! You just read another headline to an article that appeared in my hometown newspaper. As you probably know, there are many barbeque restaurants here in my adopted state of North Carolina. Even so, when I read the headline, I wondered why a group of pigs would want to get together to be split. But as I read the article, I discovered that Hogs is a nickname for Warthogs— which is the name of Winston-Salem’s minor league baseball team—and that the Hogs had split a double header with the Kinston Indians. It’s a good thing, I thought, that the Indians hadn’t won, because then I might have read an article that shouted “Indians Scalp Hogs.”

“Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.”
W.C. Fields, American comedian and actor.
A photograph of a smiling person can inspire students to write an almost unlimited number of compositions ranging from poems to expository pieces. In this photograph, for example, one can’t help wondering what the girl is thinking as she looks into the camera’s lens. And what about the photographer? What has he or she done to initiate the smile? What does the photograph reveal about the relationship between the girl and the photographer?

“The naming of cats is a difficult matter…”
T. S. Eliot, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
If, as the poet wrote, it’s difficult to name cats, then it must be even more difficult to name cars. I say this because sometimes I think that today’s automakers must be banging their heads against a wall. Otherwise, why would they come up with names like Borrego, Miata, Versa, Impreza, Elantra, Element and Passat?
I suppose I’ve turned into an ancient fuddy duddy when it comes to the naming of cars. Maybe that’s because I can remember the old Roadmaster, the stately Seville, the perky Escort, the elegant Malibu, the no-frills Biscayne, the speedy Firebird, the crowd-pleasing Grand Prix, and the legendary Beetle.
Well, I learned long ago that a name is, after all, just a name. If you call an airplane an air machine, it’ll still get you where you’re going. And if you call a strawberry a rawberry, it’ll still taste sweet. That’s why I guess I’ll have to be happy riding around in my beat-up, old Sentra. What’s more, I should be even happier because it’s not called an Impredoodia, or something like that.

A Written Feast for the Senses
After having students respond to several photos in terms of the five senses, Lehigh Valley Writing Project Co-Director Kristy M. Weidner-Gonzalez encouraged the students to write short poems in which each line revealed one of the senses. Then the students took a walking tour of the school and surrounding neighborhood during which they photographed their favorite places. Using the images they produced, the students revisited the idea of senses as they wrote what they had experienced when they created the photos. “The second time around had much more meaning for the students,” writes Weidner-Gonzalez, “because the places they photographed were much more personal and held certain memories for them.”

Plant Asks City’s Help
Yes! You just read the headline to an article that appeared in my hometown newspaper last month. When I read it, I thought it strange that a rose, an aspidistra, a coreopsis, or any of hundreds of other plants would ask for help—especially since they can’t talk. But as I read the article, I realized that a global manufacturing company here in Winston-Salem had applied to the city for $54,000 in incentives to upgrade its plant. The mystery solved, I couldn’t help thinking that the newspaper’s editors must have been talking on their cell phones or playing games on their computers when they wrote that headline.

What Is This Man Thinking?
In this photograph a lonely man stands against a background of rugs, a for sale sign, an American flag, and several other objects. Who is this man? Why are there no other people around him? What is he thinking as he stands and waits? Has he arrived in the United States from another country?
Combined with the photograph, these and other questions can inspire students to write poems, stories, dramatic monologues, expository pieces and other compositions to share with their classmates.

And You Thought That Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 Was Just a Novel!
This is a true story. If you don’t believe me, please visit Cheryl Thurston’s blog at http://www.scattershot.typepad.com/.
Cheryl operates a publishing house that specializes in interesting and exciting books and other learning materials for students. Recently, she and one of her employees met with a teacher who made some interesting comments about the Colorado Student Assessment Program Tests, which are required statewide.
“This employee,” writes Thurston, “has never been a teacher. She did not grow up in Colorado. Her children are not in the school system yet. She really didn’t know anything about CSAP.”
At the meeting, the teacher indicated that even though a large number of students in her school cannot speak English, and even though 12 of the students have serious mental and physical disabilities, “all of them, no matter what, are required to take the state tests.”

"What’s more, if the students can’t answer any of the questions, all of them receive zeroes, which are averaged with all the other students’ grades to determine the school’s 'grade.'"
Well, we’ll never know how Joseph Heller would have responded to that educational catch-22, but we do know that Thurston’s companion was shocked. “That’s crazy,” she said.
Isn’t it interesting that someone who claims no expertise in a specific field can be so perceptive? If you know of a catch-22 situation related to public or private education, we’d love to hear from you.

Welcome to the Digital Age

“Now that we are in the digital age,” writes Coastal Georgia Writing Director Pat West, “I have students in my college freshman composition course take photographs to support an observational writing essay. Then we conduct campus writing marathons to get students familiar with the process.” West also uses family photos to help generate writings about heritage. In another exercise, West sparks critical thinking by showing students Henry O. Tanner’s painting The Banjo Lesson and asking the question, “Who is teaching whom?”
If you have used photographs to stimulate writing in your classroom and would like to share your experiences, we’d love to hear from you.

Hello! 911! I Wanna Report a Problem with a Sandwich!
I learned about the 911 sandwich phone call on the Bill O’Reilly Show. It seems that a man called 911 to report that he’d bought two sandwiches at a Subway outlet, taken them home, and discovered that one of the sandwiches wasn’t what he ordered. That’s right! He called 911 to report a mistake in an order for two sandwiches. Duh? Why am I not surprised?

"Let onions lurk within the bowl,

And scarce suspected, animate the whole."

Sydney Smith, British Clergyman
Even the humble and often maligned onion can provide inspiration for students who are seeking ideas for their compositions. Perhaps they could reveal an onion-related experience they found humorous or maybe even annoying or disturbing. Maybe they could "lurk within the bowl" and describe what it feels like to swim in a sea of salad dressing.

In one actual classroom exercise, several students chose to describe their surroundings from the point of view of an onion. This approach allowed them to utilize many sense impressions in their writing.

Here's the opening line from one of their compositions. "Oh, no," I shouted as a hand wielding a sharp knife began to descend on me.

A Iraqi a Day Keeps Good Grammar Away

Writing in the Winston-Salem Journal, retired Journal editor Richard Creed notes that four years ago President Bush referred to “a Iraqi government.” Then he indicates that last year a news report called Iraqi President Talabani’s visit to Beijing “the first China visit by a Iraqi president since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in 1958.”
After citing several other examples of the use of “a” in place of “an,” Creed points out that even a careful, deliberate speaker like Sen. Barack Obama stumbled when he said that the country needs: “a effort to shore up the housing industry.”
“All this raises a question in my mind,” concludes Creed. “If members of the news media, the president, and a man who might become president persist in saying such things as “a Iraqi” and “a effort,” will the useful article an fall into disuse?”
I hope not. Somehow I’m just not comfortable with the sound of a apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Here’s an Interesting Use for Photographs of Bridges

At the University of Alabama Diane Sekeres used photographs of bridges as prompts in a workshop she conducted at the Longleaf Writing Summer Institute for Teachers. “I found about about twenty pictures of different kinds of bridges: rope, draw, suspension, destroyed, over gorges, over highways, or over water,” she writes. “Then I asked the teachers to study the photos and select one that was a metaphor for their teaching.” At the conclusion to the exercise, the teacher-students wrote about their choices and their reasons for making them.

Documentary Wins Kellner’s Own Highly Coveted Golden Pen Award

Located on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, Corapeake, North Carolina appears to be just another small town stuck out in the middle of nowhere. But when New York photographer Kendall Messick and his best friend Brenda Parker Hunt visited Corapeake to take pictures of Brenda’s aging relatives, they discovered a treasure trove of fascinating stories and outstanding visual images. The result was a stunning documentary based on the reminiscences of the town’s elders presented on tape and in black and white photographs. You can find out more about the documentary Corapeake at http://www.unctv.org/.



"Memory: a child walking along a seashore. You can never tell what small pebbles it may pick up and store among its treasured things." Pierce Harris, American Clergyman

Three boys walk along the shore as the sun lingers on the horizon. What if an offshore swimmer called for help? What if one of the boys found a message in a bottle? What if a tsunami appeared on the horizon? What if one of the boys found a diamond ring? What if a dead body washed ashore?
Authors have always asked themselves "What if?" when they sought inspiration. Well, if that technique works for the pros, there's no reason it can't work for students--especially when they ask "What if?" while they're viewing a photograph that can help to stimulate their imaginations

Ful redy hadde he his apothecaries
To sende him drogges and his letuaries,
For ech of hem made oother for to wynne—

The other night after I’d watched at least five dozen commercials for drugs on television, I dreamed that Chaucer’s Doctor of Phisik, or physician, spoke to me.
Amazingly, he spoke Modern English. “Yo, Hank,” he said. “Wassup? My apothecaries have developed a new drug. It’s totally awesome. It’s called Pilosec-H. I wanna introduce it to modern times, and I want you to tell the folks who read your blog about it. Don’t worry about the money. I’ll cut you in.”
“What’ll Pilosec-H do?” I asked, intrigued.
“Well, it’ll cure hemorrhagic fever, halitosis, hives, headaches, hemorrhoids, high blood pressure, hernias, hysteria, hangnails, and flatulence.”
“Sounds good. But what about the possible side effects?”
“Not many,” replied my visitor. “Just warts, toenail fungus, body odor, chronic constipation, excessive drooling, bulging eyeballs, hairy palms, turkey neck, cellulite, buck teeth, coreopsis of the ductile tract, blindness, and death.”
“Let me get this straight,” I responded. “Are you telling me that although Pilosec-H can cure ten medical conditions, it can also cause twelve others?”
“You got a problem with that?” The worthy physician glared at me with eyes that could have shattered diamonds.
I was about to respond when I awoke from a deep sleep. “I must’ve been dreaming,” I croaked. “Must’ve been watching too many drug company commercials on TV.”
“Yes, honey,” purred Elizabeth. “You usually just snore and grunt while you sleep, but this time you were muttering something about drooling, hysteria, coreopsis of the ductile tract, and death.”
“Oh,” I responded as I reached for an aspirin.

Norma Jean Is Alive and Well in Boston

From the Boston Writing Project, Peter Golden reports that in one of several photo-related exercises he uses with students at South Boston High School he projects a photo of Marilyn Monroe (a Norma Jean photo) and asks the students to write down their responses and share them. After the students arrive at a general description of the subject, as in shy or sophisticated, Golden presses them for details. Then he directs them to write descriptions of Norma that convey their conclusion (shy or sophisticated) without using that word. “In other words,” he writes, “the reader should come to the same conclusion just by reading the description.”

“Marriage is a thing you’ve got to give your whole mind to.”
Henrik Ibsen, The League of Youth

This photograph of a bridal party in the Netherlands can stimulate many writing assignments. Here are the opening lines to one high school student’s imaginative fictional follow up.
"If you had told me last year that Dave and I would be getting married, I’d have said that you’re crazy. But here I am, a bride—and a very happy one, too. Now, as I look around and see the happy faces of my friends and relatives, I wonder why I waited so long. I must have been crazy!"

O Folio, Folio! wherefore art thou Folio?

Ten years ago someone stole a rare 400-year-old Shakespeare First Folio from a display case at the Durham University library in England. On June 16, 2008 a man claiming to be an international businessman from Cuba walked into the Folger Library in Washington, D.C. and asked to have it authenticated.
Guess what? Suspicious staff members at the library asked to keep the book while they did research; identified it as the one that had been stolen; and contacted the FBI, which began an international manhunt for the thief.
On July 11, 2008 police in Durham arrested a 50-year-old man for the theft of the First Folio edition of 1623, which scholars consider one of the most important books in the English language.

Nice work, Folger librarians; FBI agents; and members of the Durham, England Police Department. It's comforting to think that the book thief won't find any rare books in the library at his new home in a prison somewhere across the pond.

How Martin Brandt Uses Side-by-Side Photos

In one photo-related exercise that he uses, English teacher Martin Brandt shows his students at Independence High School, San Jose, California side-by-side photos of two women and asks them to respond in writing to the following five questions: (1) What does each photograph show? (2) How is each woman dressed? (3) What do you notice about the environment of each woman? (4) What do you notice about the condition of each woman? What do the two women have in common?
If you have a favorite photo-related writing activity, why not share it with us?

There Will Be No Kellner's Own Highly Coveted Golden Pen Award This Week

That's because I saw Mister Bean's Holiday, which is probably the dumbest, silliest collection of images ever captured on film. What's more, the sound track is truly an abomination. About the only positive things I can say about this tribute to mindlessness is that some of the scenes that were photographed in France were quite nice. Oh, and there was one scene in which Mr Bean sang the aria "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.
Instead of a Golden Pen Award, I'm awarding Mister Bean's Holiday 5 1/2 wooden plungers.

Yak, Yak, Yak. Cell Phones Rule the World

Did you know that in mid-2006 there were an estimated 219 million cell phone users in the United States alone? Can you imagine how may there are today? And can you imagine how many of your students suffer from cellphonitis, a disease from which there is no cure?

I'll bet that if you show your students the photo at the left, they'd find plenty to write about. They could, for example, discuss the positive and negative effects cell phones have on their users. Or maybe they'd speculate as to whether or not cell phones help people become closer in their relationships. Maybe they'd discuss a time when using a cell phone got them into trouble. Or perhaps they'd like to tell about one or more interesting conversations they heard while others were using cell phones.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident..."

Did you know that a recent study by the Intercollegiate Study Institute revealed that in a 60-question quiz given to 14,000 students at 50 colleges, a majority of the students could not identify the quotation cited above? And would you be surprised to discover that some of the students thought its source is the Communist Manifesto? Suzanne Fields, The Washington Times

Using Photographs to Teach Writing

Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of Star Teaching and an English teacher at Inland Lakes Middle School, Indian River, Michigan. Holes shows his students photographs of children performing daily activities and asks them such questions as Who is the Child? What is his/her name? What is the subject's family like? How old is the subject? What is he or she feeling? "I also ask the students to give a full description of the setting that includes sense impressions," writes Holes. Then he asks questions related to a possible plot before he directs the students to write a story that places the child in the setting.

Kellner's Own Highly Coveted Golden Pen Award

Denzel Washington's performance in The Great Debaters won't earn him the highly coveted Kellner's Own Golden Pen Award, but it is notable for its intensity. Set in a small college in Texas during 1935, the film tells the story of a group of college debaters who beat the odds and go on to achieve success.

I Don't Like Honey with My Fried Eggs

Elizabeth and I were having breakfast at Billy Bob's Diner--yes, there really is a Billy Bob's Diner here in Winston-Salem--when the server looked at me and asked, "What'll it be, honey?" Uggh, I thought. If one more server at a restaurant or diner calls me honey or sweetie or darlin', I'm gonna go berserk!

Always quick to read my mind, Elizabeth looked at me, smiled, and warned me with her eyes that if I didn't behave myself, there would be consequences. Ignoring her, I looked up at the server and replied, "I don't like honey with my fried eggs!"

Unfortunately, my attempt at satire had no effect on the server. "No problem," she responded. "We don't serve honey with eggs, darlin'. Now how do you want 'em?"

Defeated, I slumped back in my seat and croaked, "I'll have a bowl of oatmeal."

As we left Billy Bob's Diner a while later, Elizabeth hooked her arm into mine, looked up at me, smiled, and purred, "Would you like me to drive, sweetie?"

Welcome to My Blog

Whatever Happened to “You’re Welcome”?

If you’re as ancient as I am, you can probably remember the time when people responded to your polite “Thank you” with a smile and a pleasant “You’re welcome.” That’s why, like me, you probably cringe when clerks and others respond to your thanks with a curt “No problem.”
No problem? Was there a problem to begin with? Oh well, maybe I’m being too critical. Even so, it would be nice to hear someone say, “You’re welcome” every so often. What do you think?

Here's How One Teacher Uses Photography To Teach Writing

Mary Ellen Meyer is a teacher consultant at the Prairie Lands Writing Project. In her high school English classes, she asks students to write “I Am From” poems based on photos that are significant to them in terms of their lives. To support this activity, she asks such questions as Where are you from? Who are/were your grandparents or great grandparents? What occupations did some of your ancestors have?
Meyer has also used this exercise at a writing institute for teachers. You can see samples at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/plwp/wtca/examples.htm under "Writing Marathon Example 1 Addie” and at http://missouriwestern.edu/plp/wtca/examples.htm under “Example 1 Michelle.” And don’t miss Meyer’s blog at http://writingwithtechnology.edublogs.org

Off Topic Musings

> I hope you noticed that I didn’t write Totally Off Topic Musings (above). Yucch! What a dreadful word. Totally, indeed! What do you think?
> I watched the film Love in the Time of Cholera on DVD last night. It was so good that I’m giving it the coveted Kellner’s Own Golden Pen and Ink Award for excellence in cinematography, acting, music, direction, and everything else that contributes to the creation of a wonderful film.
> Is stress getting you down? Well, now there’s a drug-free way to cope! Yes! Just go to http://www.polkatherapy.org/ and order Cottonwood Press’s Polka Therapy DVD. Even if you’re too, uh, advanced in age to prance around the dance floor to such classics as “Road Rage Polka,” “Acapella Polka, and “Pooper Scooper Polka,” you’ll love these immortal melodies.