Modeling Writing



Miss Young with her 1st grade teacher and a friend.

 This week I shared a story with Mrs. Mitchell's class that I had written for students. The idea grew out of a need to find mentor texts to help advanced readers "see" the structures of nonfiction.  It is rare that you see one type of structure in a book for kids.  I'd spent hours looking through nonfiction by some of the best children's writers (and loved every minute of it), tagging pieces of text that kids could "anchor" back to.  But there wasn't a title that was comprehensive and I began playing with the idea of writing for the kids myself.  It could be short. It could include each of the text structures.  I could ensure that the structure was easily identifiable.  Why not? 

As I was thinking about the structures and hunting for examples, I realized that the sequential structure was not as easy for me to locate.  I began thinking about recipes as sequential texts, all the cooking blogs I love to read, and some of my own favorite childhood treats.  My Grandma Young's Peanut Clusters!  That's what I'd write about, and I did.  And this week, I got to test it out.

It is a little unnerving to share your writing with teachers and kids.  You wonder if it will be engaging.  Will the kids even get it?  Will the staff think it's "all about you"?  I decided to take the risk.  I hope you will too.  It was worth it.  The kids got to know a little more about me and I think (hope, pray) that they now also have a short, but memorable mentor text that we can go back to as we begin looking at nonfiction this spring.

An added benefit, but one that I hadn't been conscious of when I started this process, was that I could let the kids in on my thinking because I'm the writer.  I could say, "I chose this structure because...." and "I was thinking that it might be funny to tell you...." or "I'm not sure I like this sentence.  I want to work on it some more."  I knew this!  I know this!  I was reminded once again that seeing the thinking and purpose is valuable.

Linda Hoyt shares in her book Crafting Nonfiction,
"...if we model nonfiction writing that is richly constructed with varied sentence structures, powerful word choices, and fascinating punctuation - if we demonstrate Modeled Writing in which we take our best shot at writing like Seymour Simon, Steve Jenkins, or Nicola Davies - young children will consciously work at enriching their own nonfiction writing," (p. 3).

"When students see and hear an expert writer in action, they can imagine what is possible in their own writing.  This means that, with the exception of writing models created to demonstrate drafting and spelling, modeled writing should look like it is written by and adult - not a child.  During read-alouds, we read as an adult, delivering the reading selection with fluency, expression and dramatic interpretation...so the same high performance and delivery should be evident when we write in front of children," (p. 4).

I'll keep writing for kids.  But, I plan to amp it up by actually writing in front of students more.  There is power in seeing the process.

I hope you'll consider modeling your own writing for our gifted and advanced readers and writers (and all your kiddos) in the next semester.  At least invite me in to take a risk!

Angie
(If you'd like to see my Christmas story I'd be glad to share it.)