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.

I am from...poem

I am from...


I am from dishes,
from spaghetti and hamburger.
I am from the pale green farmhouse
now darkened and worn.


I am from the peonies,
the tree of paradise
whose far away limbs I remember
as if they were my own.


I'm from godly training and drive-in movies
from Mom... and Dad
I'm from UNO games and family dinners
and farming family land.


I'm from "Where is Susie?" and "Were you born in a barn?"  
and "You can do anything!"
I'm from birthday celebrations with lots of cake.
I'm from Wabash and England
homemade noodles and strawberry-rhubarb pie.
From Great Grandma Miller, sharing caramels,
living with my grandparents after losing three husbands.
Yearly photos
near the wood stove
showing how we grew.

Progression of Writing Development

I, You, and It by James Moffett

            Moffett's progression of rhetoric development was logical and easy to follow. (Although his vocabulary was no less specific, his writing style was much easier for me to follow and understand than Britton's article.) 

A Summary for Myself           

            For my own reference, he mentioned several, related progressions:  from inner verbalization to formal writing, thinking to publishing, well-known audience to an unknown audience, and concrete matter to abstract ideas. I found it helpful to draw a diagram of the interrelatedness of these progressions. This is an adaptation of my own linear diagram.

            Not all of these progressions were so neatly broken into 4 categories, yet the idea of progression (usually one stage building on the previous one) remains.

Thinking Over the Progression

            Now to choose one to elaborate on. I like the progression from concrete (what is happening) to abstract (a generalization of what happens). How do I develop this with my students in writing? My experience has been with the Excellence in Writing curriculum which follows a writing progression with my students. We begin with outlining simple paragraphs, then narrative writing, report writing, and finally, persuasive essay style writing, which is saved for the older elementary grades. I should also note that we usually begin by reading and highlighting main points of someone else's good writing in an attempt to practice by reproduce the organization of ideas in that writing in a student's own words. This blog is not to analyze that curriculum but to highlight my primary experience in teaching writing.

            I started to create a list of different styles of writing for different stages, but as I elaborated it seemed that different styles can also be adapted to different levels of observation and audience. So I will explore that.

            A descriptive piece can have students look at a real object in the classroom and record as many descriptive words as they can from the five senses. This would seem a very simple and beginning style of writing. To progress, students could recall an object or person they know well, who is not present, and describe that person or object. To progress with that topic, students could describe less physical characteristics of a person or animal and attempt to recreate the character or emotion of that person or animal. Another venue would be for the students to describe a nonexistant person or animal i.e. the best fireman, the alien librarian, the typical cashier. Thus the same style of writing can progress in difficulty.

            My students have often practiced letter writing. I can see how this style of writing can progress in difficulty. Beginning with a simple letter to mom or dad about what the student has done in class that year (or that day) in the earlier grades, students could eventually write a letter to the principal to persuade them to allow specical dress on Fridays (our school had uniforms) or reduce homework. Letter writing can include several types of writing and vary in explicitness based on the receiver of the letter.

            These are just two examples of writing assignments varied based on progression of learning writing, inspired by Moffett's article. I suppose some genres of writing, such as the essay, can begin at a simpler stage but require some previous experience of more basic types of writing (and development in understanding) before beginning. 

Wrapping My Brain Around Britton

Now That You Go to School by James N. Britton


Question: 
--p. 10- "...poetic writing is fully differentiated to meet the requirements of the role of spectator."
--p. 16- "What the children write in the spectator role will not therefore be "literature": it will be moving out in that direction and the point at which we make the cut--the degree of formal organization required to merit the name 'literature'--this is a matter upon which we can speculate,..."
     Where do spectator and participant fit on the spectrum? It seemed to me that children start at spectator, only observing things and expressing their views, and move out to participant, sharing and interacting with the reader--making what they are writing clear to the reader. I am unclear about these two different uses of spectator.
Visual:

     This visual fits my understanding of "two parallel main lines of development" (p. 5). (Please disregard the words "causes" and "effects" as they do not fit this graphic.

Predict:

    I can use this web as I plan lessons to help my students become aware of these two types of writing. I could present examples of the two advanced types and help them see which direction their own writing is heading. I could also use it for my own private analysis of student writing to assess where my students are on the continuum--toward both types of writing--and to plan to help them advance in their skills.

Connect:

     My own writing is usually expressive when I journal or quickly jot down thoughts. As I have learned and grown, there is an underlying urge to make my writing understandable to others. When our NIWP class did the writing marathon, I had a hard time ignoring grammar mistakes and word choice because I wanted it to be readable.

     Britton's thoughts connect to Moffett's. His article, I, You, and It, notes  the progression from speaking directly to a well-known audience to making writing clear for an unknown audience. This would relate to Britton's idea that transactional writing needs to be more explicit (to ensure the piece accomplishes what is desired with the reader).  

      Although Moffet doesn't distinguish between poetic and transactional writing, he does describe a progression from internal verbalization to outer vocalizing to writing to others to formal writing. It would seem the writing to others would fit Britton's expressive stage, and the two types of literature (transactional and poetic) would fit the formal writing stage of Moffett.

     As for connecting Britton's ideas to the world, even adults in our culture tend to engage mostly in expressive writing. Our emails, Facebook, texting, and other communications tend to be expressive--mostly sharing what we are thinking. Sometimes we take time to write transactionally--a letter to the editor, directions for a housesitter, or a report for work. Rarely do we write poetically--at least not publicly--carefully crafting our words around an object or idea. Perhaps we could benefit from further involvement in these styles of writing.

Respond:

     Personally, I found this article very difficult to understand on the first (and second) reading when I wrote my initial notes and highlighted. A day later, after reading Moffett two more times, I have a little better understanding. Carefully noting my thoughts next to the diagram in the article on p.10 and then developing my own graphic organizer were helpful to me as a reader. I will have to remember that for my students. 

     I still think the spectator versus participant idea is unclear to me (although it seems that it should either describe one of the 2 formal types of writing or relate to the distinction between beginning expressive and the 2 formal types of writing). Perhaps I will understand better as I read other blog posts. 

Teacher, Know Thyself (and Thy Students)

         My Take-away from Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer

         After reading The Courage to Teach, I noted a few things I would  like to remember and implement in my own classroom. First, I would like to get to know myself better as a teacher and teach from my own strengths and abilities. I want to consider each strategy and technique in my toolbox--not excluding new ideas--as to whether they fit me and my current classroom. How refreshing to realize that what worked for one teacher may not work for me (and vice-versa).

         I want to remember that I am not the only one afraid in my classroom. The misbehaving student isn't always doing so to annoy me or sidetrack my lesson plans. Sometimes misbehaving students are afraid, too. I need to look beyond behaviors to what is motivating my students while not losing focus on the subject we are studying.

         Concerning the subject at hand, I want to help my students experience and practice each subject as it would be used in their lives. I liked Palmer's idea of the microcosm in teaching, particularly his example of the medical students who learned medicine by developing (guided) treatments for truly ill patients. While not losing sight of the ease of memory in younger students (and helping them make the most of it with a factual reference to draw from), I want to teach them the usefulness of their subjects so that (hopefully) they will want to ferret out new learning on their own.

         How do I do all of these things? That is another question. Writing my goals and ways to break them down has helped me work toward other areas that I value. Perhaps some journalling will help this summer in considering how to implement these before I add them to my formal time management system.

First Blog Post

Raised in the age of the transition from electronic typewriters to computers, my technology comfort has consisted of email, some power point, word processing, a little excel, online searches, online courses, and other computer-based programs. Blogging will be a new adventure for me.