Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
Refusal To Do Free Write – Help Needed
Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Ben Slavic
Get The Latest Updates
Subscribe to Our Mailing List
No spam, notifications only about new products, updates.
Related Posts
CI and the Research (cont.)
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
Research Question
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
We Have the Research
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
17 thoughts on “Refusal To Do Free Write – Help Needed”
How old are these students?
Would they “talk” if you gave them the exemption? You don’t want a double standard thing surfacing in the classroom.
I tend to support them. Just my opinion going with my gut. If your force it now it’s all over for later.
Tim,
It does not seem like their refusal to comply is an act of insubordination from your description of them otherwise.
So the first thing I would do is find out why they refuse.
Is their refusal more like a resistance because they feel they’re not able to write yet?
Once we find out the reason then we can brainstorm ways to deal with it.
Ben is right, forcing will not solve this though.
You could try having them cut up a copy of a class reading, rearrange it, and write that down? Or give the your “skeleton” story with no names, places, etc. (like Anne Matava’s scripts have the underlined stuff that will change in your class’ version but make those blanks instead) and rewrite using their own ideas?
Interesting. If they understand everything, they might not find class compelling enough to rewrite stories, or generate their own ideas and write creatively.
1) What do they do when the other students do freewrites?
2) Are your freewrites timed?
3) How do you grade freewrites?
4) What do their English teachers say about their writing?
Thanks for all the feedback.
1. Sit. They don’t cause any problems, but don’t participate.
2. Yes – I normally give them about 7 minutes.
3. I grade them based on completion, and whether they wrote the whole time. I do sometimes have required vocabulary in the freewrite (oxymoron, I know, but it works better when I do)
4. They both write in English class although neither one likes to.
I’ll look in to both Sean and John’s ideas.
Thanks!
Tim
Tim, do you do dictations? Maybe a dictation or three will help them feel comfortable writing. Also, Robert shared with us a structured FreeWrite some time back. This “structured Free Write” is where they write for 1 min. Stop. Start again by copying what they wrote in that 1 min and continuing from there for 3 min. Stop. Start a final time by copying what they wrote for 3 min and continuing on for 6 min.
I have a few students who just can’t do free writes yet. It was really discouraging for them to sit there while everyone else was scribbling away and struggle to get a sentence or two down on the paper. This week I wrote a simple version of the story and printed it with the line spacing wide apart – triple spacing. Before the free write, I projected it and we translated it together, in this case I called on students randomly to translate while we all read from the screen. Then, during the free write, those pre-free-write students just took that story and translated it in the spaces between the lines. That way everyone was writing furiously…most of them in Spanish, but a few in English. I was happy with the way it felt in the room, and the students seemed genuinely relieved with the accommodation. I’m curious, Tim…how do you grade a free write? I use the green check-mark that is an option in Power School. It neither adds to nor detracts from the overall grade. If the free write is missing, then I put it in as a 50 until they make it up, then I use the green check mark. It sounds like you give number grades for the free writes…how do you figure them?
Angie,
Thanks for the ideas.
I have graded them based on completion, and sometimes using the required vocabulary. I definitely will consider the translation option.
What does completion look like? They get 100% if they write the whole story? Or write for the set amount of time? Or a certain number of words? I’m considering changing my system, so I”d love details on this from folks who grade free writes.
I might adapt it, but opting out of an assigned task should not really be an option without really good reasons.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to support students who need a bit more structure in order to be successful on a freewrite. I think that sentence frames can give kids this structure. You could even put them up on the board for everyone to see, and make them optional. Another similar idea, is to give these students a mad lib which contains the target structures from the unit or story. I recently introduced a new story with a mad lib document, and I could see myself giving this same document to students at the end of the reading, perhaps with a few structures removed, in support of a timed write. Also, if your district is like mine, which is really pushing sentence frames across the curriculum, doing this can make you look like a real team player.
John, I’ve been thinking about prompts of various lengths, and now I wonder if sentence frames are really structures, or strings of structures. If our kids can’t write, they haven’t really acquired the structures. If they haven’t acquired the structures, why are they writing? This is theoretical, but becomes practical if we find ourselves giving students so much scaffolding. That should be a clue, right?
About grading…I collect freewrites as evidence. I use them to show progress, and to determine a student’s overall grade, but don’t grade them individually. Completion grades are weird; kids get a grade for doing something they’re supposed to do. If kids aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, well, what the hell? That’s how I feel, and this sentiment drives my reasoning behind not ever awarding points for “participation,” but instead just deducting points if they mess with class (see a recent post: http://magisterp.com/2015/10/02/ci-flow-participation-dea/). I think you have a similar thing going on with these two kids…what the hell? There could be a good reason, but you gotta find out what their deal is.
If I had a student doing this, I would set up a meeting with parents, admin, counselors, etc., show them a stack of an exemplar student’s work (name redacted, of course), then show an empty folder for this student in question. You could do the same, regardless of how you grade freewrites. The conversation should run itself, without you doing much of the talking at all. You may come across something legitimate or unexpected. If so, please tell us.
Tim,
I would try taking a mini break with free writes and instead doing some ungraded writing activities that will boost confidence–or better yet, just investing more time on reading. I sometimes model writing for students while they copy. I do a think aloud while writing to give them an inside look on my thought process while writing. I have them keep the writing in their notebooks. Dictées are good too!
What Emeka said.
I tried a Free Write in my Span 2 class today. While I didn’t have anyone refuse to do it, I had a handful do very little. I know this could just be a snapshot of where they are, but I also know that many zoned out and didn’t write the whole time. I assume that because when I told them about doing the Free Write, there were lots of moans and groans from the students. Since this is an issue in my school in general (a refusal to do work and general distaste for it) I’ve been hesitant to try it, hence waiting till February. I’ve done many dictations with the students however. I reiterated many times that grammar and spelling were not the focus of the activity. I then gave them the rules for it. I’m thinking maybe Free Writes aren’t a good idea yet or at all, but maybe someone has a good idea that could change my mind.
As far as grading goes, it looks like some of you do a completion grade and some not. Are there any other ideas about how to grade these?
I do not suggest grading free writes. Have them count their words, make a bar graph and enter those results with each free write. Cram as much interesting CI as you can in those three weeks. Then, when they see their word counts going up every time you do a free writes, every three weeks, you may start getting some actual buy-in. The bar graphs are private and motivating. Grading a free write exposes kids’ fears about not being good enough and would be a big error.
I decided not to grade them. My students already think very low of themselves, and I already have such a mixed-bag of who’s bought into my class and who isn’t that I don’t want more people shutting down. I think next time I’ll give maybe 5-7 minutes. Some were intimidated by the 10 minutes. Unfortunately, with some students I’m afraid of not saying things are for a grade because I’m afraid they’ll do nothing then. Either way, I agree with you.