Cross posted at the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project blog
New
tenth graders file into my room, unsure of where to sit, trying to find a
friendly face in our World Literatures English class. Summer is over. School is back in
session. And on our first day of class,
I stand outside the classroom door, greeting students and handing them a
syllabus as they walk into the room.
This is what they expect. They
expect to sit down, whisper quietly about the new kid in class and what they
did over their summer break while their teacher stands at the front and
lectures over classroom rules, grading policies, and class projects. So when the bell rings for class to start,
and I tell them to put their syllabus away, they look genuinely confused.
As
their teacher, I want to see my high school students connecting, collaborating,
writing, and revising. And that needs to
start on day one. So instead of starting with the syllabus, we start by
writing. I have students pull out a
sheet of paper and ask them to describe who they are as writers and come up
with a metaphor for who they are as writers.
Over the course of our first day, students are writing, discussing
metaphors, and then ultimately creating simple web pages that showcase an imageof their metaphor and a writing piece that explains its significance. And it is here where the tone of our class is
set. Students are expected to write
every day. Students are expected to collaborate. Students are expected to think carefully and
critically. But I don’t have to stand in
front of them and tell them that. They learn this by doing it. Starting with day one.
And
I can do this because I’ve started to flip those more didactic lessons over to
videos. Instead of standing in front of
them going over our syllabus and expectations in class, I created a video for
students to watch as homework on that first night that goes over our
syllabus. And on that first day, I’ve
never seen so many excited faces, excited that their homework was to watch a
video…of me explaining our syllabus!
Throughout our semester, I'll move away from using my traditional PowerPoint format for presenting writing craft lessons and instead create interactive videos for each
concept with the idea that students can move through lessons at their own pace
while taking notes on the concepts and work through practice activities. Because students can rewatch the videos as many times as they want and
can learn at their own pace, I should have more time IN class to practice writing. I can use class time to draft, conference, and revise with students. Writing then becomes a community activity,
something we all do together in the classroom. I am building a community of
writers. And it all started on day one
by having them write.
How do you build your
community of writers? What activities
and ideas do you have that help your emerging writers see themselves as part of
a writing community?
Photo credit: picture by mrsdkrebs