Juli
Kendall's
2004-05
READING/WRITING
WORKSHOP JOURNAL
Entry #03
I'm Letting Go of "Right Answers"
If you're a fan of cable TV, you probably know about Clean Sweep. It's the TV show on TLC that helps people let go of an over accumulation of stuff. A recent episode, "The Few, The Proud, The Unorganized," dealt with collectibles and the issues that people have with their reluctance to decide which items matter most. As a result, things build up and chaos ensues.
As this year begins to unfold, all this talk of "a clean sweep" brings me around to one of my personal goals. I plan to "let go" of some things this year in an attempt to help kids get more out of my instruction. Number one on my list is "letting go" of right answers. I want to get better at allowing kids to ask each other, "What do you think?" I want them to search for answers to their questions using resources that I provide or that they discover. And then I want to spend more time questioning them: "What do you think about that?" or "Do you have any ideas?" The purpose of this is to encourage them to gradually take on more responsibility for their learning and become lifelong learners. So how will this play out in Writing Workshop? This week I started working in another teacher's class modeling how to teach personal narrative. When I arrived in the room for the first time, she told me, "Not personal narrative, just narrative." (If you want to read more about personal narrative and memoir, check out Writing Workshop Journal # 8, "Writing and Teaching Memoir.") Oh well, the best-laid plans. I quickly adjusted my lesson. "What do you think about narrative writing? Do you have any ideas?" I asked the class. I encourage conversation and to draw out reluctant students I asked them to quiz each other using questions like "What do you think is narrative?" and "Do you have any ideas about narrative writing?" They talked in small groups for several minutes, and then every group chose one person to "share out" to the whole class. Their list of what they thought about narrative writing included everything. They seemed to have no parameters for narrative writing. It was the kitchen sink approach to defining genre. "Ok," I said, "so give me some ideas about what is not narrative writing." Silence. They couldn't come up with anything. I suggested "report of information" but they just weren't sure.After this
fact-finding experience, I shared several pages from the personal narrative
picture book I brought to use as a mentor text for personal narrative.
It's a new book for me, The Good Luck Cat by Joy Harjo. She's a
Native American author and it's written in first person. (If you want
to read more about mentor texts and choosing a mentor author, see Writing
Workshop Journal #26, "We Begin the Search for our Mentor Authors.")
Here's how the story begins:
I talked about Joy Harjo's main idea for the story, the way she used details like "stripedy cat" and "green electric eyes" to help us see the cat, and how her use of transition words moved us through the text. They all listened attentively.
I have a cat, a stripedy cat with tickling whiskers and green electric eyes. She has the softest fur in the world. When I pet her she purrs as if she has a drum near her heart. My aunt Shelly from Oklahoma says some cats are good luck. You pet them and good things happen. There aren't many in the world. Maybe one in millions and billions.
Next, I put up an overhead showing how I was organizing the personal narrative I was writing. I used the graphic organizer that the teacher had given her students. I met with her ahead of time and asked for a copy of the organizer so that I could use it with my own writing as a model for the kids. I don't often use a graphic organizer to write so it was a different kind of experience for me.
As I shared my writing, the students were transfixed – I don't think it was that my graphic organizer was so great but rather that students are fascinated by writing done by teachers and others they know. They love to see the process modeled.
Here's what I wrote on the graphic organizer:Who: Juli Kendall
Where: middle school (Junior High)
When: first day of schoolConflict:
I couldn't figure out how to use the lock for my hall locker. The combination wouldn't work.Key Events:
--I had a new combination lock.
--The combination was 20-36-10.
--I practiced and practiced opening it at home.
--But I couldn't get it to work at school.Resolution:
A friend of mine in 8th grade saw me and came to help.
I'm certain that over the next few weeks as the unit of study about narrative writing continues, I'll come up with more things to add to my "Letting Go List." But for now, that'll do, Teacher, that will do.
Resources page for our Reading/Writing Project
