As a teacher, your class has just finished an intensive unit on
tall tales, or perhaps an author’s study. You’ve read numerous
examples of vivid, powerful writing, discussed these, pointed
out the salient characteristics, listed the aspects of story
that really brought them to life. All in all, an extremely rich,
satisfying, language arts experience. So motivating, in fact,
that you decide a terrific culminating activity would be to have
students use what they learned as a jumping off point for
creating stories of their own. Give the children an opportunity
to apply the stuff of good writing to their own writing - using
literature as the jumping off point.
Your students
begin the writers’ workshop with a little less enthusiasm than
you anticipated. Some students get off to a great start, but are
“finishing” fifteen minutes later. They seem resistant to
revision - after all, they’re “done”. Others spend an inordinate
amount of time “thinking” about what to write about and cannot
seem to put pencil to paper. Another student has visited the
pencil sharpener about seventeen times, grinding the offending
pencil into a stub. Meanwhile, some students, claiming to be
involved in a “peer conference” are disrupting the class with
chatter, another is “illustrating” while another is reading the
latest Harry Potter book, looking for inspiration. Still other
students launch into creative, but rambling tales that become
near epics, from which a successful conclusion seems impossible.
A number of students have their hands raised, or approach your
desk, all wanting your attention and input at the same time. You
have a knot in your stomach and are overwhelmed by the sense
that things are spiraling out of control. Three weeks later
you’ve managed to conduct individual conferences with only a
handful of students, you’re needling, redirecting, challenging,
and somehow it doesn’t seem as though much progress has been
made. The luster has gone out of this project, that seemed so
bright at the start. The students are bored, you’re frustrated,
and most everyone in the class looks forward to being done with
it.
Does this scenario sound familiar? What exactly is
it that can bridge the gap between great literature and its
application to student writing?
The answer is twofold
– skills and a practical methodology that works in the real
world of the classroom.
There is a common misconception
that if we read a lot, talk about what we read, and then provide
plenty of outlets for writing, that in the process, good writing
will emerge. Truthfully, for the extremely well-read, self
motivated, or innately gifted writer, there is some possibility
of this. However, for most students and teachers, something is
missing. Simply encouraging students to engage in “free-writing”
followed by a conference is not enough to produce a community of
strong, enthusiastic writers. What is missing are specific
instructional strategies designed to teach the specific skills
inherent in powerful writing!
During the whole language
era, the idea of teaching discrete skills took on a negative
connotation. Somehow, practicing specific writing skills seemed
to suggest “basel-izing” the writing process. This was
unfortunate, because, in all art forms - in music, theater, the
visual arts, and in writing, powerful communication is delivered
through carefully honed skills. For example, a talented pianist
did not become proficient by simply sitting down and “just
playing”. A skilled teacher will provide the young pianist with
age appropriate, stimulating pieces of music, as well as scales,
arpeggios, and exercises to strengthen the fingers and build
dexterity. The student learns how to read notes, hear pitches,
and learn musical expressiveness through carefully planned
exercises and etudes. All of this “skill-work” does not hamper
creativity, rather, it provides a vehicle for the successful
expression of creative, personal musical thought, sentiment, and
intention. In other words, the skills disappear in an invisible
support and delivery system that informs and empowers the
musician. The same thing is true in writing.
What are
the skills necessary to inform and empower good writing? In
narrative writing (writing characterized by a main character who
experiences a significant event or problem, within a setting,
who grows or changes in the process) the skills necessary to
shape and support a story are as follows: - an entertaining
beginning that draws the reader in and gets the story
rolling
- powerful elaborative detail that focuses on story
critical characters, settings, and/or objects
- a sense of
suspense or anticipation which builds story tension, and
inspires the reader to read on
- a single, significant main
event (problem, adventure, or life-changing experience)
- a conclusion which draws the main event to a close and an
extended ending which demonstrates how the main character has
grown or changed.
Once the basic skills are
identified, educators need to have a practical, effective
methodology for teaching these skills. The methodology needs to
be based on solid educational theory and needs to be proven
successful in the real world of the classroom. During an
instructional improvement program at our school (Mill Hill
School in Fairfield, CT) designed to improve student writing, we
developed a methodology for the delivery of these key writing
skills for our students in grades 2 - 5. The methodology
involved whole class instruction, delivered minimally twice a
week for 30 - 45 minutes. Whole class instruction provided
consistency and assured experiences for all students, that was
often lacking in the teach-on-demand scenario common in the
writers’ workshop conference model. There are also many other
benefits associated with whole class instruction. These include
a greater level of directed conversation between students about
writing, and opportunities for the class as a whole to benefit
from the writerly conversations.
The whole class
instruction looks like this:
1. INTRODUCE/DEFINE SKILL
through the use of literature. (Middle grade novels provide the
best examples of all of the key skills.)
* 2. MODELING
- The teacher models the skill in isolation, asking productive
questions and “thinking out loud” as an author. (The quality of
the questions you ask will determine the quality of student
responses. This also is the most powerful method of building
vocabulary.)
3. GUIDED PRACTICE - Provide students with
an opportunity to practice the skill you’ve modeled. This is a
“before and after” revision exercise. Circulate and offer
suggestions, share strong examples and excellent attempts.
Steps 1, 2, 3 are repeated numerous times before step
4: Application.
4. APPLICATION - Students apply the
skill to a process piece or a timed prompt.
*Most
important step!
This methodology made the teaching of
writing more manageable, provided a common vocabulary for
writing, ensured a greater level of objectivity and
accountability, established a powerful reading writing
connection, and ultimately nurtured a community of confident,
enthusiastic writers. In fact, during the five years we spent
developing the specific skill lessons and delivering these
skills through the methodology described above, our narrative
writing scores for our fourth graders on the Connecticut Mastery
Test improved dramatically:
YEAR Percent of students at
goal
—– —————————
YEAR 1 47%
YEAR 2 65%
YEAR 3 75%
YEAR 4 81%
YEAR 5 92%
These results were not limited to Mill Hill School. In Wilson’s
Mills School in North Carolina, as well as in districts in Rhode
Island and Alberta Province Canada, to name just a few, when
this approach was used consistently, similar results were
common. More importantly, students began to become confident,
enthusiastic, lifelong writers, and teachers began to feel
successful and fulfilled as the facilitators of a practical,
effective instructional program that gets results. Eventually,
the lessons and methodology became available through an
educational consulting firm and publisher, Empowering Writers.
So now think back to the frustrated, disillusioned
teacher and class first described and imagine how her scenario
would be different using the Empowering Writers methodology.
