Writing these days is pretty exciting
-- way more exciting than when I was in school. I would have been
completely hooked on digital stories. I do believe that "composing" has
to be, at least, in part the way we view the teaching of writing today.
Podcasts, digital stories, social media -- it's all relevant. What we
need to do is make sure that the eyes and ears of students are trained
toward high quality composition. They need to plan, do pre-writing
work, write, revise, compose, edit, get feedback, think, mull, wander
around -- generally be thoughful -- and revise some more. They need to
write cleanly, clearly, and with purpose. When visual elements are
added, the rules of good design apply. In podcasts, students need to be
aware of how their voices sound, that they speak clearly, pronounce
words correctly, etc. It's not a free-for-all because the field has
opened up to include formats beyond the five paragraph essay. Thank
goodness the field has opened up!
Very high quality mentor texts seem crucial to me -- in essays, poetry, fiction, digital stories, podcasts, and presentations.
Penny Kittle and Troy Hicks both have very helpful books and websites. The writer's workshop is dear to Penny Kittle and I believe that's still the way to go with students. They need to begin to write about subjects that are personally relevant to them, so that they'll be invested and care about revising ... especially if they have a real audience in mind for the project. As the students begin to really grasp the structure of writing, the process, the power -- then the other genres can be taught.
Here are a couple links to Penny Kittle and Troy Hicks.
I was just in Boston with my daughter. We saw a young woman perform at the Wilbur Theatre while we were there who has become famous on YouTube. She makes videos -- parodies, vlogs about her life, comedies, documentary. Her name is Colleen Balinger and she has a YouTube channel undeer her own name and as a character she plays, Miranda Sings. My daughter loves her. This young woman is a perfect example of the participatory culture we're living in. She's making videos, but she is putting all of the same planning into her work that we would hope our studnets would. It might not be to everyone's taste -- but she gets constant feedback from her viewers, vlogs accordingly, edits carefully, keeps in contact with her audience through careful use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube comments.... After this show we saw, my daughter wanted to stand outside in the bitter, windy Boston night to meet Colleen. I agreed to stand around and freeze, I had my Kindle. But I didn't end up reading at all. I was fascinated by watching the group of kids outside; they ranged in age from 13 to early 20's -- mostly theatre kids, performers of sorts themselves. None of them began that evening knowing each other but by the next morning my daughter was connected to all of them (about 25 kids) on Twitter and Instagram. They banded together in the cold and started Tweeting. They laughed, their fingers didn't work from the cold, but they kept on Tweeting. They started an organized (written!) campaign outside in the freezing night, standing in a Boston alley to let their wishes, en masse, be known. And they got what they wanted. She came out and took pictures and talked to all of them -- couldn't believe they were out there. The security guards tried to hustle the kids away, acting like they were a nuisance, saying Colleen wouldn't be coming out, but the kids were already getting messages back from inside the theatre to the contrary. They organized. They wrote. They had things to say. I count that as writing. Not an essay, but to me it seemed significant, as I watched them. The next day, a group had formed via Instagram. Fiona (my daughter) could search tags and find all the pictures and freinds she'd met the night before and add them to her contacts. A new little social group of kids had formed over a common interest, kids who met for a couple hours in the cold in an alley. They've continued to edit pictures, write, post, repost all week. I love it. I look at what's being sent and resent, I talk about it all with Fiona and attempt to add some kind of historical context. We're in a new place, it's pretty exciting. I like sentences, paragraphs, words that are spelled like real words and so I still campaign for those things and teach them. But we need to be open to all that's new.
I noticed someone had written about how Twitter can lead to in depth conversations in Digital Is, so here it is. Could be a useful resource.
I also found a TED talk that made some sense to me. This teacher, Rosie Slentz, is a Redwood Writing Project mentor and believes in taking her 5th grade students into the woods, to the shore -- to get them out into the world, firing up their imaginations and critical thinking skills so that they can learn and write and feel excited about it. It's worth viewing. Going outside, having experiences, adventures are great ways to get kids into their journals. My daughter's science class was hiking last week and thought they saw a coyote. They all ran right back to school and wrote pages in the journals -- of very dramatic material. I'm surprised any of them survived.
Lastly, although this really isn't all I have to say on this subject, is that reading is mandatory. How can we write, how can our students write, if we/they don't read -- a lot? Yes, we need to view great digital story mentor texts, but I also believe we need to read books. There are varying levels of interactive books, which I find interesting. E-books, iBooks Author let's students (or anyone) create books on their computers to be viewed on ipads.
I have an ipad and a laptop, my daughter has the big desktop for all of her photoshop work, but my favorite little device is the Kindle paperwhite, nothing fancy -- justs hundreds and hundred of books. I know from personal experience that the best way to learn to write is to read a lot.
I am forever trying to find the books that will grab kids. When they get hooked, it's the best... and I know it will do wonders for their understanding of writing.
Miranda Sings
Very high quality mentor texts seem crucial to me -- in essays, poetry, fiction, digital stories, podcasts, and presentations.
Penny Kittle and Troy Hicks both have very helpful books and websites. The writer's workshop is dear to Penny Kittle and I believe that's still the way to go with students. They need to begin to write about subjects that are personally relevant to them, so that they'll be invested and care about revising ... especially if they have a real audience in mind for the project. As the students begin to really grasp the structure of writing, the process, the power -- then the other genres can be taught.
Here are a couple links to Penny Kittle and Troy Hicks.
I was just in Boston with my daughter. We saw a young woman perform at the Wilbur Theatre while we were there who has become famous on YouTube. She makes videos -- parodies, vlogs about her life, comedies, documentary. Her name is Colleen Balinger and she has a YouTube channel undeer her own name and as a character she plays, Miranda Sings. My daughter loves her. This young woman is a perfect example of the participatory culture we're living in. She's making videos, but she is putting all of the same planning into her work that we would hope our studnets would. It might not be to everyone's taste -- but she gets constant feedback from her viewers, vlogs accordingly, edits carefully, keeps in contact with her audience through careful use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube comments.... After this show we saw, my daughter wanted to stand outside in the bitter, windy Boston night to meet Colleen. I agreed to stand around and freeze, I had my Kindle. But I didn't end up reading at all. I was fascinated by watching the group of kids outside; they ranged in age from 13 to early 20's -- mostly theatre kids, performers of sorts themselves. None of them began that evening knowing each other but by the next morning my daughter was connected to all of them (about 25 kids) on Twitter and Instagram. They banded together in the cold and started Tweeting. They laughed, their fingers didn't work from the cold, but they kept on Tweeting. They started an organized (written!) campaign outside in the freezing night, standing in a Boston alley to let their wishes, en masse, be known. And they got what they wanted. She came out and took pictures and talked to all of them -- couldn't believe they were out there. The security guards tried to hustle the kids away, acting like they were a nuisance, saying Colleen wouldn't be coming out, but the kids were already getting messages back from inside the theatre to the contrary. They organized. They wrote. They had things to say. I count that as writing. Not an essay, but to me it seemed significant, as I watched them. The next day, a group had formed via Instagram. Fiona (my daughter) could search tags and find all the pictures and freinds she'd met the night before and add them to her contacts. A new little social group of kids had formed over a common interest, kids who met for a couple hours in the cold in an alley. They've continued to edit pictures, write, post, repost all week. I love it. I look at what's being sent and resent, I talk about it all with Fiona and attempt to add some kind of historical context. We're in a new place, it's pretty exciting. I like sentences, paragraphs, words that are spelled like real words and so I still campaign for those things and teach them. But we need to be open to all that's new.
I noticed someone had written about how Twitter can lead to in depth conversations in Digital Is, so here it is. Could be a useful resource.
I also found a TED talk that made some sense to me. This teacher, Rosie Slentz, is a Redwood Writing Project mentor and believes in taking her 5th grade students into the woods, to the shore -- to get them out into the world, firing up their imaginations and critical thinking skills so that they can learn and write and feel excited about it. It's worth viewing. Going outside, having experiences, adventures are great ways to get kids into their journals. My daughter's science class was hiking last week and thought they saw a coyote. They all ran right back to school and wrote pages in the journals -- of very dramatic material. I'm surprised any of them survived.
Lastly, although this really isn't all I have to say on this subject, is that reading is mandatory. How can we write, how can our students write, if we/they don't read -- a lot? Yes, we need to view great digital story mentor texts, but I also believe we need to read books. There are varying levels of interactive books, which I find interesting. E-books, iBooks Author let's students (or anyone) create books on their computers to be viewed on ipads.
I have an ipad and a laptop, my daughter has the big desktop for all of her photoshop work, but my favorite little device is the Kindle paperwhite, nothing fancy -- justs hundreds and hundred of books. I know from personal experience that the best way to learn to write is to read a lot.
I am forever trying to find the books that will grab kids. When they get hooked, it's the best... and I know it will do wonders for their understanding of writing.
Miranda Sings
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