Reviving the Essay by Gretchen Bernabei

[Nicole Marvin]

I decided to steal Carol’s book and read Reviving the Essay by Gretchen Bernabei, which offered many practical strategies to “teach structure without formula.”  Not to sound like a broken record but as I’ve said before the hardest thing for me to teach is writing and it is also what we as teachers get the least help with (unless we go looking for it).  My students write excellent “ This is what I am going to tell you about…” essays but taking them beyond this structure was frustrating not only them but me as well.  Barnebei has developed strategies that both my students and I can be comfortable with. 

The best strategy that Bernabei offers for revision and growth is to show students multiple essays by the same writer.  We often show examples of good writing and bad writing but they rarely come from the same writer.  This results in a student seeing themselves as either a good or a bad writer.  Every writer, professional or beginner, can be a good or bad writer.  Students need to see that sometimes they will write something amazing, and other times they might just write something crummy.  Either way a student is never always a good or bad writer. 

In addition to this strategy, Bernabei provides multiple ways of including “thick description” into our lesson plans.  Dialogue, action, and thoughts are possible paper starters and work well with struggling writers, but Bernabei takes this process step further.  She suggests using lyrics, thoughts, images, anecdotes etc. to create interesting leads.  She also supplies ways to use these items as structure in a piece of writing: framing, ribboning, weaving, echoes, and embedding.    This creates papers that move away from writing pieces that have a great lead and then fizzle.  This structure continues throughout the entire piece.

 Questions:

1.       What are some ways that you encourage your writers to believe they can write well even if they struggle?

2.       How have you tackled balancing creativity and structure in the writing your students create?

[Rose Whistler]

1. The writing workshop is an excellent format for encouraging young writers. Our first graders look forward to it and are excited to see it on the agenda each week. It is a low-risk place (Fletcher, 2001) for children to experience success. Children who struggle with writing most often have a lot to say and are creative with their thoughts, but the hard part for them is getting it on the paper. I invite volunteer parents, grandparents or even students from an upper grade to sit side-by-side with children who struggle and prompt them with something concrete. I have a bag of objects such as stuffed animals, a velvet box covered in jewels, a dinosaur, a shark, many pictures, etc. to use for ideas. Together they brainstorm ideas, jot down thoughts, think about beginning, middle, and end, discuss character development, etc. As the child dictates his story, the adult writes and then together they reread what was written. The child decides if it is good to go, or if it needs revision. The piece is illustrated, perhaps typed and made into small books that the child can take home to read to family members. It can also be placed in the reading center, or the child can share during author's chair. All of this encourages the struggling writer and allows him to know that what is in his head can be written down. The obstacle of writing for someone who finds the act of writing difficult is taken away for this particular activity. Writing is modeled for them as they watch the adult write. Please keep in mind that a piece may take several weeks to complete. The child sees that writing is a process and their enthusiam builds.

2. To balance creativity and structure, careful modeling is continually done in our classroom. First and foremost, we use strong children's literature to teach particular elements of writing and to show all the possibilities that are available to writers. Picture books can show perspective, humor, information, details, strong voice, good word choice, etc. Children become skilled at understanding these qualities and voicing what makes the writing great. We may use the structure of The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown to write about the art that the children have done. We use Quick as a Cricket to model writing with similies and the children make a book as a gift for their moms for Mother's Day with such sentences as, "My mom is as pretty as a butterfly landing on a rose". Click, Clack, Moo/Cows That Type is a great book that we use to teach good word choice. As the year goes on, the children come to expect us to read a fabulous book to them and to listen for details about what makes the book great. Then they can experiment with it in their writing.

I think that everyone likes to write about themselves and their own experiences. Our students work on a book all year called, All About Me. The structure is given to them, but the writing comes from their heart. Different pages include, My Family, My Favorite things, My Hair, My Eyes, My Teeth, Where I live, Things that make me sad/happy, When I grow up...... As the year progresses, the children write more and more, they illustrate, and they finally have a product that they are very proud of which they share with their families.

The book you have chosen sounds like one I would like to explore. I love to find practical strategies that I can use in my teaching. I am intrigued by what you said about using lyrics, thoughts, images, and anecdotes to create interesting leads, and framing, ribboning, weaving, echoes, and embedding. I'd like to learn more about these ideas.

[Sara Kwasna]

1. Some ways that I encourage my writers to believe that they can write well even if they struggle is to praise them for what they do well. I make sure that they see that there are parts of their writing that really shine and that there are areas that could use improvement. I also make sure that when my students share writing aloud, that their peers offer "constructive" criticism- which is something that I must model and teach numerous times and revist throughout the year in order for it to be successful and understood. I also make sure that we applaud after a student shares their writing. I write notes to them on their papers that are personal and meaningful to them instead of blanket "good job" responses. I try to react emotionally to their writing and I think that helps them to feel valued even if they aren't the best writer in the class.
2. I like to offer my students mini-lessons before each writing assignment so that they have something new to try in that piece. We might do a mini-lesson on dialogue or interesting leads and then I challenge my students to try it in that next piece. I think it is important to show them different forms and tools and let them know that writing involves taking risks and trying new things. I also try to show them how to be creative within a more structured piece of writing and how doing that can enhance the more formulaic writing pieces.

[Melissa LiCon]

Nicole, you have convinced me that I really must read this book. (Chalk that up to good persuasive writing.)

1. I know you can't always let students choose a topic; that is, sometimes they need practice writing to an assigned prompt. However, when the assignment you've given them allows student choice of topic, do you think some less confident writers really struggle with knowing how to select a personally meaningful topic? That could lead to writing that really isn't very powerful, authentic, or effective. I mean, if you don't give a rip about it, how can you write powerfully about it? It really helps me (as a writer) to keep a running list of topics I'd like to write about in the back of my journal. It's kind of like writer's insurance for me... Even if I didn't have time to drop everything and craft a detailed, polished piece about that super-smart octopus that picked all the winning world cup soccer teams this summer, I wrote about how I might approach that topic in my journal. Maybe I will write about it when I'm at a loss for a topic. I have a whole list of topics I keep adding to. I think if I were to describe and model (unpack my thinking) about my weird topic list, students would find it funny and helpful to hear about why some things intrigue me as topics for writing. We each have our own individual and quirky criteria that informs our topic choices, right? Some students don't "get" that. Perhaps they just need some practice thinking about their own thinking in that regard. I agree that we need to encourage those less-than-confident writers to look for the strengths in their own writing. Class discusssions about creative work done by artists and writers can help students see that the path to powerful writing and visual art lies in creating many "bad" poems, essays, and paintings, before one gains the fluency and skill to create that masterpiece! Many eminent writers and artists describe the process just that way. We need to help students understand that there are glimmers of genius even in some not so good writing, and weak passages in the greatest novel. It ain't an all-or-nothing world, folks, but students often see it that way.

2. This question is a tough one. I haven't really taken on this challenge in my brief encounters with the writing gods (balancing creativity and structure.) I think I have to defer to, and agree with, those wise writing teachers who have advised sharing with students great examples of writing that achieve this balance successfully. I would love to read other people's favorite mentor texts for this characteristic.

[Allie Eckert]

1. In terms of encouraging my struggling writers, I try to use a lot of modeling. In this, I show them how many mistakes I make while attempting to write a coherent piece. I find that they love when they see the teacher (whom they assume is an excellent writer,) cross things out, make arrows, spell things incorrectly, and struggle for words and ideas. I also use a piece that I found online by Judy Blume that is an interview with her and discussing how many times she has to re-read her stories and make corrections. It also has a draft page of a book that she wrote with crosses and arrows and mistakes galore. I find that by showing students that writers they feel are "perfect," make mistakes allows them to understand that as writers we all struggle sometimes. Also, as I discussed this summer, I really try and have my students write about their own lives as much as possible. I have found that by giving them topics that they feel passionate about, and have a lot to say about, it alters their perception of the "struggling" writer as they just want to tell their story. I try not to be the teacher with the red pen that cuts their paper up, rather we focus on their ideas and voice in order for them to get their confidence up prior to working on those aspects that they are struggling with (which for most of my students are organization and conventions.) I really feel that we as teachers just need to ensure that students know that no writer is "perfect," rather writing is a process that we are all learning together.

2. I would say that in terms of my writing instruction, this is an area that I have difficulty in. As a writer, I have never been one that likes to use graphic organizers, rather I just write, and organize my thoughts either as I go, or during the revision process. Therefore, I have difficulty using structures to teach structure. One thing that I have tried to do is to teach multiple ways of organization at the beginning of the year, t-chart, paragraphing, webbing, etc., and then allow the students to choose which of the organizers works best for them (if any.) I am not sure that this is the best approach as sometimes young writers may not have the ability to choose which is best for them as they have not had enough exposure. This is most definitely an area that I need to work on. I do like the structures that are contained in this book... an event, a memorable person, etc. however I have not figured out how these would fit into my classroom instruction. Would love to hear some ideas on how to make this work without losing the creative nature of the writing process.

[carol bergin]

Hi Nicole;
Sounds like you really enjoyed and "got into" this particular book!
My 4th, 5th, and 6th grade sped kids really do struggle with academics. Creative writing seems particularly difficult, so I start out slow and easy. Lessons are short; and I try to inspire interest in their subjects. I also "sneak up" on what the assignment is going to be. (What they never want to hear is, "now we're going to write a story/essay/paragraph/ etc."
I really liked the idea of offering multiple writings (both good and not-so-good) by one author. My small class of five to seven students could really get involved with critiqueing, and improving on what they heard. How confidence-building for them to realize that they also are never always a good/bad writer!
I also liked the list of "leads" Bernabei detailed.
I feel that the balance of creativity and structure really improved with each revision. I have to be careful that revisions aren't "pounded" into them - leave time between revisions, and make sure that what each student is working on is of high interest to them.
My students really enjoy "acting out" what they have written - from a cloze assignment, to a response from a literary piece we've read.

[Jennifer Reynolds]

1. Make their writing goal oriented. They are not going to become great writers overnight, but they can become skilled in a specific skill. I think that teaching writing is a lot like coaching a sport, you have to make sure that students are assessing their development based on "their" development not using other's as a baseline.

2. Yikes- Some kids never get it. To be honest, organization is that trait that I struggle with the most. I find that if I create a structure and do a lot of prewriting it helps rein in the creativity to become more manageable writing. It really helps me to have a few models of structured end products before I begin. My final drafts end up looking very different than the models, but they give me boundaries. I liked some of the suggestions on skeleton models in the Breakthroughs book. I think that they are useful for organization deficient people like myself.

[Christy]

Hi Nicole,

I love this book and the strategies that are demonstrated to inspire good writing. I really enjoy the photo analysis of pictures to develop writing. We see things so different from others sometimes and it is great to see others perspectives. I encourage my writer's to believe they can write well by choosing and celebrate whatever it is that they did do well. It may only be a sentence or a word. Giving the student's positive feedback and making them feel like they have the potential as a good writer can go such a long way. Soon they are writing more then one goos word or sentence. I think that balancing creativity and structure in my student's writing can be done by modeling and giving student's strategies necessary to inspire writing. THe strategies that are used in this book are great ones to start with. (ie/ text to text, text to self, text to world) Givine students the ability to make connections seems to lead to better writing and may become more inspiration al for them. Give them tools and motivation and anyone can write!
Thank you for you great insight and I hope otehrs read this book too!
Christy