Writing

Revising/Editing

So revising and editing can surely be a pain with 7 and 8 year olds. Those are the days that I wanted to pull my hair out and go home and cry. However, I learned so much during that time as did the students. That is where the meat of the teaching is. It taught me how to be patient and circulate through a room. The students learned how to be patient, wait their turn, and look to table members or other classmates as a resource instead of just myself. I believe they learned how to be independent and ask for help from me only when they truly needed it. They also found the benefits in finishing their writing such as free choice of freewriting, library, or reading to self.


So I found an idea on pinterest of writing about colors.

I loved, loved, loved this creative writing! Ugh my favorite! But as you know, every teacher has to put their twist on things they find. I wanted to include sensory words! That is one area we were lacking on in both of my writing classes. So I made sure that the students had one couplet that they did with a partner but the other two could be two sentence poems that don't have to rhyme but must be about spring colors. (There was a lot more put into this idea in stages throughout about 2 weeks...then we got to revising/editing.)

So I was looking through their writing of course and my heart melted like warm butter on a freshly baked biscuit! They were AWESOME! GREAT! SPECTACULAR! WONDERFUL! LOVELY! DARING! Oh no, there were too many sensory words in some! It was SENSORY OVERLOAD! There was no way I could keep it like that. It reminded me of a Christmas tree that had way too many ornaments and decorations on it. It was coherent. So then came the Christmas Tree Revising Idea!

I told the kids I had thought about it. I told them that some people had too much. Some people had too many. I sat them down on the floor and told them how I felt. How I was sad, how I was going "sensory word crazy!". They loved it of course. Then we started talking about Christmas trees. The analogy was awesome for them. They totally got it. I basically guided the discussion and they helped me write down five examples of revising and where they could be on scale of 1 to 5. We had a bare Christmas tree all the way to a way too decorated tree. We talked about words to describe each tree and an example sentence. Now this example sentence only pertained to what we were working on. You could certainly change your examples to when you are studying strong verbs, juicy color words, adjectives, a perfect sentence, etc.

So once the discussing was done at the floor the kids went right to revising. First I told them that they need to go to other people before me. I knew it would be hard, I knew it would be something new. I knew, I knew, I knew. But I told them that they have several other people here to help them. Even if they aren't best friends. That's where my Crab Trap talk came in (I serve tables at a beachside restuarant). I told them that even if I wasn't best friends with someone, we worked as a team. If I wasn't busy while waiting tables and someone asked for my help I would do anything they needed because I knew they couldn't get something done without the help. However, if I was super busy and someone asked for my help I would kindly tell them that I can't help right now but if you still need me when I'm finsihed with what I'm doing I would be more than happy to help them.

As I circulated through the room to help my students I heard this table talk. ACTUALLY, I heard this "classroom talk". Students loved that they could go to anyone. I was so impressed. It took me a long time to get to this point. I'm talking 7 months long! But we did it. They did it. We learned this process together and I will be much more effective next year.

This was one of my favorite teaching moments of this past year.

MODEL MODEL MODEL MODEL MODEL! THEN TALK ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Here were some finished products!

A Community of Writers

So when I started teaching this past year the last thing I thought I would enjoy most was writing. Wow did it surprise me. I think it was really my kids though. I mean they are extremely imaginative and soaked in every word I said. I pushed them and they rised to the occasion. Once again, another thing that I have learned.

Writing Time PDF

Writing Time

I was really tough on my kids and writing was difficult at first. The most difficult for my students was free writing. I'm not sure if it was the fact that they had just come from first grade and I was asking them to write for 15+ minutes at a time. THIS WAS DIFFICULT -for me and for them. So we did a lot of thinking about writing before we would write. Then the kids would write. I was thinking "this is great!" Boy I was wrong. They weren't writing. So I had to make them share afterwards and comment on writing. Eventually we all got it.

How did we get it though? HOW, HOW, HOW?

I used their writing to set the basis for expectations of great writing. We talked about all positives and what good writing should sound and look like. I remember the one day that I was exceptionally dramatic over one students writing and I fell to the floor. Yes, I did. And they LOVED it! I then told them what I LOVED about his writing. From that day on I told them that they have to listen to writing as a writer then talk about what was so great about that writing. We looked for the good in each piece of writing, as a writer. I was very dramatic. I always showed them an example and non example of how to critique. I would say, "Don't say your writing was good. I liked it. It was good. That was a good part. Instead I want you to listen and say that I really love that juicy color word you used and your sensory words. They were great!"

To make this long story a little shorter, the kids picked up on it. They would say when they loved a strong verb or juicy color word. They would comment on great adjectives. Oh man, this makes me sad. I had two wonderful writing classes. They taught me so much. They taught me how to provide a community of learners. We each loved and valued each others work and wanted to hear it. My kids eventually floated freely through the classroom and helped one another.

Believe me it was hard. But hard work pays off. I approached each writing assignment knowing that I was going to work my BUTT off! I was going to make them go in writing where they had never gone before. I know they will be strong in the years to come. 90% of them at least.

My last piece of advice is make them write. Make them write, make them write, make them write. And then make them talk about it. Talk about it, write, talk about it, write. SHARE, SHARE, SHARE. Your kids will learn far more than they ever could about writing and grammar than they will using a basal. You will see results. I promise!

I will share lots of writing samples as well to show you.


Another useful tool from www.reallygoodstuff.com helped me out:

VOICES: Menu for Writing

If you happen to go on pinterest I am sure you see many things on it that you want to implement in your classroom. Well, I have one that I am putting into practice for sure! It is VOICES- Voice, Organization, Idea Development, Conventions, Excellent Word Choice, and Sentence Fluency. Yes, it is the 6 traits of writing but I love the idea of the menu. I have already made one with all lessons that I think would be vital in each component and that I will add to the board. I aligned my standards for Florida to each lesson and I color-coded to show each nine weeks to go with it. Here is a look!
Language Arts Curriculum Overview with VOICES