Noticing the World
Let's Talk about Writing!
That's where us as future teachers come in! We get to make a shift in writing!
The first step we can make is giving each our of students a writers notebook. And encouraging use out of them. Encourage them to write about issues they see and critically think about it. Encourage them to take it home with them and write what they see at the park on the weekends. Encourage them to take it to lunch and recess. But, how can we motivate our students to do this if we are not doing it ourselves? We, as teachers, need to have our own notebooks and be constantly writing issues we see.
We next need to encourage curiosity and paying attention to details (observations). On page 112 of For a Better World,Reading and Writing for Social Action, it talks about how Randy (one of the authors) asked students to find an object in the room and write about it for 10 minutes. It make students pay attention to details with produced detailed descriptions (Bomer&Bomer). Doing this activity at any grade level is a great way to open the door to political and social issue writing.
The next step is reframing the way our students see the world. Of course of students should be writing and drawing from personal experiences from their lives and drawing on things that interest them. But, we also have to draw their attention to critical incidents and social issues. Instead of writing about a time you and the neighbor kids all played football together, think about the event in a more critical way. Was everyone treated fairly? Were the teams even? How did someone react when they won/lost? This is taking a personal experience that is important to the student and creating a critical lens for the situation.
When teaching how to look through a socially critical lens, we need to:
- Demonstrate
- Do assisted activities
- Do Dialogic Assessments
When I say demonstrate, I'm talking about what I said above. We need to be writing too. To show our students what we want them to write about, they need to see examples. Last time I checked, you can't buy premade-filled in writers notebooks about social and political change off TpT or Amazon. That means we have to do it! *Gasps* It helps our students to see what we are writing about our personal lives and what we are seeing out in the world.
When I say assisted activities, I'm talking about practice. This isn't a concept students can learn overnight. This is where we come in. We need to be there to provide assistance to our students. Changing our lens is hard work and takes time and guidance. The best way to start is with a whole class activity, something everyone went to together. On page 117, it gives examples like field trips, pep rallys, or something that happened in the school or hallway. This gives a chance for whole group discussion where different questions and perspectives can be shared.
When I say dialogic assessments, I'm talking about regularly checking in on your students and keeping them accountable for the best critical writing possible. It is hard to give a paper and pencil test with political and social writing. Measuring where each student is regularly and keeping track of it can be just right for writers notebooks.
I have included a video that talks about how to create a Writer's Notebook if you want more information about it! I doesn't talk about writing socially or politically, but it just has an overall idea of writer's notebook!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BfiKxL7H3M
When I say dialogic assessments, I'm talking about regularly checking in on your students and keeping them accountable for the best critical writing possible. It is hard to give a paper and pencil test with political and social writing. Measuring where each student is regularly and keeping track of it can be just right for writers notebooks.
I have included a video that talks about how to create a Writer's Notebook if you want more information about it! I doesn't talk about writing socially or politically, but it just has an overall idea of writer's notebook!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BfiKxL7H3M
Some questions I have for you:
- Would you include this writing in your daily classroom routines? Why or why not?
- Would you consider lettings children take these writer's notebooks home with them so they can write?
- Do you have other ideas on how to introduce this social and political writing style in your classroom?
- Do you have some other assisted activities in mind that could help your students learn how to write socially and politically?
- What are some ways we can keep our students accountable for writing in their writing notebooks?
Congrats guys! We made it to the end of blogs!
Hannah, I enjoyed reading what you had to say about writing and how we can encourage our students to write with detail on many topics such as political or social, personal through experience, and being creative with an open-mind allowing room for discussion. Every student sees and experiences events through their lens and often these experiences take place without being shared. It is important to encourage students to write. Not only to get their thoughts on paper but to give their thoughts a voice. Together we can have positive conversation and learn from each other. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteI think having a writer's notebook is important because it allows students to write anything they want. It's a place to get thoughts out that may be difficult to share/articulate aloud or a place to write down events they have experienced or a place to write events that are occurring at the present. I would definitely allow my students to take their notebook home because they may have a moment they need to write down what they are feeling or they have something they want to remember. The notebook could be a safe place and/or a place with structure meaning on certain days a topic is given to write about and other days students can have a free write. There will be no judgement and if a student wants to share their notebook they may. When it comes time to look over student notebooks for accountability, students can mark the pages of assigned work or let the teacher know it is fine to look through all their writing. This is a trust system both student and teacher would maintain showing and teaching students greater values they will carry with them throughout life. Writing is powerful and learning to share what one has to say is important for all.
Heather,
DeleteI really like what you say about allowing them to take the notebook home. I think this gives the writing notebook more of a personal touch, because it is something they do not just have to do at school, but is something they can enjoy doing at home. Some students might not realize their love for writing without an activity such as this. I think it is also a great tool to remember things that have happened in their lives. I know I personally wished I would have had something like that, because I often feel like I do not remember a lot of important things that have happened in my lives, because I did not document them! Great idea!
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI think this blog was awesome! The idea of having a writers notebook, in my opinion is awesome idea. In fact I remember doing this when I was in school, but I can not remember what grade. We had a writing notebook that we would write in each day. I can not recall 100% if this is true, but I think she would give us a prompt, and we could write anything regarding that prompt. I remember really enjoying it, because I thought it was fun to get creative with the prompt, and get to explore my imagination. To answer your third question, I think this could be a great way! Giving them a scenario or situation, and them having them act on it through their writing I think would be a great way to engage the social and political aspect in writing as well. I do think at some points you want to give them the freedom to pick a political or social topic that means something to them, but this could be another way of doing the writing notebook.
I also really like the idea of doing this, because it shows students that writing can be more than a persuasive essay. They ARE allowed to be creative, and create their own voice in writing. I really like what chapter 7 said, "It's like talking to yourself as you drive along in your car or striking poses in your mirror" (Boomer K. & Boomer R. pg. 111). Writing can be fun and you can make it anything you want. Doing writing activities such as these convey that message to our students.
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteYou had such a great blog! You had a lot of great tips and tricks as to how to one day go about teaching writing to our students. I really valued your personal experience that you shared, how you talked about not ever really having any creative ways of writing, it was always just to write this or that. I can vouch for this as well, I was never really given a journal to write in or anything like that either. I remember loving to write about whatever I wanted to the most. However, now that I am in school to be a teacher, I understand why we had guiding topics sometimes, because the IRead test and the ISTEP test are all over the capability to write about a topic and give your dissertation on it. We teach in a system that needs children to be able to write about a given topic and choose a side and support it with details. So sometimes, although it isn't fun, we have to give parameters.
To answer your question about holding children accountable for their writing, I really liked something I saw in a movie once. I know I know, movies are always a stretch when it comes to education. However, "freedom Writers" actually gave me a good idea. In the movie, she allows the students to write about whatever they want, and they can leave it in a closet if they want her to read it, or they can not. And they all end up leaving the notebooks for her to read. I think this is a good way to hold kids accountable. Leave a place in your room where students can privately leave their notebooks, and allow them to express whatever they want. I feel as if these can even be used as exit slips, which can be used as a form of assessment, was talked about on page 118 (Bomer K, Bomer R, 2001). You can even give children a social jsutice topic to write about a couple times a week, and then allow them to free write sometimes. This would allow you to tie in the critical lens that the authors also talk about (Bomer R, Bomer K, 2001).
The comment above was made by Merannda Best
ReplyDeleteI wanted to start off by stating my personal experience in writing which lead to my love of writing! In elementary school I remember my teacher giving us journals to write in every day. Every day the prompt would be different. Sometimes it would be a prompt she had given us about a recent holiday or event that was taking place and sometimes it would be free choice. This helped me gain my voice and become a stronger writer. I think it's important to give prompts that are culturally relatable and also giving our students a chance to write what they want to write. Giving them the independence and skills they need. I think giving students journals and letting them take them home and wherever they go can help create a love of writing and activism.Giving students prompts that relate to the world outside of the classroom. This reminds me of the movie Freedom Writers and the journals the teacher gave to the students. Letting the students share their stories and giving them a safe space in their writing. I think writing is SO important and using it to give our students a voice can be that much more beneficial. Thank you for such a good blog Hannah!
ReplyDeleteMayson, thank you for sharing your personal experience! I love this idea you have about guiding them with a prompt but still giving them the freedom to write what they what! Thank you for sharing :)
DeleteMayson, I think it's wonderful your teacher gave you (your class) journals to write in to express yourself and find your voice. I agree that a journal gives students independence to find their voice and gives them an opportunity to improve on skills they have and those learning. Having a journal to talk about their opinion about hard topics lets them get ideas on paper and may be easier for them to later share aloud what may have been difficult to write down. I enjoyed hearing about your experience with writing and hope more teachers will encourage their students to write to help create a love for writing like you have.
DeleteAllison,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment about how allowing students to keep a journal is a great way to allow them to be creative. I said the same thing in my comment, and had a similar idea as to how to tie in the curriculum to the writing. I stated in my comment that I think it would be a good idea to allow students to sometimes do a free write, and then sometimes give the students perimeters so that you can use that as a form of assessment (Bomer R., Bomer K, 2001). The chapter talks about there needs to be a form of assessment when it comes to writing, so I think it would be a good way to combine the idea of writing as well as assessing. I agree that there are ways to tie in social justice issues and allow it to still be a free write as well. Have students write about social changes that they want to make and how they would be advocates for their community and for a better world.
ReplyDeleteI would love to include writing journals into the classroom routines. I think that this would encourage students to write and explore social issues and their own identity with a critical lens. I love the idea of having them take home a journal as well. I do feel that it depends on the grade level. Some students will just not remember to bring it back to school. This would become an issue when you are including writing journals in your daily activities. I think that this could be resolved by having 2 separate journals. One for school and one to take home. This would allow for the students to have multiple points of access to their daily journal. I think that they should be encouraged to bring the take home journal back to use in class as well, but it will take away some of the issue if they do not. They will have a spare in their desk, cubby, or mailbox in the room. I feel that I as a teacher would need to write in my journal during this time as well. I need to model how to be a critical thinker and writer in order for my students to choose and do this as well. I think that you need to keep students accountable for writing in some way. I think that the best way is to allow for them, and yourself, to keep you accountable. I think that if you are asking students to keep up on writing, then you also need to show them that you are keeping up.
I do think that dependent upon the grade level, you should modify this activity to fit your students. I think that for kindergarten through 2nd, they should be allowed to create a picture and follow up with description words, if possible. This will allow for all students to be included and allow for differentiation of instruction.
Melissa, I love that you talk about differentiation of instruction and how to model them depending on the grade level. I agree that kindergarten to 2nd grade should be allowed to draw picture and write description rather than just writing out only words. I think we should encourage our students to keep a journal no matter how old they are and they can be as young as four years old. By doing this, it will become a routine and later become habit and that's important. I really encourage the idea of taking their journal home. They should take their journal home so that they can also explore social issues not only at school but also outside of school.
DeleteMelissa, I LOVE this idea of two journals! I didn't even think about that. This could help students so they always have something to write in. I also love the picture idea you have! Students of all ages love to draw and incorporating drawing and writing together can help students who are visual learners or who love to draw! Thank you for sharing :)
DeleteHannah, I enjoy your blog post! To answer your first question, I would totally make it my classroom routine. I never really thought that keeping and writing a journal could be so beneficial. I remember one teacher in high school asked us to keep a writing journal and write on them whenever we feel like writing. However, she didn't tell us about looking at social issues through a critical lens and she didn't keep a journal of her own either. We all got journal but we never wrote on them because she didn't talk about it anymore nor gave us time to write it during class time. In my future classroom, I will definitely make time for my students to write their journal and if they don't know what to write about, I will give them a prompt to help guide them. And if they want to write about a specific subject or issue that day, I will encourage them to do that. It hasn't been long since I realized the importance of writers journal. After I watched The Freedom Writer, I know what I have to do with my students in my future classroom. To answer your question about letting them take their journal home, I would say yes, totally. I will totally encourage my students to take it home and write whatever they want whether it is or not a social issue but I will encourage them to look at things in critical lens. And when they come back to school the next day, they can share it with a class if they want to. And one of the most important thing for me, as a teacher, is to set an example for them, be their role model, and do the same just like how I encourage them to do.
ReplyDeleteMang, thank you for sharing your personal experience with writing journals! Honestly, I wouldn't of done it either if the teacher didn't seem to have interest in them. I also like the ideas you have about how you will do writing in your classroom. Thank you for sharing :)
DeleteHannah,
ReplyDeleteI think you make a very good point when you explain writing to be "encouraging curiosity and paying attention to details (observations)". This is an interesting conception about students' writing experiences, and I appreciate your outlook on the chapter's ideas. I think it is important to gear students opportunities to engage with one another in class to be framed in a social justice lens. Randy Bomer and Katherine Bomer state, "It's not surprising, then, that students rarely select topics that are related to social issues; everyday justice; power relationships; possibilities for collective interest and action; or other social, political, or critical topics" (Bomer & Bomer, 2001, p. 112). Therefore, if we do not gear such writing experiences towards topics such as those describe above, students will not be given the opportunity to become democratic leaders and citizens inside and outside the classroom.
Hannah , thank you for your insight into these readings and also your amazing memes! I think that your points on having students engage in writing concepts that help them further their understanding of social justice and reading overall. Preparing students to write , not only about prompts that may be introduced to them but also about issues they may face for their lives. As we heard in class perspectives can change so much and in doing that one child can help morphe the mindset of many that they may touch through their writing. Perhaps my favorite insight is having students journal , I do this now outside of school and it’s such a refresh. I look forward to implementing these ideas in student teaching and my own classroom! Great job
ReplyDeleteI think the writer’s notebook would be helpful to include in class exercises, as well as allow an outlet for students to express themselves in writing. Allowing students to take the notebooks home would encourage more use of it, so I would encourage that.
ReplyDeleteSome classmates and I were just talking about political alignment the other day, and talked about quizzes that can help individuals understand the general differences between political parties and ideologies. It can be a little daunting to learn about politics because it seems complicated, but most students have an idea of what side they would be on if you give them situational examples.
To help keep our students accountable for writing in their notebooks, we could schedule a weekly or daily ‘check’. This would hopefully help them keep them in the habit of writing every day. It would also be a convenient way to check in with students’ moods too. They’d be able to record any issues they’re having in or outside of school (without having to bring it up out loud), and the teacher would be able to see that within a short time frame.
While reading your blog, I actually had thought about how I saw some articles and teacher blogs through Pinterest on "interactive notebooks", in which students would be taking Cornell notes, making connections to the world around them, and reflecting in journal entries that their teachers review on a timely schedule and RESPOND back to their students. A lot of aspects of these interactive journals are points that you brought up in your blog, and I was excited to read through this! I am also inspired through the "assisted activities" that I plan to implement throughout class that probes questions on current events (you mention pep rallies, what happened in the hallway, etc.) and I also think even about new music videos or games that come out are also something that engages our students.
ReplyDeleteAlso, your blog was to-the-point and short but informative and I was able to get everything from your reading. Very well done!
Yes Morgan!! I would love to introduce interactive journals. I know that when I am learning, I need to be active. I love being creative with everything that I do. We need to be up-to-date on the latest trends. I told a joke to my buddies about the horses in the back song and they literally cackled so hard, it made me laugh hysterically as well. We need to be thinking of them. We need to have the trust in our students to be able to read their journals to respond to them, but I love this idea.
DeleteHannah,
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of having writer's notebooks in the classroom. I wish it was something that was implemented into my classes growing up. I feel like everything is just about technology these days, but when you give me a pencil and paper I can make into anything I want it to be. They can be just about the students day or you could have writing prompts that can give them an idea on what to write about. I as the teacher would love to to read them, but is something that you have to gain from them. You have to gain their trust. The things they could be writing about could be personal and something they don't want you to know about yet. So, we as teachers need to establish at trust.
I like what Christa said above. We would need to keep our students accountable on doing the writing. We can do this by having weekly checks. This way they know that if they don't write that is their fault and can take responsibility of what they didn't do. Great post!!
I agree with you Amber, I did not have many experiences where I developed my writing skill, mostly in a elementary class. My classmates and I always completed our work in workbooks, worksheets, and other disengaging texts. Technology is not helping students open their minds to be creative. Students need time to explore and critically think about the world around them. Students need to create their personal experiences in order to ideas to write about. Teacher can learn so much from their students such as their beliefs, culture, social environment, and etc. Like you said, teachers need to find ways to gain the students' trust when its time for teachers to read the students' writing projects.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Hannah!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your first question, I would include writing in our daily classroom routines. I think developing one's writing skills is so important because it is a skill that essential for future grades. As a student moves on to upper grades, they will be expected to complete rigorous writing assignments. They will be instructed to critically think in their writing and write about personal experiences. Teachers should better prepared them for future writing courses. It is not a bad idea for students in lower grade levels to practice their writing skills on a daily basis. I think students have a ton to say and they have opinions about everything. They are capable of characterizing what they see in the world. I would allow my students to take their writing notebooks to their homes. Their minds don't stop once they step out of the classrooms. You can never know, students might find something interesting to write about at home. Other activities I would include in my classroom that would help develop my students' writing skills is write cards, fill in the story like Mad Libs, Chalk Board Writing, and Write their own Tales. These allows students to develop their writing skills without feeling stressed to write perfectly. They are free to be creative and incorporate their own style and words in their own writing creations.