“I hate writing!” my student proclaimed to me one day in the month of February, 2021. I wasn’t surprised in the slightest, for with a language disability this particular student often struggled putting her thoughts to paper. The real question was, what was I going to do about it?
Soon after this exchange, I was pondering this ‘writing’ problem one early Monday morning during my beloved coffee time. My thoughts went to teaching writing in general and how 99% of my students have shared those exact sentiments to me over the years, how much they detest the overall writing process. This was a big problem indeed! For the past 25 years as a teacher, I have strived to help my students see how beautiful writing can be and how to write freely and on topics they are passionate about. Following Lucy Calkin’s Writing Workshop Model brought success for mainstream students, yet with students with LD’s, I definitely needed to provide additional explicit and direct lessons from on grammar, sentence structure and punctuation in order for them to have and experience writing success.
As I continued to sip my coffee, I had a sudden realization that hit me full on unexpectedly like a giant tidal wave. I, Carrie Powers, have never heard a student proclaim to me in a boisterous, joyous voice, “I love writing! When can we do more writing Ms. Powers?” Nope, never heard those words. Huge problem. What could I do to change my current students’ overall perspective on writing?
I was perplexed and let my mind wander for a moment. I mean I love to write! How did I develop this love for writing over the years? More importantly, how can I get my students excited about writing and looking forward to it? My mind then went over all the students that I teach in my current teaching position where I specialize in helping kids ‘feel in the gap’ as outlined on there Individual Education Plan (IEP), I could see that the kids that struggle with writing often tell me, “Ms. Powers, I hate to write for I am not good at it and it just makes me tired and frustrated!” This comment was expressed to me recently from a grade 5 student that I work with.
This ‘a-ha’ moment in education happens to me a lot. You know that moment when you are faced with a student that is struggling or a problem in the classroom that needs to be addressed? As an educator, you sit down, and try to figure it out. You look for solutions; teaching approaches, lessons to inspire, speak to other teachers to bounce ideas off of, read current resources on the topic and just sit with the problem for a while. That is what I do. I start by sitting. Thinking. Hmmm. And whammo, an idea ‘sometimes’ just pops in my head.
As I continued sipping my beloved americano once again that morning, I did indeed get an idea that popped into my brain. A brilliant idea, so I thought. An idea that got me all excited and made me abandon my morning coffee all together.
I fired up my computer and started writing down my thoughts and ideas that was flooding my brain all at once on how to motivate and encourage my students to ‘hopefully’ begin to love writing. I stress the word ‘begin.’ After I wrote out my teaching idea and approach, I made a vow that I would try it in the upcoming week to see the reaction from my students and if indeed, it did help my students ‘enjoy’ the writing process a bit more. It was time for ‘trial and error time!’
As a teacher who is currently in her 25th year as a teacher whom has found joy educating students in 3 different countries and 3 different Canadian provinces over the years, I still get so jacked on the ‘trial and error part’ in education. I get so excited when I am trying to help a current student ‘see’ or ‘find’ the light on their educational journey, whether it is in the area of mathematics or language arts. It really is indescribable to explain how it feels when I witness that ‘lightbulb’ going ON for a particular student. I absolutely love trying to meet my students learning needs every day and sometimes, as an educator, you have to think outside the box in order to reach that student.
So think out of the box is what I did. After some considerable reflection, I decided that my next writing session with my grade 5 student that day would go as follows:
Ask my student to get a post it note and give ask her to write down five topics that she loves (give students a time limit and ask them to write it as fast as they can)
Then, I asked my student to pick one of their favourite topics from the list, circle it.
Next, I told the student that she could choose to write that topic on a blank piece of paper at the top (computer paper) or as a title on a Google Doc. FYI All my students love to have the choice!
For the next part, I told my student that I would do the same and we would both write anything we wanted about that topic (fiction or non-fiction) that they love. The key I told her is not worry about punctuation or spelling, just keep the hand or fingers moving.
Before we begin, I asked my student whether she would prefer to write in silence or with quiet music playing in the background. Again, students who know themselves well like the ability to choose.
Then I told my student we will write non-stop for 10-15 minutes. There was a little complaining at first, yet I encouraged her to do her best and I would check in with her ever so often to see how she was doing!
Lastly, I told my student that at the end of the 15 minutes, we would take turns sharing our piece of writing and give constructive feedback on what we liked about the piece and possibly what we could add or change to make it a stronger piece of writing.
With 2 minutes to spare, I quietly told my student that there is 2 minutes left and to try to put a conclusion to her story if possible to wrap up her thoughts or story etc.
That’s it! That was my lesson. Pretty simple right? Not rocket science in the education world yet it was not something I had not tried yet in my career. Worth a try, most definitely.
Well, my grade 5 student that first week wrote 5 sentences in 15 minutes, which was a lot for her. I asked her if she would like to share her writing first or if she would like me to share first. Again, the student gets to choose and I am fine with either choice. She did ask me to read mine first, which I happily obliged. My student was very quiet after I finished reading and she had a big smile on her face. She said, “Ms. Powers, that is so good!” I asked her, “What did you like about it?” which she told me and then I asked her, “What can you suggest to me that could make it a stronger piece?” At first, there was a long pause but with positive encouragement she replied, “I think you could add more words at the end, for it ended too suddenly for me.” I was like, “Wow! That is good advice! I will definitely do that!” I personally felt the same way and was happy to hear her critique on my writing piece.
Then it was her turn to share. She said I quote, “I only have 5 sentences and yours was so good!” Immediately, I told her that I have been writing my whole life and because of all my years of practice, writing is now easy for me. Remember you will get there too with lots of practice! She say quietly, ‘Okay!’ She read her piece and I applauded her efforts with great gusto and told her what I liked about her writing and suggestions on to make it stronger the next writing session. She thanked me and we moved on to other parts of the language arts lesson that day.
After my teaching session was over, I was feeling that get and go feeling as teacher and I suddenly had energy to go for a long run! I knew deep down the first trial and error lesson on motivating students to learn how to love writing was a success. Time to try it with my other students from different grades the following week and see how it all goes.
So, I did. I tried it with several students from grade 3 up to grade 7; boys and girls. The resistance to the activity at first was very similar for all the students. Also, the resistance to share their piece was similar. One grade 6 student surprised me though when she asked if she could read first, for she knew mine would be better. Interesting! Again, I applauded her efforts when she shared after me and told her why I love to write and why it is easy for me. Practice! Practice! Practice!! I could tell she took my words in. By the end of that first week, I was so encouraged by the results, that I decided to continue this writing exercise for the upcoming month and see what happens.
One month went by. I used the same writing approach with all my students each week. Some students I teach once a week and some twice. I predicted that the students who practiced this writing approach twice a week with me would find more joy while writing and writing success overall versus the students who only have me once a week. That is is exactly what the results showed in the end!
By the second week of writing, most students began the writing exercise on a different topic that they love a little faster, they wrote more and they were more open to share their writing first. By the second week, that original grade 5 student wrote 10 sentences and was smiling the whole time while sharing her writing, for she couldn’t believe how much she had written. By the third week of writing, I often heard students ask me for more time, so they could add more details and a stronger conclusion. “Of course!” would be my immediate response. “How much more time would you like?” They would tell me 5, or 10 minutes more. By the last week, many of my older students were writing nonstop for 25-30 minutes and would get slightly annoyed if I tried to check in with them or try to stop them in mid sentence. I was so impressed with their new focus and their increased efforts by month end. Astounded, really!
How could something so simple work so beautifully? Maybe that is the secret to education, keep it simple. As my grade 12 calculus teacher used to tell us every day before class as she wrote “KISS” on the blackboard and proclaimed, “Keep It Simple Silly!” I guess I had her voice in my head as I thought about this writing approach 34 years later.
Fast forward a year and I am still using this writing approach with all my students. Why stop something that is working, right? Overall, I have seen tremendous improvement in all of my students’ writing. They not only write more each writing session, yet now I am able to teach about different types of sentences, transition words, paragraph writing, editing and word choice. My students are more open to learning how to become a stronger writer, for it is my belief, over the first couple of months that they began to first ‘enjoy’ the simple act of just writing. At first, we did not edit any writing pieces. Yet when I sensed that a student was ‘open’ to editing a piece with me, we would go for it. Often I tell my students that I just write for the joy of writing sometimes and just put it in a file in my Google Drive. Sometimes I look at a certain writing piece and re-work it and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I just want to get my feelings down about something and by writing it out, it makes me feel better.
So, over the year, I would share my thoughts on writing. Sometimes, I would share a piece I am working on for their enjoyment and feedback. They loved that! Sometimes I write stories for my students to read that have their names in the story and are about their lives. Reluctant readers will always love to read a story about themselves! Hands down.
So the bottom line that I want to impart with you is to continue ‘thinking outside the box’ as an educator. For me, that is where the joy is and how I help other students find joy in learning. You may be wondering if I have heard those words yet one year in with my new writing approach. Remember why I started on this journey with my students in the first place? So far, I have not heard one of my students proclaim after a year of writing practice “I love writing!” But I have heard these words, “I really like this activity!” or “Can we do more writing this week?” and “Can I share my story with you first Ms. Powers?” In the end, that is enough for me.