Chapter 3: Share Your Writing Life
• Write together as a staff
• Note your writing practices
• Tell students why you write
Chapter Two of Regie’s book segues right into her third chapter, “Share Your Writing Life.” In this chapter Regie drives home the importance of teachers sharing their writing process with their students. She encourages teachers to become writers in front of their students, on their own and with their staff, and also to share their daily writing practices with their students. The purpose of the assignment below (Assignment #3) is to get you writing.
ASSIGNMENT THREE: Sharing Your Writing Life!
For many of us, writing is not enjoyable and/or is very difficult. Perhaps it is because we ourselves were never celebrated as writers. Or perhaps we only remember the “skills” based comments written in various colored pens on our papers…that always sliced deep (and turned many of us into “non-writers.”) These comments never really helped our writing become any better. As a requirement of a summer writing institute (which I was conned into attending “so that I could become a better teacher of writing”) I (Jackie) bit the bullet and wrote extensively throughout the course. What they say is true: the more I wrote, the more I enjoyed it, and I believe I grew as a writer. The goal of this two-part assignment is to get you writing.
Part One:
For the first part of this assignment you need to think about topics for your own writing (ideas/stories that you can share to excite your students) and then actually write a short piece (ideally in front of your students.) If you do not presently have the opportunity to write in front of your students then please complete the activity on your own.
1. Use the topic idea list from Regie’s “Try It and Apply It” on page 26. Choose several topics, and then create a list of sub-topics for each.
2. Choose the sub-topic that most interests you and write a short piece that you can use to model writing in front of your students.
Part Two:
1. On pages 45-46, Regie gives suggestions for writing exercises for the start of school (or really anytime you need to get writing started.) Follow her criteria for “Capturing A Moment” (from the summer or any other time ) and draft a short piece. Follow the directions in the chart on page 46.
2. After completing the draft, which should take no more than 10 minutes, take a moment to write down some of your observations of your writing process. Again, use the suggestions from the chart or the bullets below:
o What are you thinking about as you are composing?
o What exactly did you do to plan, to get started writing, when you got stuck, or when you completed your piece?
o What does your process look like? Do you write straight through? Stop to re-read? Revise as you go? Look up information? Edit?
The goal of this activity is to get you to write - which will hopefully get you more comfortable writing in front of your children! Complete this activity and let us know how it went by sharing your answers to some of the bulleted questions above.
Please post your comments to the course blog. (We don’t need to see your writing piece. We are more interested in your thought process as you completed the exercise.)
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Assignment #3 Sharing your writing life
ReplyDeleteI like Regie’s suggestions for not sharing responsibility too much when you share your own writing (not over-teaching). I often model writing when they dictate in their journals, writing cards, etc. by stretching out the words and saying the word that I am writing (talking through my writing with finger spaces, etc.). I try to be careful to write it as they say it or sometimes offer a sentence and ask them if that’s okay (I don’t want to revise them too much but also I can show them that’s part of the writing process). So I will have to be careful not to try to do everything in my own writing modeling.
Part 1
My Topic Idea List
1) Start of School. Subtopic: setting up the classroom. Being nervous, wondering who my new students would be, and meeting new teachers. Some students come early to meet me and see their room, their cubbies, their bookshelf, their free choice materials, etc.
2) Sports. Subtopic: playing volleyball with the 1st grade teacher and her husband who works with my husband.
3) Pets. Subtopic: my cat that I grew up with for the past 13 years (through college, accounting job, applying for my Masters in Teaching, and marriage) just got put to sleep.
4) Vacations. Subtopic: going to Canada for our 2nd anniversary, and attempting to water ski.
I shared the story of my cat dying with the children and how that was hard. I wrote just a brief journal entry about it with my picture associated with it. Our conversation opened up their stories about their experience with death, animals who got lost, their empathies for me and mine for them. I noticed that a few of the children wanted to write happy stories about their pets too, even as I opened up their journal entries to any topic. My sentence ended up being: My mom and I took our cat Sadie to the doctor. She was sick and did not survive. We miss her. (Then I went on to explain more in the picture).
One thing I liked about chapter 4 was the continuation of stories and journal entries. It made me think that maybe I don’t have enough lines for some of the kids who would like to write more!
Assignment #3
ReplyDeletePart 2
I like how Regie encourages us to plan, but not over-plan; to be prepared (especially with such little attention span of kindergarteners!) and make mistakes, revise, edit, and think out loud. She encourages us to spend time ENRICHING our lives so we have things to write about ☺
Capturing a Moment
This summer my husband and I visited the beautiful Victoria, Canada to celebrate being married. Neither of us had been there, which makes it fun because we get to share many first time experiences together. One of our favorite times was visiting the Craigsdarroch Castle. It was like a dollhouse that grew into a mansion. Each room had a story about the family who lived there years ago; their clothes, beds, types of food, musical instruments, game rooms, and secret passageways were all on display for our viewing. We climbed 4 flights of stairs and viewed over 20 rooms to jump right into their life with maids, views of the city, wealth and power. As we descended back into our real life we left behind many untold stories.
My writing process
I try to remember the feelings I felt in the moment. Often I wish I would write down little sayings of my students, or journal my thoughts to come back to later, but for me it is hard enough to keep up with the fast pace of life that I can’t imagine trying to relive it. I get asked daily if I am on Facebook and I decline for the very same reason. I just try to enjoy the present, and reminisce as much as possible on beautiful moments that my brain allows ☺ When I write it takes me awhile as I usually try to get it right the first time. I’ve always admired how people can chop up their work after spilling everything out onto a page. If I get stuck I reread. I think of different ways to say something and think of how a reader might interpret or misinterpret something. I try not to take for granted that someone might know something. I do this in much of my writing (even texts and short emails) because I want the reader to know I took time. Sometimes I’ll write a quick email without accurate punctuation and then I go back and fix it because I can’t bear the thought that someone could have to read a lowercase “i” for “I”. I definitely use the thesaurus and try to use descriptive words and examples. Writing is not natural for me, but I try. I like to share my feelings through writing! I also like to use writing for encouraging others.
One more thing! As I've read more I am reminded of a question I've had: when I am doing shared writing do I write phonetically (both for sense-making and because that is what children often offer in their participation) or do I correct spelling? I am thinking about whole group writing mostly. In our journals I mostly pick what skill I am going for or just encouraging the interactive process and building confidence. I don't want kids to be too bogged down depending on the moment.
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteRegarding your question about correct spelling during your shared writing, I use correct spelling the majority of the time, but I also let my students know when I do not know how to spell a word.I work with 4th and 5th graders but I also did the same when I worked with Kindergarteners. I write the word out with my best guess. I then underline the word so I know to go back to it during editing. I like to remind students that it is better to try to spell an interesting colorful word- even if the spelling is incorrect rather than settle for an overused tired word that is spelled correctly.
Part One
ReplyDeleteI try to model my writing when I introduce a new genre of writing. I hope by doing this that students can see that I am a part of the writing community of our class. I always prepare my writing before I present it to the class- though I have modeled pre-writing strategies in front of them. In Chapter three, the section entitled, “Let Students See you Struggle,” I realized that I have not written a piece in front of my students because I was afraid of getting stuck and not knowing what to say or write. But this section helped me to see that my students need to see me struggle and see how I work out my struggle in writing. This week I decided to try to create a story idea in front of my class. I was teaching the pre-writing strategy of making a list of events and I believe the students were relieved to see me as I got stuck in places and had to really work at deciding what my story should be about. I think that demonstrating authentic writing is something I need to incorporate more into my lessons.
Special Memory- sub topic: family tradition of spending time at the beach, a special time I spent at the beach with my daughter last summer.
Pets- sub topic: Describe my dog that is a giant goofy Golden doodle, describe how I felt when my golden retriever died of jaw cancer
Vacations: Sub-topic my husband and I went for to London for our 15th wedding anniversary, family road trip to California.
Part Two
I decided to write a narrative story about the memory I have with my daughter at the beach last summer. I noticed that during the writing process I stopped often to re-read and also to remember what was important to me from the memory. I noticed that I felt very comfortable writing the hook/beginning and the ending but I felt a little lost in the middle of the story. I felt like the flow of my writing was jumbled. As I re-read I went back to add more transition words. I also noticed that as I wrote my rough draft and re-read I moved a part of the story to the beginning rather than waiting until the “revising” step of the writing process.
Thanks Lauren & Virginia. Lauren…the other thing to keep in mind, when doing any modeled/shared writing, especially in K, is to try to reinforce of teach ONE teaching point. Sometimes it’s hard to do that with all of those “teachable moments” dangling in front of you :). I’m so sorry to hear about your cat…we recently had to put our 14 year old dog asleep that I also “grew up” with…in my post college years :)..I guess that means I’ve been out of college now for a bit!!! …and yes, don’t you just loves Regie’s reinforcement to live ENRICHING lives!!! I agree with Virginia on the spelling front…I write words correctly unless I’m modeling a strategy for spelling (ex. stretching out). I think that when you are putting any written words up in the classroom (charts…) they should be correct unless it’s student work…. Virginia – It is scary to get up there in front of the kids and really be struggling..especially as the students get older..and are really becoming better writers! Good for you for being brave enough to give it a try. I’m sure your students benefitted!
ReplyDeleteJulie Payton said...
ReplyDeleteAssignment #3 (Sharing Your Writing Life)
I must admit, I was a bit nervous to actually write in front of all of my students. However, it proved to be a very powerful turning point in my classroom. I began by telling my story to them. For this assignment, I chose to tell them about my first day of teaching, back in 1996, long before they were born. The students were captivated by my story. I taught in Salem back then, and I was hired to take over a 4/5 blend six weeks into the school year. The students were not hand picked, they were the students who simply volunteered to change rooms. As you can imagine, it made for an interesting day back then, and an even better story now!
After telling them my story, I wrote it with them. What I learned about my process is that I re-read constantly as I go. I kept repeating what I had written to see how it sounded out loud. As a result, I did my editing as I wrote. I did not simply write the whole draft, and then edit at the end, which is the process that is most often taught in writer’s workshop. This was really important for me to understand, as other students probably process in a similar way.
The only pre-planning I did was to pick my topic. I wanted to truly test what it would feel like to write on the spot as I ask students to do all of the time. When I got stuck, I would read what I had already written and that usually sparked what I wanted to write next. Since I had told the story to my students already, they were able to chime in with details that I had forgotten. (They were actually listening!) When I was finished, I read the whole piece to see how it flowed. I did my final editing at that time.
My process was the same when I wrote a short piece at home. I didn’t do a lot of pre-writing. I simply began to write. As I wrote, I would go over it multiple times and edit at the same time. I did find that I needed a quiet space to really think about what I wanted to write, and I know that is true for many of my students as well.
This was a great experience and I do think this will help me understand my students better. There is not a "one formula fits all" for writing, it’s just trying to find what works for each of them.
Sincerely,
Julie
Julie – good for you for being so courageous :) You are so right – as writers, we do constantly reread as we revise and edit our thoughts in our head as we move on through the piece. I’m so glad that this was such a powerful learning experience!
ReplyDeletePart One:
ReplyDeleteLet Students See You Struggle is my new mantra. I love it because I do not like the feel of it! I don’t want my students, or my peers, to know I struggle. I like control, and showing that I struggle is not showing control. But what a perfect teaching (and learning) moment it provides. When I model writing in front of my class I always have my little “cheat card” in front of me with a thought out story all ready for me to write on chart paper or the overhead. How unreal is that!
Thanks to this assignment, I turned to page 26 and attempted the Try it Apply It (I admit I first had to try it in the comfort of my own home). I was amazed at how quick the process was. By making a topic list, then going back and writing sub topics my “I don’t know what to write about” turned in to “I have so many options I don’t know which one to choose!” and what a visual for the students. From there, I picked one subtopic and easily put together a 5-7 sentence short story.
The kids picked up on the fact that if they did this in their writing journal they could go back to the list whenever they needed a topic to write about.
Part Two:
Prior to starting the winter portfolio writing task I decided to model the Capture a Moment exercise on pages 45-46 of our text book. My thought was that if students saw me struggle with writing than it might make the portfolio writing task a little less intimidating for some of them. As I was demonstrating my writing I kept referring to a post-it I put on my overhead. It said: It is OK for students to see me struggle! Those words saved me. I wanted to prewrite and have a piece all prepared ahead of time, but I knew that if I did that I would not be successful in getting my point across to those student who have a difficult time getting started. I needed to struggle, and they needed to see it. The process was actually easier than I thought it would be.
I often have my kids do a Quick Write where they have to write for 5 minutes without stopping. If they get stuck then they have to write: I can’t think of anything to write (or something like that). Basically, the pencil has to keep moving for 5 minutes. We started with 3 minutes … the kids absolutely loved it. They pleaded with me to let them write longer (even the ones who struggle) after a week at 3 minutes, we went to 4 then to 5.
As I was modeling the activity from pages 45-46, I was excited to get my memory down on paper, much like the kids are when they are doing Quick Write, because I knew it was just a moment of time and not a long story.
Assignment three
ReplyDeletePart one: I have always liked to write; it isn’t hard for me, and I do not have bad memories of red-inked papers. Despite some of the horror stories people tell about their years in Catholic schools, my memories are good ones. My teachers were demanding but kind.
Even though I like writing, I don’t do enough of it in front of my students. We do some shared writing, but I don’t write pieces of my own in front of them. This will be a good opportunity.
Coming up with an idea is always my challenge. I looked at the ideas on pg. 26 and wasn’t immediately inspired. So I stalled. Read TV Guide. Put in a load of laundry. Read other students’ entries. Then I looked at the list again and noticed the topic about a favorite movie, book, or place. I always like telling my students about my favorite books – and this is something they haven’t written yet this year. TV shows would be a good topic, but do I really want to admit to my students some of my guilty pleasures (American Idol, Lost, Friday Night Lights)? I just saw Avatar. That could be a good topic, since it could lead to all kinds of discussions. Favorite foods? I’d like a topic that could lead to more discussion than this one.
I decided on Avatar, since I just saw it and that would be a logical thing to talk about with the students. To suddenly bring up my favorite food seems sort of artificial. As I write this in front of the students, I will concentrate on “the details that fascinate” in order to make a simple review become something to celebrate.
Part two: Thinking of an idea for the “Capture a moment” exercise took me a while. But I got some more laundry done, and I had some lunch. I almost decided to try taking a nap but didn’t really think that would solve my problem. Then I thought about the different moments I could capture. Moments in my own life. Moments in my children’s lives. We have a daughter graduating in June, and I thought that if I wrote about a moment in her life, I could use it in some sort of gift for her. And all of a sudden I knew that this would be an easy assignment, because I had a purpose for writing.
I wrote about the day we brought her home. (She is adopted.) I struggled with where to start the story. Then decided on beginning with the moment we were told that Katelyn had been born, and that if all went as planned, we would be taking her home the next day. This was easy to write. That day is etched strongly in my memory, though I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning! I wrote straight through. I have learned not to be distracted by grammar and spell check’s red and green lines. If I edit as I go, I tend to lose my train of thought. Once I was finished, I saved it immediately. I will let it sit and revise in a few days, when I can look at it with clear eyes.
I am glad I did this. Both of our girls have heard their adoption stories often, but we haven’ t written them down. I don’t want to lose any details. When I revise, I am going to ask my husband for details he remembers. I bet they are much different!
Part 1
ReplyDeleteTopics (sub topics)
-Special Memory (building a hot air balloon as a kid, trying to sail in dangerous wind, running out of gas, stuck in the airport)
-Family (bickering with my sister, what I learned from my grandfather)
-Sports (getting ready for a big race, the disappointment of being a fan)
I ultimately chose to write about an experience I had as a teenager when a couple of friends and I tried to sail on the Columbia River in rough weather. We were novice sailors, and dealt with inexperience, fear, and equipment malfunctions. I tried to incorporate adventure, humor, and descriptive writing. As I wrote, I shared my thought process aloud as I went. I had hoped that this topic would be engaging for my students and allow me to demonstrate elements of writing that we had discussed or been working on in class. I did not end up finishing the story, because I found myself really enjoying it and could have written the entire period. By the end, students were losing interest with me, but for the most part were chomping at the bit to tell and write their own stories.
Part 2
“There’s something about Oregon summers. Maybe it’s that so much of our year is gray and rainy, or that the rain lets us enjoy the warmth of summer on a blanket of green, but I have always found something blissful about summer in Oregon. The particular event that I remember is neither exciting nor dramatic. All I did was grab my blue folding camp chair, the novel that I was reading at the time, and head out to the park near my house. But somehow, the act of sitting in the glow of the sun and reading my book while listening to the sounds of softball games and dogs playing fetch perfectly represents my summer.”
For this piece of composition, which I did complete in front of my students, I verbalized my entire thought process. I started by thinking of a list that of potential topics during summer, acknowledging that there are many possible choices. From there, I just started writing. I talked about my goal of trying to let my thought process come out in my writing, trying to let the reader really get a sense of the atmosphere of the composition, and trying to be very descriptive of the event. A couple of times, I did go back and change a sentence when I thought it could be better, and verbalized my thought process on that too. And at the end, I admitted to my students that even after finishing I think that if I were to spend more time on this piece, I could improve it.
I am going to submit this post in two parts. First is my plan for what I plan will be "trying and applying" during writing time with my 4th graders tomorrow. I am going to do a short intro into how I write, and plan for my writing. I am nervous and excited for this process. Since my students will be starting the State Writing Test on Tuesday, I really think that it will be helpful for them to see how I write. I will pre-write (and I usually do not use a graphic organizer - I do not like them), while I think aloud and show them my process for editing. So - stay tuned. I hope to share what I wrote, and the process that occurred during the lesson!
ReplyDeletePart 2
ReplyDeleteToday I did a writing exercise for, and with, my students. Here is how our approximately 20 minute lesson went.
I first told my students that we would be writing today, but I would start them out with a story. I told them summer is a time of adventures, and this past summer I had many opportunities for adventure. I told them a story about how I went kayaking on Lake Michigan with my daughters and since the night was warm and calm, we saw a lot of activity on and in the water that night (we went out at dusk). One thing we saw in the water was a sturgeon fish - it was in the deep part of the water on the bottom. Once we saw the sturgeon it swam away, but it was the first time I had ever seen an ancient sturgeon fish in the wild.
Next I began to write. What I was surprised about was how much my students wanted to help me write my story. They were helping me with the events (which made me realize how much they were listening to me), and the editing as well. Here is our "final" product:
"My family always goes to Michigan for summer vacation. We stay at a house right next to Lake Michigan. When we are there we like to canoe and kayak.
One day, when the lake was very calm, and it was almost dusk time outside, we went kayaking. As we made our way out on the water we noticed how easy it was to see the bottom of the lake, even in the very deepest part! My daughter Abby thought she saw a rock moving on the bottom of the lake. I told her that was not possible, but then I saw the "rock" move too!
It was a huge fish on the bottom! We tried to follow the fish with our kayak, but the fish was too fast. It was a big sturgeon fish, and I had never seen one in Lake Michigan before. I was so glad that we when kayaking that night."
I feel that this was such a great experience for me and for my students. The 20 minutes went by so fast, and before we knew it, it was the student's turn to write. They all were so supportive of my "mistakes" and they encouraged me to find better ways to phrase my sentences. The overhead was a mess, but the final product, although not perfect, was one they all enjoyed to read. The process was good, and they all immediately got busy working in their own journals. I was impressed with their interest, enthusiasm, and patience with the process. I know that I will be writing a lot more in front of my students and really look forward to celebrating what each of them creates!
Part 1:
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit difficult in my classroom situation to do a shared writing project or share my writing with students at this time, due to time constraints (I have students for short periods of time) and soooo much to do!! So I'll share my writing topic and sub topic choices, and a short writing sample that I might share with students.
topic: Best Friend (s)
*What makes a "best friend"?
*Carmi is a best friend because she always listens to me.
*Dina is a best friend because she always loves me no matter what.
*Janeen is a best friend because she's my flute soul-buddy.
topic: favorite places
*Seaview is a special place because I love the beach.
*Florence, Italy is a magical city.
I enjoyed picking some topics and subtopics before trying the writing piece. I came up with a piece (about Seaview) that I'd feel very comfortable sharing with students. I have found that given some interesting topics to choose from that students can relate to their lives, most students are willing writers. The notion of a topic "resonating" to a person (whether a student or teacher) is huge, when it comes to producing something authentic.
Part 2:
When writing my piece, I visualized the place; took in the smells, the dampness, and gray,rainy day at the beach, so obviously I input the sensory details. I made some short lists of details to get started, then I just started writing sentences that seemed to fit together. Part way through (about 3/4 of the way), I noticed too many sentences started with "I", so I changes the beginnings of several sentences. I reread the piece while I was working on it, and changed word usage and spellings as I saw fit. I definately revise and edit as I go along.
I really enjoy writing. One of my favorite pastimes is reading my favorite authors. I think Regie's encouragement to "envision ourselves as writers" is wonderful. What a great way for us to enrich our lives, as well as our students!
Thank-you Clara, Katy, Derek, Jenni, and Erin for your responses. I enjoyed reading each of your descriptions of the writing process you went through, and how each of you tackled this assignment differently…isn’t that what we should be giving our kids the opportunity to do??? I want to thank each of you for being “brave” enough to write “on the spot” in front of your students and providing them with an amazing learning experience.
ReplyDeletePart 1:
ReplyDeleteTopic Ideas (Subtopics)
Being and expert (sewing clothes, painting houses)
Best Friend (Tara is moving away and how hard it is to help her pack)
Special Memory (camping trip, moving away from home, getting lost on vacation)
I decided to model my thought process on a scary memory of getting lost while I was traveling with some friends in Europe. I figured this would be something that they could all relate to and the topic I felt most comfortable with. I shared with them my sticky notes and how I picked my topic. I really tried to model the process of getting your ideas out of your head and onto paper. I was able to write a paragraph and the class enjoyed hearing my story. I had them make a list of ideas in the same way and then share their stories with a partner before ever writing on paper.
Part 2:
This assignment was more of a challenge. It was hard to capture a moment and make it short, poetic, and be enough to model to my class. I can totally relate to the student who feels like they have nothing to write about or is at a loss for words. I chose to write about a moment when I finally made it to the top of a hike. I captured the feeling I had of knowing I did it. I was so tempted to have my “moment” prewritten so I could refer to it as I model. I decided not to because I felt like my struggling wouldn’t have been true teaching. I really focused on this being only 10 minutes of time where they were to write a little memory not a life story. I gave them time to brainstorm and then write. The part that they really struggled with was keeping it short. They all wanted to fill a page and were asking how long does it have to be.
Their struggles with the assignment made me realize how much I focus on length of papers and sentences.
Assignment 3
ReplyDeleteI had to mull over how to present this assignment in my classes so that it didn’t seem forced. (It took me the better part of a week.) Then it occurred to me that rather than trying to squeeze in an artificial writing assignment with my journalists, I could do something that I naturally needed to do anyway, revisit story, “copy,” writing with my yearbook students. So here goes…
Part I: Brainstorming
From page 26, I thought of a variety of subtopics I might consider writing about in front of my students. For example, from “Start of School,” I considered Freshman Orientation or maybe even Back to School Night. For “Sports” I considered cuts from the freshman soccer team and the women’s basketball team’s coach resigning.
I decided on Back to School Night as my topic (or, as I have always preferred to call it “BS” Night). I chose this because it wouldn’t be something my students were actually covering, and it’s not an event students actually attend, just parents and teachers. I thought they might find that compelling, sort of a behind the scenes thing that they wanted to find out more about. In order to get ready to write the only preparation I did was create some fake interviews. (Yes, I could have done real interviews, but, cut me some slack, that’s not what I was modeling.)
Although I’m not a big fan of formula writing, writing copy for yearbook is extremely concise. You want to highlight the interviewee, so it’s pretty much quote/transition format. The important things to remember are having an interesting angle and a great lead. You also need the discrimination to know what quotes will help you tell the most compelling story.
So, I went in with my fake interviews, a teacher and a parent. I put my interview Q &A on the projector, and I went to work…
I wrote my lead, which I’ll admit, I had already processed before I came to class. Then I wrote my first transition and my first quote. Then I paused. I had a clear picture of where I was going, but now, I needed to choose my words.
My yearbook class is mostly girls, and they are as student stereotypes go people pleasers. They were so cute and helpful; they couldn’t bear to see me pause and think about what I was going to write. Ha. Ha. They couldn’t bear to see me squirm, try to edit and revise as I went. They started offering up suggestions. I had to make a quick decision and redirection. I was worried if I ignored them and kept doing my own thing, it would suggest that I didn’t think their ideas/ sentences were good enough.
We all began to work on it together. I began to use their suggestions, thank them and praise them for their ideas. So, to say that I wrote in front of my students is a bit misleading. We wrote together.
I hope that’s okay. As an exercise to improve their writing, I think it was pretty successful, but I failed at true modeling. It was unexpected. It was kind of fun. I’m thinking maybe we should try to write our “very important” opening copy for the yearbook the same way rather than having one student do it. Maybe that would give more of my students some investment in the important theme development of the book.
Observations:
ReplyDeleteWhen I’m writing, I feel a bit torn in many different directions; each new thought produces many other thoughts branching from it. So, although I feel focused, I sometimes feel rushed to finish one thought in order to get the next ones down before I forget. The nice thing about typing my writing is I can quickly type a few “key words,” press enter a few times to separate them from the current writing and then go back to the sentence/paragraph of the moment.
Contrary to many people’s writing process, I am able to start writing from a blank piece of paper. There have been times when brainstorming a list has been helpful, but during this activity I just started writing. I tend to go back to re-read after each paragraph or two to see where my thoughts were coming from and where they were headed to make sure I was making sense for my audience.
When modeling for the students, I show them a brainstorming list to begin with, so they know that incomplete sentences, single words or phrases are an okay way to start; starting with complete sentences and paragraphs is not always realistic.
Thanks for your responses Jennifer, Hillary, and Lindsay! I loved reading each of your unique processes for writing. As you can see, each of you go about writing in very different ways…part of this because of the ages or types of writing…but mostly because of your individual style. I think it is so important for our students to have exposure to the different ways we all process writing….it makes me think we should be inviting more “guest” authors to our classrooms. Any brave colleagues willing to come in and share….
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