A SIMPLE STORY CHANGED EVERYTHING
Several years ago during a writing training the presenter began the session by telling a story. She recounted a time when she snuck out of her house to go to a Friday night football game. She lived in part of town where there was gravel, not sidewalks on the side of the road. Her story included the excitement of meeting up with her friends, the fear of being caught by her parents, the thrill of returning home undetected and the coming-of-age feeling that washed over her from sneaking out that evening.
WRITER’S NOTEBOOKS
As I sat listened to her story I realized that I had stories to tell too. And so did my students. Each student was given a writer’s notebook. We spent time jotting down ideas for writing – times when we got in trouble, times when we experienced joy, or sadness, or embarrassment. We wrote about the things we did over the weekend, or about the things that happened the previous day. When we read stories from read-alouds or chapter books, or discussed tv shows and movies, we would jot down what we were reminded of in our own lives. The source for ideas was endless – and so was our enthusiasm for writing and sharing our stories.
Part of our morning routine was writing in our notebooks. We would write for 10 to 15 minutes. Next we would read our writing to a partner. I would ask a couple of volunteers to share their writing with the class. The practice of writing and storytelling each morning was a wonderful way to connect and strengthen our classroom community.
WRITING INSPIRATION
To stay motivated and challenged, we read authors that were masters at using descriptive language. Throughout the schoolyear we would:
- Circle, highlight, and collect words and phrases that allowed us to see events in our mind’s eye.
- Search for descriptive language that made us feel as if we were watching a movie.
- Post the language we collected on our classroom wall to use as a reference for our own writing.
For us, Gary Soto’s short story The Bikewas the perfect place to start. In Soto’s poetic short story he writes about riding his bike in his neighborhood as a child. He cleverly shares his observations, thoughts, and feelings about his experience. Soto uses phrases such as:
- “The leaves of bird-filled trees stirred a warm breeze…”
- “When I squinted, I could see the end of the block.”
- “My mom said that hungry dogs lived on that street and red anger lived in their eyes.”
- “…two tears dropping like dimes into the dust.
Students were constantly trying to search for and develop interesting phrases to tell their unique stories. Naturally, they wanted to write the same way. Our class began by adding descriptive words, colorful phrases, adjectives, vivid verbs, and sensory details to their writing. We became competitive and inspired by the way students made ordinary events extraordinary.
AUTHOR’S CHAIR
Students began sharing in our Author’s Chair routinely. We developed a schedule so that students knew which day would be their day to share. As students heard the colorful, interesting, descriptive ways that their peers had experienced events, the excitement and competition became fierce and our classroom culture became even stronger.
Ultimately, our Writer’s Notebooks not only captured our personal experiences, but also became a safe place to experiment and take risks in writing. Moreover, we developed a very playful way of writing that increased my students’ confidence and accelerated their learning.
