Students have many different ways of constructing their writing. A Classroom Teacher’s Guide to Teaching Struggling Writers clarifies, “Certainly, writers plan, write, edit, revise, and so on, but not in any fixed order; nor does every piece of writing require planning, editing or revision…Therefore, teachers of writing ought to focus their students’ attention on processes used by effective writers, but not on a prescribed process.” (Dudly-Marling 5). This is an appropriate distinction to make. While students need to be aware of all of the parts of the writing process, and taught how to effectively perform all of them, they need to have the choice to take their writing through any or all of them.

The following parts of the writing process are traditionally taught in classrooms, but, as Dudly-Marling explains, it is not necessary for every student to go through every step with every piece of writing.

Brainstorming/Pre-writing

A main driver of my new direction was a conversation I had with members of Julie Johnson’s third grade class. I visited the classroom and asked about different technologies they used. Many agreed that they enjoyed blogging, but when asked what the most challenging part of blogging was they, nearly unanimously, agreed that deciding what to write was the most difficult. I had asked the question expecting to get information about the interface, hoping to learn that they did not like reading all the text, or there were too many buttons. The fact that they answered the question completely differently than I expected struck me as very interesting.

Pre-Writing Techniques Story Mapping:

A student organizes their characters, setting and conflict in a mind map.

Story Boards:

A student draws out key frames of their story.

Research:

Necessary with most non-fiction writing, this can be done online or with books in the classroom.

Oral Storytelling:

A student tells their story out loud to a classmate or teacher.There are many pre-writing techniques that different teachers employ. In Kathy Ehle’s class the students have used their blogs to brainstorm collaboratively. “I had one little girl want to write a book about lame jokes. So she asked kids to send in their lame jokes, now I am getting to read all these jokes. I mean, they can get ideas, brainstorm, and pick each other’s brains, and it’s so instant, so much faster,” (“Teacher Focus Group”). Other examples of pre-writing include story mapping, where a student organizes thoughts on characters, setting and conflict in a mind map, linking different nodes with lines; storyboarding, where students draw out key frames of their story, and use that to organize their plot and characters before they begin writing; research, many nonfictional pieces of writing require online or published research on a topic; and oral storytelling, telling their story out loud to a classmate or teacher. There are, of course, other pre- writing techniques, and students employ many of these to organize their thoughts before beginning to write.

Pre-writing is an important part of the writing process, especially for boys. Carrie Pomeroy, a fifth grade teacher quoted in Boy Writers said, “Girls tend to ‘attack’ a writing assignment and get it done quickly. Boys, on the other hand, tend to ponder and fester about what they are going to write,” (Boy Writers 13). When visiting Julie Johnson’s class I watched one boy sit down with his laptop, and start a new blog entry. He wrote one sentence and proceeded to sit and stare aimlessly at his screen for nearly 20 minutes before asking the teacher for help. When the teacher came over, she asked leading questions to help encourage him to continue writing and spark ideas. Often boys get stuck when they are faced with an empty page, better pre-writing techniques can help them organize their thoughts and expedite the drafting process.

First Draft

Drafting is one of the most difficult parts of the writing process, students get frustrated trying to write perfectly composed prose on their first try. Students also often skip pre- writing and attempt to write their story without knowing what details or information they want to include. Arthur Voight, a literacy consultant writes, “Most kids, especially boys, have to write a lot of crap in order to produce something worthwhile. Many teachers want and expect a well crafted three- or five-paragraph first draft. This is not going to happen with boys,” (Boy Writers 151). This is often discouraging to students who expect to write a story quickly and be finished with it.

Revising

Many students finish their first draft and have a bad attitude towards revision; they assume that because they have written the story they are done. There are multiple reasons for this. Fletcher explains that “[students] often think of revision as a way to fix a bad piece of writing, when in fact, revision can be a way to enhance a good one,” (Writing Workshop 65).

Revising can encompass many different techniques, the Ohio Proficiency test asks students to assess whether or not they addressed the prompt, add details, confirm that they have a setting, characters, and plot, and re-read their story. Ralph Fletcher expands this list by suggesting changing the beginning and ending, add sections, delete sections, changing the order, changing the genre, changing the point of view, changing the tone, changing the tense, slowing down the “hot spot”, and focusing on one aspect (66).

Obviously a student is not going to change all of these aspects of one of their stories, but encouraging students to re-read and experiment with a few of these changes can help them improve their writing.

Editing

Editing and proofreading seem simple enough, but can be very challenging for children with limited fluency and technical skills. The Ohio Proficiency test expects students to check spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and use complete sentences.

In some traditional classrooms the majority of the editing responsibilities fall to the teacher; however, introducing students to the editing process and encouraging them to edit there own writing will both prepare them for testing and improve their writing skills (92).

Publishing

Publishing is an important aspect of the writing process, it signifies the completion of a piece of writing and can build confidence in writers as they share and earn positive feedback from peers and mentors on their writing. Having strong male role models to be an audience for young writers can reinforce writing as a positive activity. One teacher tells students to “Think about an older guy who you respect, write this for him to read,” (Gurian 60). Teachers use different methods to celebrate student writing. Julie Johnson has writing celebrations in which she invites children’s families and each student shares their writing with the group. Kathy Ehle explained that students love how publishing on a blog allows them to share their work with their peers as well as parents and teachers. They love to give and receive comments.

Sources:

Dudly-Marling, Curt, and Patricia Paugh. A Classroom Teacher’s Gude to Struggling Writers: How to Provide Differentiated Support and Ongoing Assessment. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2009. Print.

Bible, Kay, Kathy Parker-Jones, Kathy Ehle, Kelly Gorby, Julie Johnson, and Meghan Richter. “Teacher Focus Group.” Personal interview. 22 Nov. 2010.

Fletcher, Ralph J. Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2006. Print.

Fletcher, Ralph J., and JoAnn Portalupi. Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2007. Print.

Fletcher, Ralph J., and JoAnn Portalupi. Writing Workshop: the Essential Guide. Ports- mouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001. Print.