Teach Writing Right

Highly recommended!

In addition to buying over 75 titles myself, I asked for donations of used books (appropriate for my 6th-8th graders) at the beginning of the year in a letter to my new parents...amazingly, I now have two book-carts full of novelsthat my students can directly check out from the back of my classroom.  They can also put holds on books that I have limited copies of.  I thought--for sure--The Hunger Games would be the most sought after title on the hold lists, but it has become Neil Shusterman's Unwind; perhaps the fact that I have been talking about it almost daily in most of my classes, telling my students what a great summer read it was for me (to provide a model of how you talk about a book if trying to persuade others) probably helped.  I am determined to host a "Community of Readers" among my students this year, teaching them how to convince each other to read books they've really enjoyed.

Two weeks in to the new school year, and I have been establishing regular routines that will contribute to my writer's and reader's workshop.  I am pretty close to being ready to explain how these two types of workshops will work to my students and their parents.  I never like to announce how our in-class workshops work too early in the year--not before I've established and we've practiced some of the foundational practices.

I humbly think I am an old-pro at the Writer's Workshop.  The Reading Workshop is new to me this year.  I have officially decided that Accelerated Reader is not a program I can support anymore; dangling points in front of students as incentive to read no longer fits my project-based teaching style.

I am going to be expecting my students to find an independent novel they like once a month and have it read in three weeks.  During the fourth week of each month, they will be expected to complete a project that does two things:

1. Prove to me they've read the book (without taking an AR quiz);
2. Convince another student to read the book through an effort they take related to the book.

By the end of the year, I want to have 20-30 project options available to my students; at present, I have created six ideas that I really like.  I like them because they are all designed to be seen by a larger audience than just me--their teacher--and most push persuasive writing skills.

Here are my first six project ideas: 

• Persuasive book review: (not a book report--I hate reading those!) type a 300-word, thoughtful write-up that shares both the strengths and any criticisms of the novel without giving away the book’s entire plot to someone who hasn't read it yet.   The goal of a review is to convince another student to read (or not read) the book.  Students who do A-work on this task may also submit these reviews to their writing portfolios, provided they are willing to conference with their teacher about it and create one more revision of the review based on their teacher’s feedback.
• Compose a thoughtful letter to the author: research how to contact a living author of the book you’ve read and write a polished, one-page letter to him/her, both praising the work and asking an intelligent question about the author’s writing process.  Any student who receives an actual letter back from the author (not the publisher or an agent) will be excused from one future reading workshop project provided they allow Mr. Harrison to publish both correspondences at his website.  (This one is inspired by this page at my wife's website.
• Create/post a webpage-tribute to the book or to its main character:  contribute to our class’s online collection of tributes to books we have read during reading workshop with a thoughtful webpage.  These online tributes can be story-based, setting-based, or based on a main character (like a fictional character’s imaginary Facebook page).  Because these tributes will potentially be seen by thousands of educators and students, final products must be thoughtful and error-free. 
• Novel-inspired board game: design board game or strategy game based on the novel’s plot; if another student were to play this game, they would completely understand the premise of the novel and be interested in actually reading it.  All of the game’s required “pieces” will be designed by the student, and how-to-instructions for playing the game must accompany this project.  Students will be required to supervise 2-4 other students as they play the game during lunchtime or after school in Mr. Harrison’s classroom.
• Pamphlet campaign: obtain permission from a librarian/teacher (not Mr. Harrison) to begin a “You-should-really-check-out-this-book” campaign.  After designing a tri-fold pamphlet, students will publish 25+ copies of it and design a distribution method that puts their pamphlet into the hands of students genuinely interested in reading the book they have chosen.  Sending the pamphlet to the author/publisher and receiving a favorable response will excuse the student from a future Reading Workshop Project.
• Create/Cast/Market a live or video performance inspired by the novel:  write play or other type of performance that would inspire fellow students to check out the book after watching it.  The performance will be scheduled in Mr. Harrison’s classroom at lunchtime or after school, and students must “market” their performance successfully so that 10+ fellow students come and watch it.   This project can be completed together by 2-5 students who have all recently read the same novel.

I am working on a teacher model now for each project suggestion; I will post my teacher models as soon as they are completed.  If you have any feedback or ideas for additional projects, I'd love to hear from you! 

--Corbett

Back from vacation!  Time to get serious about my new classroom!  I'll have a brand new set of 6-8th graders joining me at the end of this month, and I need to excite them about the reader's and writer's workshops I'll be guiding them through.

I have three bulletin boards in my new classroom.  The next three posts will share what I'm planning to put on them!

The bulletin board closest to my desk will share some "back history" about me as a reader, so they can have an idea of what it means to have a "reading portfolio."  I racked my brain in June to remember what my favorite books were back when I was in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade; I decided to rack it even harder and think about 5th grade and 9th grade too.  I am creating a 4' x 4' bulletin board called "MR. H's READING PORTFOLIO."  It will share cover art and personal memories of the books from those years that had the most impact on me as a blossoming reader.  I will be expecting my students to read independently this year, and at the end of each year be able to discuss which new books they've read that have had the most impact on them.  Perhaps they'll write about/discuss the novels we read as a whole class, but I'll be more pleased if they find their independent novel choices the source of their inspiration.  I want my bulletin board to help them see that I expect them to seek independent novels.

So...here are links to my five mini-posters that will decorate my "MR. H's READING PORTFOLIO" bulletin board.

• My favorite books from fifth grade poster
• My favorite books from sixth grade poster
• My favorite book from seventh grade poster
• My favorite book from eighth grade poster
• My favorite book from ninth grade poster

Questions? Comments?  I'd love to hear from you. 

Next stop: creating my "TRAIT OF THE MONTH" bulletin board for September!  I will post pictures soon!

--Corbett

I'm going to admit right now that I have a cool summer learning activity planned for myself.  As you must know by now if you're following this blog, I've been keeping my first writer's notebook myself this past year, and about half of its pages are currently filled.  When I've shown my model to students as part of a demo lesson, I have an amazing response.  "Do we get to do that too?" is the most common question I am asked.  "Tell your teacher you want to!" I respond.  I've helped a lot of teachers add writer's notebooks to their pre-writing tools this year.

Meet Austin (at left--an old picture from a few years back is all I have); he's a colleague's son who's going into seventh grade in September.  Since third grade, he's been featured at WritingFix because he's been a participant in our NNWP's TWIST Camps.  This summer, because he's now too old for the TWISTs, he and I are working on a project we're calling "Corbett & Austin Keep Writer's Notebooks." 

He and I will be chatting (over Skype) about funny ideas we have about new writer's notebook pages; he's just starting his, while I'm adding new pages to mine.  We will then be getting together--face to face--and creating our pages with a shared set of pencils, pens and crayons.  Then, we'll both be using our pages as inspiration for longer stories or poems or whatever.  I'll be turning each idea into a web-page at WritingFix, and next school year, our Writing Lesson of the Month network will be featuring both Austin and my pages and the stories/poems they inspired.  Our hope is to inspire whole classrooms (all grade levels!) of students to create similar pages and to share the stories/poems they eventually write.

To make sure we're both on the same page, Austin and I will be doing several pages together right at the beginning of the summer, and these initial notebook pages will be based on lessons already posted at WritingFix that we'll be modifying with our work this summer.

Larger view

One lesson that I know for sure we're doing is WritingFix's Serendipitous Crazy Illustration Prompt, which has students create two wacky illustrations inspired by choices that make using WritingFix's Crazy Illustration Idea Generator--it's pretty fun; go to the link and try it out!  Students, then, choose their favorite illustration and turn it into an actual story.  At this point, I have my notebook page made (click here to see it in larger form), and this summer once Austin has created his, we will both write stories that will become features at WritingFix.Want to join us in the process?  Here's my summer notebook challenge #2:  Create a notebook page based on the Crazy Illustration Prompt so that you can compare the story you write to the stories Austin and I write.  Got kids at home this summer?  Have them play along too.  If you send me their stories or photographs of their notebook pages, they'll be included at the revised version of the lesson that will be going up in September!

--Corbett

If you've successfully inspired your students to keep writer's notebooks this year, then now is the time to plant "seeds" in your writers' minds that will keep them working in those notebooks over the summer.  This is the first of three Notebook Summer Challenges for you (from me) to share with your students.

Now I am a lover of language!  Palindromes and oxymorons excite the tar out of me.  I also believe puns to be fantastic.  I have devoted full pages in my writer's notebooks to these topics, and when I hear (or make-up) a new pun, palindrome, or oxymoron in my daily work, I know I have a place to record them.

The other day, I came up with a brand new palindrome: Exam axe...you know, that's the axe they give novice firefighters when they take the "break the burning door down" test as they're testing to become full-fledged firemen.  My brain works in this crazy way, and I am glad to have a place in my writer's notebook to record them. 

My Summer Notebook Challenge #1 is based on a language pun that I love: Tom Swiftie jokes.   Inspired by the writing style of Victor Appleton, author of the Tom Swift adventure books from long ago, this is when you write a dialogue sentence with a dialogue verb (said, reply, etc.) that sits next to an adverb.  The goal is to make what's said in quotes pun off the adverb.  For example, here are two of my favorite Tom Swiftie puns:

• "I've only got spades, diamonds, and clubs," Tom said heartlessly.
• "I'm wearing my wedding ring now," Tom said with abandon.

I have a whole lesson on Tom Swifties posted at WritingFix; it shares the whole history of this type of pun, which I first discovered on the "Grin and Bear It" joke page found in every issue of my Boy's Life Magazine from my youth.  You can access the whole lesson here:  http://writingfix.com/Chapter_Book_Prompts/tomswift1.htm

Over the summer, I encourage my students to read their books with a "Tom Swiftie" eye for punning, which means they're looking for lines of dialogue with interesting adverbs attached to the speaking verb.  For example, they might find in a book they're reading the following line of dialogue:

• "I don't think I can stand," Ariel said weakly.

If they see a punning possibility with the adverb weakly, they can create a Tom Swiftie joke.  They have to change the character name and what's said in quotes, and that might lead to several possibilities.  Here are two from me:

• "It's Sunday.  Here we go again," Tom said weakly.
• "Why do I always become ill on Tuesdays," Tom said weakly.

Tom Swifties are certainly not for every student, but I'll bet you have kids excited about their notebooks who will find this to be a great challenge for the summer..as long as you model the process and show them a Tom Swiftie notebook page (yours or mine below).  Have your interested students dedicate a page in their notebooks to this topic, and as they read, challenge them to create these types of jokes.  On their notebook page(s) they can record their best ones and illustrate them.

Here is my Tom Swiftie page from my notebook; click the image to see it in larger form:

If you click on the image and print, it should print out the size of a full notebook page!

I spent a great afternoon yesterday, working with a group of sixth graders in Reno.  As part of my expository project (to be finished this June), I am gathering expository samples from 6th-8th graders.  Four weeks ago, I had this group of sixty sixth graders write an expository sample inspired by this prompt: If you could switch places with someone else, who would you switch with and why?

The students' samples were assessed by two of my favorite state scorers (my wife and our friend, Campbell), using the rubrics that are applied to our eighth grade writing test.  Yesterday, I returned to the sixth graders where we looked at the rubrics, we predicted what score we think we each earned, then we analyzed our actual scores.

I had them graph their own scores, using a tool (see below) created by some very wise fifth grade teachers a few years back.  These sixth graders began understanding where their skills as writers specifically shine, and they began understanding how they could set some personal goals based on their weaker traits.



Click here to access this data sheet from WritingFix.

It was great fun watching students "map their data out," and listening to them ask questions about what it would take to move a specific score higher.

With the rubrics in hand, they then set two very specific goals for specific writing skills they will work harder on to increase their score (even if just by a half a point) for the next expository prompt we will be practicing with.  We're going to have a little contest for the 5 or 6 writers who successfully raise their scores the most by following the goals they chose for themselves..

I return to them on March 24th to begin pre-writing for their next prompt.  Before they write, each student will be required to look over the two goals they set.

Gotta love intelligent uses of data in the classroom.  It really can motivate learners.

--Corbett

It may appear that I'm slacking off of my "Keep a Blog as my New Year's Resolution," but I really haven't been.  Honest.

 The NNWP has me on a tight deadline for having our newest 300+ page print resource to the editor this month so it can go to the printer in early March.  The Guide--"Show Me Your Story"--focuses on narrative lessons and teaching strategies, especially aimed at 3rd-5th grade.  The fourth grade section is now completely done!  Woo-hoo!  Coming soon (to the editor) the 3rd and 5th grade section.  This is what I have been working on.  See?  Not slacking!

Let me share from the now-completed fourth-grade section for the new guide.  Here's a link to one of the pre-writing lessons that will appear both online and in the guide:  http://writingfix.com/Process/PreWriting/Showing_Pride_4th.htm

This is a pre-writing lesson that teaches skills necessary to narrative writing.  It focuses nicely on three of my seven elements of a differentiated writing lesson: graphic organizers, student talk about student samples, and  student choice.

Take a few minutes to explore for those three elements in the thorough online write-up.  Did any new ideas occur to you?

I've been doing demonstration lessons with fourth graders this last week; tomorrow, I start working with the sixth graders for samples.  We're gathering student samples to be used as discussion tools in the NNWP's new Narrative Writing Resource, which comes out this March!  It's going to be a fantastic new resource guide.

The prompt I was working with when I met with the fourth graders (see the video in the previous post) was "If you could give a special award to a deserving person, what would it be and why would that person deserve the award?"  I ran the event as a little "contest," saying the winners would be featured in the new guide, which was a great motivator.
I got great samples from such a wonderful group of kids; I am sure showing them the video long before they began writing was really instrumental in receiving so many fun samples.  I'm adding this technique to my bag of tricks.

Here's one we didn't select as a "winner," but it's one of my favorite samples from the bunch.  I love Kaya's introduction more than anything.  :-)

Thanks, Kaya...I think you've got a charming writing style, and you know how to choose a great topic.  What advice would you give this young charmer for making her next draft even better?

A shout out to my author-friend Barry Lane who started a new blog as his New Year's Resolution too.  Barry's Blog is called 1000 Things To Write About.

One of my workshop's Seven Elements of a Differentiated Writing Lesson is giving students choice in two areas: in writing topics and in steps of the writing process.  As anyone who studies differentiated instruction knows, choice is a powerful motivator to get more buy-in, especially from those reluctant writers.

Barry Lane is a wise man.  I've always thought so.  My favorite title from this author is 51 Wacky We-Search Reports.  Do any of you have a favorite title?  Share it!

--Corbett

I received this e-mail this week, and although I have my personal answer to this parent's question, I thought I would post it to see if any of my blog users had a different answer.  Please feel free to offer your advice.

Dear  Corbett,
Happy  New  Year  to you!  I appreciate  your blog and   writing  on the WritingFix website.   My  son is in 4th grade. He is a  reluctant  writer.  He does like to read.  What is the best way I can help him  as  a reluctant  writer?  How  can I  best guide him   from  coming up  with what to write  since  he is often a blank slate?  I have  been reading  to him and having him write  summaries.   Thanks  for your time. 

I was a reluctant writer myself in fourth grade.  Luckily I ended up with a teacher -- Mike Borilla -- who gave us lots of fun options for in-class writing and then let us choose which one we wanted to actually write about in detail.  The power of student choice is amazing.  I've seen it do wonders for my reluctant student writers.  Now, I'm not always a proponent of completely free choice because I've had students who take advantage of that; I like to give many options and then--within those options--allow students to make a personal choice.  I jokingly call this strategy "The Illusion of Choice" during my teacher workshops on the Seven Elements of a Differentiated Writing Lesson.

Now we didn't just do fun writing in Mr. Borilla's class.  He balanced the fun, creative story-writing prompts with other useful (though less fun to write to) writing assignments.  We wrote plenty of book reports, expository papers, summaries, hamburger paragraphs too; but there was a balance in that class.  The fun happened some days; the un-fun happened on others. 

As a result, I became a kid who didn't always think writing was fun, but because of the fun ones, I felt pretty confident about my skills as a writer.  I lost my reluctance.

You say you're having your son write summaries of what he reads.  That's not fun; I've have yet to meet a student who just can't wait to write another summary for me. 

Keep doing those summaries, but make sure you have a balance of writing that your son would consider fun.  As a reader, he should very much enjoy creative assignments like the following from WritingFix, which are all based on books that fourth graders (and others) love to read:

• You're on a Gigantic Roll (inspired by Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach)
• A Magical Animal Encounter (inspired by the first Harry Potter book)
• Three-Meal Weather (inspired by Ron and Judi Barrett's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)

These are just three (of dozens and dozens) of the fun kind of lessons at WritingFix.

Now, let's come back to student choice.  If you choose one of these lessons and strong-arm your 4th grader to write to it, well, that's one way of doing it.  I more about discussing all three, then asking the writer to make a good choice.  "Which would be more fun for you to write?  How would your story be different from the mentor text or from the student samples posted at the website?"

I have felt the frustration of dealing with reluctant writers too.  My best solution for those types is to find a way to give them some choices about writing, and help them to really enjoy the writing they do in those instances.  Student choice...I truly believe it's missing from too many learning opportunities.

--Corbett