Goldberg, Bonni

Project: Revising for Organization
Students translate sentences into shapes and colors then re-order the sentence/shapes into a collage.  The visual changes are applied to the original text and the revised writing and collage appear side by side. Skills emphasized include organization, fluency, and voice.

Project: Portraits
Students create portraits of each other, employing figurative language with increasing depth.  The week concludes with a game that hones listening skills as students read their portraits, and their classmates or visiting adults try to identify who the student wrote about. Skills emphasized include ideas/content, and word choice.

Project: Language and the Joy of Rhythm and Sound
Students concentrate on the sounds of words rather than on their definitions.  During the week they participate in choral readings of poems.  They write using onomatopoeia, by "translating" poems from foreign and made-up languages into English, and by using other techniques designed to help them focus on the music of words and their associations rather than on conventional definitions. Skills emphasized include word choice, conventions, and voice.

 

Bonni Goldberg, MA (John Hopkins University), is the author of the bestseller, Room to Write, as well as Gifts from the Heart, The Spirit of Pregnancy, and Beyond the Words.  Her essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on public radio.  Bonni has led writing workshops for people of all ages for over 20 years, and has been awarded numerous prizes for her own writing as well as for innovative programs presenting the written word in unconventional formats and locations.  She lives in Portland with her husband, artist, writer and sometimes collaborator, Geo Kendall and their daughter.

Last Updated:  November 2005