Juli Kendall's Weekly
Writing Workshop Journal
A MiddleWeb Listserv Project
Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested teachers
are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop and other ideas about
supporting young adolescent writers and readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing
teacher/coach in Long Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion.
Last year, Juli kept a weekly journal from her Reading Workshop.
This year, Juli is continuing her journals, but this time she's focusing
on her Writing Workshop. Find out more about our project at our Reading/Writing
Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded
in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin
to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's Journals,
find out how here.
Writing Workshop
Week #19:
Writing for Social Action
Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Strange days indeed
Strange days indeed
-- "Nobody Told Me" by John Lennon
These are strange days, strange days indeed. The possibility of war with
Iraq and the loss of the Columbia Space Shuttle, combined with the shock
of sad recognition, make these times unsettling. A feeling of déjà
vu overtakes me as I recall watching Christa McAuliffe lift off on the Challenger
Space Shuttle while I sat in my classroom surrounded by my third graders.
Seventeen years ago and the memories are still strong.
As it happens, right now I'm reading Katherine and Randy Bomer's book, Teaching
for a Better World, Reading and Writing for Social Action. On page 111,
they propose two faces of writing:
> "one that in some way is tuned inward to the writer,
the writing that is a tool for thinking rather than communicating"
> "one that is directed outward toward others-it's the writing you
do for readers"
I wonder what I can do to help kids through these strange days, and it comes
to me that their Writer's Notebooks are a place to put their thinking. So
I look around for ideas for mini lessons that will expand the idea of using
their notebooks as "a tool for thinking."
In Chapter 7, "Noticing the World, Writers Notebooks as Tools for Social
Critique," Katherine and Randy Bomer discuss how teachers might use
Writer's Notebooks. "Writer's Notebooks are a tool for noticing the
world, and how kids are taught to keep these notebooks influences the sorts
of things they pay attention to." (p. 113) Their ideas help me to form
a list of mini lessons to teach "Noticing the World." Here's what
they have to say:
A teacher can broaden the categories by drawing students attention
to critical incidents and social issues.
-- When someone is treated unfairly
-- When someone abuses power
-- When the writer realizes that other people live differently
-- When the writer feels anger, pity, compassion, sympathy, toward individuals
or for members of particular groups
-- When he has an idea for something he could do with others to make the
world better
When I examine my own Writer's Notebook, I find entries about the possibility
of war with Iraq, the Columbia shuttle disaster, and the problem with the
soccer field at school. I decide to share some of my entries with the kids.
What I shared
My entries about the soccer field probably come the closest to what Katherine
and Randy Bomer describe as social action. I just need to remember that
"you don't always get want you want."
Entry #1 "The Garden and the Soccer Field"
I'm sitting at the staff meeting and can't believe what they're saying,
"The reason the district came and sprayed weed killer over a third
of the grass on the soccer field is because they're going to put in a community
garden. And first, they need to kill the grass. Weed killer! And the kids
can't go on any part of the field for two weeks.
This school has only one pathetic, small tree on the whole playground and
they take 5/12 (one class went out and measured it) of the only grass field
in the entire neighborhood. A garden is a great idea, but why not a container
garden that could be used to beautify the asphalt areas. That's what we
need.
Reminds me of the Joanie Mitchell song, "Pave Paradise, Put up a Parking
Lot" but in the reverse.
Entry #2 (1 week later) "The Letter Writing Campaign"
The grade level teachers have a meeting to discuss "stuff"
and up comes the garden. One suggests that kids could write letters expressing
their opinions about the garden so that those " in the know" will
know what the kids think about the garden. It even fits nicely into the
lessons on writing a persuasive letter.
Everyone agrees, except for one quiet soul.
Entry #3 (2 weeks later) "The Expanding Garden"
What a mess this garden has turned out to be. Now we sit in our Site Based
Decision-Making Meeting voting on whether or not to "extend" it
by another 7 feet. They really don't seem to care at all what the kids think
about this. I just don't understand.
The motion passes 8 to 3, and now the garden has grown by 7 feet. I can't
even think what to tell the kids. They will be so disappointed.
And the irony of the situation is -- a garden is a wonderful thing. There's
some sort of a lesson on "point of view" in all of this.
The kids share
After I share my entries, I ask the kids to search through their own Writer's
Notebooks for entries about social issues. Here's how Katherine Bomer does
it:
In her initial minilessons Katherine says, "Spot
the potential for socially engaged writing in your personal writing. Look
at your entries through the lens of, this is not fair. Something needs
to be done about this!" (p. 114)
Some of the entries the kids want to share from their Writer's Notebooks:
Student #1: The thing that I hate about the soccer field is about
the garden. Their going to make a garden. That's what bother me. How we're
going to play football. I wish that they would not put a garden their. I
hope they could put it some where else. I want to play more football. (written
by a girl)
Student #2: It bothers me that we can't play in the soccer field.
It is boring here. There going to put a garden in the soccer field. It made
all the boys and girls mad.
Student #3: The soccer field should not change to a garden because
kids play soccer there. They like to play soccer. Even I like to play soccer.
It's fun and cool. Gardens are nice and beautiful but I like soccer more.
It is really fun to play soccer.
Student #4: The girls bathroom because that is so disgusting. They
have such little pieces of paper to use. And how I hate the bathroom.
Student #5: In the girls bathroom there's small square tissue. How
could they expect that we use them but if we have to we will. But they should
make or put big kind of paper.
Student #6: My other classroom -- 1. in reading they bother us. 2.
the classroom is junky. 3. the kids are talking. In my other class the classroom
is junky and messy. We have to clean the room so it could be very clean
and pretty. It will be beautiful and smell good too. It will be quiet and
peaceful.
Student #7: I do not like people that do graffiti at school on weekends
because they did not pay for the school. And I think people that do that
is get in scarry trouble.
Student #8: That they cut the trees of the forest. There's not going
to be any more trees for the people and we are not going to have things
for people. There's not going to be paper, pencils, wood houses, and other
things.
A closing thought from the book, Teaching for a Better World, Reading
and Writing for Social Action:
But part of the learning process ought to include, as its necessary
and logical extension, a passion for making the world better. That's not
merely a pleasant dessert to be indulged in after the main course of "real
learning;" rather, it is having a different idea of "what we are
doing here" from the start. (p. 8)
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