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On the Writing Skill
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11 thoughts on “On the Writing Skill”
I am teaching 7th grade for the first time this year (in this case, first year of level 1), and I did the first timed writing with them yesterday. I know, I know, no forced output too early, but I just couldn’t help myself because they seemed to jump at the bit to try it. To say I was blown away would be putting it mildly. It is a very small class (only 15 kids) and most of them wrote way more than 100 words (I gave them 9 minutes). Nobody wrote fewer than 80. But it wasn’t so much the amount of words that they produced but the actual stories (which were totally comprehensible to me and actually had plots and surprise endings). I gave them a general topic of two kids walk in the street and find some money. I also wanted them to include some clothing items because we had been structures that involved clothes shopping.
Originally, I was just going to collect the story and see what – if anything – I could do with them. But then they insisted on reading their stories. It was one of the best and most magical moments I have had in a long time, if ever. One girl wrote that the kids in the story bought a fancy car with the money and on the way to buy clothes, they ran over one of the boys from the class and killed him (I know, I know, but they are in 7th grade and if something or somebody doesn’t explode, then it’s not worth talking about). They were so shocked that they crashed their car into a tree. When they got out of the car, they found more money which they used to buy really fancy clothes for the boy’s “funeral” (that was the only word she left in English). She ended her story buy saying that the kids were really sad at the funeral, but they were by far the best dressed.
Maybe not everyone will find humor in this, but I still crack up when I think about it. Just thought I’d share since we’re talking about writing here.
Oh yeah, and my point was really to agree with Ben that the kids produce great stuff when they have had tons of CI in the form of listening and reading.
Sometimes, I doubt myself when I can’t really “measure” their progress. But that definitely showed me that I am on track (and way beyond) with this group of kids.
Ben said: “The other kind of instruction in writing, the old kind, in which traditional teaching is used (not based on comprehended input first) doesn’t clean up at all. It can’t, because the student has no foundation on which to base the writing. It’s all intellectual hieroglyphics and emotional frustration for the student.”
See, this is another thing about my 7th grade class. I relied way too much on the textbook (and its ridiculous memorization, grammar, and output demands) with them last year. So that needed to be overcome this year. However, they are poor listeners, distracted and distracting each other, so they hinder their language acquisition with domino-like effects on their reading comprehension & writing ability.
By contrast, my other classes are really amazing me with their comprehension levels & abilities. I had a normal-speed conversation with a 6th grader today in class and was so wowed that I stopped & talked to them about how amazing that language ability is – and that it’s not just that student, but all of them who can do that now. (Yes with differing degrees of complexity – but truly all of them.) I am so excited to see what they will be able to do in 8th grade.
This article also reminds me to schedule in a good amount of writing time for the 8th graders soon.
Wow Brigitte, YOU’RE AMAZING!!!!! That sounds incredible.
I think age still makes a difference. I have to work so much harder with my 10/11/ and 12th graders and I never get the result I get with my middle schoolers, who still absorb like sponges…..
I loved my 7th graders last year and I have them as 8th graders this year and they still love it when someone gets killed or when there are bombs and explosions.
Whatever it is, as long as they re acquiring we’ll take it right?
My second-year class recently read “The Trip of His Life” in German. I stopped them at the end of the penultimate chapter and had them write their own ending to the story before reading the real ending. Then I typed up the endings (all of them) and cleaned up the German, put them into a PowerPoint, and showed it to the class. Then we talked about the endings and “rated” them. One of my juniors had as his sole criterion between “good” and “bad” . . . whether or not someone died. If both the hero and the villain died, then it was excellent. So, this tendency does not end with middle school.
Thanks Sabrina, but I am not the one who’s amazing – it’s the method! Plus, I have never done LESS to “teach” writing – I simply don’t (teach it).
So great! I love this: “I have never done LESS to “teach” writing–I simply don’t (teach it).”
In Breckenridge I was in a session with Annick Chen, Ben’s colleague who teaches Chinese. She told us a story about teaching writing. This was from when she taught French, I believe. Anyway, she used to have weekly writing practice with her students, but she knew that this writing time was taking away from time that could be used for the kids to get more CI, so one year she deliberately eliminated the weekly practice sessions. Guess what…the kids writing improved! Just like your students! Way to go!
Yes, that is an important story. Annick was told by Lincoln High authorities to focus mainly on writing that year – as one of those stupid top down ideas they lay on all the time – and since she is a loyal employee she did that diligently even though we know better that output emerges later, much later. Let’s say it again – by focusing on writing all year her kids’ writing went down because it is comprehensible input that leads to output mastery and not blind focus on structure.
My students and I have been writing a story together. The challenge to them was to only use words they already knew. This story has developed into what I think will probably be the first beginning level read written in Mvskoke if we publish. It uses greeting no less than 4 times. And the plot revolves around just taking a walk.
I was unsure of a particuliar verb usage so I e-mailed my Master. She wrote that she couldn’t imagine teaching that construct to children without constant repitition. That is just it. They will get that without a problem. And the kicker is that they will understand the cultural use of it because it is within context and it is what they wanted to learn.
We don’t work on the story each week in our 40 minutes. It is an every other week at best process because we are building the vocabulary they requested with the cultural understandings in the off weeks. It is working well so far. The illustrations are dynamite.
#1. Brigitte…..i sent u a private email. Did u get it?
#2. I just gave my first timed writing today…to my level 2B’s. Haven’t read them yet, but am using them as a baseline. Thanks for sharing your experiences Brigitte and Diane ……i was so afraid to start teaching writing.
#3. This thread came at a perfect time for me……i have been wrestling withehether or not i should give spelling and pronunciation quizzes like my colleagues do…..i was beginning to feel inadequate and as though i was doing my students a disservice by not giving vocab lists and quizzes…bc those colleagues said that they gave questionnaires to yheir kids at the end
of lsst semester and the kids loved their (vocab) spelling quizzes.
Hi MB, yes I got your e-mail – my response should be in your mailbox 😉
Let us know how your timed writing went. You might have a somewhat different experience, especially since those particular kids are not pure unadulterated CI-disciples. If this is your first year with them, they still might not be used to the idea to just let their writing flow. It sure took a bit longer for those students of mine who came from a traditional classroom.
Yes, I agree with Brigitte. Today I had the 8th graders spend 10 minutes on free writing. They ask a lot of questions (“about anything? how many sentences?” etc. grade-related concerns). But, much to my enjoyment, they obviously had a lot they wanted to put down. They’d ask for words that slipped their minds. The child who would be a barometer student said, “It’s things like this that make me realize how much we’ve learned. There’s so much we could write about.”
It’s so cool to hear that, and to hear their excitement that I plan to read their writing and use it in class next week.