3 Keys to Improve Your Student’s Writing
One small caveat: While any character change is better than nothing, I really am looking for a change in the character’s knowledge,understanding or feelings.
How to make your workshop work?
In grad school, I learned about Nancie Atwell and her revolutionary (at least to me) ideas about using a workshop model to enable students to be better readers and writers. For the uninitiated, here is she is, in her own words:
And, for years, I tried. And tried. And tried some more. What I couldn’t seem to wrap my brain around was how to get organized: I couldn’t seem to re-create that structure in my own room. I was unsure how to make a structure that gave students freedom to write while providing a structure that gave them tools for their “writer’s toolkit”.
Last summer, I went to a conference that has helped me with both the theory and practice I needed. Here is Lucy Calkins, head of the project (and author of the Units of Study, among other things) in her words:
…but how to get organized? How to do this good work in your class?
If you get a chance to go to Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project, go. Besides being inspiring (of course), I also learned some of the nuts and bolts that have helped me in my room. Even better, I (and you) can get a copy of those same units of study. At $10, it is cheaper than any Professional Development that you’ll do all year.
In later posts, I know that I’ll refer to the lessons I learned from the conference and through the readings. It would be great to make an online book/and in-class practice? study. If nothing else, it’ll help you in your classroom on Monday.
A Treasure Trove of Resources for your Classroom!
Optional Second Title for Post
I don’t want to bury the lead; before you go any further, open this site in a new tab. Then, please read on.
© Copyright 1995-2010 by Teaching That Makes Sense, Inc.
Used by permission. For more information, contact us at info@ttms.org.
Years ago, I was teaching in Tacoma, Washington. The local paper ran a series of mini lessons sponsored by Jeff Peha, founder of Teaching That Makes Sense. Soon after, I come across the website that I listed above. My teaching has been better because of it. Each link will download a series of lessons and handouts that you can use in your class today. One of the many excellent lessons is the idea that there is a predictable structure to all fiction. Peha calls it “The Five Facts of Fiction”:
1 Fiction is all about character.
2 Fiction is all about what your character wants.
3 Fiction is all about how your character gets or does not get what he or she wants.
4 Fiction is all about how your character changes.
5 Fiction is all about a world that you create.
Then, he goes through how you can use these facts to help the young writers in your classroom give a structure, a backbone, to their own writing. In turn, this frees them up to be creative with the content and playful with the language. I’ve used this to help students not only as a way to think about character and structure their writing, but with novel study as well. There is so much just one click away; I can’t do it all justice in one post. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
…but they write like kids!!!
Last year, I had a student (let’s call her “Alex”) who had trouble with her writing. And by writing, I mean her script; the way she put words on the page. Her writing was unlike anything I had seen before. When she wrote the word “huge”, she wrote it with a HUGE font. Instead of one exclamation point, she would use five, six, seven in its place. When she composed in the computer, her writing would not only be of different types, but different colors as well. I thought this made sense for children just learning their letters, but for a twelve year old? I kept trying to get her to stop writing this way. “Mature writers use the lines to help them make letters,” I’d say. And I’d bemoan the terrible state of writing today. How can I teach them to be good writers AND teach them to write?
I was missing the point. At two different conferences this summer, I heard the same thing: Kids write this way-wait for it- Because they’re kids.
They use five exclamation points when one (or none!) will do. They use different color fonts. They use pictures and words together. And on top of all that, they end stories with ” and it was all a dream”. They aren’t writers, at least not yet. They are student writers. They are learning the craft. Next year, I want to separate writing from publishing. More than that, I want to separate the kinds of publishing they are aiming to do. The higher the level of publishing, the more I (or some other adult) take over as editor.
The chart above helped me think this through.
Level 1 publishing is for students’ self-publishing. This “published” work could stay in their writing book, or onto their digital writing book/ blog. The student herself is the main audience for this kind of writing. Student editors can help with this writing, but whether or not they follow the rules of writing is up to them. The vast majority of student writing will live here.
Level 2 writing is published outside of the room. It goes on the walls outside of my room. It goes on the class site. It is the writing that students edit, and I edit. And it is the writing that I assess for traits, or qualities of writing.
Level 3 is the highest level. Writing for contests, for magazines and journals has me or someone else as editor- like writers do. It may not be writing that I assess, since I, or some adult have moved from making suggestions to giving advice about the writing.
Not all writing is equal, and not everything need be “published” in the same way. More writing on the page will, I believe, lead to more selective writers. I can embrace that fact that they are student writers and let them try different fonts, work with different sizes, and even craft stories that end with them main character waking up from a dream. After all, they’re kids.
.
Cutting down on my talk time
Placing a Center of Gravity in your Writing
I wanted a way to help my students focus their writing. Too often, I would receive their papers that had no focus, no center. To help students find focus in their writing, I use something that I call a Center of Gravity.
The Center of Gravity is a thing that is of central importance to the writing. Without that thing, the story does not hold together.
Take an example from a book. In Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis, I describe the Center of Gravity as Bud’s suitcase. It is a thing, and it is central to the story. Without Bud’s suitcase, the story would not be as powerful as it is.
Then, I invite students to describe that Center of Gravity. To do that, they will use an outside, or physical description, as well as an inside, or emotional description.
In the outside description, Curtis helps us to see the suitcase. We know what it looks like, what is inside of it, even the string that ties the suitcase together. The smaller the detail, the better we can see the Center of Gravity.
In an inside description, Curtis shows us just how important the suitcase is to Bud. Bud feels strongly about the suitcase. He works hard to keep it safe, since he feels that it is his only link to his mother and father.
Center of Gravity in Action
Invite your students to think about the most important thing in your story. Is it something that the main character has? Is it a place where the character wants to go?
Then, ask them to create an outside description of that thing. They can use sense words to describe that thing so that the reader can “see” it in their mind’s eye.
Finally, invite them to create an inside description. Are there places in the writing where the main character shows their thoughts and feelings about that thing?
To extend the writing, spread the outside description and inside description throughout the story.
