Narrative Writing: Christensen and Kenney
So this week is completely different than last week. I am BEYOND passionate about the narrative, have a lot of experience with working with it, and have had a lot of success writing and reading them. I found myself enthralled in the chapter, and fascinated by the article. I'll do my best not to go too crazy in my blog, but this is a class focused on writing, so I can't make any promises.
First, I'll start with the article by Kenney. I found it fascinating that this poor student, Erika, was so focused on the idea of limiting her writing to just three paragraphs for ideas. As a creative writer, I have long since left that notion in the dust. I write until my thoughts are out. However, as a teacher, I understand that this is how they are taught. While subbing in a 6th grade science and middle school, the assignment left was to write a 5 paragraph essay about a terrarium they had built the days before. One girl, sweet and seemingly very quick, stressed most of the period. She, like Erika, was trying to fit everything she wanted to say into just the 5 paragraphs. I finally said "If you feel like it will improve the essay as a whole, write more. If you think it will clunk up your essay, stick to 5." For the rest of the day (this was period 1!!!) I found myself saying this to kids. As long as they thought it would work for their essay, I encouraged them to write. If they want to write more, and it's appropriate and WORKS, who in the hell am I to tell them to stop writing?? Students are taught the "road map" of writing an essay, 5 paragraphs including an intro, a conclusion, and three body paragraphs with supporting details, to back up their thesis. Sometimes, that's not enough.
Now, Christensen is great. I rented this book, but I'm going to buy it because I have learned a lot, and love her handouts and pieces that she included. I love narratives because of the reason they seem to be poo-pooed. They are self-indulgent. I can't even begin to understand the concept of saying it's alright to study narrative works, but not okay for students to write them. If I wasn't able to write narrative pieces, I wouldn't be much of a writer. In general, I think it's important for students to understand and work with all crafts of writing, in the sense of reading, but ALSO writing. How else are they going to further develop a sense of well-rounded writing, if they can't practice all aspects?
I love that Christensen connects a number of well-known authors to narrative writing, saying "they employ narrative strategies in their work". She also says that "the craft of the sentence can be taught in both the essay and narrative writing." (pg.61) She also goes on to mention how in a social justice lesson, the narrative is the "heart of the class". I, as a creative writer, love writing about my own life and my own experiences. I feel that's a brilliant way to help students connect and learn from the lessons we teach. Christensen says "student's stones build community and connect their lives to the curriculum.". By being able to write about their own experiences in relation to the lessons we teach, it really helps them connect to a story or play. It also helps them have a better understanding of their classmates, and us as their teachers. Being able to talk openly and write freely really opens so many doors for students, and from my experience, it creates a better class environment and encourages them to write more, and relate more.
WRITE WITH PASSION AND POWER. This sentence is everything I live for, as an educator and as a writer. I can't write (or at lease write well) if I'm not fueled by passion and excitement. My best pieces truly come when I am so into something that I can't stop writing. That's one of the greatest feelings ever, and I hope I can help get my students to that place.
I love that she works to see how new units intersect and resonate in their own lives and contemporary society. Sometimes, I may not be able to connect to a lesson or story personally, but I know that it applies to the real world of today. That helps me understand and work through things better, and I know it's the same for most students. My hope is that I will develop lesson plans and units that will make my students realize how even older pieces of literature can connect with us, and the world, today.
As for assessment, I like her idea of having her students work on 3-4 pieces of writing per quarter, and then having them choose one on their own to polish and revise. She mentions not grading their writing as much as giving credit for completion of all parts, and showing signs of change and adaption. I think this is great. They can al receive credit for having completed the multiple parts of each 3-4 pieces, and then can be assessed on the piece they work on most. This way, we as teachers can be sure they have made changes and applied comments from classmates and the teacher (during read-around- another concept I LOVE). This removes some of the stress students feel to perfect their work, and allows them the freedom to further develop. I think there's a big difference there.
Finally, I want to mention the read-arounds. I think this concept is great. Although they may be time consuming, and may take away from other work, I think it's helpful. Spending a day or two to discuss and comment on everyone's work will help give them new ideas on how to polish and revise their work. It's different than a teacher just writing comments and handing it back to them. This allows discussion on all parts of the piece, and they get multiple perspectives. I've done this is my creative writing classes, and will use this in my own classroom FOR SURE.
To sum it all up, the narrative is, in my opinion, one of the most important forms of writing to teach in the English classroom. This reading has fueled me up, and I'm excited for the ability to teach narratives in my classroom.
First, I'll start with the article by Kenney. I found it fascinating that this poor student, Erika, was so focused on the idea of limiting her writing to just three paragraphs for ideas. As a creative writer, I have long since left that notion in the dust. I write until my thoughts are out. However, as a teacher, I understand that this is how they are taught. While subbing in a 6th grade science and middle school, the assignment left was to write a 5 paragraph essay about a terrarium they had built the days before. One girl, sweet and seemingly very quick, stressed most of the period. She, like Erika, was trying to fit everything she wanted to say into just the 5 paragraphs. I finally said "If you feel like it will improve the essay as a whole, write more. If you think it will clunk up your essay, stick to 5." For the rest of the day (this was period 1!!!) I found myself saying this to kids. As long as they thought it would work for their essay, I encouraged them to write. If they want to write more, and it's appropriate and WORKS, who in the hell am I to tell them to stop writing?? Students are taught the "road map" of writing an essay, 5 paragraphs including an intro, a conclusion, and three body paragraphs with supporting details, to back up their thesis. Sometimes, that's not enough.
Now, Christensen is great. I rented this book, but I'm going to buy it because I have learned a lot, and love her handouts and pieces that she included. I love narratives because of the reason they seem to be poo-pooed. They are self-indulgent. I can't even begin to understand the concept of saying it's alright to study narrative works, but not okay for students to write them. If I wasn't able to write narrative pieces, I wouldn't be much of a writer. In general, I think it's important for students to understand and work with all crafts of writing, in the sense of reading, but ALSO writing. How else are they going to further develop a sense of well-rounded writing, if they can't practice all aspects?
I love that Christensen connects a number of well-known authors to narrative writing, saying "they employ narrative strategies in their work". She also says that "the craft of the sentence can be taught in both the essay and narrative writing." (pg.61) She also goes on to mention how in a social justice lesson, the narrative is the "heart of the class". I, as a creative writer, love writing about my own life and my own experiences. I feel that's a brilliant way to help students connect and learn from the lessons we teach. Christensen says "student's stones build community and connect their lives to the curriculum.". By being able to write about their own experiences in relation to the lessons we teach, it really helps them connect to a story or play. It also helps them have a better understanding of their classmates, and us as their teachers. Being able to talk openly and write freely really opens so many doors for students, and from my experience, it creates a better class environment and encourages them to write more, and relate more.
WRITE WITH PASSION AND POWER. This sentence is everything I live for, as an educator and as a writer. I can't write (or at lease write well) if I'm not fueled by passion and excitement. My best pieces truly come when I am so into something that I can't stop writing. That's one of the greatest feelings ever, and I hope I can help get my students to that place.
I love that she works to see how new units intersect and resonate in their own lives and contemporary society. Sometimes, I may not be able to connect to a lesson or story personally, but I know that it applies to the real world of today. That helps me understand and work through things better, and I know it's the same for most students. My hope is that I will develop lesson plans and units that will make my students realize how even older pieces of literature can connect with us, and the world, today.
As for assessment, I like her idea of having her students work on 3-4 pieces of writing per quarter, and then having them choose one on their own to polish and revise. She mentions not grading their writing as much as giving credit for completion of all parts, and showing signs of change and adaption. I think this is great. They can al receive credit for having completed the multiple parts of each 3-4 pieces, and then can be assessed on the piece they work on most. This way, we as teachers can be sure they have made changes and applied comments from classmates and the teacher (during read-around- another concept I LOVE). This removes some of the stress students feel to perfect their work, and allows them the freedom to further develop. I think there's a big difference there.
Finally, I want to mention the read-arounds. I think this concept is great. Although they may be time consuming, and may take away from other work, I think it's helpful. Spending a day or two to discuss and comment on everyone's work will help give them new ideas on how to polish and revise their work. It's different than a teacher just writing comments and handing it back to them. This allows discussion on all parts of the piece, and they get multiple perspectives. I've done this is my creative writing classes, and will use this in my own classroom FOR SURE.
To sum it all up, the narrative is, in my opinion, one of the most important forms of writing to teach in the English classroom. This reading has fueled me up, and I'm excited for the ability to teach narratives in my classroom.
I'm with you on revision, Lila. I think that in a typical school year there is so little time built in for revision that it's just not realistic to expect that every bit of writing can be drafted. When students are allowed to self-select which work to revise, they'll care so much more because they're not looking to improve their grade. In that case they really want to change it and make it better because of the four pieces they've done, that one has the most potential. Writers do that all the time. Not every idea is a winner and you've got to follow the idea that strikes you the most.
ReplyDeleteLila I love your passion in all your posts! "Write with passion and power" is so you! You even say it's everything you live for and I love it! It's so true that once you get writing on a topic you just want to run with it. I also wrote about the same thing that Christensen's book is a great addition to our teacher book shelf. It has SO many useful resources that will definitely be used through student teaching and in our future classrooms.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, yes, BUY THE BOOK!! I tagged almost each page with notes because I love Christensen's ideas! Christensen is a very, very down to the earth and her methods clearly make sense to the students more than those who teach traditional way. Starting now, I am going to write with passion and power. I am going to empower these to my students. Oh boy, how exciting is that!
ReplyDelete