May 6, 2013
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Thirty Plus Weeks…
I spent this morning with my writing kids. One hour a week on Monday mornings we read, discuss, play, and write together. As the school year comes to an end, I wonder if they think of themselves as writers yet. They have produced some amazing writing in the thirty weeks we’ve spent together. Thirty weeks- it will be more like thirty four by the time we’ve finished. We spent half of that intensely studying fiction writing and the second half was a little poetry, a little persausive writing, a little of formal writing techniques, and all too soon we’re done.
The funny thing is- I’m not sure they are better writers- the youngest is, but the older two had solid writing skills when we started so it is hard to see their improvement. They have a better sense of story structure, a working understanding of character development, motivation, conflict, and word pictures. I can’t wait to get my hands on their writing journals and see what they’ve been thinking, but they are still using them weekly for the writing process so I can’t take them away quite yet. I found them very insightful when I reviewed them in January.
The sheer discipline of writing on a regular basis- not for a grade- but to share and have critiqued has been invaluable. I’m glad I decided from the beginning not to grade their writing. We have a rubric, but rarely use it. The real changes come from the conversations about their actual work and the reflections resulting from those conversations. It isn’t often you get to spend thirty plus hours studying something with the same group of kids in a small, relaxed, non-threatening setting. (Not that there hasn’t been some tears- usually during the week while the youngest tries to complete her writing assignments- and even that has only happened once or twice- and usually comes from her high personal expectations, not the work.)
Our format is simple: I bring a book (usually a picture book or a short passage) to read and discuss, then they share their writing and we all give feedback, and then there is a short lesson about a specific skill, technique, etc… and our hour is over. It doesn’t seem like much, but they go away with a writing assignment- a pre-writing, a rough draft, peer editing, final draft and spend the week implementing all the feedback they got at our time together. I go away and plan our next hour- what to read, what to cover, and where to go next. And the next week we start again…
It’s been very helpful for me. It’s given me a formula for writing fiction that is easy to grasp and complex to complete while helping with plotting and character development. It is a structure I can teach repeatedly to all ages- it’s that simple.
Comments (3)
I love it. You are so talented to undertake such a daunting project and make it so enjoyable for these kids. I wish I had a teacher like you when I was growing up.
@ZSA_MD - it doesn’t seem like work, nor does it seem like much of a sacrifice- one hour of planning and one hour of teaching a week… it is a gift to me more than it is a gift to them, and for me, that is what real teaching should be!
@jerjonji - Kudos to you.