Category: Writing

Do some writing this summer

6/20/2016

I began working with a few dozen kids this week at my two week writing camp that I run every year at Rush Park. Every day begins with a large circle activity that allows all the kids to get to know each other. I ask a leading question and everyone takes a turn answering it. Activities like this remind me why television programs with children are always so popular -- kids are hilarious!

This week I started our camp with this question: “How often are you asked to write in school?”

I like to get a feel for how much experience and practice these young writers have in probably the only setting where they get to write. The answers this summer were more encouraging than they have been in past summers-- it seems teachers are building more writing into their curriculum -- but I am still amazed at the number of kids who respond with answers like “once a week” and “once a month.”

I’m a teacher and a parent, so I understand the importance of taking everything a child says with a grain of salt. And my neighbor would add that an adult can tell teenagers are lying “when their mouths move.” Regardless, I do trust my campers when they tell me writing doesn’t happen very often. I’m especially saddened when I also hear comments from them about not having the freedom to pick their own topics, not getting help when they get stuck, and being told all the things they’re doing wrong.

I work diligently during camp every summer to help kids experience the joy of writing. We play with language, practice writing strategies, experiment with topics, build fluency and work on authentic voice. In the end, however, what we’ve built is their confidence in knowing they can write -- that writing is nothing to fear.

Even if your little ones aren’t joining us in camp this summer, I wanted to take the time to encourage you to give them this same opportunity. A little time spent this summer encouraging “play” with writing will absolutely pay off during the next school year.

Here are a few ideas to try.

Encourage your child to keep a daily journal. This enables freedom of expression and opportunities to take risks with topic choices. You can even do this electronically with a blog. I like Blogspot through Google. It's easy to setup and easy to post entries. Additionally, get extended family to follow their blog; your kids will love the feedback, and it will encourage even more writing and more posts.

Write stories as a family about your individual days or a family vacation that you then share with each other. You'll be amazed at how different your perspectives can be. And take your writing outside, as this is the one piece of feedback we get from our young writers every year ... they love the freedom of writing in the park.

Write letters to family members or friends who live far away. Write them by hand and by email, as sometimes introducing the electronic media for communication makes it more fun.

Set a timer when writing. This reminds your kids that writing is not about page length or number of sentences; it's about using whatever space is needed to tell the story. You can even do this as a family, and then share your pieces with each other.

Participate in writing contests. When they have a real audience, with the potential for a prize of any kind, you’ll be amazed at how interested in writing they can be.

Get them writing Yelp reviews for restaurants you visit. This will help your kids understand how to write for a specific purpose.

Regardless the ideas you try, please remember that writing is about discovery, fluency, voice, experimentation, and storytelling. Please, whatever you do, do not focus on the conventions. There is plenty of instruction in our schools about conventions. In fact, it is usually this instruction that causes anxiety and reluctance in kids. Imagine writing from your own heart about something personal, only to have someone tell you all the things you did wrong: misspelled words, wrong verb tense, lack of periods. These conventions are important for final pieces, but unnecessarily halt the creative process. Please let your children continue to develop as writers, build on the successes, practice without fear of evaluation, and learn to love the process. This will be more powerful than any properly spelled adjective ... I promise!

Enjoy your summer and write away!

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Writing can be fun.

3/15/2016

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If you're the parent of children who love to write, then consider yourself, and your children, lucky. This love of writing will serve them well throughout K-12, into college and beyond.

I was this kid, and I still am. I love to write. I write all the time for a variety of audiences and purposes. I love the process, the discovery that comes from it, the quiet introspection, and the feeling of accomplishment that comes from reading my finished pieces. This doesn’t mean I think writing is easy; I grapple with ideas, phrasing, organization, focus and revision with everything I write, including this weekly column.

And I love working with kids who enjoy writing. These kids embrace the process, get excited to try new strategies, and even write at home on their own for fun: short stories, fan fiction, blogs, poetry.

But if you're the parent of children who avoid writing, complain about any writing task, and struggle to get words on a page, then join the ranks of those of us who feel your pain.

As much as I like the prolific young writers, I also love working with kids who struggle. I believe these kids who struggle do so because they've lost their way. They’re stuck and disgruntled. They've had no freedom in the only environment where writing is expected while growing up -- the classroom. In this environment, they are expected to write what they're told, when they're told, and how they're told. Then when they turn in the piece into which they've poured time and energy and heart, a teacher tells them all the things they've done wrong, bleeding red ink all over their papers. I don’t blame these kids for hating the process. Who would want to continue to write after that?

As parents, we need to be proponents for asking teachers to give choice back to our young writers. We need to fight to have them give back to our kids the freedom to explore ideas and find topics that interest them, in order to help them discover that writing can be fun again. We need to demand that more time be spent developing this lifelong skill.

I know it’s a crazy idea, but what if a classroom teacher actually pulled kids out from behind their sterile desks -- and let them write on the playground, sitting on a bench, or lying on the shady cool grass. Would it end in chaos? Pandemonium? Nope. What we’d ultimately end up with is a generation full of kids who've learned to love to write again.

This transition, from hating to loving to write, can’t happen overnight. And it also can’t happen if the only writing that’s ever done is limited to one, 1-hour block every couple weeks. Writing is just like any sport or activity or hobby or dog training -- it takes practice to master.

The problem with writing, however, is that the practice happens alone. Writing isn’t like basketball where you can see the players sweat, get hurt, get back up, and finally collapse from exhaustion at the end of a game. With writing, the agony and struggle is just as real, but it’s much less overt. So when we see thousands of novels at Barnes & Noble or at the library, kids simply believe the authors were all just born with talent -- that they were all each able to just sit down and write their masterpieces in one sitting. No sweat. No struggle. Oh, how I wish our kids could watch me craft this column every week -- to see just how wrong they are.

We need to continually remind our struggling young authors that writers have to practice, too.

The next immediate swing in education and our local school district needs to be to make writing ubiquitous. It needs to be happening in every classroom, every day, across every subject. The writing tasks can be long, short, high-stakes, low-stakes, individual or with a partner. It just needs to be done.

And the more engaging and purposeful the writing, the less resistance we’ll get from kids -- and the more they’ll all learn to love it, too.

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The Forgotten "R"

1/18/2016

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Writing -- my passion, my life’s work, my hobby, the core of my educational philosophy, and right now, the largest source of my frustration with education. With No Child Left Behind, writing instruction and opportunities were lost, forgotten, pushed aside. But this forgotten "R" must be brought back into the forefront immediately.

I’m going to spend this week elaborating on the five key benefits of a writing centered classroom as identified by The National Commission on Writing:

Writing is able to [1] generate deeper thinking, because it’s hard to know what we actually think until it’s committed to paper. Until then, the thoughts are fleeting and unsubstantiated and twirling around in our heads amid thousands of other random thoughts. Ideas flit from point A to point Z in the blink of an eye. Stopping to write those thoughts allows us all to go deeper with each one. I remind my students in the classroom every day, “Writing is discovery, so write to discover all that you have to say.” Writing to generate deeper thinking can serve as a foundational skill for producing what we know, but it also generates new thinking. The key is to give students opportunities to write for both big and small tasks, for both high-stakes and low-stakes assignments, in both timed and un-timed situations, for close readings and summaries, for formal essays and freewrites. It's the combination of them all that gets kids thinking.

Jobs are competitive today. Any one job can generate hundreds of applicants. The trend in industry today is to require applicants to produce a writing sample. Basically, to get the career you want, you have to know how to write. This includes job applications for mechanics, firemen, OC sheriff’s, computer programming, engineering, etc. The list goes on and on. So in terms of [2] career readiness, our students need to be writing more. Writing isn’t becoming a “thing of the past.” In fact, writing is becoming more important. And the writing that’s expected needs to be done quickly, efficiently and effectively. Memos need to be written now. Emails need to be answered yesterday. I argue writing is becoming even more critical; our world lives in technology today, and in order to share via technology, information needs to be written.

Writing [3] prepares you for college. Students are asked to write personal statements, complete writing placement exams, and communicate effectively in order to show proficiency and pass their classes. In The Nation’s Report Card: Writing 2011, NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) published the results of eighth and twelfth grade students’ assessments. Only one-quarter of students in the study, including both grade levels, performed at the proficient level in writing, leaving 75% of students performing basic or below basic. This is abysmal. This shouldn’t be acceptable; students, parents, schools, districts, communities and society at large should be furious with the underachievement in this fundamental skill. We need to better prepare our students for college or career success.

The [4] Common Core values writing. Writing doesn’t just belong in the English classroom anymore. Writing is literacy, and our students are being asked to produce independent thinking and coherent, relevant analysis in math, science, history. Writing, as outlined in the Common Core, also asks students to begin to blend genres. The narrative is not just “Tell Me What You Did Over Summer” anymore. Narratives are expected to be used to tell stories about history, make arguments in science, capture the attention of the audience in exposition. Blending genres requires craft, fluency, sophistication -- and practice.

Writing is hard; it is, without a doubt, cognitively challenging. But writing is worth the brain exercise. It helps us sort things out, adds depth to our thoughts, allows us to express our ideas, enables us to persuade, and, ultimately, makes us smarter. A struggle with writing is a metaphor for life. Let’s allow our students to struggle, to persevere, and, ultimately, to overcome. Let's help our kids find their self worth through accomplishment -- teach them that life isn't always easy. I want our kids to grapple with writing a grant that inspires the world to do better. I want them to write Yelp reviews that help me avoid the worst restaurants in town. I want them to write police reports that can stand up in court. I want them to write speeches that drive citizens to action. Writing isn’t just a book report or a fill-in-the-blank worksheet; [5] writing is life.

I guess this leaves me wondering where our district stands on writing. I have personal anecdotes and experiences from my own kids’ times in the elementary and middle schools in Los Al. I also bring knowledge from my work with students of all ages through Write Away U. These experiences make me want to scream from the rooftops: we need more writing in all classrooms across all curricular areas.

Writing is too important to let it depend on the teacher you get in school by luck of the draw -- it needs to be intentional, and it needs to be our next big push in education.

This "R" is not an option -- it’s a necessity.

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College Essay Season: The How

11/30/2015

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Last week I discussed the “what” of the college essay: come alive, tap into emotion, become a storyteller, and be honest above all.

This all sounds great, but at this point in my English classroom, my seniors all look at me with blank stares. I see the question in their eyes, “But how do we do this?”

I tell them, in my most supportive, encouraging, nurturing, quiet voice, as if I’m sharing with them the secret of the meaning of life, I whisper, “The power of your essay lies in its style -- yours and nobody elses.”

Again, blank stares.

Over the next few weeks, we discuss style, review college essay samples, practice learned techniques and narrow down their essay’s focus. And over the years, I’ve discovered the style elements that provide the most impact on a student’s essay. Mind you, this is not an exhaustive list, but it is a great start for how your child can polish his story for maximum impact.

First, students need to prove what they are trying to convey by employing “Show Not Tell.” This is a tried and true writing lesson in schools, but it finally has meaning to students when introduced as a piece of the college essay. This technique begins by eliminating blanket descriptors: determined, driven, ambitious. This one-word descriptor may be exactly what the student wants the college to know, and knowing what he wants to convey is important, but don’t just tell the college, “I’m determined to be a veterinarian.” This sentence exists on every application of every student who wants the same thing. Rather, I tell my students, show your determination. Tell a story that exemplifies determination WITHOUT using that word.

Second, students have a tendency to want to write an essay with a much-too-formal voice. Their essays have the feel of a research report, rather than a personal statement. I always recommend students think of the essay as a polished diary entry. This helps them see that the writing needs to be personal, but still appropriate for the audience. Diaries are full of emotion, written with purpose, and outside the traditional five paragraph essay. This is what the college wants to see -- who you are at the core in a voice that comes alive.

Third, don’t philosophize or ask questions without answers. I remind them, again, to use specific examples to illustrate ideas, but to be sure to assign meaning to the experiences and to explain how they have grown from them. They need to use the example to define meaning, growth and the depth of the experience. This doesn’t happen with a list of accomplishments or activities; it only happens with the right focus and perfect-fit experience that illustrates that focus. Remind them not to manufacture hardship, but to be honest about an experience that exemplifies who they are.

Finally, I always give them a list of basic style elements that with only a few minor tweaks can raise the essay’s level of sophistication. I’ll share my favorite ten here.

One, use plenty of “I.” This is a first-person essay, so don’t give credit to an unidentified “you.”

Two, avoid famous quotes. These are not your words, so word count is wasted with very little payback.

Three, don’t allow cliches to speak for you. A cliche may feel appropriate, but when dissecting the cliche, you will always find that your story captures something uniquely different -- so capture it.

Four, use concrete diction and precise verbs, avoiding the passive voice. This will keep the reader engaged.

Five, try to include at least one sentence with a colon and one with a semicolon. This shows writing sophistication.

Six, use at least one sentence with parallel structure to show mastery of written language.

Seven, vary sentence structure for effect. Use a combination of long and short sentences to pace the story and build tension while avoiding the dead words: very, really, a lot, etc.

Eight, avoid trite transitions: for example, in conclusion, etc.

Nine, eliminate the word “there.” A more specific word or more interesting sentence structure will always be more effective.

Ten, and my favorite, be sure to write “full circle.” This means that you need to end in the same place you began -- and with an em dash. Let me give you an example. A student was telling a story about bravery. He started with a description of stuffed dog who was his comfort item as a kid -- he called him Roscoe. The student then transitioned to story about overcoming anxiety. Then he talked about who he’d become because of the struggle. He ended the essay with the last line, “I am proud of who I’ve become -- and so is Roscoe.” Now that’s powerful!

As much as I’d like to believe the college essay isn’t the end-all-be-all, unfortunately, the essay can be just that. So in the end, just help your child be himself, be encouraging, don’t ask for too many people to review it -- too many cooks in the kitchen ruin all recipes -- and know that the right college will find him.

And tell him amidst his blank stare, “You CAN do this!”

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Tis the Season of College Essays

11/23/2015

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With the traditional seasons of Halloween and Thanksgiving that we all love, welcome and embrace, comes the one most feared by all high school seniors -- the college application season and the dreaded college essay.

As a senior English teacher, every year I witness the pressures brought on by this seemingly innocuous piece of the larger college application puzzle. I spend time in the classroom helping students find their angle, and I read and re-read hundreds of college essays every year, giving advice and asking questions to help students find focus. I feel their pain -- the pain of feeling like this essay will make or break their future.

I tell my students that I can’t possibly know what their future holds, but I do hold fast to a promise that their futures will be bright regardless their ultimate college alma mater. But before they can claim that illustrious college diploma, the college essay still needs to be written. I, therefore, pass on my wisdom year-over-year, wisdom that comes from both college recruiters and my study of good writing over the past two decades. Here are my two-cents about “what” to include.

One, I tell my students to realize the college essay is the one opportunity they have to become a real person in a college’s eyes. Up until the essay, the college only knows students by what’s on the application itself: list after list of grades, club involvement, volunteer hours, coursework, academic awards. I tell my students to imagine a group of recruiters in a conference room reading through stacks of manilla folders, filled with application after application. At this moment, all students look the same. All students are involved in something, have a great GPA, volunteer and take tough classes.

And then they run across the essays.

It is at this moment, and not until, that students begin appearing in the room with them. The students “come alive” through the essay -- the students become real people standing right in front of them. That’s the goal -- write to become three dimensional.

Two, I tell my students to imagine the conference room situation again. Piles of essays. Piles and piles. In fact, some colleges receive up to 60,000 essays every year. How much time does the recruiter actually have to spend reading your essay? Probably only three to four minutes. This isn’t a lot of time, but it’s enough time to make an impact. Make him cry. Make him laugh. Make him feel something. The recruiters are human and have emotion. Tap into it.

Three, I tell my students that to make an impact they have to be a storyteller. Students have a tendency in their essays to want to regurgitate what has already been said in the application. These essays become a laundry list of high school achievements. Not only is this boring, but it breaks suggestions one and two and offers nothing new about the applicant. Let’s return to the conference room again. With thousands of essays to read and only minutes to read each one, the essay needs to set the student apart from the others. Just being the ASB president and founder of a club on campus isn’t enough, because thousands of other students from around the country have this same resume. However, if while reaching out to the community to build this club the student had an experience that changed his perspective about himself and his goals in life, then this is the story -- his story and no one else’s.

Four, and most importantly, I remind my students to tell their story honestly. I remind them not to make up hardships or try to fit a round experience into a square essay just because it’s one they think the recruiters want to hear. By doing so, the story becomes watered down and flaccid, a one-size-fits-all essay that ends up not fitting or inspiring anyone. These students run the risk of not receiving any letters of acceptance. Rather, I encourage my students to share themselves as honestly as possible and write an essay that inspires a few, the right few. Recruiters know what they are doing, so students need to trust in the process. The colleges that find inspiration in an essay will know their right-fit candidate, resulting in letters of acceptance -- and the promise to the student of a future as a college graduate.

But these first few pieces of advice really only tackle this “what” to include for the essay. How about next week we tackle the “how” -- the style of the college essay.

Stay tuned and start writing.

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Roadmap for Writing Success

10/28/2015

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I spent this past weekend in Las Vegas. While driving the endless hours by myself through the Mojave Desert, I had lots of time to think -- lots of time. And my thinking led me to wonder about the parallels between my roadtrip and writing.

The connection between the two may not be obvious at first glance, but I will argue the parallels are intriguing -- and I guarantee I had plenty of time to work through the complexities of the connections before arriving on The Strip.
Let’s start with your own trip … a journey down memory lane. Think about your adult life and the various experiences you’ve had with writing.

In your professional life, you may have had to write a marketing proposal, a website landing page, an RFP, or a cover letter for a new job.

In your personal life, you may have written Christmas letters, Yelp posts, flyers for your kid’s school, or donation requests for nonprofit organizations in which you’re involved.

Whatever the writing task, I would bet the first step you take is finding a model. You probably visit Google and type in something like “Sample Marketing Proposal” or “Effective Flyers for Nonprofit Events.” And if you don’t visit Google for your sample, you may ask a friend or colleague for one. Or your sample may even be something you’ve written before that you can use as a springboard. We all do it. We all do it, because we all need to know what a good final product should look like -- we need to know the “destination.”

It’s the most natural first step. I promise you I couldn’t have made it to Vegas if I didn’t know I was headed to Vegas -- my “destination.”

So why in the classroom do we assign writing without providing students with a destination -- a model text? A model text just like we need when we write?

I would no sooner have taken off on a road trip to Vegas or any other location without first having looked at where I was going. Knowing my destination allows for me to plan what freeway to take, avoid the roadblocks, estimate total driving time, calculate gas requirements, and arrive at the right place.

In the same vein, I would no sooner assign an essay in my classroom without first giving my students a model, so they can find the same success I had in finding my way to Vegas.

Let’s use a literary analysis argument essay as an example. If I ask my students to write a literary analysis argument essay, I show them their destination through sample essays -- examples of well-written essays that show them what’s expected. We spend significant amounts of time evaluating these samples together for their elements of good writing, including: organization, transitions, balance of evidence and elaboration, length, audience, claim. Then, and only then, can students confidently take off for the destination, because they now know where they’re headed.

Are you wondering at this point if all the essays will then look the same?

I can guarantee they won’t. This is because the how of achieving a well-written essay comes with individual style. Just like every driver handles a trip to Las Vegas with a different style -- speed, pitstops, alternate routes -- a student will do the same. This is where detailed directions come into play.

When road-tripping, not only do you need to know your destination, but you also need these detailed directions for getting there. The same holds true for writing -- writers need both the destination and detailed directions. In the writing classroom, the detailed directions come in the form of rubrics.

Rubrics provide the details for how to arrive at the destination, the final product, successfully. Students need to know how they will be assessed, what will be scored, to what extent each category will weigh against the final grade, and any number of other specific requirements for the task. This information helps students learn how to write more effectively. They learn where they took a wrong turn and how to improve their trip next time out.

Without models and rubrics, how would a student know how to improve or what to focus on in order to achieve the next level of sophistication, mastery or competency? Why send them out on the road without preparation? Why set them up for failure? Without the pairing of these two tools, writing becomes just one more rote activity that has little impact on student achievement.

Therefore, let’s provide students with a roadmap for success -- before we set them out on their writing journeys.

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Do some writing this summer

Writing can be fun.

The Forgotten "R"

College Essay Season: The How

Tis the Season of College Essays

Roadmap for Writing Success

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