Writing Process - Warts and All

What a wonderful chance I had today to watch the writing process – warts and all. Before writing, Scott, a third grade teacher, gave the students lots of background knowledge, ways to organize their thinking/writing, setting the purpose for writing, thinking about the audience, and what they want their story to be about, and still some struggled. One could easily see how much mental attention goes into writing. Of course there are the students who just take off and go, barely stopping to show they are aware of those around them. Then there are the ones who stop and start, getting out a few words then stopping, thinking, writing. Some will sit with their hand up, waiting, waiting, expecting some nudge from a teacher that will help them over their writing hump. There is usually a student or two who gets the title down in a quick burst of energy, but then stalls out, with no other ideas coming. And finally there is the student who has nothing but a blank page after 15 minutes of writing time. All of these are normal, and all pose some type of challenge to the teacher of writing.
I had the pleasure of watching this writing time recently at Scott Ritter’s classroom at Scott Technology Magnet School in Topeka. Scott did a phenomenal job of preparing his students to write a story by first giving them a prompt “ A tsunami is on the way, and you are the only one who knows it. Think about how you could warn people of the tsunami and help them escape the giant wave. Now write a story about how you saved the day.” He showed a video clip about tsunamis and discussed this with the students, incorporating much of the same vocabulary from the video into the discussion. He also told the students in the morning that they would be writing the story in the afternoon, giving them a three hour heads-up to think about what they wanted to write. I like this idea, instead of just springing it on them and expecting students to pump out a story. Then during writing time, Scott guided the students through the process of setting a purpose or purposes for their story, considering the audience, and thinking about the most important point of their story. He also gave them a short list of sequencing words he wanted them to try to incorporate into the story so there would be a sense of flow from one idea to the next. And then he did my favorite part of the lesson. Scott gave the third grade students a copy of the six trait rubric he wanted them to use to keep in mind the expectations for their writing. He told students that for this assignment they should focus on the trait of organization. Then he went one step further and talked about each level on the rubric, clarifying the terms as needed. It’s so important to set that criteria for young writers BEFORE they begin. This year I have been battling my son’s high school English teacher with doing this, and I am losing. So I was very heartened to see Scott clearly share his expectations with students. It is a joy to watch quality writing instruction, and I am incredibly lucky to spend time with some fabulous teachers who recognize this!