This year, I started off journal writing time by reading Diary of a Worm. This funny book is useful for so many lessons. I used it to show students all of the different things that they can write about in their journals--lists of things they like and dislike, stories about their day, stories of how they have gotten in trouble, and so forth.
About five students in each class took the lesson one step further and started to write their own funny diaries. How fun! Since I'm still observing the students carefully to find out what they are like, I was excited to see them taking off with such a creative kind of writing.
And they had different methods. One student took the picture book and went through it page by page. At first, I was worried that he was copying. Then I saw that he was writing the Diary of a Dragon by looking at what Doreen Cronin wrote in Diary of a Worm, and then trying to think of a similar situation for his dragon. What an interesting writing process!
On the other side of the room, a different student was trying to write the Diary of a Banana. But I could see that he was having some trouble. Instead of using first person point of view, he was writing in third person, and seemed to be struggling to find ideas. This shows me that he's working on using different points of view in writing, but isn't quite sure of how to do it. Perfect for an early teaching point.
Yet another student had started writing Diary of a Bee. She'd filled up half a page, but then seemed stuck. I showed her how to use a field guide to insects to find out more facts about honeybees, facts that she might be able to use to write her funny diary.
I've never had so many fiction pieces so early in the year. Usually, the writing is all personal narratives for the first few weeks as students work through topics related to sports, their summer vacations, and their families. I'm intrigued and excited to see how these students develop!
Showing posts with label journals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journals. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Managing the Writing Process
One of the biggest challenges that I face as a writing teacher is how to structure the pace of the class. How can I keep things moving, but still give students time to explore and revise? How can I give students plenty of time for writing, but still teach standards-based lessons? How can I focus my time on providing the feedback that matters? How can I ever get anything done?
Well, I don't have all of the answers, but I have found some routines and procedures that work for me.
Quick writing conferences: Students don't read what you write on their papers! I remember feeling a sense of irritation as students looked at their graded work, squinted at my carefully composed comments, put the papers aside, and merrily continued writing in the same way.
My written comments didn't mean much to them. But our conversations have meaning. When we talk about a piece of writing, I can ask questions, give input, hear the student's point of view. Sometimes our conversations lead to the student realizing that more is needed. As one boy was reading his poem aloud today, he stopped and said, "You know what? I'm having trouble reading this. Let me go back and work on it some more." Wow! This was so much more worthwhile than if he had just handed in his poem and I had written comments on it.
I don't have a special conference place, as some teachers do. Instead, I wander the room. Sometimes students raise their hands or come over to see me, but sometimes I just drop in on writers. As we talk about a piece of writing, sometimes neighboring students will chime in and offer their comments and viewpoints. We start chatting about the piece of writing, and the whole process becomes relaxed and fun. Usually our conferences are fairly short, just about 3 minutes or so.
Student writing coaches: I have also realized, though, that there are times when my voice is not what students need to hear. Then I call for a writing coach. "It seems as if ___ needs a writing coach. He's trying to find an ending point for his poem about bubbles. Is there anyone who can work with him to do this?" Then I allow the student to choose his writing coach. With fourth graders, I always give the writing coach a very specific task--not "Work on this piece" but "Find other words for twirl."
The best writing coaches are not always the best writers. Often, it's best for students to work with another writer who has struggled with a problem or worked on a detail.
Meaningful, worthwhile background work: The key to making it all work is the journal writing that I started way back at the beginning of the year. Students always have something else that they can be writing. This way, when they are finished with a project, they can drop back into their journal writing. Some students have long stories that they have been typing on the computer for weeks and even months, taking time whenever possible to add to this relaxed, no due-date work.
Reading what others have written is another great option. By this point in the year, I've accumulated several binders full of finished stories, poems, and reports that students have written. They love having the opportunity to read and comment on their classmates' work.
Well, I don't have all of the answers, but I have found some routines and procedures that work for me.
Quick writing conferences: Students don't read what you write on their papers! I remember feeling a sense of irritation as students looked at their graded work, squinted at my carefully composed comments, put the papers aside, and merrily continued writing in the same way.
My written comments didn't mean much to them. But our conversations have meaning. When we talk about a piece of writing, I can ask questions, give input, hear the student's point of view. Sometimes our conversations lead to the student realizing that more is needed. As one boy was reading his poem aloud today, he stopped and said, "You know what? I'm having trouble reading this. Let me go back and work on it some more." Wow! This was so much more worthwhile than if he had just handed in his poem and I had written comments on it.
I don't have a special conference place, as some teachers do. Instead, I wander the room. Sometimes students raise their hands or come over to see me, but sometimes I just drop in on writers. As we talk about a piece of writing, sometimes neighboring students will chime in and offer their comments and viewpoints. We start chatting about the piece of writing, and the whole process becomes relaxed and fun. Usually our conferences are fairly short, just about 3 minutes or so.
Student writing coaches: I have also realized, though, that there are times when my voice is not what students need to hear. Then I call for a writing coach. "It seems as if ___ needs a writing coach. He's trying to find an ending point for his poem about bubbles. Is there anyone who can work with him to do this?" Then I allow the student to choose his writing coach. With fourth graders, I always give the writing coach a very specific task--not "Work on this piece" but "Find other words for twirl."
The best writing coaches are not always the best writers. Often, it's best for students to work with another writer who has struggled with a problem or worked on a detail.
Meaningful, worthwhile background work: The key to making it all work is the journal writing that I started way back at the beginning of the year. Students always have something else that they can be writing. This way, when they are finished with a project, they can drop back into their journal writing. Some students have long stories that they have been typing on the computer for weeks and even months, taking time whenever possible to add to this relaxed, no due-date work.
Reading what others have written is another great option. By this point in the year, I've accumulated several binders full of finished stories, poems, and reports that students have written. They love having the opportunity to read and comment on their classmates' work.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Starting out with writing
Well, seven days of school have gone by. The kids are reading books--some have even finished two chapter books already! But another important task has been to get the kids writing.
I've tried quite a few methods for doing this. Just handing out journals and saying, "Now write about whatever you like!" does not work for every student. There are some who eagerly begin stories from the summer, but many just sit there.
So I tend to choose a concrete visual to help get kids started. This year, I had great success with a dragon puppet. "Remember the journals that I gave you?" I told students, as they gathered on the carpet with me. "Today we're going to begin writing in those journals." There were some scattered cheers among the students. Yes, cheers--fourth graders really do like to write!
I held up the dragon egg puppet. "One of the amazing things about writing is that we get to ask questions and explore new ideas," I said. "Suppose that I found this egg in my classroom this morning. What would be some questions that I might have? Turn and share with your partner."
The room buzzes with talk--Where did it come from? What is it? Will it hatch?
"Then I watched the egg for awhile, and look what happened!" Dramatically, I make the baby dragon start to poke its head out of the egg. They watch, murmuring comments to themselves--It's a dragon! Does it have wings? A tail? Where did it come from? Does it talk? I pull this part out, making the dragon wave to the students, show his wings, and pretend to be a little shy.
"You have lots of questions about this dragon," I said. "As writers, you get to create the answers. Where did the dragon come from? What can you imagine?"
A few volunteers shared their ideas. I kept the dragon puppet on my hand and made him react to their comments. (I admit it--one of the best parts of being the teacher is that I got to be the one who had the puppet first.)
Then it was time to get them writing. "When the dragon rings the chime, you will return to your seats. You can write some answers to your questions about the dragon. If you like, you could write some questions for the dragon. You could even write to describe what just happened right now. You are the writers, so you can make the choices." The kids watched as the dragon fumbled for the chime, and they returned quickly to their seats.
And we all wrote happily ever after! Well, not really. This beginning was enough to get some kids writing. Others needed more support. I quickly put some of their ideas on the whiteboard for their reference. Then I walked around with the dragon puppet for a few moments, so they could see it more closely, and then took it off for students to pass around. The students were responding in many different ways. Some did take off with a story. Others wrote questions in neatly numbered lists. Some just did describe what had happened--"Mrs. Kissner had a dragin puppet." One student wanted to write a pet care book for the dragon. I showed him "The Care and Feeding of Sprites" so that he could see the conventions of pet care books.
By the end of ten minutes of writing, everyone had something on the page. And this is what is so important about the first few days of writing. Writers know that something is better than nothing. For my fourth graders, the dragon puppet gave them something interesting and novel to write about.
Our next step: Starting a routine for sharing what we write
I've tried quite a few methods for doing this. Just handing out journals and saying, "Now write about whatever you like!" does not work for every student. There are some who eagerly begin stories from the summer, but many just sit there.
So I tend to choose a concrete visual to help get kids started. This year, I had great success with a dragon puppet. "Remember the journals that I gave you?" I told students, as they gathered on the carpet with me. "Today we're going to begin writing in those journals." There were some scattered cheers among the students. Yes, cheers--fourth graders really do like to write!
I held up the dragon egg puppet. "One of the amazing things about writing is that we get to ask questions and explore new ideas," I said. "Suppose that I found this egg in my classroom this morning. What would be some questions that I might have? Turn and share with your partner."
The room buzzes with talk--Where did it come from? What is it? Will it hatch?
"Then I watched the egg for awhile, and look what happened!" Dramatically, I make the baby dragon start to poke its head out of the egg. They watch, murmuring comments to themselves--It's a dragon! Does it have wings? A tail? Where did it come from? Does it talk? I pull this part out, making the dragon wave to the students, show his wings, and pretend to be a little shy.
"You have lots of questions about this dragon," I said. "As writers, you get to create the answers. Where did the dragon come from? What can you imagine?"
A few volunteers shared their ideas. I kept the dragon puppet on my hand and made him react to their comments. (I admit it--one of the best parts of being the teacher is that I got to be the one who had the puppet first.)
Then it was time to get them writing. "When the dragon rings the chime, you will return to your seats. You can write some answers to your questions about the dragon. If you like, you could write some questions for the dragon. You could even write to describe what just happened right now. You are the writers, so you can make the choices." The kids watched as the dragon fumbled for the chime, and they returned quickly to their seats.
And we all wrote happily ever after! Well, not really. This beginning was enough to get some kids writing. Others needed more support. I quickly put some of their ideas on the whiteboard for their reference. Then I walked around with the dragon puppet for a few moments, so they could see it more closely, and then took it off for students to pass around. The students were responding in many different ways. Some did take off with a story. Others wrote questions in neatly numbered lists. Some just did describe what had happened--"Mrs. Kissner had a dragin puppet." One student wanted to write a pet care book for the dragon. I showed him "The Care and Feeding of Sprites" so that he could see the conventions of pet care books.
By the end of ten minutes of writing, everyone had something on the page. And this is what is so important about the first few days of writing. Writers know that something is better than nothing. For my fourth graders, the dragon puppet gave them something interesting and novel to write about.
Our next step: Starting a routine for sharing what we write
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