Hopes and Goals

I decided to trash the idea of using valuable class time for designing business cards for our bookstore.  I still hold true to the idea that having a place where community members can access students' work is an important component to one of my tenets of project-based writing activities:

Developing an authentic audience of readers outside the classroom setting, enhances pride in student work.

I know this is true because during our group meeting time at the beginning of class today, the most burning question was of course, "Did we sell any of our books?"

But I'm feeling a little insecure about the focus being on selling, and marketing rather than on the writing process itself, and I'm beginning to understand why my guiding professors are suggesting that this project is "rather ambitious." Since our workshop time is limited to one hour per week, I want to really focus on incorporating the fundamentals of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory more deeply.  The implications of Vygotsky theory are that learners should be provided with socially rich environments in which to explore knowledge domains with peers, teachers and members of the outside community (Robbins, 2001).   My research goal is to support young authors in discovering themselves as writers beyond the classroom context. 

Once again we didn't get to the activity I had originally planned for because in my days of reflection since our last class and my last post, I've realized that we need to prioritize.  One component I believe to be most important in a writing workshop is sharing, and I'm ashamed to admit we haven't taken time to share our writing with one another.  I also want this workshop to be about the members as writers, so I wanted them to generate some thought about their goals for writing and publication.

 In preparation for yesterdays workshop I created two posters.  One titled: Writing Goals and the other Publication Goals.   Then I broke them  into two groups and gave an 8th grader the job of co-facilitator.  We met with our respective groups for about 5 minutes each to gather ideas.  Here's what we came up with:

Publication Goals

Writing Goals

Their publication goals ended up looking like an idea board for types of publications, and their writing goals were especially interesting.  From this experience, I learned that the whole idea behind developing goals for writing is very hard and confusing.  Most of their goals were functional and grammatical improvements and logistical writing necessities, such as always having extra pencils and paper, always using proper punctuation and no fragments, etc.  And yes, that last line does say "learn more about dolphins."

Interestingly, this morning I came upon a blog called A Year of Reading.  Topics are dedicated to the teaching and learning of reading.  One post in particular really struck me- One Hundred Things About Me as a Reader, because it gave me some ideas about using our list as a tool to evolve student thinking about themselves as writers over time.  For this activity reading teacher and author, Franki Sibberson began a project with her 4th and 5th graders about getting to know themselves as readers.  She began with a basic reading interview to help them think about themselves as readers and then asked them to begin compiling a list (Sibberson, 2010).   

I think that starting with a basic writing interview to help the members of my writing workshop get to know themselves as writers, and with a little encouragement for recognizing certain ah-ha moments, this idea can easily be translated to One Hundred Things About Me as a Writer.  Perhaps rather than defining specific goals for young writers, it is best to help them explore their writing and discover things about themselves as writers.

 For the remaining time, I introduced the group to the concept of warm-up writing on an open-ended topic.  I told them that I am going to bring a writing warm-up prompt each week.  They can choose to use the prompt or take their writing somewhere else, but the goal is to take 5-10 minutes for silent writing at the beginning of the workshop, and then another 5-10 minutes to share out.  

It will take a bit of time for the group to understand that writing time is sacred time.  Several of them began talking to me about related and unrelated things, but I too was writing on the prompt to model quiet focused writing, and I patiently whispered, "Hold that thought or write it down.  I'm writing right now." 

But I must say that overall, I think it was incredibly successful.  There was an absence of voice for at least 4 minutes straight and and a couple of our reluctant writers wrote more in their journals than I have ever seen them write.  Then we opened the floor to sharing and heard a surprising array of writing genres to include poetry, anecdotal life experiences, fictional stories and even a wordless picture book bound by scotch tape.  I commended them for their bravery in sharing and acknowledged the variety in literature genres they produced.  Then I invited them to use the remaining time to either continue working on this piece, working on a previous piece, or begin something new.  

I believe this was the most productive workshop yet.  We came up with a list of goals for writing and publication.  We tried out a new way generate writing ideas and took time for writing.  We experienced sharing our work and listening to others, and I had the chance to genuinely confer with at least two writers during the remaining workshop time.  Establishing routine and time management are key.  

For the record, here is yesterday's writing prompt which I wrote ahead of time and read aloud to them:

FALLING

FALLING brings to mind memories, thoughts, ideas and images for everyone. You might remember the first time you fell off your bike, or watched your baby sister take a hard fall to the ground.  We've all heard stories about FALLING in love.  Maybe you have first-hand experience with how it feels.  Many of us have awoken suddenly from FALLING dreams, or fallen into sadness with unfortunate news. Of course, there are also fictional and symbolic stories of FALLING down rabbit holes and landing in foreign lands filled with strange potions and smiling cats. Each year, after the warm summer months, we enter autumn, also known as fall.  Fall is easily recognizable by the many golden leaves that fall from trees and cover the earth below.  As we continue forth into this fall season, let us share some thoughts about FALLING.