To Teach Writing, You Have to BE a Writer.

Not in the sense that you have to be published or anything. Just in the sense that you actually write things. More importantly, that you show your students your writing as it occurs. I have been trying a new method with my writing class this year and I think it is working.

Last year, I would tell the kids something about writing ("When you use dialogue, you have to use quotation marks."). I would have them practice a little and then I would tell them to write something. I would try to conference with each child, but it never actually happened due to time constraints. I felt that my students did a poor job of writing and I wasn't surprised. I was doing a pisspoor job of teaching it.

This year, I am working on the idea that modeling is the best way to teach writing. So instead of having THEM write in class, I am writing in class. They help me and then do their own writing at home. We have been following a careful schedule.

Monday: I present the topic for the week's writing assignment. (eg. Learning to do Something Challenging) I then go through the step by step process of filling in an outline organizer with the ideas for my own story. (eg. Learning to Drive) This is a lot of fun, because they are facinated with the idea of knowing more about my life. At home, they fill in their own organizer about their own story.

Tuesday: I turn each piece of the outline into a paragraph. I demonstrate how to take words and phrases and make them into complete sentences that flow together smoothly. They get to suggest ideas and give constructive criticism. At home, they turn their own organizer into a rough draft.

Wednesday: We use the writing rubric to check each part of my story carefully. They get to tell me how many points I get for each section. By the end, we can see what my grade would be without any changes and where I can make the most improvement. At home, they use the same rubric to edit their own work.

Thursday: I show them an edited version of my story and we check it again. We calculate the new grade, demonstrating what a difference good editing and re-writing can make. At home, they re-write their own stories.

Friday: I show them a neatly typed up version of my story. They hand in their own stories for grading (using the same rubric they were using to edit, of course).

If the few stories I have graded so far are any indication, the quality of writing in my room has gone way up. It remains to be seen if this is a result of the teaching method or the consequence of having naturally better writers in my class this year. Unfortunately, when I collected our first writing assignment this morning, only 17 of my 32 turned one in. That is disappointing, but for an entirely different reason.