Dear Parents, August, 2007

I hope you had a relaxing summer. I spent my summerÖ.writing! I participated in the Oregon Writing Project, a program dedicated to developing teachers as writers expressly to help them become better writing teachers!

1.    Quantity and Quality: You will have noticed that writing classes now meet twice a week. This decision was made by Theresa and all the writing teachers. Writing is a skill, much like an instrument, that needs continual practice. It also takes time to bring a piece of writing to a final, published piece. A once-a-week writing class does not allow enough time to walk the students through all steps of the writing process; the end result is a lower quality and kids who have not learned how to bring a piece of writing from a draft to a final piece to be proud of. Meeting twice a week will allow more writing, responding and editing to happen during class time. During this writing time, I will also be available to conference with students in groups and individually.

2.    Purposeful Writing: People write better when given a reason to write and an audience broader than just a teacher. Kids need to know why they are writing or who they are writing for. This purpose could be as simple as writing to be shared with others on the walls of our classroom. Students may write stories to be read to other classes or letters to the editor on a community issue. They may write a personal experience to be shared with the class or they may write a report to be published in the school newspaper. I want kids to know that their writing matters.

3.    Writerís Workshop: I plan to use a writerís workshop format consistently throughout this school year. This approach puts more control of the writing process in the hands of the students. The students will keep writing notebooks filled with ideas, prompts, word lists and ideas for drafts. The notebook will also contain beginning drafts from which the students can choose to develop a story. On a typical day, we may start with a mini-lesson on a specific writing skill, before students are released to begin work on their own writing. On any given day, students will be in different stages of their writing. Some may be working on a first draft, while others are ready to share their writing with a partner to receive feedback. I may be conferencing with a small group while two or three students may be proofreading for mechanics. We will end the class with several students sharing the best parts of what they have been working on that day.

4.    Resources: I have had recommended the most wonderful, kid-friendly books to use with my class this year. These books have been written by childrenís authors for kids to read themselves. They give specific hints and examples to demystify the process of writing of a story. Best of all, these authors give the reader a glimpse into their personal approach to writing and how they actually wrote the books they have published. I have also been introduced to digital storytelling, a wonderfully motivating strategy that allows students to create and produce a movie with their own script! This presentation itself uses the technology of digital storytelling. I canít wait to use this activity with the kids this year.

5.    Graphic Organizers: This is a popular teacher word that refers to handouts that help a child organize their thoughts before they begin to write. In my school days, we occasionally used a self-created outline to organize our writing. Today, we have a multitude of graphically enhanced, visually stimulating worksheets that do the work of an outline and much more. There are graphic organizers for each different writing genre and each type of learner. There are online graphic organizers like Inspiration and Kidspiration, as well as the traditional paper type. Their purpose is to help kids organize their thoughts BEFORE they begin to write, so their writing is clear and readable. Lack of organization in writing is a common problem of emerging writers. They have the whole story in their head, but getting it on paper in a way that makes sense to the reader is always a challenge. Graphic organizers (I know, the word sounds boring and academic, but the graphic organizers are anything butÖ) can be a big help to kids. Youíll be seeing more of these this year.

6.    Revising versus Editing: I have learned first-hand the benefits (and fears) of sharing my writing with a group of my peers. I have learned that a level of trust must be developed in order to share something as personal as writing, for writing is indeed personal. But I have also been reminded of how valuable it is for others to give their perspective on what you have written. In one instance, what I thought was clear in my writing, was completely misunderstood by my revision partner. One sentence needed reworded to accurately describe the emotion I was trying to convey. Revision, the process of changing content, sentence structure, flow and voice to create a strong piece of writing, will be given priority this year. I will continue to teach the students how to respond to each otherís writing in positive and motivating ways, trusting that they (the kids) can see the changes needed to make a piece better and stronger; and that by helping each other, they will see more clearly how to write better themselves.

7.    Readers Are Writers: My own personal bias from years of teaching and parenting was backed up by research shared during my classóreading lots and often is the best strategy to develop a young writer. Kids need to read on their own, but should also hear great literature read to them at a higher level then what they can read themselves. Commonly, parents stop reading to their kids when they get fairly proficient at reading on their own. Yet reading books like: the original Tarzan of the Apes, Around the World in Eighty Days or Uncle Tomís Cabin fills their minds with rich vocabulary and complex sentence structures they wonít find in books at their reading level. If your child is reading and being read to daily (good literature, at and above their reading level), they are on their way to becoming good writers. As a result, I will be incorporating more literature in writing class this year; the two canít and shouldnít be separated. I will also be teaching the students to ìread like a writerî. For example, as we share a book for the second time, I may ask the students to listen for the setting and follow up with specific questions like: what words did she use to paint a picture of the house in your mind? Did she tell you the character lived on a busy street or did she show you, by mentioning all the cars driving past? Arguably, the most important thing you can do for your kids, educationally, is to sell reading in all its forms. Iíll say it again; a reader will be a good writer

So, welcome to my class of reading, writing, responding, revisingÖ. and rejoicing in the ability to express ourselves! I appreciate the opportunity to work with you to further develop your young writer.

With excitement,

Deana Graham