This chapter really resonated with me and reminded me a lot of the thoughts I had at the beginning of the book regarding the way students feel about themselves as writers. So many of them think that they are “bad” writers because they aren’t able to create “perfect” writing as soon as they put pen to paper. I try to explain that writing doesn’t work that way...that it is something that takes time...that mistakes are almost a requirement in that, without them, we wouldn’t get to where we need to go.
It makes me think of advice my husband, who is an art teacher, gave me a couple of months ago when I was taking a drawing class. I had been getting very frustrated with myself while I was working on a self-portrait. The lines and shading weren’t adding up to anything that resembled me...features were out of proportion, the value range wasn’t varied enough, etc. I tried and tried but it just wasn’t coming together. I finally threw my hands up and said I couldn’t do it. “I suck!” is actually what I remember saying. Nick, my husband, said that I just needed to keep going, keep adjusting the drawing, and it would happen. He reminded me to use my “wrong” lines as guideposts for finding the “right” lines. He said, “drawing IS making mistakes. You don’t get there without them.” Knowing he was absolutely right, I took a deep breath and kept going. And I got there. The portrait wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty good...and it definitely looked like me!
Like drawing, students need to know that writing IS making mistakes and then using those mistakes as guideposts for revision. I think the drawing analogy will really help them internalize that idea. And, of course, modeling imperfect writing will show students that we are willing to practice what we preach...hopefully helping them feel safer about creating their own imperfect writing.
I like the idea of not assessing every piece of writing that a student creates and rather having them write frequently as a way to learn about and improve writing (71). However, at the high school level, students often feel that they are being short-changed when they do not receive a grade for everything they produce. Does anyone have any ideas about how to deal with this attitude commonly found at the secondary level?
My composition students do a writing portfolio at the end of the semester. I have them print the first full draft and final draft of a few required pieces so they can see where they started and where they ended up (we use Google Drive and Google Docs so this is the only time they actually print anything all semester). The last couple of assignments they write that will go in their portfolios I read and comment on, and they are welcome to revise, but I don't grade them except as completed or not. I generally find that there is a big improvement over the initial work from the beginning of the semester (and try to make a point to tell them so). I think it takes some of the pressure off them...and because of the format, most students do want to go the extra step for revision so that it reflects their best work. This way, the writing is still assessed but more by them than by me (only that initial feedback). I hope this makes some sense....talk about messy writing!
What do you do with students who REFUSE to write? I have high schoolers who are assigned regular writing assignments after every reading selection, and they NEVER turn them in! They regularly take zeroes for test grades, at least 2 or 3 a term, instead of trying some writing...
Jeri -- I have taken art classes in the past also, not because I am good, but because I enjoy it. It's very liberating to be able to take risks and be bad when you have nothing to lose. One of the most transforming things a teacher can do is to take a class in something that is not a natural talent. It is a humbling experience to struggle to learn a skill that comes easily to someone else, and it suddenly becomes clear that many students feel this struggle in an area that comes so easily to us. The learning process becomes very real.
This might work for you or it might not. I'm not sure what the requirements are for high school, but here goes - I have my students put every piece of writing in a portfolio (either in google drive or in a 3 ring binder). They are told at the beginning of the year that there will be certain writing pieces that are required, and for the rest, they are to select the best 3 (first term), 4 (second term) so on and so forth, to be submitted for a grade at the end of each term. This allows them to flip past messy first drafts and pieces that they've lost interest in working on, but still makes them accountable for a certain amount of finished pieces.
I think that is agreat idea--it allows for lousy writing and for self-assessment on the student's art. I do a similar project with jounals: they complete a seriesof quick writes,which we then use as openers for discussion. At the end of the quick writes, which usually focus whatever we are reading, they select the two best and revise them; they submit all for credit but two for grades. Sometimes the quick wries focus on writing, too. I like your dea of the portfolio better though for it gives them a wider variety from hich to make selections.
Our department requires writing folders for teachers to submit to "prove" we have completed the required writing. Writing folders are a nightmare for students with ADD that constantly lose things. In order to have a digital portfolio, students need to type assignments, so that takes up lots of class time. I need to find a system that works for me to help students to collect and cherish their writing samples--the good, the bad, the unfinished--and most importantly, to LEARN from them. So often, once an essay is turned in and graded, students are "done", and don't want to review. Maybe taking time away from it is a good idea, and reviewing writing at the end of the semester may help students see things with new eyes. A lot to experiment with!
Spandel Chapter 5 Reflection The Right to Write Badly
Ballinger says “They can worry later about fixing awkward sentences. First, they need to make a mess” (76) and in my opinion he is 100% correct. In fact, I agree with nearly everything Spandel says in this chapter, and work hard to run my composition classes in a way that encourages students to focus on revision (and if my research project is successful, thinking and reflection will become a bigger piece of that as well). I especially agree with how hard it is to get students to write messy! I find that despite my repeated assurances that a writing piece is a living thing that can change all the time; that it’s okay if you didn’t get as far as you thought you would today, it will come; that if you can’t think of a good introduction you can just start wherever the idea starts in your head and go with it; and that you don’t have to worry about editing while you’re working on your draft, focus on building this idea - getting it out of your head and onto paper/screen…many students are hard to convince. And that’s in composition where I have the luxury of time and can allow students to continue working and revising on a piece for weeks. It’s much harder to convince students of the same in my literature classes. Though I offer the opportunity for students to continue to revise their work on their own, few take advantage. So it seems like I am back to the same conundrum: knowing how I should be teaching but not having the ability/time to do so within the confines of assigned curriculum. Very frustrating. I am really feeling as if I need to look at writing in my literature classes differently to see if the short time I have can be better spent, perhaps develop more of an incentive for those students to continue revising?
But I also worry about time. I have students for half of a school year…if I can improve their writing “comfort level” during that time, what happens when they leave me? How will I know if I’ve done enough for them to carry through? Should I not be worried about that? How can I not be? Why am I asking so many questions? I’ll take that as a sign to stop! Have a good week : )
I wonder if in the literature classes you could have the students write fewer pieces but spend more time on each one? That way the students can really "get" the process and how powerful it can be. You can create other opportunities for responding to literature that aren't traditional essays, but can keep students practicing critical thinking around the assigned readings.
Something Spandel said that stood out to me is, "writers don't write to be assessed." For smaller classwork assignments I don't always collect student work. I just check off that they put something in their binder. I hope that this gives them the freedom to take some chances and write honestly. I do collect some work, but don't tell them ahead of time.
I do not expect perfection from my students at all. At. All. Particularly with my current eighth grade class, I just want something from them. Anything. Anything more than their name on a blank piece of paper. This may mean I am lowering my standards, but I don’t think so. I agree with much of the author’s points about getting the words out but not necessarily keeping them. I really like the analogy of the spider web, and plan to steal it for my own discussions on writing with my students. One line in particular stood out to me: “We wear masks of success, all of us.” (70)How true that is with more than just writing. I feel that in the classroom I can openly admit mistakes and laugh at them with my students. It is only with certain groups of people that I feel I need to hold myself to high standards. Specifically, my in-laws, but I’m sure there’s a word limit on submissions so we won’t go into that. I know I am a teacher, but it is hard to think of myself as someone in front of whom students are not comfortable making mistakes. I feel like it’s a complete accident if I make it through the day successfully, yet before graduating this year my seniors told me that they were initially scared to have me correct their writing. I was completely shocked, as I feel, like the author does, that we are “successful, more so than we realize, just by virtue of making the effort.” (70) However, I do think that I need to make writing less of an event and more of a natural process in the classroom. I want self-expression to come naturally to students, and writing is the perfect representation of that.
I think it's great that you let your students know you don't expect perfection from them. You are not lowering standards, rather you are being realistic with them. That will serve them better in the long run.
Something I would sometimes do when teaching a karate class was to tell the students to go through a kata as fast as they could and let it be sloppy. This would free them up to really let loose and allow movements to flow, one to the next. Could it work with writing? Instruct students to write as fast as they can. Don't use punctuation anywhere and don't worry about spelling. Get your thoughts on the paper and nothing else matters.
As usual, I agreed with Spandel’s assertion that writing badly is a necessity. But while I read this chapter, I found myself focused on the way Spandel uses analogies to make her points. I am so appreciative of her ability to make these comparisons. They leave me with such potent and permanent, visual impressions. I marked those I found most effective with a green pen as I read.
The first was “A person weaving through a maze makes wrong turns, but uses that experience to figure out the path”. What a great example to share with students when helping them understand why they must flounder before they succeed.
When she explained how writing is like spinning a web, but is lonely business, I could completely relate. I often find myself writing in that disjointed way only to eventually create a something stronger and better.
I also enjoyed the way she explained that in “assessment spirit” we often find a piece of writing to be “pleasantly readable” just as Grace Kelly was “quietly attractive”. While most would say Kelly Grace was far more than quietly attractive, Spandel’s point is well made. Substance is more important than good sentence structure. She hits the nail on the head when she says we need to write more and assess less.
All in all, I am increasingly aware of how much of what we do with writing in school is counter to what we should be doing. Hopefully, as others have said, we can find a balance.
I agree that her anlogies and metaphos are particlarly good and should be shared with the students. Maybe we could even write beside the students when we were discovering meaning of making connections about those figures of speech. I would have to mention man's Patient Spider for the web spinnin metaphor. Sometimes I have students list the names of 10 objects in the room; define them; then state what they are like. Th final step is to share what they have formed with the class. They seem to learn much about using language from the exercise.
I love the "Ginweed" story for it shows the powe of narrative, even wth the errors--the parts that writers must learn to fix. It also reminds me that when studets ae taking standardized tests they are really writing frst drafts but because they know the stakes of the test, they feel their writingmut be perfect--mayb that's just another deleerious effect of standardized testing. I thnk also some graphic organizers, or an over reliance on them for writing, are also to blame because kids tend to see them as the first draft instead of delving into the messy, chaotic world of thinking through writing. The organizers also interrupt witng to learn practices where incoherence can contain some astounding ideas. I have used dialectical ntebooks to generate some of that chaos: I show stdents a series of artwork projected onto the board. The first day, they take notes on what they see on the left hand side of a noteook page; on the second day, they comme on their notes--how were they thinking? inductively? deductivel? abductively? They then take notesof a second pece of artwork shown on the board and so on until thye have viewed an written about 7-10 pieces of art. For te fina project, they caegorize an analyze their comments and form them into a general essay about the atwork; the secnd part of the essay contain their analyses of how they tended to think about when they were writing. Some astounding essays have come from students. Of course, some less than astounding work has as well.
Al, I never thought about graphic organizers that way before. I find them helpful, especially for my special ed students, but you raise a good point. I also loved the Ginweed story.
Al, I also enjoyed the Ginweed story. As I read it, I couldn't help but find some of the areas that could have been "cleaned up" or "polished." It seemed that in some areas there were details missing, that a particular event wasn't described as clearly as it deserved to be. But then. . . I got to the end. Suddenly all that I thought was missing didn't matter. The end came quickly and was a surprise, but I realized that I had all the detail I needed to truly understand the impact of the relationship being described. I thought it was a great example to share regarding how sometimes looking too closely at a piece of writing with that critical magnifying glass can actually lead to writing that isn't as good or as personal.
Al, I agree that students seem to rely on the graphic organizers as the first draft. All too often, I have seen students complete the graphic organizer, make a few changes, write the essay, and think that it has been edited, polished, and published with perfection.
I'm jumping on the Graphic Organizer (and rubric) bandwagon. I think they are terribly limiting to students who view them as a checklist to get a good grade. They are terrified to write without clear step by step directions on how to get from the first word to the last -- it's not necessarily a straight line, as we saw from the spider web analogy.
Spandel writes, Not all students live for revision. Some will say of a first draft, “I’m happy with my writing just the way it is. I don’t want to change a thing.” (68) This really caused me on reflect on my class. How many of you have heard that before? My class constantly seems to believe that they are “happy with their writing.” And why shouldn’t they be? If I connect all that I’ve read from Spandel it could be because they haven’t had time to reflect on what they should write and most likely, don’t care to write about the assigned topic to begin with. If you aren’t interested in what you’re writing, why would you care to revise it. Most likely, you would want to finish it ASAP and probably believe that it was good enough.
If we take the time to model how to explore our own writing, maybe they will see the benefit. Possibly we “give them time to explore” (69) the way Spandel did with her three revisions. She eventually got to the main point of her feral cat writing and to a point that she felt the reader would be enticed in.
It seems that this time to explore could be the key to helping students see the benefits of revision as long as they know that it’s ok to take chances.
Bill, that line also resonated with me because my students do say it all the time. They don't see a need for revising. They don't seem to understand what I am saying when I ask them to look at whether they have said clearly what they were trying to say. They always think they have. I think it's difficult to teach students to revise. It really is a skill that takes a high level of cognition to complete. I think you are write in that students need time for this skill and that we also need to take the time to show them how with samples of our own writing.
Bill, I know what you mean. Why should students want to spend more time revising work that they don't really care about? I don't want to revise "assigned" writing if it's not of interest to me. Developing prompts that are engaging to them is so important. At the same time though, I wonder if it's important for students to develop "grit" and work out a piece of writing that is a requirement of their "jobs" as students. For them to be college and career ready, they are going to need this skill…There will be so many instances in their college and professional lives where they will need to create writing that they would otherwise not choose to create. Spandel seems to avoid this reality (…and it's honestly just dawning on me now. :-)) As with most things, I'm sure balance is the key.
Thinking the same thing here! Maybe if we provide opportunities for them to enjoy writing, they will put more effort into their craft. Then, when the time comes to work out a writing requirement, (after of course we model it) they will be more able to do so effectively.
Bill, I couldn't agree more. Our kiddos need to know that it is okay to take chances with writing. They also need to understand that sometimes the chances work out and other times, they don't. I also like the idea of the three revisions.
Mrs. K, I think you are exactly right; I remind students of this a lot. I also agree that if we can create confidence in students' abilities as writers, the actual writing tasks won't matter so much - a confident writer will know what to do no matter the task (in most cases).
I don't know if anybody else does this, but regarding revision, one thing I have tried is to require what I refer to as "targeted revisions" where students are asked to work on a particular skill or technique we have done in class as part of the revision process. For example, if we are working on prepositions, I may ask them to find one sentence in each paragraph that they can revise to start with a preposition to improve sentence fluency. Sometimes I also ask students to reflect on if/how using this technique improved their writing, and I make it a point to comment on the use of the technique when reviewing the piece. I try to do this with each assignment using a different technique to fill our "Fluency Toolbox" with ways they can revise small things to make a difference in any piece of writing. While I want students to WANT to revise their writing, I guess I hope that if they have a little list of ideas, revision won't seem so painful and they will feel like they know how to make some improvements :)
As I read chapter 5, I found myself having a variety of different thoughts rather than one overarching reflection. First, as Spandel introduces the chapter, it struck me that in my own personal writing, I worry too much about presenting something that is good, great, or dare I say, perfect. I'm hard on myself as I write, feeling that I don't show enough voice or that every piece sounds the same. Being a part of this cohort has taken me out of my comfort zone greatly because I am not used to sharing my writing. It's frightening for me, and sometimes even as we have written during our days together I feel like I am always striving for a great piece because if it's not great, then I can't it read it aloud! These thoughts that I have about my own writing are in complete opposition to what I say to my own students. All of my students have learning disabilities so the grammar and mechanics of their writing needs a lot of work, however I am always telling them that writing is about the ideas, that we'll take care of those errors later. I want them to feel free to express themselves. Even though that is what I say to them 90% of the time, I then have this moment of panic because I can't just ignore the grammar and the mechanics and the spelling. All that great standardized testing measures student success on these attributes of their writing as well. So, am I back to the same conundrum I have been in reading all of these chapters? How can we in today's educational environment meet in the middle? Do we go with what is good teaching practice and hope (really hard!) that the mechanics, grammar, and spelling will follow if students are not as anxious about creating about a piece of writing? As I look into next year, I am already planning how different instruction will take place in my classroom in the different subject areas. I am excited about trying new things and trying to find that balance. I think that I have to follow the same thinking in the chapter when I look ahead to jumping in and trying these ideas. If a lesson fails, does it mean I failed or my students failed? Or, should I look at this way? If a lesson fails, did I maybe find within that failure a new silk line to grab onto and head in a different direction?
It's such a tough balance! I spend some time showing my students the difference between revising and editing their work. It was tough for me at first to not pay so much attention to grammar after the first draft I saw, but I think that helping them to understand that they are separate processes with separate purposes gives students a little more comfort in writing messy to begin with.
I have been validated. I have the right to write badly, and no one can take it away from me. I enjoyed reading this chapter. A couple of Spandel's statements, from chapter 5, really made me think. The first was, "In school, writers seldom create more than two drafts. We may call the second draft a "final," nut this is a misnomer, one that leads to a misguided sense of how real-world revision works. Gee, I wonder why my kiddos have a difficult time editing. I have not been giving them the time that they need to edit, and neither has the MCAS Long Composition. The second statement that gave me an "ah ha" moment was, "Comfort first." We need to first allow our students the time to feel comfortable facing that blank page before they are victorious in filling its lines with proper grammar and form. I took that as gett them writing first and then teach the strategies and skills that they need to acquire. I am left wondering. Why do we rush the writing process?
I totally agree Tracie. We don't give them time to write. Period. I'm thinking we take time in class to teach the way Spandel suggests, making writing a "get to" instead of a "have to". Then model how to incorporate the newly learned strategies into our standardized writing ...
I feel that this chapter identified a problem with student writing, but failed to give solutions. Writers know they need to write often and badly and then edit mercilessly to mine the nuggets. I feel students don't like to take the time to do that. They don't want to cross out or erase anything they've written because they want to be "done". The author does a good job showing her writing process and comparing the process to a spider web, but doesn't give directives on how that might be modeled in a classroom. One way I help my students to write badly is during the pre-writing, especially if students are assigned a prompt to a reading selection. I hand out notecards because they are small and disposable, so the writing doesn't seem "formal" or important. I give students some time to write down ideas or a response to the prompt. Sometimes it's bullet points; sometimes I focus on a topic sentence, but I ask them to write SOMETHING, alone. After a few minutes I have students "pair share" where they turn to a partner and share their writing but reading out loud. Then they have a chance to merge their topic sentences into a "super-duper" topic sentence or add bullet points to their summary of what we've just read. Then I ask for volunteers to share ideas and I write those on the board for students to add to their notecards. Hopefully by the end of the process, students have a notecard filled with ideas. I tell students to hang on this notecard--this bad writing, or informal writing, or prewriting--I think it has lots of names-- and use that as a springboard for the paper they are going to turn in. Sometimes I have students use sticky notes to put on a page in the book and write down a quote that is significant so they have something to include in their writing. One element I have incorporated in the past is a writing folder--and in contemporary times we can have digital writing folders--to collect student work. Another tool is journaling which I tried during first semester this year, but did not do second semester when I had a different population of students. I disagreed with the author's comments about reading--"Very little fanfare accompanies reading in most classrooms". I love to read, and I emphasize reading "where we prepare, then commit the act, then reflect on what we've just done". I regularly use the "think-aloud" strategy when reading. I agree that students are afraid of failure and risk, and "our goal should be to take students to such a place of comfort with writing that they will persist." However, I don't feel that this chapter gave any specific strategies for how to do that!
Heather -- Thanks for the "solution." What a great idea! Our goal for sophomores is to improve Topic Development, and this is a great and safe way to find something to say, which is what many of my students lack (lots of times because they don't read the assignment at all).
In addition to having my students delve more deeply into their writing, I also need to inspire them to delve more deeply into their reading.
You make a good point that there isn't much in the way of solutions in this chapter. Modeling is a good first step, but our kids will need more than that. I love the note card idea. This would be especially helpful for those students who see a blank 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of composition paper, and have an anxiety attack - more worried about how they are going to fill that page than they are with getting some ideas down on paper. Baby steps!
So much of this chapter is so relevant to where I am in the retooling of my teaching of writing, but the most valuable, and ironically the most difficult idea is from Ann Lamott who ways “So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability.”
Well. Easier said than done for students, and easier said than done for teachers to ask students to be emotionally vulnerable and take those risks. My sophomores are so gun shy about revealing anything true about themselves, and honestly, I’m a little scared that sometimes they will reveal a little too much. Holding the secrets of another human soul can be a terrible burden. Our students today have so much roiling around in their souls, and writing about what is troubling them seems to be an obvious way to help them cope with the many stresses and conflicts they are facing, but getting them to commit to the time and energy it takes to put it on paper is the real battle. There’s another irony – committing something to paper seems so permanent, yet they’ll post something terribly personal and private to the Internet without a second thought. They want to share, but how do we make it safe for all of us?
Who didn’t choke up at the story of Ginweed? It had all the elements of great fiction, but I’m not sure those elements were there by accident. Somewhere that child had writing instruction, or at least he was paying attention to the stories he was being told or that he was reading, and he was making connections between them and his own inner voice.
When I read Bruce Ballenger’s essay on “The Importance of Writing Badly, “ I had no problem putting my face to Mrs. O’Neill’s name. I almost can't read anything without a red pen in my hand. Yes, I want them to write with heart and share ideas of substance, but by tenth grade, one would think they could compose an essay without using the second person pronoun or awkward sentence construction.
Right now I’m in the middle of exams, and I’m optimistically planning my next year of writing instruction while paradoxically feeling despair that this year’s class made no progress. Another irony is that while they are reducing the risks they are taking by being “careful” and “writing in generalities,” they are producing some pretty terrible writing.
I need to remember my junior high school chorus teacher, who always told us, “If you’re going to make a mistake, make a loud one.” Maybe I can continue her legacy in my classroom.
Jeri’s Reflection - Spandel - Chapter 5
ReplyDeleteThis chapter really resonated with me and reminded me a lot of the thoughts I had at the beginning of the book regarding the way students feel about themselves as writers. So many of them think that they are “bad” writers because they aren’t able to create “perfect” writing as soon as they put pen to paper. I try to explain that writing doesn’t work that way...that it is something that takes time...that mistakes are almost a requirement in that, without them, we wouldn’t get to where we need to go.
It makes me think of advice my husband, who is an art teacher, gave me a couple of months ago when I was taking a drawing class. I had been getting very frustrated with myself while I was working on a self-portrait. The lines and shading weren’t adding up to anything that resembled me...features were out of proportion, the value range wasn’t varied enough, etc. I tried and tried but it just wasn’t coming together. I finally threw my hands up and said I couldn’t do it. “I suck!” is actually what I remember saying. Nick, my husband, said that I just needed to keep going, keep adjusting the drawing, and it would happen. He reminded me to use my “wrong” lines as guideposts for finding the “right” lines. He said, “drawing IS making mistakes. You don’t get there without them.” Knowing he was absolutely right, I took a deep breath and kept going. And I got there. The portrait wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty good...and it definitely looked like me!
Like drawing, students need to know that writing IS making mistakes and then using those mistakes as guideposts for revision. I think the drawing analogy will really help them internalize that idea. And, of course, modeling imperfect writing will show students that we are willing to practice what we preach...hopefully helping them feel safer about creating their own imperfect writing.
I like the idea of not assessing every piece of writing that a student creates and rather having them write frequently as a way to learn about and improve writing (71). However, at the high school level, students often feel that they are being short-changed when they do not receive a grade for everything they produce. Does anyone have any ideas about how to deal with this attitude commonly found at the secondary level?
My composition students do a writing portfolio at the end of the semester. I have them print the first full draft and final draft of a few required pieces so they can see where they started and where they ended up (we use Google Drive and Google Docs so this is the only time they actually print anything all semester). The last couple of assignments they write that will go in their portfolios I read and comment on, and they are welcome to revise, but I don't grade them except as completed or not. I generally find that there is a big improvement over the initial work from the beginning of the semester (and try to make a point to tell them so). I think it takes some of the pressure off them...and because of the format, most students do want to go the extra step for revision so that it reflects their best work. This way, the writing is still assessed but more by them than by me (only that initial feedback). I hope this makes some sense....talk about messy writing!
DeleteWhat do you do with students who REFUSE to write? I have high schoolers who are assigned regular writing assignments after every reading selection, and they NEVER turn them in! They regularly take zeroes for test grades, at least 2 or 3 a term, instead of trying some writing...
DeleteJeri -- I have taken art classes in the past also, not because I am good, but because I enjoy it. It's very liberating to be able to take risks and be bad when you have nothing to lose. One of the most transforming things a teacher can do is to take a class in something that is not a natural talent. It is a humbling experience to struggle to learn a skill that comes easily to someone else, and it suddenly becomes clear that many students feel this struggle in an area that comes so easily to us. The learning process becomes very real.
DeleteThis might work for you or it might not. I'm not sure what the requirements are for high school, but here goes - I have my students put every piece of writing in a portfolio (either in google drive or in a 3 ring binder). They are told at the beginning of the year that there will be certain writing pieces that are required, and for the rest, they are to select the best 3 (first term), 4 (second term) so on and so forth, to be submitted for a grade at the end of each term. This allows them to flip past messy first drafts and pieces that they've lost interest in working on, but still makes them accountable for a certain amount of finished pieces.
ReplyDeleteI think that is agreat idea--it allows for lousy writing and for self-assessment on the student's art. I do a similar project with jounals: they complete a seriesof quick writes,which we then use as openers for discussion. At the end of the quick writes, which usually focus whatever we are reading, they select the two best and revise them; they submit all for credit but two for grades. Sometimes the quick wries focus on writing, too. I like your dea of the portfolio better though for it gives them a wider variety from hich to make selections.
DeleteOur department requires writing folders for teachers to submit to "prove" we have completed the required writing. Writing folders are a nightmare for students with ADD that constantly lose things. In order to have a digital portfolio, students need to type assignments, so that takes up lots of class time. I need to find a system that works for me to help students to collect and cherish their writing samples--the good, the bad, the unfinished--and most importantly, to LEARN from them. So often, once an essay is turned in and graded, students are "done", and don't want to review. Maybe taking time away from it is a good idea, and reviewing writing at the end of the semester may help students see things with new eyes. A lot to experiment with!
DeleteSpandel Chapter 5 Reflection
ReplyDeleteThe Right to Write Badly
Ballinger says “They can worry later about fixing awkward sentences. First, they need to make a mess” (76) and in my opinion he is 100% correct. In fact, I agree with nearly everything Spandel says in this chapter, and work hard to run my composition classes in a way that encourages students to focus on revision (and if my research project is successful, thinking and reflection will become a bigger piece of that as well). I especially agree with how hard it is to get students to write messy! I find that despite my repeated assurances that a writing piece is a living thing that can change all the time; that it’s okay if you didn’t get as far as you thought you would today, it will come; that if you can’t think of a good introduction you can just start wherever the idea starts in your head and go with it; and that you don’t have to worry about editing while you’re working on your draft, focus on building this idea - getting it out of your head and onto paper/screen…many students are hard to convince. And that’s in composition where I have the luxury of time and can allow students to continue working and revising on a piece for weeks. It’s much harder to convince students of the same in my literature classes. Though I offer the opportunity for students to continue to revise their work on their own, few take advantage. So it seems like I am back to the same conundrum: knowing how I should be teaching but not having the ability/time to do so within the confines of assigned curriculum. Very frustrating. I am really feeling as if I need to look at writing in my literature classes differently to see if the short time I have can be better spent, perhaps develop more of an incentive for those students to continue revising?
But I also worry about time. I have students for half of a school year…if I can improve their writing “comfort level” during that time, what happens when they leave me? How will I know if I’ve done enough for them to carry through? Should I not be worried about that? How can I not be? Why am I asking so many questions? I’ll take that as a sign to stop! Have a good week : )
I wonder if in the literature classes you could have the students write fewer pieces but spend more time on each one? That way the students can really "get" the process and how powerful it can be. You can create other opportunities for responding to literature that aren't traditional essays, but can keep students practicing critical thinking around the assigned readings.
DeleteSomething Spandel said that stood out to me is, "writers don't write to be assessed." For smaller classwork assignments I don't always collect student work. I just check off that they put something in their binder. I hope that this gives them the freedom to take some chances and write honestly. I do collect some work, but don't tell them ahead of time.
DeleteI do not expect perfection from my students at all. At. All. Particularly with my current eighth grade class, I just want something from them. Anything. Anything more than their name on a blank piece of paper. This may mean I am lowering my standards, but I don’t think so. I agree with much of the author’s points about getting the words out but not necessarily keeping them. I really like the analogy of the spider web, and plan to steal it for my own discussions on writing with my students. One line in particular stood out to me: “We wear masks of success, all of us.” (70)How true that is with more than just writing. I feel that in the classroom I can openly admit mistakes and laugh at them with my students. It is only with certain groups of people that I feel I need to hold myself to high standards. Specifically, my in-laws, but I’m sure there’s a word limit on submissions so we won’t go into that. I know I am a teacher, but it is hard to think of myself as someone in front of whom students are not comfortable making mistakes. I feel like it’s a complete accident if I make it through the day successfully, yet before graduating this year my seniors told me that they were initially scared to have me correct their writing. I was completely shocked, as I feel, like the author does, that we are “successful, more so than we realize, just by virtue of making the effort.” (70) However, I do think that I need to make writing less of an event and more of a natural process in the classroom. I want self-expression to come naturally to students, and writing is the perfect representation of that.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you let your students know you don't expect perfection from them. You are not lowering standards, rather you are being realistic with them. That will serve them better in the long run.
DeleteSomething I would sometimes do when teaching a karate class was to tell the students to go through a kata as fast as they could and let it be sloppy. This would free them up to really let loose and allow movements to flow, one to the next. Could it work with writing? Instruct students to write as fast as they can. Don't use punctuation anywhere and don't worry about spelling. Get your thoughts on the paper and nothing else matters.
DeleteAs usual, I agreed with Spandel’s assertion that writing badly is a necessity. But while I read this chapter, I found myself focused on the way Spandel uses analogies to make her points. I am so appreciative of her ability to make these comparisons. They leave me with such potent and permanent, visual impressions.
ReplyDeleteI marked those I found most effective with a green pen as I read.
The first was “A person weaving through a maze makes wrong turns, but uses that experience to figure out the path”. What a great example to share with students when helping them understand why they must flounder before they succeed.
When she explained how writing is like spinning a web, but is lonely business, I could completely relate. I often find myself writing in that disjointed way only to eventually create a something stronger and better.
I also enjoyed the way she explained that in “assessment spirit” we often find a piece of writing to be “pleasantly readable” just as Grace Kelly was “quietly attractive”. While most would say Kelly Grace was far more than quietly attractive, Spandel’s point is well made. Substance is more important than good sentence structure. She hits the nail on the head when she says we need to write more and assess less.
All in all, I am increasingly aware of how much of what we do with writing in school is counter to what we should be doing. Hopefully, as others have said, we can find a balance.
I agree that her anlogies and metaphos are particlarly good and should be shared with the students. Maybe we could even write beside the students when we were discovering meaning of making connections about those figures of speech. I would have to mention man's Patient Spider for the web spinnin metaphor. Sometimes I have students list the names of 10 objects in the room; define them; then state what they are like. Th final step is to share what they have formed with the class. They seem to learn much about using language from the exercise.
DeleteI love the "Ginweed" story for it shows the powe of narrative, even wth the errors--the parts that writers must learn to fix. It also reminds me that when studets ae taking standardized tests they are really writing frst drafts but because they know the stakes of the test, they feel their writingmut be perfect--mayb that's just another deleerious effect of standardized testing. I thnk also some graphic organizers, or an over reliance on them for writing, are also to blame because kids tend to see them as the first draft instead of delving into the messy, chaotic world of thinking through writing. The organizers also interrupt witng to learn practices where incoherence can contain some astounding ideas. I have used dialectical ntebooks to generate some of that chaos: I show stdents a series of artwork projected onto the board. The first day, they take notes on what they see on the left hand side of a noteook page; on the second day, they comme on their notes--how were they thinking? inductively? deductivel? abductively? They then take notesof a second pece of artwork shown on the board and so on until thye have viewed an written about 7-10 pieces of art. For te fina project, they caegorize an analyze their comments and form them into a general essay about the atwork; the secnd part of the essay contain their analyses of how they tended to think about when they were writing. Some astounding essays have come from students. Of course, some less than astounding work has as well.
ReplyDeleteAl, I never thought about graphic organizers that way before. I find them helpful, especially for my special ed students, but you raise a good point. I also loved the Ginweed story.
DeleteAl, I also enjoyed the Ginweed story. As I read it, I couldn't help but find some of the areas that could have been "cleaned up" or "polished." It seemed that in some areas there were details missing, that a particular event wasn't described as clearly as it deserved to be. But then. . . I got to the end. Suddenly all that I thought was missing didn't matter. The end came quickly and was a surprise, but I realized that I had all the detail I needed to truly understand the impact of the relationship being described. I thought it was a great example to share regarding how sometimes looking too closely at a piece of writing with that critical magnifying glass can actually lead to writing that isn't as good or as personal.
DeleteAl,
DeleteI agree that students seem to rely on the graphic organizers as the first draft. All too often, I have seen students complete the graphic organizer, make a few changes, write the essay, and think that it has been edited, polished, and published with perfection.
I'm jumping on the Graphic Organizer (and rubric) bandwagon. I think they are terribly limiting to students who view them as a checklist to get a good grade. They are terrified to write without clear step by step directions on how to get from the first word to the last -- it's not necessarily a straight line, as we saw from the spider web analogy.
DeleteSpandel writes, Not all students live for revision. Some will say of a first draft, “I’m happy with my writing just the way it is. I don’t want to change a thing.” (68) This really caused me on reflect on my class. How many of you have heard that before? My class constantly seems to believe that they are “happy with their writing.” And why shouldn’t they be? If I connect all that I’ve read from Spandel it could be because they haven’t had time to reflect on what they should write and most likely, don’t care to write about the assigned topic to begin with. If you aren’t interested in what you’re writing, why would you care to revise it. Most likely, you would want to finish it ASAP and probably believe that it was good enough.
ReplyDeleteIf we take the time to model how to explore our own writing, maybe they will see the benefit. Possibly we “give them time to explore” (69) the way Spandel did with her three revisions. She eventually got to the main point of her feral cat writing and to a point that she felt the reader would be enticed in.
It seems that this time to explore could be the key to helping students see the benefits of revision as long as they know that it’s ok to take chances.
Bill, that line also resonated with me because my students do say it all the time. They don't see a need for revising. They don't seem to understand what I am saying when I ask them to look at whether they have said clearly what they were trying to say. They always think they have. I think it's difficult to teach students to revise. It really is a skill that takes a high level of cognition to complete. I think you are write in that students need time for this skill and that we also need to take the time to show them how with samples of our own writing.
DeleteBill, I know what you mean. Why should students want to spend more time revising work that they don't really care about? I don't want to revise "assigned" writing if it's not of interest to me. Developing prompts that are engaging to them is so important. At the same time though, I wonder if it's important for students to develop "grit" and work out a piece of writing that is a requirement of their "jobs" as students. For them to be college and career ready, they are going to need this skill…There will be so many instances in their college and professional lives where they will need to create writing that they would otherwise not choose to create. Spandel seems to avoid this reality (…and it's honestly just dawning on me now. :-)) As with most things, I'm sure balance is the key.
DeleteThinking the same thing here! Maybe if we provide opportunities for them to enjoy writing, they will put more effort into their craft. Then, when the time comes to work out a writing requirement, (after of course we model it) they will be more able to do so effectively.
DeleteBill,
DeleteI couldn't agree more. Our kiddos need to know that it is okay to take chances with writing. They also need to understand that sometimes the chances work out and other times, they don't. I also like the idea of the three revisions.
Mrs. K, I think you are exactly right; I remind students of this a lot. I also agree that if we can create confidence in students' abilities as writers, the actual writing tasks won't matter so much - a confident writer will know what to do no matter the task (in most cases).
DeleteI don't know if anybody else does this, but regarding revision, one thing I have tried is to require what I refer to as "targeted revisions" where students are asked to work on a particular skill or technique we have done in class as part of the revision process. For example, if we are working on prepositions, I may ask them to find one sentence in each paragraph that they can revise to start with a preposition to improve sentence fluency. Sometimes I also ask students to reflect on if/how using this technique improved their writing, and I make it a point to comment on the use of the technique when reviewing the piece. I try to do this with each assignment using a different technique to fill our "Fluency Toolbox" with ways they can revise small things to make a difference in any piece of writing. While I want students to WANT to revise their writing, I guess I hope that if they have a little list of ideas, revision won't seem so painful and they will feel like they know how to make some improvements :)
As I read chapter 5, I found myself having a variety of different thoughts rather than one overarching reflection. First, as Spandel introduces the chapter, it struck me that in my own personal writing, I worry too much about presenting something that is good, great, or dare I say, perfect. I'm hard on myself as I write, feeling that I don't show enough voice or that every piece sounds the same. Being a part of this cohort has taken me out of my comfort zone greatly because I am not used to sharing my writing. It's frightening for me, and sometimes even as we have written during our days together I feel like I am always striving for a great piece because if it's not great, then I can't it read it aloud! These thoughts that I have about my own writing are in complete opposition to what I say to my own students. All of my students have learning disabilities so the grammar and mechanics of their writing needs a lot of work, however I am always telling them that writing is about the ideas, that we'll take care of those errors later. I want them to feel free to express themselves. Even though that is what I say to them 90% of the time, I then have this moment of panic because I can't just ignore the grammar and the mechanics and the spelling. All that great standardized testing measures student success on these attributes of their writing as well. So, am I back to the same conundrum I have been in reading all of these chapters? How can we in today's educational environment meet in the middle? Do we go with what is good teaching practice and hope (really hard!) that the mechanics, grammar, and spelling will follow if students are not as anxious about creating about a piece of writing? As I look into next year, I am already planning how different instruction will take place in my classroom in the different subject areas. I am excited about trying new things and trying to find that balance. I think that I have to follow the same thinking in the chapter when I look ahead to jumping in and trying these ideas. If a lesson fails, does it mean I failed or my students failed? Or, should I look at this way? If a lesson fails, did I maybe find within that failure a new silk line to grab onto and head in a different direction?
ReplyDeleteIt's such a tough balance! I spend some time showing my students the difference between revising and editing their work. It was tough for me at first to not pay so much attention to grammar after the first draft I saw, but I think that helping them to understand that they are separate processes with separate purposes gives students a little more comfort in writing messy to begin with.
DeleteI have been validated. I have the right to write badly, and no one can take it away from me.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this chapter. A couple of Spandel's statements, from chapter 5, really made me think. The first was, "In school, writers seldom create more than two drafts. We may call the second draft a "final," nut this is a misnomer, one that leads to a misguided sense of how real-world revision works. Gee, I wonder why my kiddos have a difficult time editing. I have not been giving them the time that they need to edit, and neither has the MCAS Long Composition.
The second statement that gave me an "ah ha" moment was, "Comfort first." We need to first allow our students the time to feel comfortable facing that blank page before they are victorious in filling its lines with proper grammar and form. I took that as gett
them writing first and then teach the strategies and skills that they need to acquire. I am left wondering. Why do we rush the writing process?
I totally agree Tracie. We don't give them time to write. Period. I'm thinking we take time in class to teach the way Spandel suggests, making writing a "get to" instead of a "have to". Then model how to incorporate the newly learned strategies into our standardized writing ...
DeleteBill,
DeleteThat's what I am hoping to try in September. Time seems to be the issue in so many things that I want to do though.
I feel that this chapter identified a problem with student writing, but failed to give solutions. Writers know they need to write often and badly and then edit mercilessly to mine the nuggets. I feel students don't like to take the time to do that. They don't want to cross out or erase anything they've written because they want to be "done". The author does a good job showing her writing process and comparing the process to a spider web, but doesn't give directives on how that might be modeled in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteOne way I help my students to write badly is during the pre-writing, especially if students are assigned a prompt to a reading selection. I hand out notecards because they are small and disposable, so the writing doesn't seem "formal" or important. I give students some time to write down ideas or a response to the prompt. Sometimes it's bullet points; sometimes I focus on a topic sentence, but I ask them to write SOMETHING, alone. After a few minutes I have students "pair share" where they turn to a partner and share their writing but reading out loud. Then they have a chance to merge their topic sentences into a "super-duper" topic sentence or add bullet points to their summary of what we've just read. Then I ask for volunteers to share ideas and I write those on the board for students to add to their notecards. Hopefully by the end of the process, students have a notecard filled with ideas. I tell students to hang on this notecard--this bad writing, or informal writing, or prewriting--I think it has lots of names-- and use that as a springboard for the paper they are going to turn in. Sometimes I have students use sticky notes to put on a page in the book and write down a quote that is significant so they have something to include in their writing.
One element I have incorporated in the past is a writing folder--and in contemporary times we can have digital writing folders--to collect student work. Another tool is journaling which I tried during first semester this year, but did not do second semester when I had a different population of students.
I disagreed with the author's comments about reading--"Very little fanfare accompanies reading in most classrooms". I love to read, and I emphasize reading "where we prepare, then commit the act, then reflect on what we've just done". I regularly use the "think-aloud" strategy when reading.
I agree that students are afraid of failure and risk, and "our goal should be to take students to such a place of comfort with writing that they will persist." However, I don't feel that this chapter gave any specific strategies for how to do that!
Heather -- Thanks for the "solution." What a great idea! Our goal for sophomores is to improve Topic Development, and this is a great and safe way to find something to say, which is what many of my students lack (lots of times because they don't read the assignment at all).
DeleteIn addition to having my students delve more deeply into their writing, I also need to inspire them to delve more deeply into their reading.
You make a good point that there isn't much in the way of solutions in this chapter. Modeling is a good first step, but our kids will need more than that. I love the note card idea. This would be especially helpful for those students who see a blank 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of composition paper, and have an anxiety attack - more worried about how they are going to fill that page than they are with getting some ideas down on paper. Baby steps!
DeleteSo much of this chapter is so relevant to where I am in the retooling of my teaching of writing, but the most valuable, and ironically the most difficult idea is from Ann Lamott who ways “So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability.”
ReplyDeleteWell. Easier said than done for students, and easier said than done for teachers to ask students to be emotionally vulnerable and take those risks. My sophomores are so gun shy about revealing anything true about themselves, and honestly, I’m a little scared that sometimes they will reveal a little too much. Holding the secrets of another human soul can be a terrible burden. Our students today have so much roiling around in their souls, and writing about what is troubling them seems to be an obvious way to help them cope with the many stresses and conflicts they are facing, but getting them to commit to the time and energy it takes to put it on paper is the real battle. There’s another irony – committing something to paper seems so permanent, yet they’ll post something terribly personal and private to the Internet without a second thought. They want to share, but how do we make it safe for all of us?
Who didn’t choke up at the story of Ginweed? It had all the elements of great fiction, but I’m not sure those elements were there by accident. Somewhere that child had writing instruction, or at least he was paying attention to the stories he was being told or that he was reading, and he was making connections between them and his own inner voice.
When I read Bruce Ballenger’s essay on “The Importance of Writing Badly, “ I had no problem putting my face to Mrs. O’Neill’s name. I almost can't read anything without a red pen in my hand. Yes, I want them to write with heart and share ideas of substance, but by tenth grade, one would think they could compose an essay without using the second person pronoun or awkward sentence construction.
Right now I’m in the middle of exams, and I’m optimistically planning my next year of writing instruction while paradoxically feeling despair that this year’s class made no progress. Another irony is that while they are reducing the risks they are taking by being “careful” and “writing in generalities,” they are producing some pretty terrible writing.
I need to remember my junior high school chorus teacher, who always told us, “If you’re going to make a mistake, make a loud one.” Maybe I can continue her legacy in my classroom.
Did any of us or the author ever define "writing badly"? That would be a great discussion topic!
ReplyDelete