The Writing Muscle

Typical Conversation 

Teacher: "Today we are going to write for..."

Students:  "ughhhhhgughsdknfadf.... whyyyyyyy??" 

Teacher/Students: (all together) "I hate my life." 

We've all been there. Writing is no fun for the students because they have to think (geez how terrible) nor for the teachers because we have to listen to endless complaining (which IS truly the definition of terrible). 

So, what do we need to do to get our kids to somewhat enjoy writing? I'm not sure if there is a silver bullet out there for that, but what I witnessed today on the 3rd day of school was nothing short of miraculous. 

A Little Background

This summer I went to a training with Gretchen Bernabei. She's A-MA-ZING! I wrote about some of the strategies I learned here. Anyway, she mentioned that her kids write everyday... and here's the kicker... they like it. WHAT? How is that even possible. I think if I walked into my classroom with the "let's write everyday" bit the conversation would go something like this:

Teacher: "Okay kids, we are going to do the first of 180 writing assignments right now. Ready?"

Students: "GET THE PITCHFORKS!!"

Seriously, how does she do that and not get murdered everyday of her life? Then she showed us some of the kids' journals. They used composition notebooks for this. If they get full, they have to buy a new one. (Hahaha... like any of my students are going to fill a notebook with solid writing.) As I flipped through, I saw the beginning pages were sparse. In fact, a lot of the kids wrote about how much they hated writing. But as I went deeper into the notebook the entries began to get longer, more involved. Then they were illustrated. Then I saw recurring characters over a long period of time. I saw notes in the margins. I saw writing come to life. It was magical. But Gretchen is magical. I could never do anything like that. Or could I...

Writing Magic

Here's how it went today:

Students entered. Read note on board: "Get out your composition notebook and a pen."

Teacher: "How many of you do any kind of physical activity?"

All but about three kids in each class raised their hands.

Teacher: "Okay. What happens if you don't do that physical activity for a long time, and then you start back up again."

Students: "You are tired, you get sore..."

Teacher: "Right, so if you don't work out your muscles, they get weak, right?"

Head nods. Glazed over eyes. 

Teacher: "Well, did you know writing is a lot like a muscle."

Students: indiscernible mumbling. I assume it was "did she really just say the W word on the 3rd day of school?"

Teacher: "The more you write the stronger you get. So, we are going to write as often as possible." (Still afraid to say "everyday.")

Students: collective eye roll, murmurs along the lines of "Are you kidding me? Writing is dumb. I've never written ever in my whole life." And so on. 

Teacher: "I am going to start a timer for ten minutes. You can't let your pencil or pen stop moving, even if that means you need to doodle a little between thoughts. Write about whatever you want. Questions?"

Crickets.

Teacher: "Ready set write."

Then, I watched and waited for the rebellion. And I waited, and waited. I only had one kid today who I had to get on to about not writing. My other 172 students scribbled away. Some took a break to stretch their fingers dramatically, but that's it. 

The Miracle

When the time ended and I said stop they asked if they could keep writing. They begged, pleaded, and snuck in a few more words after time ended. I'm serious. I wouldn't lie about something this crazy. Really, I don't think I could make it up. I kept telling them no. They had to stop writing now. Which led to their followup question: "When are we going to write like this again?" I answered, "Tomorrow and everyday after that."

And then I died and went to English teacher heaven. 

Everything is so SHINY!!

This year I am so lucky to be able to move into a brand. new. school. Can I get a WHAT WHAT!! In my almost nine years of teaching, I've had the opportunity to do this two other times. BUT, each time I ended up leaving the school right before it opened. This time I was staying put. NOTHING and NO ONE could pry my fingers away from this school this time.

Genius

My favorite part of teaching is getting my room ready and for the last three years, I haven't had a chance to do diddly squat because I wasn't moving rooms. So, this time, I took all my previous experience and built my perfect classroom. The best part is I actually had room to do everything I wanted.

The first is a dedicated turn in station away from my desk. It has a place for papers as well as buckets for when the students turn in their composition notebooks.

Most excellent

Then, of course I had to have a place for my rules. You can get these rule memes here. And, I love to sew. SOOO... if there are bare windows, I am all over it. 

Informative, yet still funny.

Moving on, we have a GIANT wall that I really didn't know what to do with. I had hoped they would just put another white board up and call it a day, but now I'm so thankful they left it blank. I have my Writing Icons wall that we will add to all year and a place for storing notebooks.

I made those shelves from crates I found at Wal-Mart. I had the stain and paint at home already. I didn't have enough of either to do all the crates, and I'm glad for that. The two-tones together looks very sophisticated if I do say so myself.

My agenda board is the only thing that I brought over from my old school. The letter are dicuts that I laminated. I don't think I'd be able to live without my giant agenda.

On the way out the door, we have my cell phone station. My principal (aka Mrs. Principal) bought these for us this year because we are doing a BYOD pilot program. During tests and on days when having their phone is a no-no, the student can turn them in to a neutral location and take the numbered card. Mrs. Principal stressed that the holders are clear so the students can glance over and see that their lifeblood hasn't been harmed.












The desks here are different from anything I've ever had before. First of all they kind of link together to make a flat table which is great because I use a lot of group activities.




Each group has a little tool box of assorting things like glue, crayons, colored pencils, highlighters and sticky notes. Of course, I have freshmen, so I had to give them a little warning.

Finally, the class points wall. It's much more colorful than it has been in the past. This system has helped me so much in the years I've used it. My kids actually compete to be the best behaved class when there's a sub. If that's all it got me, then I'll take it.

Then, there's this. A classroom must have. 

The excitement is tangible as I walk down the hallways of my new school. I feel like a first year teacher again. I can't wait for Monday!

Elementary invades Secondary

Elementary vs. Secondary

The gap between elementary and secondary isn't just middle school. For the most part, secondary teachers stay away from elementary teachers. Just walk into their respective classrooms and you'll see one reason why.

AHHHH!! MY EYES!!

Peaceful, zen, orderly... much better

And there are other reasons: their enthusiastic demeanor, endless optimism, tolerance for bodily secretions. I'm sure our sharp sarcasm, minimalistic classrooms, and constant complaints about having over a hundred kids instead of twenty-five don't do well to bridge the gap between our worlds. 

However, I don't want to discount everything they do in their classes as "little kid" stuff that would never work in my "big kid" class. After all, their little kids are still living inside every one (of my 157) kids sitting in my stark, white classroom. 

My Adventure with the Dangerous Game

I thought I'd try out one of the most famous aspects of elementary school: centers (dun-dun-duuuuunnnnnn). The first thing I realized on my road to creating centers (after I thought about how I have no space to let kids mingle about in my sardine can of a room) was they are A LOT of work. Seriously! How does any one person plan center after center throughout the year? That endless optimism must come in handy for them because geez! 

But, after I did the work I didn't have to do ANY. THING. ELSE. I just released the hounds students and they began chiseling away at their work. Sure, I had to help when we switched stations to ensure no one got lost along the way, and there were some that didn't understand the directions here and there, but for the most part they kids helped each other while I sat back and watched the magic happen. Then I thought, no wonder elementary teachers do this. It's like putting on a movie (that you made) and letting them sit and watch it. 

Get it here.

I plan to use more centers this year, and I'm going to start my year with this one I made for Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game." I am going to make a few changes this year. Last year, we read the story without stopping to talk about anything. Just plowed right on through. As an English teacher that was hard, but the point is to let the students discover meaning on their own, not spoon-feed it to them, so leave your spoons at home. After reading, I gave the students numbers 1-9. Whichever number they got, that's where they began. We did three centers per day, but that wasn't really enough time for the kids to finish each station so I have a lot of them in tutoring to get done. This year, I'll probably do two centers per day. It doesn't matter what order the centers are done in either. At the end, they turn in every paper with a silhouette of an island on the bottom. It's that easy. And the grading wasn't too bad either. 

The best thing I learned from doing centers was that I shouldn't stay away from those bubbly elementary teachers. They could have just the thing my classroom is missing. And I don't mean thousands of colors. 

Happy teaching!

Expository: Fight the Boring

It doesn't have to be painful...

I have a confession to make. I hate reading expository texts. There, I said it. Unfortunately, Texas has decided that expository is the mother of all writing. So, here I am a few weeks away from the beginning of school and I am thinking about the one thing I hate the most. 

What is it about expository that makes it so awful uninteresting to me? I mean, I really like watching documentaries, the news, listening to NPR. All of those are expository texts. Non-fiction and informational. All the things I say I don't like. But I can't get enough. I am such a news junkie that my two year old asks to watch the news instead of cartoons. So, it can't be the "entertainment value" that turns me off to cracking open an article and reading it. It must be something else. 

I went to my thinking spot and thought, thought, thought, and I realized. I just don't like teaching non-fiction. Usually when faced with teaching an article, I don't know what to do beyond read it and talk about it. How boring for everyone involved in the process of learning. 

Proposed Solution

First, I have to chose expository texts that are high interest. The internet will help me out with that I'm sure. I used one last year about the Shia and Sunnis using Romeo and Juliet to change Iraq (It's FREE). The kids really liked it. But I didn't do a great job of teaching the article. At the end of the unit, I patted myself on the back for working non-fiction in to the Romeo and Juliet unit, but I could totally do better. 

Secondly, I need a WAY of teaching the text that allows the students to take ownership of what they are reading and eventually turn reading into writing. Easier said than done, I know. But I created this graphic organizer as a start. It can be used with any expository text. And I think it can be used in elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms. So far, it's a step in the right direction. 

In conclusion

Step 1: high interest texts

Step 2: a guide to analyzing the high interest text that leads to writing

Let me know how you integrate non-fiction articles in your curriculum and what you use to do it. 

Until then, happy teaching!!