Dear Reader

To my loyal reader, this inquiry is a labor of love by a teacher who, upon completing her second year as an educator, decided to make the transition from middle school to a high school classroom. But before I begin my research, I want you to know why this is so important to me. 


I have a secret. I am a terrible writing teacher. I don't have a clue where to begin with them. I go through the process, I conference with my students, have them conference with peers, I even do mini lessons on our process and conventions. But somehow I always get these papers that have no soul. My students are going through the motions and I am "guiding" them through and each of us are just as awkward as the other in our journey. 

When Dr. Carol Revelle, the most amazing pre-service education professor EVER, suggested just two weeks after the birth of my daughter that I give up three weeks of my summer to participate in the North Star Writing Invitational, I thought she was crazy. Then I thought about how I teach writing. Then I decided I was crazy if i didn't do it. 

Enter the summer institute inquiry. When I realized what an opportunity I had here, I immediately thought about what I do with my class, what works, and what has failed. As a new teacher with not a lot of support, a lot has failed in my class. My focus, therefore, was on a proven model of writing. I understand I will not be able to apply a writer's workshop model 100%, but there are strategies and structure I can implement that will help my students become better writers naturally. 


How can the writer's workshop be implemented in a secondary classroom? This was my burning question for the institute. I love writing and have not yet found a way to teach it in an engaging way. Enter writer's notebooks. Yes, I had the composition books in my classroom, but they all looked the same, save the small name scribbled in the white box on the front. I never had my students take ownership of them. They were just a tool to rip paper out of or keep their classroom notes. I stored them in my room and they were opened only when we had to prewrite, draft, revise, and edit an assigned paper. I gave writing prompts and tried to stay away from touchy freely emotional prompts to engage my students who preferred not to get personal. Every time I would find one that I thought was amazing, I was left with a chorus of, "Can I write about something else?" or "I don't get it." I was so frustrated I gave up on the notebooks altogether. 

Enter Penny Kittle's book entitled, Write Beside Them. I was amazed at some of the strategies she suggested. Her book made me want to find more information. I researched the structure of a writer's workshop, how to conference with students, how to get them to read each other's work, and most importantly, how to share. There were other writers who gave me the tools I will need to succeed, but Kittle shouted at me that I could do this.

Now, I realize her work is based on a creative writing classroom and that she does not have content to cover. She has a range of students with varying abilities, but it is obvious she does not have the struggles of a title one school. Her class is utopia. I get that mine will not be. I will have kids entering high school who may not be able to read a picture book; however, this does not mean that her work cannot apply to my kids. I fully intend to take some of her research based strategies, as well as those from Aimee Buckner and Paul Allison, to frame my next year teaching English I. 

For my research, since I will implement some of these things into my classroom at the beginning of the year, I chose to do a Multi-genre project. I hope you will find some of what I create here useful tools to take into your classroom, dear reader.

Love Writing

Image created at Tagxedo.com

Author's Note: 

When I spoke to Dr. Wickstrom about the idea of doing a multi genre project to outline my research, I was rather hard on the overuse of the word cloud. But after some reflection I realized it has some value and brings some great conversation to the table. For this cloud, I was very deliberate about designing it and the words I used.

The shape is a nod to pop culture, which every teacher knows is very important to our students. I wanted to convey to them my love for writing in a way that wasn't so in their face, but still subtly told them to be prepared, we will be doing a lot of it.

I took all of my annotations and pasted them into the text box to form the cloud. As you can see the keywords that stand out the most are student, writing, writer, and reading.I agree that these are the most important pieces to a successful writer's workshop because the research says so.

The largest word in the cloud is Student, and it should be. The student should be front of mind for all the decisions we make as educators. They are our most important stakeholder and will benefit or loose the most from our practices. There is no excuse for serving sub-par lessons to our studetns each day. Best practices supported by research take the student into account first. In the workshop model, the students begin to see themselves as writers which leads into the next largest key words.

It makes sense that writer, writing and reading are the same size. Kittle says readers are better writers because writing and reading are intimately connected. She makes her kids read 80 minutes outside of the reading they do in class. She also relies heavily on mentor texts to illustrate the key components of a genre and give good examples of well thought out word choice, proper mechanics, and organization of ideas. Having a text rich environment also scaffolds language learning for ELL's and provides access to academic language for higher level thinking. And in a writing workshop model, we are flexing our writing muscle by giving ample opportunity in a class period to write.

By looking at the key words I can see my focus come into view for this next year. To implement the writer's workshop I must have student buy in, have a text rich environment, and provide opportunity for our students to see themselves as thoughtful writers.  

Six Word Writer's Workshop Memoir

Kids write better when they read.

Writers aren't born, they are created.

Writers compose or they will decompose.

Build your writing muscle. Practice daily.

Mentor texts thoughtfully answer your questions.

Author's note: 

I chose to do several six work memoirs to highlight some of things I have learned through my inquiry. Most important is this: To become a great writer, you have to practice every day. There are so many ideas for stories I have running around my head and they always seem to pop up when I have no paper or any way to really get them out of me. I feel like our kids feel this way, too. They just don't know how to get the words from their brain to the page, or they feel insecure from years of receiving "bleeding papers."

I am guilty of that. I have turned a paper into a graphic crime scene where the victim bleeds pink on the stark whiteness.I thought that using a color that isn't red would help. It doesn't. It just makes the mistakes I am noting mockingly cheerful.

Kittle addresses this in her book. She says she has to take a step back, look at craft and content separately, and if mechanics are getting in the student's way, make a note of a correct sentence and have the student edit again. Or, if you can tell the student is not familiar with a certain grammar point, have them come see you for tutoring. Using either of these strategies is preferable to voicelessly cutting the student into tiny ribbons of dread for their future writing assignments. 

Norms For Writer's Notebooks

Mrs. Flanagan's Class Notebook Norms:

1. Unless there is a specific question posted, you may write about anything that is on your mind.
2. Write without stopping until time is called.
3. Write without correcting. This is a rough draft. It does not have to be perfect. 
4. We are a community of writers which means if you would like to share, you may share during our author's chair. 
5. You may only share YOUR writing. Please don't send a friend with your words. 
6. I understand our writing is personal. If you write something you do not want me to see, please fold the page over and I will not disturb it.
7. However, if I read something in your notebook that concerns me, I may have to share it with the counselor or administrator.

Author's Note:

In the past, I have found that introduction of writer’s notebook to be the most frustrating part of writer’s notebook. I haven't had a clear vision of what it should be and which makes getting student buy in difficult. I have often wondered how I can maximize the use of the notebook front and back. My first thought last year was to have the students use the back for vocabulary, but we decided after six weeks that vocabulary lists were not necessary. Buchner uses the front for quick writes and the back for reading and writing strategies, which is similar to my original outline of the notebooks.

To establish the writer's notebook at the right time is important. In Aimee Buckner's book, Notebook Know-how: Strategies For The Writer's Notebook,  she mentioned the importance of the students having a story to tell when you introduce the writer's notebook. To combat the lack of vision, I feel there should also be a list of norms for my students to begin our experience with writer's notebooks.

I understand these will be flexible and the students will help come up with a class set; however, these are what I will guide them to if they are left out of the student list.

Mentor Text

I'm from the heart of the literacy jungle
Where I am hunted for my pristine structure
unparalleled organization
and my captivating words.

I'm from the difference between finding your voice
and fading into the background.

I'm from giving my audience something to strive for
picked up over and over
to help with that one detail of the writer's block
they just can't get over.

I'm from the first words read to a class of 35
to the last kid to get the concept of a thesis statement
and though he can identify it in me
he just can't get it out of him
until he picks up my friend
whose structure is similar
and organization just as amazing
but her voice is slightly different
and then it clicks.

Author's Note: 

We must provide a text rich environment for our students to achieve greatness as writers. Kittle reinforces time and again that each genre should have many mentor texts to provide students with as many opportunities as possible to see great works, and not so great works, from that genre. She stresses the importance of not only seeing professional work, but the work of their peers. There are several strategies that get the students to interact with the mentor text, deconstruct it, name it, and notice how it is put together. I plan on using so many more picture books, articles, and providing my students with text to manipulate, organize, and interact with. 

Norms for Blogs

Mrs. Flanagan's Blogging Norms

1. Always use appropriate language on your blog. This is still a classroom discussion and needs to follow the decorum of the classroom environment.
2. Always be respectful in comments. Don't say anything to each other you wouldn't want your grandmother or the principal to see. 
3. Make sure to get someone's permission before posting personal information about them, such as images or names. Never post last names.
4. And while we are at it, don't share any PERSONAL information online, such as phone number, address, email, or last name.
5. Make sure that you link back to your sources for images and quotes. Any music or image you use must be copyright free. Please review [copyright info source to be found later] for information on appropriate use. 

Author's Note: 

I like blogging in the classroom. It gives students that real world audience to write to and is an excellent tool to teach digital citizenship, a critical 21st century skill they will need when entering the work force. Another great skill they learn while blogging is ethical use of someone’s creative content. 

My students have thought that if they post song lyrics everyone knows what they are from, so there’s no need to clarify they did not come up with the words themselves. It was only through working for a directory advertising company that I learned about copyright laws and sourcing the information (you would be surprised at the number of businesses who steal artwork and have NO idea it is wrong). How would they feel if someone took their words and claimed them as their own? 

In today’s world, where we have everyone sharing everything and no way to prove its origins, it is so important to teach our students there are ethical and legal ways to do this. I have done entire units on plagiarism and the students still copy and paste direct quotes from websites found during their research into an essay. 

Research shows that learning through experience and practice is the only way to commit it to memory. Digital literacy and citizenship are just as important for our student's future as grammar and mechanics in their ability to communicate with a larger audience. 

It is for these reasons I plan to make blogging a big part of my year again this year. I believe, like notebooks, this practice should be established with a set of norms. Again, my students will come up with a list of their own, but I want to have an idea of what is important to the success of the plan so I may guide them to any we have left out.

A Writer

I have always written
in journals
scraps of paper
a receipt that I fished out of a bin
matchbooks that were picked up at a bar
I wrote
through emotion
and about my dreams
until i started living them.

I decided to teach writing
as scared as I was to teach
I was even more afraid to teach writing.
There was content
grammar I didn't fully understand, but
somehow knew to break the rules
there was a process to teach
that I didn't subscribe to
but I had to get my kids
to buy the plan.

I was given kids
who lazily drew their pages
together like
a hornets nest of ideas
and gave me what they thought was gold.
and it was up to me to make them pass a test.

I was told to attend this group
it would help my process
it would bring back my writing
it would fuel my energy
and give my craft the boost it needs to move the needle on these kids.

I approach next year with desire
to teach
to learn with my kids
to write beside them
to let them see me stumble
and over-correct my gait
like someone who wants the world to be looking the other way.
but I know better. They will all see the
:FAKE IT TIL YOU MAKE IT:
scam that I am
but that will make it ok for them
to take a chance
in my class
and become
REAL WRITERS
because isn't that our goal?

Author's Note: 

I wrote this from my perspective to show how much I have learned and how far I have come in the last three weeks. I  am so amazed to have had the opportunity to learn and write with such talented and dedicated educators. Each of us had strengths to contribute and were able to help each other in ways I have not seen in my short tenure as a teacher. I am so excited to approach my new year with an arsenal of strategies and structure to really reinforce writing in my class. And though I may begin simply with notebooks and blogging, I know I will be able to add the elements of a writer's workshop to my classroom in no time.

Thank you, North Star Summer Invitational, for allowing me to hone my craft.