Wendy Ritter -- The 9 Rights of Every Writer by Vicki Spandel

[Wendy Ritter]

Hello fellow ISI participants,

I hope you have been enjoying these hot July days. I have certainly been enjoying my time off, but have read an interesting book by Vicki Spandel called The 9 Rights of Every Writer. A Guide for Teachers. The basic rights she discusses are:
the right to be reflective
to choose a personally important topic
to go off topic
to personalize the writing process
to write badly
to see others write
to be assessed well
to go beyond formula
and to find your own voice.

Several of these "rights" seemed a bit scary to teach to students, but after reading the book, it all made perfect sense. Several of the rights caught my attention. The right to write badly allows writers to not have to worry about writing perfectly the first time or even the second. My friend, who is an aspiring author, stated that the idea of writing perfectly the first time often paralyzes her from writing anything. This “right” gives our students permission to just get their ideas down, no matter how badly it sounds. We can then go back and revise. The right to choose a personally important topic also made sense for me. Spandel states that when writers discover their own topics they are able to write with voice and commitment. I have seen students write with more passion when they are writing about what interests them. The right to personalize the writing process and to go beyond formula work together as writers take their own journey through their topic and the writing process. Spandel feels that as teachers of writing we should allow students to discover the techniques most useful to them when they are writing. Providing resources for our students and conditions to foster strong writing like a place for sharing, lots of books, and quiet places for independent writing may help students make these discoveries. Students then have the opportunity to work through the writing process at their own pace and through their piece of writing in their own way.
The basis of the book is an understanding of how to create a writing environment for students to become independent, thoughtful writers. The writing process she suggests is the process an author uses: write, share, reflect, revise, share, revise, etc. Spandel discussed the importance of providing time for students to think through their topics, share ideas and decide how they want to create their piece of writing. Which brings me to my questions:


How can we incorporate the time necessary for students to ponder over topics, to share ideas, to reflect on their writing, and to make continual revisions within the time constraints of a school day? How do you structure your writing time? Do you have a specific writers’ workshop time? If so, how do you incorporate time for students to share and reflect on their writing?

Vicki Spandel also talks about going beyond the formula, basically letting students write about what interests them in their own way. Within the required curriculum standards how do you allow for this kind of writing freedom?

Thank you for your thoughts and ideas.

Wendy

[Mary Lynn]

Hi Wendy,
Time management is tough these days with all the added "required mandates"!!
I am going to include a writing center, in addition to my other centers (computers, math games, spelling high frequency word quizzes, and book boxes/listening). I am thinking that the writing center might be short pieces done in their writers' workshop notebooks, perhaps freewriting on a given prompt (or not). I would need to have some guidelines for accountability. The students might write a letter to me about a book they're reading, or some other topic. I might have some science or social studies questions that they could respond to after we've finished a unit. I think finding the prompts would be the next step for me. Their notebooks are all set up.
This would allow students to "go beyond the formula" as Vicki Spandel says. the pieces wouldn't go through the writing process completely, unless a student really wanted to do that.
Currently, I have kids do peer conferencing on the pieces we do together during "Writers' Workshop" time. I use a very simple system where they read their story to a friend and the listener fills out a question form; "What I liked, what I have more questions about, words I really liked.." then the author is supposed to make changes...well, we all know how well that works!
Last year I was fitting in about three 30 minute sessions of writing a week. Not very much. When we did a larger project like the animal research report, I used our science time in addition so we spent about three hours a week on writing. I am hoping to fit three 30 minute writing blocks in a week and perhaps an additional 45 minutes, at the end of the day once a week. That would be Science or Social Studies related writing, but that's fine. I might do writing with my intervention time kids, but I don't know how that's all going to work at this point. I will be interested to see how other teachers respond to this question.

[gisela daniel]

Hey Wendy,
I think finding the time to write is the hardest thing to do during the school day. We sometimes feel that if the students don’t come up with a topic to write about right away they are wasting their time and that they will never finish their assignment. We have to remember that when the students find something they really want to write about, the process goes smother and faster. A student can take a long time to find a topic and then be the first one finishing because he enjoyed writing about it. Next year I’m going to try something new. When we have early release days all we are going to do is work on writing, we are going to do writers workshop the whole morning. I hope it works, we’ll see.

[Catherine Guild]

I agree that it is difficult to squeeze everything into our day that is necessary. Many days I feel like the students haven't had enough time to disucss and/or write about their learning. My writing block is not the same all the time. Sometimes it is very structured, e.g. writing a personal narrative or a research report and going through the entire writing process over many days or weeks. Other times it is more like a writers' workshop where they can discuss and write about different ideas, choosing the genre they want to write in and giving them time to experiment with their writing. Often on Friday's when many student have completed a writing piece, I set aside time for author's chair, and I have had great success with this. My students love to share their writing and their thoughts with the rest of the class. Overall, I think we have to strike a balance between required writing pieces and the freedom to let students write about things that interest them and play with their writing.

[Temoca Dixon]

Hi Wendy,

I keep wanting to read more vickie Spandel because she has been so popular with so many teachers.

I believe you just have to make the time if you want it to happen. We are so overwhelmed with all the "things" we have to teach that we just have to make the time for the things that are important and most beneficial to our students. I am continuing with a "writer's workshop" time, just a little revamped. I'm having my students keep a writer's notebook that they will write in and pulling ideas from their notebooks to revise and turn into longer, stronger pieces. I am also having my kids work on their own memoirs that I want to use for their writing portfolios that will move on with them to high school. They will have to think about the piece they started and work on revising the piece probably a few times. A class discussion can help to share ideas and getnerate new ones and I have had a time in class where students share their writing "open mic".

My writing time before was journal prompts a few days a week then we would have writing assignments we would complete. I think this year I'm giving the first 10 minutes of class to reading silently and the last 10 minutes to writing in their writer's notebook. The assignments we work on will be split up through the week with the literaure circles I usually have going on too.

I think your writer's workshop can absolutely teach the standards necessary for your curriculum, you just have to make sure in whatever project you choose it will address one-two standards at a time. The writer's workshop is a place to move through the writing process. You can get it done in a year just focus on hitting small pieces and don't get overwhelmed with all your standards for one little project.

Good luck on getting this going. I think if you tackle the writer's workshop in pieces it won't be so daunting.

See you on the 11th,
Temoca

[Marcell Boyer]

Hi Wendy,

Time, ouch! That is the killer. Fitting in writing in a meaningful way between all the latest mandates. I'm still struggling with this. I never struggled with it at the charter school. I had a set block of writer's workshop everyday. Last year, at Gomm I had every intention of doing the same but that lasted about two weeks. This year, I am going to try and be a bit more realistic about what I can accomplish. I will attempt a set writer's workshop two to three times a week, with time for the students to work on their projects, without me assisting, during centers. Hopefully this will increase their actual writing time. During the set writer's workshop time, I will provide some sort of simple sharing in the last 5 to 10 minutes of the session.

Marcell

[Jetta Lovett]

Hi Wendy,

Time is the bugger! I have tried to manage writers workshop and have dropped the ball numerous times. I plan to set aside writers choice two days a week. Now with all of the other things we are to implement this year, we need more time to make it happen. I am hopeful that this will prompt many of my reluctant writers to take writing seriously and share their stories.
Jetta Lovett

[Amy Webber]

This may seem off topic at first, but bear with me.

Like Cathy, I am also reading and implementing the Daily 5 in my classroom, and like Spandel, that book also states that students should have the freedom to choose their writing topics. It is a hard concept to wrap my head around while I teach 2nd graders, but I am going to try...

Onto your questions...one of the nice things about the Daily 5 is that the structure requires 20-30 of "work on writing" time. You build the kids stamina from 4 minutes to the amount you have chosen (or can fit in). Using this structure instead of "centers" during your literacy block would add more writing time into your school day. As for writing topics, the book suggests ideas come from writing workshop or free writing/journaling. In addition to this in my classroom, my social studies/science block is also going to be my writing block. I hope to have the three subjects overlap and tie together like much of the research suggest (embed writing into your curriculum).

And now, the freedom to write within the standards...I suggest (and want to try this myself) teaching them a few multigenre pieces before and during a new science or social studies unit. Assign writing that includes the material being learned while letting the students have the freedom to pick a specific topic and any genre they like. For example, write a friendly letter to your Congressman about saving the sea lions or write a top ten list of interesting facts about the rainforest.

Thanks for your questions. Answering them helped me get my thoughts and ideas in order.
Amy :)

[Stacey Saulsgiver]

I love your idea of teaching new multi genre pieces and then requiring it during a new unit. I feel your excitement of working alone this year and making your own decisions. I forgot that my goal was to use more examples of that also because we have been slammed with so much already this year. I never had used a prompt during journals but I guess to get the kids ready for writing tests I need to do so. The daily 5 sounds interesting, I may be picking your brain about the concepts.

Amy Webber said:

This may seem off topic at first, but bear with me.

Like Cathy, I am also reading and implementing the Daily 5 in my classroom, and like Spandel, that book also states that students should have the freedom to choose their writing topics. It is a hard concept to wrap my head around while I teach 2nd graders, but I am going to try...

Onto your questions...one of the nice things about the Daily 5 is that the structure requires 20-30 of "work on writing" time. You build the kids stamina from 4 minutes to the amount you have chosen (or can fit in). Using this structure instead of "centers" during your literacy block would add more writing time into your school day. As for writing topics, the book suggests ideas come from writing workshop or free writing/journaling. In addition to this in my classroom, my social studies/science block is also going to be my writing block. I hope to have the three subjects overlap and tie together like much of the research suggest (embed writing into your curriculum).

And now, the freedom to write within the standards...I suggest (and want to try this myself) teaching them a few multigenre pieces before and during a new science or social studies unit. Assign writing that includes the material being learned while letting the students have the freedom to pick a specific topic and any genre they like. For example, write a friendly letter to your Congressman about saving the sea lions or write a top ten list of interesting facts about the rainforest.

Thanks for your questions. Answering them helped me get my thoughts and ideas in order.
Amy :)

[Stacey Saulsgiver]

I was disappointed that we were not going to read this book this summer. I'm glad you read it and gave such a wonderful summary. I can see how as a teacher you may have problems accepting her suggestions. The one "right" that made me shutter was the right to go off topic. It is so extremely difficult to teach the students organization and supporting one idea that to give them that right seems to go backwards and to be ineffective.
When you mentioned going beyond the formula, I instantly thought of the five paragraph essay. Students who are drilled this formula have very dry and repetitive writing. There is usually no meat and no person present in the writing. Thank you for your great entry.

[Teddy Cook]

Great minds, huh, Wendy? I read this book too. I just spent the last two weeks on a writing project and I tried to incorporate ideas from this book into my room. Some worked and some fell flat. I am doing my own "reflection" to see what I can do differently next time, especially when it comes to getting students to slow down and think about what they have written. It seems their words have been set in concrete. . never to be moved or changed again! I encourage them to "play" with their writing. . and I heard SO many grumbles about not wanting to "do it over". I don't have all the answers. . yet. . . but, I did enjoy reading Vicki Spandel's ideas.