Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 11

WHAT?

The lesson started with the children forming a circle on the mat and having their spider diagram ready. I discussed what we had done in the previous lesson and how the children needed to have recorded 2 ‘whens’ – how did they know the event was over, the event, and a listing sentence showing the reader what was there.

I modelled on the whiteboard my ‘spider’ diagram to show them how to use it to begin writing their poem. By making the children reread the exemplar I asked them to help me imitate the style and structure from the author. I was explicit in saying to the class that we were only working on writing only one stanza at a time. The children were again wobbly on the correct name of the ‘verses’ so recapped this as well.

I again lead the children to share the text type and its purpose before modelling my own piece of writing called ‘Bridge’. I used ‘think alouds’ and deliberately asked the children to suggest any ideas that they had to develop the writing. The children were then asked to visualise once more to make sure they hadn’t forgotten any important details of their event.

The children were then able to write and share with a partner their success for the first stanza of their holiday poem. Some of the children did struggle with creating a simile but as they were sat in a circle, there were many suggestions from their peers to help. There were a couple of children who wanted to write their listing sentence for the second stanza so I let them get on with writing.

I worked extensively with my more reluctant writers in order to get them on board to understand that their message was just as important as the others in the class. One child needed me to scribe for him as he struggles to get his actual ideas recorded in a timely fashion. I used a whiteboard marker and wrote directly onto the table for the other children who worked on the teaching table with me.

The next day most of the children recorded their listing sentence with little intervention and the class were ready to finish the poem using the exemplar and the last part of their spider diagram. I again modelled using the structure of the exemplar and told the children I was imitating the ideas from the last stanza as I only wanted to change one line about the part where I still have much to learn about playing Bridge.

As part of my behaviour management in my class I am trying to promote children leading the learning so I encouraged the more able children to help the less able in order to finish their poem using the structure modelled and what they had finished. The final part of this writing lesson was for the children to share their ‘holiday’ poem with the rest of the class.

SO WHAT?

By making the writing more do-able the children are more willing to get writing although there are a couple who still don’t follow the structure and success criteria. One child in the class who is always quick to understand the concepts asked if he could publish his poem using keynote. I had to encourage him to use his expertise to help and lead others.

When marking I was generally pleased with their efforts and the poems that they have produced are great way to record a holiday experience without relying on the usual.

NOW WHAT?

My next steps are to be more specific still on what the structure looks like and not assume that everyone has it. I need to make charts that show the type of language feaures and vocabulary, we have used and refer back to these when teaching and to create a bank of scaffolds for the children.

I now need to find an exemplar that will build on the children’s experiences and still continue to build on their new knowledge but in another written form not a poem.

“Even the longest book is read and was written one word at a time.” 
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 10

WHAT?

I began my lesson on the “Leap”, using all the prompts that I had written in my planning. I read the poem first without sharing the exemplar and asked the children to tell me what they thought the poem was describing. I used the random sticks to select the children although there were some ‘out’ there responses but one of my reluctant writers (a boy) was totally correct and ‘got it’.

The children were then given their own copy of the exemplar to read along with me as I read it again. This gave them the opportunity to unpack what they noticed and make connections to other texts they have seen and written.

During the analysis the children were quick to notice the listing sentence and the simile within the exemplar. To increase their knowledge of structure, I explained that poems have parts called stanzas, one child piped up, “Like mini paragraphs?” This create a platform for discussion within the class and a better understanding on how poems are constructed.

Once the children were ready and being mindful of what my writing mentor teacher had suggested, I encouraged the children to share with a partner what they did during the holidays and what event stuck in their heads, especially what details they could recall that helped create a picture. The children were highly animated and I could hear them sharing numerous events, skiing, visiting family farms, a trip on a train, snorkeling in Rarotonga and even a trip to Rainbow’s End. To capture this moment I used the random stick again to get them to share the events that stood out for them.

To capitalise on this, I showed the children a spider diagram with details from one of the events shared. The diagram had ‘bare bones’, detailing 2 ‘whens’ – how do you know the event was over, the event, and a listing sentence showing the reader what was there. I also asked the children to activate their nouns as this is a skill they can do. I worked with my more reluctant writers, as did my student teacher who was in the class for the lesson. The children created successful diagrams and are now ready to write their poems.

SO WHAT?

Being a quick write – just creating a spider diagram, the children were able to experience success quickly and were happy to share what they wanted to write about. I was able to support my reluctant writers as well to get them the support they needed to feel successful. A win win.

I believe it helped that I used one of the children’s events and modelled what their spider diagram needed to have. One of my reluctant writers really enjoyed the process and after said, “I now know what to write and where to start. Can I write my poem now?”

NOW WHAT?

I need to encourage the children to shape their writing using the exemplar and their individual points of view as well as the success criteria. My class work well when each step of the writing is do-able and there is quick success.

My planning needs to have more questions that encouarge deeper thinking from my students. I also need to break my writing planning into do-able parts and break the larger task up.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. – Albert Einstein

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