The Blank Page

What do you think is important to teach students about writing and representing?

            It is Friday afternoon and the sun is streaming through my window.  Yet, instead of enjoying the beautiful weather I am sitting at my computer staring at a black page of a new Word document.  It is intimidating.  I feel like there are infinite possibilities hidden in that expansive white space, but my mind recoils from those possibilities and ends up a churning sea of worry.  All I can think about is, “What if my writing isn’t good enough?” or “What if my mind goes blank?”   I probably should have more confidence in myself.   I have successfully completed dozens of undergrad essays and a Master’s thesis and yet that blank page is still intimidating.

            If I am still intimidated after years of training and practice in the conventions of academic writing, how are elementary students supposed to learn to write with confidence?  This is a very important question to me, especially as I undergo my teacher training.  When I learned to write we had a few different strategies that the teacher employed.  We copied text off the board, we did grammar worksheets, we had spelling tests, we wrote in journals (in the very early grades), we wrote stories, and we learned how to follow templates for letters and essays.  Writing was always done for specific assignments.  It was usually not relevant to my everyday life and it required memorizing a ton of specific rules to satisfy my teacher.  I wrote to get good grades and learned how to tailor my work to the marker.  Writing did not become useful to me until I got older, and it is not something that I ever particularly enjoy.  This is not the model that I want to pass onto my students.

            I was pleased to learn that teaching methods had evolved since my elementary school experience.  Spelling tests and grammar sheets are no longer the focus of teaching good writing.  In fact in our unit on teaching writing there were so many new ideas and methods that I felt refreshed and inspired.  One particular method that stuck with me was the idea of the writing workshop.  It was one of the main concepts that united all of our readings.  The writing workshop is a large focus in British Columbia’s English Language Arts Integrated Resource Package (ELA IRP) (2006), our textbook Constructing Meaning (Bainbridge, 2009), as well as the articles by Atwell, Calkin, and Savage. 

Writing workshops are based on the principle that, “writing is learned in the act of writing with the support of a knowledgeable teacher” (Reid, Schultze, and Peterson as cited in ELA IRP, 2006, p. 30).  As Calkin emphasises, “Our goal is to offer children the opportunity to bring their lives to school and to put their lives on the page.  At first, we’re especially cultivating rich conversations, lots of storytelling, and detailed drawings.  We definitely don’t want children to limit what they say and think because of a concern for spelling or penmanship.  We want to teach all children that the writing workshop is an opportunity to make and convey meaning.” (p.1)

 During a writing workshop children write or illustrate for a significant period of time.  During this time the teacher models good writing practices by writing their own piece.  The teacher may also teach mini-lessons to the class on writing techniques, grammar, or spelling.  These lessons are focused on providing practical knowledge that students need to communicate clearly when using the written word.  As the ELA IRP (2006) notes, “Teaching grammar outside of the students’ writing experiences, such as using grammar worksheets, does not result in a transfer of skills or learning to the next writing experience. Grammar skills should be taught in the context of the writing experience, using students’ and teachers’ own writing” (p. 33).   The teacher also holds writing conferences with individual students to assess their progress, teach skills, and encourage growth in the student.  As Atwell notes, “My purpose in conferences about content and craft is to help writers discover the meanings they don’t know yet, name problems, attempt solutions, and make plans” ( p. 224).

During the writing workshop students work through the five stages of writing, as they are outlined by ELA ERP (2006).  These stages include: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing/presenting (p. 30).  The students practice gathering ideas, writing them down, and then polishing them for content and understanding. Children are encouraged to write about topics they have knowledge of and topics they are interested in. The students also get the opportunity to engage in peer editing and proofreading, which reinforce the writing skills they are learning (ELA IRP, 2006, p. 23).  “Students can learn a great deal from sharing their writing. Discussing the writing can be very valuable before writing, during writing, and after writing” ( p. 24).  To support writing development students are given a writing folder when they begin.  Each folder includes: a basic word dictionary, a scratch pad, a journal, a sketch book, and other age appropriate supplies like a work spacer or a thesaurus (Savage, 41).

There are many benefits to writing workshops.  First, students are able to receive individual help from the teacher and peers.  Second, students get regular time to practice and develop their writing in a safe environment.  Third the writing workshop stresses the relevance of writing and teaches the conventions of writing in the context of working on a piece.  Forth, students are able to monitor their progress throughout the year by looking back at all the work collected in the writing folder.  Finally, the writing workshop is a strong tool for meeting all of the prescribed learning outcomes (PLO’s) in the ELA IRP (2006) that relate to writing and representing at each grade level.  For example, in Grade 2 during the prewriting stage students meet PLO C4, “use strategies before writing and representing” (p. 66).  In the writing stage students meet PLO C1, “create personal writing and representations that express connections to personal experiences, ideas, likes, and dislikes” (p. 66).  Finally, during conferences or peer sharing students meet PLO C9 as they, “reflect on and assess their writing and representing” (p. 59).

The tool of writing workshops is especially exciting to me, because it fits so well with my teaching philosophy.  I am a proponent of teaching through doing.  I think it is important for the teacher to model good practices and then for the students to have ample opportunity to practice the skill in meaningful and realistic situations.  I also feel that learning should be relevant to the student.  When someone understands the use for a skill in their lives they are more likely to want to learn it and to remember it.  So while I may still feel intimidated by the blank page, I now have the tools to help my students to grow into confident and expressive writers.

References

Atwell, Nancy.  In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and learning.  Class reading for EDCI 302.     University of Victoria.

Bainbridge, J., Heydon, R., & Malicky, G. (2009). Constructing meaning. Toronto Canada: Harcourt.

Calkin, Lucy.  “Launching the Writing Workshop.”  Class reading for EDCI 302. University of Victoria.

English language arts integrated resource package. (2006). Province of British Columbia: Ministry of Education.

Savage, Jennifer.  “How can I effectively use the First Steps Writing program in my classroom?”  Class reading for EDCI 302. University of Victoria.