Why "Hand" Writing?
- Poem-a shared physical trait
- Quilt
- "Hand" writing with colleagues
- Posted "hand" writing on blog and shared with Two Writing Teachers community
I first starting writing about hands in 2005. One of the things I liked about hands is that they look like my mom's hands. And as my mom and I have both aged, our hands remind me of my grandmother's hands. I have vivid memories of holding my grandma's hands in church and playing with her bracelets and fiddling with her wedding ring. For Christmas that year, I wrote my mom a poem about our hands. She tacked it to the bulletin board directly above her sewing machine, a spot I considered to be a place of honor. In 2008, my mom crafted a quilt for me and added an applique of her hand print on the back.
My Mother's Hands
When I look at my hands, I see your hands, I see your mother's hands. Trim fingernails, No polish, White moons Peeking out from under cuticles. Bluish veins more visible, Through thinning skin. Hard working hands. Gripping and squeezing, Dressmaker shears. Some days agile, Some days achy. Loving hands. Sliding a daughter's bangs out of her eyes. Cupping a son's chin As he mumbles a question. Sometimes when I look at my hands, As I write, or turn the pages of a book, I see your hands, I see your mother's hands. Diana Martin December 2005 |
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Later in 2008, Fran Rayce and Colleen Whalen, the ELA consultants for Monroe Public Schools were leading a monthly study group for our district literacy coaches. During the session, they asked us to think of someone we cared about and to write about their hands in our writer's notebooks. We wrote and we shared and processed how we might use this idea with our students. Below are snippets from my writer's notebook--doodles, spelling errors, and all.
Since about 2009, I've experimented with "hand" writing periodically in classrooms with students from 3rd through 6th grade. The process I used was roughly the same each time: read aloud, have a go, confer, share, and write some more. Sometimes I used my entries from my writer's notebook as the read aloud and sometimes picture books. Spring 2013 was the first year I attempted to do "hand" writing with K-2 students.