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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Part One:
ReplyDeleteAfter creating a list of ideas to write about, I chose "My Daughter Wants a Hamster!" Under the subtopics I then chose one of the ideas that would make that happen.
Of one of the MANY tasks Ainsley will have to undertake to earn a pet hamster is taking better care of our dog. She already earns $2.00 a week for scooping poo, but she often has to be told to do it. Thus, the whining begins. If she wants another pet, she is going to have to prove that she can be more responsible. Ideally, Ainsley will scoop poo everyday without being reminded and she will do it with a decent attitude.
This will be great to do with students. It helps organize ideas and keep you on one topic at a time. Many of the statements I read in this chapter goes against everything I have been taught and practiced to teach writing. Graphic organizers, for example, have always been a huge part of the writing process. However, I too found that as a writer, I do not use them. Listing ideas and brainstorming are what I stick with. My making the process more real for students, I can see how this might help to make them enjoy writing more.
Part Two:
As I mentioned in assignment two, I had already done this activity in front of my class right after spring break. It went extremely well and captured my students' attention. While I was writing, I was sharing my thinking. I realized that when I am narrating, I visualize what happened at each step and then wrote the actions, feelings, thoughts, etc. Of course, I do that with most modes of writing for it helps me to construct sentences and expand on ideas. When I would get stuck, I would go back and reread. Often that gave me more ideas on where I was heading. At the same time, I would find that I would also make some of my word choice better or expand a sentence to make it more clear. Revising as I go and rereading numerous times keeps my pencil flowing. Once students got started, I was ecstatic to see them using the same process and they were excited about what they were writing! No longer was it a chore, but even my most reluctant writers were anxious to make their stories clear and detailed.
The sub topic that I chose to write about in front of my class was "A day I'll never forget". I wrote about a christmas present my parents gave my brother, sister, and I to Disneyland when I was in 4th grade. I really had fun writing about this and I was pleasantly suprised at how much my students enjoyed watching me write and just listening to the story as I wrote. It made me realize how much fun writing can be.
ReplyDeleteAs I was writing this story I was just remembering the day vividly. It was really easy to organize a piece when it is something that you really know well and are excited to write about. The only part that I really spent time planning (out loud) was how to start the paper. This is where I usually have difficulties anyways, so I shared that with my students as well. One student finally suggested that I come back to the beginning and just start writing. When I usually write, I write in chuncks and then I will go back and re-read that part and correct/revise. If I don't I will keep getting hung up on the misspelled words. Its also a way for me to look at my organization as I write if I haven't formally taken note of how my piece will be organized. I think the actual process for me will change depending on many things like the type of paper, how well I know the topic, etc.
As part of my writing instruction I provide students with my own examples from time to time. During a lesson on including details I asked the students to write about a time they have been to the store with a parent. While they were working on the piece, I created my own two-paragraph description about a mission to find honey-crisp apples. The goal was for my students to not only see how easy it is to add details to writing, but to promote the use of voice to get your point across. In this case, I love the taste of large, ripe, honey-crisp apples. After about 30 minutes, the students had time to share what they had written and then I shared my piece. For months after this writing lesson, students would still ask me if I pick up honey-crisp apples when I go to the store.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to this lesson, I also have the students do nightly reflections in a journal. It’s a basic reflection of their day, and they are free to write about what they like. For the most part students choose simple topics, but now and then they’ll really surprise me. I thought it only fair to share my reflections with them so I began keeping a journal of my own. Each morning the kids would want me to share what I had done the night before. It would only take a couple of minutes to display my journal and read it aloud. The best part is their reaction when I forget to do it. :o)
Part 2:
For my draft writing I chose to write about my favorite room. In the beginning phase I basically sat at my desk trying to visualize one of the best places I’ve been in. As a former architecture major, I really like big open spaces that are designed to feel warm, and the first place that came to mind was the entry way of the Skamania Lodge in Washington state. To start my writing I made a list of bullet points about everything I could remember about the place. It’s been almost 8 years since I was there, but I can still picture everything in my mind; which is where I went for my ideas. From there I put the list into groups, and then I organize them into paragraphs. At one point I paused and debated about whether or not to look for pictures of the room to get more ideas.
This was a great activity and one that I think I’ll share with my students.
Part 1: For my writing piece I chose to write about my pet with my students. I wrote in my previous comment about how hard it was for me to write in front of kindergarteners. This time I was writing in front of my 8th graders, and I was at ease. All of my students know how much I love my cat so the idea of writing about something I love so much made it easy. I was writing in Spanish about my cat’s physicality and the silly things she does on a daily basis. All of the students were engaged as I was writing on the spot in front of them. At the same time they were getting excited about their pets and how they were going to write and share about them.
ReplyDeletePart 2: While I was actually writing I was constantly re-reading the information that I had written. I have a reactive habit where I like to make sure that I check my work often. I like to make sure that what I am writing has flow so that it doesn’t sound choppy. I still was amazed at how easily I was writing in front of my students. I am usually overly prepared and have already written what I will write on the board. Having to think and write on the fly usually makes me nervous, but I felt great. I couldn’t believe how much the writing topic mattered in the engagement of my writing. I wanted to keep writing and adding more detail with my students, but I knew that they were eager to get started. One last thing that I noticed about my writing was that I struggled with the ending sentence. I felt as though I had started the piece and developed it, but ending it was a challenge. I stopped for a moment with my class and thought of different closing phrases that I knew in Spanish and how I could apply them in this writing exercise. Next I chose a closing phrase and completed my writing piece. My students noticed that I stalled for a moment when I was closing the writing piece. They watched my re-read and ponder, but they stayed engaged. I was delighted at the positive outcome of a writing lesson that would normally make me extremely nervous.
Part One
ReplyDeleteThe broad topic I chose was embarassing moments in my life. The subtopic I chose was the time I went to the wrong house. I do not have a class to model this in front of but through the exercise of doing it myself I was able to practice the process.
Part Two
As I was composing this piece I was thinking about how to make my writing engaging and entertaining for my audience. I also was thinking about sequence of events and how to get my readers involved in my story.
Before I actually got started on my story I visualized it in my mind and thought it out first. I then sketch out my intro, conclusion and details of the middle. I started writing and began with the "hook" to get my audience interested. When I finished my piece I read it out loud to myself and tried to look at it as if I were the reader and not the author.
On this piece since it was something that actually happened I wrote straight through rereading and revising as I wrote. After I completed I edited my piece. I paid special attention to the conclusion as it was a surpise ending that the audience may or may not have seen coming.
Thank-you so much Jennifer, Tracey, Derek, Lisa, and Colleen for sharing your writing processes with us. It is always so interesting to read how everyone goes through a different process. This is so important for us as teachers to notice and understand so that we provide the opportunity for our younger writers to be able to use what works best for them.
ReplyDeleteI guess you have the same battles (getting your kids to get their jobs done) one the west coast as out here on the east coast :) I was great to read how inspired your students were by all your modeling. All of the “thinking-aloud” you each did about your own process will be the bases for the kids as they develop their own writing processes. Several of you mentioned that it was a little bit of a struggle during a part of the modeling…and I think this is also important for the kids to see. Writing isn’t always easy and it’s OK if they are having a difficult time…it makes it easier for them to know that even their teacher needs to “work at it” sometimes.
Isn’t great how interested kids are with what you have to say (write) when you make it personal?
Assignment #3:
ReplyDeletePART ONE:
Topics:
Sports: hockey, playing the game for sport and exercise. Soccer, why is it the world's most popular game?
Favorite Place: Italy, why is it such a popular destination?
Being an expert: Alfa Romeo, modifying the suspension layout on a 1989 Milano.
“One basic fact of driving an Alfa Romeo sedan, is that they are set up to 'push' into corners. This means that the cars are designed to understeer. In terms of the driving experience, this is when you enter a corner, and no matter how much you turn the wheel, the car continues to go straight until it scrubs off enough speed to begin to turn. This has been deemed the safest suspension setup for passenger vehicles.
This is not the most efficient suspension setup however. The best setup for driver control and for the fastest cornering speeds is slight oversteer. This is the condition where a car turns quite easily into a corner, but turning the steering wheel into the turn too aggressively results in the tail of the car sliding towards the outside of the turn. This necessitates a counter-steer correction by the driver to ensure the vehicle does not spin out.”
PART TWO:
1. The perfect photo:
"I took the perfect photograph 4 years ago. My wife, my 6 month old son Nicholas and I were sitting on the steps overlooking the Sistine chapel in Rome. Nicholas had just devoured a jar of banana baby food and was quite content to sit in his mother's lap and enjoy the scenery. My wife and I had been walking all day, seeing the sights of Rome, and St. Peter's Square was our last stop for the day before joining our relatives for dinner. As we all sat in silence, enjoying the warm June sun, and the hustle and bustle around us, Nicholas did an unusual thing. For the first time ever, he began sucking his thumb. Inspired by the moment, I quickly grabbed our camera and took one single photo of him. It was a simple profile shot of him with his thumb in his mouth and his cotton baseball cap on. I thought nothing of the photo until we had returned home from our trip several weeks later. In it were exquisite details of the cobblestones in the square, along with a wonderful outline of the chapel in the background. The centerpiece was of Nicholas with his cherub-like features and a look of comfortable tranquility in his eyes. Photography never looked so good to a father's eyes."
2. While composing this piece, I was trying to place myself in the moment. I was trying to remember the sights, the sounds, and the smells of the moment. It is through this re-living of a moment that I am able to do my best writing.
In writing about a photo that I took, I thought about the details of the photo before I began writing. When I got stuck on it, I thought about the emotions of the photo and the place an time in which I took it.
I am a straight through writer. If I get into a groove in my writing, I simply continue until it runs out. I know that the writing will not be adeal, but it is a good basis for me to them edit my work. I also put my work away for several days, and then re-read it. This gives me a fresh look at my work, and I often have my greatest success editing this way.
Part one, Special Memory – Visiting school in Jamaica
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to Jamaica, one of the things I really wanted to do was to visit a school to see how their teaching compared to ours. I was expecting to see some really primitive teaching going on, and I was thinking I was going to go and teach them how to teach. I thought I was going to be their “hero.”
I was surprised when we first drove up to see the modern-looking building and all the students in their nice-looking uniforms. Everyone looked neat and clean, although some had no shoes. I assumed it was because they chose not to wear them, but I found out later when I asked if they needed books to be donated, they said that foremost they needed shoes for every student. They also needed money for every student to be able to afford transportation to school.
I went in to two of the teachers’ classrooms and discovered that they look pretty much like ours here with all kinds of charts on the walls. The difference is that they have the old, old desks that were used about 50 years ago, and there weren’t enough for everyone. The 40 (!) students just gather around and sit wherever they can find a place.
The conversation that I had with two of the teachers was very similar to a conversation I would have with any U.S. teacher – we talked about classroom management! As with classrooms here, they have students that behave and students who don’t. And they have difficulty with the students who don’t, just like we do.
It was an eye-opening experience and very rewarding. I realized that teachers are teachers everywhere you go. We have the same kinds of problems and we deal with them in similar ways. The difference is that we provide our students with free transportation, and we have modern furniture as well as computers and modern technology. All in all, I have developed a deep appreciation for teachers in third-world countries and poor sections of the U.S.
Part two, Small moment:
I sat on the porch steps of Damien and Amelia’s house in the shade from the 96 degree Jamaican sun. It felt cool and refreshing. Amelia brought us a bowl full of fresh mangoes Damien had just picked from their tree. I’d never tasted a mango as good as that. The sun and the long, non-air-conditioned drive to their house had made me very thirsty, and the mangoes quenched my thirst. I held their baby daughter, Damelia and thought how amazing this was. I was in Jamaica, I was talking to some new friends, and holding a darling little baby girl. It’s a memory that I can see in my mind as clearly as if I am looking at a picture. It made me feel totally satisfied, and I wish I was there right now.
I kept rereading as I typed. I’d been concerned that the words wouldn’t flow as easily on a keyboard as they sometimes do with pen and paper. But I think it actually worked better, because I could type as fast as I could think. I looked to see if my topic sentence was in the wrong place, but it seemed fine as the first one. I didn’t do any cut and pasting, but I did delete and add different words. Before I added the last two sentences, I tried to figure out what to do, how to make a good ending. When I thought about it too much, it wouldn’t come. But when I started remembering how I felt when I was there, the last two sentences just popped out.
Patrick, I would be sure to share with your students your thoughts about your writing process. I think students can't hear it enough that writers will often put a piece away for some time and then revisit it to revise and edit.
ReplyDeleteDiane, you raise a good point about how quickly our minds work and how long it takes us to get the words down on paper. For students, this is even more difficult, especially if you throw in having the grammar and puctuation and handwriting be perfect.
Chapter 3
ReplyDeletePart I:
Topics
Start of school
-First day of school preparation
-Getting back into a routine
-Starting a new grade/year
Special Memory
-With a family member
-With a pet
-On a holiday
-Randomly special
Special memory with a family member…
My parents divorced when I was 12. I will never forget the day my mom packed us kids up into a u-haul and we left my dad and California. I didn’t get to see my dad often during middle and high school but after I went to college we started to develop and grow our relationship more. I would drive to visit him in Northern California often and he would give me unsolicited life advice on just about anything. Recently my dad flew into Portland and we drove to Pullman, Washington together to watch my little sister graduate from college. We had a great weekend celebrating my sister’s success and spending time together. We drove back to Portland on Sunday but my dad’s flight didn’t leave until the next morning. I woke up at 6:00am Monday morning to get ready for school. My dad was already up and offered to make me soft-boiled eggs and toast for breakfast- a childhood favorite. Driving to work that morning I was in tears because it had been so long since my dad had made me breakfast, in fact, I don’t think anyone has ever made me breakfast before school! It made me miss all the memories I wasn’t able to have with him because of the divorce… I can’t wait to take advantage of the time we have now to spend together making many new special memories.*
*If I were completing this in front of a class I would edit out some of the more personal/sensitive details, but for this assignment this just came out so I left it as is:)
Part II:
1. During the summer of 2009 my husband and I lost one of our beloved dogs in a tragic accident. My husband, Martin, was heart broken- even more heart broken was our other dog Zeppelin. He sulked around the house for weeks, always watching out the window for Bo Bo. In the back of our minds and in the bottom of our heart's we knew that getting another dog would be the right thing to do for our family. Although unspoken between us, it was up to Martin to find the right time, and the right addition for our family.Around late February he started looking. After visiting all of the shelters in the Portland metropolitan area and many puppies he claimed he had found "the one" out in Washougal, Washington. "The one" was going to come for a home visit in a couple of days. Well Martin pulled a white lie on me because the next day I came home and was greeted by a beautiful caramel colored pit bull named Noel. We could not be happier with the newest addition of our family...
2. While writing, especially for an audience, I find it hard to say what I really want to because I'm so critical of my own writing. Just about every sentence I stop re-read and re-write if necessary. If I have really bad writers block I will give myself permission to write garbage with the promise that I will edit the piece later with "new eyes". Whenever I write I always start with my big idea first and try and hash my way around the rest of it. Somehow, through repeated edits, I am able to construct something I'm happy with.
Writing Essentials
ReplyDeleteAssignment #3
I started this writing assignment by telling my students about my first day of teaching for PPS. I had moved to Portland from Los Angeles (another place filled with great stories) and had been put on the sub list while waiting to get my Oregon teaching license. I was then called to sub in a school where the teacher had not shown up for work. I built a lot of mystery into why something like that would happen. I told them I was called at 10 in the morning, thought about not taking the job because I was in the middle of doing laundry, showed up, and eventually learned the teacher had died in an accident (not what they had expected). Needless to say I had their attention.
I did no planning for this assignment other than to pick the topic. I told the kids the story and then I started to write. I did not use a graphic organizer and I did not create a list. I just wrote. As I was writing I kept going back and recalling events from the story and inserting details. I read the story over and over and edited as I was writing. I wanted the students to see how many times I read my story, the mistakes I was making, how I thought things through when I got stuck, and how I didn’t have to do all my editing at the end.
With using the story as a springboard, my students were able to help me do the writing. They became a part of the process. They would remind me of things I was forgetting or encourage me not to leave out some of the parts they found most interesting.
We then shared some stories as a class and each student started writing. It was a great success.
Hi Emily and Vickie,
ReplyDeleteWhat powerful examples of stories to share with your classes. The children LOVE to hear about our personal lives.
Emily, even though you are critical of your writing I think it would really serve your students to see how you rewrite and revise as you are creating your story. Even getting stuck is something that the students would benefit from seeing. What do writers do when they are stuck???? Then show them. Maybe you could have the students suggest a topic for you to model writing on the document camera or overhead. Letting them see what you do with a topic that you are given and haven't had time to think about?
I love the topic list that Regie has! I am going to make copies of it and include it in one of my writing assignment I am working on for next year. I have said I am trying to reduce the clutter and make writing more prominent in my classroom. To not just have them writing the required papers for the novels we read but for themselves. I chose, my favorite book’ to write about. I enjoy this topic because it is so much about who I am. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout speaks of he teacher Miss Caroline wanting her to stop reading every night with Atticus and says, “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love reading”. That is how I feel about books and reading. So I decided to write about not just having one favorite book but many. As I write I am thinking about the many books I have read and of my grandmother who is ill and on whose lap I read many many books.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got stuck I took a small break, just to get up and walk around for a minute. I found if I walked around for more than a few minutes I was reluctant to come back to writing. That ‘life’ interfered. I found I tend to much a bunch of writing skill together. I am not good at writing without editing as I go. I will push through but eventually the fact that I spelled a word wrong will make me pause to change it. Sometimes when I was stuck I used editing as my break from the actual writing. I am a huge information geek. So I looked up information on Harper Lee before I wrote and as questions arose such as why I identified with her writing so much. I looked at where she came from. sI then just looked up what I needed then continued. I still revise after I finished project, I still read my work backwards to check for spelling and I still read the paper out loud. These have been tried and true methods for me so I still use them. What I am excited about from the writing in front of students aspect is to bring the process more front and center. I do have a writing unit that we do as a class and I write some flash poetry with them up on the SMART board. I am very much going to go through the process of writing on the SMART board as well. I think seeing exactly how another person writes will be very beneficial to my students.