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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I am different than many teachers in that I really enjoy writing. I don’t write nearly as much fiction as I used to (which is a shame), but I still consider writing to be a hobby of mine. With that said, I found Routman’s 3rd chapter to be very helpful. Sharing the various writing you do (academic and otherwise) and thinking deeply as to one’s own personal writing process seems like great teaching strategies.
ReplyDeleteFor the assignment I wrote about a backpacking memory. The trip was not eventful in the classical sense – there was no high drama, nor intense moments, rather it was one marred with subtleties, pleasantries, and cherished experiences with nature.
When I selected this topic to write about (after listing topics and subtopics), I was keenly aware that my backpacking trip would be the type of writing piece that would involve a lot of descriptive writing, but not a lot of action. This realization was part of my “mental” prewriting. I’d try to write a lot of sensory details but not the details of the trip. Note, I did not do any prewriting other than thinking about my topic.
While drafting I thought about word choice… a lot. I wanted my writing to be pretty, have moments using alliteration, and capture a feeling of what it was like to be on the Deschutes River. Word choice slowed me down, as it tends to do when I write. I crossed out words I didn’t like and added better replacements. As per another tendency of mine, I didn’t go back and reread my piece while writing, mostly because my ideas were flowing.
I tried to do a lot of visualizing as I wrote – what did the sun feel like on my skin, what did the energetic orioles sound like, what feelings did the singing chat evoke in me, as I wrote. I also choose a mood and tone, fairly early on and tried to keep my writing consistent, again through word choice and sensory details, and my individual writing style.
It’s interesting… I teach students to use graphic organizers extensively for every assignment that will be longer than a paragraph (sometimes even then I’ll have them use an organizer), but using organizers is not typically how I write, and as Routman noted in chapter 3, it’s not how teachers in her workshop wrote either. I have enough experience as a writer to know what works for me, my students are on a journey to hopefully figure out what works for them.
I’m a writer per say. I have journaled for years and find it the best way to work through issues and document important life events. This kind of writing is just automatic and I rarely edit or reread. I do lots of emailing to friends, sharing life and responding to theirs. These “letters” are done thoughtfully and carefully. They are a very important way of staying in contact with close friends and family.
ReplyDeleteMy 90 year old Dad died in early December. It was my responsibility to write his eulogy for the memorial service. I was terrified! It took me days to get started and partly because I had no idea what it was supposed to be. When I finally mustered the emotional strength to tackle this task, I just started writing, literally. I began at what I knew about his early years, and researched the missing pieces. There were 4 or 5 drafts and even some editing the day of the service. The task of writing my Dad’s story ended up being emotionally draining, but incredibly enlightening on so many levels. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity.
In this assignment, after making a list of “topics” and “subtopics,” I chose to write about one of my favorite places to visit. I don’t think I’ve ever written about this before and it ended up morphing into a piece that included one of my favorite people as well. I became aware when writing of how the direction changed somewhat from what I originally intended it to be. I would tell my students that sometimes writing can change in the process and bring surprises along the way!
I have a very difficult time writing….especially ON DEMAND WRITING. I stew over what I’m going to say, how I’m going to say it, how it might come across, if it’s going to make sense, is it going to be up to par with others…. Do I need to go on? (in a very whiney voice…) I can write a fabulous 5 paragraph essay on a topic, but getting more than surface deep and/or personal is difficult. My process takes place mostly in my head. I write a bit, stop, re-read, erase, start again in a different place, re-read… I usually have 2-4 different “starting” paragraphs, lots of notes of what I want to say, then I put it together. (praying the whole time!)
ReplyDeleteI love writing in front of 1st graders! They love everything I do on the weekend, even when it’s a boring one! They are gracious with my drawings, which is a good learning experience for them because they don’t have to live up to an artists standard!
I have my list of things to write about. It revolves around my family; individuals, memories, moments… all the things that have a special place in my heart.
Hello Brian,
ReplyDeleteOther teachers during this assignment also realize that they too don’t do a lot of pre-writing or use graphic organizers. Many do just what you said, “think about my topic.” Yet, many times in classrooms teachers want students to start writing right away, “Just write anything…” When in fact, they actually may be taking time to think about what they want to write or needing to plan it out. It’s a valid point to consider. I’m very verbal, so I also like to bounce ideas off other people before I jump into writing. And really, what I have found for myself is if I do use any form of a graphic organizer…it’s really a list. ☺ I agree, it is our role to expose students to different methods and help them discover what works best for them.
Hi Karen,
I am sorry to hear about your dad. I bet the eulogy piece will be something you and your family will cherish. Yes, another great point! Where you think the writing is going to go changes sometimes. And this can be OK, a very important point to share with students.
Hi LeAndra,
That’s great that you enjoy writing in front of your students even thought you don’t like to write. First graders are very forgiving! I also like to show them that I have a hard time spelling (and drawing) but I feel that I’m a good writer. For me, I tell them, the most important thing is to get their ideas down. (And for students it takes them so much longer and much more energy to record what ideas they have in their head…when you add perfect spelling and handwriting onto this when it’s a first draft you can see why students may not enjoy the writing process.)
Ch. 3
ReplyDeleteThere are two things that I love and I never seem to have time for...personal writing and art. I’m definitely not exceptional at either of them. They are both therapeutic :) Start with nothing, allow free flowing creativity and end up with a full canvas.
The thought of writing in front of the students about my personal life was interesting. Up to now, I had only shared aloud short stories or wrote about my children. The stories only were told if they related to our studies. And, most of the time, I wasn’t actually in the story. So, the shared writing I did was a summer trip to the beach and playing in the sand with my husband and kids. First of all, they loved hearing about myself as well as my family. The students enjoyed watching how I wrote sentences and used “carrots” to add words I left out. I wrote simplistically at first and as I reread, I crossed out words and used more descriptive ones...not necessarily words that first graders would use, but words I liked (and a great example of extending vocab.) They got to see how messy writing can be and how I got all my thoughts down on paper. They saw how I reread it several times to check to make sure it made sense and at last I felt good about the end result.
It was another excellent way of showing the students that writing is safe and messy. My goal is to continue to write in front of them. There are many students who love to write and enjoy sharing aloud. Some students need the attention of reading his/her writing aloud and will write ‘til their fingers hurt, just so that they can share. Those students seem to always have plenty to say. However, there are a few shy students who never want to share and don’t always get started right away. They seem somewhat apprehensive. Hopefully by the end of the year with many writing experiences, they will become more confident when writing and even volunteer to share aloud
Students love to hear about our lives. :D Especially in elementary school. Your goal should be all of our goals...writing is safe and messy at first. And that it is ok to try something out and cross things out and move them around. Writing is a process that helps us organize our thoughts. When students keep in mind what their purpose for writing is and who their audience is they will be more motivated to be respectful to their readers by producing a neat, clear, error-free piece.
ReplyDeleteI am a huge fan of oral rehearsal, and often write about it each term. Here is a link to an article you might find interesting. It is only 4 pages long. The article is “Storytelling and Story Writing ‘Using a Different Kind of Pencil’” by Dr. Terry A. Campbell. It was published in Oct. 2009 in What Works? Research into Practice
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/WW_Storytelling.pdf
There is quite a bit of information on the Internet about Talk to Text, Oral Rehearsal and Storytelling and writing skills. In fact, I became a little sidetracked noting articles I want to read.
Leah Mermelstein has this article on her blog:
http://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/enewsletter/mermelstein_the_power_of_write-alouds.pdf
Even though these articles may be targeting elementary level, middle school teachers who have students that struggle (or ELLs) may find them useful.
Thank you for sharing these links! This is but one of the writing strategies I want to improve on :)
ReplyDeleteHappy to share! :)
ReplyDelete