Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 9

WHAT?

After much searching through the School Journals I found an exemplar I wished to use as a stimulus for the first piece of authorship for the new term. I was wanting a new way of recording their holidays without the usual ‘in the holiday’ writing that has been so many times before that the children are well and truly over it.

I found this poem, memoir that was written by Selina Powell callled the Leap. It had a listing sentence and Teacher Support Material as well to help me scaffold the direction I wanted to lead my students. The poem resonanted with me because it discussed being glad she took a chance and achieved something she hadn’t done before.

Using the planning scaffold I worked on my plan, using my new found knowledge on the ideals from the PD for authorship as well as the suggested ideas from the TSM. I trolled through my Gail Lone Book to see what she could offer in the way of direction needed. Most of my attention was on the analysis part and I hoped to get the children to write a poem about an event from their own holiday.

As part of the process, I wrote my own poem on an event during my holidays and how that playing bridge (cards) is fun with friends but I still have heaps to learn. I used my scaffolding ideas and the ideas from each of the stanzas. I was quite proud of my efforts and pleased that I was breaking out of the mould so to speak.

The visualisation part of the plan requires you to create a bank of questions that help to lead the students to be able to picture their own experience in their heads before writing. I used - recall a memory from your holidays - something that you really remember, something you are proud of

When did it happen?Who was there? What can you see/ taste/feel?

The last part of the plan was to create the success criteria to guide the children to write a piece that describes an event, or thing they remember from their holidays.

SO WHAT?

I was really proud of this plan and decided to share in with my writing mentor teacher and get some feed back and feed forward. I send her my plan, the exemplar and my own piece called ‘Bridge’.

Her first response was ‘Brilliant. Thanks Sam, this looks great. And the went on to share a couple of quotes from Lucy Calkins to help to provoke/frame some thinking: 

"For years, we have known the importance of writing with “telling detail,” with “revealing specifics.” But when writers begin with a topic (My Birthday Party) and then try to supply readers with telling details (chocolate cake with orange flowers on it or pink balloons) what they are, in fact, doing is working backwards. Telling details are by definition those that bristled with such significance for us that, as we wrote, they led us to bigger insights. For reasons I don’t entirely understand, when we record the bits of life we hear and see and think about and remember, when we linger with these bits long enough to let one remind us of another, the details are entirely different from those we include when we begin with a generic topic (such as My Sister’s Bedroom) and then try to flesh out the topic with details.

 When Alexis wrote in her notebook about how every night she and her sister lie in bed listening to their radio waiting until the lights in the nearby building go off, and then check the time to see if the lights are going off earlier or later than the day before, she has captured a detail that she never would have produced had she begun instead by trying to write about the fun times she and her sister have together. I suspect that when we put onto paper the pieces of our lives that for some mysterious reason matter to us, we can capture both those moments and the energy around them".  - Lucy Calkins

Essentially, if we are looking at a spider diagram, I think about it as if we put the tiny thing they have connected with in the middle e,g, a smell, a teacup, lipstick on mum's teeth etc and then complete the other details around it to frame/grow it we get genuine connection to the topic. If, in contrast, we put the event in the centre e,g, the movies, the beach, playing with my brother etc we get a more pedestrian, flat result. Reinforcing this with students will help not only with quality but also engagement (especially with our reluctant writers :)

NOW WHAT?

This did indeed provide more for me to think about. Initially I wanted to scream and shout but after a few hours and reflecting what she was trying to tell me I released that I needed to think and assist the children beyond the actual piece they were writing and make them connect to the their experience in order to achieve the results I am looking for.

I susequently added an extra part where the children could record their thoughts and scaffold them so that they would make sense when they came to write. Fingers crossed.

Teach the writer, not the writing.

― Lucy Calkins

References

Calkins, L. M., & Harwayne, S. (1991). Living between the Lines. Heinemann Educational Books, Inc., 361 Hanover Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801.

Loane, G., & Muir, S. A. (2010). I've got something to say: leading young writers to authorship. Aries Publishing Company.

Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 8

WHAT?

My next lesson on writing was a follow up on the lesson started by my student teacher. She had begun a memoir lesson as this was the next step for the children. She set them up by asking them to observe a routine of a family member after she gave them an exemplar called, “My Dad shaving.” The children’s next step was to go and observe and make mental notes to help craft a piece of writing. Her idea was to use a graphic organiser to help the children to understand the beginning, middle and end of the routine.

The children were required to write in the different shaped boxes the routine they had observed and with Teacher support this was achieved successfully for some children. As part of the follow up, I gave the children I piece that I had written on my routine about getting ready to travel  by aeroplane, as I had just been away to Christchurch for the weekend. I had discussed with Verity where I should take the children’s writing after they had started but hadn’t finished the previous lesson.

I showed Verity my exemplar and my lesson plan before teaching this memoir writing. The pre-observation help me to clarify what she was looking for and where I hoped to take the lesson. I wrote notes on my plan and I was ready to teach the children to notice how good writers can combine different genres to describe to reader what is happening.

I read out my piece for the children and asked them to find the steps I had taken to get ready to go on an aeroplane. The children sat in a circle and worked collaboratively to highlight the steps within the exemplar. The children used Think-Pair-Share to tell each other how the highlighted words were only part of the writing. I challenged them to tell me why this was so. The children were able say that the author (myself) had describe what I had done and the writing tools I had used.

My observation was over and I shared the text type, the purpose and the success criteria for this piece of writing. I asked the children to tell me what they hoped to achieve and what their piece of writing would have in it. I worked through the visualisation techniques that Verity had shown us with very little ‘buy-in’ from the children with a number of them signalling each other through half closed eyes as well as one child calling out. The children were given time to write. I worked on a table with my more reluctant writers and one child who had been away for the previuos week.

On the teacher’s table, one child who is a capable writer but takes ages to get going sat with his piece. He didn’t get going as usual. The noise in the class was beginning to get noisey and the children weren’t writing. I stopped the class, and step by step told them that they had to create a picture in their head in order to be able to write. I showed them that the step that they had written with my student teacher were only parts of the writing and they were writing so the audience could understand. The class became quiet once more and the children were writing. I continued working with the children on the writing table.

Once the children had become noisey again and I looked at the time, I brought the children back to the writing circle so they could share what they had written for the others. The lollipop sticks were used so the children were randomly chosen and shared their best sentence they had written to describe.

SO WHAT?

I was of mixed feelings as I was very surprised on how the children had analysed the exemplar and what they had taken on board about writing tools. I had my observational feedback from Verity the same afternoon which helped as she pointed out that I was taking too long in analysis stage and I needed to deliberately tell the children that my exemplar was a piece that was used to describe and had elements of steps embedded within it. As my children are Year 3s and 4s, it makes more sense to do this.

I also shared my concerns on what was happening during the visualisation stage of the lesson and how I found it very disruptive to getting the children to know what they were writing about. Verity said that I need to be explicit and set very high expectations, challenge the children to understand the purpose. That by running ‘the movie in their heads’ it will make them better writers and it also fires up the synapses in their brain so that they can write with more clarity. I did say that I had to stop the writing time as the children were getting too noisy and she showed me where I had missed the mark in the lesson. When I told her what I had done, she said that can happen sometimes it can be an idea to shelf that lesson and start again. She shared with me times when she knows that lesson hasn’t been as good as it could have been by the effort of one of her children.

NOW WHAT?

My next step is to ensure that I am working on making the lesson do-able in the given time right through all the stages. Maybe not a whole piece but through the whole lesson sequence. It will make the lesson seem faster and the children will be more engaged.

When leading the children through the visualising stage, I need to be firm and fair to ensure a high expectation of behaviour.  If I am successful with this the children will know what they need to write and their writing will have more sincerity.

Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.

― Sidney J. Harris

Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 7

WHAT?

To follow up on the previous lesson, the children were brought back to the ‘helping circle’, I started the lesson by writing up the success criteria onto the whiteboard. The children were then encouraged to ‘point to’ where they had activated the nouns and use precise word choice to show what the noun was doing.

I also asked the children to show their partner where they had added more to the sentence to give a sense of what, where and how, to add more detail to the sentence. Looking around I could see the faces of the children and there was a range of disappointment and regret.

Congratulating the children on now being able to activate nouns, use precise word choice and follow their suggestion of 5 sentences, they had had success with their writing. I asked the children to tell their partner what they thought structure meant. The murmers around the class were about buildings and how it is built. I told the children that structure helps us to write with the correct setting out as well.

I used their exemplar and pointed out how the noun was on the line above the verb and that becauseit was a poem, they both began with capital letters. I drew a visual representation to show the children how each verse/stanza was set out. I asked the children if they had any questions, there was a number of clarifying questions.

I lead the children to think about two events that happened the previous day – the unexpected fire drill and the thunderstorm. The children were encouraged to discuss the events with their partner and the discussion was very animated. I could hear them using elaborate word choice. I directed the children to extend themselves by adding more detail to the when, what, and how.

The children were given time to visualise and then time to write. There was a number of children working with myself and another group working in a small group with another teacher at a table. The children were highly engaged and wrote with some ease. One reluctant writer working with me, wanted to write, and was animated to record his ideas.

Once the time for the lesson was coming t an end, I recalled the children back to the helping circle and shared what they had written with each other. I also reminded the children to change their writing when they heard a good idea as this was a helping circle – a way to help them to change and improve their writing.

SO WHAT?

The children realised where they hadn’t followed the structure and how they could add more detail to their writing. I also feel that the visual representation help set up the children for success. Another focus for the children based on the writing rubric is to give and respond to feedback. The helping circle is a correct vehicle to establish this practice.

Having an event that provoked many ideas created engagement and a willingness to take more risks with their writing. I also realise that it is ‘ok’ to rework the same lesson but to work on making the children more aware of the structure and how they can extend their writing to improve from one lesson to the next.

NOW WHAT?

My next step to check in with those few children who still haven’t achieved the correct structure and setting out. There were a couple of children who weren’t activating their nouns using verbs but are using similes. The helping circle is getting there but I still need to be more persistent to make this work.

I will be encouraging the children to publish these poems and I will make an effort to try to get some of the poems published into the school’s newletter as well.

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

- Orson Scott

Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 6

WHAT?

To get a sense of whether or not the children are getting the idea of activating their nouns and can now apply this in a range of text types I decided to teach them another observational poem but this time the structure was different. Instead of the verb following the noun in the same line, it was written with a capital letter on the next line.

The lesson sequence started the same, with the children gluing in their exemplar, this time it was an excerpt of a poem written in 1914 by Wilfred Owen. We were given this lesson plan by Verity in our last PD session on authorship. I didn’t even know who Wilfred Owen was before then, he is a master of poetry who writes with realism and compassion using imagery to explain the contrast and reality of the first World War.

As part of the analysis I guided the children to ‘notice’ how the author had activated the nouns in the poem and how it was structured differently than before. I spent some time unpacking the meaning of words like ‘fleshes’ so the children could understand the imagery used. There were some gasps when I said that it was the skin of the boys until I remarked that we don’t swim in our clothes.

I encouraged the children to make connections to our wetlands and the piece of writing that they had just completed. The children were able to activate the nouns successfully and made precise language choice, but more importantly could verbalise what they had been learning.

The children were then lead through the visualisation process and then were created the success criteria together on what we had noticed in the analysis. The children were all  forthcoming with number of sentences they needed to write, to activate the nouns and use precise language choice. I deliberately scaffolded the structure and setting out of the poem. Also with the children, I created a word bank of nouns and verbs that they could use in their writing.

The children were then encouraged to write about our wetlands and use the new structure. There were a number of  children working with me in a workshop situation and a few others with my student teacher. There was a busy buzz as they recorded their ideas to create their own poetry.

As the lesson came to an end, the children were once more brought down to the mat into a helping circle and encouraged to share their work. Again I used the ‘ice block’ sticks to randomly select who was sharing. The children activated the nouns and are so much better at choosing words to say exactly what they mean.

SO WHAT?

I felt that the lesson went as expected and the children understand the lesson structure although we do need more practice on being happy to all close our eyes and ‘run the movie in our heads’ before writing.

When marking the children’s work I noticed that the children activated the nouns and used precise language choice to say what they meant. But they hadn’t followed the text structure of having the noun on one line followed by the verb on the next line and those children who were confident writers hadn’t pushed themselves to add more detail to create picture in the reader’s mind. Some had even used the same endings - in the wetlands.

NOW WHAT?

I need to repeat this lesson again but use a better stimulus as this is what I feel is missing. Luckily after lunch the school had an unexpected fire drill in the drizzle and before our allotted PE time and the children were huddled under umbrellas waiting find out why the alarm had gone off. As well after school there was fierce thunder storm above the area where most of the children lived so that may activate better writing.

My aim this term was for the children to give each other feedback and take action on to improve the message in our work. This still a work in progress.

“A fine writer will always make you feel that [you're right on the spot, watching the plot happen]. And don't worry about the bits you can't understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.”

- Matilda written by Roald Dahl

Using Authorship to promote better writers - Part 5.1

WHAT?
Today I needed 5 children who had been away for the 'Changing Landscapes" lesson to catch up on learning they had missed. The children in the group were of mixed abilities and a mix of Year 3 and 4 s, girls and boys.

I began the lesson going through the exemplar, getting the children to analysis the language devices the author had used, activating the nouns and the precise vocabulary chosen to compare and then I asked the group to clarify. "Do willows weep?" There was a loud resounding no, I dug deeper, "Why has the author used these ideas?" The children said that it helped put a picture in your head about how the author wants us to feel about the pukeko leaving his home.

My next idea was to create a list of what people do that was in the poem. The group gave me all the correct ideas - whisper, weep, cry, hide. I gave a name to this technique - personification. One child said, "That word has person in it!" Then we as a group wrote all the names of things found in the wetlands. Because this has been our topic for inquiry, the list grew quickly. I then asked the children to give me a sentence using one of the nouns and make it do some a person does to create a picture of how unhealthy the wetland in Waitawa bush is.

I scribed their idea for the sentence directly onto the table we were working at. The children wrote the sentence into their books. As we wrote I checked off the nouns we used and I wrote less and less of a whole sentence. For the last sentence, the children used the last words and wrote their own sentence activating the nouns and chose words to say exactly what they meant.

SO WHAT?
By creating the list of nouns and checking them off as the children their sentences, it was a simple plan that ensured the children were covering what was needed. The children responded well to the scaffolding of me writing the sentence starter. Although by the end of the lesson, the children had picked up on using different sentence starters and were prompting each other to do so.

The type of sentences were mostly complex as the children used conjunctions to write the sentence they had verbalise together. The sentences, this group used more quality verbs to personify and compare what the wetland was like - even though this group didn't visit our wetland, I used prompts of what would you see in an unhealthy wetland.

NOW WHAT?
I need to be more deliberate in the way I scaffold for the children the word banks. It will help my less abled writers to plan and track where they are up to. When the children are writing I need to rove more to ensure that all the children are getting my help and my enthusiasm for their efforts.

I am looking forward to my next lesson which is another type of poem that builds on activating nouns, choosing precise verbs to say exactly what the nouns is doing, and adds onto where and when.

“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” – F. Scott Fitzgeral