I just had an epiphany: if I spent as much time actually making art and writing as I do collecting ideas, supplies, and instructions I would be the Queen of All the Things now.
Okay, appreciate that. I’m also in the mode of “what will I do differently, the same, or better next year?” but that’s a post for another time.
Here are a few ideas that passed my line of sight recently:
First is a drabble idea: While I’ve done sensory image focus on drabbles in the past, I am going to reshape it based on @seeceeread’s idea to focus on character building through smells. I won’t mention the alcohol in my instructions, though, because, you know, Rule No. 1: “Don’t get Mrs. Love fired.”
There are some teaching traditions I love to keep — and writing a ‘suite of drabbles’ is one. This year I put together prompts based on names of colors. You’re welcome to comment and ask for more ideas, or the structure of this; however, it’s simple. Students write nine drabbles, choose their favorite one, and “share it’ with others. They get credit for writing all ten.
Thanks once again to Chanea Bond introduced to another brilliant educator, jwoz_teaches Josie | JWoz_Teaches·5h ago (TikTok) and while I dream of a world where I’m working side by side amazing ELA teachers like these women, alas, I will have to settle for digital hugs. Chanea alerted me to Josie’s Jenn’s “Soup, Salad, or Sandwich” question and during summer school last week we debated tacos. I’m leaning heavily toward sandwich, but can make a case for salad.
I’m going to take credit for the writing territories idea (even if she got it from multiple places)
And when paired with #writingterritories (no, I do not remember who gave me the idea, but I’ve tweaked it over the years, and pretty sure it came from a sessions with the Puget Sound Writing Project (National Writing Project). Kelly Love’s Writing Territories Graphic Organizer
Look, my friends, I miss being on Twitter, but I am never going back, especially now. I miss the conversations I had easily, and readily on that app, and @threads jumped onto my personal Instagram. I have no brand, no identity, and am all over the place. I share ideas all the time, but clearly never get a Kofi tip because my lemonade stand of awesome ideas was built using haunted lumber from a fungus-infested and used Dixie cups. The lemonade is delicious, but no one wants to take those chances in this chaos of a blog. I guess I’m just trying to say, I’m good at a lot of things, but packaging my ideas for market isn’t one of them. In the meantime, I’ll just share what I do, what I learn, mistakes and successes, and hope you stick with me.
Recently I asked the sophomores about what they’d like to see for fourth-quarter instruction, and overwhelmingly they requested more writing instruction.
Allow me a moment to replace “pictures and words” with “SBA” and “test scores.” I grew concerned years ago when the writing test changed or essentially disappeared. The SBA test does test writing, but to me, in an odd, clunky way. And I know amazing people who worked on this test. I’ve worked on instructional models for this test.
But students don’t just automatically “write.” None of us do.
So, my goal is to bring back solid writing instruction, which is nonexistent in the current scope and sequence curriculum. And no, having students write a formulaic Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning paragraph is not writing instruction.
But what is writing instruction?
How much time do you have?
To avoid hypocrisy, I confess I haven’t been writing as much as I would/should/could. I have time, space, and oh-so-many words swirling around my noggin, but I feel incredibly rusty and dusty. For the past three years working in an alternative high school, the sparseness of instruction and consistency that is in the comprehensive high school has become exponentially worse. As I try to gather and regroup my strengths as a teacher of writing and a writer myself, it’s time to return to some of the fundamentals.
I think I know why this works: have you heard of the term body doubling?
Body doubling is a tool some adults use to help them start and complete projects. Sometimes referred to as an accountability partner, it is a technique for better productivity. A body double is a friend or partner who works simultaneously, either in the same room or virtually through videochat platforms. Having another person in the same physical or virtual room can help you with productivity because you have someone present to check in with and keep you accountable. Body doubling is a support activity for ADHD that can be easy to do and cost-free.
I do my best to remind students that in almost everything piece of media they consume, someone wrote it first. The challenge of having students create versus consume is real and sometimes feels defeating.
Not me having to take a few deep breaths to calm my spinning brain down so I can pretend to be a linear thinker for a few hours…
Here we go!
With a Google Form survey, I asked my sophomores what they would like to do for the fourth quarter, and while some of the texts we teachers are required to teach were underwhelming, almost every student said they wanted more writing instruction. To that end, I’ve been trying to weave together my bits of string and yarn to support deeper, authentic writing instruction.
Here is a great example of a RAFTS: Pretend you are an NPC in a game and provide sidequests to travelers and heroes. What sidequests would you give to the other players? You can choose any setting, plot, range of characters, and story map. Consider making what would be ‘side quests’ in our school environment.
Take a different point of view on a commonly known story from your own life, culture, nation, or beliefs. Be respectful!
I promised my science teammate some science RAFTS, and if anyone has a science or math background and would like to share some in the comments, I’d love that!
These are a fraction of books about writing I have collected over the years.
Great conversations happening regarding writing and the teaching of writing — here are some of my current noticings/wonderings, and attempts at supporting students craft their writing lives.
Every student who asks, “How many sentences does it have to be?” has been exposed to either Jane Schaffer or another prescriptive writing curriculum. There is nothing inherently good or bad in Schaffer’s program: some need a paint-by-number mode of writing instruction, and the product serves the purposes. But we teachers, and I mean all teachers, will be forever stuck in the siloing of teaching writing poorly across content areas. And when I say “writing,” I don’t necessarily mean typing out lengthy tomes: writing can be many forms and avenues. Across content areas, teachers should focus on the Role of the writer, audience, the form, the topic, and strong word choices.
Here are some Sunday-morning-I’m-still-sleepy resources:
Read books by writers and trusted teachers of writing
Some recommendations: Angela Stockman, John Warner, Kwame Alexander
Become a writer yourself. I cannot advise this enough. Keep your own blog, Tumblr, Wattpad, whatever. Keep is anonymous and secure, but write.
Moving to the comprehensive high school, I’m currently teaching two periods of 10th grade, one 9th grade honors ELA, (and yes, have already had a debate with one young student about the merits of the What It Says graphic organizer– my sweet summer child, I know you), and two periods of 9th grade ELA. And yes, after being somewhat scolded about how they’ve used Jane Schaffer forever, I had another deeper conversation with my evaluator about how it was okay that I looked and researched the materials, and then collaborate with my PLC about instructional methods. Cool, cool, I can do that. I totally can. And, I can also go back through my previous blog posts and share them again, along with other resources:
Again, this is just a fraction of resources, and it can be overwhelming. My instructional advice is to start with fostering students’ ideas; ultimately, this is what serves them and their creative growth. You may find a different path that meets your students’ needs, and that’s the joy of this process.
Ah, the synergy and serendipity of collaboration and conversation.
I’m sitting in my writing shed, something I wanted forever, am very grateful to have, and am still paying off. And the barn-style door does not stay propped open on its own (does anything?). Returning from a walk, I go back to the shed to see what kinds of inspiration can be gleaned from a sunny, anxious depressing, cortisol-filled day. Now, mind you, the garden statuary of the squirrel has a long story, and not sure I’m going to write it right this minute. But I use this statue to prop open the door, and it came to me that this statue is symbolic of a guardian, a talisman, of mine. Quick snapshot, and onto my IG post of the day. Today is the 218/366 (it’s a Leap Year).
And then I thought–whew– wouldn’t this be a good writing prompt idea for my students? I know we all live in different spaces, sometimes sharing an apartment with extended family. But if they could imagine and fantasize about legendary guardians and protectors, what fantasy objects could their “loose parts” help them create?
I’ve often said being an art major informed my teaching. I use writing territories and many low-risk writing strategies. The trick is I’m not going to be ‘there,’ but merely a hologram. Stockman’s Loose Parts reminds me of writing territories but more refined and functional. When I’ve used writing territories in the recent past, some students are confused and don’t grab onto their own stories. The three timeline writing works, but even that can be traumatic. Allow writers to choose from their own writing territories, or collection of loose parts.
It may be wrong or naive of me to hope that the state standardized testing is gone, at least in its current form. The writing has morphed into solely writing to respond. It’s an autopsy of reading, too, and makes little or no connection to the symbiotic act of reading and writing.
I am not sure how or why, but am completely starstruck: Larry Ferlazzo asked me to be on one of his BAM! podcasts, and that was so cool! The panel consisted of me, Katherine Schultan @KSchulten and Tatiana Esteban @tmce0419, and it was a pleasure to hear their advice and insight on our topic, authentic writing.
The TL:DR version: be explicit when you tell students they are not writing just ‘for the teacher.’ Their audience is secondary to their voice, passions, burning questions, and their own author’s purpose. Use mentor texts and make the invisible visible. Frame what ‘writers do’ and they are writers, too.
And now that I have the podcasting bug, we shall see!
This summer I read Why They Can’t Write by John Warner and attended a Hugo House event called Write-O-Rama. Often the most valuable professional development include those we do for ourselves, not necessarily as teachers but for our identities and passions that sustain us outside of the classroom, too.
The worst of those training wheels is the five-paragraph essay. If you do not know the form, ask the closest school-aged child or, indeed, anyone who has been through school in the past twenty or so years:
Paragraph of introduction ending in a thesis statement that previews the body paragraphs.
2–4. Body paragraphs of evidence supporting the thesis.
Conclusion that restates the thesis, almost always starting with, “In conclusion.” Warner, John. Why They Can’t Write (Kindle Locations 121-127). Johns Hopkins University Press. Kindle Edition.
I’ll share what others offered during the Write-O-Rama. There are so many great ideas provided by Hugo House: if you have a resource like this in your area, I strongly recommend attending some sessions. We all want to be better teachers of writing, and oftentimes we’re overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. We feel inadequate about our own writing, and writing is, a lot. A lot a lot.
Write-O-Rama at Hugo House has different conference rooms and times so you can attend several of the sessions, but usually not all. Copyright Hugo House.The class descriptions give a preview so one can choose. Copyright Hugo HouseBackground on the instructors: and what a great writing exercise for students! To write their own bios and expertise!
I attended these five:
Character Development
Dialogue Tricks
Plotting with Index Cards
Better Sentences
Write Your Novel Now
I took notes on each class using Evernote. Just re-reading them, in this moment, my note-taking skills need to improve. But I’ll attempt to give the gist of each session:
Character Development: study characters in mentor texts and describe what makes them memorable, and keep them centered in the plot.
Dialogue Tricks: no exposition in dialogue: “when writing dialogue keep in mind to have the the conflict sustained quickly” – in other words, no adverbs in dialogue
Plotting with Index Cards: use index cards to storyboard a piece of writing. Each card is an atom.
My random notes on plotting with index cards
Better sentences: challenge students to craft sentences and share on a large space. This session was magical and highly engaging.
If you want to brainstorm or think of applications of these ideas in your classroom please do not hesitate to contact me. These have direct writing instruction for ourselves and our students of writing. We can go far beyond the five-paragraph essay.
