Transcript Learning How to Write from Writers

Learning How to Write
from Your Favorite Author
Mary Smith
Literacy Coach
Milby High School, Houston ISD
My Journey as a Teacher
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lucy Calkins Writing Institute
Writers-in-the-Schools Writing Project
Rice University Writing Project
Univ. of New Hampshire Writing Project
UHD Reading Tutor/Adjunct
Writing Staff Developer
Literacy Coach
Milby High School
•
•
•
•
Located in southeast Houston
Involved in High School Reform Initiative
About 2200 students—94% Hispanic
The 2004 State Basketball Champions
of Texas—39 wins, 0 losses
• Block Scheduling—90 minute classes
every other day
Literacy Coach
• Help implement literacy strategies across
the content areas
• Provide on-going staff development
• Observe teachers and tell them what they
are doing well
• Encourage teachers to work together and
to share what they know
Today’s Objective
To learn the “craft” of writing from other
writers…
If they can do it, we can too!
Lucy Calkins
• Lucy Calkins studied what real writers do
• Decided that children can be taught to
keep a writer’s notebook
The Art of Teaching Writing,
by Lucy McCormick Calkins
A writer’s notebook
is simply a “seedbed”
for more writing.
The Art of Teaching Writing
by Lucy McCormick Calkins
Night in the Country, by Cynthia Rylant
• What does the story make you remember?
• What does the story make you think
about?
• Jot down your ideas for writing.
Write
• About a moment in your life that you are
remembering
or
• What the story made you think about…
Share with the person next to you.
Teaching students to write about what
matters to them is extremely important,
but it isn’t enough….
It’s a good start, but it isn’t enough….
Writers need to be immersed in good literature
and they need to be taught how to use the
texts they read as mentors for the texts they
will write.
We have to show our students a model
of the kind of writing that we want them
to learn how to do.
According to Katie Wood Ray,
“Writing well involves learning to attend to
the craft of writing, learning to do the
sophisticated work of separating what it’s
about from how it is written” (10).
Wondrous Words
“When students are taught to see how
writing is done, this way of seeing opens
up to them huge warehouses of
possibilities for how to make their writing
good writing” (11).
Wondrous Words
by Katie Wood Ray
Listen as I read
Night in the Country again…
This time, follow along with the typed text.
Read like a writer and notice the “craft” of
the writing.
Night in the Country
Notice It
Name It
Try It
Now write again…
This time, use one of the Cynthia Rylant’s
crafting techniques to revise your writing, to
make it “a little bit better.”
Share
When students are learning to write, they
need:
• Instruction in writing
• Time to write on a daily basis
• Mentors to hold their hands and to
show them the way
I can think of no better person to hold
my students’ hands and to nudge them
into being better writers than the authors
who have written the way
I would like for my students to write.
Who are your favorite authors?
Who are the authors that can mentor your
students to become better writers?
Modifications
• For Gifted and Talented
• For Learning Challenged
• For English as a Second Language
Bibliography
Calkins, L. (1994). The Art of Teaching
Writing. Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.
Ray, K. W. (1999). Wondrous Words.
National Council of Teachers of
English, Urbana, IL.