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 writing a list of topics and subtopics I chose to write about finding a stray puppy when my children were little. The little dog ended up becoming our family pet for many years. To get me started I thought that this topic would be fun for my students to hear about. I thought they would relate to it because most kids have a pet, or want a pet. My 4th grade daughter had been begging my husband and me for a dog that year, but we were not even considering it. Things turned out differently!
Part Two:
As I was composing my piece I was remembering all the details of the day that we found Packy. As I thought about that special day I was excited to start writing. I felt confident because I knew it would be a good story to share. It was enjoyable to remember and to write about it. I reread it several times and moved things around quite a bit. When I got stuck I stopped and reread and I found new ideas popping into my thought. My ending was a little difficult. It didn’t sound quite right to me and it took some time to make it flow. I had to do some cross outs and changes but it finally felt satisfactory. Writing and revising my piece took more a bit more than 10 minutes and I still feel that I could improve it. I like to go back to something I have written later and then I find it is easier to revise.
Thanks Beth –“Packy” was a great story to share with your students :) …and I think that some of the confidence to share your writing in front of students comes from the fact that you wrote about what you know well (and yes I know it’s elementary level…but for many, it’s a big deal to write in front of anyone). I always try and encourage kids to write from their lives, even if you end up “twisting truths” a bit, it’s always easier writing from the known. It’s great that your students were able to see your writing process in action!!! This modeling step is so important….and will truly be what moves your students’ writing forward.
ReplyDeleteAssignment #3
ReplyDeleteThis writing exercise was a terrific experience for me. I needed to get a writing sample from my students to take to a staff development training. So I modeled writing a short piece about something that happened to me over winter break. I told the students why I remembered it and how I felt at the time. After reading chapter 3, I felt more confident to just get up in front of my students and write. I didn’t do any planning ahead of time except the specific experience I would write about, it felt so much easier to write when each detail was not planned ahead of time. I could really identify with Regie in her book when she stated that this is what we expect kids to do, that comment really made me stop and think I can do this.
While modeling my writing, I talked my way through it, crossed things out, circled miss-spelled words, re-read, and asked for suggestions (the students came up with some really great suggestions). The time went really fast and by the end I had a fairly good peace of writing that was less than two pages long. It was exactly the type of writing I wanted from my students for my meeting. The students asked if the writing should be one page or two or three… I told them it should be no longer than mine but I wanted them to answer those questions in their writing, why did you remember it, what happened, and how did it make you feel. I am very encouraged because the writing my students did was much better than the writing they did the last time I scored their papers.
Assignment #3
ReplyDeleteWriting is difficult. There is no doubt about it. I tell my students that it’s not easy to pick a topic and then to have subtopics below that. It’s hard to pick moments in our lives that we remember with such clarity that we can produce the kind of writing that WE consider good writing. I have had students tell me that it’s easier for me to write because I’ve lived longer and I have more memories. I usually tell them that they are correct and then I proceed to tell them some random story that sparks their memories, and all of a sudden, many students now have something to write about.
As I was writing my story about finding a mouse in my house, I kept playing the episode over and over in my head trying to remember what I said and how I felt. It’s easy to say “I was scared” but much more challenging to show I was scared in descriptive words. Because we work on hooks or leads so much, I tried to make sure my lead would indeed hook them in. I wrote a few sentences and then I went back and read and reread what I had written. I spoke aloud and even asked for advice or what they though sounded good. When I model, I always insert some side comment about what good writers do like “Good writers reread what they have written several times to see if it will make sense to the reader.” When I finished the piece I told them that I’d go back and add a better ending later because I wasn’t really happy with how I ended it so quickly. I got some good ending ideas from them.
I tell myself that I will write while they are writing but I usually end up with some students that want/need to sit by me and I end up doing some informal conferences with them or I am doing something else that needs to get done. I have made a goal for myself of writing once a week while they are writing. If I end up writing more, great.
I looked at the list of topics and quickly chose an event that happened to me yesterday. (Getting my oil changed and having my engine smoke all the way home.) I wanted to share this story with my kids tomorrow so this writing assignment was perfectly timed. I always tell my kids to write about something you know about and there is never anything better that personal experiences.
ReplyDeleteI began writing, thinking about the events that happened and the order in which they happened. As I wrote, I erased and backtracked several times. When I got stuck, I reread what I wrote and pictured the events as they happened that day. I also tried to include some colorful language to get my emotions across. When I write, I reread constantly. Sometimes it gets frustrating because I tend to lose my thought process. I know this is true for kids as well. I intend to share my writing with my students in class tomorrow.
Well, I did it! I drafted a “moment in time” short story in front of my 5th graders last week. I chose to write about when I cleaned out my closet last weekend.
ReplyDeletePrior to beginning, I did do some planning in my head. I explained to my kids that I was going to model how to do this next writing assignment. They were to take a moment in time; capture one snap shot of an activity or event they experienced over the weekend. I verbalized my thinking aloud, and brainstormed a list of topics. I chose to write about cleaning my closet.
I began planning my narrative by writing the sequence of events, and main paragraph topics, on my pre-write notebook paper. Again, I verbalized all my thinking out loud. When I felt that I had a good plan, I started writing my rough draft. I have always taught the importance of rereading as you write, but I had never noticed how much I do that!! As I wrote I talked about my decisions to punctuate like I did, and I circled words I was not sure about spelling. I even realized that I had a flaw in my pre-write sequence. So I copied, cut and pasted a whole paragraph and chose a more organized place for it.
I found it tough to stay focused on just the “moment”. It was easy to start adding other details that were not important, or veer off on another subject. I verbalized the difficulties I was having. I had to go back to my pre-write often. I think the kids were surprised by that. Most of them do a pre-write because they know I require it, but they never refer back to it while they are drafting.
Finally, I was “done”. I went back to reread again and found that I had left out a word and even had a sentence that didn’t make sense. I made my revisions. Then I reread AGAIN! I bought whisper phones for my class several years ago so they could hear themselves read back what they wrote. I pulled mine out and demonstrated again how to use it since most of my 5th graders never take them out of their desks!
My students were more excited and anxious to get started this time! I had them jot down some topic ideas. When they had a few, I asked them to turn and share their list with each other. I gave them 10 minutes to share and then another 15 to talk out their chosen topic. Soon every single student was writing and several kids even took out their whisper phones.
It was a wonderful lesson for me! I’ve always known how important it was to model behavior you want back, but I did that mostly with manners and personal behaviors, not writing. I will definitely model more of my writing with the class in the future!
Thanks Karrie, Lisa, Ann and Tracy for sharing your writing process experiences with us.
ReplyDeleteKarrie – High five for being so brave :) I’m glad that you didn’t do too much planning ahead of time, because your kids had a more accurate model of how a writer goes through the process. I’m sure that the students were very motivated to go through the process themselves after they had your guidance, and I’m so glad that students made improvement in their writing!!!
Lisa – Writing can be difficult, but like with anything, the more you do it, the better you get! I’m sure you hooked your kids in with the story about the mouse in the house :) I’ve never been able to give myself that time to write. I always feel that my time is better spent helping kids develop their writing in either in small groups or conferences.
Ann – it was great that your kids got to see you really work through the process on your piece about your “smoking car”. I think one of the most important things that the kids can also get out of your writing is that your topic was about a very normal and mundane thing…getting your oil changed and then the result. Sometimes I think they feel that they need to be writing about these ultra exciting events and experiences (that don’t really happen all that often!).
Tracey – I was glad to read how much time you spent on modeling your “plan”. There is so much research out there that supports that students would have higher achievements in writing if they just spent a little bit more time planning out their ideas. I also noticed that you gave your kids time to talk prior to getting started...Yeah! Oral language in our classrooms is another thing that gets pushed out of the way in the upper grades, much like modeling, due to our curriculum time constraints. I’m glad the lesson was a success!
This assignment came at a good time in my classroom! I have been wanting to revisit and add to our lists of “topics to write about” so students have new material to choose from during free writing time. I went back to my list I had created at the beginning of the year, added some recent events I could write about, and selected an experience I had this summer. As I sat down to write in front of my students, I began by telling them I had been thinking a lot about the time during the summer when there was a bat in my vacation house, because I had just read an article about bats. I had them immediately hooked, so I took out my writers notebook and began to write. I did not do any planning, but instead told the story as I wrote. I made a point of telling my students that this memory was so vivid in my mind, I could see it like a movie, and that’s how I knew how to organize my ideas. As I wrote, I told my story out loud, and paused after every few sentences to re-read and make sure my writing matched the “movie” in my mind. I only did revising if something didn’t sound right to me, and waited until I was finished to go back and improve word choice and the flow of certain parts. We talked about how different our story can sound when you read it out loud or listen to someone else read it. I told my students that we can always find something to change when we do this (and that’s why I ask them to do this as part of their revision process!). I did have a hard time doing this quickly; timing when modeling is something I’m working on! My students and I both really enjoyed this activity ☺
ReplyDeleteThis assignment was pretty fun and easy for me given Reggie's guidelines on page 26. I was able to come up with several topics quickly! I am a tap dancer, twin, and love chocolate so those were my main topics. I chose tap dancing to be an expert on because I thought it would be engaging and hopefully interesting to the kids. (I thought I could bring in my tap shoes and maybe a picture of me from when I was little!!) To narrow it down, my subtopic would be learning to tap dance - the how part. Of course, after the writing, I could always give a little demonstration!!! I was amazed at how easy it was when I knew the topic well. I had to keep in mind my audience though and that was challenging.
ReplyDeletePrior to putting pen to paper, I decided that I wanted to show a picture of me when I was little in my tap costume. I thought this could be the hook. I then started to write about how when I was eight years old, I started taking tap dancing lessons. I had to stop a few times because I wanted to stay on topic - how to tap. I found myself having to get back on track just a couple times. After a few sentences, it became easier. It was a fun process and it went smooth. I could absolutely do this with my kindergarteners. I also thought it would be a great way for them to know a side of me that they didn't know before which it important to bonding with the kids.
Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Erin Dugan
Thanks Nicole & Erin for sharing your comments about your writing process!
ReplyDeleteNicole – Great idea to go back and revise your “topics” list with the students to ensure that their lists also stay relevant to them. I was also so glad that you pointed out how effective oral language is in writing instruction, unfortunately, it’s often the first thing to go due to time constraints. Pacing and timing are always an issue, the one thing I can suggest (and I know how hard it is) is to try to stick to modeling and discussing one focus point…not getting off into a bunch of different teaching tangents as those “teachable moments” keep popping up. For example, you may just model writing your lead or intro on one day, and continue the next day…
Erin – Knowing your topic well is one of the most important things you can teach your students…they’ll be able to write well about things they know about! Will they stretch the truth once in a while – definitely, but as often as possible, they’re better of writing from “the known”. I’m glad you enjoyed modeling your process with the students – they always love to learn more about us!!!
I really enjoyed this process of writing a piece in front of my students. I write in front of my students from time to time but it was really great to be more intentional about it and plan the process more thoughtfully. I decided to write about my baby niece. I wanted to write about when she was born because it was such a special moment for my family. As I was writing I was thinking back to all of the details and feelings that we felt. I tried to think of ways to describe how special it was. I wanted to make sure and give enough details so that others would know exactly how we felt.
ReplyDeleteI planned by making a list of details and events that I wanted to make sure I included. I erased a few that I didn’t think were quite as important. I modeled this step in front of the kids so that they could see part of the planning process. When I was writing in front of the kids I wrote a few sentences then stopped to go back. I explained what I was thinking as I did this. I re-read it to make sure it made sense, and added words where needed. When I was all finished I went back one last time to make sure it all flowed smoothly. Right now we are working on “show” not “tell”. For example, instead of saying “It was fun” they would say something like “I was falling on the floor laughing”. We do that so the reader can almost see what was happening. When I went back to read the story about my niece, I made sure to take out anything that told, and I changed it to be a sentence that shows. The kids enjoyed hearing about my niece, they always love hearing about their teacher. They also liked to see the writing process modeled for them.
~Kelly Hijmans
Hi Kelly! Thanks for sharing how effective it was to write in front of your 3rd graders. I also think that one of the most important things to show when we model, is that it’s not a piece of cake. This “perfect” writing doesn’t automatically flow out of us. It takes working through the process to get those polished pieces that convey exactly what you mean to your audience.
ReplyDeleteBefore beginning this assignment I was not looking forward to it because of the writing. Like many of the teachers in the previous chapters I do not write for fun in my personal life and I have never been very confident in my writing. For me I am always challenged by what to write about, so coming up with a topic was my first hurdle. I wanted to be very aware of this process though so I could recreate my thought process for my students in case this is a challenge some of them have. Since we were writing about “Capturing a Moment,” I chose to make it from winter instead of summer. Then I looked at the three questions for criteria on Regie’s checklist. After reading and rereading these questions I started thinking about my winter break and winter weekend activities, what stood out, what do I really remember? I decided on a day back in January when I took my dog up to Mt. Ashland for a snow day.
ReplyDeleteOnce I decided what to write about, the idea of writing began to get less intimidating. I began my writing in front of my students by asking myself each question on the criteria list and talking out my answers. As I began writing I tried to focus more on getting all my ideas out and less on my mechanics and spelling (even making a point to say I would go back and check how to spell a word). There were a couple points where I got stuck so I reread what I wrote to help figure out what should come next. I also took advantage of crossing words out as I wrote when I changed my mind on what I wanted to say or if I needed to change something. My students are obsessed with erasing, but they tend to rip their papers or take so long to erase that they forget what they were going to write. I have been trying to get them to just cross it out and keep going but they are having a difficult time getting comfortable with this idea. Hopefully seeing it in action will help them to accept it better.
I used this writing as my rough draft. I am revisiting it this week to talk my class through revising and editing to make a second draft. Having completed the writing assignment I definitely see the benefits of writing in front of my class and I am going to make a point to do so more frequently. By doing this I am able to show my students first hand what I have been asking them all year to do.
I really enjoy writing in front of my students for mini-lessons and I believe they enjoy it as much as I do. They are constantly making connections to what I am writing about, “I have a brother too!” or getting to know me better, “It’s Tuesday, you play tennis tonight right Ms. Olson?” I try to write in front of my students at least twice a week, sometimes it’s just a sentence or two, but I really feel like I am sharing myself with my students as I am teaching them specific writing skills.
ReplyDeleteAs I completed this assignment, I really enjoyed it. I wrote my piece after President’s Day weekend and talked to my students first as I was “capturing a moment.” I went to Arizona to visit my Grandpa so I thought I would write about that. I talked through what I wanted to write about before I got started, and then once I got started I pointed out different skills I was working on as I wrote. I talked about staying on topic, and how to add lots of detail to my story. I often paused and asked them if they had any questions to ask me so my story would make sense before I went on. I try to do this each time I write in front of them. I try to teach them to think about who will be reading their writing and if there is anything that their reader would wonder about their story. I feel that writing in front of first graders needs to be very explicit and detailed in what you are trying to teach them. I talk a lot during my writing so they will know what I am doing, and why I am doing it. This was a great assignment!
Thanks Jennifer & Kristin for sharing your comments about your writing processes.
ReplyDeleteJennifer – I have felt your pain over having to write…and believe it or not, it’s good for your students to see your struggles as well. It is very supportive for them to see that writing doesn’t just automatically flow out of your pen perfectly. Your feelings towards writing could change in the future…mine did after I was asked to participate in the CT Writing Project, which someone completely “twisted” my arm to participate in. After much sweat and frayed nerves, at the end of the month, I felt like a writer! You may want to consider participating in something similar on a local level??? Just a thought :)
Kristin – It’s wonderful that you enjoy writing in front of your students as well as ensure that you find the time several times a week to write with them. You are so right…the more you share your “internal thoughts” about your own writing process, the better understanding they will have as to how to navigate through their own process and piece of writing.
Part 1: This was much more fun than I thought it would be. I often stick with the same writing topics because they are safe. I found, however, that using the list of subtopics, more and more kept coming to me. I chose to write about my youngest daughter's Type-1 Diabetes. My class has a very limited health curriculum with a very poor description of diabetes. So I started writing about how we found out and how my daughter is one of the strongest people I know. I was very emotional about it, but that gave me a lot of descriptors to use. I mostly reread the to see if I had given enough information because it is a complex time for people who are just diagnosed. I probably should have focused on the run-ons, but did talk about how they can be effective when showing excitement. I just had to remember who my audience was and what they needed to know or could understand.
ReplyDeletePart 2: I chose to write about when I flew by myself to California as a 10 year old. I once again thought a lot about voice and audience. This was just a topic that was floating around about summer, and I could relate to my audience, so I used it. I really tried to interject my feelings with a few exclamations to show how it contrasted with today's flights. I really didn't plan out my writing, other than that it would be just the flight instead of the month-long visit. That would be too long. If I made it short, it wouldn't have enough detail to make it worthwhile. I knew that it would be sequential from getting to the airport to leaving the plane. I decided to open with my reason for being there in the first place and then relate it to today, when I fly at least once a year. I ended up revising as I went along. Most of the time I realize something was off immediately after I wrote it. Then I reread and changed the words or sentences. Often since it is not a final draft, I had run-ons or choppy sentences. I believe this is a great activity for students to view and apply the rereading strategies in a short period of time. I think they would really apply what they were modeled while keeping it very succinct.
Thanks Scott for sharing your writing process. I’m glad that the experience was a pleasurable one :) It really is a great experience to pay attention to your writing process (including the emotions one goes through when writing about something personal as you did) that even as adults we go through. Kids need to see that even as adult writers it’s still very “messy” and that we really need to work through the process to put on paper exactly what we want to say to our readers.
ReplyDelete