One “bug” that you don’t want to step on

Guess what??!!!  I’ve got another article from educationworld.com.  I know….shocker, right??!   The article can be found at www.education-world.com/a_lesson/archives/writing_bugs.shtml.  This lesson idea reminded me a lot of the lesson that Dr. DeBlase had us do in class (the free write lesson).  Basically, the teacher gives a prompt and then the student writes from that prompt, using it as an impetus for a short essay.  In this lesson, there are examples of various “writing bugs” or prompts that are designed to fit the time of year.  For example, in September the writing bugs are “write about a specific goal for the upcoming school year” or “its your first day at a new school.  You are thinking about…….”.   The lesson has various prompts or “writing bugs” that help jumpstart student writing.   

In addition to writing bugs that are specific to the time of year, the article also lists many “anytime writing bugs”.  These are topics which are more broad and can be written about in September, May, or any month on the calendar.  Examples are “If I were President of the United States I would………” or “My proudest moment was……….”.   These are topics that everyone should be able to relate to, yet will provide vastly different responses from the students.  I like this idea because it can work for all age levels, especially with secondary students (although I favor the “anytime writing bugs” as opposed to “seasonal writing bugs” for secondary students).   I have found that writing prompts like these are very helpful in getting started on a free write (or any kind of writing) versus just telling the students to “write about anything”.  The problem with the “write about anything” direction is that it is too broad for most students.  Many students will have 8 different ideas bouncing around in their head and have trouble focusing on one, or worse yet just draw a complete blank.  Giving a specific writing prompt has always tended to sharpen my focus because it still allows for creativity and self-expression while providing some kind of framework to work within.  I plan to use writing prompts similar to these in free-write lessons in my future classroom.

There once was a teacher from Slidell, who put her students through…..

The good folks at educationworld.com (hey, what can I say?  The articles keep coming in from my RSS feeder….so shoot me!) have an article about a teacher in New Orleans named Gloria Chaika.  Gloria has some unique ways of teaching poetry at Slidell Junior High School.  The article can be found at www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson016.shtml.  I thought it was interesting because I think poetry is a really tough sell to most kids.  Even though I have always been a fan of literature and reading, I must admit that I could not stand poetry as a middle school or high school student.  Poetry is tough for must students to wrap their head’s around because there are so many different styles of poetry.  I remember that at first all the poetry I was exposed to in school had to rhyme.  Later, the poetry didn’t always rhyme and that confused me.  I thought the whole point of poetry was to express an idea while rhyming the last word of each line with the last word of line two lines below the original rhymed word (i’m confusing myself now!) .  No wonder so many kids think poetry sucks. 

Gloria uses some non-conventional methods of teaching poetry to her classes.  Gloria has her students clap their hands when they hear accented syllables to try and capture the rhythm of the poem as she reads the poem aloud.  Gloria also invites her students to get up and march to the beat ot rhythm of the poem as she reads it aloud.  These ideas make learning about poetry more fun for the students than talking about meter or other aspects of poetry. 

As far as the teaching of writing poetry goes, Gloria uses examples of students from previous years to show her students that kids their age can indeed write poetry.  Gloria also will help reluctant writers by using a method where she writes one line of poetry, then her student writes the next line, then Gloria, then the student and so on until the poem comes together.  Gloria has found this to be an effective strategy with her students that protest that writing poetry is too hard.  Gloria’s students have been published in many magazines, newspapers, and books.  Some of her students have had their poetry recorded in audio books (these are all 6, 7, and 8th grade students mind you).  The bottom line is that Gloria Chaika has taken a traditionally difficult English writing topic (at least in American public education) and has had her students excel at it by using some unconventional teaching strategies to achieve it.

Hey Mom, would you care to read my analysis on the recent election?

The good folks at educationworld.com have done it again.  The website has another interesting writing activity that is aimed at lower-aged children (elementary), but could work with older students to if the subjects were varied.  The article can be found at www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr064.shtml.   The article basically lays out some interesting ideas such as having children read a newspaper article from the local paper, and then writing a short summary about the newspaper article.  While this may sound hokey to some, I do think it could work if the parent showed enthusiasm and gave feedback to the child.  I remember that when I was a young reader (let’s say 4th grade), I frequently was tugging on my mother’s hand wanting to tell her about the book or short story that I had read at school or in my room.  My mother usually stopped what she was doing for a few minutes and listened to what I had to say.  She always gave me positive feedback and this encouraged me to read more often.   I think most young children have a natural affinity for wanting to please their parents, so positive feedback from a parent would probably help develop a youngster’s ability to effectively communicate what they have read.  A way for parents to get their child to write versus verbally telling them about the story might be “Let’s both write about what the story was about (assuming it was something short such as a newspaper article) and then we’ll compare notes.” 

Another good idea mentioned in the article was “have the child write about how the weather is affecting their mood”.   Something like this could be very short and very simple.  An example might be “I don’t like when it rains outside because I can’t play with my friends.”  This is something that is not a big burden such as a lengthy written assignment, but still gets the child in the habit of putting their feelings down on paper.  The earlier a child gets in the habit of writing, the better the chances are of that student having success when he or she is required to write in school.

Evidence of student journal writing improving student writing skills

There’s an interesting article at educationworld.com that parallels a lot of what we talked about as a class in the early portions of the semester.  What “that” is, is student journal writing.  The article can be found at www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr144.shtml.  

In the article there a lot of testimonials from teachers ranging from 1st grade to 12th grade.  The underlying theme in the article is that journal writing has improved student writing immensely.  There are two major benefits to the student journal writing as per the teachers quoted in the article.  First, the teachers are using the journals with their students as a “positive” writing experience.  A “positive” writing experience is described as one where the students don’t have to worry about corrections like a graded writing assignment.  In the journals, students are asked to write about any subject or topic that may hold their interest.  The students are told that they do not need to worry about things such as spelling or grammar in the journal.  The important thing is that they write something each day (usually in the first five minutes of class before the lesson commences).   The teachers are more concerned that the student gets his or her thoughts on paper versus whether or not the student is spelling words or punctuating sentences correctly. 

The second benefit is the privacy angle.  These students are told that they won’t have to share their thoughts and feelings with anyone else in the class, unless of course they volunteer to do so.  The journals are framed as a confidential means for the student to practice putting their ideas into words without fear of ridicule or judgment from their peers.  This has allowed teachers to get know some of their quieter students better as those students are able to express themselves in their journals. 

The results found by the teachers quoted in the ”Education World” article support the idea that the more students write (however informally), the better writers that they become.   We have talked frequently about this in Dr. Deblase’s class in September and October and this article would seem to give credence to Dr. DeBlase’sassertion that good writers are developed through practice.  I have seen this technique employed in my pre-student teaching and can attest that while it doesn’t work with every student, it did work with the vast majority of the students in the classroom that I taught.  The only difference here being that students were not required to read their journals aloud, whereas in my experience the cooperating teacher required students to pick one journal entry per week to read aloud to their classmates.  I think I like the privacy angle better, because the students rarely chose to read any of their more personal entries aloud.  This resulted in a lot of dry journal readings about how the student didn’t like the school’s gum chewing policy, as opposed to hearing about how they felt about something that was more personal or meaningful in their lives.

Excuse me Angela, did you remember to bring your helmet and pads to class today?

I know that this post has nothing to do with teaching writing, but I stumbled across an editorial on education that just begged to be commented on.  There’s an interesting editorial at www.blog.usa.com that points out a growing trend (unbeknownst to me) of separating public school classrooms by gender.  I’m not sure what the point of this trend is, but there is a pretty good editorial piece (titled Opposing View: Segregation breeds inequality) on the Usa Today website under opposing viewpoint editorials. 

The uber-evil David Chadwell (it sounds good even if it is probably not true) has led the charge to implement this practice because “boy’s and girl’s brains are so different” (truer words have never been spoken even if it doesn’t apply to education).  Apparently Mr. Chadwell believes that students learn best when surrounded by others who have the same genitalia.   Chadwell believes that it is a scientific fact that girls learn better when they are “working quietly without the stress of time limits rather than competing in the demanding and physically engaging boys’ algebra class across the hall”.   Huh?  Are we talking about algebra or floor hockey here?  Since when did algebra become “physically engaging”?   Oh that is right……..as I think back to my days in algebra class,  I fondly recall all those body checks and elbows that I used in order to plant the girls in the classroom into the blackboard.  How else was I to prevent them from getting a better grade than me?  Good times, good times…….those were the days in Mr. Pagano’s Algebra I and II classes.

This guy (Chadwell) sounds like a goof and the editorial predictably shreds him.  Of course boys and girls can learn in the same classrooms, it has gone on for years and I have yet to hear of a female student ever complain that algebra, language arts, or government class was too physically demanding due to the males in the classroom.  Best part of the editorial: “…………educational reform such as smaller classes, paying teachers a decent salary and parental involvement are all more productive forms of educational reform than gender segregation”.   Hmmmm…..fewer kids in each class and more money for the teachers.  This makes way too much sense to ever be implemented but its nice to dream about it.  Until then the girls of America had better start working out if they want to pass their algebra classes.

Dear Congressman…………………….

www.readwritethink.orghas a great lesson plan article on its site.  In the lesson plan, students find out about a particular culture (in this case Arab Americans) and then write a letter to an “appropriate official” (congressman, mayor, state representative).  The letter will detail an issue of interest to the student and the cultural group he/she is writing about in the letter. 

The lesson begins with students reading one of four selections on Arab life either here in America or in their homeland.  All four of the selections allow students to see some of the things that Arabs and Arab-Americans are going through in today’s political climate.  The lesson ties in very nicely for this school year and especially this time of the year with Election Day quickly approaching.  It also happens to fit very nicely in Metro Detroit with our burgeoning Arab-American student population. 

After reading the one of the four opening selections (its the student’s choice), they all read Lines In The Sand.  Lines In The Sand gives students information on Palestinian life and some background into the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Students then complete a Venn diagram to help them see the similarities between the two pieces of literature, also helping them to begin to form the letters that they will soon begin to write.  The students write a persuasive letter to the political official that they hope to influence.  Each student is given a persuasive letter rubric to help guide them in making their letter as effective as possible.

The Persuasive Letter Writing Rubric is essential and should be stressed to the students as something that must be followed.  This allows the teacher to have a rubric to evaluate the student writing as well as help inexperienced writers to form a concise letter to get their point across.  

I like this assignment a lot because it requires students to learn on multi-faceted levels: learning about a culture they may not know much about, gaining an appreciation for the struggles of others, and to learn to write persuasively to a person who has decision making power.  All three of these things are important skills that help our students grow as writers, but more importantly as people.

School Writing Policy Not a Bad Idea

NCTE’s website, www.ncte.org,  has a brief article (suggestion?) that all schools would be wise to implement a school-wide writing policy.  NCTE proposes that time be set aside each day in each subject for writing.  I can see it now, in some middle school gymnasium on a cold, November morning.  Hey kids, before we play volleyball today I want each of you to get out a pen and paper and tell me about how you feel about playing volleyball.  Think of how you felt when the kid who should probably be over at the high school (but has been held back two grades) spiked the ball into your face and caused your glasses to fly halfway across the gymnasium floor (forgive me I just had a flashback to Carleton Jr. High circa 1985).  Remember to use the descriptive words/phrases I gave you from the Word Bank such as dislocated (to describe your finger), battered (to describe your face), and phrases like “athletically inadequate”.   

I don’t think that NCTE is advocating writing for physical education, but they don’t specifically list it as a subject that it might be impractical in.   Otherwise, this is a solid idea because as most educators will tell you “writing takes practice”.   If kids are devoting time to writing in every discipline (science, social studies, mathematics, and language arts) each day, they are going to become more proficient at it.  Its just like any sport or leisure activity, the more you do it the better you will become at it. 

I think that even if it was a 5 minute “warm up” exercise that was put on the blackboard each day that required the students to think about their subject matter it would still be beneficial.  For example, in Social Studies the kids could be writing about the election coverage between McCain and Obama.  In Mathematics, the students could write out scenarios that apply to whatever they are learning.  Perhaps they could write about how Geometry can help an engineer, or how multiplication and division helps statisticians do their jobs correctly.   The point is that by writing each and every day the students will improve their writing.  At first they will undoubtedly piss and moan.  Secondly, they will grudgingly go along with the assignments.  Eventually (if it is done every day), it will become second nature and the students will maybe even enjoy it (if it is made fun for them).  I think the NCTE is on to something here.  Excuse me while I go retrieve my glasses from the Carleton Colts logo on the gym floor.

Excuse me teacher, may I have a pass to the Writing Center?

Childers, Fels, and Jordan have an interesting article at (http://projects.uwc.utexas.edu/praxis/?q+node/91) that advocates a student writing center much like the one we have at Wayne State University. The basic idea is the same, get the more advanced (read:better) eleventh and twelfth grade students to be writing mentors that are available to help other students at their school with their writing.  These writing centers help all students from the ESL student struggling with English grammar and writing conventions to the AP English student who may be stuck in getting a writing assignment off the ground.   That is the beauty of it, that it is an equal opportunity writing improver (is that a word???).  

An added benefit is the experience it gives the student tutors/mentors.  Some of the mentors are quoted in the article, such as “I can ask myself a series of questions when writing my own papers that I might ask students who I’m mentoring like “Does my paper read well?”  ”Do I support my arguments?”  ”Am I too repetitive?”   These students are not only helping other students become better writers, they’re improving their own writing through practice and helping others revise weaknesses in their own papers.

Another idea that I like is having the Writing Center be open during school hours where student tutors can get school credit (I assume)  for that class period.  That way if a student needs a lot attention and can’t make it after school because of a job, family responsibilities, etc. the teacher can send the student to the tutors during class time.  Obviously a teacher cannot hold a 30-minute conference with one student during class time due to classroom management issues, so this would be a really valuable resource to have during school hours.  The teacher can send the student to the Writing Center and still be able to continue along with that day’s lesson plan.  

As an ancillary benefit, the article notes that teachers have stopped by the Writing Center to confer with the teacher that directs it to get help with things like writing grants, proposals for funding, or other professional documents.  The Writing Center is a great idea, especially if it is staffed during regular school hours (but is still useful even if it is only open after school).  If you had two or three students per hour rotating in and out (obviously ones who write well) who got school credit for that class period I would think its a win-win for everybody.

LOL! Great journal entry! Signed, your English Teacher.

Brigitt Martin has an interesting take on how today’s secondary students ARE literate, just in ways that we as teachers might not be comfortable with using.  Martin’s article on the (which appears at www.cehd.umn.edu/pubs/connect/2007summer/reading.html) literacy of today’s secondary (especially high school) students and how they communicate is quite illuminating.  We have discussed in our classroom discourse about how we can bring student literacy out, yet perhaps going into the trenches where the kids hang out would be most beneficial to achieving that goal.  Martin sees students using literacy all the time through Facebook posts, IMs (Instant Messaging for the uninformed), and texting.   

What if we had students text us daily for their journal entries?  Or IM us?  Or we create a Facebook account and have the students write their journals to us there (not crazy about that one I’ll admit)?  I hear the gasps emanating already from teachers recoiling in fear.  Just listen before you shut me down.  You go to your school principal and explain how this will benefit the students.  They will be more likely to communicate with us in this way.  The tired old way of putting pen to paper is abolished because we are doing something with the students that they do all the time, namely texting and IMing.   

Think about the benefits: no more collecting journals and going through each one.  Instead you can read the texts and then text them back quickly with your response.  The students are still writing, they stil have to put thoughts down onto their texting keypad versus a piece of paper.  Plus, you get the added benefit of coming across to the students as someone who “gets them” and we all know how that is a point of contention with many adolescents.  I think that if you frame to your principal that the students can text or IM you (the teacher) on this seperate phone (God knows that very few teachers want their personal cell # in the hands of their students—drunk dialing you on a Saturday night)  purchased by the school for this purpose only.  How much can a basic phone cost with unlimited texting?  I haven’t investigated this yet, but anyone who tries this should obviously come prepared with this info when trying to persuade their principal to green light the project.  

I’d lay groundwork with my students such as: each student must register their cell# with me.  I would only accept texts or IMs from these phone #’s to eliminate kids using their friend’s cell phone to text or IM inappropriate things.   Also, no inappropriate texts or IMs will be accepted, in fact they will be reported to school administrators for discipline.  That’s the only downfall I see, but I think it is worth exploring.

Harry Potter meets Betty Crocker!

 

Candy Carlile proposes using the erstwhile Harry Pottter series to teach writing to middle school students.  Being the technologically inept blogger that I am, my attempt to imbed a link into this post ranged from laughable to frustrating.  Instead, I have scrambled the best that I could and have included a link to the article under my blogroll. It is entitled “Using Harry Potter to teach writing in middle school” under the aforementioned blogroll on the right-hand margin of this blog.  All the pertinent details (and the entire article) can be read there.  Whew!  At least the embarrassing “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing” part of the blog is behind us.  Let’s move on.  Nothing to see here people, nothing to see here.  Move along people.

Candy (her real name, not a stage name I swear) outlines the “six ingredients” of using Harry Potter to get reluctant writers to be, uh, not so reluctant.   Candy’s first “ingredient” for nudging along reluctant middle school writers is to create a pre-writing sensory experience.  I like this idea a lot, even though the students will probably think it is weird, because it is a good attention grabber.   She uses ”Ingredient #1″ to set a mood that fits with the Harry Potter series (mystery, the occult, witchcraft, magic).   Each student has to come up with three words that describe their feelings as they sit in her darkened classroom staring at a single, lit candle.   Very nice and very kinky.  I’m going to look Candy up shortly after this blog entry.   After the candle is blown out and the lights go back on, Candy creates what she terms as a Word Map.  The Word Map is created by the students as they come up with words that describe the feelings they had when sitting in the darkened classroom. Candy writes the words on the board as the students verbally describe how they felt during the pre-sensory writing experience.  Viola!  A Word Map is born. 

This is followed by Candy slowly reading descriptive paragraphs (Ingredient #2) from the chosen Harry Potter novel.   Empahasis is placed on selected descriptive words by Candy as she reads to her class.   The students are then asked to give more descriptive words to describe the passages that were just read aloud.  These words are also added to the Word Map.

Ingredient #3 is the first time pen is put to paper.  The students are asked to write a short paragraph describing one of their favorite parts of any Harry Potter adventure story.   They are encouraged to use words from the Word Map.  This is good, otherwise what the hell did we create the Word Map for, right? 

Ingredient #4 is editing.  Candy is ambivalent as to whether or not the students edit each other’s paragraphs or if it is to be completed by the teacher.  Candy suggests a teacher’s marking code to be displayed in the classroom and that the teacher’s corrections stay within this “code”.  I’m not crazy about the teacher’s marking code.  I think having a peer edit the papers is more beneficial to the students and more efficient for the teacher (who would have to edit/correct papers twice in this scenario).   Its more beneficial to the student because peer feedback is likely to be simpler and more to the point.  I believe that students often value the opinion of their peers more so than that of the teacher when it comes to tweaking details of their writing (especially middle school-aged students) before the finished product is turned in.

Ingredient #5 is publishing the edited paragraph.  Candy suggests putting these paragraphs in a student journal throughout the year.  These journals can then be used as fun way for the teacher and the student to assess the student’s writing progress as the the school year goes forward.  I like the idea of keeping a writing journal throughout the year to track progress.  To be a better writer, one must practice writing (duh).  Doing it this way seems like it would be fun for middle schoolers.

Ingredient #6 is compiling these descriptive paragraphs into a book that would hopefully inspire primary students to read the Harry Potter series of books.   This is an OK idea, but the Harry Pottter series may be a little too advanced for many primary students in my opinion.   I think a better use would be to share the books with the following year’s middle school students so that they can get a feel for what is expected of them in the class.   An added bonus they would be writing about something that many of them probably already enjoy.   As we have discussed many times in class already, getting the kids to write will require engaging them with something that interests them or connects to their lives.  Harry Pottter should play well at the middle school level along those lines of interest. 

I’m going to jump on my broomstick now and look up Candy.  Anybody got a candle?