This week I want to talk about the part of writing that comes after brainstorming ideas. Dorfman & Capelli provide a list of resources to help students and teachers in Chapter 4 of Mentor Texts including questioning, illustrating, using all senses, and dialogue. Some children truly struggle with moving from their list of ideas from brainstorming to actually writing a story down in a collective piece. By using some of these strategies, we as teachers will be able to assist our students in making the transition to a developed draft of their story. Lets look at some of these strategies.

Encouraging students to use descriptions based on all five senses is a great place to start!

As I was reading chapter 4 in Mentor Text I wanted to test out some strategies in my own writer’s notebook. I looked back at some of the topics that I brainstormed and chose to elaborate on something that I scribbled down as I was walking into work last Friday:

“staring at the shimmering snow as it falls from the clouds; like a snow globe shaken             by a child”

As I go back and read over the statement that was formulated and written in just a few seconds, I start to jot down other ideas that I remember from the scene:

• Sight: snowflakes shimmering from the sunlight, twirling like ballet dancers in the wind
• Sound: squeals of excited children as they dance in the falling snowflakes
• Touch: snowflakes melting on my skin like ice cream in the summer, my eyes welling up with tears from the cold wind licking my face
• Smell: the crisp smell of winter air that fills my nostrils, the scent of freshly brewed coffee travels down King street from the local shop
• Taste: I tilt my head back and let the snowflakes fall on my tongue

This is one way that we can teach students how to add details to enhance a story and entertain readers. This is where I believe nature walks and field trips would become a great way to include writing into an observational experience. (I also am working on one of my own writing goals by carrying my writer’s notebook with me to scribble down ideas whenever they hit!)

I was encouraged as a teacher and reader when I saw a list that some third and fourth graders came up with in Mentor Text when describing how they would help their audience be able to visualize and understand the moment in time they were creating. Not only am I impressed that the students were able to put together a detailed list of strategies and literary devices to use, but also how the teacher let the students have control in brainstorming in the writing process itself.

An important part of incorporating a reading and writing community, in my opinion, is allowing students as much power in the process as the teacher. It is important that we validate ideas and not stifle any learning or growing opportunities. Using the gradual release of responsibility strategy will allow situations for collaborative work as well as independent practice when using writing in the classroom. When students can share ideas and experiences, they are collecting more and more for their writing archives. Collaboration also allows for problem-solving if a student has trouble transitioning their generated lists to collective stories. We want to push students to have a continuous growth mindset with their writing, always searching for more detail and description.

This brings me to my final thought for this blog post. In Textbook by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, I was transfixed by one specific page in her chapter called “Social Studies”. she writes:

“I asked if you felt content most of the time. Yes, you said. Isn’t that terrible?”

I has always struggled with this idea of feeling content with my work, especially when it comes to writing. As mentioned before, I have not always been confident with my skills in putting together sentences and making them into a whole piece. This feeling of just “settling” has filled in for that lack of confidence. But, if I am to preach to my students about growth and lifelong learning, I want to encourage myself to never just be content with my products. So I am adding to my list:

• Goal #101: Never turn in a piece of writing where you only feel content

Dorfman, L. R. & Capelli, R. (2017). Mentor texts: Teaching writing through children’s literature, k-6. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Rosenthal, A. K. (2016). Textbook: Not exactly a memoir. New York, NY: Dutton.