How to personalize the writing prompt

[Kristina E. Wulfing]

Teaching Biology, Environmental Science, and Response to Intervention (RTI) Literacy, my classroom is comprised of struggling readers and writers. Therefore, we read and write everyday in every class, because in order to get better at something you have to practice it continually. In my classroom I value setting students up to succeed. If the learner is not being successful both in and out of the classroom, then I am not doing my job correctly. As a way to improve this success, I am constantly working to improve my conversations with colleagues and students I encounter in order to determine their needs and better meet them.

When I went through the summer institute I was an Instructional Coach and had been out of the classroom for awhile, therefore, my classroom was not that of a “typical” teacher, if there is such a thing. I was coaching teachers at a 7-12^th grade high school, thus, my classroom was made up of teachers, or if they wanted me to model a lesson, then I would go into their individual classrooms.

My desire has always been that teachers can approach me to become not only better teachers, but more efficient learners, as well. When I created this presentation it was with my students and in this case, teachers, in mind. I saw them adapting what I had presented to them to ultimately fit their own teaching style and finding what truly worked for them in their own classroom.

Since I believe we are all literacy teachers and writing in every classroom is an expectation I have for all teachers, than, the question became about how I could best disseminate information concerning one way to teach writing in all classes. This question came about from discussions I had with several teachers. I had asked them how I could support them and this was one area they mentioned. I decided to show teachers how they could make writing personal not only for themselves, but their students as well.

In order for students to become more successful, with the use of various writing assessments they are expected to master, how we as teachers can address the need for them to make their writing more individual and special and not just another question to answer, became a concern in the classroom.

Who wants to read the same paper over and over again? The question, “How can you make a general writing prompt more personal?” became a topic I explored and prepared to teach.

I believe that showing students how to make writing personal using the five senses is one way for them to approach their own writing. And, as I am always hoping to help others, I look forward to giving teachers ways to teach this. 

I can't wait for this summer, it will be a blast!

[Rose Whistler]

Hi Kristina! I will be interested to see your presentation on making writing personal using the five senses. That is exactly what we do in first grade. The children understand their senses and can easily write about how things look, feel, sound, etc. It is a great technique for getting them started, even giving them a template to follow at first. It seems this goes along with "Cat Watching: Six Easy Steps to Classroom Poetry" that I read about in Breakthroughs. As I was reading the article, I was inspired to put these ideas in place in the fall when we take our Autumn Neighborhood Walk.

[Kristina E. Wulfing]

Hi Rose,
I hope you won't be disappointed, but I will be changing my topic as to make it more useful for more teachers. You will get some of the original parts, however, I will be addressing the topic of writing to learn versus learning to write and how we can do that in any subject area or any grade level. Again, I hope you are not disappointed. Take care,
Kristina

Rose Whistler said:

Hi Kristina! I will be interested to see your presentation on making writing personal using the five senses. That is exactly what we do in first grade. The children understand their senses and can easily write about how things look, feel, sound, etc. It is a great technique for getting them started, even giving them a template to follow at first. It seems this goes along with "Cat Watching: Six Easy Steps to Classroom Poetry" that I read about in Breakthroughs. As I was reading the article, I was inspired to put these ideas in place in the fall when we take our Autumn Neighborhood Walk.

[Rose Whistler]

No problem, Kristina. I am sure that whatever you present will be presented well.

[Karen Pedersen]

Hello Kristina:

I love what you said in regards to personalizing written responses while still demonstrating understanding. Your topic demonstrates the real need for critical reading and thinking. If our students can listen, respond, read, and think more critically, they begin to put much more of themselves in their topic, and that is what my demonstration question is focusing on. At all levels of learning, many students simply respond to given questions in a mechanical way with little representation of themselves, their thinking, and their own views of the topic. I love your approach to requiring your learners to use their senses to respond to given content. That gives them focused content to include in their writing! I am excited to learn from your experience. This summer institute is going to be such an experience for me. I am so excited to view all of the demonstrations as the questions are outstanding!
Talk to you on Monday.

Sincerely,
Karen

[Ron Bonomo]

WOW!!!
Kristina,

I have been knocking my head against the wall. Often my writing prompts are personal. Some of my students will take it so personally as to say,"What do you mean?" I usually respond with,"Write about what you think its means, make it your own answer." This is often tough for the students that have special needs. They want more direction, sometimes they need it and sometimes they don't. For example one journal topic I had them do this year was,"Tell me about the West." I got a myriad of answers and had a great discussion with the students although I know some students were left behind in developing anything beyond the discussion. Using the five senses approach is something I am gratefully going to add to my teaching. I can only imagine if when I got the question from the student if I had said," Use your eyes, your nose, your ears, your taste buds, and your hands and tell me about the West."

[Kristina E. Wulfing]

Hi Ron,
As you saw I did change my topic I will be presenting, however, I would love to share what I know about this topic as well. There are so many great ideas out there and I had to limit it, thus, I won't be teaching you about "personalizing the writing prompt". Let's chat more.

Ron Bonomo said:

WOW!!!
Kristina,

I have been knocking my head against the wall. Often my writing prompts are personal. Some of my students will take it so personally as to say,"What do you mean?" I usually respond with,"Write about what you think its means, make it your own answer." This is often tough for the students that have special needs. They want more direction, sometimes they need it and sometimes they don't. For example one journal topic I had them do this year was,"Tell me about the West." I got a myriad of answers and had a great discussion with the students although I know some students were left behind in developing anything beyond the discussion. Using the five senses approach is something I am gratefully going to add to my teaching. I can only imagine if when I got the question from the student if I had said," Use your eyes, your nose, your ears, your taste buds, and your hands and tell me about the West."