Daily Writing

One of the things I wrestle with is how to get in more writing practice. There isn’t enough time to spend with mini-lessons and practice unless we’re working on a writing unit, but I want kids to be doing some kind of writing each day, with the idea that doing a little bit each day will make it easier when we need to do the longer projects.

So two years ago, I decided to start each class period with five minutes of writing. The kids would come in (I was teaching three sections of reading and writing that year), get out their notebooks, and get started. I told them to start out by writing three sentences, and that they could always do more. They could write about whatever they wanted - fiction, nonfiction, just something they were interested in.

This seemed to be working fine until I started looking more closely at what they were actually doing. I’m sure three-fourths of them were doing something helpful, but then I stopped at M’s desk and this is what she had written: “I like cats. I like mom. I like dad.” A grand total of nine words, and most of them were repeats. I looked at her and said, “Can’t you do a bit more?” And she gave me a smile and said, “You said we only had to write three sentences.” I smiled weakly back, and immediately started thinking about how to change things up so that this fourth grader would be pushed to do more.

The next day, the assignment changed from writing three sentences to writing at least twenty words. I didn’t care how many sentences, I just wanted twenty words in sentences (I had to make that clear when a few kids just wanted to write the shortest word they could find twenty times). This generally improved things, and from then on, I upped the word count by five each month, until we were at fifty words in five minutes.

Around March, when we began to do some test prep, I found out that nobody could remember what a metaphor or simile was, as we had covered all of that in September. I panicked a little, but then I decided to roll some of that practice into the daily writing. On Monday, their writing needed to include a simile, on Tuesday a metaphor, Wednesday alliteration, Thursday personification, and Friday onomatopoeia. I made sure I had some kids share out each day so we could hear examples of each.  That weekly practice did help solidify the meanings of figurative language for most students, and it got them to remember to use them in other kinds of writing.

Last year I started with fifteen words in September, and even the most reluctant writers could generally accomplish that in five minutes.  As soon as I had taught similes, etc…, I incorporated that as part of their daily writing, instead of waiting until March.  We increased the total by five words a month, and most kids were able to easily do that amount and more. Many enjoyed the ability to write about whatever they wanted, but I still struggled with those students who had to be prodded every single day to get started.

This year I will do the same thing, but as the year goes on I want to add some simple revision practice in there as well. I might tell them to try and start a sentence with a verb, or find a place where they can cross out a word and use a different word. In my head this should only take five minutes, but in reality it will probably be closer to ten. 

I think that short, daily practice will hopefully translate to the longer writing that we do. Are there daily writing strategies that you have been successful with?

Signposts in Fiction

I have a weakness for buying professional books, which I think publishers like Heinemann and Stenhouse can sniff out a mile away. I have a lovely collection of these books, and each year I vow not to buy any more. I never quite make that a reality, but I have gotten my buying down to one or two books per year, and the rest I try to read online. How can I do this, you may ask? The publishers will usually publish a chapter or two on-line, and sometimes you can read the whole book for free. That’s what I did with Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading by Kyleen Beers and Robert E. Probst (Heinemann, 2013). http://www.heinemann.com/products/E04693.aspx

Close reading seems to be one of the new,  hot topics in reading, and I know next to nothing about what it entails, so I was happy to look through the sample chapters provided online.  Beers and Probst talk about reading a wide sample of grade level literature, and noticing some repeating patterns that writers use. They called them “signposts in fiction”, and I thought they were very helpful.  I typed them up for kids to glue into their reading notebooks, but I also had these signposts up on a flipchart everyday during our read aloud book. I tried to be aware of them as I read, so I could model how a reader might use these signposts to help them better understand the text.  Here they are, as copied right from Notice and Note:

1. Contrasts and Contradictions: Is the character suddenly doing something different from what we’ve come to expect? Ask why.

2. Aha Moment: When the character suddenly realizes something – what caused that realization?

3. Word to the Wise: Messages from older, wiser characters. What message are they giving?

4. Again and Again: What activities are repeated? Are there things characters say over and over? What is the author trying to tell you through these repetitions?

5. Memory Moment: When the character remembers something, what are they remembering? How does it help the story?

6. Tough Questions: When the character asks him- or herself questions about what they’re doing – it often reveals what their internal struggle is.

Using these signposts brought a new level to our reading discussions, and when I had kids independently use them in their own reading, I found their thinking being pushed as they tried to decide which signposts they were noticing, and how it helped their understanding of the book.

I’m taking a class in early August on close reading, so I will see how that adds to my understanding of the process, but I recommend trying out the signposts and seeing what you think!

Summarizing Nonfiction

In past when I taught kids how to write nonfiction summaries, I focused on the 5 W questions: who, what, where, when, why, and the H: how. I had kids make a chart, fill in the information, and then showed them how to link those ideas into a short paragraph. And it worked – when we were reading something with dates, and causes and effects. But when we were reading something that was more descriptive, say an article on bats, that format wasn’t as user-friendly.

Then a teacher friend showed me an article (or part of a book chapter – I will credit this idea when I find the source) where the teacher encouraged her students to first write a gist statement, identifying an overarching theme or big idea. Then the students wrote several sentences with examples to support the gist statement. The last sentence was a concluding sentence that tied their ideas together.

I tried this with many different texts last year, and generally had better success than I’ve had in the past, but I had to get used to the idea that not all summaries would be exactly the same, as they tended to be using the W question chart. For example, one book we used this strategy with was Teammates by Peter Golenbock, a nonfiction narrative about Jackie Robinson and his teammate PeeWee Reese. After reading, I had the kids write a gist statement. I got a variety of statements such as “Teammates is about friendship.” “Teammates is about bravery.” “Teammates is about racial inequality.” All of those statements are true – and all of them are fine gist statements to start with. The students then had to find examples from the story to support their gist statement, which they did, and then write a concluding sentence (generally the hardest part for them). Many used the same examples, but there was a bit a variation to the others. It’s fun to have kids read their summaries, because they can see what other kids thought was important enough to include, and how that compared to their own work.

One of the other reasons I became a big fan of this format is because it echoes the format of the traditional essay. We only write one essay a year, and I was looking for ways to extend that practice without writing whole essays, and this format is really just a mini essay. Kids are working on gist statements, which are topic sentences, they support their thinking, and they write a concluding sentence.  I will definitely use this format again, and introduce it much earlier – I think it will make writing the longer essays that much easier.

Summarizing Fiction

One thing I have to work on every year is teaching students how to summarize. I think I’ve tried every graphic organizer there is, but I’ve never been completely satisfied with the results. Then a friend lent me the book When Kids Can’t Read by Kylene Beers (Heinemann 2003), and she talks about ways to summarize both fiction and nonfiction. I tried her suggestions, and I felt like I had better summaries this year than I ever have. There is still room for me to improve, but you might like to see what I tried.

Many of you will be familiar with the Somebody Wanted But So format for fiction, and this is really just a refinement of that format. It is easiest to model this with a picture book.  The difference in this particular SWBS chart is that instead of just picking one character and cramming all their information  into one row, the student can consider each character, what they want, what gets in their way, and how they resolve their problems. Below is a picture of a SWBS chart I did for William Steig’s book Doctor DeSoto. Notice that I did a row for Doctor DeSoto, and then a row for the fox.  You could use this with a longer text, like a chapter book; you would just need to add more rows for more characters. I think it would work if you wanted to summarize on a chapter by chapter basis as well.

After finishing the chart, I then tried to combine the information into a summarizing paragraph. This proved to be easier with some texts than others, and that’s still the part I have to work on teaching better. But I found that the conversations I had with students as they were working through the chart were valuable and more in depth than other summarizing conversations I have had before. Is there a way you’ve found to effectively teaching summary writing?

Six Book Pitches

About once a month, I get a newslink from Stenhouse, the publishers of many great educational resources.  In the last one, they linked to a blog post on Six Pitches, new ways for kids to give book talks (or "pitch" a book). The pitches range from writing one word that connects to the book, to a longer summary-style pitch called Pixar, which creates a story arc like many Pixar movies. I think you could have kids write these down and post them someplace for others to read, or you could have kids get up and present them, but I think you’d want to have them present as many of the pitches as they completed, as some are very short. 

I just finished Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper, and I thought I'd give the six pitches a try.  It’s the story of Melody, a ten year old girl with cerebral palsy, who is very bright but can’t speak, and whose classmates have been too quick to dismiss her based on her disability.

 1. One word: Determination

2. Question:  What would you do if you had a lot to say but couldn’t speak?

3. Rhyming: Even though I can’t walk, I’d have a lot to say if I could talk.

4. Subject line:  Ten year old girl who can’t speak surprises everyone.

5. Twitter:  Out of my mind: Disabled Melody finds a way to communicate and blows her classmates away but will it last? #titletalk #outofmymind

6. Pixar: Once upon a time, ten year old Melody had cerebral palsy.   Every day, she went to classes for kids with disabilities, but she was very bored.  One day, the school decided to mainstream Melody and gave her an aide to help her. Because of that, the aide realized that Melody was very smart. Because of that, the aide advocated for Melody to get a computer that would help her communicate. Melody even joined the Quiz Team. Until finally, a series of events and choices by her team forces Melody to confront them and risk losing their friendship.

(The bold print phrases are to help students with the formula style of Pixar. You would also want to tell students not to give away the ending if they were presenting for the class.)

Here’s the link to the blog that I read – try the Six Pitches and see what you think! evolvingenglishteacher.blogspot.com/2013/05/windup-and-pitch-change-up-for-book.html

In the beginning...

“Teachers of writing need to be writers themselves.”  I’m sure I’ve seen this many times before, but this summer it seems to have made its way into my brain. I may have disregarded that idea other times I’ve read it, as I was feeling good about a partner statement, “Teachers who teach reading need to be readers themselves.” No problem there – I read all the time.  “And I do write,” I told myself.  Every time we have a writing unit in school, I model with an example of what I might do so my students can see me thinking out loud, making revisions, pondering leads and endings.

But is that the same as being a writer? That’s the worm that’s been niggling in my brain this summer.  And as I read the comments about the All Write conference in June, and then the Teachers Write challenge from author Kate Messner, something kind of rolled over in my head.  I wasn’t really a writer – not the kind these people were talking about.  I wasn’t working on a writing project of any kind, and it didn’t have to be the next great novel.  I wasn’t journaling or blogging or even responding to tweets on Twitter. 

Then, in a tweet, someone said, “Start a blog. It’s a great way to do more reflection professionally.”  And I began to really think about that possibility; I’m starting my twenty-first year of teaching, I’m starting my thirteenth year in fourth grade, and I need a challenge to keep myself growing professionally. 

So here it is – my take on ideas I’ve read about, and things I’ve tried in my classroom.  I hope to write about what has worked, and what hasn’t worked, and maybe others will chime in as well.  Join me on my journey!