Teaching Writing That Matters

[Lisa Larson]

In Teaching Writing That Matters, Gallagher and Lee maintain there are many problems with our educational system as it exists, and offer several methods to still teach standards, but to make writing students’ authentic and purposeful.

I picked up this book with excitement. I wanted to learn additional methods for teaching writing and to get students excited about writing. I was disappointed. While Gallagher and Lee offer many activities and exercises that are possible in a traditional classroom, I feel that they largely ignored many of the real issues that teachers face every day – huge class sizes, widely varying ability levels and student apathy. They did, however, echo my beliefs that writing should not be taught in isolation, and that it needs to have practical application throughout the curriculum and be applicable to students’ lives.

Barry Lane wrote the forward and one of his techniques was explored in chapter 6 – the one-inch picture frame, or as Lane calls it, “using your binoculars.” I think this is a valuable technique and I’ve used it in past years with good results across ability levels.

Another technique that the authors mentioned that I’ve used in the past, is called “Mapping your Place.” This is useful as a pre-writing activity before asking students to write about a particular setting or specific event with a lot of description.

Essentially, Gallagher and Lee repeated many of the good writing activities and techniques that I’ve seen in other books, and offered little new information or insight. If you haven’t read a writing methods book lately, this is a good one to pick up to refresh your toolbox, but if you’ve been reading a lot of books about teaching writing, don’t bother with this one, as it is just a repeat of so many others.

My questions for you are this:

1. What prompts or activities do you use to make writing meaningful to your students? How are you reaching them at their interest level?

2. What are you doing to overcome student apathy towards writing?

Thanks for your input!

[Mary Lynn]

Hi Lisa
I use many of the Writing Fix activities and "Going Deep with the 6 Traits"(the blue spiral book put out by NNWP). I have used the lessons, "Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street:, "How to Eat an Oreo", "Punctuation takes a Vacation",and the "Important Book" as well as others. We also do a Family Artifact Project, where the kids write about and do a short oral presentation on something that has been passed down in their family, and we chart where their ancestors come from on a world map. It's a great activity, if you are interested.

Over the last 15 years I have used writing prompts in conjunction with picture books, usually focusing on a specific trait. I also focus on specific authors, Mem Fox, Janet Stevens, Patricia Polacco..., and read many of their books aloud to the kids. Then we write to the authors and the students tell what they enjoy about the books.
My third graders need scaffolding, and I walk them through a lot of the writing process. This year I am hoping to have my 5 computers at our center hooked up to a printer so kids can print and revise and add graphics to their stories. I am also thinking about letting them do freewriting more often, either in thier note books, or when they are at the computer center.
I believe that using great literature and creative activities helps with apathy, of course my students are younger than yours, but I still encounter that problem. Sometimes if their stories are published or their stories are shared with the rest of the class that holds their attention more.
I also noticed when Corbet Harrison came in and did a lesson with my kids they were more motivated. Maybe we need guest writers to come and teach our kids occasionally!!

[Temoca Dixon]

Hey Sista,

I wish there was a magic answer to your insights and questions, it would eliminate the struggle. I'll tackle the apathy first because I just don't see one answer to this question. I think if you can talk with your students and make connections you can get them more motivated, but ultimately I don't believe there is an answer to this problem. What moves me may not move you, so it is just a plugging away process where you may hit a few of your kids that knock your socks off with their insight and deep thoughts. My kids write, but then I find a few each time that really nailed the assignment and I get to see something new about them that I admire. This doesn't happen with every kid on every assignment. I try to pull a variety of topics so I can meet a variety of interests and hopefully that gets them going at some point.

The meaningful writing prompts is hit or miss too. I'm hoping the discussion and topics with the article of the week will generate some thoughts and opinions that stir the kids to write. If I can hit on something they are passionate about I think they will put their pens to paper and go to town. I also know that I might not be a big fan of football, but some of my kids are so if I can get them to write about that and get into the details they may start writing with more thought. That would be their interest points. I have had some kids take to poetry and some really like the mythology unit and really get into writing their own myths.

I know this hasn't been much help because I don't have the answers. I just can't stress about hitting every student every time. I don't work that way and my students don't work that way either. I just have to keep trying a variety of projects and when I have success I try to keep that going.

I'll talk to you soon.

Temoca

[Marcell Boyer]

Hi Lisa,

I had a third grade class several years ago that came into my room wanting to do nothing but write. I never had any writing apathy with that class. Their second grade teacher had been phenomenal. She had inspired them all to write. Along with her own enthusiasm for writing she used Katie Wood Ray's About the Authors: Writing Workshop with our Youngest Writers. This book encourages teachers to share books with students and have the students mimic the things they see. The teacher is to provide lots of little blank books (just paper stapled together) that the students can then fill up. I know that won't help the students you get but wouldn't it be nice if they could all get inspired to write at really young ages?

Marcell

[Catherine Guild]

Hi Lisa,

I took a class this past spring on the Ralph Fletcher writing workshop. Along with the main text was a folder with 20 writing workshop lesson in it. Initially, students brought things from home and decorated the cover of their writer's notebook. They loved personalizing their notebooks and couldn't wait to write in them - they had a lot of buy in. There were many different lessons for different kinds of writing and getting students to think in different ways about their writing. One of the memorable lessons was the "Goof Around" writing. The kids loved the title and were really excited to try this out. At the end of the 20 lessons, students had a notebook full of writing ideas to go back and develop further and even take through the entire writing process. However, I think if I had used this format all the time, they would have become a bit bored with it, but 20 lessons were just about right.