Crafting Writers K-6

1. Crafting Writers K-6 Elizabeth Hale

2. Brief Summary • This is a text designed to help teachers improve their writing instruction and help students to become better creative writers. • Style not mechanics/grammar/spelling • Many teachers focus on “using voice” and “writing with detail” as a method to improve writing, but in fact these are the goals; students need to be explicitly taught how to do these things.

3. Brief Summary cont’d • Most people can read a piece of writing and say offhand if it is “good” or not, but how do we know? How can we teach that? • Hale shows teachers how to teach the specific elements (craft) - other than proper mechanics and grammar - that make certain writing “good.” • This text includes many examples and practical methods to teach the craft of writing. • Why teachers have trouble teaching the craft of writing: knitting analogy http://www.stenhouse.com/html/halepodcast.htm

4. “Specific Craft” “Specific craft techniques are what I consider to be the small building blocks of different aspects of good writing, such as description, voice, and sentence fluency… [it] shows students one particular way to write at a time so that each one is small enough to hold in their hands and own.” (11) Examples: description using the 5 senses, word variations

5. Reading like a Writer • Read quality literature, and pick out your favourite parts • “Why is it good?” Chicken Sunday By Patricia Polacco

6. “He pulled out a rusty Band-Aid tin.” Using a brand name • Brand names can sometimes evoke images that ordinary nouns cannot • Visualize the Johnson & Johnson logo, the metal tin with creaky hinges, the visual of a Band-Aid itself, and perhaps the cotton/plastic smell of a Band-Aid tin.

7. Trying it Use a brand name to give a sentence more of an effect. She scooped some coffee into the coffeemaker, yawning. She scooped some Folgers into the coffeemaker, yawning. A blue car pulled into the driveway. A blue Mazda pulled into the driveway.

8. “I’m calling your grandmother,” he shouted as he wagged his finger in Stewart’s face. Combinations e.g. A sound and a visual joined by “as” Trying it: “Let’s play on the field today,” Elizabeth said as she put on her coat. The smell of freshly baked cookies wafted out as Talia opened the oven door.

9. “I’m calling your grandmother,” he shouted as he wagged his finger in Stewart’s face. Variations of Words Instead of calling them “exciting” or “strong” words, show students that many words are variations of each other, falling onto a continuum. Each continuum has many ways to say the same thing, depending on how intense you want it to be.

10. Word Continuums Based on Intensity whispered murmured mumbled mentioned said declared exclaimed shouted barked yelled glanced peered scanned looked eyed gazed stared scrutinized glared content glad pleased happy delighted joyful thrilled ecstatic uneasy tense worried nervous edgy anxious panicky

11. Trying it Use a variation of the word “said” or “looked” to give a sentence more impact. “I can’t wait to see the Hunger Games!” Caitlin said as she took her seat in the theatre. “I can’t wait to see the Hunger Games!” Caitlin whispered as she took her seat in the theatre.

12. Conferring • Notice and teach the strengths in a student’s writing. “My emphasis is on going beyond just positive feedback to actually teaching students what they do well” 2.Next Step 3.“Say it back”

13. Strengths • Example dialogue to show how Hale would speak in a student-teacher conference. • Real dialogue between Hale and actual students, and scanned pieces of real student work, which she discusses. • There are practical examples of every ‘specific craft technique’ or ‘conferring technique’ that Hale mentions. • Very useful for someone who wants to improve the overall writing quality of students but is not sure where to start.

14. Weaknesses Felt repetitive; This book could have been shorter. It got boring after the first half. Some things felt over-analyzed, such as the chapter on use of punctuation as a “craft.”

17. What I learned • Reading a piece of writing and fixing mechanics & spelling comes naturally – in a conference, I could easily talk about these things • Teaching and conferring about improving writing style, creativity and interest is more difficult. • This book gave me more of an idea of where to start • In order to teach students “good writing,” I have to break down what good writing is, and why it’s good.

18. My use of technology • Powerpoint • Podcast • Bitstrips

19. Connection to Research “Writing can be a powerful way to process ideas, reflections, and thoughts, whether one teaches or not… Having a notebook makes a public statement that writing is something adults do on their own… we are willing to put parts of our own lives on paper just as we are asking them to do.” (Hale, 2008, p.3)

20. A wordle of the rough draft of my lit review, “Improving Writing Instruction in the P/J Classroom” What stands out? Literacy, teacher, sharing, audience, choice, process, interest…