Don't just teach, do.

We are in the middle of our unit on Africa that crosses both the social studies and language arts curriculum. One particularly challenging, but fun project revolves around folktales. After reading some folktales and studying their elements the students were tasked with writing their own. In particular the students had to create a pourquoi. We started off by brainstorming in our journals questions or musing we had about animals and nature. Some students wondered why there were seven continents, others wondered how the dog got it's bark. From there they got to choose the pourquoi they were most interested in developing into a full story. Starting off the assignment this way allowed the students to direct their own learning. We didn't tell them what they had to write about, it was something that was interesting and important to them, immediately engaging them more deeply in the assignment. Next, we created some graphic organizers (and another) to help them formulate their ideas. Before handing over the materials, we modeled for them with our own stories. One of the greatest lessons I've learned so far in my teaching is that when teaching writing you have to write yourself. Lucy Calkins recommends this as a part of her writer's workshop program. When the students see you writing and doing the work too, it immediately doesn't feel like such a chore. "If Mrs. Biester can do it, so can I!" Not only is it a great teaching tool to show the students that I am not asking them to do anything I wouldn't do myself, but it's a fun and cathartic process to keep yourself engaged. The reason I became a teacher was so that I could be a "perpetual student" and this is just one of the many ways I continue to live that dream.

Fast forward into the writing process, students are beginning to type their stories. They have taken the graphic organizers and begun to flush out a well written folktale that includes all the elements (magic, repetitive language, a moral, etc.) Some students finish in no time and think that they are done, but what we do with the "I'm doners" is teach them how to stretch and grow their writing. Another valuable piece of advice I got this year came from an article 5 Habits of Great Classroom Coaches by Melinda Kolk. This transformed how I approached the editing process with students. Instead of walking through the writing piece and pointing out places that needed improvement I asked them questions. What's a stronger word we could use here? How were the characters feeling during this? This leading questioning forced the students to think more deeply about their writing and see how to turn their story from a good one into a great one. I didn't ever tell them they had to change anything I simply coached them through the editing process so that next time that they write something they may think back to these suggestions and learn how to follow that process on their own. In the end the students produced beautifully written stories that were totally and 100% their own, no teacher doctoring. The stories were then bound in art class into a true published piece. Below are pictures of my very own creation!

Front cover

Inside title page