Reflections from VSRA19 Part 1

I was blessed to be able to attend writing sessions by Pernille Ripp and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. Both of these incredible women had similar messages: in order to teach writing, we need to be writers. Now I’ve been saying the same thing about reading for years, but when someone says it to me about writing, I get incredibly nervous. In the interest of full disclosure, when I’m observed on a day that I am teaching a writing skill, I break a sweat. A monster sweat. A “walking out of a hot yoga studio” kind of sweat. Clearly, I still have a lot to learn.

In Pernille Ripp’s Pre-Conference session, “Passionate Writers”, she first asked us, “Who are YOU as a writer?” This is something that she also discusses throughout the year with her students. Here are some things to consider:

a.    When do you write?

b.    Where do you write?

c.    What do you write?

d.    For whom do you write?

e.    With whom do you share?

f.     What is your writing process?

g.    When do you like writing?

She gave us three minutes to reflect on those questions, and actually complimented us on being able to follow through for that long (apparently what normally happens is that after about a minute people start to “get squirmy”). We didn’t do a whole-group share, but I’m guessing that everyone’s answers were different. This got us talking about how we teach “the writing process” to students (spoiler alert: in real life, the writing process doesn’t necessarily happen neatly in this order: prewrite, draft, revise, edit, publish!).

Ms. Ripp listed things we do as teachers that can HARM the love of writing:

a.    Assume there is only one way to do it correctly.

b.    Force all students to use the same process.

In case you were wondering, I was the one in the second row quietly saying, “PREACH!” For years we have been forcing students to fit THEIR writing into OUR TEMPLATES. If adults don’t all approach writing the same way, why do we think our kids will? Laura Robb even said in a later session, “If we give kids a worksheet that organizes their writing for them, they won’t learn how to organize for themselves.”

My favorite thing that Pernille said is that teachers tend to “edit the student right out of the piece.” YES!! In our class, I’ve been working on just getting the students to find the joy in writing. When they write in their journals, my feedback is mainly asking questions to help them elaborate. Pernille explained that if we got a paper back completely marked up with pen (and let’s be honest, the color of the pen makes absolutely NO difference), it would make us not want to write. Our kids are the same. It is very important for the students to feel confident enough to share their ideas with me without worrying that I’m going to rip their writing apart. As Pernille said, “Writing means belonging. In order to belong, we must feel like we matter.”

One of the session participants asked about the use of rubrics. Pernille makes sure that the students know SPECIFICALLY what she is looking for in their writing. Here is a link to her blog post on Single Point Rubrics:

https://pernillesripp.com/2019/02/24/using-the-single-point-rubric-for-better-assessment-conversations/

Something else that I took to heart was this: let’s be careful of saying, “GOOD writers do this…”
and just say WRITERS (because if students aren’t doing those things, they may internalize that they are “BAD” writers)! We also, according to Pernille, need to offer more CHOICE in writing (try to offer at least ONE of these choices EVERY time):

a.    How they write

b.    When they write

c.    What they write

d.    How they share

e.    What is assessed

In our curriculum, students may not always get to choose their final product, but we CAN give them some choice during the writing process!

I also attended Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s session, Keep a Notebook: Romp, Risk, Rehearse. She emphasized that writing has to come from a place that is meaningful to students. “Notebooks”, she explained, “are a safe place to play.” Students need to know that they are not going to face judgment on the things they choose to write about. At the beginning of the year when we start working in our journals, I give the students a mix of prompts and freewrites. Their freewrites are always my favorites! These are a great way to get to know new students, because they share things in their notebooks that they might not be comfortable enough to share aloud.

My favorite quote from this session was, “A notebook is a gift to your future self.” After the first few days of school, we usually use our journals for reading responses…making predictions, practicing strategies, keeping notes about story events, etc. I jot something each day during independent reading time, and encourage our students to do the same. You would not believe how much I love looking back at all of the wonderful books I’ve read, the quotes that I copied and shared, and my impressions about the books. It’s been so helpful for making book recommendations to students, or for pointing out particular craft moves made by authors.

One thing that Ms. Ludwig VanDerwater stressed was the importance of showing students our writing PROCESS. She said when we model our writing for students, it’s not to show off a gorgeous final product, it’s more like, “I wrote this, and I want to show you what I’m TRYING to do here.” This is something that I’ve been trying to work on in our class this year, but I have a long way to go!

So, how do we get students started writing in notebooks? The following suggestions were offered.

a.    Write from a sketch

b.    Write from a read aloud

c.    Write from a quote

d.    Ponder a question

e.    Freewrite

f.     Write from an object (ex. Pick a button out of a bag)

g.    Create lists

1.    Favorite words

2.    Books read

3.    Books TO BE read

4.    Ideas for future projects

5.    Character names

6.    Thoughts

7.    Dreams

One of my book club students is a writer, and we talked about how he didn’t like one of his stories, so he “scrapped the whole thing”. I told him what I had just learned in this session…always hang on to an idea because one day you may decide to come back to it. He told me that he in fact HAD kept a couple of the characters to use in a different story. I believe that Amy Ludwig VanDerwater would have approved!

My takeaway quote: “Reading often begets writing.”