English Education

2012-01-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

We Have a Winner!

It wasn't easy, but we were finally able to select the winner of our Great American Reflections Photo Contest. A student in Timnah Steinman's class at the Park Day School Oakland, California, thirteen-year-old Sarah Marlin walked off with the honors for her poem, "Reflections on the Water's Surface."

Consisting of just twenty lines, the poem describes the image created when a pebble disturbs the surface of the water. "You wave," she writes, "and your reflection waves back./ The person you see in the water is/Distorted/Changed."

We've amended the working title of our manuscript to reflect the title of Sarah's poem, and we've placed the poem on the first page of the work, which will be published by PRUFROCK PRESS.

We won't be publishing Sarah's poem here until the book sees the light of day, but we have included the photo that accompanies it. Perhaps the photo will inspire your students to create their own works of poetry or prose.

Don't Be a Bully!

I don't think you'll ever find a sign identical to the one shown here. That's because after I photographed the "Do Not Enter" sign, I used Arc Soft Photo Studio to add the words BULLYING ZONE to the image.

I think that the possibilities for using this image to inspire writing in your classroom are almost limitless. That's because it's almost a sure thing that one or more of your students either is or has been harassed by a bully.

Here's a suggestion. Download the photo and use it as a trigger to inspire your students to express their feelings about bullying in writing, either as poetry or prose. Point out that their writings will be voluntary and anonymous, and that they may not use names in their compositions. You'll probably be surprised at some of the responses your receive. Obviously, you won't assign a grade for this activity.

PRUFROCK PRESS AND WRITE WHAT YOU SEE

Published by Cottonwood Press in 2009, Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner is now marketed by Prufrock Press. Please visit http://www.prufrock.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1641 now to order this fine book. This thought-provoking collection contains photographs and a wide variety of inventive writing prompts to motivate students.

Written by a veteran of the Korean War and retired educator who has served as an English Department supervisor and adjunct associate professor of English at the community college level, Write What you See includes a CD-Rom and a special section telling how teachers nationwide use photos to inspire writing. 118 pages, 8 1/2 X 11, Softbound, ISBN 978-1-877673-83-2, Grades 7-12, $24.95

Copyright © 2012 Hank Kellner

2011-12-12T08:45:00.000-08:00

The Great All-American Reflections Poetry Contest

Thanks to everyone who submitted poems to our Reflections Poetry Contest. We received quite a few entries. It hasn't been easy to select a winner, but we think it's going to be a poem submitted by one of Tinmah Steinman's students at the Park Day School in Oakland, California. We'll announce the final decision during the first or second week of January.
In the meantime, here's another photo that's sure to inspire students to use their imaginations to create either prose or poetry. The photo at the left, above, shows a small incandescent light bulb reflected in a pane of glass at night. Feel free to download it and use it in your classrooms. By the way, you'll find many more photos that can inspire your students at MY STOCK PHOTOS.

Find Out How Harrison Corbett Uses Photos with His Students
Here's an Excerpt from His Website

You know, on our digital cameras or in drawers at home, most of us have pictures that may not ever make it into our scrapbooks or photo albums. To me, these types of photos potentially might make excellent writing prompts. Here at my website, I feature a page of some favorite photos that are neither in a photo album or a scrapbook; I think they're all really great photos that would serve nicely to inspire my own writing...or they would inspire stories from my students. (My students really like to make-up fictional stories based on my photos or photos they obtain from friends, do yours?)

After I show my kiddos my online photos that I think would make interesting writing prompts for me (and/or I show them WritingFix's Photo Prompt Page), I challenge them to look for two or three photos at home and to bring them in (or scans of them) as possible writing prompts for their own notebooks. Usually, I ask them to show a friend the two or three photos they've brought in, and I ask them to share a little bit about the story behind the photograph. I then ask them to ask their friend, "Which one do you think I should write about first?"

Students tape the photo they've chosen onto a blank notebook page (I have double-sided tape available for them). Then, they spend 15 minutes free-writing about the image. I don't want them to necessarily simply tell me what's in their photo; I'd much rather have them show a memory or idea they associate with the image. To show them that kind of thinking, I share with them two photos and free writes from my own writer's notebook.
Corbett Harrison is a teacher and educational consultant based in Nevada.

Now You Can Find Out More about Virtual Poetry Clubs

Here's Some Interesting Information from Lindsey Wright

       Poetry is not often a common interest among children. Furthermore, modern students increasingly prefer online classes and educational platforms that allow for optimum agency and individual creativity. Basically, students today prefer to entertain themselves with electronic devices. Thus, in order to engage students of today, it is helpful to channel knowledge through technological venues such as a virtual poetry club.
        Writing a poem on a piece of paper and perhaps sharing it later with a friend does not provide the instant reward that children now expect from daily life. With a virtual poetry club, students can talk about their creations in real time. In this medium students can communicate instantly and give feedback to others while using their analytical skills to discuss style, themes, meters and more.
           Another upside to virtual poetry clubs is that children can interact in them between other online activities, such as gaming and watching television shows. It may motivate them to be more active in the club because they do not have to abandon their electronics for a pencil and a piece of paper.

Children need to learn to experience poetry before picking apart the technical details. This makes them more attuned to the creative aspect of poetry. Teaching students to appreciate poetry can give them an advantage in school for reading and writing, and is one creative way to introduce students of today to the beauty of poetry in a way that is more palatable to them.

Based in Seattle, Washington, Lindsey Wright is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.

PRUFROCK PRESS AND WRITE WHAT YOU SEE

Grandmother and a Bowl of Cherries

2011-11-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

What Can You See in a Bowl of Cherries?

        Soon to be published by Prufrock Press, Reflections is a collection of poems and photos intended primarily for use in classrooms . Contributors to this work include students, teachers, and others from all over the country. Foremost among these contributors are students and teachers at Lake Forest High School, Lake Forest, Illinois. The work will include an introduction by Joe Miller, Ph.D, Director of English Education at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
         One fine example of a poem included in this unique work is LFHS teacher Dr. Mara Dukats' "Grandmother." In addition to this poem and others by the same author, Reflections will include poems by LFHS teachers Amy Lyons and Karen Topham, as well as contributions by seven LFHS students.

Grandmother

Your furrowed hands, spotted with the years,

your fingernails, so subtly earthen

your slender, crooked fingers busy,

as we sit at the edge of the grove,

pitting harvested cherries with bobby pins.

Anchored on the stump, you’re poised,

cradling between your knees the metal pot

into which drop, our sour cherries.

The pot fills unexpectedly (for me)

though you have always known

how simply one can fill the years

with marmelade.

-Mara Dukats

We're Still on the Lookout for More Poems

If you and/or your students would like to submit poems for possible publication in Reflections, please contact me through this blog with your e-mail address and the word REFLECTIONS in your message.

Where Can You Find Photos?

If you need photos for inspiration and would like to receive up to three from my files for free, please click on "My Stock Photos" (above, right). Then just let me know the titles of the photos you want to receive. I'll send you .jpgs you can use for yourself or in the classroom.

PRUFROCK PRESS AND WRITE WHAT YOU SEE

Poetry and Photographs

2011-11-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

An Elementary School Student's Poem about Grandmother

Erick Moore is a student at the South Elementary School, Muhlenberg, Kentucky. We matched his poem, " A Grandmother's Heart," with Cindy Nadal's photo to create an image that is both pleasing and inspirational. This combination will be included in our upcoming anthology, Reflections: A Collection of Photos, Poetry, and More, which will be published by Prufrock Press. If you or your students would like to contribute poetry to this work, please contact me. At this writing, the manuscript is complete, but we can always find room for more poems by students and/or teachers at all levels.

Together, the poem and accompanying photo are sure to stimulate class discussion that can produce ideas that will stimulate students' imaginations and trigger many different kinds of writing. Of course, it's also possible to use either the poem or the photo alone to inspire writing. You'll discover more information in earlier entries to this blog.

       A Grandmother's Heart

A grandmother's heart is a special place
You can read what it holds
By the smile on her face.
Within her heart memories are dear:
Memories of grandchildren,
Laughter and cheer.
Within her heart her grandchild will live,
And her heart will not burst
For it holds people dear.
Forever my Grandma,
Forever my friend.
                 -Eric Moore

       Feel free to download this and any other photo you discover in the archives of this blog for use in your classroom. To see even more photos, click on MY PORTFOLIO, top right. And to read my series of ten articles on using photographs to inspire writing, go to www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner.

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Don't Miss Tim San Pedro's Poem and Photo!

You Can See Them at Frank Holes' STAR TEACHING Website.

Frank Holes, Jr. has published Timothy San Pedro's poem "A Full Purple Crown" in STAR TEACHING. To read the poem and see San Pedro's accompanying photo, go to www.starteaching.com/Features_for_Teachers_7oct2.htm. and click on "New! Hank Kellner's Using Photography To Inspire Writing."

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PRUFROCK PRESS AND WRITE WHAT YOU SEE

CREATIVE CONCEPTS FOR WRITING

2011-10-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Photos and Keywords Can Stimulate Your Students' Imaginations

When you and your students create keywords related to photographs, the possibilities for writing interesting poetry and/or prose are greatly enhanced.

For example, if you show the photo of an arrow painted on a macadam surface to students at almost any level and ask them to cite words that come to mind, they are sure to respond eagerly. Here are just a few keywords related to the photo shown above : (a) forward, (b) direction, (c) traffic (d) pointing, (e) street, (f) flat, (g) angular, (h), arrow, (i), sign, (j), smudged), (k) road.

Using the keywords they've cited, most students should be able to develop interesting written works. But for those who need even more prompting, a possible opening line is sure to work, as in "When Cody saw the sign in his headlights, he knew..." or "Because Angelica wasn't sure what direction to take..."

As always, you are free to download this photo for use in your classroom. And if it succeeds in helping you or your students write a poem, I would love to hear from you. Please read the preceding entry in this blog for information on how to submit poetry for REFLECTIONS, an anthology to be published by Prufrock Press.

PRUFROCK PRESS AND WRITE WHAT YOU SEE

PHOTOS AND POETRY

2011-10-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

Two Photos for Inspiration

Here are two images that can easily inspire either poetry or prose. Feel free to download them and use them in your classroom or with your writing group. If you like, you can easily dream up a few keywords or possible opening lines to fire up you students' imaginations.

By the way, when you scroll through the archives of this blog, you'll discover many more photos you can use to inspire writing.

But that's not all. You'll also discover information about Reflections, a collection of poems and photos that Prufrock Press will publish during the Spring, 2014. Please visit Prufrock at www.prufrock.com to discover more about this outstanding publisher of educational materials.

Reflections will present a collection of poems and photos created by students and their teachers nationwide. Designed to inspire writing in the classroom at several levels, this work will also present a few of my own poems, along with those written by Elizabeth Guy.

At this writing, the manuscript is complete. But I'm always on the lookout for more poems to add to the work. If you or any of your students would like to submit poems using any of the photos in this blog as inspiration, please contact me ASAP at hankpix@gmail.com.

If your poetry is already included in the manuscript and you'd like to submit new work inspired by the photos in this blog, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

PRUFROCK PRESS AND WRITE WHAT YOU SEE

More Information about Writing and Photos

2011-09-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

When No Words Are Needed

To inspire writing in their classrooms, many teachers like to accompany photos with written prompts. Foremost among these are keywords and/or possible first lines. Others prefer to use photos as the basis for class discussions designed to stimulate their students. Still others simply show selected photos to their students before turning them loose to develop creative pieces.

Here are two examples of photos that are sure to trigger ideas that will help students get past the "I don't know what to write about" stage of their development as writers. Feel free to download these photos for use in your classrooms.

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A Few Interesting Resources

For more valuable information about using photographs to inspire writing, please visit the following websites.

http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3125

http://www.writingfix.com/classroom_tools/picture_prompts.htm

At these websites you'll discover a great deal of information that will help your students use their imaginations to develop better compositions.

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PRUFROCK PRESS AND WRITE WHAT YOU SEE

PHOTOS AND KEYWORDS

2011-09-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

A Riderless Horse

Because I’ve been very busy trying to find a publisher for REFLECTIONS, I haven’t been posting entries to this blog for many weeks. But now it’s time to get back to work.

For the next few months, my plan is to present different photos with accom-panying information on a regular basis. Some of these photos will be in black and white: others will be in color. Feel free to use these photos in your classroom to help your students develop ideas for writing assignments.

For this week’s entry I’ve posted a photo accompanied by several keywords. Notice that the keywords don’t always seem to relate to the photo. But they don’t have to. Perhaps your students will use them as presented. Alternatively, your students might choose to use their imaginations to develop their own keywords.

I’m sure you will find these exercises interesting and productive. By the way, if have examples of photo-related writing activities you’re willing to share, I’d love to hear from you.

For more information about using photographs to inspire writing in the classroom, please visit my series of articles at http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/ These articles are jam packed with photos and ideas you can use to trigger student writing.

KEYWORDS

ANIMAL, RIDING, PONY,

HORSE, EQUESTRIAN, ANIMALS,

COWBOY, EQUINE, WHIMSICAL

HUMOROUS, IRONY

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Write What You See and Prufrock Press

Published by Cottonwood Press in 2009, Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner is now marketed by Prufrock Press.

Please visit http://www.prufrock.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1641 now to order this fine book.

This thought-provoking collection contains photographs and a wide variety of inventive writing prompts to motivate students.

2011-01-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

A Skyscraper Sandwich

Molly Wagener is a seventeen-year-old student at Lake Forest High School, Lake Forest, Illinois. Her teacher is Dr. Mara Dukats. Her poem,"Chicago Newcomer," is one of 134 poems and photographs submitted by students, teachers, and others for inclusion in our upcoming anthology, Reflections: A Collection of Poetry, Photos, and More. As shown below, a relevant quotation accompanies each entry.
It's easy to see how teachers can use Molly's poem and the accompanying photo by Wikimedia to inspire discussion and writing at many levels. Perhaps students will recall their own responses to urban scenes, either in poetry or prose. Or they may choose to write about any of the unlimited ideas this poem-photo combination generates. Indeed, there is no end to the varied subjects it can inspire.

"A skyscraper is a boast in glass and steel." Mason Cooley

Chicago Newcomer

In a skyscraper sandwich

on Michigan,

I ogled at the framed in sky

pristine clear

with scattered white weightlessness
vanishing

above the glossy windows,

steel rooftops,

and cabs zipping

up and down the asphalt street.

After many months of hard work, we've created a final draft of Reflections, which includes an Introduction by Joe Milner, Ph.D., Director of English Education at Wake Forest University. Now we're waiting for responses from publishers. If you've ever written for publication, you know that this can be a lengthy process. We'll keep you posted.

Write What You See and Prufrock Press

Published by Cottonwood Press in 2009, Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner is now marketed by Prufrock Press, http://www.prufrock.com. This thought-provoking collection contains photographs and a wide variety of inventive writing prompts to motivate students.

2010-11-30T09:40:00.000-08:00

A High School Student Describes the Mature Years

William J. Small is Karen Topham's student at Lake Forest High School, Lake Bluff, Illinois. I matched his poem with one of my photos to create a page in my upcoming collection, Reflections: A Collection of Poems, Photos, and More. Then I added the quotation by Emily Bronte to help students generate ideas for their writing. Feel free to download this and other poems and photos in this blog for use in your classrooms.

Small's poem is just one of more than 130 others included in Reflections along with carefully selected photos. The work includes not only poems and photos by students, but also contributions by teachers and other writer-photographers. You can see more samples at www.starteaching.com. Click on "Latest Issue November."

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me./Fluttering from the autumn tree." -Emily Bronte

Self-Identification in the Crinkling of Fall

The light glazes the treetops

A crisp crinkling ripple in my ear

I splash in the wind,

I grasp for the aftertaste of the moment,

Left behind by the blink of my eye

Like a mossy rock it slips through my mind

Deeper and deeper away

In a crescendo it once again erupts

As I feel the light shivering of the grass,

Against my restful body

I spin along with the Earth

As it tells me all its secrets

Of love, lost, and etc.

The only sounds trickle from a sparrow

Scatter from a squirrel

Tickle from a falling leaf

To create a stream of sounds

Oh Fall!

Bring change and beauty, as I grow old!

And now as I bath in the angst of coming maturity

I pray to resemble the subtle whispery kisses of you.

-William J. Small

Write What You See and Prufrock Press

2010-11-15T07:59:00.000-08:00

A Poem about Trees

Julie Brown teaches English 11 AP, Journalism, Cinema Study, and Creative Writing at Bolingbrook High School, Bolingbrook, Illinois. I matched her untitled poem with one of my photos to create a page from my upcoming work, Reflections: A Collection of Poems, Photos, and More. I added the quotation that precedes the poem.

This book is designed to inspire class discussion that leads to written compositions. Feel free to download this combination for use in your classroom. By the way, you can click on the photo to enlarge it.

"I like trees because they seem to be more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do." Willa Cather

every year, it's always the same

the brown, rough statues stand tall

feet firmly planted in the ground

hoping to grow, reaching the sky

just out of grasp

then come the pesky green dots

spots of color--until mid-spring

then they are in full force

waving, swinging, attracting attention

the trees just sigh and stand

by autumn, they've had enough

they start to burn the leaves off

slowly, one by one

green to yellow to red to brown

as they fall, the trees regret

winter's here and they've lost their coats.

Write What You See and Prufrock Press

2010-11-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

From Film Images to Digital Images

After using film to create photographs for more than forty years, I've finally gone digital. Yep! I plunked down big bucks for a Leica M 9. Of course, it took me a while to adjust to the differences between film and digital images, but I finally got it right.
        Here's an example. I was strolling through town here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on my way to my favorite coffee shop when I spotted the scene shown in the photo reproduced below. I shot just one frame. Later that day, it inspired Elizabeth Guy to write the accompanying poem.
If you've been reading this blog regularly, you know where the poem and photo ended up. You're right! "The Blue Door" and its accompanying photo will appear in my upcoming collection of poems and photos submitted by students, teachers, and others nationwide.
        When it's published, Reflections will contain 122 poems, 22 haiku, 100+ black and white or color photos, and more. Here's a sample page from the manuscript. I added the quotation and Creative Concepts words to help motivate students in their class discussions and writing.

CREATIVE CONCEPTS: Unexpected, Mystery, Serenity, Secret

"Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the Diety to be a source of delight." John Ruskin

The Blue Door

Right there
In the middle of the city
High above the alleyway
A blue door

A balcony haven
Bedecked in flowers
Beckoning the sun
A promise of warmth
Serenity
Behind that blue doorway
A cool and calm retreat
What secret pleasures
Linger there inside
Above the street

Behind
A multi-paned
Azure stained
Unexpected door
                   Elizabeth Guy

Write What You See and Prufrock Press

2010-10-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

A Powerful Photo-Poem Combination

Mignon Self created the poem shown below. When not writing poems or creating artwork, this outstanding educator teaches art, grades 7-12, at the Round Rock Opportunity Center, Round Rock, Texas.

Together, Self's poem and the accompanying photograph can provide inspiration for classroom discussion that leads to the creation of imaginative written compositions. But that's not all. Considered separately, either the poem or the photo can inspire students to exchange ideas and express them in writing.

Feel free to use this poem and/or photo in your classroom. You can copy and paste the poem, and you can right click on the photo to copy it. If you do so, I'd love to see the results for possible inclusion in Reflections.

"Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without." - Buddha

Quiet Entities

When there are quiet times,

Thoughts in between crowded spaces in my mind,

I think of the entities that bind the time in packages

Wrapped with colored twine.

Bubbles, spheres of rainbows floating in the air.

Laughter, sounds from happy children playing.

Butterflies, minimus drifting softly in the golden wind.

Violets, blooming vivid among the greenery lie.

Kisses, a touch of love from deep within.

Glances, eyes that sparkle to say, "I'm here!"

Wine, the soothing taste that tickles as it goes down.

Clean sheets, crisp rough smells of speckled drops of sun.

Stars, shooting through the evening skies.

Hands that hold the secrets of the brownie's past.

Sunlight drifting dots of dust giving life,

The entities of a crowded mind.

Mignon Self

There's Still Room for More

At this writing, I've received poems and/or photos from thirteen students, eighteen teachers, and fourteen others for possible publication in Reflections. With a total of more than one hundred poems and almost as many photos, that just about completes the collection.

Even so, there's always room for a few more entries before I end the project and intensify my search for a publisher. If you'd like to contribute work and haven't received the Guidelines for Submission, please contact me promptly at hankpix(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Write What You See

Although Cottonwood Press was acquired by Prufrock Press recently, Write What You See: 99 Photos to Inspire Writing is still in print. You'll find it at Prufrock Press's website, in bookstores, at Amazon, and at many other Internet sites. This thought-provoking collection of black-and-white photography is accompanied by a wide variety of writing prompts to motivate students. Includes A CD-ROM of all photos and writing prompts. Grades 7-12 $24.95.

"This book will launch a thousand essays. Never again will students complain, "I don't know what to write about."

Derri Scarlett, English faculty, Bismarck State College

2010-10-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

        To date I've received more than 100 poems for possible inclusion in my upcoming anthology, Reflections. Submitted by teachers, students, and others, these poems range from pithy haiku to eloquent odes. Here's a poem I received from eighteen-year-old Rose Scherlis, a student at Beacon High School, Newton, Massachusetts. Her teacher is Doug Holder.
        In addition to "Skateboarding," Rose submitted two other poems titled "The Dog with No Name" and "The First Morning."
        If you would like to submit poems for consideration, please contact me at hankpix(at)yahoo(dot)com for guidelines. I welcome submissions from students, teachers, and others.
        By the way, Reflections isn't one of those buy-the-book-after-we-publish-it deals. Rather, it's an anthology designed to be used in the classroom. My goal is to provide a series of poems and photos that will serve as inspiration for class discussions and follow up writing activities.

Skateboarding

Sometimes I skate,
Glide, soar, weave, jump,
Duck under heavy, mournful branches
Decorated in fragile autumn leaves
Like so many brilliant orange faeries
Until I reach my destination:
An abandoned bridge to read under,
A coffee shop or candy shop,
Or just an empty lot to carve across.
Sometimes I skate
As fast as I possibly can
Until the world blurs into a colorful blend
Of distractions, possibilities, ideas.
Until day turns to night and,
Sunsets sparkle across the horizon like
Vivid necklaces of pink and red.
Until I lose track of time,
Lose track of everything,
Lose track of myself.
Sometimes I skate.

Write What You See

Although Cottonwood Press was acquired by Prufrock Press recently, Write What You See: 99 Photos to Inspire Writing is still in print. You'll find it in bookstores, at Amazon, and at many other Internet sites. This thought-provoking collection of black-and-white photography is accompanied by a wide variety of writing prompts to motivate students. Includes A CD-ROM of all photos and writing prompts. Grades 7-12 $24.95.

"This book will launch a thousand essays. Never again will students complain, "I don't know what to write about."

Derri Scarlett, English faculty, Bismarck State College

2010-10-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Poetry Is Alive and Well

Judging by the many excellent submissions I've received for possible inclusion in my upcoming anthology, poetry is alive and well in the nation's classrooms.
Here's an example by eighteen-year-old Kristen Dawn Wilson, a student at Allen County Scottsville High School, Scottsville, Kentucky. Kristen's teacher is Lisa Logsdon. The photograph is by Julia Stein, a recent graduate of Blake High School, Silver Spring, Maryland. Julia's teacher is Kerri Blankenship.

Destroying the Walls

I was trapped there.
Trapped in the nothingness.
Trapped behind the walls
that were built to guard my heart.
I was my own prisoner,
ignoring my own screams,
lost in a fictional land,
trapped in disillusioning dreams.
Last night I awoke
from the fire in my soul,
and each thought fed the flame.
The walls had to go.
With my bare hands.
with my healing heart,
with this new anger,
I tore those damn walls apart.
Now I feel.
Now I weep.
Now I scream.
Now I run.
Now I fly.
Now I escape,
ridding myself of both
sorrow and hate.

At this writing I've received 103 submissions for possible inclusion in my upcoming anthology, Reflections. If you and/or your students would like to submit work, contact me at hankpix(at)yahoo(dot)com with the words Poetry Guidelines in the subject line of your e-mail. Please don't submit work without having read the guidelines. The deadline for submissions is 10/30/10.

Write What You See

Although my publishing house, Cottonwood Press, has been sold to Prufrock Press, the book is still available at www.amazon.com, elsewhere on the Internet, and in bookstores everywhere. What's more, you can ask your school or public librarian to order it for you.

Write What You See is a collection of photographs and writing prompts for the classroom. The book presents 99 black and white photographs accompanied by a wide variety of writing prompts to motivate students. In the book I provide not only my own suggestions for using photography in the classroom, but also ideas from real teachers across the country who have used photography successfully to inspire writing. At just $24.95, Write What You See includes a CD-ROM. Order today!

2010-09-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

Nature As Seen by a Young Boy

Here are a poem and photo I received for possible inclusion in my upcoming anthology, Reflections: 99 Photos and Poems To Inspire Writing. I added the quotation by John Keats. The poem is by nine-year-old Erick Moore, a student at Muhlenberg South Elementary School, Beechmont, Kentucky. Angela Todd is Erick’s teacher. The photo is by sixteen-year-old Taylor Dennhy. Taylor is a student at Horizon High School, Scottsdale, Arizona.

It’s easy to see that you can use the quotation, poem, and photo together to inspire class discussion that leads to writing assignments. But that’s not all. You could use just the quotation, the poem, or the image individually to motivate your students. Or you could use any combination of two of the items for the same purpose.

Feel free to download the poem, photo, and quotation for use in your classroom. If you do, I’d be delighted to read samples of the results. You can contact me at hankpix(at)yahoo(dot)com.

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.” John Keats

In the Wild I See

In the wild I see, I see a great blue sky hanging over me.

With clouds as white as snow, at night I see a soft glow.

In the wild I see, I see cute little birds singing to me.

With beautiful songs they sing with glee.

In the wild I see, I see a fawn and its mother dancing around a tree.

With gentle grace so lovely.

In the wild I see, I see……….Nature

Erick Moore

Write What You See

Write What You See by Hank Kellner (Cottonwood Press, 2009) is a collection of photographs and writing prompts for the classroom. Written by a successful photographer and former teacher of English, this book presents 99 black and white photographs accompanied by a wide variety of writing prompts to motivate students. The author gives his own suggestions for using photography and also shares ideas from real teachers across the country who have successfully used photography in the teaching of writing. Includes a CD-Rom. $24.95. Available from the publisher, at bookstores, and on the Internet.

A Challenge for Your Students

2010-09-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Three Photos with Quotations

This week I'm presenting three photos, each of which is accompanied by a quotation. Click on any image to enlarge it. Each combination of a quotation and an an image is designed to inspire students to create some form of writing. I invite you to use these prompts to inspire your students to create poems or other forms of writing.
You can easily download one or more of the images from this blog, but if you have problems doing so, please contact me at hankpix(at)yahoo(dot)com and I'll send them to you. Please cite "Photo Request" in the subject line of your e-mail, as well as the number that appears in the appropriate quotation.
Although I'm primarily interested in discovering poems for my upcoming anthology, Reflections, I'd love to read any works your students create. When you send samples of student writing to me at the address shown above, please cite "Student Writing" in the subject line of your e-mail.

Clouds, Sunset, Intolerance

44 Clouds "You must not blame me if I talk to the clouds." Henry David Thoreau



29 Sunset "If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset."      Jiddu Krishnamurti


27 Intolerance "I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate."    Booker T. Washington

Write What You See

Write What You See by Hank Kellner (Cottonwood Press, 2009) is a collection of photographs and writing prompts for the classroom. Written by a successful photographer and former teacher of English, this book presents 99 black and white photographs accompanied by a wide variety or writing prompts to motivate students. The author gives his own suggestions for using photography and also shares ideas from real teachers across the country who have successfully used photography in the teaching of writing. Includes a CD-Rom. $24.95. Available from the publisher, at bookstores, and on the Internet.

A Brief but Powerful Poem

2010-09-11T07:20:00.000-07:00

The Absence of Color

Does sadness have a color?
Muted blue perhaps tinged with gray.
White layered throughout like Morbier cheese?
No! Black is beautiful,
As are gold, brown, and green.
They indicate life.
Sadness equals absence
of light and color and warmth.
Arctic white, then, yes.
That's the color of sadness.
                    Cynthia Staples

        Thank you, Cynthia, for submitting "The Absence of Color" for inclusion in my upcoming anthology, Reflections. Either alone or in company with the accompanying photo, this poem offers almost endless possibilities for discussion that will inspire students to express themselves in writing.
        Here are just a few examples of questions that will challenge students. (1) What responses does the question in the first line of the poem trigger? (2) What does the poet imply when she writes that white is the color of sadness? (3) Is it possible for emotions to be expressed as colors? If so, what are those emotions? (4) What feelings do you experience after reading the poem? (5) Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen Crane, William Shakespeare, and many other authors have used color imagery extensively in their writings. Discuss the use of color imagery in a work by any author of your choice. (6) Write a character description or other brief work in which you use color imagery. (7) Other than sadness, what emotions could the color white trigger?
        Cynthia Staples is a writer/photographer based in Massachusetts. To see more of her work, visit wordsandimagesbycynthia.wordpress.com.

Work on Reflections Continues

Once again I'd like to thank everyone who submitted work for possible inclusion in my upcoming anthology of poems and photographs by students, teachers, and others. If you would like to receive guidelines for submission, please contact me at hankpix(at)yahoo(dot)com. I'm especially interested in receiving poems and/or photos by students of any age. I'll be reading submissions until the end of October, but I'd appreciate those that arrive before then.
Because Reflections will contain more than one hundred poems, I'm interested in receiving as many submissions as possible from which to choose. Luckily, a few of my colleagues have offered to help me make the final decisions.

Write What You See

Write What You See by Hank Kellner (Cottonwood Press, 2009) is a collection of photographs and writing prompts for the classroom. Written by a successful photographer and former teacher of English, this book presents 99 black and white photographs accompanied by a wide variety of writing prompts to motivate students. The author gives his own suggestions for using photography in the classroom and also shares ideas from real teachers across the country who have successfully used photography in the teaching of writing. Includes a CD-Rom. $24.95. Available from the publisher, at bookstores everywhere, and on the Internet.

Brevity Is the Soul of Wit

2010-09-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

        "Brevity is the soul of wit." So said Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Of course, Polonius' advice to his son Laertes was anything but brief. But that doesn't negate the truth inherent in his words.
         Here are two brief poems I received for possible inclusion in my current project, an anthology of poems accompanied by photographs. The working title for this collection is Reflections.
         If you would like to learn more about Reflections, please contact me at hankpix(at)gmail(dot)com.
        The first piece is by Cynthia Lee Katona, a retired professor of English and nationally known freelance photographer-writer. The author of several books, Katona is currently developing a collection of haiku for publication. Visit her website at www.photomerchant.com.

The Identity Dilemma

                                                                Burka

                                                        Woman in Burka
                                                        Hands her license to a cop.
                                                        Does the picture match?

                       A Brief Poem about Hate

           The second poem is by Timothy San Pedro, a Ph.D candidate who works with student teachers at Arizona State University. As with the combination shown above, this photo-poem combination speaks for itself and is a powerful incentive that can lead to spirited discussion and different kinds of writing assignments.

                                                      The Mathematics of Hate

                                                      Hate,
                                                      When matched with more hate,
                                                      Does not cancel out.
                                                      It only doubles.

A Word about Copyright

Please feel free to use the words and images shown in this blog in your classroom, but note that they are protected under the copyright law and may not be used for any other purpose.

Use This Book To Inspire Writing in the Classroom

Hank Kellner's Write What You See (Cottonwood Press, 2009) is a collection of photographs and writing prompts designed to inspire your students. The book presents 99 black and white photographs accompanied by a wide variety of writing prompts. Kellner gives his own suggestions for using photography in the classroom and also shares ideas from real teachers across the country who have successfully used photography in the teaching of writing. Includes a CD-ROM. $24.95. Available from the publisher, at bookstores, at Amazon, and everywhere books are sold. Ask your school or public librarian to order it.

Poetry Is Alive and Well in the Classroom

2010-09-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

I've been delighted by the responses I've received to my call for poems by students and teachers. Reflections (working title) will be a unique anthology because it will feature poems accompanied by photographs. This powerful combination of written words and graphic images never fails to stimulate viewers' imaginations.

Teachers will find that Reflections will help to trigger lively class discussions that can lead to interesting writing assignments. If you would like more information about Reflections, please contact me at hankpix(at)yahoo(dot)com with the word "Guidelines" in the subject line.

Here's one of the poems I received for this project. Its author is Kym Sheehan, Secondary Literacy Specialist, Port Charlotte Public Schools, Port Charlotte, Florida. Kim is also the creator of the accompanying image. I added the quotation.

"I stood on the bridge at midnight/As the clocks were striking the hour." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Bridge

We named it The Singing Bridge.

Its small expanse connected and divided us.

It spanned the creek

That led to the marina and to sleepy coastal towns.

It's been silver, gray, and green.

Today its layers of paint are speckled with rust.

The rivets that hold it together

Are surrounded by starbursts of burnt sienna.

Oh, but it still sings!

When we drive across the fine-tuned

Metal floor, it serenades us.

As we bounce, it hums louder and louder.

Then SMACK! We hit the pavement.

Once across the bridge,

A quick left and we park by the docks.

The odor of brackish water fills our nostrils.

We ignore the "Live Lobsters" sign

And trudge down the bank to the water's edge.

High tide--no boat traffic.

Water glistens on top; but a closer look

Reveals only darkness below.

A soft wind pushes the water

To meet the underside of the bridge

As it sings while travelers

Drive to and fro to make the music.

Photo Essays Tell Stories

In a review of Write What You See in VOICES OF YOUTH ADVOCATE, Joyce Doyle wrote "Possibly the most helpful feature is a special section in the back of the book where high school and college teachers share how they have helped to inspire creative writing through the use of photos."
Here's an example that tells how you can use photo essays to trigger your students' imaginations. “Photo essays tell stories with pictures in ways that words cannot,” writes Kathy Miller, a teacher consultant at the Prairie Lands Writing Project. In one of her photo-related writing exercises, Miller directs her students at West Platte High School, Weston, Missouri to select three photo essays from the Internet, study them, and analyze them in terms of written responses to such questions as (1) Do the photos in the essays stand alone? (2) How much narration supports the photos? (3) How does the narration complement or support the photos? (4) What are your responses to the essays? In another exercise, Miller uses Brian Lanker’s I Dream a World as a source of photos of African-American women. “I direct students to select a photo, study it, and relate how the woman in the photo they chose is like them or different from them,” she concludes.

More about Write What You See

         Hank Kellner is the author of Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing. Published by Cottonwood Press, Write What You See includes a supplementary CD with photos.
         Here's what Valerie A. Reimers, Professor of English, Southwestern Okalhoma State University said about Write What You See. "This delightful collection of photographs and accompanying writing prompts offers a smorgasbord for imagination and critical thinking."
        Write What You See is available at the publisher, at bookstores and on the Internet at www.amazon.com. Ask your school or local librarian to order it.

Inspiration from Photos and Poems

2010-08-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Look Beyond the Ocean

You can always use photos without text to inspire writing, and you can always use text without photos for the same purpose. But when you combine the two, you present a powerful combination of words and images that never fails to encourage students to write. And when you add a relevant quotation, it gets even better. Here's one example.

"As for the future, your task is not to forsee it, but to enable it."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Look Beyond the Ocean

Alone, I face the sea

As waves rush toward the shore

Carrying messages unheard.

What will they say,

Those silent thoughts,

When at last

They whisper to the sand

On which I wait?

“The world awaits,” they cry.

“Look beyond the ocean,

Past the clouds

And out beyond the sky

Where you will find yourself.”

Elizabeth Guybo

For an anthology due out next year I'm on the lookout for poems by students, teachers, and others. This anthology will be unique because it will combine poems and photos. For more information and guidelines for submission, contact me at hankpix(at)gmail(dot)com with the word Poetry in the subject line.
Photo courtesy Megan McCarty. Megan is a graduate of The University of Central Florida. Visit her blog at meganerdruns.com

Comic Strips, Cartoons, and Working Lunches

There seems to be no end to the ways in which you can use photos to inspire writing. Here's one example. Mary Lee Meyer is a teacher consultant at the Prairie Lands Writing Project. See http://writingwithtechnology.edublogs.org for examples of some of the activities she demonstrates at her writing workshops for teachers. Contact Mary Lee at lucki13(at)grm(dot)net for more information.

In one activity, Meyer suggests using comic strips or political cartoons from newspapers and magazines to inspire student writing. “Scan an image into Microsoft Paint™ or another photo editing program and erase the words in the bubbles,” she writes. “Then print copies and ask the students to discuss the cartoon or comic strip in small group settings.” Meyer points out that this exercise helps students develop writing assignments that use dialogue In another activity, Meyer asked workshop participants to take a working lunch during which they recorded at least five digital photos that they thought they could use in a writing assignment. “This was a two-day class,” she writes, “during which participants were required, among other things, to use one of their images appropriately in a written piece.” This assignment could easily be completed with students at any level in just one day if the students are directed to come to class with photos they had already taken.

Another Pitch for Write What You See

Summer Storms and Las Vegas

2010-08-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

Stormy Weather

Cynthia Staples' poem "Summer Storms" appeared in Dead Mule of Southern Literature. We've paired it with a photo and reproduced it here to illustrate, once again, how powerful a photo-poem combination can be when it comes to inspiring writing.
To see more of Cynthia's photos and inspirational comments, visit her interesting and exciting blog at wordsandimagesbycynthia.wordpress.com. Other work by Cynthia has appeared in African Voices, Creativity Portal, and the Seattle Times.

Summer Storms

I miss summer storms,

Deafening noise, blinding light.

You know—the ones with rolling thunder,

Trailing white lightning in their wake,

Sheets of rain falling like milk from the sky.

We were trembling children.

As we peered past drawn curtains,

The storm seemed unending,

But then poof! Like magic it would stop

Leaving silence in the air.

Darkness would part for the sun. Birds sang.

All that remained of the storm

Was puddles and leaves strewn across

The front porch. We’d step outside

Into a golden light as though

God had scrubbed the world clean

Just for us.

We would play until sun set

And lightning bugs came out

To dance with the stars.

And Then There's, uh, Las Vegas

Las Vegas

O Las Vegas, you tawdry queen in old sequins and greasy spangles,

A boiling cauldron of iniquity.

A devil’s den of sin and vice.

Vegas, that dark electric empire.

That dream within a dream.

A thousand white candles of hope burning and singing to that old devil moon.

Uniquely American, the beauty of Las Vegas-

The swing and swank of neon, fast cars, and hot sex.

Eternal promise, hope and hype-

O glittering golden dream.

Molly Anderson-Childers' "Las Vegas" seduces us in a voice that's different from that of Staples' "Summer Storms." Rich in imagery, it speaks of "sin and vice," of "greasy spangles," of "hope and hype."

Although this photo-poem combination wouldn't be appropriate for younger students, it would certainly inspire upper level students and adults.

What's more, you could easily use the storm photo or the Vegas photo without the accompanying poems to inspire writing.

Thanks to Molly Anderson-Childers for "Las Vegas." Molly is a freelance writer, photographer, artist, and creativity consultant. You can see more of her work at creativity-portal, ediblesanjuanmountains, addictivefiction.blogspot.com, and stealingplums.blogspot.com

Call for Poetry

I'd been teaching for just a few years when Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle was published back in the 1960s. Consisting of a collection of poems accompanied by photos, Reflections became a favorite not only with the general public, but also with teachers of English. As I recall, it went through many editions before going out of print.

What a great idea, I thought at the time. Now, more than forty years later, I still feel the same way. That's why I've decided to create another poetry-photo combination. But this time, instead of using poetry by well-known poets, I'd like to use poems by students, their teachers, and other adults.

If you're interested in learning more about this exciting project, please contact me at hankpix(at)yahoo(dot)com. Finally, if you don't have photos, we can provide them..

Buy My Book

Hank Kellner is the author of Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing. Published by Cottonwood Press, Write What You See includes a supplementary CD with photos. Available at the publisher, at bookstores and on the Internet at www.amazon.com. Ask your school or local librarian to order it. Here's what Darien Public Library teen volunteer Katie Farren wrote about Write What You See. "Do you ever have trouble writing stories for your English class or on your own? Well Write What You See is packed with 99 intriguing photos, writing prompts, and key words that will surely motivate you to write stories that will blow people away. The ideas and stories these pictures can help you come up with are endless. You'll never have trouble writing again!"

The Man in the Green Shirt

2010-08-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

You really must click on this photo by Minneapolis-based photographer Michael A. Shapiro to enlarge it. That's when you'll experience the full impact of this powerful image. A former writing instructor, Shapiro is the well-known creator of photographic images who has completed and exhibited five major projects since 2000; published the book Paris; is finishing the final edit for his next book, American Fair; and is working full time on another project. You can see more of his excellent images at his website www.michaelashapiro.com.

I doubt if you'd find a student anywhere in the the world who won't respond to this photo in one way or another.That's why I suggest that simply showing the image to young writers without comment will trigger many different poems, essays, character sketches, recollections, and more.

Alternatively, you could show the photo accompanied by several key words designed to inspire writing. For example: shirt, mood, eyes, pensive, or many others. Ask the students to describe, in writing, what comes to mind when they match the words to the photo.

But if you thrive on class discussion, you could challenge your students with such questions as: (1) What do you think this young man is looking at? (2) If you were to meet him, what would you discuss? (3) Why is the subject of the photo alone? (4) What is he thinking?

How Some Master Teachers Use Photographs To Inspire Writing

At the University of Mississippi Writing Project, Co-Director of Special Programs Allison Movitz’s students use their own photographs to spark various kinds of writings. The students also incorporate their photos into multi-genre presentations and portfolios. “Most recently,” writes Movitz, “we’ve used Microsoft’s Photostory™, a digital camera, and a microphone to recreate a ‘who done it’ from a mock trial in speech/debate classes.”

Mary Birky is an English teacher at the Papillion-LaVista High School, Papillion, Nebraska; a Nebraska Writing Project Advisory Board member, and a contributor to a forthcoming book on place-conscious education. Birky uses student-generated photos to stimulate writing assignments based on the content of the photos, the mood of the photos, and the imagery of the photos. “I tell my students to ‘paint the photographs with words,’” she writes, before she asks them to create free verse poetry based on the photos they have selected.”

Justin Van Kleeck’s very successful writing activity with students he tutors involves a seagull that simply can’t get enough Doritos. A former adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Piedmont Community College, Van Kleeck shows his students a video of a seagull that steals a bag of Doritos from a store in Scotland every day. In the first part of his assignment, he directs the students to become the thieving seagull and write process papers in which they tell their fellow seagulls 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, in a creative, non-violent way, is telling other shopkeepers how to prevent the seagull from stealing Doritos. “The key to the exercises,” writes Van Kleeck, “is for students to use the process approach while also using their imaginations.”

Call for Submissions

Do you have a photo-related writing activity you’ve used successfully in the classroom? Would you like to share that activity with other teachers at many levels nationwide? If so, I’d love to hear from you. Please send approximately 100 words describing your activity to me at hankpix(at)gmail(dot)com as a WORD attachment to your e-mail. 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.

Don't Miss This Chance To Purchase Write What You See at a 34% Discount

Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing sells for $24.95. But through September 1, 2010 you'll pay just $16.47 when you order directly from the publisher at www.cottonwoodpress.com/index.php/writing/write-what-you-see-99-photos-to-inspire-writing/detailed-product-flyer.html/. That'll save you a whopping 34%.

Here's how to receive your discount. Just enter coupon code HPIXWS when you order online. Your discount will be entered automatically when you check out. The $8.48 discount applies only to orders that include Write What You See.

You can also phone in your order at 1-800-864-4297 and mention the code HPIXWS to receive the discount. Don't delay. Order today!

Who is Katie Farren?

2010-07-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Henry Stindt at the Museum

When Virginia-based writer-photographer Dan Mouer visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts with his wife Robin and lifelong friend Henry Stindt, an artist-photographer who has spent decades teaching painting and photography, he waited for the perfect moment to capture this image.

        "As we sat down for our lunch break in the museum's cafe," writes Mouer, "we began talking about the exhibit we had just come from. The light behind Henry made a halo around his long gray hair. I simply waited for a time when his face relaxed as he was listening to Robin. The light and the intensity of his expression made the shot." To see more of Mouer's photographic art, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/danmouer. To see a larger view of this photo, please click on it.
        Mouer's image invites a myriad of comments that are sure to inspire writing. Students will readily respond to such questions as: (1) What does the expression on the man's face tell you? (2) Who or what is the man looking at? (3) What is his profession or occupation? (4) What is he thinking? (5) Does he have a family? (6) What are his political affiliations.
       Alternatively, you could list several key words related to the photo and use them to trigger responses. A few examples are pensive, intense, surprised, distrustful.
   Finally, you could simply show the photo to your students while you encourage them to use their imaginations to create either expository or creative writing. The possibilities are endless.

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 teacherconsultant 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.

Who Is Katie Farren?

Katie Farren is a teen volunteer at the Darien Public Library, Darien, Connecticut. Here's what she wrote about Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner.

Do you ever have trouble writing stories for your English class or on your own? Well Write What You See is packed with 99 intriguing photos, writing prompts and key-words that will surely motivate you to write stories that will blow people away. The ideas and stories these pictures can help you come up with are endless. You'll never have trouble writing again!

Don't Miss This Chance To Purchase Write What You See at a 34% Discount

Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing sells for $24.95. But through September 1, 2010 you'll pay just $16.47 when you order directly from the publisher at www.cottonwoodpress.com/index.php/writing/write-what-you-see-99-photos-to-inspire-writing/detailed-product-flyer.html/. That'll save you a whopping 34%.

You can also phone in your order at 1-800-864-4297 and mention the code HPIXWS to receive the discount. Don't delay. Order today!

Coming Soon

Guest Blog by Molly Anderson-Childres

The Man in the Green Shirt by Michael Shapiro

Student Photo Contest by Stephanie Susan Smith

Summer Storms by Cynthia Staples

Irises Blooming in the Garden of Dreams

2010-07-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

Stories Are Like Irises

"Irises wait underground for spring," writes Molly Anderson-Childers. "Even if you're impatient for them to bloom, it doesn't matter. Irises will only bloom when they're good and ready--so, too, with stories. It's important to show students the entire process of writing, and to teach them to find joy in every step of the way.

        "Ask each student to keep a writer's notebook," she continues. "This tool functions as a sort of catch-all for ideas and inspiration, and is designed to help students explore each step in the writing process from brainstorming to character and plot development in an organic way.
        "What's in my writer's notebook? Bits of poems; random scribblings; lists of character and place names; photos; sketches and collages; notes; bios; and character interviews to help with character development.
        "Also, lists of plot twists; resources; inspirational quotations and photos to get my mind moving when I'm stuck in the muck; lists of randomly beautiful words like googoplex, tintinnabulation; blank pages for ideas and brainstorming, and writing prompts."
   Anderson-Childers notes, also, that each student will need a notebook or binder for this project. "Every page should have different activities designed to fuel young writers' imaginations," she continues. "By using these pages frequently and consistently, they'll develop the habit of recording ideas for future use.
        "Students can add photos or other forms of visual art to their notebooks. You can encourage them to add their own photos, images, and artwork to inspire them in their writing."
When asked what advice she would give to young writers, she responded with, "Writing will lead you through the darkness, and shine a light on the truth your heart fears to recognize. Writing is a path, a road to follow, a sacred journey of the heart."
        Molly Anderson-Childers is a freelance writer, photographer, artist, and creativity consultant. Her work has appeared in Images, Edible San Juan Mountains, New Witch, Southwest Colorado Arts Perspective, The Durango Telegraph, and The Four Corners Business Journal. You can find her work online at www.creativity-portal.com, www.ediblesanjuanmountains.com, and www.thepaganarts.com. Anderson-Childers also publishes two inspirational blogs, www.addictivefiction.blogspot.com, and www.stealingplums.blogspot.com. To connect with her send an email to stealingplums(at)yahoo(dot)com.

How Joann Garbarini Uses Photos in the Classroom

Don't Miss This Chance To Purchase Write What You See at a 34% Discount

Here's how to receive your discount. just enter the coupon code HPIXWS when you order online. Your discount will be entered automatically when you check out. The $8.48 discount applies only to orders that include Write What You See.

You can also phone in the order at 1-800-864-4297 and mention the coupon code HPIXWS to receive the discount.

Don't delay. Order today!

Coming Soon!

Artist-Photographer Henry Stindt by Dan Mouer

The Man in the Green Shirt by Michael A. Shapiro

Student Photography Contest by Stephanie Smith Ph.D

The Road Not Taken...And More

2010-07-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..."

Although Paul Stubbs' photo doesn't portray the two roads cited in Robert Frost's well-known poem "The Road Not Taken," it certainly does trigger similar responses.
Bordered by a lone tree and a collection of greenery, more than a dozen stone steps wind upward until they seem to end in the darkness. What will a visitor to the scene find at the end of the steps? A cave? A meadow? A forest populated by trees that have grown for many years?
What is the mood engendered by the contrast between the light and dark areas of the photograph? What would you be thinking as you climb the steps? Would you be fearful? Unconcerned? Would you be eager to discover what you'll discover at the top of the stairs? Or would you decide to turn back rather than to continue into the unknown?
        These are but a few of the questions that can help to stimulate creative writing, whether it be in or out of the classroom. There's no doubt that this photo and others like it can easily inspire writers of all ages to create not only personal responses, but also poems, short stories, or essays.
        Many thanks to Paul Stubbs, a North Carolina based photographer and member of Carolina's Nature Photographers Association. Stubbs' specialty is landscapes, nature, and wildlife. "When I saw the steps," he writes, "I thought they would make an interesting image. I looked at the stone the steps were made of and wondered how old they were. I wondered what it would have been like to be at the steps many years ago."
        To see more of Stubbs' work, visit www.cnpa.org and search for Paul Stubbs at "Member Galleries." You'll also find Stubbs' photographs by searching for Paul Stubbs at www.betterphoto.com. And if you'd like to see a black and white version of the photo shown above, contact me at hankpix (at) gmail (dot) com.

How Other Teachers Use Photos To Inspire Writing

          In a review of Write What You See in Voices of Youth Advocate, August, 2009, Joyce Doyle wrote: "Possibly the most helpful feature is a special section in the back of the book where high school and college teachers show how they have helped to inspire creative writing through the use of photos."
         Here's an example from the book. Justin Van Kleeck's very successful writing activity with students he tutors involves showing them a photo of a baby macaque and a pigeon who had "adopted" each other as friends.
   "I ask my students to freewrite after showing them the photo and giving them information about the background story of how the animals came together, "he writes. A former adjunct assistant professor of English at Piedmont Virginia Community College, Van Kleeck then allows his students to write about "...anything in the picture that interests them, from how different species can get along so easily while humans cannot, to the human behaviors that stress animals, such as poaching."
        He also shows his students a video of a seagull that steals a bag of Doritos from a store in Scotland every day. In the first part of the assignment, he directs the students to write a process paper in which they instruct their fellow students 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, nonviolent 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."
For more interesting ways to use photos to inspire writing, read my series of ten articles on photo writing at www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner. And to discover what Gavin Tachibana wrote about using photos to inspire writing, visit the National Writing Project at www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3125.

Don't Miss This Chance To Purchase Write What You See at a 34% Discount

You can also phone in your order at 1-800-864-4297 and mention the code HPIXWS to receive the discount. Don't delay. Order today!

Use These Photos in Your Classroom

To discover a sampling of color and black and white photos you can use in your classroom, visit photobucket.com/hankpix. Click on "All Albums" to see the photos. Right click on any photo to download it.

Coming Soon

Irises in a Garden of Dreams by Molly Anderson-Childers

Student Photo Contest by Stephanie Smith Ph.D

The Bucket and the Flag

And much, much more!

Babies, Teen Authors, and More

2010-07-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Lullaby and Good Night

Some people believe that junior and senior high school boys wouldn't be interested in writing about babies. But that's not true. In fact, there's nothing like a baby to turn even the most macho member of a high school or junior high school football team into a bowl of pudding.
       What's more, girls won't fail to respond enthusiastically to these two little cuties from Cynthia Staples' blog, wordsandimagesbycynthia.wordpress.com.
   The possibilities for using these two photos and others like them to inspire writing at any level are limitless. If, for example, babies could speak, what would these two infants say to each other if they were to meet? How would they respond to people, places, and things? How would their environments affect their lives? What will their lives be like as they mature?
     After viewing the photos, some students may want to comment on and write about the problems one or both of these babies will encounter as they grow up. Others will be inspired to reflect on the problems of teenage pregnancy. Still others will want to write about the birth of a sibling and how that birth affected them.
            If you or any of your students follow up on this topic--or any other for that matter--I'd love to hear from you. I'd be very interested in publishing samples of photo-inspired writing on this electronic page.

Here's More About Publishing Student Writing

I was delighted when Cynthia Staples (above) alerted me to a teen magazine that publishes writing by teenagers. Teen Voices covers a multitude of topics including bullying, sex trafficking, online do's and dont's, writing college essays, and more. This magazine even invites teenagers to serve as editors!

Best of all, Teen Voices provides opportunities for teenagers to see their writing in print while reaching a nationwide audience. "If you're a girl between the ages of 13 and 19," writes editor Jessica Moore, "you can submit your writing and artwork for publication in Teen Voices! If you are changing the world in some way, we also want to hear your story for our Girls in Action feature."

For more information, visit http://www.teenvoices.com/.

What If...?

     What if the sky suddenly turned black during the daytime? Would the people inside this building respond calmly, or would they panic? What if aliens were directing a powerful death ray at the structure? Could enemy forces have released a gas that poisons the air and threatens to kill everyone?
   In the photo shown at the right we see a negative image of a girl wearing glasses in which something is reflected. Students will want to speculate as to what the reflected images are.What's more, they'll be eager comment on the expression on the girl's face, and they'll want to explain what she might look like as a positive image. What color is her hair? Is she screaming or laughing? Does the negative image lead to a discussion of dreams?
       For greater impact, click on the images to enlarge them. And to see more images you can use in your classroom for free, visit photobucket.com/hankpix
   By the way, you'll find more photographs and ideas in my ten-part series on using photos to inspire writing when you visit creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/.

Finally, if you have photo-related writing activities you'd like to share, please contact me at hankpix(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Coming Soon

Guest Blog by Molly Childers

Enigmatic Photo by Paul Stubbs

Student Photo Contest by Stephanie Smith, PhD

A Study in Contrasts...And More

2010-07-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

Thunderheads Over Haviland Lake

Molly Anderson-Childers' photograph of clouds, earth, and water is a study in contrasts. Overhead, the clouds dominate the scene. In the middle distance, a darkened land mass appears. In the foreground, a body of water completes the scene.

What can we write about the differences between the clouds, the earth, and the water? What could these elements of the photo symbolize? Does the land mass appear to be menacing? What is the relationship between the clouds and the water? What might we find beyond the horizon? What feelings and emotions does the photograph inspire?

"For a year," writes Molly, "Haviland Lake was my closest neighbor. We slowly got to know each other, shyly unfolding little bits of ourselves, and eventually we became friends. The lake is beautiful in every season, and it's one of my favorite places to create photos which then become inspiration for writing."

As a writer, artist, and photographer in Durango, Colorado, Molly Anderson-Childers is surrounded by the awe-inspiring beauty of the San Juan Mountains. You can find more of her inspiring work at www.stealingplums.blogspot.com and www.addictivefiction.com.

What Do You See in a Glass Block?

Here's a black and white version of a glass block that was shown in color at stealingplums (above). Click on the photo to enlarge it. If you missed the color version and would like to see it, please contact me. I captured this image with a Voightlander 35 mm lens mounted on a Leica M9. Except for cropping the image and transforming it from color to black and white to color, I didn't alter it in Photoshop.

To see more of my black and white and color images, please visit photobucket.com/hankpix and click on ALL ALBUMS. There you'll discover photos you can download for free and use in your classroom as supplements to those you'll find in Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing http://www.amazon.com/Write-What-You-See-Inspire/dp/1877673838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236107340&sr=1-1.

What do you see in a glass block? Most students would probably scratch their heads and give you the all-too-familiar "look" that communicates boredom. But if you encourage them to look more closely at an enlarged version of the photo, they'll probably respond with some interesting comments.

Are the images shown in the photo pleasant to look at? How do they make you feel? If you didn't know that the subject of the photo is a glass block, what would you say it is? Can you imagine and describe a person or an object when you study the photo closely? What is the significance of the curved lines? What do they remind you of?

These are just a few of the many questions you can ask students during class discussion before you turn them loose to write their masterpieces.

Finally, to read an interesting article about using photographs to inspire writing, go to the National Writing Project at www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3125. And to read my ten-part series on photo-writing prompts, please visit www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/.

A Surprise from National Geographic

In two previous installments of this blog I discussed the use of black and white photos as opposed to color photos. That's why I was delighted to read the following information in National Geographic (July 2010, page 12. "Color is great, but don't forget black and white. Nearly any kind of image--whether it's an unusual street street scene or wave-lashed rocks in a violent storm--can gain subtlety and depth in monochrome." You can see samples at ngm.com/yourshot.

Coming Soon

Sweet Little Babies by Cynthia Staples wordsandimagesbycynthia.wordpress.com

Guest Blog by Molly Anderson-Childers stealingplums.blogspot.com

Enigmatic Photo by Paul Stubbs www.betterphoto.com

Student Photo Contest by Stephanie Susan Smith, Ph.D http://photos.stephaniesuesansmith.com

More Black and White and Color Images

2010-06-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

If you've used Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing in your classroom, you know how powerful black and white images can be. If, however, you haven't used WWYS, you can find out more about this outstanding publication at www.cottonwoodpress.com and by scrolling to the end of this blog to read what the School Library Journal wrote about it.
One of the reasons black and white images are as powerful as they are is that they stimulate the subconscious more than color images do. Notice how the image shown above captures the eye and suggests many possibilities for writing. For an even more dramatic effect, click on the image to enlarge it.

But If You Prefer Color Photos, Try These

In today's world of digital cameras many people seem to prefer color images over those that are black and white. Here's an example of one such image you can use to inspire your students. To see more color images, visit photobucket.com/hankpix and click on All ALBUMS. Feel free to download any of these images for use in your classroom.
You won't find any written prompts at Photobucket, but you probably won't need them. In most cases you can simply show the images to your students, encourage them to discuss their responses, and then allow them to express themselves in writing.

Two Images By Cynthia Staples

"A few years ago," writes Cynthia Staples, " I worked for an after school writing program. Kids, mostly middle-school aged, would engage in an activity and then have to write about their experiences. Usually the activities were very physical like basketball or a scavenger hunt. However, on a rainy day or in winter, the staff would sometimes have the children select an image from a folder. The images varied greatly from a dog licking an ice cream cone to a little boy bowled over with laughter. The children would have to write something about what they were seeing. For some of the children it was hard, but for others, it was a wonderful liberating experience. It was an activity that I carried with me for a long time after I left the program."

       These two images by Cynthia offer many opportunities for you to inspire your students. The image at the top is a negative image: the one below it is a positive image.
   Students will be able to respond to these photos at many levels. For example, the negative image might suggest danger, fear, or even a bad dream. What feelings or emotions does it engender? In what way(s) does the person shown in the photo seem to be threatening? What are the specific things in the photo that contribute to its effect?
The positive image, however, is much more realistic. Who is the man? What does the hood he's wearing suggest? What does the expression on his face suggest? Does he have a family?
       For more images and ideas by Cynthia Staples please visit wordsandimagesbycynthia.wordpress.com. While you're there, be sure to study the many photos and suggestions you'll discover.

      Coming soon: Thunderheads over Haviland Lake by Molly Anderson-Childers; Two Babies by Cynthia Staples; Flowers and Poems by Sheila Finkelstein.

Here's What School Library Journal Wrote about

Write What You See

KELLNER, Hank Write What You See: 99 Photos to Inspire Writing 120p. w/CD. photos. reprods. Web sites. Cottonwood Press, 2009. pap. $24.95. ISBN 978-1-877673-83-2. LC 2008938630.This book is filled with black-and-white photos of all types–landscapes, portraits, action shots, stills, and more. The images are paired with a quote from scholars, writers, philosophers, celebrities, politicians, etc. For example, a shot of a gymnast supporting himself in mid-air is matched with Lance Armstrong’s comment, “Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever,” and an image of a little girl taking a picture appears with a quip from Dorothea Lange: “Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” Each entry is also joined with one or more of the following writing prompts: questions to consider, possible opening lines, ideas for writing, or possible key words. The book, which is accompanied by a CD containing all of the photos and text, concludes with five pages of suggestions by teachers as to how one can use the volume to inspire writing. A terrific resource for ELA and creative-writing teachers.–Joanne K. Cecere, Monroe-Woodbury High School, Central Valley, NY

A Passion for Photos and Writing

2010-06-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Sheila Finkelstein's passion centers on using photographs to inspire her readers to search within themselves for new insights and understandings. Sometimes these realizations lead to prose. At other times they lead to poetry. Here's an example of one of Sheila's photo-drawings along with the poem it inspired. The photo and poem are one of a series of four you'll discover at www.naturesplayground.com/cyrano1.html
You can see many more of Sheila's imaginative images and at the same time read her suggestions for using them as inspiration when you visit her at http://www.sheilafinkelstein.com/

“The Iris”
Icarus like wings, they flutter,
Petals in the sun.
Rivaling the gods, they mutter,
Dewey drips, they run.
Incense wafting in the breeze
Luring all around.
Snaring swarms of buzzing bees,
Pleased with what they’ve found.

Black and White Images Are Powerful

Although images reproduced in color can stimulate the mind and generate many ideas, black and white images are at least as powerful, if not more so. To experience this effect fully, click on the photo shown above.
This image appears on page 90 of Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing. Different prompts designed to trigger ideas accompany each of the images. In this case a quotation by Tennessee Williams introduces two specific ideas for writing: (1) What story might be behind this photo? (2) If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go, and what would you do after you got there? Several key words follow the prompts. Other entries in the book present different combinations of photos and prompts.
For more information and to purchase the book, please visit

http://www.amazon.com/Write-What-You-See-Inspire/dp/1877673838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236107340&sr=1-1

Find Out More at The National Writing Project

In an article titled "Teachers Use Photo Prompts To Spark Writing," Gavin Tachibana presents a wealth of information that's accompanied by several links to related sources that are interesting and very useful. To read the article, please visit http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3125

And As If That Isn't Enough

Writer-photographer Cynthia Staples has worked with education nonprofit organizations exploring concepts of culture, community, and sustainability for more than ten years. Her photos are interesting and sure to inspire writers at many levels--both in and out of the classroom. To see more of her excellent work visit
http://wordsandimagesbycynthia.wordpress.com/
Here are two examples of Cynthia's work that are sure to trigger almost unlimited ideas for writing. For greater impact, please click on the photos to enlarge them.
In each photo we see a person looking into the camera. One of the people is smiling: the other isn't. The man seems to be thoughtful, detached, somewhat distant. The woman, on the other hand, is smiling, open, and perhaps playful as she looks directly into the camera.

         Who are these people? In what ways are they alike? Different? If they met on a park bench, what would they be thinking? What would the say to each other? What influences would have shaped their lives? What are their professions? Why is the woman smiling? Why is the man pensive?
   These are just a few questions that you and your students can respond to as you use photographs to inspire writing. For even more imaginative approaches to writing by Cynthia Staples, visit www.creativity-portal.com. And while you're there don't miss my own series of ten articles on using photography to inspire writing.

Poetry from Photos

2010-06-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

A Watermelon and Poetry?

When it was first published during the 1960s, Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon by Stephen Dunning, Edward Lueders, and Hugh Smith became so popular that it was reprinted time and time again for many years. It's out of print now, but you can still find it at used book dealers on the Internet.

The book presented a series of black and white photographs accompanied by poems written by well known and not-so-well-known poets. Although it was created primarily for an adult audience, Reflections quickly found its way into classrooms after teachers discovered that they could use the photos to inspire student writing.
The two photos shown here (click to enlarge) didn't come from Reflections. The tulip is the work of Florida-based writer-photographer Sheila Finkelstein. You can see more of Sheila's work at www.photographyandtransformation.com. Scroll down to "Categories" where you'll discover a listing of other photos, as well as a goldmine of ideas. While you're there, sign up for Sheila's free Ezine, Picture To Ponder.

Two Flowers and a Poem

It's easy to see that, either singly or as a pair, these photos can trigger numerous ideas that could inspire many forms of creative writing. Here's an example of a poem my friend Joe Kato wrote after he viewed the photos.

Two Flowers

Two Flowers grew

                  In a corner of my garden.
                  Nearby, weeds waited
                  For the flowers to wilt and die.
                  "Go away," whispered the flowers.
                  "Soon you will die!

But we will live forever."

Teach Specific Skills

Of course, you can use photos, either singly or in pairs, for more than just inspiring poems. For example, if you want to teach specific skills, you could use these two photos (or others that are similar) to emphasize contrast in the writing process. After discussing the differences between the photos, students can choose either objects, people, or places to discuss in their writing.

Please visit the archives in this blog to discover many more photos and ideas you can use to inspire writing in the classroom. And for even more ideas and information buy my book, Write What You See at http://www.amazon.com/Write-What-You-See-Inspire/dp/1877673838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236107340&sr=1-1

The Leaves of a Hosta Plant.

2010-06-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

The World Up Close

Here's a closeup of several leaves of a hosta plant. When you look at them, do they suggest a feeling of calmness? How do the different shades of green affect the viewer? In what way or ways does the photograph appeal to the senses?
Copyright Hank Kellner 2010

Don't Miss Sheila Finklestein's Excellent Images

       If you want to discover more exciting photos and comments that are certain to inspire you and your students, be sure to visit Sheila Finklestein's website at http://www.picturetoponder.com. While you're there, I'm sure you'll want to subscribe to her wonderful e-zine, which is jam packed with interesting images and concepts.
    And for even more inspiration, don't forget to visit the archives that follow this entry to my blog. Thank you.
     What's more, I hope you'll buy my book, Write What You See. That's where you'll find 124 pages of photos and inspiration that are sure to inspire your students. Write What You See is on sale everywhere and at http://www.amazon.com/Write-What-You-See-Inspire/dp/1877673838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236107340&sr=1-1

2009-03-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

How To Connect Seeing with Writing

Valerie Reimers is a Professor of English in the Department of Language and Literature at Southern Oklahoma State University. Reimers has developed an assignment that asks her students to discover convergences between visual images and verbal texts as they create both. First, she directs them to create photographs and, without looking at them, immediately write journal entries describing what they saw and hoped to capture in the photos. “In this way,” she writes, “the students connect seeing with writing.”

A few days later, Reimers directs the students to view printed versions of their photos, describe in writing what they see in their images, and compare/contrast their descriptions with the journal entries they had written earlier.

For the third and final part of the assignment, Reimers requires the students to submit a portfolio consisting of three sets of photos and written entries for evaluation and to share with their classmates. “Doing well on this assignment,” she concludes, “doesn’t depend on photographic skills. Rather, it depends on the careful choosing of subjects and the effort put into writing about them.” To receive a more complete description of this assignment, contact Reimers at valerie.reimers@swosu.edu.

Free! Free! Free! Mystery Photo

Marketing experts tell us that one of the most powerful words in the English language is Free. That’s why I’ve used it three times in the subhead (above).

“Balderdash!” you exclaim. “Nothing’s free. You pay for everything.”

“Not so,” I respond, secure in the knowledge that the Free Mystery Photo I want to send you is really, truly, without-a-doubt, undeniably free. All you have to do to receive my Free Mystery Photo is to send me an e-mail at hankpix@gmail.com with the words Free Mystery Photo in the subject line.

Are you still unconvinced? Do you want to know more about the photo before you send for it…even though it’s free? Okay. (1) This photo has been in my files for more than twenty years. (2) During that time, it appeared on the cover of The Reading Journal and in many other publications. (3) Most recently it appeared in Write What You See (Cottonwood Press, 2009). (4) Its center of interest is a teenager. (5) Before I retired, I used it to inspire writing time and time again with great success.

By the way, the Free Mystery Photo will arrive in your electronic mailbox with permission to reproduce it for use in your classroom. Send today!

Where To Find More Information

I’ve written a series of articles titled “Using Photographs To Inspire Writing.” You can read these articles at www.creativity-portal.com, www.teachers.net/gazette, and www.developingteachers.com.

In these articles you’ll find dozens of ideas for using photographs to trigger writing in the classroom; interesting photographs that are sure to stimulate your students’ imaginations; contributions by outstanding teachers nationwide; and much more.

But that’s not all. At the three websites cited above, you’ll discover more new and exciting ideas that will help to enhance your teaching than you’ll be able to use during your entire teaching career.

Let Your Students Photograph Themselves

I’ll bet that almost all of the students in your classes can easily produce digital images. That said, why not ask them to photograph each other and use their photos as inspiration?
Obviously, this activity lends itself to the creation of character descriptions in which you could require that the students write not only physical, but also emotional descriptions of their subjects.

And there’s more. Because digital photos can easily be manipulated, you can convert color images to black and white images. And you can even convert positive images to negative images. By doing so, you make it possible for your students to create many different kinds of creative writing assignments.

In the example shown here, my granddaughter held her digital camera at arm’s length to capture a self-portrait. Using Photo Base 3, I converted the image from color to black and white and from positive to negative. Then I showed the image to another middle school student and asked her to write a brief piece based on her reaction to it.

Another Me

Most people think I’m much too shy.

They say the world will pass me by.

But if they look behind the light

That sometimes hides me from their sight,

They’ll surely see

Another me.

And then they would be right.

Obviously, the resultant poem wouldn’t have impressed Byron, Wordsworth, or Keats. Nevertheless, it does illustrate the power of photographic images to inspire writing among students of all ages.

Shameless Self Promotion

Published by Cottonwood Press, Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing is a collection of thought-provoking black-and-white photographs accompanied by a wide variety of inventive writing prompts to motivate students. But there’s more! Each book comes with a CD-ROM that makes it possible for you to use a video projector to display the photographs and writing prompts. Order today!

Copyright © Hank Kellner 2009
Self Portrait by Anna Kellner, Age 13
Poem by Louise Bowman, Age 13

________________________________________________________________________

Write What You See: 99 Photos to Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner. Order at www.cottonwoodpress.com, www.amazon.com, or Toll Free at 1-800-864-4297. Cottonwood Press books are distributed by Independent Publishers Group. Includes supplementary CD with photos. 8 ½ x 11, 120 pages, perfect binding, ISBN 978-I-877-673-83-2, LCCN 2008938630. $24.95. The author will contribute a portion of the royalties earned from the sale of this book to The Wounded Warriors Project.

2008-11-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

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.

_______________________________________________________________________
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.

2008-10-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

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

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/.

2008-09-30T08:14:00.001-07:00

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.

___________________________________________________________________

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.

2008-09-17T08:43:00.000-07:00

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.
__________________________________________________________________________
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.

2008-09-05T07:24:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-08-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

“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.

2008-08-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-08-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

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!"

2008-07-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

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..."

2008-07-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

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.