Focus on Writing: Building the Conversation

Keith Pruitt, Ed.S

www.woweducationalconsulting.com

Brain Gym

• We are going to play a quick 1 minute round of boggle.

• The object is to write as many words as possible in 1 minute.

• The letters may only be used once and must touch in some direction.

• The word must contain at least three letters.

X W S N

L G A E

A M E Y

W M S J

We want students to write, but have difficulty getting them excited about the activities of writing.

What can I do as a teacher to motivate my

students to write?

Some teachers seem to invite children’s conversation. Children speak to them constantly; they try something and almost immediately tell their teachers about it. I’ve tried to observe what these teachers do that makes their students such good informants. I used to think it was their methodology. Now I realize that it is a kind of philosophical stance, which children intuit in the teacher, that inspires their confidence and invites their reactions to their work.

--Donald Graves, Children Want to Write, p 72

…Build the Conversation!

The greatest missing tool from most

classrooms is the pleasure of talk.

“Float the learning on

a sea of talk”

--James Britton, Language and Learning (1970)

Here are Three strategies for

EngagingTalk in the

Classroom for Writing

1. Visual story starter

2. What Do You Know? What Can you Ask? (Going into Character)

3. Student Conversation

1. Visual Story Starter

• The teacher shows a picture to students for just a few seconds.

• Students are asked to grab as many details as possible

• They then discuss with each other what they have seen as the

teacher asks specific questions

Let’s Practice!

Let’s look now at a conversation between a student and Donald

Graves as he works one-on-one. Look for how he gives her visual

cues and how visual she becomes.

from Children Want to Write, video Chapter 5, An Interested Audience

2. Going into Character

Abraham Lincoln

What you Know? What did you learn?

Abraham Lincoln Comes Home

What I Know About Lincoln What I Learned Questions?

1. He was PresidentWhich one?2. 16th

What else?3. President during Civil War4. From Illinois5. Had a beard6. AssassinatedBy whom?Don’t know—John Wilkes BoothHe was an actor and southern sympathizer7. Buried in Springfield, Il.

1. 16th President of United States

2. President During Civil War

3. Assassinated by Booth who was a Southern Sympathizer

1. How Did he come to be President?

2. Why did Booth Kill the President?

3. Where did this happen?

Concept from Harvey and Goudvis, Comprehension Toolkit

Now instead of readingthis story to you, I’mgoing to step intocharacter and tell youthe story of LukeO’Brien.

Connect With Talk and Writing

• Have students tell their elbow partners what aspect of the story impacted them the greatest

and why?

• Have the students write a paragraph about one of these two ideas:

• According to the author, what emotions did the funeral train solicit in Luke?

• Describe how the people along the tracks felt about Lincoln.

3. StudentConversations

The Common Core State Standards

for English ELA and Mathematics

emphasize improving the quality of

student-to-student discourse as a

major feature of instruction. The new

standards specifically describe the

importance of students understanding

the reasoning of others and engaging

in meaningful conversations using

evidence for claims.

--Stanford University Online Course, 2014

But what does this have to do with writing?

Video clip from Children Want to Write, chapter 6, What the Story is About

Tell a friend one learning observation

you made in reference to this video.

Student conversation allows students to:

1. Clearer understandings2. Question the author

3. Make suggestions (but remember, it is my story)

4. Politely correct something that might be incorrect

5. Offer critique than can then extend the learning for the author

So in this session we have learned three strategies for getting students conversing and writing.

Engaging students is much more enriching when we turn them loose in the power of talk.

I challenge you to take away from this one idea that will excite your students.

Thank YouKeith Pruitt

www.woweducationalconsulting.com