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.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Assignment Three- Alana Ollerenshaw
ReplyDeletePart One:
Writing with my students today, caused me to analyze what I do and how I teach writing. It is hard for me to give up the “control” I had over their writing, as you will see later on in this reflection.
Yesterday was my son’s birthday and since I talk about him all the time to my students, I knew they were interested to hear about what we did and what he received for his birthday. So “birthdays” was my sub-topic.
I started the lesson by telling the kids we were going to write about birthdays and I WAS SO excited to tell them what my family did last night.- I had their attention. Up on the white board I had put a large piece of white chart paper and had my colored markers nearby. First question, “Class, what color marker should I use?”- they’re still engaged. Next I told the story of what we did for my son’s birthday from the beginning of the day to the end. Then I picked up my pen and started writing. As I wrote I told my thought process out loud to the class. Since I had told them the story before I wrote, they were telling me what I should write next, so the writing became not just mine but theirs as well. Once I was finished, I told them, “That was a lot of fun, I wonder how many sentences I was able to write?” We counted them up. Next, I sent the children back to their tables and told them to think of a birthday they had seen, could be theirs or someone else, or even a birthday they wish they could have. The kids told their table group what they were going to write and the children began writing. It was hard for me to not point out spelling errors and missing capitals or ending marks, until I realized that EVERY student was engaged in the task. Even after writing time was over, half my class asked if they could work on it in the morning for morning work. This made me feel very happy. Tomorrow, I am excited to hear their writing shared in the author’s chair!
Part Two:
I wrote my story without a graphic organizer. Before writing I thought about, but did not write down, my topic and how I would answer Regie’s criteria. Then I wrote. I wrote an introductory sentence, supporting sentences and then a conclusion. When I was finished I used spell check (since I wrote this on my computer) to check for grammatical or spelling errors. Then I re-read my piece for fluency, does it make sense, did I add all the details I wanted, are there any other details to add, etc.
It is more enjoyable for me to write without an organizer. I like to just write and then go back and check my work. However, if I am writing a longer essay or one that is filled with facts, I use a graphic organizer to organize my ideas. This gives me an “A-HA” moment. I should not be requiring my students to use a four square for every writing piece. Sometimes, I need to let them just write. I will try this for part one of this assignment!
Writing Essentials Assignment Three:
ReplyDeletePart One
I took the list from page 26 and modified it slightly to create my own list. I added sub topics that I thought would work for me. I took the list to school with me Monday with the intent of modeling for my students yesterday. As things turned out we did not get to it. I was determined to make it happen today.
I did not pre-select what I was going to write about. Instead, I read my students my topics and then asked them to raise their hands when I read the list again and that I would write about the topic they most wanted. That went well, and we ended up with “Pets”. From there I asked “dog or cats?” Dog won and there I was, with no pre-thought out story….I am never nervous with my students; I was nervous. And from there I think it went GREAT! I loved it, they loved it, we had FUN! First, I had to think; I had to ask them to give me a minute. Then I said “hmm, my do is so goofy, what should I write?” Voices came at me “tell us a goofy story….” So I did. We laughed, they asked questions. Then I had to write it. We laughed a lot more. At one point a boy asked me why I kept stopping and reading what I had already written over and over again. I explained that I need to recall what I had written, did it still make sense, and think about what should come next. At one point I wrote “on on”; they corrected me and I had a cross out. I finished the story quickly as we were almost out of time and they were disappointed. They wanted to reread it and they WANTED to write me a story. Tomorrow we will reread and see if we can make it better. I am really excited.
Part Two
For this assignment I thought of a special moment from last summer. The first thing that happened was the picture that came to mind along with my memory of the smells, sounds, voices of my family, and the amazing feeling I had inside. I think about this trip and especially this day every time I think about summer coming.
I did not really plan out what I was going to write. I made a picture in my head and did my best to describe it. I just started writing, keeping my picture in my head. I did keep my eye on the clock and kept it to 10 minutes.
I re-read as I was writing, adding and crossing out words. I got stuck when I had to spell Styrofoam and it frustrated me that I was stuck on a word I should know how to spell. Really I spent too much time worrying about it. Finally, I spelled it the best I could, then, circled it to remind myself to look it up when I finished, and kept going. I looked it up when I was done and found I had spelled it correctly…(-: It just did not look right…In the end, I had a pretty messy looking story with arrows going to the bottom of the page with sentences to add in, carrots in places to add words and lots of cross outs. I edited as I went…
I never thought about punctuation, nous, verbs or adjectives. I never thought about my main idea and supporting details. The punctuation came naturally and the main idea and details worked out because I kept my picture in my head and kept revisiting my words thinking about whether they would make a picture at least close to mine in my audiences (students) head.
My story had what we were doing, why it was important to me, and how it made me feel. When I reread the finished story I found that I had left out where we were and why we were there in the first place. To an audience that may or may not be important; I felt like if I was to rewrite it I would include it. I had a short pretty vivid story of a moment.
Writing this had many “ah ha” moments and was in my mind today when I was writing about my dog in front of my students.
Dee- I had a similar experience when I did part one of this assignment, the kids really enjoyed the freedom I gave them in choosing what to write. Today we wrote about koalas and the kids had a choice to use an organizer or not. They all chose not to and it didn't matter, their writing was still good and they were engaged! Alana
ReplyDeleteThanks Alana and Deanna for sharing your writing processes.
ReplyDeleteAlana – Choosing to write about your life is not only a great way to model writing about something that is important to you, but it is such a great way to build a stronger relationship with your students. Building in the oral language piece is also a super way to get them involved with the shared writing piece while you were modeling. As far as always using the four square organizer, how about offering it to those who would like the additional support of using it.??? I agree with you and do think kids enjoy not being restrained to an organizer when ever it’s possible .
Deanna – That was a great idea to have your students vote on the topic you were going to model writing about. Isn’t if funny to think that we could be nervous about writing in front of a bunch of 1st graders? You do get nervous though, if you aren’t someone who sees themselves as “a writer”! I think that your process while writing about a special moment from over the summer with your family was a great way to show your students how important revision is in the writing process.
Joyce, Chapter 3 Writing Assignment
ReplyDeletePart One:
I was looking forward to writing. When asked, I have always responded that I like to write. I do not know why. I do not think I am good at grammar or having ‘catchy statements’ or at ‘playing with the words’. I have never written anything important. Maybe my interest in writing stems back to 3 positive writing experiences in my childhood. One teacher in high school could tell that every student wanted to be outside in the thunderstorm more than to be in his class. He told everyone to go run in the rain for 10 minutes. We did. When we came back soaking wet, he told us to lay our heads on our desks and listen to the rain. Then we, in pure silence and with great emotion, wrote exquisite poems about rain.
I had been looking for an opportunity to write in front of my 3 children. I had paper and pen with me for whenever it may ‘fly’. I had figured they would not be interested. I had 2 options of childhood stories in mind and had thought through some supporting details. My oldest child is at baseball practice and the other two are sitting in the car while it is raining outside: a captive audience. I started with “I need to write something for you. (In hindsight, I should not have said that.) What type of story would you like to hear about my childhood? Swimming with the crocodiles? When my eye almost got cut with a machete? My middle child yells out “why does it have to be something sad? I respond “OK, (think, think, think) how about when I pitched the last game of the final tournament”. A resounding YEAH! With no preparation and with nervousness, like Deanna, I started to write and my oldest child joined us just 2 minutes later.
Part Two:
While I composed, I was thinking “I need a catchy lead sentence, I need to make this interesting to the boys (audience), I need a few key points to the story, what should I write next, does that make sense, should I change that, is that spelled write, I don’t like the ending, should I cross out the entire middle of the story, I need to change that sentence, I need to capitalize that letter... I asked my kids a few questions along the way: “Should we change that first sentence to correlate better with the middle of the story? Should we have just 2 words to this sentence? Should we change the last sentence?” They liked everything the way it was.
The key points to the story came to mind quickly as I started writing. When I made mistakes, I crossed out words, phrases, even sentences and then I wrote the corrections above the original words. I added a sentence using a carrot. When I got stuck I talked out loud. I did not think about paragraphs or indentations. It was quite sloppy. My crossing out was very messy. I didn’t ‘play with words’ much. My topic sentence was actually the 5th sentence. I reread a LOT as I wrote.
I loved writing in front of the boys. The process surprised me. They were very engaged. My youngest was continually guessing what was coming next. My oldest watched the writing process, making comments like “I know how to use carrots, I know you need a conclusion”. I was so focused on the story that I didn’t think out loud much, I forgot to tell them who I was writing for, and I forgot about ‘playing with words’. I also went 13 minutes! The more I write in front of children, the better I would get at teaching writing while composing. I love your idea Alana, of the children writing personal stories along the same topic you wrote about. I also would like to try telling a story, then having them help write the story. This writing assignment makes me want to write more.
Part One:
ReplyDeleteWhen starting this task I realized the list on page 26 would not keep my students' attention for very long. I needed a topic that all my students would have knowledge of and be able to contribute ideas to my writing. Students with significant disabilities live in small boxes and if the topic does not relate to them they are likely to check out, therefore, making this activity pointless. I tried to think of things I would enjoy writing about that my students would have input on, so automatically I thought about my dog Toby. Toby has come to school many times and a most of my student love him and ask about him daily. I also thought I might be able to develop a social story out of this activity and teach social skills at the same time. So my second thought was to write about friends with a long list of sub topics like: how we met, things we have in common (reasons for friendships), things we do together as welll as how we interact. However, on the day I had planned to do this activity with my class a topic presented itself and I couldn't pass up. Due to a behavior issue I was removed from the start of circle time, which was going to turn into writing. My assistant started the group and was telling them about her nephew that was born the night before. A student in my class is expecting another sister, so I thought I could write about the night my sister was born and the feeling attached to that new, unfamiliar situation. I should add that student who expecting a sister is not displaying a good attitude about it at home and mom is concerned.
Part Two:
After completing the writing activity with my students I am happy to say they were engaged and we had some good laughs as well as teaching moments about what to do when a new baby comes into your world. For the actual writing I would say that getting started and finishing were the hardest parts. So I turned it into a narrative, which is mostly what we write anyways, but I didn't see anything other way to write it. I also noticed that as I wrote I would correct my mistakes and when I noticed this I stopped myself. I explained to the kids the error I had made and told them that making mistakes is okay and that there is always time to go back and fix them. I think I tend to fix mistakes without explanation and then the kids don't see that everyone makes mistakes. Several times during my writing I noticed I elaborated more, but didn't always include those details in my writing. Since we stopped I would go back and reread what I wrote, which gave me time to think about what I wanted to say next and for the students to share their experience or ask questions. When I approached the end of the writing I wasn't sure at what point was enough, so I ended with her arriving home. I think I really could to this activity again with the same subject and reflect more on a certain feeling about the arrival of a new baby or about what changed as a result of my sister coming home. This would again expand the narrative, but also help prepare my student for the new baby and any future babies that might arrive in other students' lives. I think what I enjoyed most was twofold. First, I got to take the time to share and make it more personal, we didn't even have time to do our rotations. Secondly, I decided we were long over due for the students to share. So a few days later I had all the students come to the circle and draw one thing about earth day and then tell a teacher about it. The next two pages they were allowed to write and draw about anything. Then we shared, the kids were engaged and asked great questions.
Joyce- I wish everyone could say they enjoy writing like you do and took time to "play with the words". I enjoyed how caught your audiences attention, but you pulled them. Who knows maybe next time they'll ask you first!!
ReplyDeleteAlana-Looking back I wish I had done what you had and sent the students straight to work on their own story. What a great way to ride the wave of interest and to keep them moving.
Deanna-I'm glad I'm not the only teacher that doesn't always have a lesson completely planned out. Sounds like it went well and you really pulled your students together to form a collective piece of work. Isn't this what teaching and learning should really be about? Building together and learning from each other as we go?
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI have a sister who works in a special needs class. I can relate what she says to what you write. I enjoy reading your entries. I have found, with teaching Sunday School also, that some of the 'unplanned' teaching times have been the most productive. This may be contradictory to any taught philosophy, but it seems to work well with me (atleast sometimes).
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteOne thing I cannot get off my mind is that you said I took time to play with the words. I really didn't. I was so caught up in the story, I hardly played with words at all. It has always been a weakness of mine.
I learned a lot from this writing lesson. It is often on my mind how I would do things better next time. It really makes me want to teach again.
Thanks Joyce and Lindsay for sharing your reflections on your writing process.
ReplyDeleteJoyce – I think it’s great that you enjoy writing! Unfortunately, there’s a much larger percentage of elementary teachers that do not enjoy or don’t feel confident writing. I think you nailed it on the head when you mention your very positive memory about writing as a younger student. I think so many of the rest of us have very negative memories of writing in school. How fun for you to give your own children such a positive and enjoyable writing experience with their Mom! You got me thinking that I need to do some sort of writing with my own kids at home (6 and 8). By the time we’re done with all of the homework they have to do, and all of the extracurricular activities…I need to think more creatively like you did to find the time!
Lindsay – Your inner topic choice conversation was great, because it just shows the amazing decision making process that a teacher is continually going through, especially in a classroom with differently abled students like yours. One thing to keep in mind is that you can always go back to a shared writing piece and use for many different teaching points, rather than so many in one session.
Gary Hancock Reflections-
ReplyDeletePart One-
I have actually though about trying to write a children's book about a lake destroyed by pollution. The assignment gave me a chance to start it in front of my class.
I had a great modeling lessons about paths a writer can take. How did I want to write my story? Non-fiction? Historical fiction? A straight retell of the facts? I shared with my students all the thoughts that went on in my head. They got into the conversation and were anxious to add ideas.
I then proceeded to write my historical fiction piece in front of them. As I wrote I talked about all the decisions I was making as a writer. Am I checking spelling? Spaces between lines? A good simile to describe the clearness of the lake? The student had a chance to look inside my writer brain. I think it was very organic and educational for them.
Part two-
What are you thinking about as you are composing? I am thinking about the story from the beginning of the piece only. I am aware of corrections as I go on even though I tell me kids not to worry about editing to the end. I am worried about my sentence beginnings being too alike. I also know I need to look up how to use Onomatopoeias.
o What exactly did you do to plan, to get started writing, when you got stuck, or when you completed your piece? I did not do any planning, I just started writing. I tell my students to never do this, but I do it. What does that mean? I also feel like the lack of planning might make my story too long and not have focus.
o What does your process look like? Do you write straight through? Stop to re-read? Revise as you go? Look up information? Edit? I basically wrote straight through with some minor stops to correct errors. Like I said earlier, I was hard to leave errors in my rough draft. My process is to write the whole story and then go back and read the story out loud.
Part one-
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about trying to write a picture book and trying to get it published. I thought that this exercise might be the perfect place to run the story by my students.
Before I started the piece, I talked to my students about choice as a writer. Was my story of a beautiful lake that got polluted going to be historical fiction? A straight non-fiction retell? A fantasy book that involves time travel? This helped my writers see that writers are always deciding which road to go down. There are many roads and forks that an author must choose.
I started the story without any prewrite and I told my students this is the way that I write. It led to a great discussion about the need from prewrites and what might happen to my story because I didn’t do one. They/I agreed that I might not know where to stop or might write too much or might get off-topic.
As I was writing, I also noticed that was hard for me to write without fixing my mistakes as I write. I laughed because I tell them to write their rough drafts without worrying about spelling. Which method is right? Another interesting topic brought up by my demonstration.
All this great real life learning accomplished by me sharing my writing with the students.
Part two-
What are you thinking about as you are composing? I am thinking about the story from the beginning of the piece only. I am aware of corrections as I go on even though I tell me kids not to worry about editing to the end. I am worried about my sentence beginnings being too alike. I also know I need to look up how to use Onomatopoeias.
o What exactly did you do to plan, to get started writing, when you got stuck, or when you completed your piece? I did not do any planning, I just started writing. I tell my students to never do this, but I do it. What does that mean? I also feel like the lack of planning might make my story too long and not have focus.
o What does your process look like? Do you write straight through? Stop to re-read? Revise as you go? Look up information? Edit? I basically wrote straight through with some minor stops to correct errors. Like I said earlier, I was hard to leave errors in my rough draft. My process is to write the whole story and then go back and read the story out loud.
Thanks Gary for sharing your comments on Assignment Three. I’m wondering if perhaps you posted from two different computers, because I found your original assignment in the “spam” folder when I was looking into why several comments weren’t showing. Anyway…how cool of you to begin a children’s book right there with your students! What a powerful experience for all of you. I really don’t believe that there’s one correct way to process writing, I think each of us work with an approach that is most comfortable. What would be truly helpful for your students is to have them be able to see other writers work through their process (which would most likely be different from yours), to give them an experience with a different style of writing.
ReplyDelete