One idea that I wished I would have focused more on during that time was snapshot writing. I believe greater use of snapshot writing would have encouraged my students to write longer passages with more detail and passion. This idea works because it allows students to write about people, events, places, and things of which they have intimate knowledge. They are given opportunities to select ideas that have special meaning to them; things that that evoke strong emotions for them. They are, in essence, creating a snapshot with words about a colorful experience from their own memory.
I'm sure that there are different ways to implement this idea within a classroom. One such idea is explained in My Life In Seven Stories from the book entitled Becoming a Literacy Leader by Jennifer Allen. I am excited about the prospect of investigating various methods related to this idea, and selecting the one I believe will work best to motivate the students in my future classroom.
I think anyone would have a hard time with teaching 7th graders writing during the last ten weeks of the school year! I plan on using more of these snapshot writings as openers to the school day. This way I'll get to sneak in some extra, fictional writing without them realizing it. I also liked the idea from your "My Life..." book resource.
ReplyDeleteI will definitely be using snapshot writing a lot during the first few weeks of the next school year. My hope is that my students will become comfortable with writing (a lot and often) without the pressure of coming up with topics.
ReplyDeleteLast year, many students arrived in my class who appeared almost shocked that I expected them to read and write in language arts class. This year I aim to make reading and writing relevant for them so that they come to my room actually looking forward to reading and writing on a daily basis.