Developing Internal Templates

One of the presentations I attended at last month's TESOL Convention made me think about the types of support materials I provide my students -- and how often I expect them to "just know" things.

"Teaching Writing in a Multilevel Mainstream Classroom," led by three teachers and a professor of teacher education, took us through an eight-week unit on writing fictional narratives with students in grade four. But the lesson had a twist. Before writing the stories, each student had to research a particular animal from a scientific point of view, describing, among other things, its behaviors and habitat. Once they had that part down and had moved on to the fictional piece, those behaviors had to be reflected in the character development. The habitat became the setting.

Let me first say how impressed I was that these teachers had been able to devote eight weeks (eight weeks!) to this lesson; I know that effective writing instruction is surprisingly time-consuming. But what stood out for me most was the range of support materials they had provided for their students. Among them:

* a graphic organizer for the research component
* a separate graphic organizer for story development
* a list of possible character traits using enriched vocabulary
* a chart to back up each proposed character trait with evidence in the form of behaviors (my personal favorite)
* a list of transitional phrases to help with order and pacing

It's easy to forget that many students don't carry these structures or techniques around in their heads already, and to simply instruct them to go ahead and write. This workshop helped me to keep in mind that even the most basic writing assignments are really not so basic. They require a pretty wide range of tools if they are to help students develop their own internal templates, which is really the ultimate goal.

Full of ideas

My students and I recently made it through the brainstorming stage, and I must say, facilitating this part of the process has not always been easy for me. When it comes to my own writing, I run through this stage automatically, barely aware that I'm doing it. At one point, my mind seems a bit like the blackboard in the photo to the left: I have a million ideas, but there's no sense of how they might work together. Some of the ideas will be kept, but most will not. Still, there's an energy to the process that keeps my mind moving, generating ideas until I hit upon the ones that will eventually stand out for me as the ones.

But just because I know how to do this with my own thoughts, does it necessarily mean that I know how to bring order to the thoughts in my students' heads? Or that I can always spark the energy and sense of urgency that get the ideas flowing in the first place?

I'm going to have to say no -- but as it turns out, that's OK, because there's a slew of (perfectly free!) material out there that's been helping me to accomplish it anyway.

As part of our work on the Six Traits of Writing, we are focusing on idea development, which involves recalling and recording memorable details. This graphic organizer on the five senses helped students to focus on what they observe in everyday situations. To make the activity more specific, I asked them to list what they would see, hear, taste, smell and touch at the following locations: a bakery, a beach, an amusement park, and a playground. Then we worked to come up with language that was more precise and descriptive, and students recorded the words they planned to use. For example, at a bakery we said we would smell aromas wafting through the air; at a beach we would feel the grittiness of the sand in our shoes; and at an amusement park we might hear the whine of the machinery as a ride got off the ground.

I also love these idea development post-it notes, which say things like, "I used a balance of showing and telling," and "My details try to paint a picture in the reader’s head." I affixed a checklist on each child's paper. For first drafts, they used these idea development worksheets , which also feature a checklist at the end.

I would also like to try the describing wheel , which seems like it would be great for taking a single detail and coming up with many interesting ways to describe it. To identify the audience and refine purpose, I like this planning chart. The inverted triangle is good for narrowing down a topic.

Idea development: getting started

The first of the Six Traits of Writing that I'll be tackling with my students is idea development, which can actually be broken down into a number of sub-skills:

* using strong and memorable details
* balancing showing and telling
* writing about unique topics
* developing an original idea within a safe frame
* exploring themes and theses, big topics and sub-topics
* self-reflecting to write about what you know

It's amazing what resources teachers are willing to share online. I'm currently smitten with WritingFix, which has an entire section on idea development. On the same site, I also found the following song, attributed to "Mrs. Stelle." Thanks, Mrs. Stelle!

Ideas
To the tune: She’ll be Comin’ Around the Mountain
by Mrs. Stelle

Can you tell me what makes up a good idea?
Can you tell me what defines a good idea?
A single topic, clear and focused,
with fresh insights that provoke us,
anecdotes “though not required”
can cinch the deal.

If your story is a bore or moves too slow,
if it wanders off the topic it’s a “NO”,
you must answer readers’ questions
using details and suggestions
all while telling us what
we don’t already know.

If you want for your ideas to score a four,
then you’ll have to spin a yarn that gives us more,
than just a list of things you did once
that impressed the other kids once--
we’ve all read a thousand papers
before yours!