It was interesting to read about Atwell’s perspectives on the various forms of writing in her classrooms. I like how she describes memoir as a way to “look for the past and make sense of it” (p.372), which I think is a valuable life skill because I think so much of growing up involves laying the past to rest. I love how she keeps including so much of her students’ writing in the book; I think it really shows how sensitive kids are to the life experiences and that they have much potential with guidance. I can picture myself using her “B-A-A-A-A-D Memoir” example of what not to do as a mini lesson for writing. I’ve never pictured myself sharing my own writing with my students, but she’s convinced met that modeling is one of the most useful tools in the classroom. I was honestly surprised to hear about her initial negativity towards fiction in the classroom. I guess I’ve always assumed that reading bad writing come with the territory and that you develop immunity to it over time! Her comment about 2/3 of her students saying that her fiction mini-lessons were the best part of class at the end of the year shows how important it is to include this type of writing in the classroom. I like her main character questionnaire activity, but I think it would be great for the students to fill it out with their own voice first. They already see themselves as a whole person, but to get them to think about all of the little bits and pieces that flesh out who they are will help them create more holistic characters. Is there any meaning to the fact that Atwell’s fiction chapter comes after the personal narrative chapter, but Smagorinsky’s personal narrative chapter comes after the fiction? Smagorinsky’s main point for both of the chapters seem to be that writing well is not an inherent ability, and if we want are students to become better writers we must coach them. Like Atwell, Smagorinsky uses modeling and critical thinking about the writing process as one of the primary teaching tools for this type of lesson. I love the dumpster picture and alley sounds activity from “Mrs. Alva’s” class. Sometimes it is difficult to settle on a topic, this is a great activity to get your students thinking. The example of describing a shell in detail honestly seems trite; I think the dumpster activity would work to the same purpose, whether for fiction or personal narrative writing. No matter what, the point is that most writers just don’t sit down and write something that can be immediately published. Good writing takes time, and lots of effort, and for the most part, is constructed on an intricate web of formulas that bring details, plots, and themes alive.
I fell into the category of a using the personal narrative as a jumping off point as a new teacher. I figured this would work every time in getting students to write. I know we’ve discussed that sometimes still even we need prompts. I guess that should have been a hint! But writing a memoir is kind of a perfect answer to this. “Memoir is how writers look for the past and make sense of it. We figure out who we are, who we have become, and what it means to us and to the lives of others; a memoir puts the events of a life in perspective for the writer and for those who read it.” (Atwell, 1998; p. 372). It gets students to think more about their experiences, instead of just telling what happened. It also works great when sharing with the class because it offers something for them to chime in on, too. I liked the idea of presenting a poorly done memoir and talking about what makes it so; in the end there is a list of the qualities of a memoir that students have made themselves.
I really liked the questionnaire idea to help students understand their main characters (Atwell, 1998; p. 403-404). This activity helps students focus on developing the character instead of having plot driven characters. It’s important to always let the story go where the character wants to go.
Smagorinsky 3&4
I like how in depth this chapter got into teaching students how to write suspense pieces. The whole procedure seems like it would be very engaging to students for the most part. They get to read and listen to suspense stories that would (hopefully) interest them, evaluate them, and then begin writing their own. I believe after going through other stories, they would be motivated to try their hand at it. After listening to the stories the students end up with their own list of the qualities that should be included in their stories. Chapter 4 reminded me about memoirs from Atwell’s book. This chapter provided more of the details and steps to get to the end. I really liked the activity, “What is That Smell I Feel?” (Smagorinsky, 2010; p. 65-66). Getting students to remember to include all the sensory details is difficult; it’s always been something I struggled with. This activity reminds students of all the different ways they can describe something using all of their senses. I thought it was pretty clever.
In this week’s reading, the two chapters from In the Middle (Atwell, 1998) and the two chapters from The Dynamics of Writing Instruction (Smagorinsky, Johannessen, Kahn, & McCann, 2010) discuss the instructional practices of teaching how to write memoirs, personal experience stories and fictional pieces. Smagorinsky et al. explain that personal experience narratives are a chance for students to “think about their own lives” (2010, p. 56) in order to write a piece that examines a personal experience that will emotionally affect and engage the reader. In order to teach students how to start a personal narrative and then how to enhance it, Smagorinsky et al. suggest a series of steps that scaffold the instruction to make the writing process more accessible. Indeed, for both the personal narrative and for fiction, they suggest a series of steps to take when teaching students how to write including “gateway activities,” procedural lessons, activation of prior knowledge, grammar mini-lessons, and group work. Smagorinsky et al. present their lessons with confidence.
Conversely, Nancie Atwell approaches fiction more reluctantly at first. She discusses how some children have trouble grasping how to write a fictional narrative because they tend to try to create stories with perfect endings and cliché plots. However, Atwell seems to adopt the scaffolding approach like in Smagorinsky et al. and finds that her students really are capable of writing fiction after all. Atwell differs from Smagorinky et al. in that she separates the personal experience narrative as a “telling” story from the personal memoir, which she describes as a means through which the writer can share details and celebrate life. She perfectly describes the purpose of the memoir when she asks, “What could this genre do for us as writers?” (1998, p. 392). Indeed, what can the memoir do for us? We see in “Mother’s day” and the many other examples given between the two texts, that memoirs become “literary nonfiction” or creative nonfiction narratives in which we and our students can not only develop critical thinking and analysis skills, but also creative, writing, and reasoning skills, too. Personally, I have found the memoir form both therapeutic and useful for developing my own writing because sometimes it is easier to write about something I know. “Mother’s Day” is a good example of a student developing such skills. The student uses a personal experience and develops it past the point of listing details to reach an ultimate reflective conclusion in both a logical and engaging manner.
Atwell and Smagorinsky both admit that writing fiction is a challenge in the classroom. I really enjoyed Atwell's quote from chapter 12 - "the paradox of good fiction is how easy it is to enter a fictional world as a reader, and how hard it is to create one as a writer" (p. 393). Although this seems like such an obvious idea, I had never thought much about it in the context of the classroom before now. Like Smagorinsky, I believe that it is important to encourage fictional writing inside the classroom because students are writing creatively outside of the classroom. If students are going to practice writing creatively on their own, it is important that teachers give them the background knowledge of what good fiction entails, and useful procedures for writing good fiction. I like that Smagorinsky uses prompts to stimulate thought in her students, and also leads them through a series of pre-writing activities that eventually become a "set of procedures for how to write" (p.38). Atwell practices a similar procedure and has her students keep a copy of the "mini-handbook" that is edited over time as students read more and learn new rules (p.397). The strength of developing a handbook such as this with your students is that they are not only reading more closely and with a purpose, they are also learning critical literary skills for writing literature. Unlike the writing of fiction, which is not common practice in the classroom, writing memoir or personal narratives is a familiar experience of any student who thinks back on their classroom days. Rather than ask students to write the standard 'tell me what you did over the summer' piece, teachers must train their students to recognize and utilize the important features of a good memoir. Atwell and Smagorinsky both agree that good narratives elicit an emotional response from the reader, are descriptive, contain dialogue where necessary and most importantly, they teach both the writer and the reader something about life. I like how Atwell calls memoir the "writer's truth," (p.375) and I could not agree more with her belief that memoir helps the writer make sense of the past. My personal experience as a student in the classroom was very much like how both Atwell and Smagorinsky described - writing fiction was rarely, if ever, encouraged, and writing memoir was a basic exercise that seemed almost too routine. These chapters offered valuable procedures for teachers to use in the classroom that will encourage students to write meaningful material that they would want to read themselves. With proper instruction, students will not only become better writers, but will learn a little bit more about themselves and the world through the process of writing.
I was really interested to read Atwell’s opinion that memoir-writing is “the easiest place for a beginning teacher to jump from” (370) but it’s not necessarily the most engaging topic for students. She writes that her students’ work as “poets, parodists, essayists, reporters, dramatists, petitioners, and short story writers felt more interesting, satisfying, and grown-up than chronicling more of their experiences” (372). While I’ve never thought about it in those terms before, that does, in hindsight, ring true to me personally. When forced to write personal narratives for things like college essays, I never felt that my life was interesting enough to warrant discussion, nor was my writing skill developed enough to make a little moment interesting. That’s why I like her idea of scaffolding via mechanical work first. If you can get a student to recognize that a piece is at least technically sound, then that’s a positive first step you can build from. Plus, judging from Atwell’s students’ writing, children as young as eighth grade have already had some incredible experiences, and they can write well enough to convey them vividly.
Just as valuable are the activities and lists she provides from pages 389 to 392. Her “B-A-A-A-D Memoir” activity seems like a good introduction to the topic of memoir writing, and could be adapted to other genres like fiction or poetry. The teacher can present an example of bad writing and let students make it better. I also like her list of memoirs to read or excerpt from. It’s always good to have grade-level, appropriate reading material to model from. Likewise, the questionnaire she provides for fiction writing (404) is a good starting point for that genre, too. While I worry that it would create a character that’s paint-by-the-numbers, that’s not necessarily a bad place for a beginning writer to start.
I can see myself using the activities that Smagorinsky et al. offer, too. The gateway activity (59) of describing shoes or seashells seems like a good, simple way to get into descriptive writing. Students have an everyday object to focus on, but they also get the immediate feedback from their peers about whether or not their descriptions were effective. The idea of focusing on particular sensory details (66) as an entry point to a story is also interesting to me, especially the way the book approaches smell. The prompts for memoir-writing (68) are also more precise questions to get students thinking, which is likely preferable to saying something vague like, “Write about your life.”
Chapters 11 and 12 of In the Middle demonstrate how to effectively develop the writing of memoirs and fiction within the classroom. I really appreciated Atwell’s approach to this process, especially in comparison to the structured process approach outlined in The Dynamics of Writing Instruction. One way that Atwell involved her students in the writing process was through modeling. She modeled by way of using negative and positive examples of writing. What I found most effective was her use of a “terrible memoir.” By allowing the students to dissect it, she was helping them to come to their own conclusions about what creates a successful memoir. As her class developed a list of what wasn’t working, the students were, in effect, creating a list of what does work in writing a memoir. This transitions nicely into peer-editing activities. Students now have a list of what to look for, namely, what factors contributes to effective writing.
Another strategy that Atwell employed that I found particularly effective involved sharing the thought process involved with writing. She further modeled the writing process by doing this. Atwell states, “I took them inside my head in order to demonstrate the questions I wanted them to ask themselves as writers of fiction” (p. 397). In my opinion, this facet of modeling is often overlooked on the part of a teacher. It is easy to assume that students are already asking these questions and processing their writing in this way. Since we can’t read minds however, we really have no way of assessing this process. We can however prompt them to follow these thought processes if we first take them through the steps.
I also appreciated how Atwell broke down the process of writing fiction. As readers of fiction, we often get so caught up in how great a story is, that we fail to notice the subtle nuances of the way an author uses various techniques to build the story. Atwell looked to various authors to examine just what ways authors develop characters, employ dialogue, and use point of view. She then helped her students to read as writers in a similar manner. Her students could then identify what components make up great fiction, and they could start to travel down that road as writers themselves.
In Smagorinsky chapters 3 and 4 there is a lot to take in on teaching different kinds of narratives. I really liked the gateway activity in chapter three that used an image to get students thinking about suspense narratives. The idea that students can take a lot from one image is great. It reminds me of when Olivia was teaching her lesson last Thursday. We were supposed write down words that come to mind when we looked at the image she posted. We all had so many different ideas. By doing this gateway activity, teachers can not only get the students thinking on the topic, but they can assess what students already know and have a sense of how much scaffolding the students will need on the topic. In chapter four, I was a fan of the section that discussed using sensory details in a narrative. I could relate to this because it was something I struggled with until I started working on my college essay. My junior year English teacher sat me down and asked me to explain the moment, but I was not in the moment. She made me go back and be in the moment and I produced a piece of writing that I will be forever proud of. This is something I want to make sure that my students use someday. In Atwell’s chapters on memoirs and fiction, I was not surprised to see so many student examples. I love reading all of the different things that she puts in her chapters because they make me look forward to reading my own students’ writing some day. I always thought that using my own writing as a jumping off point would be a good idea because it gives the students a small piece of you and also the idea that it is okay to write something personal or just about their own life. They do not always have to make something up or research a topic; it can be personal. I was somewhat surprised at her distaste for fiction in the classroom; I did not really see that coming. She seemed very judgmental when she says, “their fiction overwhelmed me. It was so bad I didn’t know where to begin by way of response…” (Atwell, 1998, p. 393). So I was happy to keep reading and see that she started to embrace it because her students needed her to. There was a lot going on, but Atwell has consistently showed us that being there for your students can be the most important part of learning
I was not surprised to read that creative writing was the least taught subject area in English language arts classes. English classes are too focused on essay writing and analysis papers to spend any time on creativity or writing a narrative. I think students are losing out on an important aspect of English. Creative writing opens new doors to teaching grammar. I liked the grammatical and stylistic lesson ideas in Smagorinsky. Instead of creating generic grammar lessons, attaching them to a creative writing assignment gives them immediate relevance and meaning. These assignments give students a chance to learn grammatical construction that may not come up in class otherwise: “In a structured process approach, grammar, mechanics, and usage are addressed . . . teach students the conventions for using and punctuating dialogue” (Smagorinsky, Johannessen, Kahn, & McCann, 2010, p. 46). I like the idea of structuring certain grammar lessons around another assignment and students’ own writing. Like using essays or papers, creative assignments give students and teachers a chance to have a dialogue about grammar, its function in literature, and why it’s important to retain. Like reading, students need a reason in order for it to matter.
Personal narratives, memoirs, and nonfiction are great ways to engage students personally with what they are doing in school. Whether personal narratives are used first or second in the creative assignments list is something the teacher should decide based on each class. Some classes may benefit from learning the structure of a creative assignment, learning about detail and descriptions, and some important grammatical structures that are imperative to creative writing. Other classes may need that personal connection to engage and establish their writing first. Personal narratives give students a chance to connect with each other on another level. Instead of gossiping in the hall or complaining about homework, students can engage with other using an academic assignment. They are telling each other about their lives: who they are, how they have changed, what they have learned, and who matters most to them. This gives students a chance to layer their social, emotional, and academic lives. Many students try to compartmentalize the various aspects of their lives. Learning takes place when the various aspects of students’ lives are engaged and included in the process. Creative writing is a great way to engage students various compartments and feel included, engaged, and accomplished.
It was interesting to read about Atwell’s perspectives on the various forms of writing in her classrooms. I like how she describes memoir as a way to “look for the past and make sense of it” (p.372), which I think is a valuable life skill because I think so much of growing up involves laying the past to rest. I love how she keeps including so much of her students’ writing in the book; I think it really shows how sensitive kids are to the life experiences and that they have much potential with guidance. I can picture myself using her “B-A-A-A-A-D Memoir” example of what not to do as a mini lesson for writing. I’ve never pictured myself sharing my own writing with my students, but she’s convinced met that modeling is one of the most useful tools in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI was honestly surprised to hear about her initial negativity towards fiction in the classroom. I guess I’ve always assumed that reading bad writing come with the territory and that you develop immunity to it over time! Her comment about 2/3 of her students saying that her fiction mini-lessons were the best part of class at the end of the year shows how important it is to include this type of writing in the classroom. I like her main character questionnaire activity, but I think it would be great for the students to fill it out with their own voice first. They already see themselves as a whole person, but to get them to think about all of the little bits and pieces that flesh out who they are will help them create more holistic characters.
Is there any meaning to the fact that Atwell’s fiction chapter comes after the personal narrative chapter, but Smagorinsky’s personal narrative chapter comes after the fiction? Smagorinsky’s main point for both of the chapters seem to be that writing well is not an inherent ability, and if we want are students to become better writers we must coach them. Like Atwell, Smagorinsky uses modeling and critical thinking about the writing process as one of the primary teaching tools for this type of lesson. I love the dumpster picture and alley sounds activity from “Mrs. Alva’s” class. Sometimes it is difficult to settle on a topic, this is a great activity to get your students thinking. The example of describing a shell in detail honestly seems trite; I think the dumpster activity would work to the same purpose, whether for fiction or personal narrative writing. No matter what, the point is that most writers just don’t sit down and write something that can be immediately published. Good writing takes time, and lots of effort, and for the most part, is constructed on an intricate web of formulas that bring details, plots, and themes alive.
Atwell 11&12
ReplyDeleteI fell into the category of a using the personal narrative as a jumping off point as a new teacher. I figured this would work every time in getting students to write. I know we’ve discussed that sometimes still even we need prompts. I guess that should have been a hint! But writing a memoir is kind of a perfect answer to this. “Memoir is how writers look for the past and make sense of it. We figure out who we are, who we have become, and what it means to us and to the lives of others; a memoir puts the events of a life in perspective for the writer and for those who read it.” (Atwell, 1998; p. 372). It gets students to think more about their experiences, instead of just telling what happened. It also works great when sharing with the class because it offers something for them to chime in on, too. I liked the idea of presenting a poorly done memoir and talking about what makes it so; in the end there is a list of the qualities of a memoir that students have made themselves.
I really liked the questionnaire idea to help students understand their main characters (Atwell, 1998; p. 403-404). This activity helps students focus on developing the character instead of having plot driven characters. It’s important to always let the story go where the character wants to go.
Smagorinsky 3&4
I like how in depth this chapter got into teaching students how to write suspense pieces. The whole procedure seems like it would be very engaging to students for the most part. They get to read and listen to suspense stories that would (hopefully) interest them, evaluate them, and then begin writing their own. I believe after going through other stories, they would be motivated to try their hand at it. After listening to the stories the students end up with their own list of the qualities that should be included in their stories.
Chapter 4 reminded me about memoirs from Atwell’s book. This chapter provided more of the details and steps to get to the end. I really liked the activity, “What is That Smell I Feel?” (Smagorinsky, 2010; p. 65-66). Getting students to remember to include all the sensory details is difficult; it’s always been something I struggled with. This activity reminds students of all the different ways they can describe something using all of their senses. I thought it was pretty clever.
In this week’s reading, the two chapters from In the Middle (Atwell, 1998) and the two chapters from The Dynamics of Writing Instruction (Smagorinsky, Johannessen, Kahn, & McCann, 2010) discuss the instructional practices of teaching how to write memoirs, personal experience stories and fictional pieces. Smagorinsky et al. explain that personal experience narratives are a chance for students to “think about their own lives” (2010, p. 56) in order to write a piece that examines a personal experience that will emotionally affect and engage the reader. In order to teach students how to start a personal narrative and then how to enhance it, Smagorinsky et al. suggest a series of steps that scaffold the instruction to make the writing process more accessible. Indeed, for both the personal narrative and for fiction, they suggest a series of steps to take when teaching students how to write including “gateway activities,” procedural lessons, activation of prior knowledge, grammar mini-lessons, and group work. Smagorinsky et al. present their lessons with confidence.
ReplyDeleteConversely, Nancie Atwell approaches fiction more reluctantly at first. She discusses how some children have trouble grasping how to write a fictional narrative because they tend to try to create stories with perfect endings and cliché plots. However, Atwell seems to adopt the scaffolding approach like in Smagorinsky et al. and finds that her students really are capable of writing fiction after all. Atwell differs from Smagorinky et al. in that she separates the personal experience narrative as a “telling” story from the personal memoir, which she describes as a means through which the writer can share details and celebrate life. She perfectly describes the purpose of the memoir when she asks, “What could this genre do for us as writers?” (1998, p. 392). Indeed, what can the memoir do for us? We see in “Mother’s day” and the many other examples given between the two texts, that memoirs become “literary nonfiction” or creative nonfiction narratives in which we and our students can not only develop critical thinking and analysis skills, but also creative, writing, and reasoning skills, too. Personally, I have found the memoir form both therapeutic and useful for developing my own writing because sometimes it is easier to write about something I know. “Mother’s Day” is a good example of a student developing such skills. The student uses a personal experience and develops it past the point of listing details to reach an ultimate reflective conclusion in both a logical and engaging manner.
Atwell and Smagorinsky both admit that writing fiction is a challenge in the classroom. I really enjoyed Atwell's quote from chapter 12 - "the paradox of good fiction is how easy it is to enter a fictional world as a reader, and how hard it is to create one as a writer" (p. 393). Although this seems like such an obvious idea, I had never thought much about it in the context of the classroom before now. Like Smagorinsky, I believe that it is important to encourage fictional writing inside the classroom because students are writing creatively outside of the classroom. If students are going to practice writing creatively on their own, it is important that teachers give them the background knowledge of what good fiction entails, and useful procedures for writing good fiction. I like that Smagorinsky uses prompts to stimulate thought in her students, and also leads them through a series of pre-writing activities that eventually become a "set of procedures for how to write" (p.38). Atwell practices a similar procedure and has her students keep a copy of the "mini-handbook" that is edited over time as students read more and learn new rules (p.397). The strength of developing a handbook such as this with your students is that they are not only reading more closely and with a purpose, they are also learning critical literary skills for writing literature.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the writing of fiction, which is not common practice in the classroom, writing memoir or personal narratives is a familiar experience of any student who thinks back on their classroom days. Rather than ask students to write the standard 'tell me what you did over the summer' piece, teachers must train their students to recognize and utilize the important features of a good memoir. Atwell and Smagorinsky both agree that good narratives elicit an emotional response from the reader, are descriptive, contain dialogue where necessary and most importantly, they teach both the writer and the reader something about life. I like how Atwell calls memoir the "writer's truth," (p.375) and I could not agree more with her belief that memoir helps the writer make sense of the past.
My personal experience as a student in the classroom was very much like how both Atwell and Smagorinsky described - writing fiction was rarely, if ever, encouraged, and writing memoir was a basic exercise that seemed almost too routine. These chapters offered valuable procedures for teachers to use in the classroom that will encourage students to write meaningful material that they would want to read themselves. With proper instruction, students will not only become better writers, but will learn a little bit more about themselves and the world through the process of writing.
I was really interested to read Atwell’s opinion that memoir-writing is “the easiest place for a beginning teacher to jump from” (370) but it’s not necessarily the most engaging topic for students. She writes that her students’ work as “poets, parodists, essayists, reporters, dramatists, petitioners, and short story writers felt more interesting, satisfying, and grown-up than chronicling more of their experiences” (372). While I’ve never thought about it in those terms before, that does, in hindsight, ring true to me personally. When forced to write personal narratives for things like college essays, I never felt that my life was interesting enough to warrant discussion, nor was my writing skill developed enough to make a little moment interesting. That’s why I like her idea of scaffolding via mechanical work first. If you can get a student to recognize that a piece is at least technically sound, then that’s a positive first step you can build from. Plus, judging from Atwell’s students’ writing, children as young as eighth grade have already had some incredible experiences, and they can write well enough to convey them vividly.
ReplyDeleteJust as valuable are the activities and lists she provides from pages 389 to 392. Her “B-A-A-A-D Memoir” activity seems like a good introduction to the topic of memoir writing, and could be adapted to other genres like fiction or poetry. The teacher can present an example of bad writing and let students make it better. I also like her list of memoirs to read or excerpt from. It’s always good to have grade-level, appropriate reading material to model from. Likewise, the questionnaire she provides for fiction writing (404) is a good starting point for that genre, too. While I worry that it would create a character that’s paint-by-the-numbers, that’s not necessarily a bad place for a beginning writer to start.
I can see myself using the activities that Smagorinsky et al. offer, too. The gateway activity (59) of describing shoes or seashells seems like a good, simple way to get into descriptive writing. Students have an everyday object to focus on, but they also get the immediate feedback from their peers about whether or not their descriptions were effective. The idea of focusing on particular sensory details (66) as an entry point to a story is also interesting to me, especially the way the book approaches smell. The prompts for memoir-writing (68) are also more precise questions to get students thinking, which is likely preferable to saying something vague like, “Write about your life.”
Chapters 11 and 12 of In the Middle demonstrate how to effectively develop the writing of memoirs and fiction within the classroom. I really appreciated Atwell’s approach to this process, especially in comparison to the structured process approach outlined in The Dynamics of Writing Instruction. One way that Atwell involved her students in the writing process was through modeling. She modeled by way of using negative and positive examples of writing. What I found most effective was her use of a “terrible memoir.” By allowing the students to dissect it, she was helping them to come to their own conclusions about what creates a successful memoir. As her class developed a list of what wasn’t working, the students were, in effect, creating a list of what does work in writing a memoir. This transitions nicely into peer-editing activities. Students now have a list of what to look for, namely, what factors contributes to effective writing.
ReplyDeleteAnother strategy that Atwell employed that I found particularly effective involved sharing the thought process involved with writing. She further modeled the writing process by doing this. Atwell states, “I took them inside my head in order to demonstrate the questions I wanted them to ask themselves as writers of fiction” (p. 397). In my opinion, this facet of modeling is often overlooked on the part of a teacher. It is easy to assume that students are already asking these questions and processing their writing in this way. Since we can’t read minds however, we really have no way of assessing this process. We can however prompt them to follow these thought processes if we first take them through the steps.
I also appreciated how Atwell broke down the process of writing fiction. As readers of fiction, we often get so caught up in how great a story is, that we fail to notice the subtle nuances of the way an author uses various techniques to build the story. Atwell looked to various authors to examine just what ways authors develop characters, employ dialogue, and use point of view. She then helped her students to read as writers in a similar manner. Her students could then identify what components make up great fiction, and they could start to travel down that road as writers themselves.
In Smagorinsky chapters 3 and 4 there is a lot to take in on teaching different kinds of narratives. I really liked the gateway activity in chapter three that used an image to get students thinking about suspense narratives. The idea that students can take a lot from one image is great. It reminds me of when Olivia was teaching her lesson last Thursday. We were supposed write down words that come to mind when we looked at the image she posted. We all had so many different ideas. By doing this gateway activity, teachers can not only get the students thinking on the topic, but they can assess what students already know and have a sense of how much scaffolding the students will need on the topic. In chapter four, I was a fan of the section that discussed using sensory details in a narrative. I could relate to this because it was something I struggled with until I started working on my college essay. My junior year English teacher sat me down and asked me to explain the moment, but I was not in the moment. She made me go back and be in the moment and I produced a piece of writing that I will be forever proud of. This is something I want to make sure that my students use someday.
ReplyDeleteIn Atwell’s chapters on memoirs and fiction, I was not surprised to see so many student examples. I love reading all of the different things that she puts in her chapters because they make me look forward to reading my own students’ writing some day. I always thought that using my own writing as a jumping off point would be a good idea because it gives the students a small piece of you and also the idea that it is okay to write something personal or just about their own life. They do not always have to make something up or research a topic; it can be personal. I was somewhat surprised at her distaste for fiction in the classroom; I did not really see that coming. She seemed very judgmental when she says, “their fiction overwhelmed me. It was so bad I didn’t know where to begin by way of response…” (Atwell, 1998, p. 393). So I was happy to keep reading and see that she started to embrace it because her students needed her to. There was a lot going on, but Atwell has consistently showed us that being there for your students can be the most important part of learning
An Unwelcome Truth
ReplyDeleteI was not surprised to read that creative writing was the least taught subject area in English language arts classes. English classes are too focused on essay writing and analysis papers to spend any time on creativity or writing a narrative. I think students are losing out on an important aspect of English. Creative writing opens new doors to teaching grammar. I liked the grammatical and stylistic lesson ideas in Smagorinsky. Instead of creating generic grammar lessons, attaching them to a creative writing assignment gives them immediate relevance and meaning. These assignments give students a chance to learn grammatical construction that may not come up in class otherwise: “In a structured process approach, grammar, mechanics, and usage are addressed . . . teach students the conventions for using and punctuating dialogue” (Smagorinsky, Johannessen, Kahn, & McCann, 2010, p. 46). I like the idea of structuring certain grammar lessons around another assignment and students’ own writing. Like using essays or papers, creative assignments give students and teachers a chance to have a dialogue about grammar, its function in literature, and why it’s important to retain. Like reading, students need a reason in order for it to matter.
Personal narratives, memoirs, and nonfiction are great ways to engage students personally with what they are doing in school. Whether personal narratives are used first or second in the creative assignments list is something the teacher should decide based on each class. Some classes may benefit from learning the structure of a creative assignment, learning about detail and descriptions, and some important grammatical structures that are imperative to creative writing. Other classes may need that personal connection to engage and establish their writing first. Personal narratives give students a chance to connect with each other on another level. Instead of gossiping in the hall or complaining about homework, students can engage with other using an academic assignment. They are telling each other about their lives: who they are, how they have changed, what they have learned, and who matters most to them. This gives students a chance to layer their social, emotional, and academic lives. Many students try to compartmentalize the various aspects of their lives. Learning takes place when the various aspects of students’ lives are engaged and included in the process. Creative writing is a great way to engage students various compartments and feel included, engaged, and accomplished.