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“I HATE WRITING!!!”: A Discussion About Inspiring Reluctant Writers By Writing Alongside Them. Ruth Ayres & Stacey Shubitz aka: “Two Writing Teachers” 2008 NCTE Annual Convention November 22nd, 2008 San Antonio, Texas “If you want to teach me to write, then first you must love me.” --Avi Acknowledgments • Instructors and Professors at Teachers College – Lucy Calkins, Grace Enriquez, Stephanie Jones, Kristin Rainville, and Marjorie Seigel • • • • • All-Write Consortium Wawasee School Corporation in Indiana LCCS in Rhode Island P.S. 171 in Manhattan Special thanks to Carl Anderson, Katherine Bomer, and Penny Kittle PART I: Teacher as Writer “The best way to use your time outside of school is spent reading and writing.” --Randy Bomer This helps you to maintain your own literacy. Being a part of a writing community can inspire you to write for and with a purpose. • Due to the fact this is the public version of our presentation, which is available on the Web, we’ve removed this photo, and all photos, that contain students. Thanks for your understanding. Let’s Discuss… • Are you part of a writing community right now? If so, what’s it like? What purposes does your writing community have? Please tell the person next to you about your writing community. • Also, what purposes do you have for writing? Getting Started – Keeping a writer’s notebook • Living a wide-awake life. – Scrapbooking • Chronicling events with family or friends – Photographs & Writing – Blogging • Personal • Professional Challenges Other Online Challenges • Day in a Sentence – http://dogtrax.edublogs.org • One Little Word – http://onelittleword.typepad.com/ • Not Me Monday – http://www.mycharmingkids.net • Photo Fridays – http://flickr.com/groups/photofridays/ • Poetry Friday – http://kidslitinformation.blogspot.com If we want our students to live like writers, then they… • Need to see our writing. • Hear our thinking. • Understand our struggles as writers. PART II: Sharing “A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood.” --Leo Rosten, author LIVE, SHARING WRITERS • Cynthia Rylant, Jacqueline Woodson, Gary Soto, and Mo Willems don’t regularly show up in public school classrooms. • Therefore, WE are the LIVING, BREATHING WRITERS in the room who student-writers look to as mentors daily. Let’s Discuss… • Take a few minutes to think back and then talk with someone near you about your writing experiences. – Consider things like: • What experiences did you have with writing in school (elementary college)? • What experiences are your students having? • What are your feelings about writing? Everyday Ways To Share Writing • Traditional Writer’s Notebooks • Scrapbooks • Letters • Op-Eds • Blogs Sharing Teacher Writing: Document Cameras • Collecting – Morning Meeting Shares of Writer’s Notebook Entries • Revision • With “spider legs” or using “story surgery.” • Editing • Peer Editing • Celebrating • Publishing Parties • End-of-Workshop Shares Sharing Teacher Writing: Laptops & LCD Projectors • Tracking changes made in a draft, inside of a Word Document is easy to do in front of students with the assistance of an LCD Projector. Sharing Teacher Writing: Blog Comments Part III: The Effects of Our Writing on Students “When students are taught to see how writing is done, this way of seeing opens to them huge warehouses of possibilities for how to make their writing good writing.” --Katie Wood Ray, Wondrous Words Mentoring: Student writes about an entire day in one page. Leann wrote this entry about part of her summer vacation. It lacked detail. By early May, I had shared many of my entries with her to teach her how to elaborate about a small moment. • Due to the fact this is the public version of our presentation, which is available on the Web, we’ve removed this writing sample, and all writing samples, in order to protect the privacy of our students, past and present. Thanks for your understanding. Stacey’s Elaborated Entry Mentoring: Elaborated Entry • Due to the fact this is the public version of our presentation, which is available on the Web, we’ve removed this writing sample, and all writing samples, in order to protect the privacy of our students, past and present. Thanks for your understanding. The “Green Eggs” Entry is still used with other students… •Here’s another student’s elaborated entry. •Stacey’s comment is on a sticky note attached to the left side of the student’s notebook. Let’s Discuss… Talk with your partner about how Stacey’s writing lifted the level of this student’s writing. • Due to the fact this is the public version of our presentation, which is available on the Web, we’ve removed this writing sample, and all writing samples, in order to protect the privacy of our students, past and present. Thanks for your understanding. Ruth’s Revisions Mentoring Ann in Revision • Due to the fact this is the public version of our presentation, which is available on the Web, we’ve removed this writing sample, and all writing samples, in order to protect the privacy of our students, past and present. Thanks for your understanding. Let’s Discuss: Talk with your partner: How did Ruth’s revisions help Ann? PART IV: Looking Back & Moving Forward "We set kids free when we ask them to leap. In that journey all of the skills and curriculum directives will be accomplished, along with something much more valuable: the confidence that you can write what you never believed possible. Just imagine what that can do for your writers. Imagine what that journey can do for you.“ – Penny Kittle, Write Beside Them Writing Can Be a Give and Take • Writing As a Gift Center Due to the fact this is the public version of our presentation, which is available on the Web, we’ve removed some photos from this page since they contain students’ faces. Thanks for your understanding. • Gifts of Writing To Kids/From Kids Picaboo.com: Slice of Life Book • Due to the fact this is the public version of our presentation, which is available on the Web, we’ve removed this photo, and all photos, that contain students. Thanks for your understanding. Shutterfly.com: Slice of Life Book • Due to the fact this is the public version of our presentation, which is available on the Web, we’ve removed this photo, and all photos, that contain students. Thanks for your understanding. Students Reflect on Writing Process • After writing “Time for Teens to Tell,” Bobby said, “This is my best piece of writing this year because I feel that it has helped people. I know that it has made a difference in someone’s life.” • In their End-of-Year Self-Assessments, students said: – “Good writers think about what they want to write, and talk to a partner who helps them revise and edit to help them say what they really want to say.” –Tiana – “Good writers revise and edit their work. They also use constructive criticism others give them to make their writing better.” --Norbert Students Notice How They’ve Grown as Writers • Kimberly – “I’ve also learned that writing about me is so much better than writing fairytales like I used to do.” • Emmeline – “It is really amazing how much better my writing is from the beginning of the year. I have really learned how to be a good writer.” Maintaining Contact with Writers • Writing connects people. Kids still feel connected to us because we’ve shared so many stories with them. Therefore, they need an avenue to continue sharing their stories with us. • We provide them with our e-mail addresses so they will have an audience for their writing in case their parents or future teachers aren’t the audience they’re looking for. • Blogging (Former teacher monitoring student blog) Closing Thoughts • Our students respect us more when we work side-by-side with them. • In minilessons and in conferences, we tell our students about our struggles with writing. – There are hard parts of writing for us... • We want them to know that even though we've been around for two decades longer than they've been, it's still tough to come up with ideas (i.e., to nurture and revise them into a finished piece)! But, WE HAVE TO WRITE! Questions? Comments… • Feel free to peruse: – Two Writing Teachers Blog • http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com – Two Writing Teachers Website • http://twowritingteachers.com THANK YOU FOR JOINING US TODAY!