5 Ways to Help Reluctant Writers

Reluctant writers will fight, flight, or freeze when confronted with writing. The same system the brain uses to deal with the threat of the saber-toothed tiger is the same system that tried to protect them from the threat of writing. But we as teachers can show them that writing doesn’t have to be scary!

Model

First and foremost, modeling writing helps students understand that writing A. isn’t the easiest thing. It takes thinking. My student love to try to “help” me by telling me what I should write, but when I say, “This is my essay, let me think!” it shows the reluctant writers in the class that writing isn’t magic. It is okay to pause. Additionally, you are using also sorts of positive brain theory – like mirror neurons – to help bypass anxiety. I usually write for about 5 minutes with my students when beginning a rough draft and then circulate around the room.

Empathize

Brené Brown has a wonderful explanation of what empathy – as opposed to sympathy – is and how to express it. If you have a student with acute anxiety, it is a perfect time to tap into your own experiences with writing anxiety or writer’s block. My go to story involves my BFA thesis. Once I’m able to say, “I know how you feel. I felt the same way when X, Y, Z happened. Do you want me to show you some of my tricks to overcome it?” it usually makes them way more open to some of the other tricks below. I think it is very easy for teachers to make it look like writing is easy. Showing we go through the same emotions and struggles shows that anxiety is actually totally part of a writer’s process!

Change up the paper

“I know sometimes when I need to write the scariest thing about it is the big white paper and me filling out how to fill it up. Want me to give you some special paper?” It is amazing how much giving a child a smaller piece of paper can help. These are my absolute favorite Special Papers. They combat the two scariest things about a piece of notebook paper: color and size. And the lines let my students write neatly and in an organized fashion.

Aromatherapy

You can find sprays, gel beads, and even car fresheners that have lavender scent. Finding your class as a whole a bit stressed? Breakdown the word parts of aromatherapy, explain science has shown lavender is a calming scent, and spray a bit (make sure you know if any of your kids have allergies or are sensitive to strong smells). Don’t want to spray the whole room? Put a bit on a Kleenex and give it to the kiddos who need it. No lie, I have sprayed lavender scented air freshener on the paper mentioned above.

Be flexible

When dealing with a students who fight you on writing, have no mistake they are scared. I’ve had the students before that would instantly become highly confrontational anytime there was writing. One child in particular, read at a second grade reading level and was fourteen in 8^th grade, sported tattoos, and had some rather dubious older friends. He would turn from “kind of a smart alec” into “get out of the chair confrontational with me” when writing would come into play. When he really wanted was for me to kick him out of the room so he wouldn’t be forced to write. In the fight, flight, or freeze response, he picked the fight. This is where private conversations with the kid that are very honest and the teacher being flexible are very important. Over the years I’ve had quite a few of these private conversations that began the same way, “I am totally open to being flexible with you. Tell me what you need from me or what your concerns are and I will work with you.” Concerns and my flexibility have been the following:

Concern: Grammar and mechanics are weak  

Flexible: “I’ll work with you one-on-one when we get to the editing stage, but for right now you don’t have to worry because grammar and all that stuff isn’t the focus with a rough draft. Yes, author’s try to use proper grammar on their rough drafts, but if they aren’t sure how to spell something or were the comma goes, they don’t let that stop them. They know they can come back to it after all their ideas are on paper.”

Concern: Peers may make fun of writing/grammar (this is especially a concern for workshop style classes)

Flexible: In conferencing, my students read their essays aloud so this is easy enough to explain this. However, I have allowed students not to conference their work with peers. I still ask them to give feedback for the other students’ works and then offer to conference with them one-on-one. But most of the time once the kids start conferencing and the reluctant writer sees how supportive the other group members are they are willing to go last. I reinforce this bravery with positive feedback.

Concern: I don’t want to write about myself. (for personal narratives)

Flexible: This is a biggie for some of my kids who have hard lives and learned early on to internalize those feelings instead of expressing them. I do let these kids make up realistic stories of themselves, tell a well known family story of a family member, or write a story about a fun time they had with a friend.

Concern: I can’t write that much (for length requirements)

Flexible: I tell the kids I won’t deduct points for short essays. That my length suggestion is just a suggestion.

Unique Items for a Teacher Survival Kit

Don't forget if you buy from amazon part of the proceeds can go to St. Jude's if you begin browsing with smile.amazon.com! 

A DampRid product

Being fiscally responsible, our district turns off A/C when the building isn’t in use resulting in a sauna during nights and weekends. Combine that with the Gulf Coast region, and we get major humidity during off hours as well as in the afternoon during out hotter months. DampRid in the classroom might not be required in every classroom, but the new AirScapes™ White Marble Fresh ScentStarter Kit, is perfect for classrooms like mine.

A deck of cards

I use them for quick grouping. Because they are durable, they last way longer than homemade grouping cards. Need more than 4 people per group? Hand out the cards and make the students group where each card has to be different, giving them a little choice.

Non-electronic airfreshners

Kids can be stinky after PE/recess. Our fire safety code prevents us from having heat sources plugged in, so we rely on airfreshners like Renuzit. I put one on the back bookcase and one on the front one. On weekends, I just close it up so it isn’t wasted.   I use the aromatherapy “tranquil” and the kids love the smell. Lysol Neutra Air Freshmatic Automatic Spray Air Freshener is also a great one that keeps the spread of germs away, but make sure you aren’t spraying kids!

Mini-fan AND shawl

Classrooms tend to either run cold or hot, but for most of the country what they run depends on the weather outside. Having a shawl that can stay at school is extremely handy when it starts to heat up outside resulting in an A/C-induced refrigerator in the school. Likewise, while dressed in winter garb, the heat in the building may be cranked up.

Command Strips Refills

The little refill of Command Strips are great for cinder-block walls or finished walls that you don’t want to staple. They last all year, they survive humid weekend conditions, and they can be removed without damaging a surface. They also hold the heavier items (like little whiteboards) really well. Love them!

Emotional Support Emergency Kit

At some point, things will happen that will make teachers doubt their skills – new and veteran teachers alike! – or something will go awry with a lesson or maybe it will just be a stressful time of year. Buy a sweet “just because” card, write a meaningful and encouraging letter on the inside and write “Open in Case of Emergency!” on the outside. Pair it with a wrapped box of something the person likes (chocolate, pretty stationary, cute nail polish, etc.) and it will be the gift they need when they need it the most!

What other must-haves are on your list?

Digital Tools Review Site with Lesson Plans: Graphite.org

Looking for tech savvy lessons? Found a new app or website and not sure how to use it for your class?  Need to know if an app or website is right for your students? Common Sense's graphite.org to the rescue!

Reviews 

What I like the about the teacher-created reviews is the way you can use buttons to easily narrow a
search depending on needs. So if you have iPads and know you need a free app for your fourth grade reading class, reviews will show up for that. Or if you have a computer lab and need a website for high school history students, results are easily narrowed. You can even combine elements if you want to widen selections. Then the reviews written by educators in the field give authentic reviews to help you explore what suits your needs.

Lesson Flows

Graphite's term for lesson plans! Flexible in what technology tools you will be using? Use the lesson flow search feature to see lessons written by educators. 

Common Core Explorer

Want to search by standard? They have English and Math (with Science coming soon!) Searches will provide you with a list of technology resources that have lesson flows with those TEKS listed.

Check out my lessons and reviews!

Adobe Voice - Hero's Journey Analysis for Full Tilt

I love apps that are versatile and Adobe Voice does NOT disappoint! It is one of the easiest ways to digital storytelling. Use it in science to create a digital record of a lab or in history class to explain important events or a foreign language course to practice pronunciation.

Why Adobe Voice?

It offers little options – just 5 layouts and a dozen themes, with no ability to alter things like locations of text boxes or transitions – students weren’t as bogged down with selecting visual effects. The focus was able to be on the content, while the technological components kept kids engaged.

How did I use it?

To analyze Hero’s Journey in Full Tilt! Students enjoyed themselves and it was great to see them try to think metaphorically about the colors and images used.  

Issues with Images?

When adding images, students can add from their camera roll or use the search function in Adobe Voice, which in turn searches the internet for images marked Creative Commons and labeled that search term. Issue is that images are not vetted for appropriateness of children, so in an effort to ensure inappropriate images would not appear, I asked students to only use the icons that were uploaded. It gives the presentation a very polished, clean look. Problem is there are some icons that are not appropriate either! Images “love” had some raunchy results. Solution? I think that a teacher would need to consider the age of their students and the way they would want images to be searched and collected. It would be absolutely perfect for having students act things out or draw their own images. 

Teaching Hero’s Journey with Big Hero 6

I select movies*, like any text, very purposefully. When it comes to something like the Hero’s Journey, I don’t want to endlessly lecture on it. Likewise, I want the students to find the tasks and trials from their novel, and not just give them the answers. So I need a quick example that all students can quickly use to see the stages in one text and apply them over to the written text of their novel. Enter Big Hero 6. No matter the nomenclature of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, Big Hero 6 has every stage! Plus there are a few way to bump up the rigor of discussion!

1. All my students get a little handout that looks like a chart. One column has each stage and the definition, another column is for Big Hero 6 examples, and the third will be for the novel
2. Introduce the concept of archetypes by breaking down the word into parts and getting students to infer what it means. Arche means “mold” and type means “a type of, a kind of”
3. Start off watching the TED-Ed talk “What Makes a Hero?”
4. Break down Monomyth as a term. I like to also make a little timeline, starting with Gilgamesh, to Hercules, to Beowulf, to present day Big Hero 6. The idea that once you have these patterns in your head to can apply them to everything from Narnia to Harry Potter to Jesus.
5. We watch Big Hero 6 until the point where Hiro and Baymax are sitting on the techno dirigibles right before he scans and finds the island. I let them work in groups to fill out what has happened thus far. I check for understanding and then we watch to the end and the groups finish. (There is a part right before the big boss part where Hiro says, “Is this what Abigail would have wanted?” and Callahan responds that she is dead. This perfectly mirrors an earlier conversation between Baymax and Hiro in terms of Tadashi. This is when I introduce the literary term foil and we analyze what the real difference is between Hiro and Callahan: Baymax and friends. We then have a conversation about what that creators may be trying to convey about friendship and loneliness and what Baymax may therefore symbolize. (Seriously, you can analyze this movie so deeply! Even kids who have watched it a million times will start to uncover layers of understanding. This is so good for them!*)
   
6. When we have finished and the students confirm that Baymax is the elixir and Abigail is the resurrection, inevitably a kid asks why isn’t Baymax the resurrection. That’s when I like to have a challenge questions: What if this isn’t just Hiro’s Hero’s Journey? What is this is ALSO Baymax’s? The kids will discuss how that makes Hiro the mentor and the other variations. This is a higher-level, nerdy question that blows their minds!
7. I also take this opportunity to explore Christ Figure. Baymax is such perfect one and the kids see Christ imagery all the time – Katniss is obvious in the movies with her arms stretched out at the end of the second! I go through a list of potential Christ Figure Traits and students record which apply to Baymax.
8. Then my students apply the Hero’s Journey to the whole class novel.

Big Hero 6 is also great for reinforcing Notice and NoteSignposts.

* I know sometimes we can face push-back from admin and parents about movies. However, I think there is a very big difference between pressing play and having the kids do an assignment in silence versus having a rich discussion about the movie. I feel strongly that when we have these sort of conversations analyzing a movie instead of just reacting to a movie, we are modeling a better way to view movies. Many of our students go to the movies with their families and have very little discussion. I know I enjoy rich post-viewing discussion with friends or my hubby. I had an extensive conversation about Utilitarianism vs. Kantianism ideals in Resident Evil after a friend and I watched it in college! I truly believe in explicitly teaching students to view movies as another text. I also know brain research supports that analyzing helps build analysis skills and that analyzing one thing (like playing chess) and improve analysis elsewhere (reading). This, of course, doesn’t mean we don’t have to have the kids read, but many students watch movies and television shows. What if, instead of just being a passive audience, they were analyzing? What if they had no idea looking for plot holes, thinking about symbols, and examining character motivation is not supposed to be limited to the written word?  I’m married to an English teacher. Post-movie, we are usually having an hour long discussion breaking down plot, character, style, and choices the director made. Imagine if our students did the same after watching a movie? How much deeper would their analysis skills grow?

Tech Tuesday!

vi hart (I love this woman! One day I will be able to make videos as well as she does....I just need to be able to doodle!) teamed up with Nicky Case to brought to life the 1971 paper that examines the issue, not just of bias, but of tolerance in a post-biased society. Playing the challenges on the interactive website, some major themes appear. Themes, which, as a teacher who uses a novel set in the Jim Crow Era South in 7th grade and Holocaust literature in 8th, I saw instant applications to ELA.

I wrote up a lesson on graphite.org.  See the lesson here! Or go directly to Parable of the Polygons to play!

Kahoots, PowerPoint Jeopardy Games, or the traditional Q&A paper review requires a good amount of prep on a teacher’s part. But what to do when you don’t have time to set up a review game? Create a review that is student-centered and fun without having to do more than give instructions and use a few supplies! The following are all inspired by getting to know you activities or party games.

Character Analysis Who Am I?

Materials: note cards

Students sit in groups. They secretly write the name of a character from the book on a note card and pass it facedown to the person on their right. They can hold it on their foreheads or just show the rest of the group and then put it facedown. Students take turns asking hypothetical questions. They way it becomes analysis is not that they are asking comprehension questions (like the traditional game), but creating hypothetical scenarios and asking what the character would do. Example:

Student with Romeo on forehead: What class would my character like in school?

Other student: Your character would probably like English. He’d probably enjoy writing the poetry.

Two Truths and a Lie

Materials: note cards

My middle school kids love this and I find it hilarious because it is just a true false quiz but they think it is so fun! (Note: there are two ways of doing this. One where they do it in groups and pass the cards with an answer key and one where they walk around and find people in the classroom.)

I assign chapters. Students get three index cards each and have to write two truths from the chapter and one lie. I review how best to get away with a lie (it should be partially true and specific). I request they put the page number down in case someone needs to check for accuracy. If groups, I divide the kids up in the amount of chapters I have and have them coordinate the answers and then create and answer key card after the number. They then pass the groups of cards from group to group, checking the answer key, and only using the book if they get them wrong. If my kids are doing this individually, I have them number the chapters on the back of one of the cards. Then I have them walk around the classroom, trying other people’s cards in pairs. They sign off on the chapter number. I require them to get two signatures per chapter.

Whole Book Heads Up!

Materials: note cards

Every Student has 5-8 note cards. Have students write words and phrases on their cards that have to do with the book. With the right prodding, students can do analysis ones. “Try to make it where one card is a symbol, one a character, one a theme, one a plot point, one vocabulary word, one a literary element, etc.” Have students in groups of three collect all the cards facing down in a stack. The students place the card on the forehead. The two other members have to give clues. The person with the cards on the foreheads have to figure out what is on the card. If they get it right, it goes in the “correct” pile. Give students 3 minutes and have each group report how many cards they got right. Switch by having the groups rotate cards and the next person in the trio be the one with the cards on the forehead. NOTE: a rule needs to be established that they slues need to come from the book. Students should not use rhyming or outside references to do the clues. Example, if a student has the word allusion for Full Tilt. The group mates should no say “rhymes with confusion” or “an example would be if I said ‘My hair is so crazy, you could call me Medusa”. It would need to be, “the literary element when Blake called another character Quasimodo.”

Whole Book Bingo

Supplies: Blank bingo cards (or just have the kids make their own by creating a 5x5 grid on notebook paper

Students fill in Bingo cards by requesting they write certain concepts for each letter. For example, B will be character names, I will be themes, N vocabulary words, G literary elements, O is objects from the story. As you walk around, glance at the cards to draw inspiration and call out elements where the BINGO blanks are the answers. Example from The Outsiders, “This a symbol of violence.” Or “This is the protagonist” Or “When Ponyboy tells Cherry about the night Johnny was assaulted and we are able to see what happened.” OR “This is a theme that would be supported by the actions of Johnny when he went in to save the children.” Because it is more about the review than the actual winning of the bingo, I like to let the kids discuss in groups with the directions to ask me if they seem unsure. After you have a kid win Bingo, inform the class that you will be doing a second Bingo for someone who has a filled up board or double bingo. That will keep the game going. I pass out little treats for the kids who win.

Student Led Socrative

Supplies: smart phones/ipads/laptops

Don't have the ability for every child to have a device? Have student partner up using phones! Divide the class up into small groups. Have groups come up with questions for the book. I like the rules where the team that creates the question get a certain amount of bonus points for every group they stump. This encourages them to create deeper, thoughtful questions. You can give them parameters as needed since Socrative lets you use multiple choice, true/false, or short answer. Open up a socrative session that is quick question. Each team presents their question, have students keep their own score, each team gets a point for every questions they get right.