Notes and presentation from Tuesday, June 19th, 2012. April Etzold's presentation on letter writing:


 April Etzold's powerpoint version. I was finally able to put this on our blog by converting it to a Brainshark presentation. Brainshark is free. It allows you to add voice and music to your power points by calling in with an access code. April Etzold's Research Question How can teachersbuild writing communities in their classrooms to increase students’ motivationto write? By April Etzold By the time struggling readers and writers arrive at their senior year of high school,the number of negative experiences that they have encountered with writing canbe staggering. They have come to expecta writing assignment to be returned to them covered in red ink and harshcriticisms. It is not surprising thatthey have become reluctant to write; writing assignments are sources of fearand dread. If it weren’t for the socialaspects of high school, many low-achieving students would have given up longago. It is worth wondering, then, ifwriting were to become a social experience, if the negative cloud that thesestudents’ envision atop the pen and paper might disappear. By establishing writing communities in theirclassrooms, teachers can transform the students’ motivation to write. In theNational Writing Project, we wrote and shared our writing with our peers on adaily basis. Although we were expectedto write something, the activity wasnot submitted to a teacher for evaluation and critique. Through this sharing we interacted in ameaningful way with one another and established bonds (Dean & Warren, 2012;Yagelski, 2009). Writing was a social activity, and the more weshared our writing, the more comfortable and confident we became with bothwriting and sharing. There are several waysthat teachers can create such communities in their classrooms. Oneactivity that would help to establish a writing community at the beginning ofthe school year, and to introduce students to each other and their teacher, iswith the writing of “Where I’m From” poems. This lesson would begin with a reading of the poem, “Where I’m From” byGeorge Ella Lyon. After some time isspent reading and analyzing the poem, and discussing how where a person is frominfluences his or her identity, students can write their own “Where I’m From”poem (Mello, 2012). Once poems arecomplete, the teacher could pair students to share their poems (since they maynot be comfortable sharing a poem they wrote with the whole class at this pointin the school year). The lesson couldend with informal writing in reflection of the experience, and the next day’slesson could begin with a discussion of what classmates learned about eachother. This activity would help tocreate bonds among students, as discussing where one another are from can deepstudents’ understandings of each other and many students may discoverunexpected commonalities. It also easesstudents into the idea of sharing their writing with peers. In orderto implement informal writing as a part of the regular curriculum, teachers canbegin or end each lesson with a prompt that may relate to current events, othertopics that the class will cover or did cover that day, or anything that mightinspire thoughtful writing and discussion. Prompts should inspire writing, but students should be allowed thefreedom to respond to prompts in many different ways. Although a prompt could be turned intosomething more formal, most should simply be an exercise in creativity andexpression; writing should be fun and doesn’t always have to be for agrade. Students should, however, be encouragedto share their writing and provide feedback to their classmates; this isimportant for establishing a true community of writers (Dean & Warren, 2012). Sinceclass time is limited and students may not be comfortable reading andresponding to each other’s writing face-to-face (especially early in the year),there are other ways to share writing with classmates. In the activity known as “Celebration”,students can walk around the room and read their classmates’ worksilently. Then they can make positivecomments or suggestions on a separate sheet of paper (Mello, 2012). This may ease students’ anxiety about sharingtheir writing aloud or speaking out with feedback in class, and students willhave their classmates’ suggestions in writing to utilize if revisions need tobe made. Another way to establishwriting communities among students is through the internet. Whether it is with wikis or blogs, ifteachers can turn writing into an interactive, high-tech activity, studentswill be motivated to participate (Dean & Warren, 2012; Edmonson, 2012). Thereare countless other activities that can help teachers to establish writingcommunities in their classrooms. Ifwriting is fun, nonthreatening, and interactive, reluctant writers will becomemuch more motivated. Since, according toBickford and Wright (2006), “learning is a social process that works best in acommunity setting”, this will increase the potential for classroom learning ingeneral, and it will motivate students to write more frequently and with more confidence. References Bickford,D.J., & Wright, D.J. (2006). Community: The hidden context forlearning. In Learning Spaces (Chapter 4). Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/LearningSpaces Dean,D., & Warren, A. (2012). Informal and shared: Writing to createcommunity. English Journal, 101(4), 50-54. Edmonson,E. (2012). Wiki literature circles: Creating digital learning communities. EnglishJournal, 101(4), 43-49. Mello,R. (2012). “Where I’m From” (with a twist): Two poems, manylessons. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrievedfrom: http://fgcunwpisi2012.blogspot.com Yagelski,R.P. (2009). A thousand writers writing: Seeking change through the radical practiceof writing as a way of being. English Education, 42(1), 6-28.