Integrating making and writing experiences may not seem very difficult, but in my experience, making this marriage worthwhile requires some careful planning. It takes nothing to dump a pile of loose parts on a table and challenge kids to build, but I wonder: How many of them would build straight through an entire class without pausing to compose a single line, though? Those who are responsible for teaching writing are wise to consider this reality. Many…
When Writers Make Integrating making with writing at the WNY Young Writers’ Studio has completely transformed our learning and work. Whether we’re writing about the things that we make or making our way around writer’s block, each time kids put down their pens and back away from their devices long enough to build, unexpected and incredibly rewarding things happen. For instance, those who claim to hate writing often find promising pathways toward it. When kids…
“What is this?” Ava asked, pulling a fuzzy bit of string out of the tray that greeted the writers at her table. “I’m not sure,” I replied, teasing her a bit. “What could it be?” She considered this carefully, tilting her head a bit and pushing her glasses up with one finger. A tiny smile played across her lips. “I’ll bet we get to invent things with all of this stuff,” she guessed, scampering back…
Guess what? I wrote a book! That’s right: Make Writing: 5 Teaching Strategies that Turn Writers Workshop into a Maker Space debuted Friday and quickly became an Amazon Best Seller. A big thank you to everyone at the WNY Young Writers Studio for being an important part of this project, and hats off to editor Ruth Arseneault, cover designer Tracey Henterly, and interior designer Steven Plummer for their careful attention and incredible work. I’m grateful to Mark Barnes…
Last spring, several groups at the WNY Young Writer’s Studio made a careful study of dialogue. Rather than charting the ideas that might have emerged from my teacher-driven mini-lessons, writers researched this topic using varied tools. They looked for evidence of these stratgies in beloved mentor texts, and they interviewed real writers. Then, students added their findings to the chart below. This small shift in practice was incedibly rewarding. How are you making your writing workshop more student…
During conversations with teachers last week, one mentioned how overwhelming it is to move writers through the revision process and how, all too often, what comes from the effort is more a reflection of the teacher’s thinking and work rather than the writer’s. “If I don’t do the work for them, their revisions are never deep enough. Their final drafts are still pretty weak,” she said. Truer words are rarely spoken, and this is why…
Here’s a snapshot of the grid that some writers plan with at the WNY Young Writer’s Studio. And here’s another of a bulletin board near it, which provides new writers very basic approaches to try as they get acquainted with making writing in this way. These aren’t my ideas. Studio writers shared most of them. And here’s something that’s hard to portray in those photos or in sketchbook shots: the MOVEMENT of the sticky notes.…
When it comes to building a writing community, much depends on the quality of the feedback that writers provide to one another. Solid feedback is timely, aligned to the needs defined by the writer, and criteria specific. Compliments and criticism have no place at the table, and protocols like those I share in the LiveBinder below can ensure greater equity as well. Peer review is tough stuff. Writers rarely come to the table full prepared…
Over the last five years, I’ve had the good fortune to meet and write with a whole lot of kindergarteners, and when I ask them if they love to write, the majority tell me that they do. Enthusiastically. I’ve also had the good fortunate to meet and write with a whole lot of middle school students as well. But when I ask them if they love to write? The numbers are much lower, and their…
In my work with teachers, and in our fellowship programs at the WNY Young Writer’s Studio, I’ve become closely acquainted with a few kids who absolutely hate writing. What’s worse is that they believe they aren’t capable of it. Why? Well, mostly because they are unable to sit silently before a screen or page and push words out of the end of their fingers in a coherent fashion until every inch of white space is…