Nurturing Young Writers:Supporting the Development of Dispositions, Process, and Craft

Angela StockmanWNY Education Associates

stockmanangela@gmail.com

Coming Together as a Community

Photo by Silvia Tolisano

We Connect Through Our Stories

We believe that all

people are born

writers and that

the act of writing

enables us to communicate our

needs, raise our

voices, connect

and learn from

others, and heal

our lives as well as

the world. At Studio, we learn

how to honor and

support the writer

in everyone, because writers

make the world a

better place.

We All Need to Leave Our Mark on the World

http://tinyurl.com/27u6wa8

What Will Yours Be?

http://tinyurl.com/28xbnyz

What is the difference between real writing and….

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functional writing?

WHEREDO

YOU INVEST

THE MOST ENERGY?

THE MOST IMPORTANT

WRITINGINSTRUMENT

TOPUTIN

THEIRHANDS

BALANCEBUILDSBETTER

WRITERS

Being vs. Doing

What I’m learning about being a good writer:

WE ACT AND WRITE WITH COURAGE

WE SEEK UNDERSTANDING BEFORE DOING

WE PERSEVERE

WE COLLABORATE

WE SHARE OUR EXPERTISE

WE GIVE OF OURSELVES AND ACT WITH KINDNESS

WE REFLECT ON WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE ARE GOING, AND HOW WE PLAN TO GET THERE

WE KNOW THAT WRITING IS OFTEN A SLOW PROCESS

WE TRY TO DEVELOP BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING OUR OWN WORK AND HELPING OTHERS

WITHIN COMMUNITIES, WE ARE ALL WRITERS AND LEARNERS

AND ALL OF US MUST TEACH.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefield/1119389/

“Real Writers”and “Real Writing”

Have Certain Dispositions in Common....

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COURAGE

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UNDERSTANDING

PERSEVERANCE

REFLECTION

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EXPERTISE

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They are….CONNECTED

COLLABORATIVEENGAGED

Community Fellows Strive to Embody Certain

Dispositions

• Courage and Initiative

• Understanding

• Perseverance

• Reflection

• Expertise

• Cooperation and Collaboration

Which Support the

Writer's Process

• Prewriting

• Drafting

• Peer-Review

• Editing

• Revising

• Publishing

Allowing for the Development of

Writer's Craft

• Compelling Ideas

• Engaging Voice

• Effective Word Choice

• Clear Organization

• Fluent Sentences

• Proper Use of Conventions

Where Do Process and Craft Fit In? Envisioning a Year of Writing Together

Draw Your

Writing Process

Growing the Good

What do you currently do to support young writers well?

Consider:CurriculumInstructionAssessment

Management

THE WRITING PROCESS

PrewritingDrafting

Peer-ReviewRevisionEditing

Exhibition

Which parts of the process show up most

in your classroom? Least?Why?

Writing is a Process

Make time for tinkering!

PREWRITING

What does this look like?

Strategies for Support:

PromptsArtifactsPicturesMusicVideo

MovementEquations

RAFTSConversation

Web Tools

Traits to Focus on During Pre-Writing:

IDEAS

ORGANIZATION

IDEAS• Invite or inspire pre-writing activities.

• Come from our experiences, our connections, and our previous understandings.

• May be generated from artifacts, photographs, movement, music, conversation, guided brainstorming and more…..

• Require good writers to select appropriate MODES and to define their PURPOSES.

• Move readers from general to more refined topics.

• Inspire careful observation.

• Require independent use of higher level thought.

Considering MODES and PURPOSECOMMON TEXT TYPES (MODES)

Narrative Text

Expository/Informational Text

Procedural Text

Poetic

Functional

Hybrid

COMMON PURPOSES FOR WRITING

To Persuade

To Describe

To Inform

To Think

To Connect/Collaborate

To Build Collective Intelligence

How Do We Help Writers Generate Their OWN Innovative Ideas?

And how do we intervene when writers

struggle to generate their own

ideas?

Organization“Organization is what you do

before you do something so that when you do it

it’s not all mixed up.”

Winnie the Poohhttp://blog.wired.com/geekdad/books/index.html

Organization• Requires that writers develop an INVITING lead for that provokes

questioning and curiosity.

• Inspires a body of work that attends to these questions and curiosities in a logical manner.

• Relies upon smooth transitions and the articulation of turning points and resolutions.

• Requires a conclusion that satisfies the questions and curiosities provoked by the lead and may inspire new ones. It does not, however, introduce new information.

ORGANIZATIONWHAT IT IS….

A lead that “hooks” reader and provokes questions.

A core that provides details in a logical manner and transitions between them smoothly.

An ending that satisfies the questions raised within the work.

HOW WE SUPPORT IT…

Mentor Text Tear Downs

Writing on the Grid

Story Boarding

Traits to Focus On As We Draft

IDEAS

ORGANIZATION

VOICE

VOICE• The “sound” of the writer or the speaker.

• Tone that is appropriate to the task.

• Commitment to the piece—involvement.

• Attention to the topic.

Voice• Requires that writers shift the way they speak in

response to MODE and PURPOSE.

• Invites diversity and complexity.

• Built when students take RISKS.

• Thrives in a comfortable atmosphere.

• Suffers when we overemphasize formulaic processes or models.

Exploring mentor texts

leads

endings

in-betweens

Writers Need STRATEGIES That Help Them CRAFT Voice

• Hearing Voices

• Give-Aways:

• Add-Ons

• Messing With Sentences

WORD CHOICE

“The race in writing is not to the swift, but to the original.”

----William Zinsser

Word Choice• Original words

• Precise words

• Engaging words

• Varied words

• Attention to dialect and formality

Post-It Poetry

Sentence fluency

• Fluent sentences appeal to the ear and the eye.

• They vary in length and structure.

• They convey character, emotion, and reveal voice.

• Rhythm, rhyme, and repetition of vowel and consonant sounds effect fluency.

Beyond Peer-Conferencing:

Peer Review

ProcessesModeling With Fishbowl

AssessmentIntervention

Coaching With Push/Pause

Traits to Focus On During Peer-Review

IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

WORD CHOICE

SENTENCE FLUENCY

EDITING

How are YOU strong as an editor?

Differentiating the peer-editing process

Traits to Focus On As We Edit

IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

WORD CHOICE

SENTENCE FLUENCY

CONVENTIONS

CONVENTIONS: THE LAST CONVERSATION• Attending to conventions happens at

the END of the writing process.

• Effective writers understand why editing is necessary. Strong writers know that editing isn’t merely about “fixing up” writing.

• Edits are intentional, effective, and do not strip the work of voice, ideas, or fluency. They BUILD it.

Coaching Creative Theft

Find the Assessment

What Does Effective Assessment of Writing Look Like?

What Makes for Adequate Practice?What Makes for Suitable Practice?

Let’s PlayUse the materials provided to explore and

design instructional approaches that will meet the needs of your students.

Be prepared to share your work during peer-review, gather feedback from your

colleagues, and share your growing expertise with others.

ReferencesGray, Theresa (2006). Slideshare. Writing Frameworks. Retrieved January 21, 2009 from:

http://www.slideshare.net/TGray/writing-frameworks

Martin-Kniep, Giselle O. Communities That Lead, Learn, and Last: Building and Sustaining Educational Expertise. California: Jossey-Bass, 2008.

National Board for Professional Teacher Standards. “What Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do: The Five Core Propositions.” Retrieved Aug. 21, 2008 from http://www.nbpts.org/the_standards/the_five_core_propositions

Stockman, Angela (2008-Present). WNY Young Writers’ Studio. Presented at Daemen College, Amherst, NY and the Kenan Center, Lockport, NY.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs were taken by Angela Stockman, who was given permission to use them by the subject and parents, when necessary.