Saturday, April 2, 2011

9 Rights Of Every Writer_Chapter 1 & 2



Students look to us for writing ideas not because we inspire them, but because it is easier to follow an assignment than to think on your own what you will write. This is precisely why it is so important for writers- all writers- to do so. Defining a topic is central to the thinking part of writing. (p. 26)

Spandel promotes the concept that our role as educators is to help students become thinkers, not merely responders. What are the real struggles, successes and/or challenges you've experienced in writing instruction when it comes to assigning writing topics vs. allowing students autonomy to define their own writing topics?

20 comments:

  1. I once attended a Professional Development where the staff was divided into two groups--one group was asked to draw a picture, any picture, period. The second group was lead to draw a house that took up two-quarters of the page, two fluffy clouds, a sun to the left of the house, and a tree to the right. I was in the second group. I had the pleasure of watching the first group sit and struggle with perplexed expressions. Sure, a few quickly began, but the majority looked at one another with looks of, "What are you going to draw?" When it was my group's turn, I happily drew the house, clouds, and tree. I was eagerly awaiting my gold star...
    After reading chapters 1 & 2 I now see that, though my picture may have been nice, and met all requirements, in all honesty, it wasn't what I would have chosen to draw on my own. I never once doodled a house, clouds, and a tree while surviving eighth grade algebra. I never once drew that picture while sitting through a "okay already, I get it!" professional development. My lovely little picture was lovely, but it wasn’t authentic.
    According to the book, we need to allow our students the opportunity to ponder, daydream, and reorganize important details before they can create an authentic piece of writing. I am positive that given time, the first group at my PD would have created works of art that I would have wished I had the opportunity to make. But in the PD, like in my classroom, it’s romantic to think that we have more than a few moments to get a task accomplished. It wasn’t until this year, my fifth year of teaching, that I have finally found the confidence to allow my students the luxury of thinking, drawing, and talking with a friend before writing a single word, BUT IT’S WORTH IT. I have noticed a love of writing this year that I have never seen before. The groan that erupts from my class when I say, “Okay, finish that sentence.” makes me believe in writing like I never have before.

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  2. The right to personalize your writing through the freedom of having your own voice, thoughts, and experiences as you share yourself artistically in written expression, sums up chapter 1 and chapter 2. As I read these chapters I frequently stopped to say, “Ah ha, that makes so much sense!” I remember falling in love with writing, not in class, but when it was for a personal gain: a poem for my mom, notes to friends, stories for my grandmother, a letter to God, or a diary entry about my heart-aches and confusing “love life.” I took pleasure in expressing my inner thoughts, whether it was thinking to myself or writing it on paper. Spandel shares this importance of “internal monologue” as a form of deep-thinking. “For it is there in the quiet of our own minds, not on the evening news and not on the computer, that we learn to make sense of it all. It is there, in that internal world of the mind, that we develop the philosophy from which we write.” Our students are bombarded with so much external stimuli that they lose insight on how to think on their own, thus neglecting their unique one-of-a-kind voice.

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  3. 6th grade students are expected to know the characteristics of and be able to write just about every genre under the sun. I try to address this expectation by creating writing units for the different genres we study. We begin each unit by reading narratives or articles that exemplify the particular genre, analyzing the writers’ purpose and craft, and practicing new skills. Then my students begin the writing process themselves. When I create prompts for each of these writing units, I define the genre and the characteristics I will look for (i.e. clear thesis, supporting arguments, specific examples, etc.), but I allow my students to choose the topic. The way in which I help the students to choose their own topic depends on the genre. If we are writing an autobiographical incident, I might model brainstorming important events in my life. If our focus is persuasive writing, I might provide the students with a list of issues that I think they will find relevant to their lives, and then invite them to add new ideas to the list.

    After reading chapter 2 in The 9 Rights of Every Writer, however, I find myself wondering how many of my students choose one of the topics I have included on the list, not because it is meaningful for them, but because it is easier to do so than come up with their own.
    It is not uncommon for a student who has chosen a topic from the list to approach me a few days into outlining an essay and ask, “Mr. Jewell, can I change my topic? I don’t really care about this.” The students who eschew the list in favor of choosing their own topic, on the other hand, hardly ever change their minds. It turns out that it is not so easy to explain the significance of Justin Bieber’s accomplishments, but don’t tell that to Shawnna, his biggest fan, whose essay, over the course of a few weeks, slowly transformed from a list of facts found on a fan site to an explanation of how his lyrics give comfort to other kids growing up in single parent households. And definitely do not ask Ava to change her topic as she marches over to the computer to find a source to support her assertion that, “Studies show that chewing gum makes students more alert.”

    The above examples demonstrate the commitment with which Spandel claims writers who discover their own topics write; however, I take issue with her contention that all time spent having students write about a defined topic is time wasted. While, as classroom teachers, we have the chance to watch our students develop as writers through the writing process, ultimately, their writing proficiency is judged by their ability to respond to a writing prompt. The results of a student’s performance on the STAR Tests, the writing portion of the CELDT, or the short answer section of the SAT, have real consequences in that student’s life, ranging from which classes she can take to, possibly, which university she is admitted to. We might feel this is wrong, but we can’t overlook it. It is important that we spend some time teaching students strategies for responding to writing prompts and managing the time they have to write. Discovering your own writing topic and responding to a defined topic are two very different writing tasks. I want my students to be able to do both well.

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  4. We need our students to begin to value their own voice, their own story, and their own inner monologue. As indicated in Chapter One, we live in a world where we are bombarded with noise and stimuli which drowns out the peace of mind that we need to explore in order to find ourselves. When Spandel brings us into her world of nature and silence, I am transported to the times in my life where complete disattachment has allowed me to return to center and a place where I can refocus on what is important and of value. I can travel down forgotten paths, and when I write I am able to walk in places that I either forgot about or am reminded exist. Our students need this same opportunity. As a 6th year teacher, I still struggle with too much direction, or too little. Some students will soar high and mighty with a free write, while others will drive diligently if just pointed in an appropriate direction. There are those few who are afraid or unwilling to even enter the vehicle. Some cannot find their keys. I want my students to think on their own, and to be true to their inner voice. I work with teenagers, their is plenty of pseudo confidence in my classroom. A belief must be instilled that each student has a voice that is important and that must be heard. An acknowledgment of "I can" and "I will" must be instilled within classroom culture. By allowing our students to select their own writing choices, we teach important decision making - this is according to Spandel. I do agree. It is the same with independent reading. The trend these days is to allow for more choice, as it should be with the amount of stimuli increasing around us all the time. We need to teach our students to return to center, to find quiet, to silence the constant thumping in their headphones (complete disattachment not only from themselves, but all sorts of interaction some might say) - only then will the time and space exist to where they can acknowledge themselves, their own words and language, and to maybe make a bit of sense of the world they are living in.

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  5. Throughout the reading of the first two chapters, came to the startling realization…I am Mr. Graphite! It’s just not possible for Kindergarteners and First Graders to come up with a topic that could write about! Absurd! What kind of experiences do they have? What is “close to home” for THESE writers? What’s for lunch today in the cafeteria? Learning to tie their shoes? Making new friends on the first day of school…wait. Okay, but, can they really turn that into writing? But there is just no way that they can wax intelligently about topics like Bakugan and Pokemon…or can they?

    Food! The one thing that is closest to universal experience that I can think of. Why can’t they write about today’s menu selection? It’s sensory. It’s descriptive. Ok, I am sold on that one. How can tying shoes be interesting, though? Either you learned it really quickly, or…you struggled, and you cried, and it was difficult, or you practiced twenty minutes each day till your sweet grandma, showed you the bunny ear, loop then, swoop method. How’s that for a literary arc? Ok, and making new friends, a true personal memoir. No truer to fact than relaying ones own feelings—the one and only thing that they may be “authorities” on, and, therefore authors.

    But what about those boys who want to write endlessly about “the lives of creatures called Bakugan and the battle brawlers who possess them?” Can I really read paragraph after paragraph about the inhabitants of Vestroia and the balance of peace that must be restored through an infinite number of battles. Okay, so there is plot, setting, and suspense…and some pretty well developed anime characterizations. So, now what? Now what’s my excuse?

    Am I ready to push these little hatchlings out of the nest? Is it a reflection on me if they fail? Can they do it?

    (Deep breath…)With the confidence that I have in my students, like when I no longer write the key vocabulary on the board after Christmas break, but, rather, have faith that they are familiar enough with the alphabetic principle to “sound it out” on their own, I hereby pledge to be a brave—like a trainer trying to capture his first Pokemon. Brave enough to realize that if at first they don’t succeed, it’s not a reflection on how poorly I have taught them to this point, but rather, that they just need a new tool—one that maybe they have never been trained to use; but a tool all the same. They don’t need my measly kindling. They have all the lumber they need to be great writers between their ears. I am here to offer the odd bit of hardware, to put it all together. I must “possess the ability to undergo a form of metamorphosis and transform into a similar but stronger species.” In Pokemon terminology this is known as The Evolution--a complete redefinition of my role, and theirs, to be sure.

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  6. Comments by HSCalvo~

    I was so excited to see someone write about “writing prompts”. Every
    year when it is time to give the writing prompt, as a grade level we all struggle with the prompt. I must say as a kindergarten teacher it made me chuckle to read about teachers who were grading a state assessment and
    that they too were having problems with the prompt.

    The length that the author goes into this, to explain why writing prompts really do not show what writers know, how they really limit the writers,
    was heartwarming.

    Now, speaking as a kinder teacher, one who has given students
    a prompt and sat with colleagues discussing whether the sentences stuck to
    the topic or if the child even wrote on the topic is common discussion. When really to be at grade level they only need to write one sentence. So when a child in my eyes is very creative, writes a short story with a beginning, middle and end, plus uses punctuation, is creative, but went off topic. Shouldn’t it be a “4”. Now after reading this, oh YES he/she is a “4”. This article validated my personal belief, plus has given me the confidence to discuss why some students writings really should be a “4”!

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  7. First Graders have better ideas and show more voice in their writing than many people give them credit for. That is why I love our poetry unit—the kids write amazing poems about topics and situations near and dear to their hearts. As mentioned above, many times it is Legos, Pokemon and Bakugon, but when given the opportunity to write about them, they are so motivated. When I say to other teachers that we are writing poems, they look at me funny and ask, “Can First Graders write poems?” Yes, they can when given some tools and the freedom to write what matters to them. I think that one reason that First Graders have such great ideas in their poetry is because they love the idea of looking at the world in a different way and have not yet “learned” to be self-conscious about writing poems.

    The chapter made me think a little bit about my little writer who takes forever to get his words on the paper because “he can’t find the right word”. When I left him alone for awhile instead of pressing him to begin writing, I came back to find a poem called “Pencil Doctor”. Not one time did he use the word pencil sharpener in his writing. He simply referred to the pencil needing to go to the doctor because it was sick and how it left sharp. He is a student that really does need that quiet time to think as part of his writing, and I am always trying to rush him along to the pencil part.

    During this same unit, some of my best writers said they didn’t know what to write about. That made me realize that even though I do give them choice in what to write, that we might need to spend more time where each of them are thinking about ideas that would be worth writing about in idea lists or in their writing journal. I like the idea of teaching kids how to recognize good ideas when they show up rather than finding them.

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  8. There are no pencils allowed for the first 10 minutes after a writing assignment is announced in my class. This is a student developed policy that has encouraged more creativity and focus than any other writing norm in the classroom. For those ten minutes students stare at walls, put their heads down, listen to music, etc.; they think in the way that is most productive for them. By allowing them this time to craft their writing until they can "see it", we eliminate the pressure of the white blank page. In the past I have assigned writing topics to my students, only to be met with complaints of it being "too hard" and many voices asking: "Why do I have to write about this?" I often wonder why it took me so long to realize what a great question they were asking. I soon began opening up the writing assignments to topics of their choice; when assigning writing in response to literature I would provide both a prompt and the alternate option of choice. The amount of students completing, and appreciating, the work increased greatly, yet the depth and fluency of their writing still needed improvement. After questioning the depth of a piece of fiction a student turned in, I realized that the student and I had never allowed time for thinking about his writing, both before and after he wrote. Thus began the 10 minute waiting period; within this time students create without any tool besides their imagination. They have no choice but to think before they write. More often than not, they request more time for thinking because they realize the value of envisioning their story or argument before committing to it on paper.

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  9. Most of the students who turn up in my English classes hate writing; in fact, they can’t wait until they never have to take an English class again. I have had one student in the last six years who said she was going to major in English. Needless to say, I started blathering and almost cried.

    These chapters have made me wonder what I’m doing to open my students up to writing, to invite them to reconsider their aversion, to help them to see that writing matters beyond the classroom, beyond the workplace.

    I almost never give open-ended assignments. Yes, yes, yes, they have opportunities to reflect and freewrite, but we all know that the “real” writing is the essays they have to produce. Yes, produce ... as in an assembly line. I realize that all too often I am guilty of having them manufacture echos rather than develop their own voices (p. xi).

    Last semester, for their first assignment, I experimented with having them choose an image and write about it in any way. I got poems, personal essays, raps, stories, and memories. I remember thinking, nostalgically, toward the end of the semester that those pieces were some of the best of the semester. Honestly, I felt they and I had been straightjacketed by the academic essay, their creativity and voice left in the margins.

    How can I get them to write with passion and voice about content and with a structure that fits the academic purpose? I think that I can start by seeing the freewrites and reflective writing as WRITING, as central to their thinking and knowing. I liked when Spandel wrote that “Knowing a topic is the foundation of voice.” If they really know a topic, own the material we are reading and discussing, then perhaps I don’t have to give essay prompts, or we can develop questions together, or at least, I can be a lot looser in my prompting (so they can be freer).

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  10. Not long ago, I read a book called "Amusing Ourselves to Death," by Neil Postman. The main idea being that because mass media is our form of information communication we have become too willing to be entertained rather than be critical thinkers. If Spandel's words in chapter one were spaghetti sauce I wouldn't have hesitated to lick them off the page. Literally, I love where we are headed with this book. Reflection? Who has time for that? She does, and she makes reflecting accessible which, to me is the point.

    Spandel says, "Writers who discover their own topics write with voice and commitment." Those two words, voice and commitment, say so much about a text. When I read a letter my buddy was really excited to write, a letter that is packed full of fun; stories, anecdotes, love- I can hear her. I can tell she spent time choosing the correct words. It makes reading more fun when the writer is committed to their topic.

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  11. Spandel - Chapters 1 - 2

    “The problem with standards is not that they aim too high but that often they do not lift us up nearly enough” (Spandel xiii).

    “… the thing I would wish most for our student writers: that their personal voice would “rise up from the page, like a hologram” and keep me breathless to discover what they think. I cannot - and neither should you - settle for anything less” (Spandel xiii).

    “Serious writing requires long thinking” (Spandel 5).

    “Knowing a topic is the foundation of voice” (Spandel 24).

    In our world today, information, results, questions, answers, video, breaking news, what Charlie Sheen is thinking, and what we think about Charlie Sheen among an onslaught of other facts, figures, statistics, reports, and reviews, can be delivered at the touch of a button. This is reality not only for our students, but for everyone. I can check the score of the Red Sox game (gulp, did they lose again?) while I am stopped at a red light. My wife can find out which online stock traders offer the best rates while answering her email -her work email, not her personal email, which she can also answer at the same time. My top runner can read commentary on his latest race before he has even had an opportunity to process and reflect on the race himself. The immediacy with which information is sought, produced, and delivered is schizophrenic, and as Spandel captures in the quotations listed above, offers us a great challenge in teaching writing to our students.

    Echoed throughout Spandel’s first two chapters is the underlying goal of helping our students find their voice, that our students’ writing should reflect their thinking and not echo someone else’s thinking. How easy is it, after all, to produce an opinion, or an answer, or a response that truly requires little thinking, or I suppose, more accurately, little construction of knowledge. Modeling and providing greater opportunities for our students to reflect, to spend time “long in thought” is something that we as teachers don’t develop these days, out of a desire to “cover” the standards, or because we can keep students engaged in superficial yet sparkling stimulus-response type activities using the newest and latest technologies (heck, I’m still looking for the net books we just started using to deliver a treat to students who select the right answer), or because we simply are tired of facing student resistance.

    Long thinking requires reflection. Long thinking encourages making sense of our own world in our own way on our own time. Long thinking requires the ability to sustain focus. And long thinking fosters interaction, interaction first between the thinker and his or her world (external and internal) and then between the thinker and other thinkers (whether in person or online, or in reality or in imagination). Through this interaction, our students construct meaning. Through this interaction, our students find voice. And through this interaction, our students find out what they know about their world, the foundation of voice (Spandel 24).

    How wonderful to have students who want to choose what they want to write about because they have become experts in recognizing their own worlds, their own domains of experience and knowledge, and can produce their own thoughts about these topics. The challenge before me, as Spandel so aptly conveys in chapters 1 and 2, is to develop, create, implement, model, and support students through the process of discovering their voice through digital literacies. This will be a large part of what I will try to do in my demonstration lesson this summer.

    (Whew, the Red Sox finally won a game!)

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  12. Re: Spandel Chapter 1&2

    As a student who usually resented assigned topics, approaches and genres – but who felt comfortable just writing-I was taken aback when I began teaching 17 years ago and saw the extent to which the 5 PP essay and other formulaic papers were assigned and taught. So many ways to be bored and boring, so many hoops to jump through, so much you’re forced to leave out, so few writing decisions to make, so many ways to be wrong and so many pointless marks to hit…
    I’d never been taught it and never had to use them, not in HS or college, so it was a shock to me. Like scantrons.
    I teach gifted-identified middle school kids, 6th and 7th, and one of our assignments is called Creatologies. They have to turn in something, anything, every two weeks, and it’s 20% of their grade.Totally open-ended.
    I encourage narratives, photo essays, imitative or mock artifacts, such as brochures and menus, games, video game reviews, magazine articles, opinion pieces, they run the gamut. I have three 3” binders of examples of stuff for kids to get ideas from – those who are “stuck,” or whose parents think they’re supposed to “be creative” rather than just have fun, experiment, try something they’ve always wanted to do…like loving homages to their animals, but not a lame “animal report.”
    We’ve been doing this, which grew out of a vocab program I inherited (and tossed, quickly!) about 8 years now. And in each and every class there are two or three kids who really struggle. They “just can’t think of what to write.” But for those few there are 27 others who would fight to the death to protect it. Just last Friday we watched 7 student-made videos and animations (each with a script or other hard-copy artifact for their portfolio)
    And they were fabulous. The debriefing or critique was fabulous.
    It takes a while for them to really believe that they can do almost anything. But then their friends’ work starts coming – like Garrett who makes full-on family meals, photographs himself cooking, and writes the recipe; a 3-page piece every two weeks. Last week it was home-made gyros and tzaziki sauce and ambrosia, in honor of our study of Greek mythology. Well, at the end of the year he’ll have 18 or 20 of these, what an oeuvre! We’ll bind them as a book!
    Coolness factor aside, I couldn’t have assigned it. Nor could I have assigned the novella of boys living in the wild, all in dialect. Or re-written children’s books. Or any of the amazing and weird ephemera they write.

    A Guide to What to do When Your Mom Gets Breast Cancer
    How to Teach Your Dog to Play Frisbee (glued to both sides of a Frisbee)
    How to Make Earrings- hand-illustrated
    The Top 5 Teams in Baseball
    March Madness
    Soccer Injuries
    Worst Infomercials
    Why We Hate Justin Bieber

    We discuss the difference between what writers do and what secretaries do, and how thinking UP and thinking about and revising are writer’s work; and for that they need time, and purpose, and motivation and the hopeful beacon of meaning – not a grade or a hoop behind them…
    The time factor is what made me want to cry when I re-read Spandel. The classroom time, the slow time, the dragging a stick in the mud time, staring at the sky time. I’m not so sure kids have that kind of time, or use it if they do. I can’t imagine my own childhood having been pushed the way some of these kids’ are, with sports and lessons and academic expectations. I NEED down time, thinking time. In fact, ever time I needed to write an essay for my MFA class, I took a long walk on the beach. I needed that time.
    I’m angry, really, that on this reading, my April 2011 reading of 9 Rights, it doesn’t seem
    Realistic. And that breaks my heart.
    The demands of testing and standards and all the other stuff that keeps filling up our plates takes away from what students need to write meaningfully and well –a reflective life and personal reasons for writing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Comments by HSCalvo~I thought I put this in yesterday? Was reading others and did not see mine????

    I was so excited to see someone write about “writing prompts”. Every
    year when it is time to give the writing prompt, as a grade level we all struggle with the prompt. I must say as a kindergarten teacher it made me chuckle to read about teachers who were grading a state assessment and
    that they too were having problems with the prompt.

    The length that the author goes into this, to explain why writing prompts really do not show what writers know, how they really limit the writers,
    was heartwarming.

    Now, speaking as a kinder teacher, one who has given students
    a prompt and sat with colleagues discussing whether the sentences stuck to
    the topic or if the child even wrote on the topic is common discussion. When really to be at grade level they only need to write one sentence. So when a child in my eyes is very creative, writes a short story with a beginning, middle and end, plus uses punctuation, is creative, but went off topic. Shouldn’t it be a “4”. Now after reading this, oh YES he/she is a “4”. This article validated my personal belief, plus has given me the confidence to discuss why some students writings really should be a “4”!

    ReplyDelete
  14. When I taught fourth grade, I went back and forth given my students specific narrowed topics to write about all the way to "free write." When I gave them a very specific topic, I often got the comment, "I don't know what else to write." When I gave them "free write" or very loose directions, I would get stories that took me all over the world and back again (often all out of order). I would conference with each of my students help focus and develop their writing. When I first started with Kinder, I was sort of lost with how to direct their writing. When I attended the "Reading Like A Writer" open program, I found my direction. I have brought in mentor texts and worked with my students to look past the content and to what the author is doing. I have found great success and have seen my Kinders develop focused, direct, and creative pieces that go way beyond my inital expectations. When I was reading these first two chapters, and thinking about what Spandel is saying and how that applies to the success and challenges I have faced, it makes perfect sense! When students come up with their topics, have passion and knowledge for them, then their voice is in their piece.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Spandel - Chapters 1 - 2

    “The problem with standards is not that they aim too high but that often they do not lift us up nearly enough” (Spandel xiii).

    “… the thing I would wish most for our student writers: that their personal voice would “rise up from the page, like a hologram” and keep me breathless to discover what they think. I cannot - and neither should you - settle for anything less” (Spandel xiii).

    “Serious writing requires long thinking” (Spandel 5).

    “Knowing a topic is the foundation of voice” (Spandel 24).

    In our world today, information, results, questions, answers, video, breaking news, what Charlie Sheen is thinking, and what we think about Charlie Sheen among an onslaught of other facts, figures, statistics, reports, and reviews, can be delivered at the touch of a button. This is reality not only for our students, but for everyone. I can check the score of the Red Sox game (gulp, did they lose again?) while I am stopped at a red light. My wife can find out which online stock traders offer the best rates while answering her email -her work email, not her personal email, which she can also answer at the same time. My top runner can read commentary on his latest race before he has even had an opportunity to process and reflect on the race himself. The immediacy with which information is sought, produced, and delivered is schizophrenic, and as Spandel captures in the quotations listed above, offers us a great challenge in teaching writing to our students.

    Echoed throughout Spandel’s first two chapters is the underlying goal of helping our students find their voice, that our students’ writing should reflect their thinking and not echo someone else’s thinking. How easy is it, after all, to produce an opinion, or an answer, or a response that truly requires little thinking, or I suppose, more accurately, little construction of knowledge. Modeling and providing greater opportunities for our students to reflect, to spend time “long in thought” is something that we as teachers don’t develop these days, out of a desire to “cover” the standards, or because we can keep students engaged in superficial yet sparkling stimulus-response type activities using the newest and latest technologies (heck, I’m still looking for the net books we just started using to deliver a treat to students who select the right answer), or because we simply are tired of facing student resistance.

    Long thinking requires reflection. Long thinking encourages making sense of our own world in our own way on our own time. Long thinking requires the ability to sustain focus. And long thinking fosters interaction, interaction first between the thinker and his or her world (external and internal) and then between the thinker and other thinkers (whether in person or online, or in reality or in imagination). Through this interaction, our students construct meaning. Through this interaction, our students find voice. And through this interaction, our students find out what they know about their world, the foundation of voice (Spandel 24).

    How wonderful to have students who want to choose what they want to write about because they have become experts in recognizing their own worlds, their own domains of experience and knowledge, and can produce their own thoughts about these topics. The challenge before me, as Spandel so aptly conveys in chapters 1 and 2, is to develop, create, implement, model, and support students through the process of discovering their voice through digital literacies. This will be a large part of what I will try to do in my demonstration lesson this summer.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Spandel - Chapters 1 - 2

    “The problem with standards is not that they aim too high but that often they do not lift us up nearly enough” (Spandel xiii).

    “… the thing I would wish most for our student writers: that their personal voice would “rise up from the page, like a hologram” and keep me breathless to discover what they think. I cannot - and neither should you - settle for anything less” (Spandel xiii).

    “Serious writing requires long thinking” (Spandel 5).

    “Knowing a topic is the foundation of voice” (Spandel 24).

    In our world today, information, results, questions, answers, video, breaking news, what Charlie Sheen is thinking, and what we think about Charlie Sheen among an onslaught of other facts, figures, statistics, reports, and reviews, can be delivered at the touch of a button. This is reality not only for our students, but for everyone. I can check the score of the Red Sox game (gulp, did they lose again?) while I am stopped at a red light. My wife can find out which online stock traders offer the best rates while answering her email -her work email, not her personal email, which she can also answer at the same time. My top runner can read commentary on his latest race before he has even had an opportunity to process and reflect on the race himself. The immediacy with which information is sought, produced, and delivered is schizophrenic, and as Spandel captures in the quotations listed above, offers us a great challenge in teaching writing to our students.

    Echoed throughout Spandel’s first two chapters is the underlying goal of helping our students find their voice, that our students’ writing should reflect their thinking and not echo someone else’s thinking. How easy is it, after all, to produce an opinion, or an answer, or a response that truly requires little thinking, or I suppose, more accurately, little construction of knowledge. Modeling and providing greater opportunities for our students to reflect, to spend time “long in thought” is something that we as teachers don’t develop these days, out of a desire to “cover” the standards, or because we can keep students engaged in superficial yet sparkling stimulus-response type activities using the newest and latest technologies (heck, I’m still looking for the net books we just started using to deliver a treat to students who select the right answer), or because we simply are tired of facing student resistance.

    Long thinking requires reflection. Long thinking encourages making sense of our own world in our own way on our own time. Long thinking requires the ability to sustain focus. And long thinking fosters interaction, interaction first between the thinker and his or her world (external and internal) and then between the thinker and other thinkers (whether in person or online, or in reality or in imagination). Through this interaction, our students construct meaning. Through this interaction, our students find voice. And through this interaction, our students find out what they know about their world, the foundation of voice (Spandel 24).

    How wonderful to have students who want to choose what they want to write about because they have become experts in recognizing their own worlds, their own domains of experience and knowledge, and can produce their own thoughts about these topics. The challenge before me, as Spandel so aptly conveys in chapters 1 and 2, is to develop, create, implement, model, and support students through the process of discovering their voice through digital literacies. This will be a large part of what I will try to do in my demonstration lesson this summer.

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  17. Spandel - Chapters 1 - 2

    “The problem with standards is not that they aim too high but that often they do not lift us up nearly enough” (Spandel xiii).

    “… the thing I would wish most for our student writers: that their personal voice would “rise up from the page, like a hologram” and keep me breathless to discover what they think. I cannot - and neither should you - settle for anything less” (Spandel xiii).

    “Serious writing requires long thinking” (Spandel 5).

    “Knowing a topic is the foundation of voice” (Spandel 24).

    In our world today, information, results, questions, answers, video, breaking news, what Charlie Sheen is thinking, and what we think about Charlie Sheen among an onslaught of other facts, figures, statistics, reports, and reviews, can be delivered at the touch of a button. This is reality not only for our students, but for everyone. I can check the score of the Red Sox game (gulp, did they lose again?) while I am stopped at a red light. My wife can find out which online stock traders offer the best rates while answering her email -her work email, not her personal email, which she can also answer at the same time. My top runner can read commentary on his latest race before he has even had an opportunity to process and reflect on the race himself. The immediacy with which information is sought, produced, and delivered is schizophrenic, and as Spandel captures in the quotations listed above, offers us a great challenge in teaching writing to our students.

    Echoed throughout Spandel’s first two chapters is the underlying goal of helping our students find their voice, that our students’ writing should reflect their thinking and not echo someone else’s thinking. How easy is it, after all, to produce an opinion, or an answer, or a response that truly requires little thinking, or I suppose, more accurately, little construction of knowledge. Modeling and providing greater opportunities for our students to reflect, to spend time “long in thought” is something that we as teachers don’t develop these days, out of a desire to “cover” the standards, or because we can keep students engaged in superficial yet sparkling stimulus-response type activities using the newest and latest technologies (heck, I’m still looking for the net books we just started using to deliver a treat to students who select the right answer), or because we simply are tired of facing student resistance.

    Long thinking requires reflection. Long thinking encourages making sense of our own world in our own way on our own time. Long thinking requires the ability to sustain focus. And long thinking fosters interaction, interaction first between the thinker and his or her world (external and internal) and then between the thinker and other thinkers (whether in person or online, or in reality or in imagination). Through this interaction, our students construct meaning. Through this interaction, our students find voice. And through this interaction, our students find out what they know about their world, the foundation of voice (Spandel 24).

    How wonderful to have students who want to choose what they want to write about because they have become experts in recognizing their own worlds, their own domains of experience and knowledge, and can produce their own thoughts about these topics. The challenge before me, as Spandel so aptly conveys in chapters 1 and 2, is to develop, create, implement, model, and support students through the process of discovering their voice through digital literacies. This will be a large part of what I will try to do in my demonstration lesson this summer.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Yesterday I decided to have my students create multi-genre writing projects. They will actually create magazines. I had learned about them, but I decided to wait until next year to try them. I have been testing many new concepts on my students this year and I wasn’t sure about another project right before testing,
    My thinking about trying another new writing idea began to shift last week when I decided to assign “How to” papers. Planning on the for the following days lesson I searched for mentor text. I was a little desperate, because there just weren’t many models in my classroom library, or any of my other collections of books that might contain the models I was looking for. I did find, however, was a book about inventions that had directions on how to make a cardboard car. It was in the storage room and I also had multiple copies. Then I remembered that a friend, and coworker, was working on “multi-genre” projects with her fifth grade class. We had talked about her project and how her students were overwhelmed.
    The class finished their “How to” papers without a lot of prodding and two of my gifted students seemed to really enjoy the assignment. Each had written about making a seafood salad and they were still discussing food. I wondered if these two might want to keep going and be interested in creating a food magazine. They were interested.
    Then through the internal dialogue in my head came the question, “Wouldn’t everyone be interested in the same opportunity?” They were.
    The next choice was if I should allow students to work in singles, with opportunities for collaboration, or small groups.
    One of my brightest students argued that any real magazine would have a whole staff, of writers, editors, co-editors, artists, researchers, and publishers; therefore they should be allowed to work together. I had no argument and now the class is divided into groups ranging from singles to a group of five.
    Initially, I was concerned that students wouldn’t choose topics suitable for magazines, but they surprised me. They are writing about arctic animals, horses, food, anime, music, videogames, shipwrecks, killer whales, and underwater archeology.
    We have also used the book on inventions to create a list of items to be included in the magazine. Each magazine will need to contain a feature article, another article, a persuasive essay, a “How to” and a poem. Already, the killer whale group has two poems. The shipwreck group is pouring over 101 Facts About the Titanic. The music group is interviewing students on what they think about the band Green Day; a feature in our model text.
    I am excited about these projects. I hope that the momentum will continue. I am concerned that students will rush through and I will need to set expectations. Reflecting on tomorrow, I think that I will need to remind them that they are to become experts on their topics.

    ReplyDelete
  19. 6th grade students are expected to know the characteristics of and be able to write just about every genre under the sun. I try to address this expectation by creating writing units for the different genres we study. We begin each unit by reading narratives or articles that exemplify the particular genre, analyzing the writers’ purpose and craft, and practicing new skills. Then my students begin the writing process themselves. When I create prompts for each of these writing units, I define the genre and the characteristics I will look for (i.e. clear thesis, supporting arguments, specific examples, etc.), but I allow my students to choose the topic. The way in which I help the students to choose their own topic depends on the genre. If we are writing an autobiographical incident, I might model brainstorming important events in my life. If our focus is persuasive writing, I might provide the students with a list of issues that I think they will find relevant to their lives, and then invite them to add new ideas to the list.

    After reading chapter 2 in The 9 Rights of Every Writer, however, I find myself wondering how many of my students choose one of the topics I have included on the list, not because it is meaningful for them, but because it is easier to do so than come up with their own. It is not uncommon for a student who has chosen a topic from the list to approach me a few days into outlining an essay and ask, “Mr. Jewell, can I change my topic? I don’t really care about this.” The students who eschew the list in favor of choosing their own topic, on the other hand, hardly ever change their minds. It turns out that it is not so easy to explain the significance of Justin Bieber’s accomplishments, but don’t tell that to Shawnna, his biggest fan, whose essay, over the course of a few weeks, slowly transformed from a list of facts found on a fan site to an explanation of how his lyrics give comfort to other kids growing up in single parent households. And definitely do not ask Ava to change her topic as she marches over to the computer to find a source to support her assertion that, “Studies show that chewing gum makes students more alert.”

    The above examples demonstrate the commitment with which Spandel claims writers who discover their own topics write; however, I take issue with her contention that all time spent having students write about a defined topic is time wasted. While, as classroom teachers, we have the chance to watch our students develop as writers through the writing process, ultimately, their writing proficiency is judged by their ability to respond to a writing prompt. The results of a student’s performance on the STAR Tests, the writing portion of the CELDT, or the short answer section of the SAT, have real consequences in that student’s life, ranging from which classes she can take to, possibly, which university she is admitted to. We might feel this is wrong, but we can’t overlook it. It is important that we spend some time teaching students strategies for responding to writing prompts and managing the time they have to write. Discovering your own writing topic and responding to a defined topic are two very different writing tasks. I want my students to be able to do both well.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Yesterday I decided to have my students create multi-genre writing projects. They will actually create magazines. I had learned about them, but I decided to wait until next year to try them. I have been testing many new concepts on my students this year and I wasn’t sure about another project right before testing,
    My thinking about trying another new writing idea began to shift last week when I decided to assign “How to” papers. Planning on the for the following days lesson I searched for mentor text. I was a little desperate, because there just weren’t many models in my classroom library, or any of my other collections of books that might contain the models I was looking for. I did find, however, was a book about inventions that had directions on how to make a cardboard car. It was in the storage room and I also had multiple copies. Then I remembered that a friend, and coworker, was working on “multi-genre” projects with her fifth grade class. We had talked about her project and how her students were overwhelmed.
    The class finished their “How to” papers without a lot of prodding and two of my gifted students seemed to really enjoy the assignment. Each had written about making a seafood salad and they were still discussing food. I wondered if these two might want to keep going and be interested in creating a food magazine. They were interested.
    Then through the internal dialogue in my head came the question, “Wouldn’t everyone be interested in the same opportunity?” They were.
    The next choice was if I should allow students to work in singles, with opportunities for collaboration, or small groups.
    One of my brightest students argued that any real magazine would have a whole staff, of writers, editors, co-editors, artists, researchers, and publishers; therefore they should be allowed to work together. I had no argument and now the class is divided into groups ranging from singles to a group of five.
    Initially, I was concerned that students wouldn’t choose topics suitable for magazines, but they surprised me. They are writing about arctic animals, horses, food, anime, music, videogames, shipwrecks, killer whales, and underwater archeology.
    We have also used the book on inventions to create a list of items to be included in the magazine. Each magazine will need to contain a feature article, another article, a persuasive essay, a “How to” and a poem. Already, the killer whale group has two poems. The shipwreck group is pouring over 101 Facts About the Titanic. The music group is interviewing students on what they think about the band Green Day; a feature in our model text.
    I am excited about these projects. I hope that the momentum will continue. I am concerned that students will rush through and I will need to set expectations. Reflecting on tomorrow, I think that I will need to remind them that they are to become experts on their topics.

    ReplyDelete