It changed the way I think about teaching writing, and I was amazed by the way my students reacted. For the first time in seven years, I had students actually complain when I would announce that writing workshop was finished for the day and it was time to meet and share. "Mrs. Gerken, can I please finish this part of my story first? Just a few more sentences, I promise." The first time this happened I nearly fell over in a dead faint. I was used to cheers when writing class was over, not collective groans of disappointment. At first I thought that perhaps it was a fluke, maybe it was just first month enthusiasm. But then it continued into October, then November, December, and - you get the idea.
So what changed that created this shift to writing as a joy instead of writing as a burden? It took a long time for me to figure that out, and to be honest I'm still pondering it this summer. I'm thinking another year under my belt and I'll really understand. But for now, I think the biggest change was the amount of control I placed in the hands of my students. That and some other tweaks that included individual conferencing and less whole group time, more independent writing time. My students were free to write about any topic they chose, so long as it fit within the genre we were studying at that moment in time. We began by writing anything we wanted - personal narratives, fantasy stories, poems, songs, reports, whatever their hearts desired. That was the first step in the "write" direction (sorry for the pun, I just finished a 40 page research paper and I need a little humor in my writing about now). Anyway, by allowing them that initial freedom of choosing their first piece of writing, I had them hooked. When we moved on to specific genres like personal narratives, biographies, responses to books, descriptive reports, how-to paragraphs and informational reports, I allowed them a wide range of choice regarding the topic, as long as it fell within the genre. For example, when I used to teach writing biographies, they had to write a biography on a famous person, dead or alive, but it had to be someone they could get on the Internet or browse books to research. But last year, I allowed them to choose anyone - famous or not famous, alive or no longer alive. I was surprised by how many students decided to research someone close to them, like a family member. I was always hesitant to allow this before, because I couldn't control the actual research process. They developed a list of questions, but then it was the responsibility of the student to find the answers outside of school, usually by conducting an interview with that person, or someone who knew that person. I think the idea of students doing different kinds of research all at once had previously given me a small anxiety attack. But I found that, although it was a little chaotic having everyone doing different types of research at once, that the students were so enthusiastic and excited about their writing, that it more than made up for the minor lack of organization that creeped its way into our workshop time. When I had taught writing a description, I always gave them boundaries like, "it has to be an object you can touch" or "a place." Last year, they could describe anything they want, and I had students describing things like dolphins, Rapunzel and Spongebob.
What made it all work? Besides the choice factor, I think using the same process for writing every single time made a difference. I know that seems obvious, but we had seven specific steps we used for each genre: collecting ideas, planning, drafting, response groups, revising, editing, publishing. We faithfully stuck to those steps, and that consistency helped them stay focused for the duration of that genre. I also allowed students to work at their own pace. We had a giant wheel with all seven steps listed around the outside, and at the beginning of every class, I would ask who was on what step for that day, and then move their name to that section of the wheel. It helped set a focus for the independent writing time. As a result, I would literally have students at all stages of the writing process. Those who were still planning their writing, and others who were already on to editing their work. In the past, I always made everyone stay at the same place. We all collected ideas the same day, planned the same day, had the same amount of days to draft, and so on. If someone finished, they had to wait to move on to the next step until we were all ready to go on. After reading Denise Leograndis' book, and having a long talk with myself about what it would mean to truly differentiate my writing instruction, I decided this didn't make a lick of sense, and decided to try it another way. Allowing students to move at their own pace worked beautifully, and as a result, my kids produced pieces of writing that they were proud of - and so was I.
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