Saturday, March 9, 2019

Lessons from Week One #SOL19


I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge.  
This year I decided to complete my slice of life challenge through the use of quickwrites.  By doing this, I hope to explore my own writing, identify problems my students may be experiencing with these quick bursts of writing, and show them authentic revisions in the writing process.

Writers participate in this challenge for many reasons. This year I have been disappointed in my students' writing when we do quick writes. (Maybe it's because I see the work from other students, and I unfairly compare.)

Because of this disappointment, I decided to put myself in their shoes and do quick writes for my slices. Today, as we wrap up our first week, I have a better understanding of how my students feel and why I may not be seeing the work I desire.

What I learned from a week of quick writes:

  1. Knowing the prompt has an advantage. For this challenge, I chose my own quick write prompts, so I knew the direction my writing was going to take me before I even began. It became much harder when the prompt was spontaneous, and I didn't know it ahead of time, as in this slice.
  2. Four minutes isn't enough time. When my students do quick writes, I give them four minutes with two additional minutes for revision.  This week, I took ten minutes for each of my quick writes.  I feel this gave me enough time to develop my idea which could possibly turn into something more. Four minutes just isn't enough time.
  3. Writing beside them matters. I have always known showing my students my own writing life let's them see that writing goes beyond school. This week we have written quick writes together. They saw me struggle with the anxiety of the impromptu writing from a random word. They saw how ideas can take writers in different directions. They saw that writers can overcome blank pages.
But I think the most important lesson I learned was reminded of this week was Choice Matters.  I missed looking at my day and finding slices in the moments. My daughter said something funny the other day, and I warned her that it was March and everything she says or does qualifies for a slice. 

Then, I remembered that I was using quick writes this year. 

I know the value of quick writes and why we, as teachers, use them.  But I have also learned that a steady diet of the same type of writing, whether that is quick writes, on-demand writing, writing to a prompt, daily journal writing, or many others, is not good for any writer.

You might just see something different from me in week two!

15 comments:

  1. I think it's a FABULOUS idea to try out what you are asking the kids to do. I teach eight year olds so the expectations aren't so high. I write with them, too. I always scrutinize myself SO hard when things tank. Their informational writing was so poor last cycle. It is what is. i would like to do more of what they are doing, and then examine it closely. I agree w/you I think there is a lot to be gained.

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  2. How great it is that you - as a teacher writer - share your writing life with your students. I learned from your ways too!
    And this made me laugh: "My daughter said something funny the other day, and I warned her that it was March and everything she says or does qualifies for a slice."

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  3. Cool.. I love Quick Writes and what you've discovered with them as a teacher/Writer
    Thanks,
    Bonnie

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  4. This shows that learning something new has great benefit but also that there are pitfalls involved as well.

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  5. Such interesting observations, and I applaud you for putting yourselves in students' shoes ! Yes to choice and more time!

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  6. And this is what the March SOLC is all about, isn't it? When we participate as writers, we learn so much about how best to teach our students. Great insight here!

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  7. Yes to all this! I have tried to use several quickwrite prompts already to get ready for this challenge, and I am coming to the conclusion that I need to revamp some of my prompts! Several that had my students staring blankly at the page had me doing the same thing. Choice matters, and so does the quality of the prompt. Maybe we need an additional hashtag: #solrealizations or #lessonsfromsol!

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  8. Modelling yourself as a writer means so much for the young writers. Quick write with a random prompt is challenging. i like setting a time to just get some writing done. 10 minutes seems to be a good amount.

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  9. These take-aways are so wise and a perfect reason for trying out what we ask our students to do. We can't empathize with them when we don't know what they're experiencing. Writing beside them definitely matters!

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  10. Reflaction! Powerful reflecting and then taking action. I so wish the writing program we are using had the time and space for giving students more choice in their writing. Your quick writing is inspiring me, Leigh Anne. I'm going to do more of it!

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  11. Very interesting observations, ones that many of us can benefit from. Thank you! :-) ~JudyK

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  12. YES! YES! YES! we need to be open to so many kinds of writing and ideas-you are reflective and wise Leigh Anne. Your students are lucky to have you.

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  13. Great reflections- they will help you as a writer and teacher. I need to try some quick writes with my students, but hesitate to, because I know they are hard...

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  14. Wise words. I have had to be mindful that I don't overdo certain types of writing with my learners.

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  15. What great observations! I especially love the insight about time--I need at least five and preferably ten myself and so I usually give students a little more too. And choice! I need to find ways to incorporate more choice into quickwrites as well, I think. that's often the only daily writing my students do and I wonder if the lack of variety is what sometimes makes for stale pieces.

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