One-liner descriptions

Cutting past bright outer facade, I discover sweet, golden meat inside.

Bright multi-colored pointillistic shell protects sweet, peachy fruit.

(These describe a slice of perfectly ripe mango that didn't last long.)

10 Days of Revision

On the TENTH day of Revision, a chorus of researchers said to me, "Revision is recursive." It never really ends (until you choose to stop or die--but even then someone could come along and revise your work years later--consider Pilgrim's Progress Revisited).

On the NINTH day of Revision, Experienced writers said to Nancy Sommers, "Get closer to the meaning by not limiting <yourself> too early to lexical concerns." (Edit for grammar and spelling last.)

On the EIGHTH day of Revision, Experienced writers said to Nancy Sommers, "Focus on your argument as you revise at the word and sentence level. "

On the SEVENTH day of Revision, Nancy Sommers said to me, "Remember the four ways you can revise (add, subtract, substitute, and re-order)."

On the SIXTH day of Revision, Lucy Calkins said to me, "Decide what you want others to help you with: content, design, process, or evaluation."

On the FIFTH day of Revision, Barry Lane said to me, "The moment I begin to write...I am beginning to revise." (5)

On the FOURTH day of Revision, Barry Lane said to me, "Good writing is good questions" (or get students and yourself to ask questions in the revision process). (11)

On the THIRD day of Revision, Nancy Sommers told me that experienced writers focus on the purpose of their writing when they revise. (My version seems a little long-winded here.)

On the SECOND day of Revision, Natalie Goldberg said, "Allow yourself to write junk," (because you will always revise it later).

On the FIRST day of Revision, Barry Lane said to me, "Writing is Revision!" (13)

Apologies to:
Lucy Calkins, author of The Art of Teaching Writing
Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing from the Bones
Barry Lane, author of After the End
Nancy Sommers, author of Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers in   
            College Composition and Communication


Please excuse underlining in inaccurate locations; technology is not cooperating.

When You Thought I Wasn't Looking

By Mary Rita Schilke Korzan

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you displayed my first report, and I wanted to do another.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you fed a stray cat, and I thought it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you gave me a sticker, and I knew that little things were special things.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you put your arm around me, and I felt loved.

When you thought I wasn’t looking I saw tears come from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes things hurt--but that it’s all right to cry.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you smiled, and it made me want to look that pretty too.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you cared, and I wanted to be everything I could be.

When you thought I wasn’t looking--I looked...and wanted to say thanks for all those things you did when you thought I wasn’t looking. 


from http://www.dltk-kids.com/school/poems_for_teachers.htm
retrieved 7/20/2011

Teaching Writing

(Written in response to Linda Rief’s What’s Right with Writing from Voices from the Middle. 13(4). May 2006, 32-39.)


Note: As to my own process in this writing, I began by trying to note key thoughts from different authors read thus far in our studies. I tried not to copy content from what Rief has written but her format (and any new ideas I noted). I hope to use this rough writing in developing my philosophy paper. This is not THE END of this piece. 

What we have learned about writing and the teaching of writing:

    Writing is natural and developmental. Learning to write is a form of natural language acquisition (Falk). Various authors comment on different aspects of its development: from thought to speech to writing to publishing (Moffett) or from expressive (very self-oriented) to transactional or poetic (Britton). Writing progresses from concrete topics for themselves to abstract ideas for a distant audience (Moffett). 

     Writing follows processes in its production, but the order of these processes varies (and repeats) depending on the writer and the writing task. Good writers continually explore the problem they are writing about and how to affect their readers (Flower and Hayes). Skilled writers do more planning and reviewing of their writing (NAEP). They discover as they write and make changes based on the whole of what they want to say (sometimes changing large sections if it does not fit the goal of their writing) (Sommers). "Writing is revision" (Lane 13).

     

Why writing matters:

     Writing gives us a chance to discover our thoughts and express them to others. Writing can be transactional, accomplishing something that needs to be done (Britton). This kind of writing informs and instructs others and can be changed to fit new audiences and circumstances. Writing can be poetic, drawing the reader into the deeper world of the author through poetry, a short story, or a novel (Britton). 

Our writing can influence others (Emig). The world would be a different place without the experiences we have gleaned from others' writing and the opinions we hold that we have developed alongside literature.

Writing and Poetry:

     Poetry helps develop better writers. Writers express their unique voices in poetry and affect the hearts of their readers. In poetry novice writers can play with their words and take creative risks on a smaller scale, moving words and phrases around like furniture (Lain). 

What our students need to help them write well:

     Assignments that progress in difficulty. Teachers need to help students progress in the styles of writing they utilize (expressive to transactional and poetic), audience their work is directed to (self to other unknown readers), and ideas addressed in their writing (concrete to abstract).

     Students need good models of writing to read so that they can develop those styles of writing themselves and build experiences to use in their writing. These models aid in developing spelling and grammar in addition to the different ideas and genres represented.

     Students need a predictable and consistent environment in which to work (Calkins). The writing workshop format provides students with the time, practice, safety, and sharing that students need to become better writers.

     Students need authentic assignments (Edelsky and Smith; Falk). Writing assignments with a real purpose (not informing those already informed) and audience are more likely to engage students' efforts toward better writing. Teachers need to consider the perceived usefulness of writing assignments to students; the more valuable the student thinks an assignment is, the greater effort he or she will put into it. Within those assignments, students need to practice finding problems and topics for themselves which they can tie into literature and their own experiences (Flower and Hayes).

     Students need to see their teachers as writers. Several studies mentioned how important it is for teachers to practice the writing that they ask their students to do.

     Students need teachers to listen to them as writers and to help them learn to evaluate their own work. Instead of focusing on the minutia of each writing assignment (although it can be factored in), students need teachers to note the processes the student is using and help teach them strategies to use in future writing projects. Teachers need to point out noteworthy details or processes in student writing instead of overarching praise i.e. "Great Work!" Our goal is to help students begin to read their own work critically--when we are not there (Calkins).

References:

Britton, James. Now That You Go to School. Children and Writing in the Elementary

School. Richard L. Lawson, ed. New York:  Oxford University Press, 1975, 3-16.

Calkins, Lucy. The Art of Teaching Writing. 183-191, 221-247.

Edelsky, Carole and Karen Smith. Is That Writing—Or Are Those Marks Just a

Figment of Your Curriculum?Language Arts. 61(1), January 1984, 24-32.

Emig, Janet. Non-Magical Thinking: Presenting Writing Developmentally in Schools.

Writing: The Nature, Development and Teaching of Written Communication.Vol II, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1982, 135-144.

Falk, Julia. Language Acquisition and the Teaching and Learning of Writing. College

English. 41(4), Dec. 1979, 436-447.

Flower, Linda and John R. Hayes. The Cognition of Discovery: Defining a Rhetorical

Problem. College Composition and Communication. 31(1), Feb. 1980, 21-32.

Lain, Sheryl. Reaffirming the Writing Workshop for Young Adolescents. Voices from

the Middle. 14(3). March 2007, 20-28.

Lane, Barry. After THE END. Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH, 1993.

Moffett, James. I, You, and It. Children and Writing in the Elementary School. Richard

L. Lawson, ed. New York:  Oxford University Press, 1975, 19-28.

Rief, Linda. What’s Right with Writing. Voices from the Middle. 13(4). May 2006, 32-

39.

National Association of Educational Progress. Can Students Benefit from Process

Writing?NAEP Facts. 1(3), April 1996, 1-6.

Sommers, Nancy. Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult

Writers. College Composition and Communication. 378-388. (?Date)

Warne, Bonnie. Writing Steps:  A Recursive and Individual Experience.
            

English 

Journal. 97(5). May 2008, 23-27.

What She Could Do

What She Could Do

Find spectacular sales

at Lord & Taylor or Sears,

Conquer big malls, calm

tired girls. Connect

over fried rice and ice cream.

Give her heart to missions.

Sew straight seams, well-selected

cloth, re-fitted

suits-smile

fitting ageless face.

Share heartfelt prayers to God,

Shakespeare's sonnets,woodsy wonder

of wildflowers. Recognize the goldfinch

or Hudson Taylor. Teach

well. Listen with love. Journal

with her strong petite hands.

-With thanks to Elizabeth Holmes

Authentic Writing

Is That Writing--Or Are Those Marks Just a Figment of Your Curriculum? by Carole Edelsky and Karen Smith

            The delightful title gives humor to the subject of this article: authentic versus inauthentic writing in the classroom. Ms. Edelsky and Ms. Smith relate the ineffectiveness of inauthentic writing in the classroom contrasted with the effectiveness of authentic writing.

            The authors posit that authentic writing must engage four interacting systems (working definitions from the dictionary and my interpretations):

            -graphophonic (sound and symbol relationship)

            -syntactic (words arranged well (grammar))

            -semantic (makes sense)

            -pragmatic (useful--has purpose)

            What fascinated me about the article was the amount of work a student will do based on its perceived value to the student. Edelsky and Smith mentioned examples of students writing lies or discarding pieces prepared for inauthentic purposes. On the other hand, the authors mentioned science notes that students took with them to make observations (on their own) and referred back to (also on their own), tracking their own learning. Detailed notes regarding story illustrations were another example of authentic writing (p. 29).

            Student perception of the pragmatics of a writing assignment drives the other three systems utilized to create authentic writing. A student convinced that his or her work has value will put real effort into an assignment.

            Thinking back on my own classroom, many of my students were most motivated when their writing would be read by others.  When my fifth graders entered a story writing contest, several of them became quite serious about making revisions to improve their stories. 

            Another idea that concerned me was inauthentic informative writing. How often do we assign "expository writing about scientific topics..<that> have an informing style...<yet> inform no one"? (p 27) This made me think of the importance of audience for children's expository writing. Student-driven research writing could be presented to a child's peers or another classroom. A presentation on different people or places could be prepared to share with younger children, who did not already learn that information. How-to writing could also be prepared and taught to younger children at school or home (or technological demonstrations could be given to help grandparents--or parents learn something new).

            This is not a new idea. I have attempted it in my classroom--if not by those words, and I appreciate the fresh perspective and research from this article. Authentic writing situations for students will be steeping in my classroom chai for a long time to come. 

Writing Should Be Fun!

Non-Magical Thinking: Presenting Writing Developmentally in Schools 

by Janet Emig

            "Writing is predominantly learned rather than taught." -p. 140

            This statement challenged my thinking. After some wrestling with it, I venture to say her definition of teaching included a different perspective than mine. If she means telling students they must start here then do this and so on in a prescriptive manner to "teach" students to write, then I agree.

            On the other hand, if she means never explaining to a child different types of writing and giving that child opportunities to practice and become comfortable with those, I disagree. If she means not looking at students' work and sharing feedback about their writing from a teacher's perspective, I disagree.

            I think conferencing with our students, presenting information on different types of writing, and leading our students as they process through writing are all part of teaching. How do students learn if there is no one to lead them--to read to them, listen to them, and share from their own learning?

            Getting down from my little soapbox, I don't think that's quite what she meant.

            "Writers of all ages as frequently work from wholes to parts as from parts to whole." --p.140

            This validates other reading that I have done. (Was it Gardner? Perhaps I'll look when I am doing other research.) People tend to be wired differently as far as big picture or detail orientation. It is logical that this would apply to writing.

"The processes of writing are...recursive--we not only plan, then write, then revise; but also revis, then plan, then write." -p. 140

            Barry Lane in After the End states: "From my work as a writer I know that revision is more than a stage...it is the source of the entire process...Each word I write revises a hundred others I could have written." (p. 5) Lane points out that revision begins even before we get anything written down on paper.

            I notice that I am always revising in my head as I am writing about word choice--choosing then quickly re-thinking--before I even finish a rough draft--especially if I feel a time constraint.

"Children need frequent opportunities to practice writing, many of these playful."--p. 139

            This statement intrigued me. Dr. Duvall mentioned in her presentation how she tells her students, "Isn't this fun!"--even bribing her students to say, "Math is fun!" while eating crackers. What do I do to make writing fun? I have tried to make it a relaxing, quiet environment for my students, giving them time to write and revise.  Fun was not usually factored into my equation. Since children often learn through play, it is only logical that writing should also be fun.