Blog Post #4 - Randy

As I believe strongly in the importance of writing in developing "voice," I tried to find websites related to the tricky job of teaching how to write. First off, I "found" (actually from a "hard copy" flyer in the real world) a website called http://kidstalkstory.com. It is about a program designed to encourage children to write their own life story. (From the flyer): "At Kids Talk Story, we help your child write his or her own life story. In the process[,] we teach grammar, spelling, and punctuation in accordance with Hawaii Department of Education guidelines. When your child completes the story (this typically takes at least 3 months), he or she will receive a beautiful hardcover edition to keep and treasure forever." The program is currently looking for applicants on a part time basis. If you are interested in helping kids to find their story and put it down on paper, I'd strongly encourage you to apply. I have (tonight, actually).

I also discovered a great "system" for teaching, or, at the very least, assessing writing. As everyone knows, writing seems to be a very subjective thing (ask the editors and publishers who attempt to establish a definitive canon of English literature, for example, the creme de la creme of "good writing"; there is NEVER perfect agreement, although there does tend to be a convergence of opinion...). It can be hard to put a finger on what is wrong (or, for that matter, what is right) about a given piece of student writing, and therefore, it can be hard to determine what a student would need to work on to improve. At the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, they've developed a system called "6+1 Trait Writing" (no, it's not because they're abhorrent at math that they don't just call it 7 Trait Writing... It was originally 6, and then after consideration, they added one more). It is a system designed to assess and then presumably work specifically on seven specific traits of writing. Those traits are: Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions, and Presentation. There are degrees or levels of development in each trait; for example, beginning writers are assessed presumably as "Experimenting," while advanced writers are assessed as "Experienced."

What is particularly significant about this system is that it "quantifies" writing into scores that can help a teacher determine the strengths and weaknesses of a student. For example, under Ideas for Experimenting Writers, there is the following checklist: "Uses scribbles for writing, Dictates labels or a story, Shapes that look like letters, Line forms that imitate text, Writes letters randomly." If you noticed your student writer exhibiting any of the above qualities when writing, you would circle it. Afterwards, you would count the number of circled entries to determine a score. Of course, if your preschooler were exhibiting any of the above, they'd probably be right (write) on track; if, on the other hand, your high schooler were performing at the same level, then you might need to really focus on this or other aspects more intensely...

Before I forget, let me post the link: http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/about.php?odelay=1&d=1

Also found a blog, http://www.wretch.cc/blog/vivajulian&article_id=1923205, not particularly professional or anything, but it deals with a topic I'm interested in, namely the tools of freewriting and graphic organizing. As an aspiring writer, I once read "Writing down the Bones," which is essentially all about freewriting, and bypassing the internal censor that stifles so much creative (and other) expression. But freewriting alone does not intelligible, intelligent writing make; you do need some sort of structuring tool. Graphic organizing is one. Ideally, you internalize the structure you need to conform to, and the writing becomes almost a natural and spontaneous process... ANYWAY, the blog above seems to be an online English class, with posts discussing recent writing exercises. Nothing particularly new or insightful, but it is always significant reading student reactions to exercises like freewriting or organizing...

Laters!