Writing Magic

[Temoca Dixon]

Happy summer everyone, I hope you are enjoying your time. I read Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine. She is the author or Elle Enchanted. This is a super easy read because Gail is writing specifically to the students. She give tips on how to pump up writing and why the techniques are effective. She covers beginnings, she covers writing dialogue, details, even choosing the right name for characters. Gail always ends her chapter with Writing time, exercises to have young writers try out the techniques she has taught. She also gives examples of books where the writing techniques have been used and talks about their effectiveness. This is a book that can be used directly with the students and paced out to one activity at a time going back to revise and improve on the piece.

My questions:
1. I'm going to start writing portfolios this year, is anyone creating writing portfolios and how are they working? If you haven't been building writing portfolios, what is detracting you from them?

2. I have read writing prompts are ineffective for generating quality writing, what is everyone using to generate writing pieces from students? Pros and cons?

Thanks everyone,
Temoca

[Ray Hirschman]

1. I feel I have begun half-hearted attempts at creating writing portfolios by having the students write, revise, and compile all of their work, but I don't feel it has been altogether effective yet. I'm interested in finding a way or structure to successfully implement writing portfolios. I think my lack of knowledge on a successful model has impeded my progress. Does this book also provide a solid structure for them?

2. I have used writing prompts found on-line, in various professional books, and from colleagues, but I have to agree that unless the students can, in some way, relate to the prompt, disconnection or apathy rules the process.
I feel that the pros to using them are:
*at least the students are writing something.
*the prompts may motivate some students.
*the given prompts can be modified to fit with current instruction.

I feel that cons to using them are:
*disconnection
*may feel like busy work
*may not be aligned with instruction

Sometimes I just need an idea that can be tweaked, which is why I've used prompts in the past. Even if the students are complaining about writing in their writing, at least they are writing and working through some of the chatter that stands between unexpressed and expressed thought.
: )

[Wendy Ritter]

Hello Temoca,

Your book sounds like a great book to check out. I have given much thought about creating student writing portfolios. The closest I have really come is a haphazard collection of my students' writing and their collection within their writing journals. I have had difficulties creating a consistent writing time within my resource groups because I have my students for 30 minutes in which I need to teach decoding and comprehension strategies as well as writing. Due to this time constraint, I frequently teach a reading unit a few weeks with some writing incorporated, then teach a writing unit. So, students are generating some writing, but not really creating and working through the writing process as writers. This has been my detractor from developing real writing portfolios instead of just a collection of writing. It is an area I would like to incorporate next year. Portfolios would be a good point of discussion at an IEP meeting or parent conferences.

Writing prompts. First off, in Lucy Calkins Units of Writing, she uses very broad writing prompts. She begins by having students think of several important people in their lives. They choose one person and think of small moments about that person. Then, the students choose one moment in which to write. Lucy Calkings uses the same procedure using places and objects. This gives the students some guidance, but enables them to take the topic in their own direction. Thus creating more personalized writing. Using these topics have worked well because students are excited about sharing their own experiences. When I do writing prompts in my resource classes, I give several options of topics in which they can revise to suit their own needs, or I let them write on a topic of their choice. Some students who have difficulty thinking of a topic use the prompts, but frequently will make changes. Some students use ideas from previous writing. It seems the more students can write from their own experiences and emotions, the better the writing. However, open-ended prompts can provide a starting point for students who have difficulty coming up with ideas.

Thank you Temoca for reminding me about portfolios. I will be thinking about how to make portfolios work for my students and me.

Happy August,
Wendy

[gisela daniel]

I do writing portfolios the last 3 months of school. Doing them earlier could be frustrating and a disaster. The main reason it’s that it takes kindergarteners too long to go through the process and sometimes they don’t even remember what they wanted to write.
I find the writing prompts helpful. Some of the 5 year old have no live experiences or imagination to come up with something to write about. When I give them a prompt and help them to develop the idea they start to understand how the process works and sooner or later they start coming up with their own ideas. I give my students a prompt once every 2 or 3 weeks; it also helps me to measure their progress. You also have to consider that when they take the standardize test they have to write to a prompt and they should have some practice.

[Lisa Larson]

Hello, Chica!

I just finished reading this book too!

For your first question, I have not been good making my students keep writing portfolios; something that I'm hoping to fix in the coming year. I've struggled with making them important to the students and not just something that I make them do for a grade. The thing that I'm changing next year that I hope will be just the fix that I needed, is to assign more writing. I won't be grading it all, but by assigning more writing, I hope that it will give the students more to chose from when I ask them to take a small piece and turn it into a longer piece for publication.

In response to your second question, YES! prompts generate low-quality writing. I never get what I envisioned when I write it on the board! Next year, I will only write a prompt on the board for the kids that just can't write without it, but I am going to teach my students to write for the sake of writing. We are creating heart maps to go inside their journals (pictures and lists of things that are important to them) which I hope will generate authentic writing because these are things that are important to the kids, not me. I hope this will be similar in results to the Sacred Writing Time that we enjoyed while doing the Summer Institute -sponateous and real!

See you in a few days!

Lisa

[Marcell Boyer]

Hi Temoca,

Like Eddie, I am not altogether impressed with the structure of the writing portfolios in my classroom. I do require my students to keep their work in a folder, which I am always hopeful they will refer back to and possibly improve. This has rarely happened in the past. However, I would say this has been mainly the fault of the teacher, meaning me. After our session this summer, I realize that like all other ideas, I must directly teach the students how to do this. It is a goal for me this year to demonstrate more directly to the students how to go back to previous pieces and revise them and even change their genre. I am hoping this will help the portfolios become something more than just a storage location.

I will say though, that it is handy to have the portfolios when parents come in to conference. Parents are always wowed
by their child's writing pieces and by having the pieces saved you can always show the parent the progress their child
has made in their writing work.

As far as writing prompts are concerned, I find I get the best responses from my students when at least one of the following has occurred before hand. The best is if I use a mentor text to show how another author has responded to a prompt. For example, if I ask my students to write about an ordinary event that happened to them, I might read Bedhead by Margie Palatini to show them how Palatinin wrote about an ordinary event that happens to everyone but made it interesting with her use of voice. If it is not possbible to provide a mentor text, I find it very useful to work together as a class on brainstorming ideas for the prompt. I then require students to write out their own brainstorm before starting their rough draft. The group brainstorming gets everyone excited about the topic and what they could do with it. My more competent writers take off in their own directions while my less competent writers have a resouce to help themselves with ideas.

I also try not to give my students any writing prompts until they are comfortable with producing their own writing ideas. I usually spend the first month or so reading parts of Ralph Fletcher's book A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You to my students. After each reading, we put the idea generated from the book onto a 3 X 5 card and file the card in a box. Students are always welcome to look in the box for ideas. I also ask students to try the idea in their journal that day. Sometimes Ralph's work prompts us to write a list in our journal that we can refer back to at a later time.

I think we have to be very careful with the use of prompts. Obviously our students must know how to write to one because this is a major way they will be assessed in most curricula areas throughout their educational experience. At the same time, I believe asking students to write to only prompts stifles their abilities as writers. I have experienced 3rd grade classes disinterested in writing and unwilling to even pick up their pencils unless they were told exactly what it was they were to write about. Their personal creativity and thought generation had been quelched through daily use of prompts. I have also experienced many 3rd grade classes that had had writer's workshop type experiences in 1st and 2nd grade (probably even kindergarten). Those students came in my classroom door asking for and demanding writing time.

Looking forward to hearing how your personal writing is going,
Marcell

[Amy Webber]

Hello Temoca! I also want to start writing portfolios this year. I haven't in the past because I thought it would take extra time and I didn't know how to organize or set it up. I also thought it would not be very beneficial for second graders. After all of the reading, I have changed my tune.

I think I have figured out a system that will be easy for both the students and me. I have a crate with numbered files in it that the students will add their writing to. Not all writing will go into their portfolio, just the writing that they take through the writing process (prewrite, draft, revise, edit, and publish). For example, a narrative about a child who has a bad case of... (from WritingFix.com and A Bad Case of Stripes). In the portfolio, all pieces of the writing will be included from the brainstorm to the final piece. At the end of each semester, the students will look at the pieces they have produced so far. Hopefully time and maturity will let them see the mistakes they didn't see during the original draft. I haven't decided what to do from that point on...maybe have them correct it? write me a letter that explains the mistakes?

I am reading the Daily 5 right now to implement during my reading block/centers. As for writing topics, the book suggests ideas come from writers' workshop or free writing/journaling. Journal topics should come from the students. What is on their minds? What do they want to write about? Model it first and then have them go.

In addition to this, the social studies/science block is also going to coincide with the writing block. I hope to have the three subjects overlap and tie together like much of the research suggest (embed writing into your curriculum). I want to teach my students 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. I will use mentor texts and WritingFix for writing assignments that will be outside of science and social studies.

See you soon!

[Teddy Cook]

Hi Temoca,

My school does writing portfolios. . started by the 6th grade teachers and passed up the line. The biggest drawback? LOL The students want to "relive" and "reread" and show each piece to each other. . . it takes most of the class period to "add" anything to their envelope! We try to add 3-5 pieces a year - different types of writing. . poetry, persuasive, expository, story, etc. Then the 8th grade teachers ask the students to pull out their least liked piece and revise it. Most of the 8th graders chose a piece from their 6th grade year. The 8th grade teachers tell me that the students are "aghast" at how "bad" they used to write!